Roman Culture

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Roman Culture

• to the Gracchi

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Pre-literary to Literary Culture
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Public Culture

• public ritual
• public drama
• public writings (inscriptions)

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carmen, carminis, n.

• chant, prayer, spell, law, song, poem

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The Untranslatable Hymn of the Salii
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• fr. 1
• divum empta cante,    divum deo supplicate
• fr. 2
• cume tonas, Leucesie,    prae tet tremonti
• quot ibet etinei de is cum tonarem

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The Hymn of the Arval Brethren
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• enos Lases iuvate
• enos Lases iuvate
• enos Lases iuvate
• That is, help us, Lares.

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• neve lue rue Marmar sins incurrere in pleoris
• neve lue rue Marmar sins incurrere in pleoris
• neve lue rue Marmar sins incurrere in pleoris
• Dont let plague and ruin, o Marmar, make
  incursions on the people.

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• satur fu, fere Mars, limen sali, sta berber
• satur fu, fere Mars, limen sali, sta berber
• satur fu, fere Mars, limen sali, sta berber
• Be replete, Mars, leap the threshold, stay the
  barbarian

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Other carmina

• Some kind of indigenous traditon of historical
  song--
• maybe

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Cicero, in the Brutus

• Would that those songs were still extant, which
  Cato tells us in his Origines used to be sung by
  each guest in turn at the banquets of our
  ancestors, many ages before his time, about the
  praises of illustrious men.

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at the banquets of our ancestors
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Carmen / Law
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• Under the black stone (lapis niger) in the
  Forum, was found, in 1899
• a cippus, with an inscription
• possibly late 6th century BCE
• boustrophedon carving

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(No Transcript)
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(No Transcript)
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Some words are legible

• sakros es- let him be accursed (?)
• recei for/to the king
• iouxamenta draft animals

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The Twelve Tables
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Cicero, De Oratore, I.44

• Though all the world exclaim against me, I will
  say what I think that single little book of the
  Twelve Tables, if anyone look to the fountains
  and sources of laws, seems to me, assuredly, to
  surpass the libraries of all the philosophers,
  both in weight of authority, and in plenitude of
  utility.

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• Not a little book, but a series of tablets.
• 451-449 BCE

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(No Transcript)
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From the Twelve Tables

• Cito necatus insignis ad deformitatem puer esto.
• A markedly deformed child shall be put to death
  immediately.
• Si pater filium ter venum duit, filius a patre
  liber esto.
• If a father sells his son into slavery three
  times, the son shall be free of his father.

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186BCE The SCU de Bacchanalibus
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(No Transcript)
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from the SCU de Bacchanalibus

• Let none of them be minded to maintain a place
  of Bacchic worship. Should there be any who say
  that they must maintain a place of Bacchic
  worship, they must come to Rome to the urban
  praetor, and about these matters, when their
  words have been heard, our Senate shall make a
  decision

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Epitaphs

• Carmen / poem

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(No Transcript)
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• Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus
• son of Gnaeus, a brave man and prudent,
• whose looks were fully equal to his valor
• he was aedile, consul, (and) censor among you
• he took Taurasia (and) Cisauna in (or from)
  Samnium
• he subdues all Lucania and takes away hostages.

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(No Transcript)
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A meter called Saturnians

• a native Italian meter

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Early Latin Poetry

• Epic
• Drama

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Vortereto turn transform

• Transforming a Greek Legacy

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Livius Andronicus

• Dramatist and Latin Epic Poet
• Possibly a half-Greek from Tarentum

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• Comedy and Tragedies at the Ludi Romani in 240BCE
• names of his plays include Aegisthus, Aiax,
  Equos Troianus, Ino, Tereus

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The Odyssey

• virum mihi, Camena, insece versutum
• ÖAndra moi nnepe, MoËsa, polÊtropon,
• ?w mãla pollå

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• Greek
• Hexameter
• Muse
• Odysseus

• Latin
• Saturnian Meter
• Camena (an Italian nymph)
• Ulixes

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Naevius

• Bellum Punicum an epic, in saturnians, on the
  First Punic War

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Ennius

• Annales
• Drama

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Annales

• Temporal Structure puts Rome at center
• From Romes Foundation
• Latin, but in Hexameters
• after Ennius, no one seemed to bother with
  Saturnians anymore

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The Earliest Authors Whose Works Survive

• Plautus
• situations, names, Greek
• Terence
• often combines the plots of two Greek plays in
  one
• complains of competition from tight-rope walkers,
  dancing bears

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Public venues

• the city (hymn of the Salii)
• the forum (laws, plays)
• the roadside (epitaphs)

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Cato the Elder
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• Speeches he made copies and circulated them
• Wrote a treatise on farming
• Origines origins of Italian cities
• on Greek model of origin stories
• did not name major characters these are the
  achievements of the people

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Cicero, in the Brutus

• Would that those songs were still extant, which
  Cato tells us in his Origines used to be sung by
  each guest in turn at the banquets of our
  ancestors, many ages before his time, about the
  praise of illustrious men.

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• Oral and public before written and private
• Written and posted before written in books and
  read privately
• Poetry before prose
• (and yet even Ciceronian prose was rhythmic)
• Importance of the Greek legacy