Authors: Robert C. Knapp
Sources
For Lucian, see C. P. Jones,
Culture and Society in Lucian
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1986); for the
Moretum,
William Fitzgerald, ‘Labor and Laborer in Latin Poetry: The Case of the Moretum,’
Arethusa
29 (1996), 389–418; for Apuleius, F. Millar, ‘The World of
The Golden Ass,’ Journal of Roman Studies
71 (1981), 63–75, and William Fitzgerald,
Slavery and the Roman Literary Imagination
(Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000); for Aesop, Keith Hopkins, ‘Novel Evidence for Roman Slavery,’
Past and Present
138 (1993), 3–27; for the sensible use of Petronius as evidence, John H. D’Arms,
Commerce and Social Standing in Ancient Rome
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981); for legal material, J. A. Crook,
Law and Life of Rome
(London: Thames & Hudson, 1967), and O. F. Robinson,
The Sources of Roman Law
(London: Routledge, 1997). Sources for popular morality are now readily available in Teresa Morgan’s excellent
Popular Morality in the Early Roman Empire
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007). Artemidorus is most
accessible in
The Interpretation of Dreams: Oneirocritica by Artemidorus,
trans. and commentary by Robert J. White (Park Ridge, NJ: Noyes Press, 1975); Dorotheus of Sidon is found in
Carmen Astrologicum,
trans. David Pingree (Munich: K. G. Saur, 1976); magical papyri are in H.D. Betz et al.,
The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation: Including the Demotic Texts
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986).
New Testament background can be found in A. N. Sherwin-White,
Roman Society and Roman Law in the New Testament
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1963), and for an anthropological and sociological perspective, see P. F. Esler,
The First Christians and Their Social Worlds
(London: Routledge, 1994). For an excellent introduction of what epigraphy can tell us, see
Epigraphic Evidence: Ancient History from Inscriptions,
ed. J. Bodel (London: Routledge, 2001) and now Maureen Carroll’s outstanding study,
Spirits of the Dead: Roman Funerary Commemoration in Western Europe
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2006). Roger Bagnall has written a clear introduction to using papyri as evidence:
Reading Papyri, Writing Ancient History
(London: Routledge, 1995). On dreams, see Arthur Pomeroy, ‘Status and Status-Concern in the Greco-Roman Dream Books,’
Ancient Society
22 (1991), 51–74. For the use of art as evidence, start with T. Hölscher,
The Language of Images in Roman Art
(Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004 (orig. German, 1987)) and John R. Clarke,
Art in the Lives of Ordinary Romans: Visual Representation and Non-Elite Viewers in Italy, 100 B.C. – A.D. 315
(Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2003).
A WHO’S WHO AND WHAT’S WHAT OF LITERARY EVIDENCE
Achilles Tatius:
Author (about the second century
AD
) of the Greek romance
Leucippe and Clitophon.
Acts of the Apostles:
An account of the first decades after the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. Traditionally by Luke; written in the later first century
AD
.
Aelian:
Claudius Aelianus (
c
.
AD
175–235), author of
Various History,
a collection of observations and information about Romano-Grecian culture.
Aesop:
Early and most famous recorder of fables. Traditionally born a slave about the sixth century
BC
, his life is told in the fictionalizing
Life of Aesop
of the first century
AD
. Collections under his authorship, such as those by Phaedrus and Babrius, were very popular.
Ammianus Marcellinus:
Historian (
c
.
AD
325–90s), portions of whose history of Rome in the fourth century
AD
survive.
Appian:
Historian (
c
.
AD
95–165) who wrote a history of Rome in twenty-four books, most of which survive.
Apuleius:
L. Apuleius of Madaurus, North Africa (
c
.
AD
125–80). Author of
The Golden Ass,
as well as other rhetorical and philosophical works.
Aristotle:
Greek philosopher (384–322
BC
).
Arrius Menander:
A writer on military affairs in the early third century
AD
. Six extracts survive in the legal material.
Artemidorus of Daldus:
Professional dream interpreter from Asia Minor who lived sometime in the first to second centuries
AD
and wrote
The Interpretation of Dreams,
which is a professional guide.
Astrampsychus:
Pseudonymous author of
Astrampsychus’ Predictions
(or
Oracles),
a popular guide to interpreting the casting of lots in order to foretell the future; written in Egypt in the third century
AD
.
Athenaeus:
Author (second to third centuries
AD
) of
Intellectuals Dining,
an astonishing collection of cultural information in the guise of dinner-table observations.
Augustine of Hippo:
Christian church leader, theologian, and philosopher who lived
AD
354–430 and who wrote voluminously, his most famous work being his spiritual autobiography,
Confessions.
Babrius:
Produced a collection of ‘Aesop’s’ fables in Greek. Exactly when he lived is uncertain.
Cato the Elder:
Roman politician and military leader (234–149
BC
) who wrote
On Farming,
a guide to successful large-estate management.
Celsus:
Encyclopedist (
c
. 25
BC–AD
50). Only his
On Medicine
survives.
Chariton:
Author (first to second century
AD
?) of the Greek romance
Chaereas and Callirhoe.
Cicero:
Roman rhetorician, politician, and philosopher (106–43
BC
).
Collectio Augustana:
Anonymous book of Greek fables of the second or third century
AD
.
Columella:
Roman agricultural writer (
AD
4 to
c
. 70).
Cyprian:
Christian leader (
c
.
AD
208–58) and writer of letters and theological treatises.
Digest:
A comprehensive collection of material relating to Roman law, which was compiled at the order of the emperor Justinian I in the sixth century
AD
and contained essential legal material from the centuries before.
Dio Chrysostom:
A Greek orator (
c
.
AD
40–120), nicknamed ‘Golden Mouthed,’ who wrote
Discourses.
Dorotheus of Sidon:
A first-century
AD
Greek astrologer, probably based in Alexandria in Egypt, whose textbook in verse on
horoscopes,
Carmen Astrologicum,
mainly survives via a ninth-century Arabic translation.
Epictetus:
Greek (?) Stoic philosopher (
AD
55–135). Born a slave, at some point he was freed and taught; he left no writings, but a student’s notes record much of his observations and thinking.
Epigraphy:
The study of writings on stone, bronze, or other durable material.
Epistles:
Letters; the New Testament epistles used here include those of Paul (to Christians at Corinth, Rome, and Thessalonica, and to his friend Philemon), and of unknown authors fictively to others (Peter, Timothy, Titus).
Fable:
A brief story that features animals or other nonhumans as characters and which teaches a lesson.
Gaius:
Roman legal writer (
c
.
AD
110–79) whose
Institutes
are a basic text of Roman law.
Galen:
Roman doctor, medical writer, and philosopher (129 to the early third century
AD
). The most famous physician of his day; many of his works have survived and were central to medical knowledge into early modern times.
The Golden Ass:
Apuleius’ major work, also known as
The Metamorphoses,
a novel of transformation and salvation that contains many accurate details of the daily life of ordinary people.
graffiti:
Writing or images scratched, painted, drawn, etc., on surfaces of property.
Greek Anthology:
Greek poems, in large part epigrams, written over a thousand-year period beginning in the seventh century
BC
.
Greek Magical Papyri:
A mass of papyri texts dealing with magic and religion and dating to the second to fifth centuries
AD
. Bought in Thebes, Egypt, about 1827 and dispersed to various private and public collections thereafter.
Heliodorus:
Author (
c
. third century
AD
) from Syria who wrote the Greek romance
An Ethiopian Story.
Herodian:
Historian (
c
.
AD
170–240) who wrote an account of Rome during the period
AD
180–238.
Horace:
Q. Horatius Flaccus (65–8
BC
), famous Roman lyric poet whose father was a freedman and who was part of the literary circle of the emperor Augustus.
Juvenal:
Roman satirist who wrote during the late first and early second centuries
AD
.
Lactantius:
Christian writer (
c
.
AD
240–320) who specialized in explaining and defending Christianity to polytheists.
Lucian:
Rhetorician and satirist (
c
.
AD
125–80) from Samosata (Syria). Born into a subelite family, his education and brilliance served elites but his writings often retain a sense for the experience of ordinary Romans.
Lucretius:
Roman philosopher and poet (
c
. 99–55
BC
) whose
On the Nature of Things
is an epic poem dealing with Epicurean philosophy.
Martial:
A Spanish provincial who made it in Rome as a poet. His
Epigrams
are mostly sharp satires of the lives of those in his circle and of his elite patrons.
Material culture:
Physical remains of society, usually discovered and identified through archaeology.
Mishnah:
Early Jewish oral tradition about legal opinions and debates which was written down
c
.
AD
220 and is a foundation of Rabbinic Judaism, as well as a fundamental element of the Talmud.
Musonius Rufus:
Roman philosopher of Stoicism (
c
.
AD
20/30–101) who, like his pupil Epictetus, apparently wrote nothing himself but whose students collected and published material based on his lectures.
New Testament:
The name given to twenty-seven Christian (as opposed to Jewish) sacred texts accepted as the foundation of early Christianity: the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, twenty-one letters, and Revelation. The corpus was generally accepted as complete by the late second century
AD
.
Papyrology:
The reading and study of writings on papyri, rot-resistant paper produced from the papyrus plant of the Nile Delta and elsewhere.
Paul:
A Jew of Tarsus (
c
.
AD
5–67) who, though he had not been with Jesus of Nazareth while he was alive, was the main player in early Christian preaching and teaching and an energetic letter writer and missionary to many town populations of the Eastern Empire.
Petronius:
Called ‘Arbiter’ (
c
.
AD
27–66) because he was the ‘arbiter of elegance’ in the emperor Nero’s court, and usually assumed to be the author of the
Satyricon
(see below).
Phaedrus:
Roman fabulist (
c
.
AD
15–50) whose collection Latinizes the Greek fables of ‘Aesop’.
Philo:
An elite Hellenized Jew of Alexandria, Egypt (
AD
20–50).
Philostratus:
A Greek sophist (
c
.
AD
170–250) who wrote
The Life of Apollonius of Tyana.