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In this volume, literary scholars and ancient historians from
across the globe investigate the creation, manipulation and
representation of ancient war landscapes in literature. Landscape
can spark armed conflict, dictate its progress and influence the
affective experience of its participants. At the same time, warfare
transforms landscapes, both physically and in the way in which they
are later perceived and experienced. Landscapes of War in Greek and
Roman Literature breaks new ground in exploring Greco-Roman
literary responses to this complex interrelationship. Drawing on
current ideas in cognitive theory, memory studies, ecocriticism and
other fields, its individual chapters engage with such questions
as: how did the Greeks and Romans represent the effects of war on
the natural world? What distinctions did they see between spaces of
war and other landscapes? How did they encode different experiences
of war in literary representations of landscape? How was memory
tied to landscape in wartime or its aftermath? And in what ways did
ancient war landscapes shape modern experiences and representations
of war? In four sections, contributors explore combatants'
perception and experience of war landscapes, the relationship
between war and the natural world, symbolic and actual forms of
territorial control in a military context, and war landscapes as
spaces of memory. Several contributions focus especially on modern
intersections of war, landscape and the classical past.
The year is 1932. In Rome, the Fascist leader Benito Mussolini
unveils a giant obelisk of white marble, bearing the Latin
inscription MVSSOLINI DVX. Invisible to the cheering crowds, a
metal box lies immured in the obelisk's base. It contains a few
gold coins and, written on a piece of parchment, a Latin text: the
Codex fori Mussolini. What does this text say? Why was it buried
there? And why was it written in Latin? The Codex, composed by the
classical scholar Aurelio Giuseppe Amatucci (1867-1960), presents a
carefully constructed account of the rise of Italian Fascism and
its leader, Benito Mussolini. Though written in the language of
Roman antiquity, the Codex was supposed to reach audiences in the
distant future. Placed under the obelisk with future excavation and
rediscovery in mind, the Latin text was an attempt at directing the
future reception of Italian Fascism. This book renders the Codex
accessible to scholars and students of different disciplines,
offering a thorough and wide-ranging introduction, a clear
translation, and a commentary elucidating the text's rhetorical
strategies, historical background, and specifics of phrasing and
reference. As the first detailed study of a Fascist Latin text, it
also throws new light on the important role of the Latin language
in Italian Fascist culture.
Building in Words explores the relationship between text and
architecture in the Roman world from the perspective of
architectural process. Ancient Romans frequently encountered
buildings under construction - they experienced noisy building
work, disruptive transportation of materials, and sometimes
spectacular engineering feats. Bettina Reitz-Joosse analyzes how
Roman authors responded to the process of building and construction
in their literary works. Roman authors tell stories of
architectural creation to give meaning to finished monuments. Their
narratives can stress technological or logistic mastery or
highlight morally problematic aspects of construction, particularly
in large-scale engineering projects. While offering descriptions of
the process of creating architecture, Roman writers also reflect on
the creation of their own works. Building in Words demonstrates the
richness of the image of construction for literary composition:
writers use it to comment on the aesthetics or ambition of their
literary work, to articulate the power and durability, but also the
fragility of literature. Reitz-Joosse here offers original readings
of a range of literary authors of the early Roman empire, including
Vergil, Pliny the Elder, Tacitus, and Statius, and places literary
texts in dialogue with contemporary epigraphic and archaeological
material. Through its focus on building as a process, Building in
Words furthers our understanding of the aesthetics of both
architecture and literature in ancient Rome.
The year is 1932. In Rome, the Fascist leader Benito Mussolini
unveils a giant obelisk of white marble, bearing the Latin
inscription MVSSOLINI DVX. Invisible to the cheering crowds, a
metal box lies immured in the obelisk's base. It contains a few
gold coins and, written on a piece of parchment, a Latin text: the
Codex fori Mussolini. What does this text say? Why was it buried
there? And why was it written in Latin? The Codex, composed by the
classical scholar Aurelio Giuseppe Amatucci (1867-1960), presents a
carefully constructed account of the rise of Italian Fascism and
its leader, Benito Mussolini. Though written in the language of
Roman antiquity, the Codex was supposed to reach audiences in the
distant future. Placed under the obelisk with future excavation and
rediscovery in mind, the Latin text was an attempt at directing the
future reception of Italian Fascism. This book renders the Codex
accessible to scholars and students of different disciplines,
offering a thorough and wide-ranging introduction, a clear
translation, and a commentary elucidating the text's rhetorical
strategies, historical background, and specifics of phrasing and
reference. As the first detailed study of a Fascist Latin text, it
also throws new light on the important role of the Latin language
in Italian Fascist culture.
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