rogueclassicism

Say What?

Wading through assorted items my spiders dragged back to me, I note the following excerpt at Official Spin … I’ve emphasized what caught my eye:

Beta-galactosidase is widely used as a reporter gene in the life sciences, and detection is typically performed with a colorimetric substrate.  Recently, a near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent beta-galactosidase activity assay for cultured cells was reported in the March 2009 issue of Analytical Biochemistry.  Researchers at LI-COR® Biosciences used a fluorogenic substrate, DDAO-galactoside (DDAOG), to detect reporter gene activity in transfected cells.  The resulting NIR fluorescence can be detected with the Odyssey® or Aerius® Infrared Imaging Systems.

How the heck can “Odyssey” be registered trademark??

ED: Reception of Thucydides: Research Assistant and Studentships

Seen on the Classicists list:

Thucydides: reception, reinterpretation and influence

This four-year, AHRC-funded research project at the University of Bristol, led by Professor Neville Morley, will explore the history of the reception of Thucydides and his work since the Renaissance, including the history of scholarship and criticism on the text, the changing interpretative frameworks and the use of Thucydides in modern debates about such subjects as citizenship and democracy, international relations and the nature of history. We are now seeking to recruit to the following positions:

(1) Postdoctoral Research Assistant (vacancy ref. 14963)

Working in the School of Humanities, you will play a major role in the forthcoming four-year AHRC-funded research project on the modern reception of Thucydides, led by Professor Neville Morley. You will research aspects of the reception of Thucydides in modern political or social thought, and should have a PhD in a relevant discipline.

Grade: Level a in Pathway 2; Salary: £29,704 – £33,432

Further details and an application form can be found at https://www.bris.ac.uk/boris/jobs/ads?ID=82670. Alternatively you can telephone (0117) 954 6947, minicom (0117) 928 8894 or email Recruitment AT bris.ac.uk (stating postal address ONLY), quoting reference number 14963.

(2) Two Postgraduate Studentships

One student will research an aspect of the modern reception of Thucydides as a historian and within the general field of historiography. The other will research an aspect of the modern reception of Thucydides within social and political theory or political philosophy. The exact topics will depend on interests and experience. Applicants must have completed a first degree and either be studying for, or completed a Masters degree in an appropriate subject area such as history, classics and ancient history, philosophy or politics. A good command of ancient Greek and at least one modern European language is desirable. Please note that, in order to receive the maintenance award from the AHRC, residency conditions apply.

Further details can be found at http://www.bris.ac.uk/arts/scholarships. Candidates must first submit an application for postgraduate research at the University of Bristol, including two academic references and an outline of the proposed research; an application form can be found at http://www.bris.ac.uk/prospectus/postgraduate/2009/intro/8.

The closing date for applications for either position is 18th September 2009.

For further details about the project, please contact Professor Neville Morley, n.d.g.morley AT bris.ac.uk.

CONF: History without Historians conference

Seen on the Classicists list:

Classics at Edinburgh, in conjunction with the Leventis Foundation announces the 6th Leventis conference on

History without Historians: Greeks and their past in the Archaic and Classical age

5th-7th November 2009 in Edinburgh

The conference has been organised by Prof. John Marincola, Professor of Classics at The Florida State University and the 6th Leventis Visiting Professor at Edinburgh University.

For further details including a provisional programme see:

http://www.shc.ed.ac.uk/classics/leventis/6thLeventisConference2009.htm

[cateogory conferences]

CFP: Belief and its Alternatives in Greek and Roman Religion

Seen on the Classicists list:

BELIEF AND ITS ALTERNATIVES IN GREEK AND ROMAN RELIGION

University of St Andrews, 2-3 July 2010

Call for Papers

The religions of Greece and Rome have long been regarded as religions of ritual,
religions in which what was done mattered far more than what was thought.
Responses to the supposedly practice-centred nature of Greek and Roman religion
have ranged from the dismissive, which see the ritualism of ancient religions as
a symptom of their spiritual emptiness, to the highly creative, such as the
structuralist approaches of the Paris School and sociological approaches which
probe the relationship between ritual and society. Common to these latter
approaches is the idea that, even if Greek and Roman religion was dominated by
ritual, the rituals depended for their meaning on a complex network of ideas
and assumptions. Recent studies have returned to the question of how best to
reflect that cognitive side of ancient religion, and in particular to the
utility of the term ‘belief’ in modelling ancient religions.

The aim of this conference is to bring together researchers in Greek and Roman
religion and Religious Studies to discuss questions of approach to ancient
religions, focusing on the applicability of modern categories – such as
‘belief’ – to the ancient Mediterranean world. Recent publications by, among
others, Tom Harrison and Simon Price suggest that this remains an area of
interest and one in which significant work remains to be done. It is hoped that
the combination of speakers from Greek, Roman and Religious Studies will
generate some interesting and useful inter-disciplinary interactions. Confirmed
speakers so far are Robert Parker (Oxford), Tom Harrison (Liverpool), John
Cottingham (Reading), Peter Harrison (Oxford) and John Scheid (Collège de
France).

Suggestions of papers of up to 30 minutes in length on any aspect of the topic
are invited. Please send a proposed title and an abstract of up to 300 words to
Ralph Anderson (rta1 At st-andrews.ac.uk) by Friday 6th November.

[cateogory conferences]

Romulus and the ‘Rule of Thumb’

A piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education (which might only be available for a few days for free for non-subscribers) was mentioned on the Classics list t’other day (and doesn’t seem to have generated any response). It comprises a response by Nancy K.D. Lemon to an earlier review essay in the same journal by Christina Hoff Sommers on “Persistent Myths in Feminist Scholarship”. The primary focus of the response is the oft-emailed thing about the ‘rule of thumb’ which, apparently, is somehow connected with Romulus. We’ll begin with the salient excerpt from Dr. Sommers’ piece (still online):

Lemon’s Domestic Violence Law is organized as a conventional law-school casebook —a collection of judicial opinions, statutes, and articles selected, edited, and commented upon by the author. The first selection, written by Cheryl Ward Smith (no institutional affiliation is given), offers students a historical perspective on domestic-violence law. According to Ward:

“The history of women’s abuse began over 2,700 years ago in the year 753 BC. It was during the reign of Romulus of Rome that wife abuse was accepted and condoned under the Laws of Chastisement. … The laws permitted a man to beat his wife with a rod or switch so long as its circumference was no greater than the girth of the base of the man’s right thumb. The law became commonly know as ‘The Rule of Thumb.’ These laws established a tradition which was perpetuated in English Common Law in most of Europe.”

Where to begin? How about with the fact that Romulus of Rome never existed. He is a figure in Roman mythology —the son of Mars, nursed by a wolf. Problem 2: The phrase “rule of thumb” did not originate with any law about wife beating, nor has anyone ever been able to locate any such law. It is now widely regarded as a myth, even among feminist professors.

Here’s an excerpt from Dr. Lemon’s response:

In spite of my response, she wrote in The Chronicle Review that she is “open to correction,” yet she ignored my response to her and continued to complain of the same purported inaccuracies.

In regard to the rule of thumb, for example, she asserted that Romulus of Rome, who is credited in my book with being involved with the first antidomestic-violence legislation, could not have done this as he was merely a legendary, fictional character, who along with his brother Remus was suckled by a wolf.

In fact, Plutarch and Livy each state that Romulus was the first king of Rome. He reigned from 753-717 BC, and created both the Roman Legions and the Roman Senate. He is also credited with adding large amounts of territory and people to the dominion of Rome, including the Sabine women. The modern scholar Andrea Carandini has written about the historic reign of Romulus, based in part on the 1988 discovery of the Murus Romuli on the north slope of the Palatine Hill in Rome.

R. Emerson Dobash and Russell P. Dobash, pioneers and well-respected leaders in the field of domestic-violence research, discuss Romulus in their 1979 book, Violence Against Wives. They state that the marriage laws passed in 753 BC, under Romulus of Rome, allowed men to beat their wives, and that this rule continued into England and the United States in the 1700s and 1800s. Dobash and Dobash refer to a “rod drawn through the wedding ring” in describing the size of the stick husbands were allowed to use for this purpose, the same guideline referred to as the rule of thumb.

Okay … without getting sidelined by the historicity of Romulus and what he may or may not have “passed” (I didn’t know kings had to “pass” anything, except, perhaps, for water and the odd kidney stone), or even his existence, we should point out that Dr. Sommers is entirely right to say that we have no ancient source which mentions a “right” granted by Romulus for hubbies to beat their wives. In regards to marriage, however, we probably should mention that Romulus is credited in our ancient sources with putting some limits on manus marriage. In a manus marriage, which presumably most/all marriages would have been in the times Romulus is said to have been around, we are told that women would have been in a position akin to a child in potestate, and if we want to extend that notion, we might suggest that the wife would be subject to the vitae necisque potestas claimed to have been among the paterfamilias’ powers. That the vitae necisque potestas was used as was often claimed in older textbooks is subject to debate (I might expand on this at a later date … I did a chapter on this for my M.A. thesis) but it seems reasonable to assume that the severing of legal ties to the woman’s original family did create a situation where wife-beating could ‘legally’ occur. With that in mind, the ‘family law’ attributed to Romulus could be seen as limiting the effects of manus somewhat, ecce (from Fant and Lefkowitz, Women’s Life in Greece and Rome, via the Stoa):

7. The cognates sitting in judgment with the husband … were given power to pass sentence in cases of adultery and … if any wife was found drinking wine Romulus allowed the death penalty for both crimes.

9. He also made certain laws, one of which is severe, namely that which does not permit a wife to divorce her husband, but gives him power to divorce her for the use of drugs or magic on account of children [2] or for counterfeiting the keys or for adultery. The law ordered that if he should divorce her for any other cause, part of his estate should go to the wife and that part should be dedicated to Ceres. Anyone who sold his wife was sacrificed to the gods of the underworld.

… So from an early time, it appears, a hubby’s right to divorce was limited, and his right to execute a wife caught in adultery was subject to a paralegal sort of process involving her relatives, both of which would be limits on the powers implied in a manus marriage. So much for Romulus’ ‘marriage legislation’ … nothing specific about beating wives legally. Even so, by the time of Augustus, we are told (or so it appears), manus marriage was pretty rare, except for certain priesthoods perhaps, and so any “rule” allowing a hubby to beat his wife likely did not really have an opportunity for continuity and  it  might be speculated that the continued ties of a wife to her biological family might have served as a deterrent to such actions to some extent.  But to make the leap from whatever one wants to read into the concept of manus to the ‘rule of thumb’ is, as my former thesis adviser would say, “scant straw from which to make rhetorical bricks”.

• Persistent Myths in Feminist Scholarship (Chronicle of Higher Education … June 29)

• Myths or Facts in Feminist Scholarship? (Chronicle of Higher Education … August 10)

UPDATE (08/21/09): more coverage in the New Yorker: Literary Smackdown: Sommers vs. Romulus

Pissala and Liquamen?

A recipe column in the Times incipits thusly:

Pissaladière is one of my Desert Island dishes, a pizza-esque onion tart from Nice that is recognisable by its anchovy lattice studded with black olives. Its name comes from pissala, a Provençal word for a Niçoise fish sauce made from fermented anchovies and sardines. This sauce, now replaced by canned anchovies preserved in olive oil, is linked to Ancient Roman liquamen, one of the earliest seasonings.

I’ve never heard of  pissala before, and to judge by the various email discussions of garum and liquamen I’ve seen through the years, most of my readers probably haven’t either, so folks might want to check out the only real recipe for it that I found for it in my quick scan of the net … another site claims that the strong fish taste survives more than in “earlier Roman fish sauces”, but I’m not sure what they base that on … Whatever the case, the recipe seems easy enough (as does the recipe for Pissaldiere, which looks very much like one of the pizzas my Sicilian mother-in-law makes) … perhaps some brave teacher might do this as a class project?