Articles/Chapters by Mark Thorne
While it was customary for successful Roman generals to commemorate their victories through statu... more While it was customary for successful Roman generals to commemorate their victories through statues or other building projects, Caesar's most crucial military victory at the Battle of Pharsalia in 48 BCE strikingly saw the least amount of official commemoration of all his campaigns. This article explores why this was so (it was too controversial yet to celebrate a civil war victor over fellow Roman citizens) and outlines the various other more indirect ways Caesar attempted to commemorate his key civil war victory, ranging from his temple to Venus Victrix, the battle's inclusion as a commemorative date in the fasti, and finally the Bellum Civile, his own literary commemoration of the civil wars that elevated him to the heights of power.
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At the Crossroads of Greco-Roman History, Culture, and Religion: Papers in Memory of Carin M. C. Green, 2018
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(English) Lucan's Bellum Civile can be read as an epic that functions in the mode of trauma liter... more (English) Lucan's Bellum Civile can be read as an epic that functions in the mode of trauma literature, i.e. a work that explicitly seeks to represent a horror that defies its very representation. Toward this end, this article applies the lens of modern trauma studies to a comparative reading of Lucan set alongside selections from two literary representations of the Rwanda genocide of 1994. By reading these ancient and modern texts alongside each other, we can gain greater insight into some of the shared rhetorical and narrative strategies that these writers from such different time periods have employed. In the face of lingering trauma, these ancient and modern strategies on one hand emphasize speechlessness (nefas and the threat of silence) and yet on the other hand engage the audience and invite them into the space of trauma through the senses of sight, sound, and emotion. The Roman poet Lucan, like his modern counterparts, seeks to guide his readers into a haunting encounter with the deeper traumatic reality of these conflicts such that they can no longer be unwitnessed or ignored.
ABSTRACT (German) Lucans Bellum Civile lässt sich als ein Epos im Modus von Traumaliteratur lesen, d.h. als ein literarisches Werk, das anschaulich ein grauenvolles Geschehen wiederzugeben sucht, welches sich der Darstellung geradezu verweigert. Zu diesem Zweck unternimmt der vorliegende Beitrag aus der Perspektive der modernen Traumaforschung eine komparatistische Lektüre von Lucans Epos Seite an Seite mit einer Auswahl aus zwei literarischen Verarbeitungen des im Jahr 1994 in Ruanda verübten Genozids. Durch einen Vergleich des antiken und der modernen Texte lässt sich bessere Einsicht in einige der gemeinsamen rhetorischen und narrativen Strategien gewinnen, welche diese Autoren in ganz unterschiedlichen Zeiten angewendet haben. Angesichts eines nachhaltigen Traumas heben diese antiken wie auch modernen Strategien einerseits die Sprachlosigkeit hervor (nefas und drohendes Verstummen), sprechen jedoch andererseits die Rezipienten direkt an und beziehen sie durch visuelle und auditive Sinneswahrnehmungen und Emotionen in den Raum des Traumas mit ein. Der römische Dichter Lucan sucht seine Leser wie seine modernen Schrift-stellerkollegen zu einer eindringlichen Begegnung mit der tieferen traumatischen Realität dieser Konflikte zu bringen, so dass sie dank dieser Zeugen und Mitwisser nicht mehr ignoriert werden können.
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Books by Mark Thorne
These new essays comprise the first collective study of Lucan and his epic poem that focuses spec... more These new essays comprise the first collective study of Lucan and his epic poem that focuses specifically on points of contact between his text and the cultural, literary, and historical environments in which he lived and wrote. The Bellum Civile, Lucan's poetic narrative of the monumental civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey Magnus, explores the violent foundations of the Roman principate and the Julio-Claudian dynasty. The poem, composed more than a century later during the reign of Nero, thus recalls the past while being very much a product of its time. This volume offers innovative readings that seek to interpret Lucan's epic in terms of the contemporary politics, philosophy, literature, rhetoric, geography, and cultural memory of the author's lifetime. In doing so, these studies illuminate how approaching Lucan and his text in light of their contemporary environments enriches our understanding of author, text, and context individually and in conversation with each other.
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by Annemarie Ambühl, Pietro Verzina, Ayelet Peer, Mark Thorne, Rebekka Schirner, Manuel Mackasare, Marian W Makins, Anke Walter, Christian Rollinger, Martin Dinter, Filippo Carlà-Uhink, and Christine Walde This special issue of thersites (edited by Annemarie Ambühl) addresses artistic representations o... more This special issue of thersites (edited by Annemarie Ambühl) addresses artistic representations of war in literature and other media, focusing especially on the role of sensory perceptions and emotions as well as on gender issues. In line with the transcultural and diachronic outlook of thersites, issues of reception are approached either by applying modern theories and methods to the interpretation of classical texts or by comparing and contrasting ancient and modern responses to war and violence and their impact on human beings and society in general. The issue features contributions that range from Homer to postmodern novels and movies, as well as reviews of thematically related recent publications. Within this wide horizon two thematic clusters emerge: One group of papers studies the narratological, aesthetic and psychological dimensions of (fictional) descriptions of battles and other forms of violence in Latin literature, especially in Caesar’s war commentaries and the epics of Lucan, Valerius Flaccus and Statius, while another group of papers looks at novels that directly or indirectly reflect on experiences from both World Wars and the recent wars in Iraq through a complex engagement with classical narratives and concepts derived from classical antiquity.
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Papers by Mark Thorne
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Book Reviews by Mark Thorne
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Dissertation by Mark Thorne
This dissertation provides a new examination of the figure of Cato within Lucan’s epic poem Bellu... more This dissertation provides a new examination of the figure of Cato within Lucan’s epic poem Bellum Civile by focusing on the theme of memory within the epic and its interaction with Cato’s character specifically. It argues that one may read the epic as possessing the rhetorical function of a literary funeral monumentum, the purpose of which is to retell the death of Rome in the Roman Civil War, mourn its passing, and yet in so doing simultaneously preserve its memory so that future generations may remember the liberty Rome once possessed and may be influenced by that memory to action. In this reading, the epic itself—like Cato within the epic—offers a counter-memory of what the civil wars meant to Rome in competition with that promoted by Caesar and his descendants.
The study centers upon the speech of Cato found in Book 2 in which Cato states his two major goals for participation in the civil war: successfully commemorate a perishing Roma et Libertas and transform his own defeat into a self-sacrifice that is beneficial to his fellow Romans. The opening chapters place Cato’s speech into its larger context by arguing that it is an integral part of a narrative arc spanning most of the first two books. The image of national suicide within the epic’s proem reveals that gaining victory in civil war is what assures self-defeat. This economy of universal defeat pervades Lucan’s epic and stands as the greatest threat facing Cato in the successful achievement of his goals. Lucan also shows that the very nature of civil war poses a threat to the viability of memory, as evidenced by scenes in which Roman soldiers and citizens forget and abandon the social ties that bind their identity to that of Rome.
Cato’s speech illustrates that his chosen weapon against the epic’s economy of defeat will be the power of memory. A careful analysis of the speech reveals that Cato’s desired goal of enacting a self-sacrifice—a nod to his future suicidal martyrdom at Utica—can transform him into a monumentum of ‘Old Rome’ (the pre-Caesarian Rome that still retained its libertas) which will in turn ensure his second goal of achieving funeral commemoration of what Rome used to be—and could still be again. The closing chapter examines key passages in Book 9 in which the power of memory is explicitly connected with renewal even in the midst of defeat, suggesting that Cato’s (and the epic’s) mission to preserve memory can be ultimately successful. This reading of Lucan’s Cato has the benefit of showing that his success need no longer be based mainly upon whether or not he can be a virtuous sapiens but also upon what he can actually do for future generations of Romans by preserving the powerful memory of a Rome that still possessed her freedom from the Caesars.
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Conference Presentations by Mark Thorne
By considering not only the texts from the Augustan period that specifically mention Cato the You... more By considering not only the texts from the Augustan period that specifically mention Cato the Younger but also the wider memory environments of ancient Rome that helped shape his journey into becoming a full-fledged site of exemplarity, we may better understand the flexible and complex nature of his ongoing appeal during the period after Augustus’ victory at Actium. In particular, Cato is continually recalled in close connection with Caesar. This fact sheds needed light on Cato’s notable association with the vocabulary of victory and defeat: he is the defeated foe (victus) of Caesar who in Roman memory continues to triumph (victor) over Fortune—as well as any attempt by the Caesarian victors to control his memory. The survivors of the Roman civil wars found in Cato an especially useful figure who could function as a kind of ‘memorial workshop’ for coming to grips with the cataclysmic defeat of the Republic and its victorious ‘restoration’ under Augustus.
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This was a co-presentation with my Advanced Latin undergraduate students at the Illinois Classica... more This was a co-presentation with my Advanced Latin undergraduate students at the Illinois Classical Conference. It came out of our class on Latin and Translation Theory using primarily modern works of fantasy or children's literature that had been translated into Latin, an approach that gave us the advantage of knowing intimately the source language. The students took the lead in sharing their discoveries about translation theory via the medium of Latin translating, and I was very proud of them.
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Articles/Chapters by Mark Thorne
ABSTRACT (German) Lucans Bellum Civile lässt sich als ein Epos im Modus von Traumaliteratur lesen, d.h. als ein literarisches Werk, das anschaulich ein grauenvolles Geschehen wiederzugeben sucht, welches sich der Darstellung geradezu verweigert. Zu diesem Zweck unternimmt der vorliegende Beitrag aus der Perspektive der modernen Traumaforschung eine komparatistische Lektüre von Lucans Epos Seite an Seite mit einer Auswahl aus zwei literarischen Verarbeitungen des im Jahr 1994 in Ruanda verübten Genozids. Durch einen Vergleich des antiken und der modernen Texte lässt sich bessere Einsicht in einige der gemeinsamen rhetorischen und narrativen Strategien gewinnen, welche diese Autoren in ganz unterschiedlichen Zeiten angewendet haben. Angesichts eines nachhaltigen Traumas heben diese antiken wie auch modernen Strategien einerseits die Sprachlosigkeit hervor (nefas und drohendes Verstummen), sprechen jedoch andererseits die Rezipienten direkt an und beziehen sie durch visuelle und auditive Sinneswahrnehmungen und Emotionen in den Raum des Traumas mit ein. Der römische Dichter Lucan sucht seine Leser wie seine modernen Schrift-stellerkollegen zu einer eindringlichen Begegnung mit der tieferen traumatischen Realität dieser Konflikte zu bringen, so dass sie dank dieser Zeugen und Mitwisser nicht mehr ignoriert werden können.
Books by Mark Thorne
Papers by Mark Thorne
Book Reviews by Mark Thorne
Dissertation by Mark Thorne
The study centers upon the speech of Cato found in Book 2 in which Cato states his two major goals for participation in the civil war: successfully commemorate a perishing Roma et Libertas and transform his own defeat into a self-sacrifice that is beneficial to his fellow Romans. The opening chapters place Cato’s speech into its larger context by arguing that it is an integral part of a narrative arc spanning most of the first two books. The image of national suicide within the epic’s proem reveals that gaining victory in civil war is what assures self-defeat. This economy of universal defeat pervades Lucan’s epic and stands as the greatest threat facing Cato in the successful achievement of his goals. Lucan also shows that the very nature of civil war poses a threat to the viability of memory, as evidenced by scenes in which Roman soldiers and citizens forget and abandon the social ties that bind their identity to that of Rome.
Cato’s speech illustrates that his chosen weapon against the epic’s economy of defeat will be the power of memory. A careful analysis of the speech reveals that Cato’s desired goal of enacting a self-sacrifice—a nod to his future suicidal martyrdom at Utica—can transform him into a monumentum of ‘Old Rome’ (the pre-Caesarian Rome that still retained its libertas) which will in turn ensure his second goal of achieving funeral commemoration of what Rome used to be—and could still be again. The closing chapter examines key passages in Book 9 in which the power of memory is explicitly connected with renewal even in the midst of defeat, suggesting that Cato’s (and the epic’s) mission to preserve memory can be ultimately successful. This reading of Lucan’s Cato has the benefit of showing that his success need no longer be based mainly upon whether or not he can be a virtuous sapiens but also upon what he can actually do for future generations of Romans by preserving the powerful memory of a Rome that still possessed her freedom from the Caesars.
Conference Presentations by Mark Thorne
ABSTRACT (German) Lucans Bellum Civile lässt sich als ein Epos im Modus von Traumaliteratur lesen, d.h. als ein literarisches Werk, das anschaulich ein grauenvolles Geschehen wiederzugeben sucht, welches sich der Darstellung geradezu verweigert. Zu diesem Zweck unternimmt der vorliegende Beitrag aus der Perspektive der modernen Traumaforschung eine komparatistische Lektüre von Lucans Epos Seite an Seite mit einer Auswahl aus zwei literarischen Verarbeitungen des im Jahr 1994 in Ruanda verübten Genozids. Durch einen Vergleich des antiken und der modernen Texte lässt sich bessere Einsicht in einige der gemeinsamen rhetorischen und narrativen Strategien gewinnen, welche diese Autoren in ganz unterschiedlichen Zeiten angewendet haben. Angesichts eines nachhaltigen Traumas heben diese antiken wie auch modernen Strategien einerseits die Sprachlosigkeit hervor (nefas und drohendes Verstummen), sprechen jedoch andererseits die Rezipienten direkt an und beziehen sie durch visuelle und auditive Sinneswahrnehmungen und Emotionen in den Raum des Traumas mit ein. Der römische Dichter Lucan sucht seine Leser wie seine modernen Schrift-stellerkollegen zu einer eindringlichen Begegnung mit der tieferen traumatischen Realität dieser Konflikte zu bringen, so dass sie dank dieser Zeugen und Mitwisser nicht mehr ignoriert werden können.
The study centers upon the speech of Cato found in Book 2 in which Cato states his two major goals for participation in the civil war: successfully commemorate a perishing Roma et Libertas and transform his own defeat into a self-sacrifice that is beneficial to his fellow Romans. The opening chapters place Cato’s speech into its larger context by arguing that it is an integral part of a narrative arc spanning most of the first two books. The image of national suicide within the epic’s proem reveals that gaining victory in civil war is what assures self-defeat. This economy of universal defeat pervades Lucan’s epic and stands as the greatest threat facing Cato in the successful achievement of his goals. Lucan also shows that the very nature of civil war poses a threat to the viability of memory, as evidenced by scenes in which Roman soldiers and citizens forget and abandon the social ties that bind their identity to that of Rome.
Cato’s speech illustrates that his chosen weapon against the epic’s economy of defeat will be the power of memory. A careful analysis of the speech reveals that Cato’s desired goal of enacting a self-sacrifice—a nod to his future suicidal martyrdom at Utica—can transform him into a monumentum of ‘Old Rome’ (the pre-Caesarian Rome that still retained its libertas) which will in turn ensure his second goal of achieving funeral commemoration of what Rome used to be—and could still be again. The closing chapter examines key passages in Book 9 in which the power of memory is explicitly connected with renewal even in the midst of defeat, suggesting that Cato’s (and the epic’s) mission to preserve memory can be ultimately successful. This reading of Lucan’s Cato has the benefit of showing that his success need no longer be based mainly upon whether or not he can be a virtuous sapiens but also upon what he can actually do for future generations of Romans by preserving the powerful memory of a Rome that still possessed her freedom from the Caesars.