Contrary to the general perception, The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity by Benjamin Isaac recognizes the ancient society as racist and tries to detect the early forms of racist attitudes ...and behaviour in the Greek and Roman antiquity. Thus Isaac introduces a new concept in understanding the ancient attitudes toward the Others, at the same time offering a new explanation model for collective group characteristics, which are, by his definition of racism, based on environmental determinism and the impossibility of change at an individual or collective level. Isaac’s model, however, raises certain reservations and counter-arguments. Firstly, there are crucial divergences from racism in the modern sense of the term, which recognizes the collective group characteristics not as environmentally but as biologically determined; this is also perceived by Isaac, who therefore defines the ancient attitudes toward Others as protoracism rather than racism. Secondly, contrary to Isaac’s view, the Greek and Roman explanations of collective differences between peoples were not dominated by the environmental-determinist approach but rather by historical, political, cultural, social, and – in particular – linguistic differences. The use of the term ‘racism’ in ancient contexts therefore seems anachronistic, misleading and somewhat narrow. By contrast, the term The Other and the concept of the derogatory and stereotypical Universal Other, invented during the Persian Wars, prove much more stimulating and useful in attempts to define the attitude to other individuals and groups. Introduced by a storm caused by Juno, which breaks the linear journey from Troy to Rome and brings Aeneas to the Libyan shores, the Carthage passage in Books 1–4 of the Aeneid draws the image of a historical and literary Other. To this end, Vergil attempts to ascribe the negative stereotype of the Phoenicians and Orientals in general to the Carthaginians. Moreover, the ‘otherness’ is established through the historical distinctions between the uncivilized barbarians, represented by the Carthaginians, and civilization, the Romans-to-be. The Carthaginians of the Aeneid share with the mythical other, the Trojans, such qualities as an association with Oriental luxury goods, evoked by Homeric images of the Phoenicians and by allusions to Troy. The pairing of the mythical Trojans and the historical Carthaginians resolves into a new symbolic and imaginary aspect of Carthage, associated with ancient Troy: Carthage becomes a new Troy – Ilion novum. The recognition of Carthage as a new Troy is most obvious in the first Vergilian ecphrasis, a description of the images in Juno’s new Carthaginian temple. The ecphrasis is more than a mere retrospective of past historical events, as it is perceived by Aeneas; for Vergilian readers, the temple painting would have drawn a powerful visual analogy between the mythic Trojans and their historical successors, the Carthaginians. As such, the images also function as an ominous hint about the future events. The Vergilian images of Oriental ‘otherness’ can be perceived as a speculum morum reflecting the problematic ethnic identity of Aeneas, who is de facto still a Trojan and as such a direct threat to his mission and to the future Roman race. His inability to recognize his problematic ethnic identity is evident from his personal appearance, his Oriental garb and arms, and the fact that he is reconstructing the wrong city, Carthage.
Over the past decade, a number of rescue excavations along Slovenska street in Ljubljana have contributed to knowledge of the funerary landscape of
Colonia Iulia Emona
's N cemetery (fig. 1), one of ...its three burial grounds. Slovenska street roughly follows the line of the Roman
cardo maximus
, heading north towards
Celeia
. In front of the city gates, the ancient road was lined by grave monuments on both sides, a practice which continued throughout the life of the colony for almost 400 years. Since the first discovery of a burial in 1635, over 3,000 burials have been unearthed in
Emona
's N cemetery.
The grave under discussion here lies in the central part of the N cemetery,
c.
60 m west of the Roman road. Excavations (50 m
2
) were prompted in 2011 by the construction of underground waste-containers. They revealed a further 20 inhumation graves, including some with associated grave goods and coins dating to after A.D. 285, with most dating to the second half of the 4th c. Among them, grave 18 stands out for the quantity and significance of its grave goods (fig. 2). The grave pit (1.90 x 0.50 m, 0.25 m deep) was sub-rectangular, with vertical sides and a flat base. Pebbles were arranged to form an irregularly-shaped ‘wreath’ around the lower part of the skeleton. The poorly-preserved skeletal remains, oriented SSW–NNE, had been cut by a modern water pipe, leaving only the skull and fractured leg bones at either end.
From the first reference to Romulus by Alcimus, a historian from the mid-fourth century BC, where the hero appears alone, down to the age of Augustus, the story of the foundation of Rome underwent ...considerable plot changes. The two most important are, firstly, Romulus' later role not merely as a conditor urbis, but - in keeping with the Hellenistic tradition of ktiseis poleon - mainly as a creator gentis and a model of the new Roman, who can subsequently embody a new ethnic identity; and, secondly, the later dichotomy of the founders. The interpretation of the Roman foundation myth must be therefore closely associated with the symbolism of numbers - one founder as opposed to twin founders - as it is reflected in different socio-political and historical contexts. In addition to shaping society, myth also documents all its changes. In the context of replacing a single founder with twin founders, Romulus and Remus, the first critical change is the introduction of Remus. The twin founders imply a double community, a notion which becomes meaningful in Rome only after the plebeian achievement of political equality between 367 and 342 BC. The second significant change is the death of Remus, involving the notion of a foundation sacrifice, for which the evidence points to the crisis of 296 BC. The foundation story also serves as an explanation model for the events in the Late Roman Republic. Horace's pessimistic Seventh Epode evokes the foundation crime of fratricide to explain the tragic pattern of civil wars. As Romulus' successors, the Romans are also heirs to his crime, to the scelus fraternae necis, from which they cannot escape. Moreover, Romulus as a creator gentis represents a potential source for the Roman change of identity, which was regarded as coincidental with the foundation act. This recurring theme is elaborated first in Ennius' Annals and later in Vergil's Aeneid and Horace's Third ‘Roman Ode’. The central motif is Ennius’ concilium deorum and its discussion of Romulus' apotheosis, which is opposed by Juno on account of his Trojan identity. Juno, the traditional mythological opponent of the Trojans, demands in exchange for Romulus' apotheosis a break with the old Trojan concept. This break is to be reflected in a new name for the city, which shall be named after its founder, chosen by the auspicium contest. The auspicium thus represents the divine election of the Trojans' legitimate successors, while Romulus' apotheosis symbolically fulfils the idea of a cosmic Roman empire predicted in Juno's Roman Ode speech. The two mythological exempla of Troy and Romulus serve as two opposing models, Troy being the eastern, un-Roman principle, and Romulus the embodiment of the Roman principle. In effect, they present the conflict of two different value systems, which is based on moral criteria and a negative characterisation of the eastern principle. These models are intended to guide the political, ideological and moral assessments of Augustan readers faced with watershed historical events. The contemporary allusions can hardly escape an attentive modern reader. The main characteristic that defines the Roman foundation story as a myth is precisely its sensitivity to social and political changes - a prerequisite for its transmission and continuity, as well as an indicator of its social relevance at different moments in history.
This paper explores the poetic interplay between the poet and angry goddess Juno, the two metacharacters in the Aeneid, that is central to the composition of Vergil's epic poem. In addition to the ...conflicting characterization that links both figures with the epic as well as elegiac genres, their agonistic relationship evokes a typically elegiac discourse between the poet-lover and his dura puella that is known to play a role in his poetic language. The power dynamics of elegy that Vergil has reproduced in the subtext of the Aeneid closely associate Juno's metapoetic role with the process of creating a new Roman epic. In fact, Juno is unveiled as a dominant figure within the poetic discourse who not only animates the poet's talent but essentially shapes his poetic project and allies it with the masculine genre of the epic.
Over the past decade, a number of rescue excavations along Slovenska street in Ljubljana have contributed to knowledge of the funerary landscape of Colonia Iulia Emona's N cemetery (fig. 1), one of ...its three burial grounds. Slovenska street roughly follows the line of the Roman cardo maximus, heading north towards Celeia. In front of the city gates, the ancient road was lined by grave monuments on both sides, a practice which continued throughout the life of the colony for almost 400 years. Since the first discovery of a burial in 1635, over 3,000 burials have been unearthed in Emona's N cemetery.The grave under discussion here lies in the central part of the N cemetery, c.60 m west of the Roman road. Excavations (50 m2) were prompted in 2011 by the construction of underground waste-containers. They revealed a further 20 inhumation graves, including some with associated grave goods and coins dating to after A.D. 285, with most dating to the second half of the 4th c. Among them, grave 18 stands out for the quantity and significance of its grave goods (fig. 2). The grave pit (1.90 x 0.50 m, 0.25 m deep) was sub-rectangular, with vertical sides and a flat base. Pebbles were arranged to form an irregularly-shaped ‘wreath’ around the lower part of the skeleton. The poorly-preserved skeletal remains, oriented SSW–NNE, had been cut by a modern water pipe, leaving only the skull and fractured leg bones at either end.
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