Who was Fulvia? Was she the politically aggressive and dominating wife of Mark Antony as Cicero and Plutarch describe her? Or was she a loyal mother and wife, as Asconius and Appian suggest? These contrasting accounts in the ancient sources warrant further investigation. This thesis seeks to explore the nature of Fulvia’s role in history to the extent that the evidence permits. Fulvia is most famous for her activities during Antony’s consulship (44 BC) and his brother Lucius Antonius’ struggle against C. Octavian in the Perusine War (41-40 BC). But there is a discrepancy among the authors as to what extent she was actually involved. Cicero, Octavian and Antony, who were all key players in events, provide their own particular versions of what occurred. Later authors, such as Appian and Dio, may have been influenced by these earlier, hostile accounts of Fulvia. This is the first study in English to make use of all the available evidence, both literary and material, pertaining to Fulvia. Modern scholarship has a tendency to concentrate almost exclusively on events towards the end of Fulvia’s life, in particular the Perusine War, about which the evidence is much more abundant in later sources such as Appian and Dio. However, to do this ignores the importance of her earlier activities which, if studied more fully, can help to explain her later actions in the 40’s BC. This thesis is divided into five chapters. The first provides an introduction to the topic and a biography of Fulvia. The second is a review of the modern scholarship on Fulvia. The third focuses on the contemporary sources, both the literary evidence from Cicero, Cornelius Nepos and Martial, as well as the surviving material evidence, namely the sling bullets found at Perusia and a series of coins that may depict Fulvia in the guise of Victoria. The fourth is a discussion of those authors born after Fulvia’s death in 40 BC, of whom the most important are Plutarch, Appian, and Dio. The fifth provides a conclusion to the thesis, and returns to the questions posed above in light of the analysis of the sources provided throughout the thesis. It concludes that Fulvia played a significant role in events, particularly from Antony’s consulship onwards, and that her actions were deliberate and politically motivated. Moreover, while these actions were done on her husbands’ behalf, she nevertheless exhibited a remarkable degree of independence. / Thesis (Master, Classics) -- Queen's University, 2007-12-17 15:08:34.021

Solinus’ Collectanea rerum memorabilium, composed in the third or fourth century, was an esteemed work of travel and natural history throughout Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Although scholars since the early Enlightenment have criticised this work as an unoriginal compilation of earlier sources, Solinus’ skill in selecting and organising information, and his book's influence throughout much of western history, cannot be denied. The first chapter argues that Solinus designed his book to have wide appeal, so as to entertain and educate the greatest possible audience. No previous English or French scholarship has addressed Solinus’ book as a fundamentally entertaining work, but there are many indications that it would be considered a fashionable and amusing informational text by the elite class. By drawing on several highly respected genres, frequently citing received authorities, and writing in a flowing discourse, Solinus presents information about worldwide wonders, of no immediate use to the average Roman, as though it were beneficial and even necessary to the educated reader. The second chapter looks closely at Solinus’ literary technique, then considers him in the context of three other encyclopedic authors: Aulus Gellius in the second century, and Macrobius and Martianus Capella in the fifth. The third chapter examines the Collectanea as a work of imperial literature. I argue for the novel claim that Solinus’ depiction of the Macrobian Ethiopians seems to associate them with his contemporaries, the Axumites. His portrayal of the Macrobians shows that although on the surface the book adheres to Romano-centric literary traditions, in subtle ways it reflects its contemporary context and Solinus’ own perspective. By examining the text itself as well as the context in which it was created and received, this thesis contributes to a new understanding of the Collectanea’s value as a work of literary and historical significance.

This thesis examines the evidence surrounding the Roman emperor Justinian’s wars in western Europe (Italy and Spain) and North Africa. It argues that without Procopius’ narrative, we would be left with a very bland, cursory account and even find it difficult to get a full grip on what happened when, even though Jordanes in particular does give some sort of narrative. The thesis focuses on the narrative of Justinian’s western wars offered by sources like Jordanes’, Romana and Getica, Victor of Tonnuna’s Chronicle, Corippus’ epic poem and Marcellinus comes’ Chronicle and its addition. It also discusses when each of these sources was written and where, and the background of the author, so that the reader can identify what was important to the author and the potential biases in the presentation of the events in question. The thesis then compares the narrative of the above sources to the narrative of Procopius in order to determine what information historians and scholars would not have if they did not have Procopius’ work.

The fullest and most comprehensive unpacking of the term finis has yet to be achieved. Studies have narrowly focussed on the idea of border, boundary or frontier, without even entertaining the prospect of interpreting the study from the ancient point of view. This investigation considers the use of the word finis in Livy and attempts to recreate a conception of finis which mirrors as closely as possible that of a Roman of the Republic up to the very Early Empire. Besides the remarkably high usage of the term by Livy, the author’s work is also useful due to its chronological nature, which allows for broad investigation throughout the Republican Period, as well as shedding light on the Early Imperial concept of finis. The main aim of this dissertation is to provide a collective analysis of diverse cases, which together can help build a complete picture of the detectable features related to the term finis. As well as this, the analysis of the contexts – in which the term finis is used has also cast light on those features of finis – that have remained fixed despite the different historical contexts in which they appear. For example, throughout my study, two fundamental concepts will continue to pop up in front of the reader’s eyes: a) the inapplicability of modern conceptual categories to the idea of finis and b) finis – if translated as border, boundary or frontier – as a concept applicable not to a line, but to a spatial element. On the basis of Livy’s evidence – drawn from his work Ab Urbe Condita – this study attempts to present a reconstruction of the term through the identification of an entirely new concept. This study is conceived in terms of a crescendo, which begins with the basic definitions attached to finis and evolves, adding an increasing number of evidences until it reaches a climax, whereby the reader can see both those invariable features of finis in Livy’s account and the 4 Introduction: Research guidelines evolution of the term as fines are applied within different political contexts. Rome – a city that rose on a finis, the Tiber River – reinvented or remodelled the concept of finis, demonstrating behaviour antithetical to the notion of confining herself behind a ‘single line’. Once identified as a finis, the natural features helped the Romans to exert their imperium, which was itself an embodiment of the features contained within the concept of finis. The establishment of the fines provided an ‘imaginary’ subdivision of the territory subjected to the Roman imperium in a series of land strips. This is documented by Livy through Rome’s expansionist ‘finis-system’, from a single occupation of the Janiculum Hill to the scientific approach and setting of the treaty of Apamea. Although the lacunae in Ab Urbe Condita – from 168 B.C. onwards – do not permit a direct connection between the Late Republic and the Early Empire, some elements can be used to evidence an intimate relationship between Livy’s and Augustus’ thinking and terminology. To some extent, this common intent has made possible this attempted reconstruction of the ‘bordering practices’ used in the last 150 years of the Republic, as well as the possible evolution of such practices in the first 150 about years of the Empire.

The economic development of frontier regions has been neglected in the study of the Roman economy. Traditional core/periphery models suggest that frontiers were marginal zones dependent on a wealthy Mediterranean core, and this view has dominated scholarship for more than thirty years. In light of recent work on the Roman economy, it is clear that many old models need to be reappraised; this thesis examines the economic development of frontiers through the case study of the Rhine River Basin. This region formed one of Rome’s northern frontiers for more than 400 years and has a rich tradition of detailed archaeological and historical research. Using data from the Rhine frontier, this thesis re-examines the nature of frontier economies, arguing that they were dynamic, versatile, and complex rather than subaltern and undeveloped. A new model, based in the analytic framework of economic geography, is suggested as a replacement in order to appreciate the realities and potential of frontier economies.

This thesis re-evaluates the nature and roles of the Italian classes (fleets) of the Roman empire between 31 BC and AD 193. Studied through the prism of naval history, the classes have been portrayed either as ineffective forces left to decay, or maritime institutions supporting military logistics. By starting from the position that the classes cannot easily be compared to other fleets, I argue that they should be regarded as a flexible manpower pool, placed in the same broad category as other soldiers in the Roman empire, who were drawn upon to perform a range of tasks on land and sea to the benefit of the Emperor, and who were integrated into systems supporting the functioning of the empire, which I term imperial organics. Chapter One discusses primarily epigraphic evidence for the classis servicemen, to argue that they considered themselves and were considered as milites who were trained to row, and who could be given tasks suitable to their abilities and places of deployment. Chapter Two, building on earlier discussion of the origins of the servicemen, examines second century AD papyrological evidence for recruitment from the Egpytian Fayoum. It posits recruitment systems which relied on several elements outside the control of Roman authorities, but which nonetheless ensured that the Italian classes were a well supplied manpower pool, perhaps because they did not rely on the so-called gens de mer. Chapter Three re-examines the main “naval bases” of the classes at Misenum and Ravenna, arguing that rather than purely military ports they should be understood as sites concentrating imperial resources to aid imperial activity in regions where concentrations of imperial property are attested. Drawing on arguments in the previous chapters, Chapter Four considers three case-studies for the functions of the Italian classes: their role in Roman military mobilisation and redeployment systems, their involvement in imperial communications, and their possible place in a coastal system on the western coast of Italy suggestive of imperial authority and benefaction. In all three it seeks to present evidence for imperial organics, low-level systems, possibly engendered by imperial activity, but which could persist of their own accord and which were essential to the workings of empire.

Analisa-se na primeira parte desta tese a estrutura de composição do Historiarum Liber, obra de maturidade em que Tácito se propõe a relatar a história romana a partir do conturbado ano 69 d.C., o chamado ano dos quatro imperadores. Por meio de requintes na composição narrativa, em que se utiliza de toda uma gama de artifícios retóricos, o autor traça um vasto painel daquilo que considerou execrável nos romanos, bem como daquilo que procurou exaltar como boa forma de governo. Detém-se nos aspectos históricos do ano 69 e apoia-se nos aspectos literários para narrar a época pós-Nero, momento em que o poder se divide entre o senado e o exército. Dessa maneira, do que chegou a nós, o Historiarum liber propõe reflexão acerca das formas de governar, já apontando uma decadência daquilo que Tácito julgava como a força do Império. Na segunda parte, apresenta-se o texto estabelecido por Henri Goelzer para a editora Les Belles Lettres, com nossa tradução a latere, acrescida de notas de cunho gramatical, histórico e literário. / We analyze in the first part of this thesis the structure of composition of the Historiarum Liber, a work of maturity in which Tacitus intends to report the Roman history considering the agitated year of 69 d. C., the so called year of four emperors. Through strategies of refinement in the narrative composition, in which he uses a variety of rhetorical sources, the author pictures an ample frame of those things he considered abominable in Romans, as well as of those things which he tried to exalt as a good form of government. We dwell on the historical aspects of the year 69 and consider the literary aspects so as to narrate the post-Nero age, a moment in which the power is divided between the senate and the army. This way, taking into account what survived in history, the Historiarum liber proposes a meditation on the strategies of government, while pointing to the decadence of that which Tacitus judged as the strength of the empire. In the second part, we present the text established by Henri Goelzer for the French editor Les Belles Lettres, with our translation a latere, added by notes of grammatical, historical and literary nature.

L’objectif de cette étude est d'analyser les structures territoriales que nous identifierons et de mettre en évidence leurs liens avec la formation de la communauté. Dans cette perspective, il s'agira dans un premier temps d'identifier les éléments phares de l’organisation territoriale de la ville et de la construction identitaire romaine, éléments indispensables pour comprendre la territorialité de la communauté romaine. Nous nous pencherons ensuite sur les implications du franchissement des limites sacrées urbaines afin de déterminer le poids des espaces et celui des limites dans la définition des pouvoirs et des normes juridico-religieuses. L'immense territoire qui constitue l'empire de Rome est d'une extraordinaire complexité juridico-sacrée. Les anciens avaient déjà conscience de cet état de fait, lié à des normes politiques et religieuses que les érudits de l'époque impériale (Ier – Vème siècle de notre ère) ne maîtrisaient sans doute plus complètement. L'analyse détaillée, à la fois de la complexité territoriale, conceptuelle et fonctionnelle, ainsi que celle des rituels qui permettent de définir les statuts, contribuera à donner son sens à un état de fait qui ne peut pas s'expliquer uniquement par un « conservatisme religieux » romain, mais repose aussi sur une fonctionnalité réelle. / The objective of this study is to analyze the territorial structures which we shall identify and to bring out their connections with the formation of the community. In this perspective, it will be a question at first of identifying the key elements of the territorial organization of the city and the roman identity construction, essential elements to understand the territoriality of the roman community. We will then examine the implications of crossing the sacred urban boundaries to determine the weight of spaces and the limits in the definition of powers and legal-religious norms. The vastness of the Roman empire has an extraordinary juridical-sacred complexity. The ancients romans were already conscious of this established fact, connected to political and religious norms which the savant of imperial period (Ist - 5th century AD) no longer mastered completely.The detailed analysis, both the territorial complexity, conceptual and functional, as well as that of the rites which allow to define the statutes, will contribute to give its sense to an established fact which cannot give some explanation only by a « religious roman conservatism », but also by a real feature.

This thesis challenges one of the fundamental assumptions about Rome's political upheaval in the third century CE. This period is conventionally defined by the growing political influence of the army at the expense of the Senate, after the Severan emperors made it clear that their hold on power rested on military support. The soldiers would grow bolder in asserting their position, eventually coming to overthrow emperors at will. I present a broad reassessment of the evidence for a historical model which derives from the narratives of two contemporary witnesses, Cassius Dio and Herodian. Dio is the subject of my first discussion. I address two problems. Firstly, Dio's contemporary history survives only through Byzantine epitomes and excerpts. Its irreparable alteration means that Dio's later books cannot be treated in their own terms, but have to be contextualised against the wider thematic framework of his thousand-year account. Secondly, I turn to Dio himself. Within that framework, Dio presents himself as the ideal senatorial historian. In doing so, he is able to define a uniform senatorial experience, which excludes everything else as deriving from military corruption. An analysis of Herodian follows, also in two parts. The first analyses Herodian's construction of Roman society into three constituent parts, Senate, army and people. I show how these simplistically homogenous social units allow Herodian to explore imperial character, even as they cause inconsistencies in his political narrative. I then address Herodian's account of Maximinus Thrax. This narrative has been presented as the historical culmination of the army taking over politically. I argue instead that it represents the climax of Herodian's rhetorical scheme. Overall, the model of political conflict is built on two contemporary accounts which have specific reasons to simplify matters in their presentation of political activity. In order to understand the nature of political change in this period, I argue that it is necessary to move beyond them.

La traduction française des facta et dicta memorabilia (memorabilia) de Valère Maxime est l'une des œuvres les plus importantes composées au cours de la grande saison de traduction en français des ouvrages de l'antiquité classique entre le xiiie et le xve siècle. l’œuvre conjointe de Simon de Hesdin et Nicolas de Gonesse, « translateurs » et glossateurs de Valère Maxime, eut une importante fortune manuscrite et fut très célèbre parmi ses contemporains. cependant, elle demeure toujours inédite. par notre recherche nous espérons remédier à cette lacune critique en faisant le travail qui s'impose sur la tradition manuscrite de cette œuvre. plus précisément, en partant des études de m. Giuseppe Di Stefano et en nous rattachant aux travaux d'édition déjà entrepris par l'équipe coordonnée par m. Alessandro Vitale-Brovarone (Université de Turin, Italie), nous comptons fournir une édition critique de la deuxième partie de cette traduction, à savoir la partie mise en français par Nicolas de Gonesse pour le duc Jean de Berry entre 1400 et 1401. / The first French translation of Valerius Maximus constitutes one of the main unpublished works in the medieval French literary production; it can be considered instrumental for a better comprehension of the development of the French branch of Humanism in general, and the diffusion of Italian and Latin texts in fourteenthcentury France in particular. Further expanding the studies of Giuseppe Di Stefano and according to the project of the University of Turin, we propose the first critical edition of the section of the text translated and glossed by Nicolas de Gonesse (books VII 5 - IX) based on manuscript Paris, BnF, français 282. Moreover, we present new data on the manuscript tradition and additional analysis of this work.