Divination, Prediction and the End of the Roman Republic

Erscheinungsjahr 2022
ISBN: 978-1-009-29635-9
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 369 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 536 g

This book offers a comprehensive assessment of the intersection between Roman politics, culture and divination in the late Republic. It discusses how the practice of divination changed at a time of great political and social change and explores the evidence for a critical reflection and debate on the limits of divination and prediction in the second and first centuries BC. Divination was a central feature in the workings of the Roman government and this book explores the ways in which it changed under the pressure of factors of socio-political complexity and disruption. It discusses the ways in which the problem of the prediction of the future is constructed in the literature of the period. Finally, it explores the impact that the emergence of the Augustan regime had on the place of divination in Rome and the role that divinatory themes had in shaping the ideology of the new regime.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Santangelo, Federico

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Bibelwissenschaften Neues Testament: Exegese, Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte Religionen der Antike
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Geschichte der klassischen Antike

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction - the power of signs; 1. The De diuinatione in context; 2. The terms of the debate; 3. Fringe divination?; 4. The haruspices and the rise of prophecy; 5. Etruscan ages and the end of the Republic; 6. Alien sooth: the Sibylline Books; 7. Wild prophecies; 8. Foresight, prediction, and decline in Cicero's correspondence; 9. Between fortune and virtue: Sallust and the decline of Rome; 10. Divination, religious change, and the future of Rome in Livy; 11. Signs and prophecies in Virgil; 12. The rise of monarchy; Envoi - away from the future; Appendix 1. Mark Antony and the election of Dolabella; Appendix 2. Glossary.

Über Autor(innen)

Santangelo, Federico
Federico Santangelo is Lecturer in Ancient History at Newcastle University. His previous publications include Sulla, the Elites and the Empire: A Study of Roman Policies in Italy and the Greek East (2007).