Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons^™

The Power Of Mothers: A Comparison Of The Egyptian Goddess Isis And Virgin Mary During The Roman Empire Through Literature And Art, Katherine Burdick

History & Classics Undergraduate Theses

The Egyptian goddess Isis and the Virgin Mary are two mother figures that were an essential part of Roman culture. Isis rose to prominence in Roman religion when the Republic expanded into Egypt in 30 B.C. She was adopted into the Roman pantheon alongside many other deities from other cultures. Mary rose to prominence in a very different way. A majority of early Christian worship was heavily persecuted and not accepted by many Roman emperors. However, eventually, Christianity eclipsed cult worship of deities. Isis and Mary were both seen as comforting mother figures for not only their sons, Horus and …

Augustan War And Peace: Analyzing The Role Of The Military In Maintaining The Pax Augusta In The Augustan Age, Maxwell Hovasse

History & Classics Undergraduate Theses

The end of the Roman Republic was affected by decades of civil war, leaving the Roman population desperate for an end to the violence. Augustus’s rise to power was the solution for this violence. Augustus’s victory over Marc Antony both effectively ended the Roman Republic and the long period of civil unrest. As the new sole and undisputed ruler of the Roman world, Augustus sought to bring Rome into an era of peace, which would be known as the Pax Augusta, meaning the Augustan Peace. However, given that the Romans viewed peace as existing when an enemy had been completely …

The Impact Of Women On The Life And Legacy Of Mark Antony, Lauren E. Yaple

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Throughout the life of Mark Antony, the women he became involved with had a large impact on his political career, life, and legacy. These women, such as Fulvia and Cleopatra, used Antony as a means to achieve their own political, economic, and personal goals and were able to gain power in a very anti-feminist society through their relationships with and manipulations of him, affecting the career of Antony in many ways including his politics and his actions as a military commander, as showcased by the examination of primary sources from the late Roman Republic and early Roman empire periods. This …

Fine Roman Dining At Affordable Pompeian Prices: Reevaluating The Commercial Gardens Of Pompeii, Claire Campbell, Rhodora G. Vennarucci

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

Previous scholarship has designated Roman gardens into binary otium or negotium designations; however, this research on Roman gardens suggests that these concepts often exist in spaces simultaneously. The reevaluation of commercial gardens in Pompeii presented in this article allows for an integrative analysis of garden spaces, which reveals that commercial gardens have coinciding qualities and functions with private elite gardens and that various trades were actively integrating these features into commercial settings to promote and financially supplement their businesses. This research challenges the assumption that non-domestic, commercial gardens only have qualities indicative of negotium and that garden spaces were not …

Introductory Guide To Ancient Greek Civilization, Helmut G. Loeffler

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

The Multifront Battle Waged Against Female Autonomy: A Comparative Study Of Ancient Medical And Literary Texts, Leah K. Montello

Honors Theses

Male authors have long waged a multifront campaign against female independence. In this thesis, I focus on two specific fronts: literary and medical texts of the Classical Greek period. This thesis intends to explore the varying strategies in a selection of works, employed to reinforce prescribed gender norms. I approach this with a feminist lens to critique attempts made by elite educated Greek men to define what a woman ought to be like. I do not, however, explore every single tactic a medical and literary writer has applied to uphold patriarchal norms. My two body chapters revolve respectively around two …

Contingent Catastrophe Or Agonistic Advantage: The Rhetoric Of Violence In Classical Athenian Curses, Radcliffe Edmonds Iii

Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies Faculty Research and Scholarship

The surprising absence of violent language from classical Athenian curses is best understood as a rhetorical strategy appropriate for getting the divine powers to enact the curser's desire to harm his or her enemies and to gain an advantage in the particular agonistic context. A contrast with the extravagantly violent language of other contemporary curses, which call for unmitigated catastrophe to befall their targets, shows that the fundamental difference between these curses is the audience that they primarily address, which shapes the nature of the request that is made in the imprecation. Whereas contingent curses primarily address the human community …

The Knife Between Despair And Delusion: Tragically Beautiful Hope Living On The Blade In Hesiod’S Works And Days, Grant Braught

CMC Senior Theses

Hope’s interpretation within Works and Days is a nuanced and particular issue on whether Hesiod portrays Hope as good or evil. This paper examines the arguments from the ongoing scholarly debate on whether Hope should be interpreted as good or bad and introduces why Hesiod’s portrayal of Hope is a lesson on its use for his audience. The previous scholarship argues for both interpretations of Hope but does not dive further into why Hesiod discusses it nor how he wanted humankind to interact with it. In short, the importance of Hope to a reader of Works and Days. …

Wearing Your Heart On Your Sleeve: Expressing Hecuba’S Emotions In Artistic Retellings, Marie Gruver

Undergraduate Research Awards

Hecuba has famously been regarded as the secondary character of the Fall of Troy and not as the maternal symbol of the city’s downfall itself as she deserves. Forever the overlooked heroine, I argue that it is not Euripides’ Hecuba per se, but readings of her story by empathetic artists, creators, and scholars of different time periods are who create new interpretations of Hecuba’s role within her own myth. As artistic renditions have progressed through time, Hecuba’s grief itself has become the central focus of the illustrated retellings of her story.

The Concept Of The Populus Romanus In The Late Republic And Augustan Period, Nicklaus Bobertz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This study was undertaken to explore how the concept of the definition of Roman identity changed over the course of the late Roman Republic and into the early Empire culminating with the death of Augustus in 14 AD. Since the 1970's the historiography surrounding the late Roman Republic and early Empire has had to contend with what exactly the populus Romanus and its power basis was. From these questions concepts of power, gender, group formation, and even nationalism have emerged. However, few academics have targeted the nucleus that all of these questions revolve around, how did the identity of the …

"All That Remains Of Husband", James L. Kleerup

Scripps Senior Theses

Within Book 4 of Virgil’s Aeneid, the question of marriage is repeatedly raised. Specifically, it is debated whether or not Dido and Aeneas are married. This question is hotly debated by both the characters and scholars, as the answer is not definitively given within the text. This paper seeks to provide an answer, as the contemporary Roman reader would likely have interpreted their relationship, and also address why Virgil remained purposefully vague. Within Book 4, three key scenes are examined: the discussion between Juno and Venus where Juno proposes the wedding, the cave scene, and Dido and Aeneas’ argument …

Resistance To The Rise Of The Principate: An Analysis Of Literary Allusions To Augustus’ Rivals, Christina Mcguire Villareal

Bryn Mawr College Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation asserts that opposition to Augustus and the establishment of the Principate was pervasive and originating from all social strata. After examining incidents of political resistance and social unrest, the project analyzes literary allusions to those who were killed or exiled while challenging Augustus’ rise to power. Using maps, coins, and other artefacts to help explore topographical and contemporary references, this study maintains that coded depictions in literature may provide deeper understanding of events from the period, especially since many of our extant sources are biased, incomplete, or composed centuries later.

The case studies for the literary portion of …

Signs In Sophocles: Modern Approaches To Ptsd In The Ajax, Charlotte Simon

Honors Theses

This project explores the relationship between ancient Greek tragedy and modern psychology, specifically focusing on instances of PTSD, both through the descriptions of symptoms and the cultural reaction to such trauma responses in both ancient and modern sources. The case study from ancient Greece is Sophocles’ play, Ajax, a dramatic depiction of a post-PTSD soldier who has a mental break and is faced with either living with what he has done or committing suicide. The primary objective of this project is to illustrate what modern psychological theory can reveal about the portrayal of PTSD in Greek tragedy and therefore also …

Athenian Choral Institutions And Plato's Ideal Polis, Emma Beachy

Grand Valley Journal of History

This paper discusses the role of choral institutions in Plato’s ideal polis. In the fourth century BC, choral competitions were a key site of political discourse in Athens, exposing the conflicts inherent to the use of aristocratic patronage in a democratic system. As the demos embraced new musical practices, aristocrats critiqued these changes as a proxy for their opposition to democracy itself. Plato, operating firmly within the aristocratic tradition, placed choral education at the center of his ideal polis as a means to restore and cultivate aristocratic power. However, he also sought to use choral music as a means to …

Designing Digital Antiquity: Classical Archaeology In New Virtual Applications, William Loder

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I argue that the combination of existing archaeological theory with game design theory offers an innovative avenue for creating serious 3D applications of archaeological sites in virtual reality that can be productively used for pedagogical, research, and outreach solutions. In this thesis, I engage with the archaeological theories of phenomenology and sensory studies, briefly touching on structure and agency as well as discussion of some current digital applications in use in the field. For this project, I am interested in game design theory as it relates to education and I view Virtual Reality as an important tool …

Organizational Culture: An Examination Of The Role Of Leadership In Neutralizing The Negative Effects Of Technostress During Operational Shifts, David P. Kirkland

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

COVID-19 created a support problem for public universities across the United States and required that IT departments and professionals alter how they performed in 2020, and perhaps beyond. IT professionals tasked with safeguarding large amounts of data were required to shift to a teleworking posture to continue offering a similar level of service as previously expected. In addition to the technological shift that organizations experienced because of COVID-19, leadership challenges also impacted IT departments across the United States. The rapid shift of operational duties has the propensity to increase technology-related stress, due to employee perception of being successful in their …

Elite Women As Tools Of Power In First-Century C.E. Rome, Catherine Manolian

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

For the patrician class, marriage was a form of power intended to uphold Roman patriarchy by providing opportunity for social, political, and economic advancement. However, history has shown that the power of marriage also extended to the women involved in these couplings as well. Through marriage, elite Roman women had the power to perpetuate or decimate Rome’s social order. Thus, gender norms were created and enforced in order to maintain patriarchy. Women who did not live up to the social expectations set by these norms were met with opposition. By examining Roman poetry and literature, Roman politics, and profiling the …

2. Excavation Of The Northeast Insulae, Mark Schuler

The Final Report

Presented in this volume are revised copies of the annual reports submitted for each of the excavation seasons (2002-2016, 2019). Revisions provide consistent terminology and presentation of graphic materials. These reports serve as the basis for the summaries and synthesis in the report, Northeast Insulae Project: Context and Analysis.

1. Northeast Insulae Project: Context And Analysis, Mark Schuler

The Final Report

This book places the excavation of the northeast insulae at Hippos of the Decapolis, into its historical context, summarizes the archaeological findings, and posits that the site was an urban monastery centered around a healing cult that grew from the veneration of a revered woman and became a monastic infirmary also employing herbals to relieve the suffering in the larger community.

The Origin Of The Roman Office Of Consul, Katie G. Samalis-Aldrich

Agora

Lucius Junius Brutus is the token founder of the roman office of consul. The establishment of the office of consul firmly instills that the republic is ruled for the good of the people rather than factious interests. This paper discusses how the establishment of the office arose, the history and political significance leading up to its establishment, and the results from it. This paper will focus on the virtues of the office of consul, political benefits of division of power in the executive, while focusing specifically on the first consul Brutus, and the role he plays in strengthening the republic.