Lucretius’ philosophical epic De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things) is a lengthy didactic and narrative celebration of the universe and, in particular, the world of nature and creation in which humanity finds its abode. This earliest surviving full scale epic poem from ancient Rome was of immense influence and significance to the development of the Latin epic tradition, and continues to challenge and haunt its readers to the present day. A Reading of Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura offers a comprehensive commentary on this great work of Roman poetry and philosophy. Lee Fratantuono reveals Lucretius to be a poet with deep and abiding interest in the nature of the Roman identity as the children of both Venus (through Aeneas) and Mars (through Romulus); the consequences (both positive and negative) of descent from the immortal powers of love and war are explored in vivid epic narrative, as the poet progresses from his invocation to the mother of the children of Aeneas through to the burning funeral pyres of the plague at Athens. Lucretius’ epic offers the possibility of serenity and peaceful reflection on the mysteries of the nature of the world, even as it shatters any hope of immortality through its bleak vision of post mortem oblivion. And in the process of defining what it means both to be human and Roman, Lucretius offers a horrifying vision of the perils of excessive devotion both to the gods and our fellow men, a commentary on the nature of pietas that would serve as a warning for Virgil in his later depiction of the Trojan Aeneas.
Madness Triumphant: A Reading of Lucan’s Pharsalia offers the most detailed and comprehensive analysis of Lucan’s epic poem of the civil war between Caesar and Pompey to have appeared in English. In the manner of his previous books on Virgil and Ovid, Professor Fratantuono considers the Pharsalia as an epic investigation of the nature of fury and madness in Rome, this time during the increasing insanity of Nero’s reign.
Madness Unchained is a comprehensive introduction to and study of Virgil's Aeneid. The book moves through Virgil's epic scene by scene and offers a detailed explication of not only all the major (and many minor) difficulties of interpretation, but also provides a cohesive argument that explores Virgil's point in writing this epic of Roman mythology and Augustan propaganda: the role of fury or madness in Rome's national identity. There have been other books that have attempted to present a complete guide to the Aeneid, but this is the first to address every episode in the poem, omitting nothing, and aiming itself at an audience that ranges from the Advanced Placement Virgil student in secondary school to the professional Virgilian and everyone in-between, both Latinists and the Latin-less. Individual chapters correspond to the books of the poem; unlike some volumes that prejudice the reader's interpretation of the work by rearranging the order of episodes in order to influence their impact on the audience, this book moves in the order Virgil intended, and also gives rather fuller exposition to the second half of the poem, Virgil's self-proclaimed 'greater work' (maius opus).
A good argument could be made that the Battle of Actium was the most significant military engagement in Roman history. On a bright September day, the naval forces of Octavian clashed with those of Antony and Cleopatra off the coast of western Greece. The victory Octavian enjoyed that day set the state for forty-four years of what would come to be known as the Augustan Peace, and was in no small way the dawn of the Roman Empire. Yet, despite its significance, what exactly happened at Actium has been a mystery, despite significant labours and effort on the part of many classicists and military historians both amateur and professional. Professor Lee Fratantuono re-examines the ancient evidence and presents a compelling and solidly documented account of what took place in the waters off the promontory of Leucas in late August and early September of 31 B.C.
The military achievements of Lucius Licinius Lucullus (118-57/56 B.C.) have been the subject of admiration and great respect throughout the history of the study of warfare. Yet there have been few studies dedicated to a comprehensive examination of exactly how Lucullus conquered the Roman East and made it a more or less cohesive part of the empire. Lee Frantantuono considers every aspect of Lucullus life, starting with the training and education of a future Roman officer, but the greatest emphasis is on his military strategy and tactics during the Third Mithridatic War and his military adventures in Armenia. His most famous achievement was his victory against immense odds at the land battle of Tigranocerta. We are also reminded that he one of the most formidable naval strategists of the Roman Republic. Lucullus complicated relationship with Sulla and Crassus is explored and the study concludes with the retirement of the man Pliny the Elder memorably referred to as 'Xerxes in a Toga', a patron of the arts and master of a life of horticulture and reflection.
The third century AD was one of unprecedented crisis and chaos for the Roman Empire. Nightmares both internal and external threatened to spell the end of Rome’s thousand-year history. Diocletian was born either a slave or a freedman, and he grew up to become the savior of Rome in her hour of crisis, a powerful military and political leader who transformed the Roman Empire from a hotbed of unceasing strife and turmoil into a renewed, restored, revivified and stable polity. His more than twenty years of power were marked by the ill-fated Great Persecution of the Christians, an undertaking that would prove to be one of the less successful initiatives of his reign, even as in its own way it helped to pave the way for the coming of an equally famous, successful emperor in the person of Constantine the Great. The present study seeks to provide an introduction to the life and times of Diocletian for the general reader, offering a balanced portrait of an immensely talented man in a time of trial and tumult, an accomplished emperor who knew when it was time to retire to his gardens.
This volume explores the Roman invasions and military operations in two distinct yet related areas: Mesopotamia and Arabia. In these far-flung regions of the ancient known world, Rome achieved the greatest point of expansion in the history of her Empire. Under the reign of the Emperor Trajan, the Roman Empire reached the point of maximum expansion made famous by maps of the world circa AD 120. Under the Severans, significant efforts were expended on a Roman dream of linking the two regions into one mighty provincial bulwark against Eastern enemies. Individual chapters detail the history of the conquest of these easternmost territories of the Empire, analyzing the opposing armies involved (Roman, Parthian, Sassanian, Arab) and the reasons for success and failure. The story of how Rome won and lost her Far East offers a paradigm for the rise and fall of the greatest military empire of the ancient world.
Few surviving works of classical literature have cast the haunting, hilarious, insightful, and eerie spell conjured by the Satyricon of the Neronian courtier and eventual victim Petronius. Fragmentary, opaque, and enigmatic, at times it seems that deception and obfuscation are the favorite tricks of its author. A Reading of Petronius’ Satyricon offers a fresh look at this genre-defying masterpiece, proceeding episode by episode and scene by scene through a vision of the hell that humanity has fashioned for itself. Petronius mercilessly and exactingly appraises Rome’s embrace of the Golden Age dreams of the Augustan principate, judging his fellow citizens and himself by the yardstick of the Neronian reign that broods over them like an avenging specter. Petronius' Satyricon offers medicine for ambulatory corpses, a prescription that consists of notifying the dead of the diagnosis, and of pointing out the inevitable and eminently logical antidote for those consumed by insatiable hunger and unfulfillable longing. Bitterly sardonic and preternaturally serene, Lee Fratantuono’s reading reveals Petronius to be nothing less than the ultimate literary voice of a dying dynasty, a prose and poetic verbal magician of serious intention, a virtuoso in the art of unmasking the ghoulish horror and inconsolable sadness that lurk often just below the surface of the comic.
The book aims at providing a coherent guide to the entirety of Virgil's Aeneid, with analysis of every scene and, in some cases, every line of crucial passages. The book tries to provide a guide to the vast bibliography and scholarly apparatus that has grown around Virgil studies (especially over the past century), and to offer some critical study of what Virgil's purpose and intent may have been in crafting his response to Augustus' political ascendancy in Rome, Rome's history of near-constant civil strife, and the myths of Rome's origins and their conflicting Trojan, Greek, and native Italian origins.
This volume explores the Roman invasions and military operations in two distinct yet related areas: Mesopotamia and Arabia. In these far-flung regions of the ancient known world, Rome achieved the greatest point of expansion in the history of her Empire. Under the reign of the Emperor Trajan, the Roman Empire reached the point of maximum expansion made famous by maps of the world circa AD 120. Under the Severans, significant efforts were expended on a Roman dream of linking the two regions into one mighty provincial bulwark against Eastern enemies. Individual chapters detail the history of the conquest of these easternmost territories of the Empire, analyzing the opposing armies involved (Roman, Parthian, Sassanian, Arab) and the reasons for success and failure. The story of how Rome won and lost her Far East offers a paradigm for the rise and fall of the greatest military empire of the ancient world.
The third century AD was one of unprecedented crisis and chaos for the Roman Empire. Nightmares both internal and external threatened to spell the end of Rome’s thousand-year history. Diocletian was born either a slave or a freedman, and he grew up to become the savior of Rome in her hour of crisis, a powerful military and political leader who transformed the Roman Empire from a hotbed of unceasing strife and turmoil into a renewed, restored, revivified and stable polity. His more than twenty years of power were marked by the ill-fated Great Persecution of the Christians, an undertaking that would prove to be one of the less successful initiatives of his reign, even as in its own way it helped to pave the way for the coming of an equally famous, successful emperor in the person of Constantine the Great. The present study seeks to provide an introduction to the life and times of Diocletian for the general reader, offering a balanced portrait of an immensely talented man in a time of trial and tumult, an accomplished emperor who knew when it was time to retire to his gardens.
A good argument could be made that the Battle of Actium was the most significant military engagement in Roman history. On a bright September day, the naval forces of Octavian clashed with those of Antony and Cleopatra off the coast of western Greece. The victory Octavian enjoyed that day set the state for forty-four years of what would come to be known as the Augustan Peace, and was in no small way the dawn of the Roman Empire. Yet, despite its significance, what exactly happened at Actium has been a mystery, despite significant labours and effort on the part of many classicists and military historians both amateur and professional. Professor Lee Fratantuono re-examines the ancient evidence and presents a compelling and solidly documented account of what took place in the waters off the promontory of Leucas in late August and early September of 31 B.C.
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