Publius Nigidius Figulus, renowned senator-scholar of the late Roman Republic, wrote numerous works on a wide variety of topics, of which only 130 fragments survive. This is the first collection of academic articles on this mysterious figure, who not only was famous for his learning, but also reportedly engaged in a number of divinatory practices and went down in history as a “Pythagorean and magus” (thus St. Jerome). A group of international scholars provide a variety perspectives on Nigidius’ politics, philosophy, mythography, biology, religious studies, linguistic thought, divinatory activities, and reception, throwing new light on this fascinating Roman polymath.

This history of Latin literature offers a comprehensive survey of the 1000 year period from the origins of Latin as a written language to the early Middle Ages. It offers a wide-ranging panorama of all major Latin authors.

Nachdruck des Originals von 1886.

"Celestial Inclinations: A Life of Augustus provides a new perspective on the life and career of the first Roman emperor Augustus (63 B.C.-A.D. 14) and presents the case that Augustus used his knowledge of the celestial sphere in various ways to confirm for himself and convey to others that the heavens supported his activities on earth and his inevitable greatness. The book is based on fresh assessments of relevant ancient historical, literary, astronomical, astrological, and artistic sources for the years prior to and during the life of Augustus. The book combines these sources with astronomical sky maps and astrological diagrams to offer fresh interpretations of critical events in the life of Augustus at a time when the celestial sphere had come to play an important cultural and political role. Topics include the identification of the celestial object that appeared at the ludi in honor of Caesar in 44 B.C.; the Battle of Actium; the iconography of the Tellus Relief Panel on the Ara Pacis Augustae; the Ludi Saeculares; Augustus' major building projects in Rome; and Augustus' interactions with major figures of the period such as Cicero, Caesar, Agrippa, and Antonius"--

In classical antiquity, there was much interest in necromancy--the consultation of the dead for divination. People could seek knowledge from the dead by sleeping on tombs, visiting oracles, and attempting to reanimate corpses and skulls. Ranging over many of the lands in which Greek and Roman civilizations flourished, including Egypt, from the Greek archaic period through the late Roman empire, this book is the first comprehensive survey of the subject ever published in any language. Daniel Ogden surveys the places, performers, and techniques of necromancy as well as the reasons for turning to it. He investigates the cave-based sites of oracles of the dead at Heracleia Pontica and Tainaron, as well as the oracles at the Acheron and Avernus, which probably consisted of lakeside precincts. He argues that the Acheron oracle has been long misidentified, and considers in detail the traditions attached to each site. Readers meet the personnel--real or imagined--of ancient necromancy: ghosts, zombies, the earliest vampires, evocators, sorcerers, shamans, Persian magi, Chaldaeans, Egyptians, Roman emperors, and witches from Circe to Medea. Ogden explains the technologies used to evocate or reanimate the dead and to compel them to disgorge their secrets. He concludes by examining ancient beliefs about ghosts and their wisdom--beliefs that underpinned and justified the practice of necromancy. The first of its kind and filled with information, this volume will be of central importance to those interested in the rapidly expanding, inherently fascinating, and intellectually exciting subjects of ghosts and magic in antiquity.