Jump to ContentJump to Main Navigation
Show Summary Details
More options …

Journal of Ancient History

Ed. by Farney, Gary

2 Issues per year

Online
ISSN
2324-8114
See all formats and pricing
More options …

Cultivating the memory of Octavius Thurinus

Trevor Luke
Published Online: 2015-11-27 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/jah-2015-0012

Abstract

This article offers a reexamination of Suetonius’ account of Augustus’ early cognomen, Thurinus. In its first part, a historical explanation of the surname’s longevity is presented. Augustus’ biological father’s success in suppressing bandits in the ager Thurinus established a patron-client relationship between the Octavii and Copia-Thurium and its surrounding environs. Both Octavian and the Thurians revived this memory when it served their respective interests. M. Antonius therefore used it derisively because of its topicality, not its obscurity. The second part discusses Suetonius’ use of his gift to Hadrian of the Thurinus statuette to revive a forgotten exemplum from the life of Augustus’ biological father. Through this device, the biographer showcases his scholarship’s ability to recover fading exempla in the tradition of Augustus. The author also uses the statuette to intimate the positive prospects for a successful outcome to Hadrian’s ambitions to be a new Augustus.

Keywords: Suetonius; Augustus; Hadrian; Roman statuettes; Roman names

Bibliography

  • Barrett, A. A. Livia: first lady of Imperial Rome. New Haven: Yale U.P., 2002.Google Scholar

  • Barton, T. Power and Knowledge: astrology, physiognomics, and medicine under the Roman Empire. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 2002.Google Scholar

  • Bartsch, S. “Eros and the Roman philosopher.” In Erotikon: essays on eros, ancient and modern, edited by S. Bartsch and T. Bartscherer, 59–83. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2006.Google Scholar

  • Becht, E. A. Regeste über die Zeit von Cäsars Ermordung bis zum Umschwung in der Politik des Antonius. Freiburg: Caritas-Druckerei, 1911.Google Scholar

  • Bennett, J. Trajan, Optimus Princeps: a life and times. Bloomington: Indiana U.P., 1997.Google Scholar

  • Birley, A. Hadrian: the restless emperor. London and New York: Routledge, 2013.Google Scholar

  • Bodel, J. “Cicero’s Minerva, Penates, and the mother of the Lares: an outline of Roman domestic religion.” In Household and Family Religion in Antiquity, edited by J. Bodel and S. M. Olyan, 248–275. Oxford and Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2008.Google Scholar

  • Bonfante, L. “Dedicated mothers.” VRel 3 (1984): 1–17.Google Scholar

  • Brennan, T. C. The Praetorship in the Roman Republic, Vol. 2: 122–49 BC. Oxford: Oxford U.P., 2000Google Scholar

  • Butrica, J. L. P. “Some myths and anomalies in the study of Roman sexuality.” Journal of Homosexuality 49.3–4 (2005): 209–269.CrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Carter. J. M. Suetonius. Divus Augustus. London: Bristol Classical, 2009.Google Scholar

  • Cooley, A. Res Gestae Divi Augusti: text, translation, and commentary. Cambridge: Cambridge U. P., 2009.Google Scholar

  • Courtney, E. A Commentary on the Satires of Juvenal. Berkeley: California Classical Studies, 2013.Google Scholar

  • Cova, P. V. “Cassio Parmense fra storia e leggenda.” In Letteratura latina dell’Italia settentrionale: cinque studi, edited by P. V. Cova et al., 61–85. Milan: Vita e Pensiero, 1992.Google Scholar

  • Dennison, W. “The epigraphic sources of Suetonius.” AJA 2 (1898): 26–70.Google Scholar

  • Edwards, C. “Response to Shadi Bartsch.” In Erotikon: Essays on Eros, Ancient and Modern, edited by S. Bartsch and T. Bartscherer, 84–90. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2006.Google Scholar

  • Erdkamp, P. “Soldiers, Roman citizens, and Latin colonists in mid-Republican Italy.” Ancient Society 41 (2006): 109–146.Google Scholar

  • Frier, B. “Urban praetors and rural violence: the legal background of Cicero’s Pro Caecina.” TAPA 113 (1983): 221–241.Google Scholar

  • Gargola, D. J. “The Gracchan reform and Appian’s representation of an agrarian crisis.” In People, Land, and Politics: demographic developments and the transformation of Roman Italy, 300 BC–AD 14, edited by L. de Ligt and S. J. Northwood, 487–518. Leiden: Brill, 2008.Google Scholar

  • Gregorovius, F. The Emperor Hadrian: a picture of the Graeco-Roman world in his time. Trans. by Mary E. Robinson. London: MacMillan, 1898.Google Scholar

  • Gross, W. H. “Ein Jugendbildnis des Augustus?” In Eikones: Studien zum griechischen und römischen Bildnis, edited by T. Gelzer and H. Jucker, 126–129. Berne: Francke, 1980.Google Scholar

  • Hallett, J. P. “Perusinae glandes and the changing image of Augustus.” AJAH 2 (1977): 151–171.Google Scholar

  • Kellum, B. A. “The city adorned: programmatic display at the aedes concordiae Augustae.” In Between Republic and Empire: interpretations of Augustus and his principate, edited by K. A. Raaflaub and M. Toher, 276–307. Berkeley: University of California, 1990.Google Scholar

  • Laes, C. “Desperately different? Delicia children in the Roman household.” In Early Christian Families in Context: an interdisciplinary dialogue, edited by D. L. Balch and C. Osiek, 298–324. Grand Rapids, MI: W. B. Eerdmans, 2003.Google Scholar

  • Lambert, R. Beloved and God: the story of Hadrian and Antinous. New York: Viking, 1984.Google Scholar

  • Linderski, J. “The surname of M. Antonius Creticus and the cognomina ex victis gentibus.” ZPE 80 (1990): 157–164.Google Scholar

  • Lintott, A. Cicero as Evidence: a historian’s companion. Oxford: Oxford U. P., 2008.Google Scholar

  • Marshall, B. A. “Crassus’ ovation in 71 B.C.” Historia 21.4 (1972): 669–673.Google Scholar

  • Muller, V. “The date of the Augustus from Prima Porta.” AJP 62.4 (1941): 496–499.Web of ScienceGoogle Scholar

  • Orlin, E. Foreign Cults in Rome: creating a Roman Empire. Oxford: Oxford U. P., 2010.Google Scholar

  • Osgood, J. W. “Caesar and Nicomedes.” CQ 58.2 (2008): 687–691.Google Scholar

  • Palmer, R. E. A. “Lizard green, locket gold.” In Etruscan Italy, edited by J. F. Hall, 17–22. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University and the Museum of Art, 1996: 17–22.Google Scholar

  • Power, T. J. “Pliny 5.10 and the literary career of Suetonius.” JRS 100 (2010): 140–162.Google Scholar

  • Ramage, E. S. The Nature and Purpose of Augustus’ Res Gestae. Stuttgart: F. Steiner, 1987.Google Scholar

  • Richardson, L., Jr. A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U. P., 1992.Google Scholar

  • Richlin, A. The Garden of Priapus: sexuality and aggression in Roman humor. New York: Oxford U. P., 1992.Google Scholar

  • Ridley, R. The Emperor’s Retrospect: Augustus’ Res Gestae in epigraphy, historiography and commentary. Leuven and Dudley, MA: Peters, 2003.Google Scholar

  • Shaw, B. “Bandits in the Roman Empire.” P&P 105 (1984): 3–52.Google Scholar

  • Southern, P. Augustus. London and New York: Routledge, 2001.Google Scholar

  • Stewart, R. “Catiline and the crisis of 63–60 B.C.: the Italian perspective.” Latomus 54 (1995): 62–78.Google Scholar

  • Toher, M. “Octavian’s arrival in Rome, 44 B.C.” CQ 54.1 (2004): 174–184.Google Scholar

  • Waites, M. C. “The nature of the lares and their representation in Roman art.” AJA 24.3 (1920): 241–261.Google Scholar

  • Wallace-Hadrill, A. Suetonius: the scholar and his Caesars. New Haven: Yale U. P., 1984.Google Scholar

  • Wardle, D. “Unimpeachable sponsors of imperial autocracy, or Augustus’ dream team.” Antichthon 39 (2005): 29–47.Google Scholar

  • Wardle, D. Suetonius. Life of Augustus. Oxford: Oxford U. P., 2014.Google Scholar

  • Wiseman, T. P. “Augustus, Sulla, and the supernatural.” In The Lost Memoirs of Augustus and the Development of Roman Autobiography, edited by C. Smith and A. Powell, 111–123. Swansea: Classical Press of Wales, 2009.Google Scholar

  • Ziogas, I. V. “The permanence of Cupid’s metamorphosis in the Aeneid.” TiC 2 (2010): 150–174.Google Scholar

  • Zumbo, A. “La gens Cattia a Copia-Thurii (CIL X 14; Cic. Pro M. Tullio VII, 19) e una nuova ipotesi sull’origine di Cassano Ionio.” MEP 11.13 (2008): 161–176.Google Scholar

About the article

Published Online: 2015-11-27

Published in Print: 2015-12-01


Citation Information: Journal of Ancient History, Volume 3, Issue 2, Pages 242–266, ISSN (Online) 2324-8114, ISSN (Print) 2324-8106, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/jah-2015-0012.

Export Citation

© 2015 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston.Get Permission

Comments (0)

Please log in or register to comment.
Log in