Caesar’s Comet, the Julian Star, and the Invention of Augustus
Octavian is credited with turning a comet seen in 44 b.c.e.  into a symbol of Julius Caesar’s divinity and using it to advance his own political aims. Yet historical evidence argues against this account. Moreover, representations of the sidus Iulium (Julian star) on coins and in poetry adopt diverse and autonomous perspectives on the princeps. The idea that Augustus circulated the sidus as part of an image campaign seems instead to originate with Ovid, whose deification narrative at Metamorphoses 15.745–851 retrojected the princeps ’s mature power onto his early career and fueled the belief that Augustus gained and maintained power through propaganda.
The Poetics of Power in Augustan Rome
materiality in the Tristia to which F. draws attention; indeed, Ovid’s claim in Tr. 3.3 that his libelli will provide him with a greater memorial than the inscription he claims to want makes an important point about the power of poetry to immortalise alongside that of the epigraphic habit, which was rife in Rome and to which Ovid points, as F. shows, in Tr. 3.1. That being said, this is not the first time that Ovid has used epigraphic gestures in his work, and the omission of discussion of the idiosyncratic use of (mostly epitaphic) inscriptions by all of the elegists and of the concern with materiality that this intermediality signals is conspicuous. Important discussions of elegiac engagement with inscriptionality not cited include those of M. Dinter, L. Houghton and A. Bettenworth. This is an engagingly written and thought-provoking volume that usefully brings together a wide range of interesting literary and physical material on specific topics, even if it is a little uneven and there are a handful of surprising omissions.
The bradykinin B1 receptor and the central regulation of blood pressure in spontaneously hypertensive rats
We evaluated if the brain bradykinin (BK) B1 receptor is involved in the regulation of blood pressure (BP) in conscious rats. Basal mean BP and HR were 115±2 and 165±3 mmHg and 345±10 and 410±14 beats min−1 in Wistar Kyoto (WKY) and spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR), respectively. Intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) injection of 1 nmol B1 receptor agonist Lys‐desArg9‐BK significantly increased the BP of WKY and SHR by 7±1 and 19±2 mmHg, respectively. One nmol Sar[D‐Phe8]‐desArg9‐BK, a kininase‐resistant B1 agonist, increased the BP of WKY and SHR by 19±2 and 17±2 mmHg, respectively and reduced HR in both strains. I.c.v. injection of 0.01 nmol B1 antagonists, LysLeu8‐desArg9‐BK or AcLys[D‐βNal7,Ile8]‐desArg9‐BK (R715), significantly decreased mean BP in SHR (by 9±2 mmHg the former and 14±3 mmHg the latter compound), but not in WKY. In SHR, the BP response to R715 was associated to tachycardia. I.c.v. Captopril, a kininase inhibitor, increased the BP of SHR, this response being partially prevented by i.c.v. R715 and reversed into a vasodepressor effect by R715 in combination with the B2 antagonist Icatibant. I.c.v. antisense oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) targeted to the B1 receptor mRNA decreased BP in SHR, but not in WKY. HR was not altered in either strain. Distribution of fluorescein‐conjugated ODNs was detected in brain areas surrounding cerebral ventricles. Our results indicate that the brain B1 receptor participates in the regulation of BP. Activation of the B1 receptor by kinin metabolites could participate in the pathogenesis of hypertension in SHR.