Author: Discentes

Fractured by formido: Plotting the Destabilizing Specter of Fear in Catiline’s War

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Fractured by formido: Plotting the Destabilizing Specter of Fear in Catiline’s War
By Gideon Gruel

In Catiline’s War, Sallust constructs the eponymous Catiline and his infamous conspiracy to overthrow the Republic as products of Rome’s advancing moral decay and indicts the largely confused counteraction of the Roman populace — the Senate together with the commons — thereto as likewise symptomatic of that decay. This was not a decay of wealth, empire, or political institutions, though these too eventually suffered, but a decay of the mind. For Sallust, this mental decay, its exact evolution muddled and difficult to perspicuously plot, is rooted in a gradual corruption of the way Romans…

Al(l)ia Potestas: A Woman with a Different Authority

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Al(l)ia Potestas: A Woman with a Different Authority
By Daniel Campos-Rojano

A strange funerary inscription dedicated to a certain Allia Potestas has puzzled philologists for its language, layout, and outlandish content. The epitaph, written primarily in dactylic hexameter, was found near the Salary-Pinciano burial ground in Rome, a site that was primarily in use from the decline of the Republic to the end of the Flavian Age. Although the dating is controversial, the inscription is generally dated to the early Imperial Age. The poet often alludes to or outright quotes Ovid as a source of literary inspiration which supports this dating…

Medea Through the Centuries

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Medea Through the Centuries
By Maggie Yuan

A witch. A sorceress. An enchantress. Each of these terms have been ascribed to Medea, the Colchian princess who married Jason and aided him in his quest for the Golden Fleece. Her story has fascinated audiences for centuries, inspiring writers to craft their own versions of the myth…

Practical Just War: St. Augustine & His Framing of Just War Theory 

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Practical Just War: St. Augustine & His Framing of Just War Theory 
By Benjamin Elkins

Today, the application of moral terms to warfare may seem quite ordinary. Discussions about which military general is or is not a criminal, which states are just or unjust, or who should or should not be held accountable for war crimes are commonplace within modern discourse. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, scholars were quick to call it an unjust war of aggression. As a result, thousands of people bought flags and posters that read “Slava Ukraini” — glory to Ukraine. Throughout the 2023 Hamas-Israel war, numerous opinion pieces have been published evaluating the morality behind either side…

Lucretia Moribunda: Honor and Suicide at the Hands of Sexual Assault in Livy’s Book One

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Lucretia Moribunda: Honor and Suicide at the Hands of Sexual Assault in Livy’s Book One
By Dara Sánchez

After translating and analyzing a section of The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity, I chose to translate a passage from the first book of Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita because, like the early Christian martyrs Perpetua and Felicity, Lucretia was a martyr who died for her moral beliefs. Although these women had different religious creeds, they were both concerned with virtues like modesty and honor. Moreover, the horrible conditions that they endured because of a violent outside world, such as Tarquinius’ sexual assault of Lucretia and the bodily harm Perpetua experienced during the circus games, made these women sympathetic yet courageous personalities…

The Mēchanē in Prometheus Bound: Recognizing the Role of Technology on Stage

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The Mēchanē in Prometheus Bound: Recognizing the Role of Technology on Stage
By William Gerhardinger

Prometheus Bound, henceforth PB, poses an insoluble scholarly puzzle. In addition to its authorship and date—and, in fact, intertwined with them—matters of its stagecraft have given rise to a heated scholarly debate. Most prominent among these is the question of how Oceanus’ seemingly aerial mode of transportation (284-87, 394-96) was achieved. Alan Sommerstein suggests the effect was achieved by using a flying-machine—namely the mēchanē, a sort of crane which lifted actors…

Kubrick’s Spartacus: A Legacy of Mediocrity

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Kubrick’s Spartacus: A Legacy of Mediocrity
By Taína Monegro

The concept of mystery has played a paradoxical role in the lives of humans: we are reverently fearful of it and enticed by it. This makes the study of classics deeply magical. It remains a mystery that continually eludes historians, offering mere morsels of itself at a time. Moreover, the greater reality remains ever-present: while worshiping at the increasingly stingy altar of this fickle mistress we call classical studies, time clamors on, pulling us further away from the ancient past we seek to decode. This may be why cinematic portrayals of the classical world are so often woefully short. For those of us who cling to these morsels of the past, what makes most classical stories so magical cannot coexist with the magic of cinema; mystery clashes with reality. In the case of Stanley Kubrick’s 1960 blockbuster Spartacus, I argue that it was a conglomeration of the two – the latter filling in the cracks of the former – that led to the film’s attempt at doing the legend of Spartacus justice…

Plutarch, Life of Antony Chapters 4 and 24.6–7

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Plutarch, Life of Antony Chapters 4 and 24.6–7
By Noah Apter

Of all the classical historians on offer to us, what appeal does Plutarch have? What, if anything, causes him to stand out amongst the likes of Tacitus, Suetonius, Thucydides, Herodotus, and others? I believe the allure of Plutarch’s writing is that he captures the humanity and psychology of his subjects with greater depth than any of his contemporaries or those before him. There is no greater example of this than his writing on Mark Antony. Plutarch remarks on his jests and camaraderie with fellow soldiers, his great generosity, and (briefly) his efforts to deliver justice to those who were wronged…

Seismic Activity in Campania Throughout 62-79 C.E. and the Archaeological Implications

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Seismic Activity in Campania Throughout 62-79 C.E. and the Archaeological Implications
By Everett Meckler

The city of Pompeii and the surrounding region, while best known for the 79 C.E. eruption of Vesuvius and being “preserved” for posterity, was also subjected to an often concomitant natural disaster: earthquakes. While the site provides a wealth of knowledge and a window into the Roman world, the extraordinary circumstances that color modern scholarship must be fully understood. In this regard, the major earthquake the region suffered in 62/63 C.E. has long been incorporated into the scholarly inquiry of Pompeii, owing largely to its record throughout Book 6 of Seneca’s Natural Questions and a brief mention in Tacitus’ Annals (15.22.2). However, a growing number of scholars have concluded that Pompeii experienced a series of earthquakes from the 62/63 C.E. earthquake until the eruption of Vesuvius.1 This essay will synthesize and assess a diverse array of evidence with a particular focus on the water network of the city for this subsequent seismic activity and clarify the implications of such activity on interpreting the archaeological evidence at the site of Pompeii…

Trans Achilles Among the Maenads: Queer Movement on Skyros

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Trans Achilles Among the Maenads: Queer Movement on Skyros
By Katherine O’Neal

Within Statius’ Achilleid, Achilles reveals his true gender twice. Both times come after an expression of gendered movement, which in the text are called “Bacchic rituals.” Gender expression is thus tied to movement in the Achilleid, but this movement is paradoxical, something that Kelly Nguyen identifies, wherein “mobility [is] both a preserver and a disruptor of heteronormative, patriarchal structures.”1 Nguyen is drawing from queer diasporic theory (the queer nature of movement across boundaries, especially borders, e.g., through immigration), but the basis of her analysis, her focus on the act of movement, reflects Statius’ treatment of Skyronian dance…