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Lunar/Solar Year 1. A calendar presents a system for ordering time by dividing a unit, the year, into a framework whose smallest components are days. This system coordinates a society's social, economic, and religious activities. Objectification and communication are served through ‘natural’ rhythms, impressive meteorological phenomena (seasons), the world of plants and animals, and, frequently, the phases of the visibility of the moon (‘lunation,’ ‘month’). A year built by lunar months (12 × 29.5…

War as a Social Institution 1. Definition: War is an organized carrying out of a → conflict between or among groups equipped with deadly weapons. Unlike the individual exercise of violence, war is therefore a societal institution that permits, indeed legally prescribes, the killing of other persons. Depending on the respective degree of organization and complexity of the societies involved, the profile of war can differ greatly. War presupposes the existence of at least a rudimentary military force an…

A.AllgemeinItalien, Sizilien und Malta bilden mit Tunesien eine zentrale Kette durch das Mittelmeer, die dieses weniger teilt als vielmehr zu unterschiedlichen Zeiten als Brücke diente. Der Alpenbogen im N war vielfach durchlässig und kanalisierte kulturellen und ökonomischen Austausch eher als ihn zu behindern. Die schmale Adria machte länger anhaltende Kontakte zwischen Italien und der Balkanhalbinsel im 3./2. Jt. nicht unmöglich [66181]; [63]; [2]. Gleichzeitig ist festzuhalten, dass sich Italiens Ostküste im Hinblick auf Häfen und Küstenseefahrt als w…

Eine zeitliche Periodizität von typischerweise 4-10 Tagen, die mit besonderen öffentlichen Aktivitäten (rel., polit., wirtschaftlichen) verbunden war, häufig in Form von Markttagen ( nundinae ) [1]. [English version] I. Typen In der Ant. tritt die W. in zwei unterschiedlichen Formen auf: (1) Der der mod. W. entsprechende Typus mit einer feststehenden Länge, die die Monatsgrenzen ignoriert, hat sich erst allmählich durchgesetzt, und zwar zunächst in Form der auf dem Sabbat aufbauenden und verm. seit der Zeit des jüd. Exils (5…

[English version] [1] C. Maternus Redner und Komödiendichter Röm. Redner und Tragödiendichter, der allein aus Tacitus' Dialogus bekannt ist, in dem er als Gastgeber am Tag nach der Rezitation seiner Trag. Cato auftritt. Weiterhin werden ihm von Tacitus (dial. 2 f.; 9-11) die Trag. Thyestes, Medea, Domitius (3,4) sowie wohl ein Agamemnon (9,2) zugerechnet. Während Tacitus (etwa 76 n. Chr.) den Gegensatz von Dichtung über große Männer und eingeschränkter öffentlicher Rede in C. als Dichter personalisiert, berichtet Cass. Dio 67,12,5 über die Hinr…

The concept of the holy war is customarily associated with the thought of a war whose basis or justification is religious in a special way. The connection between ‘holy war’ and ‘holy struggle’ was coined by poets of the time of the wars of liberation against Napoleon, especially Ernst Moritz Arndt (1769–1860). The fact that, after the Enlightenment and the Revolution of 1789, war is presented as holy, rests not on the fact that it was (only) then that the church appealed to war, but on the fact that…

A Primary Category 1. Like space, time belongs to the primary categories of human perception and human construction of the world. There is no priority between the two. Time is repeatedly described in metaphors of space (length of time, axis of time), concrete space, at the same time by movements, and therefore by time (three-day trip, or three light-years away). Time appears as a fixed property of the world—unchangeable, encompassing, and subjecting everything to temporalization. Acts and events ca…

1. a) The concept of religious specialist can denote the results of a permanent division of labor within a religion. The individual members of a religious → group possess distinct competencies when it comes to practicing religion and its acts. In many religions, those who lead religious acts are those who occupy a leading position of honor and power, such as the chiefs of an enterprise, or of the state. But religious specialists can be spoken of meaningfully only where a specific competency in r…

A. Introduction [German source] Italy, Sicily, Malta and Tunisia form a central chain through the Mediterranean that, rather than dividing it, has served it as a bridge at various phases. The Alpine arc to the north was permeable in many respects, channelling rather than hindering cultural and economic exchange. The narrow Adriatic did not render lasting contact between Italy and the Balkans impossible in the 3rd and 2nd millennia [66181]; [63]; [2], but it must be said that the eastern coast of Italy was less than attractive in terms of harbours and coastal navigation [75173].The main …

[German Version] The interpretation of Rome’s history and present role during the Augustan period found expression in the ludi saeculares. In a mixture of conceptions of time that is no longer perspicuous (including the Etruscan theory of a defined series of saecula; discussed at length by Censorinus, De die natali, 17), the beginning of a new, golden age was celebrated in the year 17 bce, conceived as the fifth recurrence of the centennials of the city of Rome. Whether earlier celebrations of the ludi Tarentini (named for their location on the Campus Martius), for example in 249 bce, had t…

[German Version] In 354 ce, the calligrapher Furius Dionysius Philocalus made a codex (extant only in copies) that contained the Roman calendar (Fasti; the only known 4th-cent. example), in addition to chronographical works, lists of consuls, bishops, and martyrs. The codex was a gift for the Roman Christian aristocrat Valentinus. The calendar contains a presumably current compilation of the emperor’s festivals, and dates for the cults of Cybele and Isis, but nothing from the calendar of Christian festivals. Jörg Rüpke Bibliography T. Mommsen, Chronographus Anni CCCLIV, MGH.AA 9…

[German Version] (Sep 21, 1868, Emden – Jul 13, 1941, Zürich), Latinist. Norden was professor of classical philology in Greifswald from 1895 to 1899, in Breslau from 1899 to 1906, and in Berlin from 1906 to his retirement in 1935. Because of his Jewish background, he was removed from the board of directors of the German Archaeological Institute, and in 1938 he was forced to resign from the Prussian Academy of Sciences. In 1939 he emigrated to Switzerland. Although all Norden’s extensive oeuvre was…

[German Version] (Jun 17, 1859, Breslau [Wrocław] – May 11, 1931, Halle an der Saale), Latinist and historian of religion. Wissowa was an associate professor at Marburg from 1886 to 1890 and a full professor from 1890 to 1895. From 1895 to 1923 he was a professor at Halle. Two strokes in June of 1923 ended his scholarly career and marked the beginning of a long mental and physical decline. Wissowa’s influence rests primarily on his studies of Roman religion. His compendium Religion und Kultus der Römer (1902, 21912) constituted the foundation for the study of Roman religion through…

[English Version] Norden, Eduard (21.9.1868 Emden – 13.7.1941 Zürich), Latinist. 1895–1899 Prof. für Klassische Philol. in Greifswald, 1899–1906 in Breslau, seit 1906 in Berlin, 1935 emeritiert und aufgrund seiner jüd. Herkunft kurz zuvor aus der Zentraldirektion des Dt. Archäologischen Institutes entfernt, 1938 Zwangsaustritt aus der Preußischen Akademie der Wiss., 1939 Emigration in die Schweiz. N.s umfangreiches wiss. Oeuvre ist, obschon durchgängig den traditionellen Methoden verpflichtet, durc…

[English Version] , Georg (17.6.1859 Breslau – 11.5.1931 Halle/Saale), Latinist und Religionshistoriker. 1886–1890 ao., 1890–1895 o. Prof. in Marburg; 1895–1923 in Halle. Zwei dicht aufeinander folgende Schlaganfälle im Juni 1923 beendeten die wiss. Tätigkeit und leiteten einen langen geistigen und körperlichen Verfall ein. W.s Wirkung beruht v.a. auf seinen Arbeiten zur röm. Rel. Sein Handbuch (Rel. und Kultus der Römer, 1902, 21912) bildete für das gesamte 20.Jh. die Forschungsgrundlage; gemeinsam mit seinen Art. in der PRE (z.B. Consecratio, Dedicat…

[English Version] . Die röm. Geschichts- und Gegenwartsdeutung des Augusteischen Zeitalters fand ihren Ausdruck in ludi saeculares. In einer nicht mehr durchsichtigen Mischung verschiedener Zeitkonzeptionen (darunter auch der etruskischen Lehre einer begrenzten Folge von saecula; umfassend Censorin, De die natali, 17) wurde der Beginn eines neuen, goldenen Zeitalters i.J. 17 v.Chr. gefeiert und als fünfte Wiederkehr der 100-Jahr-Feier der Stadt Rom konzipiert. Ob frühere Durchführungen der (nach i…

[German version] Rhetor in the Augustan period; came from Asia (Sen. Controv. 9,6,16). In the twenties BC, at the latest, he probably taught in Rome, more often in Greek than in Latin (Sen. Suas. 4,5). Amongst his outstanding students were  Papirius Fabianus (who later turned away again from F.'s style) and Ovid; close contact with the imperial house is shown by F.'s homage to Maecenas (through the frequent quoting of Vergil's verses, Sen. Suas. 3,5) and probably also by the fact that Seneca menti…

[German version] Female critic of sexual moral hypocrisy in Juv. 2,36-65; if this is meant to be a historical person (thus [2]), she could be identical with the L. characterized as a rich widow in Mart. 2,32,5f. (also not definitely historical). Rüpke, Jörg (Erfurt) Bibliography 1 PIR2 L 113 2 S. Morton Braund, Juvenal. Satires Book 1, 1996, 129.

[German version] (etymology ‘nine days’), Roman name for the market days or markets taking place every eight days (i.e. every ninth day), and thus also forming a kind of public and private measure of time. Market (II.B.); Week Rüpke, Jörg (Erfurt)

Chronological periodicity, typically 4-10 days, linked with particular public activities (religious, political, commercial), often in the form of market days ( nundinae ) [1]. [German version] I. Types Two different forms of 'week' were known in antiquity. (1) The type corresponding to the modern week, of fixed length and ignoring the monthly calendar, only took hold gradually, at first in the form of the seven-day week ( h ebdomas), based on the Sabbath and probably regular from the time of the Jewish exile (587-539 BC), and the eight-day week ( o gdoas) of the Romans ( nundinum), also d…