The Power of Place

The Roman triumph is often read as an honor chiefly for the triumphator himself (e.g. Rüpke, 2012). The affinities between the triumphing general and Jupiter are primarily thought to be a means by which the triumphator is able to accrue prestige. In this paper, I seek to re-emphasize the religious aspects of the triumph, and specifically the ways in which the triumph and the rituals that follow serve to honor Jupiter Optimus Maximus and the Capitoline temple.

[νικέ]σας ℎό[δε πρτον Ἀθένεσ[ιν χο]ρι ἀνδρ[ν]

[-υυ]τς σοφ[ίας] τόνδ’ ἀνέθε[κ]εν ℎόρον

[εὐχσάμενο[ς π]λείστοις δὲ [χ]οροῖς ἔσχο κατὰ φῦλα

[ἀνδ]ρν νι[κ]σαι φεσι π[ερ]ὶ τρίποδος

At 17.4 of his Res Gestae, Ammianus Marcellinus narrates at length how an obelisk originally removed from Egyptian Thebes is conveyed to Rome and installed in the Circus Maximus by the emperor Constantius II. This episode has received much scrutiny from scholars (e.g. Kelly 225-230, with bibliography in n. 8). Nevertheless, it is usually examined in isolation, as a historical curiosity.

In this paper, I read Ovid’s Tristia 3.1 against Cicero’s ad Atticum 4.1, one letter written by a poet in exile, the other by an orator recently recalled. I show allusion by Ovid to Cicero who, I argue, provides a blueprint from which Ovid designs and structures his own letter. Ovidian allusion is ground well covered (Sharrock, Hinds, Newlands). Allusions to Cicero in exile have been noted too (Nagle, Claassen).

A paradoxical travel to another dimension, Birds is one of Aristophanes’ most enigmatic comedies: it stands out as the only surviving Aristophanic comedy that bears no evident connection with the life of the polis. But this does not mean that in shaping his Cloudcuckooland Aristophanes did not keep Greek reality in mind.