Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Animals and civilization Rome'

In this paper the project for 15-year-old students with the title Ancient Greece and Rome and the sub-title Is the Legacy of Ancient Greece and Rome really the Cradle of European Civilization? is introduced. It shows how to connect mathematics with art, history, physics, geography and philosophy by studying ancient Greek scientists and their achievements. Collaborative teaching is introduced. The major aim of the project was to show mathematics as a part of human civilization and to follow its development through history. Some topics from theory of numbers and geometry were studied. One part of the project was also a theatre performance, which should make the students aware of the difficulties of many dedicated mathematicians to find the answers to some problems from the ancient times.

Comparative research on the treatment of animal materials in Chinese elementary language textbooks and American elementary reading textbooks provides an interesting perspective on both Chinese and American cultures. The study uses both quantitative and qualitative methods. From the study, we notice that animals in Chinese textbooks are presented as animals, i.e., creatures closer to nature without human fantasy and illusion attached to them. Animals are used to communicate to children for moral education, wisdom development and so on. By comparison, animals in American textbooks are presented as much closer to humans. Animals dress and act like humans and are found in human setting. Animals can be more human than humans. Idealistic images and dreams are frequently linked to animals rather than humans. Textbooks are cultural mirrors. The different orientations of animal materials indicateenculturation of children. The cultural reasons beneath these surface differences are examined. Predictions are different cultural values and different goals for the provided on the animal enculturation in future China.
Department of Anthropology

The presentation of the body in early imperial Rome can be viewed as the manipulation of a semiotic language of dress, in which various hierarchies that both defined and limited human experience were entrenched. The study of Roman self-presentation illuminates the intersections of categories of identity, as well as the individual's desire and ability to resist essentializing views of Romanness (Romanitas), and to transform destiny through transforming identity. These categories of identity include gender; sexuality or sexual behavior; social status; economic status; ethnicity or place of origin; religion; and age. Applying the model of a matrix of identity deepens our appreciation for the work of self-presentation and its ultimate purposes. In this paper the practices and products used by Romans are described as vital indicators of self-identification, and as segues into Roman social semiotics, providing a more complete view of the possibilities for life in early imperial Rome. In the introduction, the use of queer theory and the function of the matrix model are outlined. Haircare, the maintenance of facial and bodily hair, the use of cosmetics, perfumes, skincare products, and beauty tools, the accessorizing of the body with jewelry, color, and pattern, and the display of these behaviors are examined in the main body chapters. The conclusion discusses the relevance of the matrix model to self-presentation studies in general and possible future uses.

Animals were given a preponderant position in Egyptian art, symbolism, and cultual practices. This thesis centres on the relationship between humans and animals during the predynastic period in Upper Egypt (Naqada I-IIIB, 4th millennium BCE), focusing on hippopotamus and crocodile as representatives of the Nile environment and antelope species as representatives of the desert environment. Depictions of these animals are analysed and compared with contemporary faunal remains derived from activities such as cult, funerary, or every day consumption. The material analysed covers several centuries: temporal evolutions and changes have been identified. The animals studied in this thesis were first used by the Naqada I-IIB elites as means to visually and practically express their power, which they envisioned in two contrasting and complementary ways. The responsibilities of the leaders were symbolised by the annihilation of negative wild forces primarily embodied by antelope species. In contrast, they symbolically appropriated positive wild forces, chief among them being the hippopotamus, from which they symbolically derived their power. Faunal remains from after mid-Naqada II are few, depictions of hippopotamus disappeared and those of crocodile became rare. Antelope species became preponderant, especially on D-ware vessels, which were accessible to non-elite people. However, toward the end of the predynastic period, antelope species came to be depicted almost exclusively on high elite material; they lost their individuality and became generic representatives of chaotic forces that the leaders and early rulers had to annihilate in order to maintain control and order.

In the course of the thesis, it has been shown that the history of civitates closely reflects major events, ideals and developments within society. Thus, within the confines of this thesis, it has been possible to illuminate political, religious and cultural changes throughout the period. It is for this reason that a study of this type is important to the further understanding of an otherwise obscure and often neglected period of history.

Orientador: Pedro Paulo de Abreu Funari
Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas
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Resumo: Desde a Renascença Inglesa no séc. XVI, a história da Bretanha Romana (ou Britânia) e as imagens de alguns de seus mais proeminentes protagonistas, tais como a rainha Boudica ou o príncipe Carataco, servem como fontes recorrentes e fluídas para a construção de identidades nacionais britânicas. Estes líderes romano-bretões, de acordo com o clima político-social no qual suas imagens ressurgem, podem ser considerados tanto como selvagens empedernidos que recusaram os modos civilizados quanto como heróis e heroínas da resistência contra o invasor romano. Do séc. XVI até meados do séc. XX, discursos de respeitabilidade, estabilidade e de tradições herdadas foram geralmente criados para ajudar a transpor os desafios e a ansiedade trazidos pelo fluxo e refluxo do que seria conhecido como, primeiro, o Império Inglês e, mais tarde, Britânico. No início da Idade Moderna, antiquários, cartógrafos, dramaturgos, pintores, e, depois, acadêmicos vitorianos e eduardianos reconstruíram de forma continuada as imagens dos bretões e de suas figuras icônicas ao reinterpretarem a cultura material existente e os textos clássicos relacionados com a Bretanha Romana. Neste processo, interpretações acríticas das relações de gênero e dos protocolos sexuais do passado foram misturadas às ideologias do masculino e do feminino do presente por artistas, acadêmicos e políticos, mutatis mutandis. Os discursos resultantes foram muitas vezes usados para fazer comparações entre o Império Romano e o Britânico - quase sempre ressaltando suas benesses - e para inventar definições normativas para os papeis de gênero e para as sexualidades humanas do presente. Historiadores e arqueólogos que estudam a Bretanha Romana têm contribuído ora para insinuar um imperialismo positivo e paralelismos entre o passado e o presente, ora para desconstruir tais discursos, sendo os últimos da geração pós-colonialista, grosso modo. Ao fazer uso da historiografia, literatura, das artes visuais e análises da cultura material, almejo pesquisar a dinâmica que existe entre as aspirações imperial-nacionalistas discursivas e as construções das ideologias do masculino e do feminino - identidades sexuais e de gênero inclusas - no contexto dos estudos sobre a Bretanha Romana, desde o séc. XVI
Abstract: Since the English Renaissance in the sixteenth-century, the history of Roman Britain and the images of some of its most prominent protagonists, such as queen Boudica and prince Caratacus, have served as recurrent and ever-changing sources for the construction of British national identities. These Romano-British tribal leaders have been considered either as savages who refused civilized manners or as heroes of the resistance against the Roman invader, depending on the vagaries of the socio-political context in which their images re-emerge. From the sixteenth to the middle of the twentieth-century, discourses of respectability, stability and of inherited traditions were often created to help to overcome the challenges and the anxiety brought about by the ebbs and flows of what was to be known, first, as the English, and later, as the British Empire. Early Modern antiquarians, cartographers, playwrights, painters, and, also, Victorian and Edwardian academicians, continuously reconstructed the images of the Britons and their iconic figures by reinterpreting the classical texts and the extant material culture related to Roman Britain. In this process, uncritical interpretations of gender relations and sexual protocols of the past got mixed with modern ideologies of the masculine and the feminine by artists, intellectuals and politicians alike. The resultant discourses were frequently used to make comparisons between the Roman Empire and the British - often as not highlighting their benefits - and to invent normative definitions for the gender roles and human sexualities of the present. Roman Britain historians and archaeologists have contributed both to insinuate positive imperialism and parallels between the past and the present as well as to deconstruct such discourses, the latter being done mostly by the post-colonial generation. Using historiography, literature, artistic visual manifestations and the analysis of material culture as documents, I aim to research the dynamics that exist between imperial-nationalistic discoursive aspirations and the constructions of masculine and feminine ideologies - gender and sexual identities included - in the context of the studies about Roman Britain, from the sixteenth-century until today
Doutorado
Historia Cultural
Doutor em História

Los animales han tenido siempre una gran repercusión en la Historia del ser humano. Durante el Paleolítico eran cazados como fuente de alimento para complementar una dieta pobre en proteínas. Más tarde, la domesticación de algunas especies fue uno de los principales motores de la revolución neolítica, convirtiéndolos en un recurso económico de gran importancia. Además de la carne y las pieles, se empezaron a explotar otros productos secundarios como la leche o la lana, y algunos animales fueron empleados como fuerza de trabajo agrícola y medio de transporte terrestre. Pese a estos cambios trascendentales, los animales salvajes siguieron teniendo una importante presencia en la sociedad. Los depredadores eran una amenaza constante para las personas y sus rebaños, mientras que los herbívoros seguían siendo cazados por necesidad o por entretenimiento. El caso de Mesopotamia no es distinto. A lo largo de toda su historia encontramos multitud de referencias a los animales salvajes tanto en las fuentes escritas como en las representaciones figurativas, demostrando que su importancia, al menos simbólica, era parecida a la de los animales domésticos. Incluso algunos de ellos tuvieron cierta trascendencia en actividades económicas. En este contexto, la presente tesis analiza la presencia de fauna salvaje en la Mesopotamia del tercer milenio a. C. y su relación con la sociedad de la época, centrándose en el caso concreto de los grandes mamíferos. Para ello, se propone un enfoque multidisciplinar que incluye el estudio de los restos faunísticos, las representaciones figurativas y las fuentes escritas (lexicográficas, literarias y administrativas), con el objetivo de tener una visión lo más completa posible sobre la situación concreta de cada una de estas especies en el periodo estudiado.
Animals have always had quite a large repercussion on humans’ history. In the Paleolithic, they were hunted as feeding source to complement a low-protein diet. Later on, the domestication of some species facilitated the Neolithic revolution as animals became an important economic resource. Apart from consuming their meat and using their furs, other secondary products such as milk and wool started to being exploited. Some others were used as working animals in agriculture and for terrestrial transportation. Even though all these transcendental changes, wild animals still had an important presence in society. Predators were a constant threat for people and herds, while herbivores were hunted because of necessity or as entertainment. Mesopotamian case was not different. Throughout all its history, numerous references to wild animals in textual sources as well as figurative representations can be found, what demonstrates that their importance was similar to the domestic animals’, at least in a symbolic way. Some of these wild animals even had a certain transcendence in economic activities. In this context, the aim of this dissertation is to analyse the presence of wild fauna in Mesopotamia during the third millennium BC and its relationship with the society of the period, focusing on the specific case of big mammals. To achieve such a goal, an interdisciplinary approach is proposed, which includes the study of faunal remains, figurative representations and written sources (lexical, literary and administrative) to provide a general picture of the status of the animal world in the third millennium BC.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 1999.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this thesis an exploration is made into whether or not hieroglyphs reflect ideas of the ancient Egyptians themselves. By examining "living creature" hieroglyphs one may contemplate why the ancient Egyptian chose a particular manner of depiction. The manner of depiction can then be examined insofar as what ideas they may reflect. In this way study into other groups of signs such as those of the environment may be used to further illuminate the lives and our understanding of the ancient Egyptian(s). This thesis begins with an examination of both the problem inherent in such a task and an overview of some of the "processes" involved. By understanding that a reconstructed reality, that of the hieroglyph, reflects both real and perceived characteristics represented in glyphic form, one may seek out the mental impressions considered relevant to the people themselves. Next the role literacy played and still plays is discussed. This discussion includes a brief historical overview of both the history of decipherment and the "language" of the ancient Egyptians. The importance of "writing", artistic in nature in Egypt in regards to hieroglyphs, is then discussed as it relates to its use as symbol. Hieroglyphs are then discussed in their role as art, communication, and language emphasizing the multitudinous role(s) which they served. The importance is thus reiterated that hieroglyphs served as a communication of ideas to both the literate and the "illiterate" in at least a menial manner. After providing a "background" context of both the world and time of hieroglyphs and their subsequent "understanding" and interpretation, there is an analysis of the hieroglyphs for living creatures including the following Gardiner groupings: (1) mammals, (2) birds, (3) amphibians and reptiles, (4) fish, (5) invertebrates and lesser animals. The signs are examined in regards to their function and variations followed by some observations and comments related to the "structure" and perspective of the sign itself. Summary observations and comments are then made about each group. The thesis is then brought full circle by examining the implications of what hieroglyphs can tell us about the ancient Egyptians, via the perceptive and communicative role which they played. By understanding hieroglyphs as "fingerprints" of/from the mind of the people and subsequently their culture, this framework may provide a new mechanism into understanding the Egyptian via their own visualization and perceptive nature. A case is then proposed that this new "mechanism", if it is indeed considered feasible, can be applied to not only the physical world consisting of nature such as the environment, but also to groups which depict manmade objects.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie tesis is die moontlikheid ondersoek dat hierogliewe iets van die ideewereld van die antieke Egiptenare reflekteer. In die bestudering van "lewende wese" hierogliewe kom vrae op soos waarom die antieke Egiptenare juis 'n spesifieke vorm van voorsteIIing verkies het. Die vorm van voorsteIIing kan dan bestudeer word vir die idees wat dit moontlik mag reflekteer. Ander groepe/velde van tekens, soos die van die breër omgewing, kan gebruik word om verdere lig te werp op die lewe van die antieke Egiptenaar(e) en ons verstaan daarvan. Die tesis begin met 'n bestudering van die inherente probleme in die aanpak van so 'n taak en 'n oorsig oor sommige van die "prosesse" daarby betrokke. By die verstaan van die hieroglief as 'n gekonstrueerde realiteit, wat weklike sowel as afgeleide eienskappe reflekteer, ontdek die ondersoeker daarvan iets van die persoonlike/kulturele indrukke wat deur hierdie groep mense as relevant ervaar is. In die volgende afdeling kom die rol van geletterdheid aan die beurt. Hierdie bespreking sluit 'n bondige historiese oorsig oor die geskiedenis van ontsyfering asook die taal van die Egiptenare in. Die belang van die "skryfkuns" en veral die kunsaard daarvan in die Egiptiese hierogliewe word vervolgens bespreek. Dit is veraI waar soos dit in verhouding staan met die gebruik daarvan as simbool. Die veelsydige rol(le) en belang van hierogliewe in die kuns, kommunikasie en taal word dan ondersoek en bespreek. Die klem word daarop gelê dat hierogliewe as die kommunikasie van idees aan beide die geletterde en "ongeletterde" dien. Nadat 'n agtergrondkonteks van die wereld en tyd van die hierogliewe en die daaruitvloeiende "verstaan" en interpretasie daarvan gegee is, word 'n analise van die "lewende wese" hierogliewe gedoen. Dit sluit die volgende groeperinge van Gardiner in: (1) soogdiere, (2) voels, (3) amfibiee en reptiele, (4) visse, (5) invertebrata en kleiner diere. Hierdie hierogliewe word ondersoek in terme van hulle funksie en variasies, gevolg deur waarnemings en opmerkings aangaande die "struktuur" en die perspektief van die teken. Opsommende observasies en enkele opmerkings oor elke groep volg daarna. Die tesis word afgerond met 'n ondersoek na die implikasies van wat ons kan wys word uit die hierogliewe aangaande die antieke Egiptenare, via die perspektiwiese en kommunikatiewe rol wat dit vervuI. Deur hierogliewe te verstaan as die "vingerafdrukke" van die begrip van hierdie mense kan hierdie raamwerk 'n nuwe meganisme in die verstaan van die Egiptenaar via die visualisasie en waarneembare aard daarvan, vorm. 'n Voorstel word gemaak dat hierdie nuwe "meganisme", indien dit uitvoerbaar is, toegepas kan word, nie net op die hierogliewe van die fisiese wereld bestaande uit die natuur en die omgewing nie, maar ook op hierogliewe wat mensgemaakte voorwerpe voorstel.

La domination romaine est une période « mal-aimée » de l’Egypte ancienne. Elle est néanmoins très intéressante et mériterait davantage d’études.

Réaliser une analyse du matériel de cette époque n’est donc pas chose aisée. Il faut comprendre, dès le départ, que la recherche sera confrontée à des préjugés, des problèmes de documentation et une certaine négligence de la part des scientifiques. Il convient de poser les buts de recherche, de se conformer à une méthodologie rigoureuse et de dégrossir une série de conclusions.

Il semble opportun d’étudier l’art d’époque Julio-Claudienne en Egypte. Cette thématique s’impose pour de multiples raisons.

Nous nous trouvons face à deux civilisations sortant d’un conflit récent (les guerres civiles romaines qui ont conduit à l’affrontement d’Octave-Auguste avec Antoine et Cléopâtre VII, dernière reine de la dynastie Lagide) où l’une a triomphé de l’autre. Ces tensions vont-elles être tangibles dans l’art ?Pour des raisons matérielles, il faut délimiter le sujet à aborder. L’étude de cet article sera donc consacrée majoritairement aux images de temple et aux stèles.

Ce ciblage s’explique non seulement pour des raisons matérielles mais aussi pour l’intérêt scientifique que ce sujet représente. Pendant longtemps, les reliefs égyptiens d’époque romaine ont été considérés comme un art altéré sans aucune autre fonction que de préserver une tradition vouée à son inéluctable disparition. Plusieurs questions se sont posées d’emblée :qui commanditait les monuments, qui les finançait, qui les réalisait, y-avait-il un suivi de la part du pouvoir central romain et qui en étaient les relais ?

L’image royale des temples d’époque romaine en Egypte est fortement tributaire des types iconographiques des époques pharaonique et ptolémaïque. Néanmoins, certains détails révèlent qu’il ne s’agît pas d’une copie servile. Les innovations d’époque romaine sont visibles dans le rendu du détail, des suggestions de volume ou l’utilisation d’un mode représentatif. L’étude de ces images permet de mieux comprendre les techniques de dessin en Egypte romaine et l’organisation du travail des artistes :isoler des « mains », supputer l’existence de « cahiers de modèles » et d’écoles de style ( parfois, plusieurs au sein d’un même temple ). Certaines scènes sont plus récurrentes dans certains endroits géographiques: leur analyse permet de comprendre les enjeux géographiques, politiques et religieux que la propagande voulait faire passer à travers elles.

Enfin, d'autres recherches (prosopographie.) pourraient permettre de mieux comprendre le microcosme où se sont élaborées ces images.
Doctorat en Histoire, art et archéologie
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Although gladiatorial spectacles in ancient Rome have been the subject of a great deal of recent scholarly literature, comparatively little attention has been paid to the contemporary animal spectacles and staged beast-hunts (venationes), the events most closely associated with gladiatorial combat in the imperial period. A number of different works have dealt with such topics as the origins and organization of gladiatorial combat in ancient Rome, but relatively few scholars have attempted to address similar questions concerning the venationes. Only a single monograph in English, written approximately 60 years ago, has been produced on the phenomenon of Roman animal spectacles. The purpose of .this thesis is to give a comprehensive account of Roman venationes and animal displays, incorporating, in certain cases, evidence that has only recently become available or has largely been overlooked by previous scholars. A wide variety of evidence will be used in this study, ranging from literary sources to archaeological data. The paper will trace the historical development of these spectacles, from Republican displays staged in imitation of contemporary Greek events, to the beasthunts of the Byzantine empire. Another major focus of the thesis will be the infrastructure and organization behind Roman animal spectacles, in particular the methods by which the Romans captured and transported the large numbers of animals necessary for events staged throughout the empire.

This dissertation examines the relationship between scientific inquiry and hexameter poetry at Rome in the first century CE. It focuses on three poetic texts: Manilius' Astronomica, Lucan's Civil War, and the anonymous Aetna. It argues that despite generic and thematic differences, these works participate in a common dialogue and therefore can benefit from being read side by side. In particular, the dissertation demonstrates that all three authors reflect on the ability of poetry to communicate scientific knowledge, and that they simultaneously question or undermine the practical value of that knowledge. As a result, it allows us to see that scientific inquiry itself constitutes a dynamic and multifaceted area of creative literary activity in Early Imperial Rome.

This dissertation explores what images of ghosts in Roman art can reveal about the very limits of representation and the act of seeing itself. My approach differs from that of many previous studies on the supernatural, therefore, in that it ultimately has little to do with the question of whether or not the ancients were truly convinced that ghosts exist. While not discounting the importance of belief, I am interested rather in how modalities of belief (or unbelief) developed within a prescribed framework of possibilities--particularly with regard to the historical transformation of ideas about the nature of vision and representation--in which images played a crucial role. While much work has been done on aspects of death that touch upon the supernatural in discrete areas of research on folklore, magic, religion, or theater, for example, the ghost itself has never been the focus of a synthetic study in Roman art. This project is therefore intended to cut across these discussions to arrive at a more rounded picture of how the Romans went on living with the dead.

This dissertation analyzes the interplay between imperial messaging or self-representation and legal activity in the Roman Empire under the Severan dynasty. I discuss the unusual historical circumstances of Septimius Severus’ rise to power and the legitimacy crises faced by him and his successors, as well as those same emperors’ control of an increasingly complex legal bureaucracy and legislative apparatus. I describe how each of the four Severan rulers—Septimius Severus, Caracalla, Elagabalus, and Severus Alexander—employed different approaches to imperial legislation and adjudication in accordance with their idiosyncratic self-presentation and messaging styles, as well as how other actors within Roman legal culture responded to Severan political dynamics in their own work. In particular, this dissertation is concerned with a particularly—and increasingly—urgent problem in Roman elite political culture; the tension between theories of imperial power that centered upon rulers’ charismatic gifts or personal fitness to rule, and a more institutional, bureaucratized vision that placed the emperor at the center of broader networks of administrative control. While these two ideas of the Principate had always coexisted, the Severan period posed new challenges as innovations in imperial succession (such as more open military selection of emperors) called earlier legitimation strategies into question. I posit that Roman law, with its stated tendency towards regularized, impersonal processes, was a language in which the Severan state could more easily portray itself as a bureaucratic institution that might merit deference without a given leader being personally fit to rule. This dissertation begins by discussing the representational strategy of Septimius Severus, who deployed traditional imperial messaging tropes in strikingly legalistic forms. I then explore how this model of law as a venue for or language of state communication might explain otherwise idiosyncratic features of the constitutio Antoniniana, an edict promulgated by Septimius Severus’ son Caracalla that granted citizenship to all free inhabitants of the Empire. I next discuss two unusual features of the corpus of rescripts issued by Severus Alexander, the last Severan emperor: specifically, the relabeling of rescripts issued by Elagabalus, Alexander’s cousin and predecessor, as products of Alexander’s reign; and the idiosyncratic frequency with which rescripts issued under Alexander’s authority cite prior imperial (and particularly Severan) precedent. Finally, I discuss how jurists responded to Severan (and particularly late Severan) political and legal culture: late Severan jurists are particularly inclined to justify their legal decisionmaking in terms of the desirable consequences of a given decision’s universal promulgation, and similarly likely to justify their opinions by citing to an impersonal ‘imperial authority’ rather than to named figures. I argue that these changes reflect both state and scholarly attempts to wrestle with increasingly unstable imperial selection processes, and to articulate a vision of Roman governance that might function in the new world of the third century C.E.

Conventionally, classical scholarship has ascribed the inception of philosophy and culture to the Greeks, whilst relegating military strategy and imperialism to the Romans. This tradition dates back to Vergil's famous comment in Book 6 of the Aeneid, that others (Greeks) will create beautiful statuary, plead eloquently in the law courts and chart the skies and constellations; whereas the Romans' job will be to rule over others with their imperium. This tendency to oversimplify the differences between Greeks and Romans appears to be changing; however, the changes are tinged with a distinct Grecocentric bias. Roman culture, to date, is not being scrutinised with the same perspicacity, as that of the Greeks, and current research that challenges the traditional prejudices of conventional opinions are effectively absent. This thesis examines the unique aspects of Roman culture and identity and demonstrates that they too developed a highly defined world-view that was richly distinct from Greek conceptions of their oikumene. This distinction is perhaps most obvious in Roman stereotypes of the 'other'. Complex and thoroughly Roman, it was based on principals of cosmological determinism and guided by a potent form of exceptionalism and manifest destiny. Romans harnessed theo-philosophical arguments, to design a world in which their hegemony was efficiently rationalised by the elite and justified by the gods themselves. As part of this examination, the cultural precursors, Italic and otherwise, are scrutinised, as are indigenous ethnic markers of Roman identity, so as to better ascertain distinctly Roman and borrowed beliefs that came to characterise the Late Republican and Early Imperial Roman habitus. Furthermore, Roman religious beliefs are also examined where they relate to Roman views of the cosmos and their place within the relational meta-narrative of divinely mandated human history. Within this scope, Roman notions of cosmological determinism and details regarding their specific role in the formation of unique ethnic stereotypes is analysed. Moreover, the impact of these stereotypes on Roman attitudes and policies - particularly foreign policy - will be discussed in detail. This detail will extend to include the previously mentioned notions of Roman exceptionalism and manifest destiny and will be done so in a comparative context by utilising the political discourse and definitions related to the heuristic models of American exceptionalism and manifest destiny.

This dissertation examines Cicero’s contribution to the rise of astronomy and astrology in the literary and cultural milieu of the late Republic and early Empire. Chapter One, “Rome’s Star Poet,” examines how Cicero conceives of world building through words to connect Rome to the stars with the Latin language. Through a close study of the Aratea, I consider how Cicero’s pioneering of Latin astronomical language influenced other writers, especially his contemporaries Lucretius and Catullus. In Chapter Two, “The Stars and the Statesman,” I examine Cicero’s attitudes towards politics. By analyzing Scipio’s Dream and astronomy in De re publica, I show how Cicero uses cosmic models to yoke Rome to the stars. To understand the astral dimensions of Cicero’s philosophy, in Chapter Three, “Signs and Stars, Words and Worlds,” I provide a close reading of Cicero’s poetic quotations in context in the De natura deorum and De divinatione to show how Cicero puts the Aratean cosmos to the test in Academic fashion. Ultimately, I argue that Cicero profoundly shaped the Roman view of the stars and cemented the link between cosmos and empire.

This dissertation is about how dominant identity is constructed through the centering and incorporation of marginal and subaltern subjectivities in Ancient Greek thought, with some preliminary consideration of the Classical Age but chiefly devoted to a study of Hellenistic poetic aesthetics at Ptolemaic Alexandria. The thesis argues ultimately for a specifically Queer and Afrocentric reading of the ArgonautikaI use postcolonial methods, tactics, and strategies to theorize the genealogical intersection(s) of gender and race, and explore the ancient roots of racism. I am indebted in my work to Critical Race Theory, Gender and Queer Theory, Intersectionality Theory and Decolonial Studies. Guided by the millennial discourses of the Coloniality of power and the contributions of Aníbal Quijano and his intellectual heirs to critical thought and theory—positing the fundamental and central functions of epistemological thought, knowledge-production and the control and regulation of knowledge within oppressive social orders as specifically and particularly interrelated practices in the European colonialism of Modernity, and enabling us to deconstruct out of our contemporary knowledge and social practices the oppressive consequences in Modernity as a result of the aftermath of Old World regimes in the New World—the argument throughout this dissertation subjects monuments of Classical Greek literature to an analysis that traces loosely a genealogy of how ideology and identity were constructed and fabricated in imperial contexts in the aftermath of the Greco-Persian Wars, during which time Hellenic peoples were first exposed to Empire, and some great portions of the Greek-speaking world came under the dominion of the Achaemenid imperial regime. In a manner of speaking, this dissertation deconstructs the intersections of identity, including gender (and ethnicity) and “race”, at pivotal moments in the history of Greek Antiquity. Principal test-cases for this study analyze monumental texts produced in societies under the hegemony of “democratic” imperial authority at Athens in the 5th Century BCE and Ptolemaic Egypt in the 3rd Century, in the aftermath of Alexander’s conquests. This dissertation explores how the control and regulation of racialized and ethnic marginalities and subalternities is critical to civic and political structures in the Classical Age, as well as how the interrelated concept of the gendered other, in artistic expressions of knowledge and authority—high literary monuments—functioned critically to reify and justify imperial and colonial practices in the Ancient Greek World. Chapter 1 consists primarily of readings of the Wesir-Heru (“Osiris-Horus”) dynastic succession myth from Egypt in representations of kingship and dynastic succession particularly in Africa and African spaces in the texts of Pindar, Herodotos, and Aiskhylos, including an exploration of the what at the instigation of Jackie Murry I call the Imagistic Poetics of Pindar and Aiskhylos in comparative consideration of Egyptian symbolic literary culture, including even the mdw-ntjr (“hieroglyphs”), and an especially instructive close reading of the center of the Agamemnon. To support my readings of Aiskhylos’ interactions with Egypt and Egyptian thought, I also consider how Aiskhylos interacted with the legacy of the Danaid myth. Situated in their proper historical contexts these readings demonstrate that during the height of the Achaemenid Empire in the Mediterranean World, which coincides incidentally with what we call the Greek Classical Age, Hellenism and Africanism were not mutually exclusive. In fact, as we see early in Chapter 1 with Pindar, Africanism is coextensive with Panhellenism. Furthermore, and critically, as part of my readings of gender as racialized—i.e., constructed under the Ancient Greek linguistic paradigms that govern “racial” otherness (genos)—I show that Blackness, beyond representing masculinity and the male body in the Greek artistic and visual imagination, is separable notionally in the Ancient Greek imagination, and in critical contrast to the modern and contemporary situation, from Africanism. In order to perform this work, I call upon archaeology and material evidence to render a more coherent picture of the networks of culture accessible in the micro- and macro-regions of an interconnected and transnational Ancient Mediterranean. In Appendixes to Chapter 1, I also provide brief readings of intertextuality in the Hellenistic reception at Alexandria of Classical Greek interactions with Egypt, Libya, and the African cultural past and show the embeddedness of that interaction in literary encounters especially, a fact evident from the Classical Greek texts. Chapter 2 explores the Hellenistic origins of Afro-Greek subjectivity in the literary record with Theokritos at Alexandria. I explore “race” in the West and the formation of Greek ethnicity in the East as a “kairological” artistic and poetic projection that exposes of the roots of 3rd-century universalist and globalist Ptolemaic imperial ideology. I also explore Space and identity, the social imaginary, and consequent(ial)ly the gendering of space in the poetry of Poseidippos. In my readings, we see texts engaged intimately with discourses about Sovereignty, and implicitly with the history of Rome and Qrt-ḥdšt (“Carthage”). Chapters 3 and 4 function as a pair or couple. After a full historical and social contextualization of Ptolemaic Alexandria in the Hellenistic Age of the 3rd Century BCE, as well as an exploration of an inclusive range of Queer (including “LGBTQ+”) subjectivities in Alexandrian poetry in Chapter 3, in Chapter 4 I argue that in the Argonautika of Apollonios Rhodios Medeia represents a Queer woman who endures systematic heteronormative and patriarchal oppression, or heterosexism. This opens up Book 4 of the Argonautika for fertile close readings of the inclusive and all-encompassing aesthetics that constitute Hellenistic poetry, including authentically Kemetic (“Egyptian”) voices. The Epilogue provides a roadmap for applying these analytic tools to the Latin Literature of Rome.

Thesis (M.A.)--York University, 2004. Graduate Programme in Interdisciplinary Studies.
Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 137-144). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url%5Fver=Z39.88-2004&res%5Fdat=xri:pqdiss &rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR11760

The dissertation is intended to show whether it is possible for a Roman traveller to make a journey around the Roman world in the year C.E. 210, within 180 days, in a manner similar to that of Phileas Fogg, a character in Jules Verne's novel Around the World in Eighty Days (1874). The Roman's 180-day adventure to complete the journey within the set time incorporates logistics and itinerary on ancient roads, canals and sea voyages, and quotes Horace, Juvenal, Pausanias, Ovid and Strabo. Verne linked the past, an ancient two thousand year old water system in Aden - with his traveller who also visited the site. The Roman traveller will link the past with the present, viewing ancient building and engineering works such as the Lyonnais aqueducts, and the Greek use of curvature in design when building the Parthenon. Parts of such construction remain in situ for the present-day traveller to view.
Old Testament & Ancient Near Eastern Studies
(M.A. (Specialization in Ancient Languages and Cultures))

By combining literary criticism, philology, and contemporary psychoanalysis, this dissertation offers an innovative interpretation of Neronian court literature (Seneca, Lucan, and Petronius). I argue that the works of these three authors thematize and embody a problematic relation between the human subject and language. Language is not conceived or represented as an inert tool that can be easily appropriated by the speaking subject, but rather as a powerful entity that may, and often does, take control of the human subject, directing it from without. Besides analyzing how Seneca, Lucan, and Petronius portray the relation between the human subject and language in the internal plots and characters of their works, I also explore the relation between these three authors themselves and language. My conclusion is that this relation is defined by unresolved ambiguities and neurotic tensions, and I suggest that this might be a consequence of the traumatizing circumstances that the three examined authors endured at Nero’s court.

The presentation of pietas in Lucretius has often been overlooked since he dismisses all religious practice, but when we consider the poem’s overall theme of growth and decay, a definition for pietas emerges. For humans, pietas is the commitment to maintaining the foedera naturae, “nature’s treaties.” Humans display pietas by procreating and thereby promoting their own atomic movements into the future. In the “Hymn to Venus,” Lucretius uses animals as role models for this aspect of human behavior because they automatically reproduce come spring. In the “Attack on Love,” Lucretius criticizes romantic love because it fails to promote the foedera naturae of the family. Lucretius departs from Epicurus by expressing a concern for the family’s endurance into the future, or for however long natura will allow. It becomes clear that Lucretius sees humans as bound to their communities since they must live together to perpetuate the foedera naturae of the family.
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Text in Afrikaans
During the past decade various studies have been conducted on the medieval bestiary and simultaneously much has been written on the life and work of the medieval scholar and writer, Jacob van Maerlant. Van Maerlant's famous encyclopaedic work, Der Naturen B/oeme (Book of Nature) has been thoroughly investigated in recent literary studies, though little has been done to identify this work as encyclopaedic narrative. The term, encyclopaedic narrative, is relatively unknown in Western literature and therefore demands the research which is conducted in this thesis. In the course of this study, the genre of encyclopedic narrative is investigated and the Naturen 8/oeme is identified as a member of this exclusive genre. Edward Mendelson's article "From Dante to Pynchon" (1976) serves as the starting point for this study, from where it continues its investigation into the works of Jacob Van Maerlant. Van Maerlant's Der Naturen 8/oeme is compared to a unique set of qualities for the encyclopaedic narrative in which corresponding points are identified. From this investigation it is shown that Der Naturen B/oeme qualifies as a member of the genre, encyclopaedic narrative.
Baie navorsing oor die Middeleeuse Bestiarium is reeds gedurende die afgelope dekade gedoen en baie is geskryf oor die lewe en werk van Jacob van Maerlant. Alhoewel sy natuurboek, Der Naturen Bloeme, baie belangstelling in die liter~re w6r~ld ontlok, is daar nog weinig gedoen om Der Naturen Bloeme as ensiklopediese narratief te identifiseer. Die relatiewe onbekendheid van die begrip ensiklopediese narratief in die Westerse literatuur dien as aansporing tot die ondersoeke wat in hierdie skripsie vervat word. In hierdie studie sal die genre van die ensiklopediese narratlef bespreek word. Der Naturen Bloeme word as voorbeeld gebruik. Die ensiklopediese narratief word bespreek na aanleiding van die artikel "From Dante to Pynchon" (1976) waarin Mendelson die term omskryf en riglyne daarstel vir die tipering daarvan as genre. Uit die ondersoek blyk dit dat die ensiklopediese narratief 'n genre is wat erkenning behoort te kry in die literêre wêreld. Die studie ondersoek ook die lewe en werk van Jacob van Maerlant wat as lnformatikus gedurende die MiddeJeeue groot bekendheid verwerf het. Sy omvangryke ensiklopediese werk, Der Naturen Bloeme, word telkens getoets aan die hand van kenmerke vir die ensiklopediese narratief en die raakpunte word uitgewys. Uit die ondersoek word aangetoon dat Der Naturen Bloeme as ensiklopediese narratief erken kan word.
Afrikaans & Theory of Literature
M.A. (Afrikaans)