Severan culture / Edited by Simon Swain, Stephen Harrison, Jaś Elsner.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Swain, Simon, editor.

Harrison, S. J., editor.

Elsner, Jaś, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Rome--History--Severans, 193-235.

Rome.

Rome (Empire).

History.

Physical Description:

xxxiii, 569 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge Univ. Press, 2007.

Summary:

The Roman empire during the reigns of Septimius Severus and his successors (AD 193-235) enjoyed a remarkably rich and dynamic cultural life. It saw the consolidation of the movement known as the second sophistic, which had flourished during the second century and promoted the investigation and reassessment of classical Greek culture. It also witnessed the emergence of Christianity on its own terms, in Greek and in Latin, as a major force extending its influence across literature, philosophy, theology, art and even architecture. This volume offers the first wide-ranging and authoritative survey of the culture of this fascinating period when the background of Rome's rulers was for the first time non-Italian. Leading scholars discuss general trends and specific instances, together producing a vibrant picture of an extraordinary period of cultural innovation rooted in ancient tradition.

The volume is dedicated to Professor Ewen Bowie of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, to mark his retirement, and has been written by some of his many former pupils and colleagues. It recognises the enormous contribution he has made to the study of the literary and philosophical culture of the High Roman Empire.

Contents:

Letter of Philostratus to Longinus / Donald Russell

Preface and Bibliography of Ewen Bowie / Stephen Harrison and Simon Swain

Introduction / Simon Swain

Part I. Literature and Culture: 1. Prose literature and the Severan dynasty / Tim Whitmarsh

2. Severan historiography: evidence, patterns and arguments / Harry Sidebottom

3. The worlds of Nestor the Poet / John Ma

4. Sex lives of the sophists: epigrams by Philostratus and Fronto / Gideon Nisbet

5. The Cynegetica attributed to Oppian / Mary Whitby

6. Greek athletics in the Severan period: literary views / Jason König

7. Heracles, Prometheus, and the play of genres in [Lucian's] Amores / Judith Mossman

8. Allegory and narrative in Heliodorus / Glenn Most

9. Polyphony or Babel? : Hosidius Geta's Medea and the poetics of the cento / Philip Hardie

10. Unfair to Caecilius? : Ciceronian dialogue techniques in Minucius / Felix Jonathan Powell

11. Cyprian's Ad Donatum / Michael Winterbottom

Part II. Art and Architecture: 12. Art at the crossroads? : themes and style in Severan art / Zahra Newby; 13. Landscape, transformation and divine epiphany / Alexia Petsalis-Diomidis

14. Urbanism in the Severan empire / Andrew Wilson

15. Metaphor and identity in Severan architecture : the Septizodium at Rome between 'reality' and 'fantasy' / Edmund Thomas

16. Visibility and viewing on the Severan Marble Plan / Jennifer Trimble

17. Septimius Severus: the Augustan Emperor / Alison Cooley

Part III. Religion and Philosophy: 18. Severan Christianity / Mark Edwards

19. Almsgiving for the pure of heart : continuity and change in early Christian teaching / Richard Finn

20. Tertullian on flesh, spirit and wives / Catherine Conybeare

21. Sophists and rabbis : Jews and their past in the Severan age / Joseph Geiger

22. Trouble in Snake-Town : interpreting an oracle from Hierapolis-Pamukkale / Ian Rutherford

23. Magic in the Severan period / Daniel Ogden

24. Philosophy, scholarship and the world of learning in the Severan period / Michael Trapp

25. Human autonomy and divine revelation in Origen / George Boys-Stones

26. Socrates in Christian and pagan writers of the Severan era / Christopher Taylor.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780521859820

0521859824

OCLC:

144225236