Blog Archive

Search This Blog

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

‘THE LAWS OF THE RITES AND OF THE PRIESTS’: VARRO AND LATE REPUBLICAN ROMAN SACRAL JURISPRUDENCE

Abstract:

Starting from Cicero's famous panegyric on Varro's Antiquitates and attempting to look past the image of the book provided by Augustine, this article proposes a new reading of that work and its place in late Republican intellectual culture. Cicero's specific claim that Varro opened up 'the laws of the rites and of the priests' for his readers allows us to contextualize the Antiquitates within a contemporary jurisprudence. The rise of Roman legal studies in general in the first century bc extended to the laws of the priestly colleges: there are signs of lively debate over their nature and the production of texts on the details of these iura. By re-reading the fragments from the Antiquitates alongside the evidence for this sacral-legal turn, we can gain both a new appreciation for the place of law (ius) in Varro's textualization of Roman religion and a fuller understanding of Republican legal thinking.



from # All Medicine by Alexandros G. Sfakianakis via alkiviadis.1961 on Inoreader http://ift.tt/2BhSR8U

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Blog Archive

Pages

   International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health IJERPH, Vol. 17, Pages 6976: Overcoming Barriers to Agriculture Green T...