[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review.]
The twenty-fourth volume of the series “Hamburger Studien zu Gesellschaft und Kulturen der Vormoderne” is now available. The series publishes socio-cultural research on societies spanning geographically from Western Europe to Central Asia and covering the Greco-Roman time until the early modern period.
The present volume focuses on violence in Roman antiquity. The contributions gathered are proceedings from a conference held in February 2022 at the University of Hamburg. Nine chapters in total are included in the volume, which amounts to about half of the papers delivered at the conference.
In the introduction, the editor, Justine Diemke, gives a general introduction to the conceptual framework of the volume before briefly and quite insightfully contextualizing the topic of the volume within the current ‘turns’ in the field of ancient studies. The ‘turns’ included are the emotional, sensory, temporal, and spatial turn. The editor’s focus on the ‘turns’ in the introduction makes the volume appear slightly incoherent since none of the subsequent contributions employ the ‘turns’ in their arguments (even though the ‘emotional turn’ in particular would have worked quite well with many of the chapters, especially Fischer, Wilkinson, and Kecht). There seems to be an effort by the editor to remedy this in the final summary of the volume, where Diemke contextualizes all contributions in light of the ‘emotional turn.’
While there is no thematic or chronological structure to the volume, the earlier chapters seem to investigate socio-cultural aspects of violence, while the later chapters focus on military violence. The first contribution by Konrad Löbcke examines sexual violence. In his clear and well-structured essay, Konrad Löbcke investigates four different techniques used in ancient comedy and in the ancient novel to trivialize and downplay sexual violence, particularly towards slaves. Löbcke’s article shows how social status is a crucial factor in the treatment and the banalization of sexual violence in Greco-Roman comedy.
Jean Coert discusses the renuntio amicitiae, the revocation of friendship by the princeps. The renuntio amicitiae principis removes the safe space that is provided by the proximity to the emperor. To showcase the disastrous and devastating consequences of this, Coert examines the examples of C. Cornelius Gallus, prefect of Egypt, and of the politician M. Lollius. Gallus, who is considered an official trusted by the emperor, is recalled from Egypt to Rome in 27/26 BCE, where the emperor then terminates their friendship. Coert shows how the renuntio amicitiae functions as a tool for the emperor to publicly denounce and chastise misbehavior of the Roman elites without resorting to physical violence (p. 82). Along with the revocation of imperial friendship, the renuntio amicitiae also causes the victim to lose his reputation and social rank among the Roman nobiles. These consequences can, as in Gallus’ case, result in the victim’s suicide. Coert draws an explicit connection between the revocation of friendship and violence only towards the end of his chapter, where he categorizes the renuntio amicitiae as psychological violence (p. 82).
The contribution of Jens Fischer discusses the Sybil and her prophecies across the Roman republic and the early Imperial period. Fischer shows that a positive perception of the Sibyl and her prophecies originates mostly from Vergil’s fourth eclogue, which announces the golden age. Beyond this, the Sibyl, however, usually foresees ominous events, such as wars, natural disasters, epidemics, and violence. Oracle books containing these portentous prophecies had the potential to exacerbate public instability and anxiety (p. 91). During Augustus’ reign, the ominous sibylline oracles disappear as the emperor censors which oracle texts may be circulated and which ones are to be destroyed (p. 99). This, just like the erection of the ara pacis, can be read as part of the imperial efforts to establish the pax Augusta. The reader may be critical of Fischer’s use of evidence: his observations about Sibylline oracles and their role in relation to violence and crisis in republican times derive from Lucan and Cassius Dio, i.e., imperial authors.
Troy Wilkinson’s chapter uses new archaeological evidence from the Eastern desert of Egypt to shed light on the threat that pirates and robbers posed to the Roman-Indian trade routes. Wilkinson assesses newly found ostraca that record numerous raids of traders, travelers, or residents by barbaroi. In the second century CE, there was an additional threat posed by boukoloi, as well as pirates raiding the red sea. Besides discussing new archaeological evidence, Wilkinson discusses the importance of the Roman military for the guarding and the protection in the eastern desert and the red sea. For instance, the Roman military used military ships on the red sea and erected and guarded praesidia in especially dangerous places like harbors and quarries (p. 114). Evaluating the literary and the archaeological evidence, Wilkinson estimates that for a region this big, only a small number of Roman soldiers were stationed there. These soldiers were supplemented with private guards, who primarily protected the territory.
The chapter by Christina Angelberger builds on René Girard and Walter Burkert’s idea that violence, despite its destructive force, is at the foundational core of every social community as it can function as a mechanism that creates order.[1] Foundational violence occurs simultaneously with sacrifice, which cleanses the community from violence and allows a form of civilized community. Angelberger shows in several examples that the idea of a foundational force of violence can be found in antiquity. One of these examples occurs during the battle for Latium in the 12th book of Vergil’s Aeneid. In the head-to-head between Aeneas and Turnus, Aeneas eventually overpowers Turnus violently and gains the right to settle in Latium. The murder of Turnus goes along with a ritual sacrifice that results in the foundation of the Roman people. Angelberger shows the potential of violence to contribute to the foundation of a civic order in other literary works from authors like Propertius, Livy, and Suetonius.
The four final contributions to the volume broadly address the field of military violence. Hendrik Wagner discusses anthropophagy, a transgressive form of violence (Zimmermann 2013), using two military events.[2] During these events, anthropophagy occurs as a universal breech of taboo and marks a time of suspension of civilized order (pp. 162, 166). Regardless of whether anthropophagy factually happened or is used as a topos in the report of the siege of Sagunto in 219 BCE, Wagner shows how the various reports of cannibalism in times of famine are instrumentalized to reveal the ultimate horrors of war and is used as something that the imperial audience is invited to compare to their current status of peace and safety (p. 174). Another example, the pillaging of Rome in 410 CE, shows the Romans themselves committing anthropophagy, while their enemies, the barbarians, uphold social order. Wagner argues that this instance of anthropophagy constitutes a social criticism of the senatorial aristocracy and moral decline in Rome (p. 183). Wagner’s chapter is one of the most convincing and methodologically excellent contributions in the volume.
Florian Wieninger’s chapter focuses on institutionalized military violence as it occurs in the pillaging during the conquering of a city. Suggesting that acts of pillaging are not unstructured transgressions that result from a loss of control or discipline (p.195), Wieninger attempts to rebut Adam Ziolkowski’s argument that “an ‘orderly’ sacking is a misunderstanding; […].”[3] Methodologically, Wieninger’s contribution stands out as it is the only one in the volume that addresses issues of defining the concept ‘violence’ as well as questioning the perception of violence in antiquity (p. 196f.). Wieninger convincingly argues that violence during the sacking of a city is a structured event that happens either following the orders of a military authority figure or a choreographed sequence of events. Wieninger also examines the type of violence applied: the looting that goes along with acts of violence during conquest by the victorious party is typically regarded as appropriate while looting that occurs before the victor is determined is illegitimate. Structurally, looting is typically set off by a general order and can also include orders to further direct violence against certain groups that did not provide economic value for the victorious party.
Focusing on two wars of seemingly lesser importance, the Jugurthine War (109–105 BCE) and the Lusitanian War (155–138 BCE), Gabriel Baker explores examples of mass violence committed by the Roman army. In both wars, the Romans are hard pressed for military successes by the tactics of their enemies, sparking frustration and fear in Rome. Baker discusses the military strategies of the enemies in detail, as he analyzes the Roman army’s violent reactions, that included massacres, enslavement, and destruction of cities, and that were intended to scare the enemy troops and diminish them in size. However, as Baker shows in the example of Viriathus, these acts were not guaranteed to yield victory for the Roman troops. Baker’s chapter is well-argued and convincing; further it is one of the few chapters that manages to make the connection between violence and emotions that the introduction to the volume seemed to promise.
Christina Kecht’s contribution adopts the modern concept ‘genocide’ and compares it with ancient instances of mass violence. Kecht first grapples with the definition of the term ‘genocide’ before suggesting a way in which the modern definition may be applied to an ancient context. ‘Genocide’ implies actions that happen outside the fighting of two military parties and describe harm done to an identity-group. As for her ancient sources, Kecht uses passages from Caesar’s Bellum Gallicum, Tacitus, and Ammianus Marcellinus, providing both a great temporal and geographical range (p. 251). Kecht’s reading of the sample sources comes across as interpretative, as she labels some massacres as using a ‘genocidal rhetoric’ (p. 262) while other instances are categorized as factual genocide. It is not clear what methodology Kecht uses to arrive at this categorization. Further, the author considers concepts that establish subcategories of genocide, such as cultural genocide, ethnocide, or gendercide. Kecht concludes that acts of genocide through military violence were rare in antiquity while other genocidal acts like displacement and forced resettlement were not uncommon.
In sum, the volume offers a broad spectrum of approaches to the study of violence in Roman antiquity and therefore provides a useful starting point for those wanting to explore the topic from different angles. To create a shared understanding of the term ‘violence’, it would have been helpful to include a conceptual and theoretical framework as a starting point (even though Coert and Wieninger’s contributions include attempts at this). Further, as mentioned above, the framing of the volume using the ‘new turns’ (p. 12) makes the reader miss an engagement of the contributions with the concepts that were introduced, especially since many of them have great potential for such engagement (e.g., Coert, Fischer, Kecht). Even still, or maybe because of this, Diemke demonstrates that research on violence following the ‘turns’ is extremely promising and still presents a gap in the scholarship on violence.
From an editorial standpoint, it would have been advisable to review the proofs with more care. Almost all chapters have severe printing errors: at page breaks, partial or full sentences have either frequently been printed twice (e.g., p. 53/4; 114/5; 138/9) or are missing (e.g., p. 50/1, 124/5, 173/4), obscuring important information.
Authors and Titles
Justine Diemke: Die neuen “turns“ und Potenziale der altertumswissenschaftlichen Gewaltforschung
Konrad Löbcke: Die Verharmlosung sexueller Gewalt in Petrons Satyrica (Petr. 9- 11) und in der griechisch-römischen Komödie
Jean Coert: Der kaiserliche Freundschaftsentzug als Instrument der Gewalt und Ordnung im Imperium Romanum
Jens Fischer: dira carmina Cumanae vatis. Unheilvolle Sibyllenorakel und ihr (in)direkter Einfluss auf das augusteische Weltbild
Troy Wilkinson: A Red Sea of Trade. A New Perspective on Violence in Rome’s Eastern Desert and in the Indian Ocean Trade
Katharina Angelberger: Die Aitiologie der Gewalt. Zu einer Denkfigur der augusteischen Zeit.
Hendrik A. Wagner: Pretium inpone carni humanae! Der Topos der Anthropophagie als Marker für Gewaltzeiten am Beispiel der Eroberung Sagunts 219 v. Chr. und Roms 410 n. Chr.
Florian Wieninger: Vi capta! Institutionalisierte Gewalt im Zuge von Plünderungsprozessen der römischen Kaiserzeit
Gabriel Baker: Responding to „Peculiar Tactics”: Mass Violence in the Jugurthine and Lusitanian Wars
Christina Kecht: “Ubique pavor et plurima mortis imago”. Genozid in der römischen Antike
Justine Diemke: Schlusswort und Ausblick: Gewalt als emotionale Konstante
Notes
[1] Walter Burkert, Homo necans. Interpretationen altgriechischer Opferriten und Mythen, Berlin 1997 and René Girard, Das Heilige und die Gewalt, (Second edition) Ostfildern 2012 (First edition: Frankfurt am Main 1994).
[2] Wagner builds on the work of M. Zimmermann (ed.), Extreme Formen von Gewalt in Bild und Text des Altertums, Munich 2009, and (id.) Gewalt die dunkle Seite der Antike, Munich 2013.
[3] Adam Ziolkowski, “Urbs direpta, or how the Romans sacked cities,” in: John Rich/Graham Shipley (ed.), War and Society in the Roman World, London 1993, p. 69–91: 90.