Nasica and fides

Classical Quarterly

Volumn 57, Issue 1, 2007, Pages 125-131

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EID: 51249151723     PISSN: 00098388     EISSN: 14716844     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0009838807000110     Document Type: Article

References (13)

1. A. E. Astin, Scipio Aemilianus (Oxford, 1967), 224
2. For the location of the shrine of 'Numa', see G. Freyburger, Fides: étude sémantique et réligieuse depuis les origines jusqu' à l'époque augustéenne (Paris, 1986), 263-5 and further n. 17 below. The temple still existed in Livy's day, and I infer continuity of the ritual attributed by Livy to 'Numa'
3. J. Linderski, 'The pontiff and the tribune: the death of Tiberius Gracchus', Athenaeum 90 (2002), 339-66
4. with full bibliography, to which now add C. Binot, 'Le rôle de Scipion Nasica Sérapion dans la crise gracquienne, une relecture', Pallas 57 (2001), 185-203
5. These words have been variously translated 'by the strangeness of his appearance', or 'by displaying the badge of his rank' or 'of his costume': the differences affect the interpretation of Appian's explanation. For discussion and defence of the last of these, see M. N. Tod, 'Three Notes on Appian', CQ 18 (1924), 99-104, section 1, highlighting the connection with Nasica being pontifex maximus
6. D. C. Earl, Tiberius Gracchus: A Study in Politics (Brussels, 1963), 118
7. R. Fiori, Homo Sacer dinamica politico-costitutzionale di una sanzione giuridico-religiosa (Naples, 1996), 407-24, provides a clear exposition, particularly of the light such an explanation sheds on the actions of Scaevola, but (421) dismisses Nasica's gesture as relatively unimportant. Linderski (n. 3) makes it integral and vital, a very deliberate signal of Nasica's intent
8. P. Fraccaro, Studi sull'età dei Gracchi (Pavia, 1913), 175
9. A. H. Bernstein, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus: Tradition and Apostasy (Ithaca, 1978), 223, fails even to note the alternative gesture, claiming that Nasica's followers also draped their togas over their heads, which is suggested in none of the extant accounts
10. For a, see C. Kempf in the apparatus criticus of his 1888 Teubner edition of Valerius. The conjecture is accepted by J. Briscoe in his 1998 Teubner edition of Valerius
11. J. Hellegouarc'h, Histoire roinaine: Velleius Paterculus (Paris, 1982) and M. Elefante, Velleius Paterculus ad M. Vinicium consulem libri duo (Zürich-New York, 1997), both at 2.3. Valerius Maximus is not yet well served by commentators, at least as far as Book 3 is concerned
12. The starting-point of the flamines' journey is unfortunately not stated. Boyancé's argument (P. Boyancé, 'Fides et le serment' and 'Fides romana et la vie internationale', both in id., Études sur la religion romaine [Paris, 1972], 91-103, at 91 and 105-19, at 114, n. 4), based upon the flamines' making a carriage journey, that the early shrine to FIDES was 'some distance from royal Rome and apparently accepted by F. Marco Simón, Flamen Dialis: el sacerdote de Júpiter en la religión romana (Madrid, 1996), 176, is rightly contested by Freyburger (n. 2), 264, by reference to e.g. the triumph. Livy's reference is to the three major flamines, the flamen dialis of course being Jupiter's
13. Reversals are an important element of Roman customs associated with death; see Linderski (n. 3), 363 and n. 98, and J. Scheid, 'Contraria facere: renversements et déplacements dans les rites funéraires', AION, Sezione di Archeologia e Storia Antica, 6 (1984), 117-39