Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Arts and Humanities Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

Towards A ‘Political’ Tibullus: Ceres And Grain In Elegies Books 1 And 2, Victoria Jansson May 2021

Towards A ‘Political’ Tibullus: Ceres And Grain In Elegies Books 1 And 2, Victoria Jansson

New England Classical Journal

This article argues that unfulfilled prayers to Ceres in Tibullus’ elegies are symptomatic of Rome’s grain crises at the end of the Republic and beginning of Empire. My approach includes philological, socioeconomic, and psychoanalytic analysis of the elegies, in which the poet examines the shifting definition of a ‘Roman’ in his day. I seek to demonstrate the ways in which the poet grapples with the political and economic forces at work during the most turbulent period of Roman history: a time when income inequality was roughly equivalent to that of the U.S. and E.U. today.


Caesar And Genocide: Confronting The Dark Side Of Caesar’S Gallic Wars, Kurt A. Raaflaub May 2021

Caesar And Genocide: Confronting The Dark Side Of Caesar’S Gallic Wars, Kurt A. Raaflaub

New England Classical Journal

Julius Caesar’s military achievements, described in his Gallic War, are monumental; so are the atrocities his army committed in slaughtering or enslaving entire nations. He stands accused of genocide. For today’s readers, including students and teachers, this poses problems. It raises questions, not least about Caesar’s place in the Latin curriculum. Applying modern definitions of “genocide,” is he guilty as accused? If so, is it justified to condemn him of a crime that was recognized as such only recently? Without condoning Caesar’s actions, this paper seeks fuller understanding by contextual analysis, placing them in the context of Roman—and ancient (if …