Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Caterina Mordeglia (ed.), Animali parlanti: letteratura, teatro, canzoni. Micrologus library, 82. Firenze: Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2017. Pp. xvi, 265; 32 p. of plates. ISBN 9788884508041. €54,00 (pb).

Reviewed by Sara Tosetti, Università di Trento​ (tsaryt@hotmail.it)

Version at BMCR home site

[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review.]

Il volume è il risultato del convegno internazionale "Animali parlanti. Letteratura, teatro, canzone", che si è svolto a Trento il 5 e 6 aprile 2016. Il testo in esame contiene i contributi proposti durante l'evento, redatti in italiano, tedesco, spagnolo e francese, più alcuni inediti. Il filo conduttore che lega tutti i saggi è esplicitato nell'Introduzione (xiii) e consiste nel "rapporto cruciale e variegato tra uomo e animale che si è sviluppato attraverso i secoli nelle più diverse manifestazioni storico-culturali e letterarie". Nella Premessa (ix-xi), Agostino Paravicini Bagliani illustra il carattere interdisciplinare del convegno e del volume che ne è risultato, sottolineando l'importanza di uno sguardo complessivo (letterario, teatrale e musicale) sul tema trattato. L'originalità del testo consiste dunque nell'aver raccolto studi provenienti da ambiti diversi per spiegare la relazione che lega gli esseri umani agli animali. Seppur ambizioso, l'obiettivo prefissato viene raggiunto attraverso un'ampia panoramica che spazia dalla letteratura antica e medievale alle moderne canzoni pop e rock italiane e straniere. Sono presi in esame anche testi dei Padri della Chiesa e alcuni passi di autori italiani (da Dante e Petrarca a Pascoli e Calvino), oltre a brani teatrali di Shakespeare, pezzi di Richard Wagner e rappresentazioni iconografiche zoomorfe. Nel complesso, il volume mantiene una struttura eterogenea, se si considera che la maggior parte dei contributi affronta temi letterari mentre solo alcuni saggi indagano il rapporto uomo-animale in ambito musicale, teatrale e iconografico.

I diciassette contributi che costituiscono il volume sono organizzati come case studies, rassegna di testimonianze e riflessioni letterarie. Come sostegno all'argomentazione, lo studio approfondito dei documenti caratterizza quasi tutti i saggi in questione. Alla fine di ogni saggio sono collocati un breve abstract in inglese e la bibliografia di riferimento.

Lo spazio contenuto di questa recensione non permette di prendere in esame singolarmente tutti i contributi e di analizzarne i punti di forza e gli elementi di criticità. Mi limiterò quindi a trattare soltanto alcuni testi particolarmente interessanti, originali o problematici.

Tre saggi si occupano del valore simbolico-politico degli animali in opere e contesti storici molto diversi tra loro. In tutti e tre i contributi vi è identificazione tra l'uomo politico e un animale che ne incarna i comportamenti, ma solo in uno di questi testi gli animali hanno anche la facoltà di parola. Nel primo saggio (3-11), Ivano Dionigi ricerca le similitudini tra uomo politico e animale utilizzate nella letteratura greca e latina. Ne emerge che il leader politico è spesso paragonato ad un animale selvaggio, mentre il popolo ad uno gregario e che, in entrambi i casi, l'animale-simbolo può alludere ad un aspetto positivo o negativo del carattere dell'uomo che rappresenta. La parte finale del saggio è dedicata ad una breve riflessione sulla concezione antropocentrica e anti-antropocentrica nell'antichità, con la quale l'autore tenta di capire se l'uomo sia davvero un "animale politico" e se, al contrario, gli animali siano àloga.

Il secondo saggio, elaborato da Roberto De Pol (103-119), è dedicato al valore simbolico degli animali raffigurati in due edizioni olandesi del frontespizio del Principe di Machiavelli. Nella tesi dell'autore, gli animali assumono differenti significati politici a seconda del destinatario della traduzione. Così, il frontespizio del 1699, dedicato a Luigi duca di Borgogna (1682-1712), mescola lupi (aristocrazia) e pecore (Terzo Stato), nel tentativo di ribadire la sudditanza di entrambi all'autorità. Al contrario, il frontespizio del 1705, dedicato alla repubblica delle Province Unite, distingue a sinistra i lupi e a destra le pecore, simbolo dei borghesi, invertendo l'importanza tradizionalmente attribuita ai due ceti. Tale innovazione nel secondo frontespizio si spiega considerando il potere della classe produttiva in un regime repubblicano. La ricerca è condotta con ordine e attenzione, anche se l'autore non indaga o esplicita il motivo per cui gli editori scelsero i lupi e le pecore come simbolo politico.

Nel terzo contributo (133-154), Alessandra Di Ricco espone l'argomento de Gli animali parlanti di Giovan Battista Casti (1724-1803), un poema eroicomico che riflette sull'Illuminismo e sulla Rivoluzione francese. Qui gli animali sono veri protagonisti e non fungono soltanto da metafora o simbolo come nei due testi precedenti: essi partecipano agli eventi storici e hanno facoltà di parola. Si tratta quindi di animali parlanti in senso letterale. Convocati ad un congresso di pace, la Volpe (simbolo dei realisti), il Cane (i ribelli repubblicani) e il Cavallo (il pensiero dell'autore) non riusciranno a pervenire ad una decisione che metta in primo luogo il bene dello Stato. Sarà infine una catastrofe naturale a sommergere l'isola sede del congresso e a mettere fine all'età in cui gli animali ebbero la possibilità di parlare ma non furono in grado di usarla a fini politici.

Un saggio di struttura differente ma dalla conclusione estremamente interessante è quello proposto da Paolo Fedeli (13-23), nel quale viene esaminata la celeberrima favola del topo di campagna e del topo di città nella VI satira del II libro di Orazio. Dopo un'accurata analisi narrativa e contenutistica che mette in evidenza i contesti nei quali si trovano ad operare i due animali, l'autore opera un confronto con il modello esopico e la tradizione favolistica successiva ad Orazio (La Fontaine, Carlo Porta e Trilussa). La conclusione del saggio si apre con un'analisi della lingua e dello stile usato dai due topi oraziani: epico e altisonante quello del topo di città, colloquiale quello del topo di campagna. La predilezione per la vita del topo di campagna che emerge alla fine della favola mostrerebbe, secondo l'autore, non soltanto la situazione contingente vissuta da Orazio (ovvero la donazione di una villa in campagna da parte di Mecenate e la conseguente propensione per la vita campestre) ma anche la momentanea preferenza per uno stile e un genere letterario tenues, quali sono appunto le Satire.

Infine, il saggio di María C. Álvarez e Rosa M. Iglesias (25-41), analizza due passi ovidiani del II e del V libro delle Metamorfosi, nei quali compaiono rispettivamente una cornacchia e delle gazze parlanti. Si tratta di esseri umani trasformati in uccelli dagli dèi a causa delle maldicenze pronunciate. Il contributo contiene l'analisi dei due brani di Ovidio e il confronto con le fonti ellenistiche da cui l'autore prese spunto. Ma è la conclusione a suscitare qualche perplessità. Le autrici ipotizzano infatti che la metamorfosi di Ascalafo nel V libro di Ovidio possa aiutare a chiarire l'identità dell'interlocutore della cornacchia nell'Ecale di Callimaco. Nel racconto del poeta di Sulmona, Ascalafo denunciò l'interruzione del digiuno di Proserpina, condannandola a vivere nell'Oltretomba; per vendicarsi delle sue chiacchiere, la dea lo tramutò allora in un gufo. Attorno a questo animale ruota la domanda conclusiva delle autrici, vale a dire se Ovidio abbia o meno preso spunto da Callimaco per descrivere questa trasformazione. Si tenta quindi di stabilire una relazione tra i due testi, ipotizzando che la cornacchia dell'Ecale stia parlando con una civetta, uccello simile al gufo. Tuttavia questa conclusione, seppur aperta, non tiene conto degli articoli di Adelmo Barigazzi¹ e di Vittorio Bartoletti,² i quali respinsero l'ipotesi di un dialogo tra questi due uccelli a causa della loro tradizionale inimicizia. Difatti, il consiglio premuroso che la cornacchia callimachea impartisce all'interlocutore si spiega soltanto ammettendo una relazione pacifica e benevola tra i parlanti (Barigazzi pensa ad esempio ad una giovane cornacchia).

A conclusione del volume (261-263), oltre ad un indice dei nomi di persona, di opere e di luogo e un indice dei manoscritti, è collocato anche un indice degli animali reali e immaginari menzionati nei vari saggi. Inoltre il testo contiene due sezioni iconografiche con tavole esplicative dei contributi di Paola Pallottino (187-201) e Anna Orlando (203-217). Nel complesso, il volume, che si inserisce all'interno di un progetto di ricerca più ampio del Dipartimento di Lettere e Filosofia dell'Università di Trento ("Animali parlanti. Letteratura, teatro, canzone", di cui Caterina Mordeglia è stata responsabile scientifico), contribuisce all'approfondimento del rapporto storico e contemporaneo tra uomo e animale, fornendo utili spunti di riflessione. Il suo valore scientifico risulta non solo dai contenuti sviluppati e dal rigore con cui sono state condotte le analisi dei testi e delle testimonianze iconografiche ma anche dalla scelta di coinvolgere autori estranei al mondo accademico, come Renato Tortarolo (critico musicale e giornalista), Ivano Fossati (musicista) e Mercedes Martini (attrice e regista). Infatti, i saggi non direttamente legati al mondo degli studi classici pongono problemi e suggeriscono soluzioni che non siamo soliti incontrare in questo genere di pubblicazioni. La prospettiva multidisciplinare trova quindi in questo volume una realizzazione sostanziale.

Indice del volume

Sommario, v
Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, Premessa, ix-xi
Caterina Mordeglia, Introduzione, xiii-xvi
Ivano Dionigi, Animali politici, 3-11
Paolo Fedeli, Superbia e saggezza dei topi, 13-23
María C. Álvarez – Rosa M. Iglesias, Cornejas y urracas. Garrulitas punita, 25-41
Caterina Mordeglia, Animali parlanti nelle favole di Fedro, 43-67
Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, Il pappagallo del papa. "Volatile parlante" e specchio di sovranità, 69-84
Francesco Santi, Uccelli. Santità, seduzione, perversione, 85-102
Roberto De Pol, Das Tier als "politischer Mensch" in den Frontispizen einiger Principe-Übersetzungen, 103-119
Patrick Dandrey, "Au temps que les bêtes parlaient". Perrault conteur de monstres et La Fontaine fabuliste des songes, 121-131
Alessandra di Ricco, Gli animali parlanti di Giovan Battista Casti, 133-154
Guido Paduano, La bestia rivale. Moby Dick e una novella di Maupassant, 155-162
Stefano Bartezzaghi, Parole alate (verba volant). Corvi, gabbiani, pappagalli e altri volatili impertinenti nella letteratura degli ultimi due secoli, 163-173
Enrico Girardi, Note per un bestiario musicale. L'episodio di Siegfried e l'uccellino, 175-185
Paola Pallottino, Dai tori di Lascaux alla colomba di Picasso. Principali funzioni dell'iconografia zoologica, 187-201
Anna Orlando, Sinibaldo Scorza e gli "animalisti" della pittura fiammingo-genovese del Seicento, 203-217
Mercedes Martini, Animali recitanti e bestie travestite. Il sogno di un asino, 219-228
Renato Tortarolo, "Sei proprio una bestia…per fortuna!". Animali e canzone italiana, 229-235
Ivano Fossati, Animali rumorosi (dal serpente nero del blues a Katy Perry), 237-247
Indice dei nomi di persona, di opere e di luogo (a c. di Simona Martorana e Caterina Mordeglia), 251-260
Indice degli animali (a c. di Simona Martorana), 261-263
Indice dei manoscritti (a c. di Simona Martorana), 265

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Notes:

1.   A. Barigazzi, Sull' Ecale di Callimaco, Hermes 82 (1954), pp. 308-330; A. Barigazzi, Cornacchie nell' Ecale di Callimaco, Prometheus 17 (1991), pp. 97-110.
2.   V. Bartoletti, L'episodio degli uccelli parlanti nell' Ecale di Callimaco, SIFC 23 (1961), pp. 154-162.

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Chrysanthos S. Chrysanthou, Plutarch's 'Parallel Lives': Narrative Technique and Moral Judgement. Trends in classics. Supplementary volumes, 57. Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter, 2018. Pp. 238. ISBN 9783110574722. €79,95.

Reviewed by Lucy Fletcher, University of Reading (l.e.fletcher@reading.ac.uk)

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The present volume is a lightly revised version of the author's 2016 Oxford DPhil thesis; it begins with a summary of the work of Christopher Pelling, Philip Stadter and Timothy Duff on moralism in Plutarch's Parallel Lives. This is a fitting beginning to the book whose stated aim bears quoting in full, "Building upon and verifying further recent research on the challenging and exploratory, rather than affirmative, moral impact that the Lives are designed to have on their readers, this book seeks to describe and analyse the range of narrative techniques that Plutarch employs to draw his readers into the process of moral evaluation and expose them to the complexities and difficulties involved in making moral judgements." (pg. 3-4) The references to moral evaluation as a process which involves the reader and exposes the difficulties of moral evaluation further summarise the arguments of Duff, Stadter and Pelling. In fact, the reference to Plutarch's moralism as 'exploratory and challenging, rather than affirmative' is essentially a quotation of the central thesis of Duff's 1999 monograph Plutarch's Lives: Exploring Virtue and Vice (Oxford) as Duff summarises it on page 9. This book, then, is aimed at readers already familiar with the work of the key figures in the debate around Plutarch's moralism in the Parallel Lives , and their works remain the starting points for anyone interested in this issue.

It is most fruitful to discuss the contribution of this volume according to its individual chapters. The value of the book does not lie in offering a new argument about Plutarchan narrative or moralism; rather, its value lies in the analysis of individual narrative techniques and in verifying earlier approaches to Plutarchan moralism.

The volume is divided into six chapters which are organised broadly around what Chrysanthou considers the 'basic parts' (pg. 7) of the Plutarchan book. The table of contents may be viewed here.

Chapter One is an introduction to the book. It lays out the scope of the volume and explains how the methodology is informed by modern theoretical approaches to narrative and reader response. This discussion here might have been more detailed and critical, and the author's preferences (e.g. for the approach of Genette on Narrative Time) explained. The Introduction ends by discussing two passages from Plutarch's Solon to illustrate the approach of the volume. This gives a good indication of the method of work in this book which is centred around analysis of individual passages rather than whole Lives or books.

Chapter Two focuses on Plutarch's projection of his own self and that of his readers, including his strategies for establishing authority and engaging his readers. Chrysanthou notes that the projection of the narratorial self is most apparent in the prologues, as has been argued previously by Pelling¹ and Duff², and the second chapter begins by analysing some of Plutarch's prologues. The prologues chosen for analysis are: Demosthenes–Cicero, Alexander–Caesar, Theseus-Romulus, Cimon–Lucullus, Aemilius Paulus–Timoleon, and Pericles-Fabius Maximus. These largely overlap with those analysed previously by Duff and Pelling.³ Chrysanthou continues in Chapter Two to consider how the narrator's self-projection in the prologues to Demosthenes–Cicero, Cimon–Lucullus and Pericles–Fabius Maximus functions within the moralising agenda of the books which they open. With regard to Demosthenes–Cicero, for instance, Chrysanthou (pp. 27-29) takes up Pelling's idea⁴ that Plutarch's remarks in the prologue (at 2.2-3.1) concerning his own character and methodology amount to self-praise; then, later in the chapter (pp. 43-50), he argues that the Plutarchan narrator's self-praise in the prologue links with a key moral theme of the Dem.–Cic. book: that of praise. He suggests that the narrator's self-projection in the prologue functions as a paradigm of inoffensive and appropriate self-praise by which to evaluate Demosthenes and Cicero with regard to this ethical issue. The arrangement of the material in this chapter, whereby narratorial self-projection in the prologue is examined separately from the analysis of how the same topic functions in the remainder of the book is a little infelicitous for the appreciation of the argument.

Chapter Two concludes by arguing for the potential for what Chrysanthou calls 'internal minds' (i.e. the perspectives of characters in the story) and 'external minds' (i.e. the perspectives of narrator and reader) to intertwine within Plutarch's narrative. Chrysanthou suggests that at times the narrative deliberately creates ambiguity about the extent to which perspectives in the text are those of the narrator or of characters within the story. Three examples (from Caesar 56.7-9, Demetrius 19.4-10, and Lucullus 38.5) are discussed to demonstrate the potential for this 'blurring' of perspectives. In all cases, a γάρ clause suggests the narrator's explanation, but in the contexts it is plausible also to see in the discussion the views of the characters in the text; this is something previously argued by Duff in discussing Antony 63.⁵ In Chrysanthou's analysis of Demetrius 19.4-10 (pg. 61) the example of Demetr. 19.5 seems more clearly a potential blurring of inner and outer perspectives than that at 19.10 where Plutarch says that Demetrius' father treated his son's failings leniently because he was efficient otherwise 'for the Scythians, in the midst of their drinking and carousing, twang their bowstrings…'. As Chrysanthou notes, it is unlikely that the in-text character would have thought in these specific metaphorical terms. Chrysanthou suggests, though, that the narrator's use of the present tense in his metaphor blurs the perspectives of narrator, readers and characters since its durative sense allows that the metaphor would be meaningful to all these groups. This does not seem an especially helpful way to understand the passage, however. The specificity of the metaphor seems most appropriately attributable to one 'mind' (that of the narrator) and the issue of whether or not the metaphor would have been meaningful also to characters in the story is not very pertinent to the issue of whose perspective (or 'mind' in Chrysanthou's terms) this reflects.

Chapter Three, 'Emotion, Perception, and Cognition: The Individual and Society', argues that the insights into perception, emotion and cognition which Plutarch provides function to re-enact characters' experience and generate empathy on the part of the reader. This is very similar to the argument of Duff⁶ but discussed by Chrysanthou at greater length. The chapter has two parts. In the first, Chrysanthou looks at characters' internal dialogues, influenced by Christopher Gill's concept of 'the self in dialogue'.⁷ The second part looks at the individual within the perspective of the community, examining particularly the responses of in-text characters to the biographical subject as a method of shaping the moral response of the reader; this verifies the earlier arguments of Pelling and Duff.⁸

The initial examples given to illustrate 'selves in dialogue' are Dion 33.4-5 and Cicero 19.7-20.1. Chrysanthou suggests potential for the 'blurring' of perspectives for which he argued in Chapter Two in these examples. He suggests that what we see in such passages is more than the character's 'self in dialogue' but an amalgamation also of the external perspective of the narrator. For Chrysanthou, this gives to such passages greater immediacy. The concept of 'immediacy' here could usefully have been further elaborated, however, as it would be possible to see the immediacy of this moment as in fact lessened by the introduction of the external narratorial perspective.

Chapter Four concerns Plutarch's tendency to avoid an overall moral conclusion in the closing chapters of his biographies and looks at Plutarch's closural devices. Chrysanthou's discussion reinforces existing work rather than offering a new approach. The section on 'Perplexing anecdotal endings' focuses on the endings of Alcibiades and Lysander which are both examples previously discussed by Duff to illustrate this very phenomenon.⁹ Section 4.2, which is about looking beyond the subject's life at the end of a biography, takes as its examples Theseus and Lycurgus. This section adds further weight to the original discussion of this topic by Pelling,¹⁰ who mentions these examples but does not discuss them at length; Pelling does, however, discuss endings in the Theseus–Romulus in some detail in a separate article.¹¹ Section 4.3 on 'Closural Allusiveness' considers, among others, the endings of Nikias and Crassus and their references to Euripides. Chrysanthou perceptively draws attention to the further mention of Euripides' poetry in the Synkrisis 4.3 which he claims functions 'to problematise moral judgement' (pg. 120),¹² but the passage from the Synkrisis is, unfortunately, not quoted or discussed to demonstrate how it problematises moral judgement. The discussion of tragic elements in the ending of the Demetrius misses a reference to Duff.¹³

Chapter Five looks at the concluding synkriseis and considers the ways in which Plutarch exposes readers to the challenges of making overarching moral judgements. That the synkriseis have this effect is the argument of Duff.¹⁴ In section 5.4, Chrysanthou analyses the endings of those Lives which fall second in their respective books and which are not followed by a concluding Synkrisis: Marius, Cato Minor, Camillus and Caesar. From his analysis here (pp.153-157) and earlier (pp.114-116 and 123-127) Chrysanthou argues, following Duff,¹⁵ that there is nothing in these endings to suggest that a concluding Synkrisis was deliberately omitted. Chrysanthou's analysis of these endings adds significant weight to Duff's earlier suggestion that although, as Pelling argued ¹⁶, these endings have closural features which might explain the lack of a concluding Synkrisis, these endings are not so very different from those of other Lives which are followed by a concluding Synkrisis.

In Chapter Six Chrysanthou suggests that many of the techniques which Plutarch presents in De Herodoti Malignitate as evidence of the κακοήθεια of Herodotus are found also in Plutarch's Lives. Chrysanthou argues that the presence of these techniques in Plutarch's biographies is not evidence of the narrator's malicious character because they function within the moralising programme of the Lives to encourage the reader's autonomous thinking. According to Chrysanthou, Plutarch's narrator does not intend to persuade his readers to follow judgements which might, prima facie, be taken as malicious according to the arguments of De Herodoti Malignitate; on the contrary, Chrysanthou argues, he invites them to think for themselves.

Chapter Six ends by arguing that the De Herodoti Malignitate invites a re-engagement with Herodotus' historia through which readers should not simply accept Plutarch's criticisms but reflect upon them so as better to understand Herodotus' narrative. The De Herodoti Malignitate belongs to a different genre than the Parallel Lives and there is no reason a priori to suppose the same techniques always function in the same way across different texts. Chrysanthou's argument, therefore, requires a more detailed exposition to show how the treatise works to elicit the sort of reader response he suggests here. It is, however, an interesting suggestion.

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Notes:

1.   Pelling, C. B. R. (2002), 'You for Me and Me for You: Narrator and Narratee in Plutarch's Lives' in idem Plutarch and History (London): 267-282.
2.   Duff, T. E. (2011), 'Plutarch's Lives and the Critical Reader' in Roskam and Van der Stockt (eds.) Virtues for the People: Aspects of Plutarch's Ethics (Leuven): 59-82.
3.   Duff, T. E. (1999), Plutarch's Lives: Exploring Virtue and Vice (Oxford), pp.13-42; Pelling, C. B. R. (2002), 'You for Me and Me for You', esp. pp. 271-273.
4.   Pelling, C. B. R. (2002), 'You for Me and Me for You', pp. 271-272.
5.   Duff, T. E. (2011), 'Plutarch's Lives and the Critical Reader', pg. 70; for γάρ as introducing a narratorial perspective and the use of verbal aspect to mark internal and external perspectives see also Duff, T. E. (2015) 'Aspect and subordination in Plutarchan narrative.' in Ash, Mossman and Titchener (eds.), Fame and Infamy: essays for Christopher Pelling on characterization in Greek and Roman biography and historiography. Oxford: 129-148.
6.   Duff, T. E. (2011) 'Plutarch's Lives and the Critical Reader', pp. 68-72.
7.   Gill, C. (1996), Personality in Greek Epic, Tragedy, and Philosophy: The Self in Dialogue (Oxford).
8.   Pelling, C. B. R. (1988) (ed.), Plutarch: Life of Antony (Cambridge), pg. 40; Duff, T. E. (1999) Plutarch's Lives: Exploring Virtue and Vice, pg. 55 and 120.
9.   Duff, T. E. (1999), Plutarch's Lives: Exploring Virtue and Vice, esp. pp. 239-40 and 182-4.
10.   Pelling, C. B. R. (1997), 'Is Death the End? Closure in Plutarch's Lives' in Roberts, Dunn and Fowler (eds.) Classical Closure: Endings in Ancient Literature (Princeton) 228-250.
11.   Pelling, C. B. R. (2002), ''Making Myth Look Like History': Plutarch's Theseus–Romulus', in idem Plutarch and History: 171-195.
12.   The term 'problematise' in the context of problematising moral judgement is Timothy Duff's e.g. (1999) Plutarch's Lives: Exploring Virtue and Vice, pg. 203 and 267 on the Synkrieis (and throughout, e.g. 10, 55, 71,161).
13.   Duff, T. E. (2004), 'Plato, Tragedy, the Ideal Reader and Plutarch's Demetrios and Antony', Hermes 132: 271-291.
14.   Duff, T. E. (1999), Plutarch's Lives: Exploring Virtue and Vice, esp. 243-286; and discussed also in Duff (2011), 'Plutarch's Lives and the Critical Reader'.
15.   Duff, T. E. (2011), 'The Structure of the Plutarchan Book', Classical Antiquity 30.2: 213-278, pg. 258-259.
16.   Pelling, C. B. R. (1997) 'Is Death the End?', pp. 244–50.

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William Fitzgerald, Efrossini Spentzou (ed.), The Production of Space in Latin Literature. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. viii, 298. ISBN 9780198768098. $85.00.

Reviewed by Carolyn MacDonald, University of New Brunswick (carolyn.macdonald@unb.ca)

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[Authors and titles are listed below.]

The Production of Space in Latin Literature is an ambitious volume, which aims to tackle both the influence of the spatial within Latin literature and the influence of literature in the production of Roman spaces. Developed from a 2013 conference on 'Psychogeographies: Space and Place in Latin Literature,' the volume contains eleven individual chapters ranging in focus from lyric and epic poetry to historiographical and philosophical prose (authors and titles are listed at the end of the review). Thematic threads knit the chapters together: the complexity of Roman space in the interplay between city and empire; Rome as a palimpsest; exile and withdrawal; the literary construction of Rome and empire as contested spaces; and the experience and creation of urban space through individual movement.

What truly promises to unify the volume, however, is the contributors' embrace of spatial analysis and the theories generated by the 'spatial turn' in the Humanities. Fitzgerald and Spentzou claim in their Introduction that Romanists have been lagging behind their Hellenist colleagues in this respect — a somewhat odd claim, given that several of the volume's authors have contributed to the recent boom in publications on place and space in Latin literature.¹ Nonetheless, the papers collected here certainly do engage with an impressive range of spatial theories, including but not limited to Lefebvre's production of space and rhythmanalysis; de Certeau's distinction between space and place; Benjamin on Baudelaire and the flâneur; Bakhtin's chronotope; Soja's Thirdspace; Foucault's heterotopia; Debord's dérive; Maingueneau's paratopia; and Nora's lieux de mémoire. Fitzgerald and Spentzou provide lucid explanations of several of these, so less theoretically inclined readers need not despair. What is more, almost all individual chapters succeed in the delicate balancing act of delivering theoretically-informed insights without undue obfuscation.

Co-editor Efrossini Spentzou opens the volume proper with a chapter on elegiac representations of Augustan Rome. She discusses Propertius 3.4 and 2.31/32, as well as Ovid Amores 2.2 and Ars Amatoria Book 1. Drawing on spatial theorists' interest in 'thirds', Spentzou nuances the familiar argument that these poems turn a subversive erotic eye on Augustus' monuments. In her reading of Propertius 2.31, for example, both the imperial and the amatory act as scripts ordering the poet's movement through the city. While Propertius delays at the temple of Apollo Palatinus before hastening to Cynthia, however, a third space of possibility opens up. This space is "irreducible to a script of either authority or opposition…being a touch late offers a mirage of freedom" (40). Spentzou concludes that the elegiac, distinct from the amatory and the imperial, occupies this third space — an intriguing idea meriting further investigation.

Diana Spencer's chapter on Varro continues exploring the divergent spaces opened up by the movement of the individual within the city. Those familiar with Spencer's growing list of publications on Roman space in the De lingua Latina will not be surprised to learn that this chapter is densely theoretical and challenging to read. What is surprising, given the subject of the volume, is how little space is devoted to Varro's etymologies for Roman places (the so-called 'tour of Rome' constituted by De ling. 5.41-56). Instead, Spencer discusses Varro's time-words, his 'textual dérive,' and his excavation of consumer culture, before arriving at a single example of how he evokes movement through the city. Happily, this final section contains valuable insights into how the text compresses space and time.

Movement is foregrounded again in Jared Hudson's chapter on the moral implications of vehicular activity in Roman texts, with illustrative passages from Seneca, Horace, Juvenal, Gellius, and Cicero. The chapter is considerably less theoretical than most others in the volume, and it does not engage with space per se. While making the fairly obvious point that Roman authors assign moral valences to modes of transportation (e.g. travelling by litter makes a man a dandy), Hudson does not discuss how different modes of transit organize and constitute the space around them. This seems a missed opportunity. Given that most of the roadway run-ins Hudson examines take place outside the city, it would have been interesting to explore the intersection between vehicular transportation, its moral implications, and the articulation of Italian space by Roman authors.

David Larmour's chapter on "Juvenal and the Specular City" returns to the interaction of the individual and the Roman cityscape. Combining spatial theory with Lacanian psychology, Larmour argues that Juvenal's Rome is not just spectacular but also specular. Unstable and unwholesome, it mirrors the alienation and dejection of the satirist-narrator and his reader- spectator. The analysis is perceptive and its relevance to the volume is clear, but the substance of the argument is familiar from Larmour's previous work.

In the next chapter, Maxine Lewis shifts focus from the literary construction of Roman space to the role of the spatial in constructing character — a move foreshadowed by Hudson's analysis of the moral valence of modes of transport. Lewis examines how Catullus locates Lesbia in space in the three traditional sections of his corpus: the Nugae, represented by c.37; the Carmina Docta, represented by c.68; and the Epigrams, represented by c.70. She argues that these poems, with their contrasting spatial poetics, construct three distinct Lesbias. Like Hudson, Lewis foregoes serious engagement with spatial theory, and as a consequence her readings lack novelty. She proposes, for example, that "C.37 shows that Catullus could depict places in such a way that the values associated with those places bled over into the characterization of the figures who operated in those locales." This is perfectly true, but hardly necessary to point out.

Catullus features again in co-editor William Fitzgerald's contribution, "The Space of the Poem: Imperial Trajectories in Catullus and Horace." This chapter marks an expansion of the volume's focus from the city to the city-and-its-empire. Fitzgerald offers close readings of Catullus c.11 and c.46, and Horace Odes 2.11 and 3.5. In the specifics of diction, word order, and enjambment, Fitzgerald finds Catullus and Horace evoking imperial space and thematizing the spatiality of their own poems. Complexity is key: urbs and orbis are intimately bound together as the empire expands in all its diversity and is contracted into the smaller spaces of the city and the confines of the poems themselves. Fitzgerald is by no means the first to draw attention to these poems' evocation of empire, but this chapter stands out in its success at tracing the mutual constitution of the spatial by the literary and the literary by the spatial.

The next two chapters turn to philosophical texts, and their treatment of Rome and other cities as both historical and semanticized places. Catharine Edwards explores the relationship between the Stoic cosmic city and the places mentioned in Seneca's prose, in particular Rome and the Bay of Naples. Between the ad Helviam and the Letters, cosmopolitan Rome does double-duty as an earthly approximation of the true Stoic cosmopolis and a sink of iniquity which the philosophically-minded are advised to leave. Therese Fuhrer uncovers a similar dynamic in her chapter on Augustine's Confessions. Combining Nora's concept of lieux de mémoire and van Gennep's rite de passage, along with healthy doses of narratology and German spatial theory, Fuhrer shows how the text re-semanticizes each city as a transit point on Augustinus' personal journey to purification. Yet the historical semantics of the three cities remain active in the background as well, so that Carthage, for example, functions as both a political, economic, and cultural centre and a space for young Augustinus' erotic and intellectual adventures.

The following chapters also function as a diptych, offering contrasting perspectives on imperial space and its others in Tacitus. Shreyaa Bhatt on the Annales is the more optimistic of the two. Bhatt presents three case studies: Lucius Piso's speech imagining a (republican) utopia outside the city; Vibius Serenus' desire to return to exile rather than stay in Rome; and Tiberius' withdrawal to Capri, where he can indulge his perversions. These episodes destabilize both a longstanding literary discourse making exile into a place of alienation and the imperial use of exile as a spatial manifestation of sovereign power. Bhatt argues that Tacitus constructs 'home' as a fluid concept, such that Rome can become a place of alienation and exile can be homely. The chapter concludes by boldly reengaging with contemporary theory and suggesting that Tacitus has something to teach the likes of Hardt and Negri and Lefebvre: namely, that the hegemonic production of imperial space is not so smooth that it cannot be disrupted by the lived experience of exile.

Richard Alston's chapter on Tacitus' Agricola is far bleaker in its conclusions. Through close readings of Agricola 21 (on the 'civilization' of the Britons) and 30-32 (Calgacus' famous speech), Alston argues that Tacitus constructs a totalizing Roman Empire with no spatial or temporal outside. The only places of refuge are the interior psychological spaces of the educated elite — where humanitas can be preserved, but only through acquiescence to the inhumanity of the imperial regime. These elite spaces of freedom are thus both vulnerable and flawed, and Alston indicts those of us Classicists who practice 'Tacitean politics' by disengaging from the contemporary world in order to preserve our own version of timeless humanitas.

Victoria Rimell concludes the volume with a chapter on the Latin poetic topos of the seething strait. She argues that this is a crucial image for 1st-century poets — a violent Romanization of Callimachus' well-worn track that simultaneously characterizes imperial space and the imperial aesthetic. The chapter covers considerable ground: selections from Ovid's Heroides and Tristia; Statius' Achilleid, Thebaid, and Silvae; Catullus 64; and Lucan's Bellum Civile. The prose is dense and difficult, but well worth the effort. Like Fitzgerald, Rimell succeeds admirably in simultaneously exploring both the literary construction of space and the spatial articulation of the literary.

The text of the volume is clean and accurate, and there is a brief but serviceable general index. In place of a general bibliography, each chapter has its own extensive works cited list. In sum, this is a valuable contribution to the growing body of scholarship devoted to intersections between Latin literature and Roman space and place. Individually and as a collection, the papers make a compelling case for the incorporation of spatial theory into the philologist's analytical toolkit.

Authors and titles

William Fitzgerald / Efrossini Spentzou, Introduction
1. Efrossini Spentzou, Propertius' Aberrant Itineraries: Fleeting Moments in the Eternal City.
2. Diana Spencer, Varro's Roman Ways: Metastasis and Etymology
3. Jared Hudson, Obviam: The Space of Vehiculation in Latin Literature
4. David H. J. Larmour, Juvenal in the Specular City
5. Maxine Lewis, Gender, Geography, and Genre: Catullus' Constructions of Lesbia in Space and Time
6. William Fitzgerald, The Space of the Poem: Imperial Trajectories in Catullus and Horace
7. Catharine Edwards, On Not Being in Rome: Exile and Displacement in Seneca's Prose
8. Therese Fuhrer, Carthage — Rome — Milan: 'Lieux de passage' in Augustine's Confessions
9. Shreyaa Bhatt, Exiled in Rome: The Writing of Other Spaces in Tacitus' Annales
10. Richard Alston, The Utopian City in Tacitus' Agricola
11. Victoria Rimell, Rome's Dire Straits: Claustrophobic Seas and imperium sine fundo

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Notes:

1.   E.g. C. Edwards (1996), Writing Rome: Textual Approaches to the City (Cambridge); D. Larmour and D. Spencer (eds.) (2007), Sites of Rome: Time, Space, Memory (Oxford); V. Rimell (2015), The Closure of Space in Roman Poetics: Empire's Inward Turn (Cambridge).

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Jessica Homan Clark, Brian Turner (ed.), Brill's Companion to Military Defeat in Ancient Mediterranean Society. Brill's companions in classical studies, 2. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2017. Pp. xviii, 382. ISBN 9789004298583. €149,00.

Reviewed by Mark Woolmer, Durham University (mark.woolmer@durham.ac.uk)

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[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review.]

Published as the second volume in Brill's series Warfare in the Ancient Mediterranean World, this collection of essays explores the strategic, political, social, and historiographical consequences of military defeat for the societies of the ancient Mediterranean. The volume principally illustrates the complexity of war, the diversity of its participants, and the differing ways in which defeat was perceived and experienced. Together, the selected case-studies reveal the variety of responses to military defeat across the ancient Mediterranean world, from the Neo-Assyrian and Achaemenid Persian empires through the Greek world and on into the later Roman Empire. In addition to its wide geographic and chronological coverage, the volume also explores defeat from a diversity of perspectives. Thus, rather than simply engaging with the better-documented responses of kings, generals, and elite commentators, several contributions examine military failure from the viewpoint of regular soldiers, captives, and civilian populations. As with the preceding title in the series, the volume is arranged chronologically.¹

Part One, an introductory chapter explicating the value of shifting scholarly focus from military success to failure begins by addressing the deceptively simple question, what exactly does it mean to be defeated in war? Recognising that there are degrees of capitulation, the editors take the conscious decision not to impose a systematic definition of 'defeat'. Rather, the term is broadly understood as: "any military outcome that is counter to the stated aims of the subject of enquiry and which requires that subject to respond from a position of disadvantage relative to their position had the outcome been reversed" (p. 6). The decision to adopt a broad definition and allow individual contributors to adjust or modify it not only emphasises the disparity in modern usage; it also reveals the varying assumptions and conventions that are found in different academic traditions.

The first three case studies examine military defeat through the eyes of the Neo-Assyrian and Achaemenid empires. A shared aim of these chapters is to elucidate ways in which military historians can overcome problematic or biased evidence. In the opening chapter, Sarah Melville discusses the problems that arise when relying on accounts that emphasise victory and success rather than failure and loss. As Melville adeptly demonstrates, however, the Assyrians' almost single-minded preoccupation with military triumph also betrays a deep-seated anxiety about the consequences of failure and the mutability of life. Thus, by studying Assyrian triumphalism it becomes possible to identify their fears and anxieties concerning what would happen if they themselves were defeated. The following chapters by Jeffrey Rop and John Hyland both focus on the Achaemenid Empire. Rop explores the demise of the Persian satrap Tissaphernes and the manner in which Achaemenid kings responded to the military failures of their subordinates. In contrast to accepted wisdom, Rop reveals that Persian rulers did not as a matter of course punish military failure with execution. Rather, following a formal review of their conduct, defeated Persian generals were normally reassigned to new postings that played to their strengths and mitigated their weaknesses. In the case of Tissaphernes, Rop shows that his demise was not the result of a royal decree but was an assassination organised by political rivals. Part Two concludes with Hyland's examination of the post-battle activities of defeated Persian soldiers during Darius III's campaigns against Alexander the Great. Focusing on three activities in particular – survival, initial searches for shelter and sustenance, and the challenges of a long-distance retreat – Hyland proposes that logistical concerns and imperial infrastructures influenced the manner in which defeated soldiers behaved during the aftermath of battle.

Part Three focuses on military defeat in the Greek and Hellenistic world. The opening chapters investigate how the Athenians conceptualised the causes, consequences, and meanings of military failures. Edith Foster's contribution analyses the complex interrelationship between Athenian military defeat and historiography. Having shown that other Athenian artistic and literary traditions tended to ignore, trivialise, or heavily modify the negative consequences of war, Foster demonstrates how the emerging genre of historiography became a forum in which war losses could be discussed and evaluated. Although primarily a discussion of Thucydides' views regarding domestic politics as a causal factor in Athenian defeats during the Peloponnesian War, the chapter also examines why the Athenians suddenly became interested in reading about their own military failures. Engaging with several of the same themes, Max Goldman explores Demosthenes' decision to present the Battle of Chaeronea as victory of Athenian culture rather than the spectacular military defeat that it undoubtedly was. Through a close reading of Demosthenes 60, Goldman reveals the orator's skilful manipulation of the traditional and conservative nature of Athenian funerary speeches in order to downplay his own role in the defeat and to minimise its consequences.

Moving away from Athens, Matthew Trundle outlines the ways in which military defeat helped to define and shape Spartan history and identity. By charting Sparta's evolving relationship with military failure between the seventh and fourth centuries, Trundle shows that the idealisation of defeat, in particular in the aftermath of Thermopylae, helped give rise to the mythologised ideology of the Spartan warrior who chose death on the battlefield in preference to living with the stigma of defeat. Part Three's concluding chapter by Paul Johstono explores the socio-political consequences of the Battle of Panium in 200 BCE. Through an analysis of the demographic makeup of Ptolemaic armies, Johstono shows how the defeat had tangible and irreparable consequences for the Ptolemies. In particular, it marked the moment at which Ptolemaic armies first began conscripting men from a truly multi-cultural milieu. Whereas prior to Panium Ptolemaic phalangites were either Macedonian expatriates or mercenaries, in the decades following the majority were native Egyptians.

The fourth and final group of case studies discuss the concept of defeat in the Roman world from the Republican period into the later Roman Empire. The opening pair of chapters by Jessica Clark and Amy Richlin explore the presentation of Roman military failures within the literary traditions of the late Republic. Clark's contribution is particularly well placed as her key point – that Roman defeats were only recorded because someone, for some reason, wanted them remembered – is applicable to all of the subsequent case-studies. Concentrating on the military defeats suffered by Lucius Marcius and Sextus Digitius, Clark shows that Republican battle accounts were rarely intended to be straightforward assessments of strategic realties but rather were recounted as a way for someone to gain social or political currency. Richlin's contribution is equally important as it reveals the type and quantity of information that can be gleaned from Roman comedy, a source of evidence often overlooked by military historians. In particular, it highlights the insights that comedy can provide regarding the concerns and anxieties of Rome's actual warrior class.

Ida Östenburg's contribution explores the role that challenging landscapes and adverse weather conditions played in Roman military defeats in Italy and Northern Europe. Commencing with an analysis of the impact that weather and topography had on the outcome of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, Östenburg then presents a broader inquiry into the importance of terrain and meteorological conditions in other Roman defeats. The chapter closes with a discussion of the portrayal of nature as a resistant antipode of Roman civilisation that was fought and eventually subdued. Next, Brian Turner examines the reported conduct of the Julio-Claudian emperors in the aftermath of major military defeats. Having shown that imperial responses to defeat were typically informed by the prevailing political climate in Rome, Turner moves on to explore the differing behavioural expectations that Roman society had for emperors and generals in the aftermath of military failure. Shifting focus to the common soldier, Graeme Ward investigates the ways in which military failures affected Roman imperial legions. Through an analysis of the memory sanctions employed against disgraced Roman legions – namely discontinuation, substitution, or erasure – Ward explicates the repercussions of military failure. Significantly, Ward shows how the memory sanctions inflicted on a legion provide vital clues as to the manner in which Roman emperors defined victory, defeat, and their own relationship with their soldiers.

The volume's concluding case-studies address Roman military failures from a predominantly non-Roman perspective. Sviatoslav Dimitriev returns to the topic of Chaeronea in order to explore the ways in which Greek authors living under the shadow of Roman rule used the rhetoric of defeat to connect with their readers. He demonstrates how military defeats in the distant, glorified (i.e. pre-Roman) past could be re-assessed and re-interpreted to satisfy the tastes of a modern audience. Similarly, Craig Caldwell focuses on the iconic defeat and capture of the emperor Valerian by the Sasanian Persians to reveal the divergent ways in which defeats were received and recorded in antiquity. Through engagement with a diachronically and geographically diverse range of sources, Caldwell shows how a shocking and unexpected defeat could be acknowledged and interpreted in vastly different ways. The volume closes with a summary chapter by Nathan Rosenstein which responds to the preceding contributions before identifying potential avenues for future research.

As with the preceding volume in the series, some chapters are outstanding whilst others less so. For instance, several suffer from the introduction of significantly more material than can effectively be analysed in such short contributions. Consequently, some of the contributions come across as slightly too speculative or wide-sweeping. More generally, the topic of military defeat in the ancient Mediterranean is far too large and far too nascent to be comprehensively covered in one volume. It is therefore not always easy to identify what connects the contributions other than that they all examine military conflicts from the perspective of the defeated. This occasional loss of clarity is compounded by the editors' decision not to impose an agreed definition for the term defeat. Furthermore, despite claiming to present a multidisciplinary approach, the vast majority of the contributions focus almost exclusively on the literary evidence. The result is that apposite archaeological, numismatic, and visual evidence is either given short shrift or overlooked entirely. By disregarding such important categories of evidence, the editors missed the opportunity to present a truly holistic analysis of the consequences of military defeat.

That being said, the best contributions combine astute literary analysis with rigorous historical research in order to highlight the diverse ways in which defeat was perceived, presented, and experienced in antiquity. Of particular note in this regard are the contributions by Foster, Johstono, Melville, and Richlin which, in addition to drawing out the nuances and intricacies of the evidence, demonstrate how historians studying military failure can overcome or supplement the problematic sources upon which they so often rely. A further strength of the volume is that it neatly illustrates the explanatory importance of defeat for understanding the complex history of the ancient Mediterranean. Trundle's contribution, for instance, reveals how it was military failure rather than success which had the greatest impact on Spartan self-perception and identity. The diversity of topics surveyed in this volume, in conjunction with the plethora of wide- ranging cultural comparisons, mean that it will be of interest not only to military historians but also to scholars of international relations, state doctrines, philosophical schools, and historiography.

Irrespective of any minor deficiencies, all fourteen case-studies are well written and researched. With the majority providing new insights into the differing ways in which defeat was experienced by the societies of the ancient Mediterranean, the volume is certain to become essential reading for anyone interested in military failure in antiquity. Overall, this is an important and engaging collection of essays which makes both a welcome and important contribution to an increasingly topical subject.

Authors and Titles

(1) "Thinking about Military Defeat in Ancient Mediterranean Society" - Brian Turner and Jessica H. Clark
(2) "Ideology, Politics, and the Assyrian Understanding of Defeat" - Sarah C. Melville
(3) "The Assassination of Tissaphernes: Royal Responses to Military Defeat in the Achaemenid Empire" - Jeffrey Rop
(4) "Achaemenid Soldiers, Alexander's Conquest, and the Experience of Defeat" - John O. Hyland
(5) "Military Defeat in Fifth-Century Athens: Thucydides and His Audience" - Edith Foster
(6) "Demosthenes, Chaeronea, and the Rhetoric of Defeat" - Max L. Goldman
(7) "Spartan Responses to Defeat: From a Mythical Hysiae to a Very Real Sellasia" - Matthew Trundle
(8) "'No Strength to Stand': Defeat at Panium, the Macedonian Class, and Ptolemaic Decline" - Paul Johstono
(9) "Defeat and the Roman Republic: Stories from Spain" - Jessica H. Clark
(10) "The Ones Who Paid the Butcher's Bill: Soldiers and War Captives in Roman Comedy" - Amy Richlin
(11) "Defeated by the Forest, the Pass, the Wind: Nature as an Enemy of Rome" - Ida Östenberg
(12) "Imperial Reactions to Military Failures in the Julio-Claudian Era" - Brian Turner
(13) "'By Any Other Name': Disgrace, Defeat, and the Loss of Legionary History" - Graeme A. Ward
(14) "Recycling the Classical Past: Rhetorical Responses from the Roman Period to a Military Loss in Classical Greece" - Sviatoslav Dmitriev
(15) "The Roman Emperor as Persian Prisoner of War: Remembering Shapur's Capture of Valerian" - Craig H. Cald well III
(16) 'Looking Ahead' - Nathan Rosenstein

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Notes:

1.   Timothy Howe and Lee L. Brice (eds.), Brill's Companion to Insurgency and Terrorism in the Ancient Mediterranean. Brill's Companions in Classical Studies: Warfare in the Ancient Mediterranean World, Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2016.

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Chiara Thumiger, P. N. Singer (ed.), Mental Illness in Ancient Medicine: from Celsus to Paul of Aegina. Studies in Ancient Medicine, 50. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2018. Pp. xv, 479. ISBN 9789004362727. €143,00.

Reviewed by Michaela Senkova, University of Leicester (m.senkova422@gmail.com)

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[The Table of Contents is listed below.]

Mental Illness in Ancient Medicine is volume 50 in Brill's series 'Studies in Ancient Medicine'.¹ It is a collection of 14 papers,² which aim to map and problematize the different conceptualizations of the mind and its pathology offered by ancient medical authors. With the earliest taxonomy of the genera insaniae being found in the first-century-AD text De Medicina (3.18) by Aulus Cornelius Celsus,³ the contributions primarily focus on the period from the early Principate to the seventh century AD, and discuss less studied authors such as Athenaeus of Attalia and Rufus of Ephesus, but also famous figures, notably Galen of Pergamum.

The editors set the scene in their compact, but clear and thorough Introduction (1-32), in which they address the socio- historical background of the subject, while foregrounding some of the crucial methodological issues. They explain that the notion of disease is a socio-cultural construct and offer a brief survey of approaches to mental health by ancient writers. A significant part of the Introduction is dedicated to contextualizing the theories of Celsus, whose text De Medicina the editors rightly stress is "the first organic, extended account of mental suffering from a medical perspective" (14). Following the Introduction, individual contributions are grouped into three thematic sections, each exploring the history of mental illness from a different viewpoint. A complete list of authors and titles is given at the end of this review, and below I list some of the highlights of the volume's three sections.

Part One comprises two papers, which discuss the interaction of practical medicine with wider intellectual and cultural views of Graeco-Roman antiquity. This may be the shortest of the three sections in the book (33-106), but it is nonetheless interesting. Metzger's contribution is particularly refreshing: it investigates views on demonic aetiology through the juxtaposition of medical opinions (esp. those of Oribasius and Posidonius) and theological ones (esp. those of Origen), and demonstrates that, far from limiting himself strictly to natural explanations, the scientific doctor of late antiquity was more open-minded about supernatural causation than previously assumed.

The nine papers in Part Two focus on the conceptualization of mental illness and its treatment by specific medical authors (107-340). Not surprisingly, the ways in which the authors under consideration theorize about the topic are distinct. While some show clear influence from earlier medical models, others display innovative approaches: Athenaeus of Attalia understands exercise and education as appropriate means for a mental health regimen (Coughlin), Archigenes of Apamea sees no clear difference between the therapy for mental and non-mental disorders (Lewis), and Rufus of Ephesus advances his diagnostic method by highlighting the importance of patients' voices (Letts). Two papers in Part Two concentrate solely on Galen. Firstly, Devinant argues that the lack of treatises dedicated specifically to mental health within the Galenic corpus may indicate Galen's doubts about the relevance of mental illness to his medical theory. Secondly, Julião addresses Galen's psychological and physiological conceptualizations of memory disorders.

Exceptionally invigorating in Part Two are the two thematically linked contributions by Thumiger because of their relevance to modern day society. She considers the works of multiple authors (e.g. Aretaeus of Cappadocia and Caelius Aurelianus) and addresses the link between food and sexual desires on the one hand and medical pathologies on the other, arguing that ethical and social standards modify our understanding of illness.

The final part of the book comprises three papers, which examine the interaction between medicine and philosophy and shed light in particular on the practical value of philosophical discourse in the treatment of mental illness (341-420). Ahonen demonstrates that some kinds of madness were "healable" by philosophy, with "the Stoics promot[ing] themselves as effective therapists" (364). Gill bluntly asks whether philosophers could have offered clinical consultations for patients with mental disturbances. While it seems to him that they did not, the distinction between the fields of medicine and philosophy is not so clear-cut. Both doctors and philosophers raised concerns about mental health, and both saw it as a vital element of overall physical well-being. Last but not least, Singer closes the book with a novel approach to the study of Galen's "therapy of the soul" by analyzing Galen's models of psychological explanations in relation to their genre and context. The scarcity of treatment records and the repetition of case histories lead Singer to conclude that Galen's interests lie in demonstrating not his therapeutic achievement, but rather his diagnostic skill.

Overall, the individual contributions are well researched and the editors must be praised for their conscientious work. The book contains a generous bibliography (421-449), a list of primary text abbreviations and editions (VII-XV), and, alongside the obligatory general index (470-479), also a much appreciated index locorum (450-469), all of which allow for easier orientation in the book and further research. Each quoted Greek and Latin passage is given both in the original language and in punctilious English translation, with careful referencing throughout. This meticulous presentation suggests that the editors expect the book to be read more widely than by expert classicists only.

Although errors are kept to a minimum, it would have been helpful if the editors had been consistent in editing the titles of ancient works – citations of the same source appear interchangeably in English and in Latin throughout the book (e.g. while the work of Pseudo-Aristotle is cited as Problems on page 25, it appears as Problemata Physica on page 35 and as Problemata on page 274; to add to the confusion, an abbreviated form Pr. can also be found in the text, e.g. page 281). This inconsistency may perplex readers unfamiliar with such sources, but the list of abbreviations of primary texts and of editions and the index locorum set the matter straight. Thus the editors succeed in every way in presenting a thought-provoking and at the same time approachable volume, which will surely appeal to a readership of both experts and enthusiasts.

Table of Contents

Introduction. Disease Classification and Mental illness: Ancient and Modern Perspectives, Chiara Thumiger and P. N. Singer
PART 1: Broader Reflections on Mental Illness: Medical Theories in their Socio-intellectual Context
1. Between Insanity and Wisdom: Perceptions of Melancholy in the Ps.-Hippocratic Letters 10-17, George Kazantzidis
2. "Not a Daimōn, but a Severe Illness": Oribasius, Posidonius and Later Ancient Perspectives on Superhuman Agents Causing Disease, Nadine Metzger
PART 2: Individual Authors and Themes
3. Athenaeus of Attalia on the Psychological Causes of Bodily Health, Sean Coughlin
4. Archigenes of Apamea's Treatment of Mental Diseases, Orly Lewis
5. Mental Perceptions and Pathology in the Work of Rufus of Ephesus, Melinda Letts
6. Mental Disorders and Psychological Suffering in Galen's Cases, Julien Devinant
7. Galen on Memory, Forgetting and Memory Loss, Ricardo Julião
8. Stomachikon, Hydrophobia and Other Eating Disturbances: Volition and Taste in Late-Antique Medical Discussions, Chiara Thumiger
9. "A Most Acute, Disgusting and Indecent Disease": Satyriasis and Sexual Disorders in Ancient Medicine, Chiara Thumiger
10. Mental Derangement in Methodist Nosography: What Caelius Aurelianus Had to Say, Anna Maria Urso
11. Mental Illness in the Medical Compilations of Late Antiquity: The Case of Aëtius of Amida, Ricarda Gäbel
PART 3: Philosophy and Mental Illness
12. Making the Distinction: The Stoic View of Mental Illness, Marke Ahonen
13. Philosophical Psychological Therapy: Did It Have Any Impact on Medical Practice?, Christopher Gill
14. Galen's Pathological Soul: Diagnosis and Therapy in Ethical and Medical Texts and Contexts, P. N. Singer

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Notes:

1.   Previous titles are listed at Brill.com.
2.   Most contributions derive from presentations at the conference "Mental Diseases in Ancient Medicine" held at the Humboldt- Universität zu Berlin in October 2014.
3.   Except perhaps for a few references in philosophy (e.g. Plato Phaedrus 265a9-10 and Timaeus 86b1-7), the lack of a well-defined model of mental disease in earlier periods is well recognized and acknowledged in the volume.

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