In Seneca's Agamemnon, Cassandra is both spectator and narrator of her prophecy concerning the king's death and his murder at the hands of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. In Act IV, she uses the verbal form spectate (v. 758) to address the Trojan ghosts whom she herself has summoned-spectatores emerging from the Underworld. In Act V, she describes the king's death in praesentia and employs the form spectemus (v. 875) to address the external audience. In doing so, she breaks the dramatic illusion and constructs a metatheatrical space to contemplate the violence of the spectaculum.We argue that the inscription of both the internal and the external audience (Kebrat Orecchioni 1987, p. 207) is linked to the need for guarantors of Cassandra's prophecy and of Agamemnon's murder, which she herself narrates and frames as an act of revenge against the Greeks: uicimus uicti Phryges (v. 869, "We vanquished Phrygians are the victors"). Moreover, nearly ten centuries after the Trojan War-at a time when regicide resonated in recent imperial Roman collective memory and public executions were spectacularized-these scenes may have sought to provoke in the ancient real audience a disquiet that went beyond the recognition of Trojan ancestry and the thirst for vengeance.
This article offers a rereading of Plautus' Menaechmi through a combined analysis of dramatic space, institutional vocabulary, and the circulation of stage objects, in order to examine how early Roman comedy actively contributes to the symbolic construction of an emerging imperial experience. Moving beyond interpretations that view Plautine comedy as either a passive reflection of cultural Hellenization or an uncritical celebration of Roman expansion, the article argues that Menaechmi dramatizes processes of cultural appropriation shaped by asymmetries and normative displacements. The study first focuses on the play's geographical imagination, showing how expressions such as Graeciam exoticam participate in the discursive reorganization of the Mediterranean from a Roman-centered perspective marked by expansion and control. It then examines the pervasive use of juridical, military, and economic vocabulary in interpersonal relationships, revealing how republican categories of power are displaced into domestic and erotic contexts. Finally, the article analyzes the palla as a metapoetic stage object whose circulation materially embodies the process of cultural translation that defines the fabula palliata.
This article re-examines the appraisal of agriculture and literature in the proem to Sallust's De coniuratione Catilinae (Sall., Cat., 1-4) and argues that the passage in which the historian dismisses farming and hunting -presented as servile tasks- must be read within the proem's argumentative architecture, which subordinates aristocratic pursuits to the aim of glory. On the basis of a joint analysis of the proems to Sallust's two historical monographs, the article shows that the author's purpose is to legitimise historiography as an alternative path to glory in a post-Caesarian context in which the political arena ceases to be a propitious field for attaining it. It further contends that this reorientation shifts the centre of glory from negotium to the arts of the mind proper to otium. In this framework, the reduced esteem accorded to agriculture and hunting is coherent: not because of their intrinsic nature, but because they do not contribute -within Sallust's programme- to the pursuit of glory that only virtus animi and historiography can secure.
In this research, we explore Cicero's political thought in the face of the political division of the city during the final decades of the Roman Republic. In this sense, we address three specific dimensions that contributed to the definition of a prescriptive project regarding the constitution of the res publica, the people as a political subject, and the phenomenon of violence. These three dimensions are argumentatively linked across a series of texts including the treatises De Republica, De Legibus, and De Officiis, in dialogue with the post reditum speeches, wherein the continuity of public debate can be observed at the level of political-philosophical reflection. These works are part of a shift away from the centrality of oratory as a tool for contesting diverse visions of the res publica in the face of the intensification of violent forms of action imposed upon the city. We contend that, although Cicero maintains a critical stance on the political participation of the people-a view common to other classical authors-his project does not solely seek to establish a superior constitutional order based on natural law to counter it; rather, it attempts to subordinate popularis action to the ethical guidance of the elite. The preservation of the res publica operates as the ultimate end to delimit the field of legitimate action in accordance with the realization of virtue in the governance of the city.
These two poems invite comparison by sharing a central conceit: the cycle of the seasons as a representation of the cosmic order. Odes 4.7 begins in springtime: winter has just ended and the cycle of renewal has begun; by contrast, "Herbsttag" begins just as summer has come to an end. The onset of autumn, for all its glories, foretokens in both poems the desolation of winter. They differ radically, however, in their depiction of humanity's relationship to the seasons, and by extension to the cosmic cycle. At the very midpoint of Odes 4.7, the speaker reminds Torquatus that, in contrast to the ever-recurring seasons and phases of the moon, no renewal awaits us at the end of our lives. "Herbsttag," by contrast, never explicitly mentions renewal; spring makes no appearance in the poem: one is left to infer, from the other seasonal transitions, its eventual return. Finally, "Herbsttag" strikes, albeit obliquely, a somewhat more optimistic note than the ultimately fatalistic Odes 4.7.
In the context of Orpheus's epyllion in Virgil's Georgic IV, the hero's furor has been explained from several perspectives: a. as an element related to poetry and intertextuality (Conte, 1995, p. 51); b. as a reference to the antithesis between labor and love, which was previously presented in Book III, highlighting the vulnerability to sexual love as a passionate force (Boyle, 1986, p. 69); c. as a fact of curiosity (Wilkinson, 1950, 1969); d. as a condition of the character in love (Servius, com. v. 487); among others. However, in the text Orpheus is characterized as incautum amantem (v. 487), seized by a sudden dementia (v. 487), immemor (v. 490), uictus animi (v. 490), and lost in furor (v. 494), so this suffering has, according to our reading, a deeper meaning: furor, as a passion sent by the gods, is the reason that prevents the power of Orpheus's thaumaturgical song from violating the inexorable law that does not allow resurrection. In the present work we will observe, by comparing the representations of furor in Georgics and in Aeneid (especially in Aeneid IV and VI), to what extent it can be considered that, in Virgil's worldview, this feeling-suffering is a cosmic force aligned with the universal order.
Este artículo propone una relectura de Menaechmi de Plauto a partir del análisis conjunto del espacio dramático, el léxico institucional y la circulación de objetos escénicos, con el fin de examinar cómo la comedia plautina participa activamente en la elaboración simbólica de una experiencia imperial romana temprana. Frente a lecturas que conciben la comedia como un reflejo pasivo de la helenización cultural o como una celebración acrítica de la expansión romana, el trabajo sostiene que Menaechmi dramatiza procesos de apropiación cultural atravesados por asimetrías y desplazamientos normativos. El estudio se centra, en primer lugar, en la construcción de un imaginario geográfico que reorganiza el mundo mediterráneo desde un centro de enunciación romano, visible en expresiones como Graeciam exoticam y en un léxico asociado al avance y al control del espacio. En segundo término, analiza el uso de vocabulario jurídico, militar y económico en los vínculos interpersonales. Finalmente, examina el valor metapoético de la palla como objeto escénico que condensa materialmente el proceso de traducción cultural propio de la fabula palliata.
Este artículo reexamina la valoración de la agricultura y la literatura en el proemio del De coniuratione Catilinae de Salustio (Sall., Cat., 1–4) y sostiene que el pasaje en que el historiador descarta el cultivo del campo y la caza —presentados como tareas serviles— debe leerse dentro de la arquitectura argumental del proemio, que subordina las actividades aristocráticas al objetivo de la gloria. A partir de un análisis conjunto de los proemios de las dos monografías históricas de Salustio, se muestra que el propósito del autor es legitimar la historiografía como vía alternativa hacia la gloria en un contexto poscesariano en el que la arena política deja de ser un terreno propicio para alcanzarla. Se argumenta, además, que esta reorientación desplaza el centro de la gloria del negotium hacia las artes del ingenio propias del otium. En este marco, la menor estimación de la agricultura y la caza resulta coherente: no por su naturaleza intrínseca, sino porque no contribuyen, según el programa salustiano, a la consecución de gloria que solo la virtus animi y la historiografía pueden asegurar.
En esta investigación exploramos el pensamiento político de Cicerón frente a la división política de la ciudad en las últimas décadas de la República romana. En este sentido, abordamos tres dimensiones concretas que contribuyeron a la definición de un proyecto prescriptivo sobre la constitución de la res publica, el pueblo como sujeto político y el fenómeno de la violencia. Estas tres dimensiones se encuentran enlazadas argumentativamente en una serie de textos que comprenden los tratados De Republica, De Legibus y De Officiis, en diálogo con los discursos post reditum, en los que puede observarse la continuidad del debate público en el plano de la reflexión de la filosofía política. Estas obras se inscriben en un desplazamiento de la centralidad de la oratoria como herramienta para contrastar diversas visiones sobre la res publica ante la intensificación de formas de acción violenta que se impusieron en la ciudad. Sostenemos que, si bien Cicerón mantiene una postura crítica sobre la participación política del pueblo, común a otros autores clásicos, el proyecto no busca únicamente establecer un orden constitucional superior basado en la ley natural para contrastarla, sino que intenta subordinar la actuación popularis a la guía ética de la élite. La preservación de la res publica opera como el fin último para delimitar el campo de acción legítimo conforme a la realización de la virtud en el gobierno de la ciudad.
Revisión del libro Horacio en el umbral de la trascendencia: non omnis moriar de V. A. Sequeiros.
Las obras estudiadas en este trabajo invitan a ser comparadas ya que comparten un tema central: el ciclo de las estaciones como representación del orden cósmico. La oda 4.7 comienza en primavera: ha terminado el invierno y comenzado el ciclo de regeneración natural; Herbsttag, por su parte, inicia justo cuando el verano ha finalizado y la inminencia del otoño, con toda su gloria, preanuncia la desolación invernal. Ambos poemas difieren radicalmente, sin embargo, en su representación de la relación de la humanidad con las estaciones y, por extensión, con los ciclos cósmicos. En el centro exacto de la oda 4.7 la voz poética recuerda a Torcuato que, a diferencia del eterno retorno de las estaciones y de las fases de la luna, ninguna renovación nos aguarda al final de nuestras vidas. Herbsttag, por el contrario, nunca menciona explícitamente la posibilidad de renovación: la primavera está ausente en el poema y uno debe inferir, a partir los cambios de estación representados, su eventual regreso. Herbsttag adopta entonces, aunque de manera oblicua, un tono más optimista que la finalmente fatalista oda 4.7. (Traducción de Martín Vizzotti)
En Agamenón de Séneca, Casandra es espectadora y narradora, tanto de su propio vaticinio acerca de la muerte del rey como del efectivo asesinato de éste por parte de Egisto y Clitemnestra. En el Acto IV ella usa la forma verbal “spectate” (v. 758) para dirigirse, en segunda persona del plural, a su audiencia interna, los fantasmas troyanos que ella misma invocó e implicar a su vez a la audiencia externa. En el Acto V, cuando ella es portavoz del monólogo en el que describe in praesentia la muerte del rey, emplea la forma verbal “spectemus” (v. 875), produciendo un borramiento entre el mundo escénico y la audiencia externa y generando un espacio compartido y reflexivo en torno a los sucesos que Casandra misma contempla y narra. La construcción del espacio metateatral en Agamenón de Séneca fue estudiada como índice de representabilidad de esta tragedia y funciona como pivote para interpretaciones ideológicas: el llamado a contemplar por parte de Casandra parece implicar a la audiencia externa en la observancia de la violencia política y social en los periodos de Claudio o de Nerón.
En el contexto del epyllion de Orfeo en la Geórgica IV de Virgilio se ha explicado el furor del héroe desde varias perspectivas: a. como un elemento relacionado con la poesía y la intertextualidad (Conte, 1995, p. 51); b. como una referencia a la antítesis entre labor y amor, que fue presentada anteriormente en el libro III, poniendo de manifiesto la vulnerabilidad por el amor sexual como fuerza pasional (Boyle, 1986, p. 69); c. como un hecho de curiosidad (Wilkinson, 1950, 1969), d. como una condición del personaje enamorado (Servio, com. v. 487); entre otras. Sin embargo, en el texto se caracteriza a Orfeo como incautum amantem (v. 487), preso de una subita dementia (v. 487), immemor (v. 490), uictus animi (v. 490), y perdido por el furor (v. 494), por lo que este padecimiento tiene, según nuestra lectura, un sentido más profundo: el furor, como pasión enviada por los dioses, es el motivo que evita que el poder del canto taumatúrgico de Orfeo viole la ley inexorable que no permite la resurrección. En el presente trabajo observaremos, cotejando las representaciones del furor en Geórgicas y en Eneida (especialmente en Eneida IV y VI), hasta qué punto se puede considerar que, en la cosmovisión virgiliana, este sentimiento-padecimiento es una fuerza cósmica alineada con el orden universal.
The problem of the post-mortal continuation of the soul is an open issue in Seneca's oeuvre. In his Epistulae the philosopher portrays himself while reflecting on this dilemma, which he builds in terms of the so called "Socratic alternative", i.e. death is either something that "destroys or sets us free" (Ep., XXIV, 17). Interestingly, in Ep. CII Seneca dramatizes his own surrender to the " bellum somnium" of immortality. The current article aims at showing that the epistolary frame offers a key to read this dramatization of his surrender to the eschatological dream not as a mere "sentimental or consolatory demand" (Setaioli, 2000, p. 317), but as an attempt of textual rather than ontological transcendency. In this sense, we propose to reconsider the rendering of the somnium-cogitatio (CII, 21-29) as the meditative writing of a reading.
Various circular spaces appear in the itinerary of the Commedia, from the enormous turns and the music of the celestial spheres to the small wheels of two mechanical clocks. In the first clock, the relationships between wheels and music reappear in a mechanism provided with an hourly chime or alarm, that moves and sounds as a celestial wheel, "in tempra". In Dante's days mechanical clocks were already known and the oldest sources usually underline the capability for producing regularly musical sounds. In the second clock, the wheels that are assimilated to the saints' turning souls move with a precise function. The movement of hourly chime describes better the wheels of the second clock. The first mechanical clocks were designed historically according to the differentiation between canonical and working urban timing, but they were also considered as instruments of a symbolic value, and only later as mechanical models of the universe. Dante was one of the first to present clocks as artefacts with mechanical wheels imitating the movements and sounds of the celestial spheres, as is indicated by the repetition of the expression "in tempra".
In the course of no more than 30 lines, the author of the Christian cento Versus ad Gratiam Domini-also known as: Tityrus- utilizes three litotes to specify the qualities of wise Tityrus' song, which is addressed to his young apprentice Moeliboeus. In all three cases, and by the means of three different negation adverbs, the litotes positively describe the song, whose remarkable features are obliquely alluded through double negations, and never directly denoted. The procedure reflects the complexity of centonary texts, which also deal with the tension between superficial and deep meaning of the words composing them. Thus, these litotes are a metaliterary reflection on the nature of the cento (and of centos in general well) and they conform to a pair of aesthetic procedures dear late Antiquity: miniaturization and variatio.
In this paper, I pretend to review the petitio principii that entails the Anglo-Saxon suggestion to use the globalization concept as an alternative to romanization paradigm, i.e. to consider the Roman empire as a global empire. To that end, I will consider the specific debate in which the authors place their proposal.
