The Wolf and the Hare: Boudica's Political Bodies in Tacitus and Dio
This article analyzes how Tacitus and Dio use the concept of exemplarity in their narratives of Boudica’s revolt in order to present the queen as a complex model of female leadership. Tacitus’ Boudica assimilates herself to positive Roman models from Livy; Dio’s Boudica separates herself from Herodotean anti-models, as well as from the imperial women of Rome. In her condemnation of Nero, Dio’s Boudica criticizes the populace for succumbing to the influence of a negative model of leadership. Exempla contribute to each author’s characterization of Boudica; a comparative reading reveals significant differences in each author’s position on the efficacy of exempla in historiography.
Accounts of Northern Barbarians in Tacitus' Annales: A Contextual Analysis
The Roman historian Tacitus is not only our most important source for the Early Roman Empire, but also a literary artist second to none. His fragmentarily preserved Annales deals with the imperial rule established by the first emperor Augustus, the Julio-Claudian dynasty (AD 14 – 68). Through his scathing analyses of the consequences of autocratic government, Tacitus has established himself as an eternal enemy of tyrants. However, while Tacitus’ gaze is at times firmly set on Rome, the senate, and the imperial palace, his explorations of the possibilities of freedom and glory, valour and remembrance, bring him from the Italian peninsula in the West to the desert tribes of the South, from the age-old monarchies of the East to the wild nations of the frozen North. Indeed, extended passages of the work deal with events on and beyond the borders of the Empire. This study examines key themes of the Annales through analysis of its accounts of northern barbarians, that is, how they are connected to the structure of the books in which they appear and of the Annales as a whole. It is argued throughout that accounts of northern barbarians form a key part of Tacitus’ narrative of the Julio-Claudian dynasty: they allow Tacitus to explore alternative historical paths, reflect on the efficacy of past models of behaviour in a changed world, discuss sensitive political topics without attracting the ire and censorship of an autocratic regime, and play with key moments of the Roman past within a fertile interpretive framework. (Less)
Italian Influence on the Development of Calvinist Scholasticism
THIS ARTICLE TRIES to show that the rise of Calvinist scholasticism, which was the most important development in Calvinist theology during the second half of the sixteenth century, stemmed largely from several converging Italian influences, particularly from the writings of Peter Martyr Vermigli and Jerome Zanchi. Here Calvinist theology refers not only to the personal thought of John Calvin but also to the teachings of the founders of the Reformed or Calvinist tradition as it spread out from Geneva and Switzerland to France, Germany, England, Scotland, Poland, and the Low Countries. In this context Calvin emerges as the brightest star in a galaxy of Reformed theologians which includes Heinrich Bullinger, Pierre Viret, Theodore Beza and Wolfgang Musculus as well as Martyr, Zanchi and others. These theologians were often more influential than Calvin himself at a given place or time or on a given point of doctrine. Bullinger, Martyr, and Martin Bucer were all more important for spreading Calvinist ideas to Edwardian England than was John Calvin. Early Elizabethan Protestantism looked more to Zurich than to Geneva, as did early Polish Calvinism. German Calvinism owed more to Heidelberg than to Geneva.' These leaders developed their theologies sometimes in mutual dependence, sometimes with surprising independence. By no means was their relation to Calvin simply that of disciple to master, for each gave a personal nuance to his style of Calvinism. Thus the sixteenth century Jesuit Cornelius Schulting states on the opening page of his five volume polemic against Calvin and Peter Martyr that Martyr was clearer and far more learned than Calvin.2 Recently John Bray has pointed out that research in seventeenth century Calvinism leads "to the conclusion that the impact of Calvin upon the Calvinistic movement has been greatly over-rated. It may well be that some of