No More Learning

ASK YOURSELF
1. Compare Pindar's style of poetry to that of Homer. Both authors describe athletic competitions in their respective documents, but there are quite a few differences in the way each poet goes about doing so. What differences do you notice? What do you suppose accounts for those differences?
2. Does Pindar give us any hints about why Melesias was so successful as a coach? Does he anywhere suggest that Melesias's experience as an athlete helped to prepare him to become a first-rate coach?
3. What modern examples can you think of in which two or more members of the same family were successful athletes? And modern examples of former athletes who later became successful coaches?
TOPICS TO CONSIDER
e In modern sports, the skill of a coach is often measured by the number of victories his/her teams have accumulated, and perhaps also by the number of individual awards won by the players on those teams. It seems as if the same kinds of standards were applied to ancient Greek coaches like Melesias. Consider why coaches are evaluated by these criteria. Is there a more accurate way to assess their effectiveness?
e PindarwritesthatMelesiaswas"divinelylucky"tohavebeensosuccessful as a wrestling coach. It seems like a strange phrase, since Pindar elsewhere often praises the work ethic and self-discipline of both athletes and their trainers. Why do you suppose, then, that he would use the word "lucky" to describe Melesias?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Pindar's totally unsympathetic comment about the four wrestlers defeated by Alcimedon having to return home "in shameful silence," to endure the jeers and the catcalls of their fellow townspeople.
pancration (pronounced "pan-krat-ee- on," not "pan-kra-shun. ") A word meaning "all/strength," the pancra- tion was a brutal event, a combina- tion of boxing and wrestling, in which just about every kind of blow, hold, or kick was permitted, somewhat like modern cage fight- ing. The only prohibitions: no bit- ing; no gouging.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? A BOGUS COACH
Women were not permitted to attend the Olympic games as spectators, but the mother of the champion boxer Peisirodus (q. v. ), Pherenice (the daughter of the famous boxer Diagoras, and therefore also a member of that famous family of athletes) was so eager to watch her son compete that she disguised herself as his coach; she did so by completely enveloping herself in a cloak, in the manner of the other coaches. The deception worked until her son's moment of victory, when Pherenice, in her exuberant leaping and cheering, inadvertently allowed the cloak to drop from her body, immediately revealing her feminine qualities. The Olympic authorities were uncertain about what action to take; some felt that Pherenice should be put to death for such a sacrilege, but cooler heads fortunately prevailed, in deference to the considerable athletic prestige of her family. So Pherenice apparently received no punishment, but the authorities did enact a new regulation, that henceforth, all trainers and coaches must be "clad" in the same way as the athletes: au naturel.
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? ? ? ? MILESIAS'S OTHER SUCCESS STORIES
Pindar briefly mentions Milesias in two of his other victory odes. Milesias served as the trainer for Timasarchus of Aegina, who won a boys' wrestling championship at Nemea, ca. 473 BCE (Pindar's fourth Nemean Ode), and Alcimidas of Aegina, also victorious in boys' wrestling, ca. 461 BCE at Nemea (the sixth Nemean Ode). In the case of the latter, his was the 25th victory won by a member of his athletically inclined family.
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Further Information
Bowra, C. M. The Odes of Pindar. Baltimore, 1969.
Hornblower, Simon. Thucydides and Pindar: Historical Narrative and the World of Epinikian
Poetry. Oxford, 2004.
Nisetich, Frank J. Pindar's Victory Songs. Baltimore, 1980. Race, William H. Pindar. Cambridge, MA, 1997.
Website
Works by Pindar. http://classics. mit. edu/Browse/browse-Pindar. html
Bibliography for Document
Swanson, Roy Arthur (tr. ). Pindar's Odes. Indianapolis and New York, 1974.
45. THE RESUME OF ANCIENT ROME'S SUPERSTAR CHARIOTEER
INTRODUCTION
Roman chariot racing was a high-risk, high-reward profession. Princely fortunes awaited those lucky few who enjoyed long careers on the racetrack. The satirist Juvenal, writing per- haps with equal measures of envy and exaggeration, claims that the charioteer Lacerta could amass wealth amounting to 100 times the net worth of a successful lawyer. In the same vein, the epigrammatist Martial writes that a driver named Scorpus could rake in 15 heavy bags of gold in only an hour of successful racing.
But the most proficient of them all was undoubtedly the second-century CE charioteer Appuleius Diocles. Racing for all four factions over the course of his lengthy 24-year career, he tallied an astounding 1,462 wins and set several (most likely) unbreakable statistical records. The minutely detailed inscription that appears below preserves the numbers. This inscription has occasionally been interpreted as a memorial to a recently deceased Diocles, but its tone and content point more strongly to understanding it as a summary of his career after his retirement from the track.
KEEP IN MIND AS YOU READ
1. Roman charioteers did not necessarily hail from downtown Rome, or even from Italy. Diocles, for example, came from Lusitania, a section of western Spain in Roman times, Portugal on the map of modern Europe.
2. The Romans counted their years according to the names of the two consuls who held office during that particular year. This system worked because the consul- ship was an annual magistracy, with a high turnover rate: two new consuls each year.
3. Most Roman chariot races featured quadrigae, chariots pulled by four horses, yoked four across. It was apparently noteworthy--and unusual--when different arrangements were employed, such as three-horse, six-horse, or even seven-horse teams.
4. Some races were run cooperatively, team races, with members of the same faction assisting each other strategically. However, the details or rules of such races are unknown.
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? Document: The Diocles Inscription (Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum [Collection of Latin Inscriptions] 6. 10048
Appuleius Diocles, a driver of the Red faction from Lusitania in Spain, aged 42 years, seven months, 23 days. He first drove for the White faction, during the consulship of Acilius Aviola amd Corellius Pansa [122 CE]. He first won in the same faction, during the consulship of Manlius Acilius Glabrio and Caius
? ? ? ? HOW MUCH MONEY IS 35,000,000 SESTERCES?
The inscription informs us that Diocles won in excess of 35,000,000 sesterces over the course of his 24 years of competitive charioteering. But how much money is that exactly? Or even approximately? Comparing ancient currencies to modern is always problematic, but perhaps a way can be found to provide us with at least a general idea of the buying power of his winnings.
The relationships of the salaries earned by certain Roman workers is known from the Edict of the Emperor Diocletian (ca. 300 CE), a document that specified maximums on wages and prices, a kind of Roman wage/price freeze. Although the edict postdated Diocles by about 150 years, it nonetheless contains the most complete sur- viving information about Roman wage structures, and provides enough detail to make at least some general comparisons with Diocles's earnings.
Among the professions mentioned in the edict, lawyers could receive the highest legal wage, 4,000 sesterces for pleading a case. Teachers of Greek, Latin, literature, and geometry might make a maximum of 800 sesterces per student, per month. An artist was limited to 600 sesterces per day, while a mosaic maker could earn a daily wage of 240 sesterces. Bakers, blacksmiths, wagon wrights, stone masons, cabinet makers, and carpenters could each bring home 200 sesterces for a day's work. Daily wages for camel or mule drivers, water bearers, and sewer cleaners were capped at 100 sesterces, while shepherds, at the lowest level of the wage scale, were eligible for a meager daily maximum of 80. Remember, too, that these figures were the maximums; there was no guarantee that any worker would be paid the highest legally permissible wage.
On the other hand, Diocles's earnings of 35,000,000 sesterces (rounded off), distributed over 24 years, would have yielded an average annual income of about 1,460,000. Even if Diocles competed every day of a 365-day year (which he surely did not), it would still have meant an average daily salary for him of 4,000 sester- ces, far higher than that offered by any of the occupational categories previously mentioned. Lawyers could earn 4,000, but that was not a daily wage; it was to be paid for pleading a case, which would undoubtedly require many days, or weeks, of preparation and courtroom jousting.
An additional indication of the enormity of a sum of 35,000,000 sesterces is that admission to the Equestrian Order--Rome's upper middle class, sometimes called the "knights"--required a net worth of at least 400,000 sesterces. A typical Roman equestrian almost certainly earned a comfortable, if not lavish, income; yet Diocles could make several times an equestrian's amount in a year, or less, of successful charioteering.
Was Diocles permitted to keep all 35,000,000, or was he required to surrender at least some of it to his fac- tion, or to the imperial treasury, or to some other person or organization (although probably not to an agent; the practice of professional athletes hiring legal or financial representatives awaited a more mercenary era)? The answer to this question is unknown. But even if he had to put half of his winnings into someone else's upturned palm, the remainder--17,500,000 sesterces--would still have made him a multimillionaire by today's standards.
It appears that the practice of paying handsome salaries to top-ranked athletes is hardly a new phenomenon.
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Bellicius Torquatus [124 CE]. He first drove for the Green faction during the consulship of Torquatus Aspens and Annius Libo [128 CE]. He first won for the Red faction during the consulship of Laenus Pontianus and Antonius Rufinus.
Summary [of his career]: He drove chariots for 24 years, having been sent from the gate 4,257 times [i. e. , he competed in 4,257 races]. He won 1,462: from the procession [the first race of the day] 110 wins. Singles races [where he competed on his own, instead of cooperatively with other faction teammates]: 1,064 wins. Of these, he won the major prize 92 times: 30,000 sesterces 32 times, including three times with a six-horse team [four horses was the stan- dard number]; 40,000 sesterces 28 times. He won 50,000 sesterces 29 times; of these, one was with a seven-horse team. He won 60,000 sesterces three times. He won 347 doubles races and 51 triples races. In the three-horse chariots, he won the 15,000 sesterces prize four times. He placed [i. e. , finished first, second, or third] 2,900 times.
He finished second 861 times, third 576 times. He failed to place 1,351 times. He won ten times for the Blue faction, 91 times for the White fac- tion, including two wins worth 30,000 sesterces each. He won 35,863,120 ses- terces [over the course of his entire career]. Furthermore, he won three races in two-horse chariots. He won once for the Whites, and twice for the Greens, in three-horse chariots. He won by taking the lead at the start 815 times. He won by coming from behind 67 times. He won after deliberately falling behind 36 times. He won using various other strategies 42 times. He won on the stretch
The Resume of Ancient Rome's Superstar Charioteer
? ? ? ? THE FACTIONS: RED, WHITE, GREEN, AND BLUE
Factions were official organizations of racing companies whose responsibility it was to provide horses, chariots, drivers, and equipment. Originally, there were only two factions, the White (factio alba, or albata) and the Red (factio russata). Early in the first century CE, two more were formed, the Green (factio prasina), and the Blue (fac- tio veneta). Spectators usually became fans of a particular faction; their attitude toward individual drivers depended upon the drivers' faction affiliation. The Green and Blue factions seemed to be the most popular, which raises the interesting, although unanswerable, question of why a charioteer of Diocles's undoubted skill and reputation spent most of his career with the Reds.
Chariot racing was apparently an institution that inspired the loyalty and partisanship of royalty and com- moner alike. The emperor Caligula (reigned 37-41 CE) was reportedly so addicted to the fortunes of the Greens that occasionally, he even ate and slept in their stables. Nero (reigned 54-68 CE), too, was a fan of the Green faction. Other first-century CE emperors, like Vitellius and Domitian, favored the Blues.
Sometimes, the enthusiasm for the races and the factions became overdone, to say the least. At the first- century BCE funeral of Felix, a Red faction driver, one of his fans committed suicide by throwing himself onto Felix's funeral pyre. But perhaps the most telling description of rabid and demonstrative spectator behavior comes to us from the pen of the satirist Juvenal: "All Rome today is in the Circus [Maximus; the monstrous, 250,000-capacity racetrack in Rome]. A roar strikes my ear, which tells me that the Green has won; for had it lost, Rome would be as sad and dismayed as when the Consuls were vanquished in the dust of Cannae. " [Juvenal. Satire 11; tr. Ramsay. ]
The Battle of Cannae (216 BCE), during the Second Punic War against Hannibal and the Carthaginians, was viewed by many Romans as their worst military setback ever; upwards of 50,000 Roman soldiers were killed in a single day of fighting. Yet so high did racing passions run for some fans that a defeat of the Green faction represented, for them, a greater tragedy than even the Cannae disaster!
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run 502 times, including 216 wins over the Green faction, 205 against the Blue faction, and 81 against the White faction. He gained the 100th wins for nine horses, and the 200th win for one horse. [Tr. The author. ]
AFTERMATH
Chariot racing continued to be popular for several centuries after Diocles's retirement in 146 CE. With the decline and eventual fall of Rome, the focal point of chariot racing shifted to the eastern empire and specifically to Constantinople, where a hippodrome was built and racing, replete with factions, was introduced. Partisanship ran high, and in January of 512 CE, a spectator riot erupted, in which some 30,000 people were killed. The glory days of chariot racing were over forever after this tragic event.
ASK YOURSELF
1. It seems clear that Diocles (and other top-shelf charioteers) could earn far more money than most of the fans in the stands who came to see them race.
The situation is much the same today, with professional athletes--especially baseball, football, and basketball players--being paid much higher salaries than most of the spectators. Why do you suppose that societies, ancient and modern, have somehow made a col- lective decision that athletes deserve more money than nearly anyone else? Is this fair or unfair?
2. The inscription indicates that Diocles raced for all four factions at one time or another during his career. However, we do not know the reasons why a charioteer would switch factions, or under what circumstances he was permitted to switch, or whether it was even his decision to do so. Perhaps faction management made these kinds of personnel decisions. What do you think about this? What might be some of the reasons for a charioteer to change factions? Why do you suppose Diocles stayed with the Reds for most of his career, even though the Greens and Blues were more prestigious and more successful?
3. What would be the advantages, and disadvantages, of the various racing strategies enumerated in the inscription? In particular, why might a charioteer deliberately fall behind at the beginning of a race and then try to come back to win, as Diocles did 36 times?
TOPICS TO CONSIDER
e TheCircusMaximuswasthelargestracetrackintheentireRomanworld. Estimates of its seating capacity are generally in the 250,000 range, making it more than twice as capacious as the largest stadium or arena in the United States. And contemporary evidence--the quotation from Juvenal, for example--indicate that the building accommodated capacity crowds on many of the racing days. Consider the reasons for the immense popular- ity of spectator sports, both ancient and modern.
e Although chariot racing was undoubtedly very popular, with an intensely devoted fan base, a majority of these race fans seemed to have a sort of con- temptuous attitude toward individual charioteers. One would never see a "respectable" Roman socializing with a charioteer, or a gladiator. The
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situation today is obviously quite different; most modern sports fans would love to "hang out" with their heroes. Consider why or how these different attitudes might have arisen.
e Consider the statistical detail in the inscription, and the fact that Diocles was by no means the only Roman charioteer for whom we have such a complete account of his career numbers. Consider, too, the near- obsession with the numbers game exhibited by modern professional sports organizations, and whether there are similarities between ancient and modern attitudes about the importance of statistical records.
Further Information
Balsdon, J. P. V. D. Life and Leisure in Ancient Rome. New York, 1969. Harris, H. A. Sport in Greece and Rome. Ithaca, NY, 1972.
Websites
The Circus: Roman Chariot Racing. http://www. vroma. org/~bmcmanus/circus. html Chariot Races. http://www. pbs. org/empires/romans/empire/chariot. html
A movie to check out: Ben-Hur, the 1959, version, starring Charlton Heston in the title role. The chariot race, about two-thirds of the way through the film, is a classic scene in the history of American cinematography. Particularly impressive is the attention to accurate his- torical detail. For example: Roman chariot races were always run counterclockwise, around a very long and narrow dividing wall (the spina) in the middle of the racetrack. Laps (usually seven) were indicated by the lowering of images of dolphins. Both of these details were por- trayed in the film.
Most races featured a pompa, a ceremonial, one-lap parade around the track of all the chariots prior to the start of the race. Quadrigae, chariots pulled by four horses, yoked four abreast, were standard. Horses were specially bred for racing, and were unusually high- strung, powerful animals. A great deal of strength and skill was required of the charioteers to control them. Drivers sometimes used whips to encourage or restrain the horses, although it was a special distinction to win a race sine flagello, without using a whip. All these aspects of Roman racing were effectively portrayed, although only the villain of the story, the Roman tribune Messala, wielded a whip during the race.
After the pompa, as the chariots and horses were lining up and readying themselves for the start of the contest, a Roman magistrate appears on the scene to make some prefatory remarks. Among other things, he introduces to the crowd the individual charioteers who will be competing that day. Interestingly, all eight of them come from widely varying cities, countries, or regions. This, too, is in keeping with the realities of Roman chariot racing: as noted before, charioteers came from virtually every corner of the Roman world.
Even the smallest details were not overlooked by the film's writers. For example, as the hero, Judah Ben-Hur, is making his final preparations prior to the start of the race, he is shown inserting a small knife into his belt. Roman charioteers often equipped themselves in this fashion, because of their habit of looping the slack of the reins around their waists, to give themselves extra control and leverage. The downside of such a practice, however, would become apparent should the driver ever be thrown out of his chariot; if he failed to extract his knife quickly and sever the reins, he could be dragged along the ground behind the horses, with serious injury or even death a distinct possibility.
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF IMPORTANT INDIVIDUALS MENTIONED IN TEXT
Aristophanes (ca. 445-380 BCE). Aristophanes, called "that most clever man" by Aulus Gellius (see below), was one of the premier comic playwrights of the late fifth and early fourth centuries. His plays were invariably original, witty, satirical, sprinkled with neolo- gisms; his invented word spermagoraiolekitholachanopolides ("lettuceseedpankcakevendorsof- themarketsquare"), 31 letters in Greek, slightly more in the English translation, must hold some sort of word-length record. That record-setting word appeared in his anti- Peloponnesian war play Lysistrata. He also wrote plays satirizing education, the Athenian court system, tragic plays, and the teachings of the philosopher Socrates.
Aristotle (384-322 BCE). Aristotle was one of the most prolific authors in the history of Greek and Roman literature. A true polymath, he was interested in everything from logic to poetry, from astronomy to zoology, from ethics to politics. He created a system of clas- sifying birds and animals that formed the basis for the Linnean system of binomial nomen- clature still in use today. Altogether, some 400 written works have been attributed to Aristotle.
Athenaeus (fl. ca. 200 CE). Athenaeus's Deipnosophistae (Witty Dinner Conversationalists) is a vast compendium of all kinds of information that one might reasonably expect to be dis- cussed over the dinner table by knowledgeable and clever dinner guests. Examples of their highly varied dinnertime discussion topics: the merits of lentils and lentil soup; the use of sil- ver utensils at a dinner party; Aristotle's assertions about the natural world; riddles and enig- mas; the themes and scenes embossed onto drinking cups; famous courtesans; the various kinds of wreaths; a mass wedding organized by Alexander the Great.
Aulus Gellius (ca. 123-165 CE). Aulus Gellius, jurist, rhetorician, and man of letters, is famous for his Attic Nights, a 20-book collection of information and anecdotes on a wide variety of topics. In part, he collected and recorded these selections for the entertainment and education of his children. The title, Attic Nights, is derived from the period of time that he spent in Athens, where he began writing his book "during winter, with its long nights. "
Celsus (first century CE; full Roman name: Aulus Cornelius Celsus). Celsus was a learned scholar who wrote an encyclopedic compendium covering agriculture, medicine, military
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affairs, oratory, and philosophy. However, only the portion on medicine survives intact, so Celsus today is remembered primarily as a source on Roman medical practices. In this work, he covers diseases, drugs, surgery, and anatomy, as well as the history of medicine and sug- gestions for maintaining good health.
Cicero (106-43 BCE; full Roman name: Marcus Tullius Cicero). Cicero wore many hats during his life: orator, lawyer, statesman, politician, diplomat, philosopher, epistler, poet. He was, and is, regarded as the best lawyer the Romans ever produced, in a cul- ture that brought forth numerous highly skilled and effective legal professionals. Likewise, he was, and is, regarded as the best Latin prose writer the Romans ever pro- duced, in a culture that spawned many excellent such writers. He is probably best known for his courtroom and political speeches, especially the four orations he deliv- ered in November and December of 63, in which he exposed and denounced the aspi- rations of the would-be revolutionary Catiline. A nineteenth-century artist's conception of the delivery of one of the Catilinarian speeches appears on the cover of this volume.
Demosthenes (384-322 BCE). Generally regarded as the greatest of the (many) outstanding ancient Greek orators, Demosthenes is credited with some 58 extant orations, although a few of these may have been written by other orators of the time. He received an early, and personal, introduction to the world of Athenian law: when he turned 18 years of age (his father had died when he was 7) and attempted to claim his inheritance, he found that his three guardians had mismanaged and plundered the estate. So he took them to court and won his case, although the estate had been so completely drained that what remained was only a fraction of the original worth.
Herodotus (490-425 BCE). Herodotus claims the distinction of being the first true historian in western literature. The nine books of his Histories are filled with a mixture of facts, legends, stories, and myths, sometimes not logically ordered. By modern standards, his work might seem unprofessional, with a gullibility unbecoming of a historian. But he was a true pioneer, one who invented the genre as he wrote, and as such, he deserves the title bestowed upon him by Cicero: the "Father of History. "
Hippocrates (ca. 460-370 BCE). The most famous name in ancient medicine, Hippocrates today is most widely associated with the celebrated Hippocratic Oath. Although Hippocrates was almost certainly a historical personage, and a practicing physician, modern historians are divided in their assessments of how much of the so-called Hippocratic Collection of medical works can actually be credited to him. However, it seems very likely that Hippocrates did author a number of medical works, now lost, and that much of the Hippocratic Collection was written by physicians unknown today.
Homer (dates uncertain). Homer is widely regarded as the greatest epic poet of antiquity, perhaps of all time, and yet nothing is known for certain about his life. When and where he was born, where he lived and worked, whether he truly was a blind poet--all these raise questions for which we have no answers. Some historians even suggest that he was not a real person at all, and that the name "Homer" was actually a kind of generic term referring to a whole consortium of writers. But the consensus down through history seems to be that he did exist, and that he is to be credited with two of the most famous epic poems of all time, Iliad and Odyssey.
Horace (65-8 BCE; full Roman name: Quintus Horatius Flaccus). Horace, considered one of the greatest Roman poets, authored several collections of verse, including Odes, Satires, Epistles, and Epodes, as well as a poetic hymn, Carmen Saeculare, celebrating Rome's found- ing. Horace was the originator of the still-famous phrase Carpe diem, "Seize the day. "
Julius Caesar (100-44 BCE; full Roman name: Gaius Julius Caesar). Caesar is much more often remembered as a general and a politician than as a man of letters, but he wrote endur- ing commentaries about his military experiences in the Gallic Wars (58-50) and the civil war (49-45). Legions of Latin students will recognize the famous opening words of his Gallic commentary: Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres: "All Gaul is divided into three parts. "
Juvenal (ca. 60-130 CE; full Roman name: Decimus Junius Juvenalis). The Roman poet Juvenal wrote 16 satirical poems, many of them bitter comments on the perils of life in Rome, the difficulties of making a living, and a social system that seemed to favor the rich and influential. He is the source of several famous phrases, including mens sana in sano corpora ("a sound mind in a sound body"), and his acerbic comment that the average person in Rome cared only for panem et circenses, "bread and circuses," or in other words, food and entertainment.
Livy (59 BCE-17 CE; full Roman name: Titus Livius). One of the most celebrated Roman historians, Livy set out, around the age of 30, to write a comprehensive history of Rome, from its founding up to his own time. Forty years later, he completed the massive project: Ab Urbe Condita (From the Founding of the City). Unfortunately, only about 25 percent of his manuscript is still extant; however, even the surviving portions provide a good deal of information, especially about the earliest days of the monarchy and the Republic, as well as a detailed account of the Second Punic War, including the famous story of Hannibal and the Carthaginians crossing the Alps Mountains with elephants in tow.
Lucian (fl. second century CE, perhaps 120-200). Lucian was a Greek satirist and essayist. A prolific writer, he authored works on rhetoric, literature, and philosophy. His wide variety of satirical dialogues focused on topics such as philosophy, religion, and human pretentious- ness. He traveled widely, working as a rhetorician and lecturer, before eventually making a home for himself in Athens, where he perfected his satirical writing style.
Marcus Terentius Varro (116-27 BCE), a scholarly antiquarian called by Quintilian "the most learned of Romans," reputedly wrote over 70 books. Of these, substantial portions remain of only two of them: On the Latin Language and On Farming.
Martial (ca. 40-104 BCE; full Roman name: Marcus Valerius Martialis). The poet Martial wrote over 1,500 epigrammatic poems, most of them in a satirical or social commentary mode mocking the flaws, foibles, and inconsistencies of Roman society; mooches, gold- diggers, and legacy hunters are the lowlife types often skewered by Martial. Additionally, he authored a collection of poems called Liber Spectaculorum (Book of Spectacles), commemo- rating the dedication of the famous Roman amphitheater the Coliseum, in 80 CE.
Ovid (43 BCE-17 CE; full Roman name: Publius Ovidius Naso). Ovid was a versatile Roman poet whose works range from Amores and Ars Amatoria (love poems) to Fasti, a poem devoted to the Roman calendar and the important historical events and religious observances connected with specific days. Metamorphoses, perhaps his most famous work, contains a
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series of mythological stories, all of which involve some sort of change or transformation. Ovid spent the last nine years of his life in exile from Rome, at a place called Tomi, on the Black Sea (the ancient Roman equivalent of Siberia). He had somehow gravely offended the emperor Augustus, but to this day, the specific nature of his offense is unknown.
Pausanias (fl. second century CE). Pausanias traveled widely throughout ancient Greece and viewed many famous architectural monuments, works of art, historical sites, and cities. During his travels, he often spoke to the "locals" in order to gather information and better understand the places he visited. The result of all this activity was one of antiquity's most notable travelogues, Description of Greece. The work is divided into 10 books, each describ- ing a specific region of Greece. In Books 5 and 6, Pausanias focuses on Elis, the area in which Olympia was located; in these two books, he cites the names of over 200 Olympic athletes, sometimes with biographical data.
Petronius (fl. first century CE; full Roman name: Gaius Petronius Arbiter). Petronius is most famously credited with authoring the Satyricon, a ribald tale of the adventures of a cer- tain roguish character named Encolpius. The best-known incident in the extant portion of the work is Cena Trimalchionis (Trimalchio's Dinner), a description of an elaborate Roman dinner party hosted by the utterly buffoonish, nouveau-riche Trimalchio. At one time, Petronius was in the good graces of the emperor Nero, but they had some sort of serious fall- ing out, and Petronius was forced to commit suicide, probably in the year 65 CE.
Pindar (518-438 BCE). Pindar could be dubbed one of history's first sportswriters, since he made his living by writing epinicean poetry: poems in honor of victorious athletes at the great athletic competitions of ancient Greece, including the Olympic Games. Pindar's poetic skill was widely known; if a triumphant athlete wanted a victory ode in his honor, he could hire Pindar to write it, who likely commanded a hefty fee for his services. Pindar had a healthy respect for his abilities; he once claimed that his poetry soared like an eagle in flight, whereas that of his rival epinicean poets resembled the meanderings of low-flying crows.
Plato (427-347 BCE). Over the course of some 50 years, the philosopher Plato wrote 25 (mostly book-length) philosophical dialogues; among the most famous of these are his Republic, about an ideal society, and his Apologia, a transcript of the speech his mentor Socrates delivered in his own defense at his trial in 399. Plato, a skilled teacher like Socrates, often conducted classes and gave lectures in a grove of olive trees near Athens; the name of the grove was Academia, a word that thus became associated with Plato's school and, in later times, with higher learning in general.
Pliny the Elder (23-79 CE; full Roman name: Gaius Plinius Secundus). He is called "the Elder" to distinguish him from his nephew Pliny the Younger (see just below). Pliny the Elder was the consummate man of learning and knowledge. His Natural History, which-- according to him--contains 20,000 facts gleaned from 2,000 writings of 473 authors, covers every conceivable topic pertinent to the natural world: astronomy; topography; hydrology; human physiology and psychology; land animals; sea animals; birds; insects; forest trees; fruit trees; shrubs and flowers; agricultural crops; noncultivated plants; drugs and medicines; metals, gems, and rocks. He was a victim of the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79.
Pliny the Younger (62-114 CE; full Roman name: Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus). Pliny the Younger enjoyed a distinguished career as an orator, statesman, diplomat, and
litterateur. He is primarily remembered today as an epistler; 247 of the letters he wrote to friends still survive, while an additional 121--written to, and received from, the emperor Trajan--are also extant. He wrote two of his most famous letters to the historian Cornelius Tacitus, describing the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79; hence, his birth year (62) is pretty well established, because he states in one of those letters that he was 17 years of age when the eruption occurred.
Plutarch (ca. 46-120 CE). Plutarch is most noted as a biographer--he wrote 50 biographies of famous Greeks and Romans--but he also authored a massive collection of short essays entitled Moralia (Moral Essays). Plutarch was an erudite, intelligent writer, one of our best and most reliable sources of information about the ancient world. Ironically, both he and the poet Pindar hailed from Boeotia, a district not far from Athens and a place proverbial for the backwardness of its inhabitants; and yet two of the most accomplished and sophisti- cated writers in the history of Greek literature came from there.
Quintilian (ca. 35-95 CE; full Roman name: Marcus Fabius Quintilianus). Quintilian was a lawyer, teacher, and orator, and the author of a book on oratory called Institutio Oratoria (Institutes of Oratory). In this book, he meticulously describes the many aspects of the profession, including proofs, kinds of evidence, methods of influencing judges, appropri- ate use of humor, style and word usage, figures of speech, gestures, and dress. Perhaps most interesting, however, are the early chapters in his book, in which he discusses educational principles and the proper training of an orator.
Seneca the Younger (4 BCE-65 CE; full Roman name: Lucius Annaeus Seneca). Seneca produced a lengthy corpus of written works during his lifetime: 10 dialogues; three moral essays; a book on natural phenomena; nine tragic plays; and an interestingly amusing satire on the deification of the emperor Claudius, the Apocolocyntosis, or Pumpkinification. In 65, he was accused of complicity in a plot to assassinate the emperor Nero, and was forced to commit suicide.
His father, Seneca the Elder (55 BCE-41 CE), was also a noted author.
Suetonius (ca. 70-140 CE; full Roman name: Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus). Suetonius wrote biographies of Julius Caesar and the first 11 Roman emperors. He also authored biog- raphies of other noted individuals, including grammarians, rhetoricians, and poets.
Tacitus (ca. 55-117 CE; full Roman name: Cornelius Tacitus). The highly respected Roman historian Tacitus authored Annals, covering the years 14 to 68 CE, and Histories, covering 69 and 70. He also wrote a biography of his father-in-law, Agricola, a description of Germany (Germania), and a treatise on oratory (Dialogue on Oratory). He claimed in the Annals that his approach to historical writing was sine ira et studio, "without anger and prejudice. "
Terence (195-159 BCE; full Roman name: Publius Terentius Afer). A native of Carthage in North Africa, the Roman playwright Terence was born a slave; fortunately, he had an enlight- ened owner who brought him to Rome, educated him, and eventually freed him.