The River Araxes in the Roman Poetry

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12797/CC.20.2019.22.01

Keywords:

Roman poetry, Roman policy in the East, Araxes, Armenia in Roman poetry, rivers in Roman poetry

Abstract

River Araxes in the Roman Poetry

The Araxes flowing through the Armenian Highlands was one of the rivers mentioned quite often in Roman poetry from the Augustan Age up to the 5th century. In line with the traditional tendency of classical literature, the Araxes was usually shown as a pars pro toto of a country, in this case Armenia, which was one of the aims of the Roman eastern policy and the object of rivalry between the Empire and Parthia/Persia. The great majority of references to the Araxes was connected with the theme of Roman expansion in the East (especially with the campaign of Tiberius in 20 BC and later with the Roman-Parthian war 58–63 AD), which can be observed best in the recurrent motif of a bridge across this river, a clear-cut symbol of Roman domination over Armenia and – more generally – over all of the East.

PlumX Metrics of this article

References

Primary sources and commentaries

Appendix Tibulliana, ed. H. Tränkle, Berlin – New York 1990.

Claudian, Volume I, ed. M. Platnauer, Cambridge – London 1990.

Claudian, Volume II, ed. M. Platnauer, Cambridge – London 1998.

Cuzzone T., L’invettiva contro Gildone. Motivi di propaganda politica e prassi letteraria (Per un commento a Claud. carm. 15), Università degli studi di Trieste (diss.) 2006/2007.

Levy H.L., Claudian’s In Rufinum. An Exegetical Commentary, London – Beccles 1971.

Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, De bello civili libri X, ed. D.R. Shackleton-Bailey, Berolini et Novi Eboraci 2009.

Montone F., Sidonio Apollinare. Carmi 1 e 2. Praefatio e Panegirico per Antemio. Introd., trad., comm. ed Appendici, Università degli studi di Napoli “Federico II” (diss.) 2012.

P. Papinius Statius, Thebais, eds. A. Klotz, T.C. Klinnert, Leipzig 1973.

Propertius, Elegies I-IV, ed. with introd., comment. L. Richardson, jr, Norman 1977.

Seneca, Phaedra, ed. M. Coffey, R. Mayer, Cambridge 1990.

Sidonius, Poems and Letters. Volume I. Poems, Letters, Books I-II, ed. W.B. Anderson, Cambridge – London 1963.

Statius, Silvae 5, introd., transl. and comment. B. Gibson, Oxford 2009.

Virgil, Aeneid. Book VIII, ed. K.W. Gransden, Cambridge 1976.

Watson L., Sidonius Apollinaris’ Carmina 1 and 2. A Commentary, University of London (diss.) 1997.

Secondary sources

Arnaud P., 1993, ‘Frontière et manipulation géographique. Lucain, les Parthes et les Antipodes’, [in:] La Frontière. Séminaire de recherche sous la direction d’Yves Roman, Lyon, pp. 45–56.

Axer J., 1991, Filolog w teatrze, Warszawa.

Babnis T., 2017, ‘Augustan Poets on the Roman-Parthian Treaty of 20 BC’, Classica Cracoviensia 20, pp. 5–43, https://doi.org/10.12797/CC.20.2017.20.01. DOI: https://doi.org/10.12797/CC.20.2017.20.01

Babnis T., 2018a, ‘Iranian Themes in the Poetry of Statius’, Classica Cracoviensia 21, pp. 5–29, https://doi.org/10.12797/CC.21.2018.21.01. DOI: https://doi.org/10.12797/CC.21.2018.21.01

Babnis T., 2018b, ‘Sive aliquid pharetris Augustus parcet Eois. Wschodnia polityka Rzymu w poezji Propercjusza’, Roczniki Humanistyczne 66/3, pp. 7–27, https://doi.org/10.18290/rh.2018.66.3-1. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18290/rh.2018.66.3-1

Benton C., 2003, ‘Bringing the Other to Center Stage. Seneca’s “Medea” and the Anxieties of Imperialism’, Arethusa 36/3, pp. 271–284, https://doi.org/10.1353/are.2003.0019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/are.2003.0019

Bernstein N.W., 2011, ‘The Dead and their Ghosts in the Bellum Civile. Lucan‘s Visions of History’, [in:] Brill’s Companion to Lucan, P. Asso (ed.), Leiden – Boston, pp. 257–279, https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004217096_014. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004217096_014

Bexley E., 2014, ‘Lucan’s Catalogues and the Landscape of War’, [in:] Geography, Topography, Landscape. Configurations of Space in Greek and Roman Epic, M. Skempis, I. Ziogas (ed.), Berlin – Boston, pp. 373–403. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110315318.373

Blockley R.C., 1987, ‘The Division of Armenia between the Romans and the Persians at the End of the Fourth Century A.D.’, Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte 36/2, pp. 222–234.

Boshoff L., 2016, ‘Looking Eastwards. The Regina Orientis in Sidonius Apollinaris’ Carmen 2’, [in:] From Constantinople to the Frontier. The City and the Cities, N.S.M. Matheou et al. (ed.), Leiden – Boston, pp. 13–24, https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004307742_003. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004307742_003

Boyle A.J., 1997, Tragic Seneca. An Essay in the Theatrical Tradition, London – New York.

Brodka D., 1998, Die Romideologie in der römischen Literatur der Spätantike, Frankfurt am Main.

Campbell B., 2012, Rivers and the Power of Ancient Rome, Chapel Hill.

Cary M., Warmington E.H., 1968, Starożytni odkrywcy, transl. B. Wojciechowski, Warszawa.

Casamento A., 2013, ‘In trionfo sull’Arasse. A proposito di Luc. Phars. 1,19’, Paideia 68, pp. 57–78.

Cattin A., 1963, ‘La géographie dans les tragédies de Sénèque’, Latomus 22/4, pp. 685–703.

Clauss J.J., 1988, ‘Vergil and the Euphrates Revisited’, The American Journal of Philology 109/3, pp. 309–320, https://doi.org/10.2307/294887. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/294887

Dueck D., 2012, Geography in Classical Antiquity, Cambridge, https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139027014. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139027014

Feldherr A., 2014, ‘Viewing Myth and History on the Shield of Aeneas’, Classical Antiquity 33/2, pp. 281–318, https://doi.org/10.1525/CA.2014.33.2.281. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/CA.2014.33.2.281

Fischer R., 1968, Das ausseritalische geographische Bild in Vergils Georgica, in den Oden des Horaz und in den Elegien des Properz, Zürich.

Fisher W.B., Bosworth C.E., 1986, Araxes, [in:] Encyclopedia Iranica online.

Galinsky K., 1969, ‘The Triumph Theme in the Augustan Elegy’, Wiener Studien 3, pp. 75–107.

Garambois-Vasquez F., 2007, Les invectives de Claudien. Une poétique de la violence, Bruxelles.

Grant M., 2000, ‘Seneca’s Tragic Geography’, Latomus 59/1, pp. 88–95.

Guillaumin J.-Y., 2013, ‘Rappel de l’histoire et invitation à l’action dans les Panégyriques de Sidoine Apollinaire’, Dialogues d’histoire ancienne. Supplément n°8, pp. 93–107, https://doi.org/10.3917/dha.hs80.0093. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3917/dha.hs80.0093

Hardie Ph., 1986 Virgil’s Aeneid. Cosmos and Imperium, Oxford.

Harrison S.J., 1997, ‘The Survival and Supremacy of Rome. The Unity of the Shield of Aeneas’, The Journal of Roman Studies 87, pp. 70–76, https://doi.org/10.2307/301369. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/301369

Heckenlively T.S., 2013, ‘Clipeus Hesiodicus. “Aeneid” 8 and the “Shield of Heracles”’, Mnemosyne, Fourth Series 66/4–5, pp. 649–665, https://doi.org/10.1163/156852512X617632. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/156852512X617632

Hillman T.P., 1996, ‘Pompeius ad Parthos?’, Klio 78/2, pp. 380–399, https://doi.org/10.1524/klio.1996.78.2.380. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1524/klio.1996.78.2.380

Hodges G.W.Q., 2004, Ethnographic characterization in Lucan’s ‘Bellum Civile’, Ohio State University (diss.).

Jenkyns R., 1993, ‘Virgil and the Euphrates’, The American Journal of Philology 114/1, pp. 115–121, https://doi.org/10.2307/295386. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/295386

Jones P.J., 1999, Agmen aquarum. Reading Rivers in Their Roman Cultural Context, Harvard University (diss.).

Kelly G., 2013, ‘Sidonius and Claudian’, [in:] New Approaches to Sidonius Apollinaris, J.A. van Waarden, G. Kelly (ed.), Leuven – Paris – Walpole, pp. 171–194.

Manolaraki E., 2013, Noscendi Nilum Cupido. Imagining Egypt from Lucan to Philostratus, Berlin – Boston, https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110297737. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110297737

Mendell C.W., 1942, ‘Lucan’s Rivers’, Yale Classical Studies 8, pp. 3–22.

Nabel J., 2019, ‘Lucan’s Parthians in Nero’s Rome’, Classical Philology 114, pp. 604–625, https://doi.org/10.1086/705162. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/705162

Parkes R., 2005, ‘Model Youths? Achilles and Parthenopaeus in Claudian’s Panegyrics on the Third and Fourth Consulships of Honorius’, Illinois Classical Studies 30, pp. 67–82.

Pogorzelski R., 2011, ‘Orbis Romanus. Lucan and the Limits of the Roman World’, Transactions of the American Philological Association 141/1, pp. 143–170, https://doi.org/10.1353/apa.2011.0000. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/apa.2011.0000

Romm J.S., 1992, The Edges of the Earth in Ancient Thought, Princeton, https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691201702. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691201702

Scodel R.S., Thomas R.F., 1984, ‘Virgil and the Euphrates’, The American Journal of Philology 105/3, p. 339, https://doi.org/10.2307/294999. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/294999

Sherwin-White A.N., 1984, Roman Foreign Policy in the East 168 B.C. to A.D. 1, London.

Syme R., 1987, ‘Exotic Names, Notably in Seneca’s Tragedies’, Acta Classica 30, pp. 49–64.

Thomas R.F., 1982, Lands and Peoples in Roman Poetry. The Ethnographical Tradition, Cambridge.

Walde Ch., 2007, ‘Eine poetische Hydrologie. Flüsse und Gewässer in Lucans Bellum Civile’, [in:] Antike Naturwissenschaft und ihre Rezeption, J. Althoff, B. Herzhoff, G. Wöhrle (Hrsg.), Trier, pp. 59–84.

Ware C., 2004, ‘Gildo tyrannus. Accusation and Allusion in the Speeches of Roma and Africa’, [in:] Aetas Claudianea, W.W. Ehlers et al. (ed.), Leipzig, pp. 96–103, https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139004152.

Ware C., 2012, Claudian and the Roman Epic Tradition, Cambridge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139004152

Weeda L., 2015, Vergil’s Political Commentary in the Eclogues, Georgics and Aeneid, Warsaw – Berlin, https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110426427. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110426427

Wellesley K., 1968, ‘Virgil’s Araxes’, Classical Philology 63/2, pp. 139–141, https://doi.org/10.1086/365350. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/365350

Wissemann M., 1982, Die Parther in der augusteischen Dichtung, Frankfurt am Main – Bern.

Downloads

Published

2019-10-20

How to Cite

Babnis, T. “The River Araxes in the Roman Poetry”. Classica Cracoviensia, vol. 22, Oct. 2019, pp. 7-46, doi:10.12797/CC.20.2019.22.01.

Issue

Section

Classica Litteraria