塔西佗《历史》的命运观

塔西佗《历史》中"命运"的涵义,或指神性之命运、或指偶然发生的历史事件之原因。塔西佗承认神性之命运对人事的支配作用,同时也重视从人事上探求史事的原因。此类似乎存在矛盾的命运观中,实际上蕴含了相当深刻的思想。塔西佗意识到人类理性在历史中的作用,同时也意识到人类理性无法把握历史的偶然性与具有必然性意义的演变。他所谓神性之命运,最深层意思是指人类理性的局限性。塔西佗的命运观,深受希腊和罗马传统史学命运思想的影响。     

塔西佗史学初探

作为帝国早期罗马社会的现实产物,塔西佗史学具有深远宽泛的社会历史内涵和浓烈复杂的政治伦理意蕴:政治观对其史学创作产生了深重影响,撰述旨趣则与其现实隐忧息息相关。在道德史观与道德目的的意义上,塔西佗史学体现了严格的社会批判精神,并进而形塑了其凝重简练的历史叙事风格。塔西佗史学集中体现了西方古典史学的某些共性特征,并在一定程度上深刻影响了整个西方历史。     

塔西佗史学叙事结构刍议——兼论其史学视野

塔西佗史学大致涵盖宏观、中观和微观等三个叙事层次.塔西佗主要通过将国内国外、前代后代史事并置载录以及其他相关叙事技巧,构创了相对宏阔的叙事视野.有基于是,诸如比较等叙事方法很大程度上强化并彰显了塔西佗史学视野的道德旨趣.就学术特征、渊源而言,塔西佗编撰思想亦与古代史学观念及其原初发展情态等息息相关.考察塔西佗的相关撰述实践,有助于理会其作为一种编撰体例与叙事结构的史学意义和深刻内涵.     

塔西佗历史书写中的“年代记”及其政治功能北大核心CSSCI

塔西佗以传统“年代记”体裁写作自奥古斯都到图密善统治时期的历史。他的历史探讨最深刻的人性与政治的关系,以此论证元首政体的好坏与统治者品性之间的联系。塔西佗的政治生涯大部分在图密善时代度过,在图拉真统治时期开始写作历史。图密善的暴政使他对历史写作持谨慎小心的态度,而暴政带来的影响使他希望通过历史写作给贵族阶层提供政治教诲,培育政治上的审慎美德,以便服务于国家。历史写作上的谨慎和提供教诲的愿望,使他放弃了当时流行的皇帝传记体裁而选择传统“年代记”体裁。尽管“年代记”与皇帝传记一样,都把皇帝作为叙述中心,但塔西佗研究的重点是皇帝的统治技巧、计谋和贵族阶层对此的回应,这种叙述体裁的选择因而也是其写作意图的组成部分。     

论塔西佗的史学目的--兼论其史学实践的生成背景

塔西佗史学的生成背景是宏富的,史学目的则与其复杂的生平经历息息相关,具有极其深远而又宽泛的历史意蕴。塔西佗史学创作的目的大致体现在三个主要方面：对暴君、暴政的深刻反省和批判;见证时代的幸福;探究帝制的形成、实质以及国家和民众的救赎之道。     

读《日耳曼尼亚志》的联想

在《日耳曼尼亚志》中,塔西佗通过描述日耳曼人的神祗崇拜抨击帝国时期道德沦丧的现象,唤醒罗马的早期信仰;日耳曼人对宗教的渴求是与帝国的基督教文化相融合的基础,日耳曼文化与罗马文化有着不可分割的联系,对中世纪文化形态的形成也具有重要意义。     

艺术与真实——读《塔西佗〈编年史〉中的讽喻与误读》

塔西佗(Tacitus,约公元56-118年)是古罗马最伟大同时也是饱受争议的历史学家,学界分歧主要是如何看待其历史叙事艺术性与真实性的实质内涵及紧要关联.     

本期寄语

正本期"古代地中海文明"栏刊出的首篇文章是拱玉书教授所作《笔间时有长虹气,不拘一格看古今——吴宇虹教授论文集代序》。两位教授都是林志纯先生亲传弟子,均为国际亚述学界知名学者。此文中,拱玉书对吴宇虹的研究成果既有高度评价,也有坦率争鸣,于往事追忆中评点治学,多有见地。李政教授的《哈吐什里一世的政治遗诏译注》是赫梯国王哈吐里一世政治遗嘱文献的中文详明译注文本。该文献是认识赫梯国家早期王权继承和王国内部政治统治状况的重要史料。另一篇,宇信潇所作《试析塔西佗日耳曼尼亚志中的"Germani"》专门讨论塔西佗等西方古典作家著作     

试析塔西佗《日耳曼尼亚志》中的“Germani”

塔西佗等西方古典作家笔下的"Germani",在中文著述中通常译为"日耳曼人",有的甚至误将其视为一个民族共同体。从塔西佗《日耳曼尼亚志》等古典著作的记载中发现,"Germani"起源于"日耳曼尼亚"这一地理概念,是生活在日耳曼尼亚这一地域范围内所有居民的通称。如果将"Germani"译为"日耳曼尼亚人",似乎更能够突出其因地而名的起源和笼统指代日耳曼尼亚地区所有居民的涵义。     

联通古典与现代的一部史学力作——读莫米格里亚诺《现代史学的古典根基》

在人类史学发展史上,古代史学遗产丰厚并对后世影响深远。A·莫米格里亚诺将之大致划分为波斯、犹太、希腊和罗马史学等不同类型,并由此追溯了现代西方史学的古典根基。其间,论者着重探讨了古代史学自身的相互影响、古希腊史学内涵特征以及塔西佗影响等诸多热点难点问题。在此意义上,全书深入揭示了古代与现代史学之间具体的历史衍生关联。遗憾的是,论者对史学某些共性特征关注不够,部分论断缺乏缜密的逻辑分析。     

Telling small stories: spaces of knowledge and the practice of geography

This article examines how the practice of learning geography, and the arenas in which knowledge-making takes place, can be usefully positioned within changing histories of the discipline. It contends that networks of action – understood through the intersection of social sites, subjects and sources – present a conceptual framework and narrative focus for the re-consideration of specific episodes from geography's past. The interventions made here are informed and illustrated by a 'small story' about the doing of geography. Based on different personal accounts, the story revives a series of events, encounters, dialogues and images dating back to the winter of 1951 at Glenmore Lodge, Scotland. This educational institution in the Cairngorm mountains offered children from urban areas the opportunity to learn field studies and the skills of 'outdoor citizenship'. Initially, the focus falls on Margaret Jack, a 14-year-old field-course participant. Her learning experiences are traced through personal letters, a diary and a field journal dating from that time, and her recent recollections of this event. Margaret's account dovetails with the story of her field studies instructor, Robin Murray. Robin's role is traced through his learning experiences as a geography undergraduate at Aberdeen University, and the recent recollections of Catriona Murray, his wife.     

Das Wissen der Schulden. Recht,Kulturtechnik und Alltagserfahrung im liberalen Kapitalismus

The Knowledge of Debt: Law, Media Technique, and Everyday Experience in Liberal Capitalism. Performing an object such as ‘the economy’ hinges on practices of formatting knowledge. The article proposes to look at such instituting moments in connection with social conflicts over the legitimate rules of exchange. This is exemplified by way of recounting the story of the codification of Swiss bankruptcy law in 1889. In order to homogenize the legal procedures of debt collection and bankruptcy, two subject categories were instituted: ‘merchants’ and ‘non-merchants’. These different categories were thought to account for the diverging temporalities and spaces of credit exchange in everyday economic life. The introduction of the commercial register, a media-technical apparatus, enabled a formal distinction between ‘merchants’ and ‘non-merchants’. However, this boundary was contested and proved to be porose.     

Two radiocarbon dates for freshwater shells from hierakonpolis: Archaeological and geological interpretations

Shells of two species of freshwater bivalve (Unio willcocksi Bullen Newton and Etheria elliptica Lamarck) from the predynastic Gerzean (Nagada II) Decorated Tomb at Hierakonpolis, Egypt have given dates of 5000±90 bp for the tomb, and 12,900±120 bp for an episode of Nile terrace accumulation (correlated here with the Sahaba-Darau aggradation event). The archaeological and geological significance of these results is discussed, together with an outline of problems associated with radiocarbon dating of shell. Comparisons are made with the few other radiocarbon dates available for the Predynastic period in Egypt and possible reasons for the presence of shells in the tomb are considered.     

Some chronological implications of a fossil molluscan assemblage from a neolithic site at Brook,Kent, England

The later post-glacial history of a valley in the chalk escarpment near Brook, Kent, is described, based on molluscan stratigraphy, archaeological evidence and radio-carbon dating. Differences in size and colour banding, respectively, of fossil and living representatives of two species of land snails, Pomatias elegans (Müller) and Cepaea nemoralis (L.), are correlated with climatic change during the post-glacial period. The problems of the use of fossil shells of these species as samples for radiocarbon dating are discussed.     

China's Dynamic Industrial Sector: The Internet Industry

A Singapore-based economic geographer explores and analyzes the spatially uneven evolution of the Internet industry in China, arguing that the country's immense regional disparity in the provision of Internet services is best explained by the interplay of place- and path-dependence. The author demonstrates how the highly uneven regional endowments in relevant industrial and entrepreneurial resources have led to the substantial and persistent regional imbalance within China's emerging "new economy." His initial survey of the country's 100 leading Internet content providers (firms), identified from a listing of ca. 11,700 commercial websites, is selectively augmented to reflect an increase of over 70 million Internet users in 2007, reaching a total of 253 million in June 2008, and thus overtaking the United States as the world's largest Internet market. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: L10, L86, O30. 6 figures, 1 table, 53 references.     

The 1911 International Exposition in Rome: architecture, archaeology, and national identity

This paper discusses the 1911 International Exposition in Rome and illustrates how this patriotic celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Italian Sate utilized symbolic landscapes of architecture and archaeology to promote nationalist sentiments of italianità and romanità centered on the young capital of Rome. Through modern art exhibitions at the Valle Giulia, scientific conferences at the Castel Sant’Angelo, archaeological exhibits on the Roman Empire in the Baths of Diocletian, and regional Italian pavilions in the Piazza d’Armi, exposition officials offered a complex representation of Italian national identity that was modern yet ancient, cosmopolitan yet bucolic, European yet regional, and imperial yet developing.     

The Rise and Fall of Alexander the Great – The Need for Medical Analysis: Reply to Commentaries

Alexander the Great died in 323 B.C. from an unknown cause. By elucidating the nature of his death, we can better interpret various aspects of Alexandrian history. Alexander’s death may have ensued from the sequelae of a congenital scoliotic syndrome. It would therefore be of significance to note that one of the greatest leaders in history who conquered much of the then known world may have been suffering from a physical disability.     

The Chemists' Style of Thinking

Der Denkstil der Chemiker. Der Aufsatz diskutiert die Tragfähigkeit des Begriffes “Denkstil”, wie er von Alistair Crombie eingeführt und Ian Hacking aufgegriffen wurde, für das Verständnis dessen, wie das Fach Chemie historisch seine Identität ausgeprägt hat. Obwohl weder Crombie noch Hacking den Begriff “Denkstil” in Bezug auf einzelne Disziplinen verwendet haben, erscheint im Fall der Chemie seine Anwendung besonders vielversprechend, weil er hier hilft, ein zentrales Problem zu thematisieren – nämlich die Frage, wie es Chemikern trotz wechselnder Gegenstandsbereiche und theoretischer Umbrüche gelang, eine eigenständige und stabile Identität auszubilden. Nach einer Einführung in den Begriff “Denkstil”, argumentiert der Aufsatz, dass die Beständigkeit der Chemie als eines Faches wesentlich in ihren Laborpraktiken gründet, die ihrerseits wiederum die spezifische Art der Fragen bestimmten, die Chemiker in ihren Forschungen stellten bzw. die Form der Antworten, nach denen sie suchten. Folgende Merkmale kennzeichnen diesen “chemischen Denkstil” (1) eine spezifische, im Herstellen begründete Form des Wissens, (2) die Befassung mit einzelnen Stoffen und Materialien statt mit Materie im Allgemeinen und (3) eine Beobachtung von Natur besonders im Hinblick auf Transformationsprozesse. The Chemists' Style of Thinking. This paper discusses the relevance of the notion of “styles of scientific thinking” introduced by Alistair Crombie and revisited by Ian Hacking, for understanding how chemistry shaped its identity. Although neither Crombie nor Hacking applied this notion to individual disciplines, it seems appropriate to use it in the case of chemistry because it helps to address a puzzling issue: how did chemists manage to shape an identity of their own, despite shifting territories and theoretical transformations? Following a presentation of the notion of style, I will argue that the stable identity of chemistry is rooted in laboratory practices, which determined the specific questions that chemists put to nature as well as the answers to their questions. The “chemical style of thinking” is characterized by i) a specific way of knowing through making, ii) the concern with individual materials rather than matter in general and iii) a specific commitment to nature.