Approaches to the Roman Empire: A Perspective

MIRIAM T. GRIFFIN. Nero: The End of A Dynasty. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1984. Pp. 320. $25 (US); RICHARD J.A. TALBERT. The Senate of Imperial Rome. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1984. Pp. xviii, 583. $60 (US); J.B. CAMPBELL. The Emperor and the Roman Army 31 BC-AD 235. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984. Pp. xx, 468. $54 (US); ROBERT L. WILKEN. The Christians as the Romans Saw Them. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1984. Pp. xx, 214. $18.95 (US); HOWARD CLARK KEE. Miracle in the Early Christian World: A Study in Sociohistorical Method. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1983. Pp. xii, 320. $25 (US).     

Political Culture in the Holy Roman Empire

This article reviews six essay collections and one monographon late medieval and early modern political culture in the HolyRoman Empire. Following a general survey of historiographicaltrends and a discussion of the specific contributions of theworks under review (covering topics from international relations,state formation and the role of language to representative assembliesand the exercise of power in towns and villages), it attemptsa preliminary sketch of the basic parameters of pre-modern politics.Prominent insights include shifts in the balance between oral,ritual and written communication, the significance of informalbonds and the negotiated quality of developments at all levelsof government. The conclusion assesses the potential of the‘new’ political history and calls for renewed effortsto link discourses, representations and perceptions to the norms,structures and socio-economic conditions with which they interacted.     

Edward Gibbon and the Roman Empire

MARTIN GILBERT. Second World War. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1989. Pp. xix, 846.

BARRIE and FRANCIS PITT. The Chronological Atlas of World War II. London: Macmillan, 1989. Pp. xi, 178.

CORRELLI BARNETT, ed. Hitler's Generals. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1989. Pp. xix, 497.

GEOFFREY ROBERTS. The Unholy Alliance: Stalin's Pact with Hitler. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1989. Pp. xviii, 296.

VICTOR SUVOROV. Icebreaker: Who Started the Second World War?, trans. Thomas B. Beattie. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1990. Pp. xvii, 364.

ROY DOUGLAS. The World War 1939–1943: The Cartoonists' Vision. London and New York: Routledge, 1990. Pp. xii, 300.

PAUL FUSSELL. Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. Pp. x, 330.     

论罗马帝国消防军

罗马帝国消防军是奥古斯都统治时期建立的专门负责首都消防与夜间治安的准军事性组织。它的建立是奥古斯都对传统消防模式的革新,更是其行使元首权力、维护社会秩序稳定、巩固元首制的要略之一。消防军通过完善的预、接警机制,及时发现与扑救火灾,执行旨在抑制火灾发生的消防巡检,不仅提高了居民消防安全意识,更使火灾次数明显减少。消防军还结合夜间消防巡逻,维护首都夜间治安,在其巡逻下,罗马夜间秩序稳定。消防军是古罗马一创举,说明罗马帝国政府意识到保证消防安全与维护社会秩序稳定在促进社会与国家和谐发展上的重要作用。     

公元1—2世纪罗马帝国的巡察机制

罗马帝国巡察机制是针对行省管理构建的一种监督模式,始于奥古斯都时期,至公元2世纪中叶完善。它的架构包括中央巡察机制和地方巡察机制两部分;巡察内容覆盖行省的政治、经济、军事等领域;在运作上坚持中央集权与行省自主巡察的原则,形成了中央和地方互相沟通、充分监督、高度统一的巡察网络。罗马帝国的巡察机制是其政治制度的重要组成部分,有助于维护中央集权和提高行省管理效能,是古代帝国将巡察与国家管理有机结合的体现。     

Camels in the northern provinces of the Roman Empire

This paper describes the camel bones discovered in two Late Roman contexts from Arlon (Belgium). The morphological and metrical analyses identify the animal as a dromedary.     

铭文辑译:罗马帝国的弗鲁曼塔里伊

弗鲁曼塔里伊是罗马帝国图拉真时期出现的统属于中央的信息情报与监察人员,负责传递公文、刺探情报与监督行省。因史籍对弗鲁曼塔里伊的记载较少,拉丁铭文便成为研究弗鲁曼塔里伊的重要资料。本文选取《拉丁铭文集》和《铭文年鉴》中辑译的35条有关弗鲁曼塔里伊建制及其职能的铭文,借鉴相关文献,进行必要的注释。     

罗马帝国3世纪危机时期军队蛮族化问题

3世纪是罗马帝国历史上的特殊时期。这一时期,帝国发生了全面的奴隶制危机,其伴生性后果之一便是军队的蛮族化。罗马军队蛮族化由来已久,是一个渐进性、历时性的过程,3世纪罗马军队蛮族化步伐加快是其必然结果。蛮族化改变了军队的构成,军队性质也发生了变化,其消极影响大于积极因素、3世纪危机强化了军队的蛮族化,并加快了这一历史进程。     

Sigisvult the Patrician, Maximinus the Arian, and political strategems in the Western Roman Empire c. 425–40

This study investigates the roles played by the barbarian general Sigisvult and the Arian bishop Maximinus in western imperial politics during the reign of Valentinian III. In c. 426/7 Sigisvult was sent to North Africa to subdue the rebel Count Boniface. He was accompanied by Maximinus, who, in the course of the campaign, engaged in a celebrated debate with Augustine. Maximinus helped achieve a non-violent settlement that returned Boniface and his German troops to the imperial fold. Sigisvult then returned to Italy and was appointed Patrician and Master of Soldiers after the assassination of Felix in 430. In 435, however, this position was transferred to Fl. Aëtius, who spent most of his time campaigning in Gaul. In 440, the Vandals attacked Sicily, and Sigisvult was placed in charge of the defence of the Italian coast. At the same time, an Arian bishop Maximinus, apparently the one who had debated with Augustine, was in contact with the Vandals. He may have planted disinformation that Sebastianus, the son of the now-deceased Boniface, was about to invade Africa. This resulted in a Vandal withdrawal, and both Italy and Sicily were saved. Sigisvult last appears in the mid-440s, and his subsequent demise, perhaps in the early 450s, may have resulted in the breakdown of a precarious balance of power and the murders of Aëtius and Valentinian in 454 and 455, which hastened the demise of the Western Roman Empire. In an appendix it is suggested that although Boniface called in Vandal auxiliaries in 427, he was not responsible for the Vandal crossing in 429.     

共和国晚期至帝国初期古罗马人的希腊观

公元前3世纪初至公元1世纪初,罗马经历了重要的文化转型,罗马文化受到希腊文化的全面影响。在此转型期中,罗马人对希腊的态度非常复杂,用两分法来分析这种态度并不合适。本文从紧张忧虑、反观比较和鉴别选择三种态度分析罗马人的希腊观,认为在同希腊的对照中,罗马人进一步明确了自己的文化身份。     

再造罗马:晚期罗马多神教知识精英的历史叙述

作为公元4—5世纪罗马帝国的多神教知识精英,朱利安、里巴尼乌斯、阿米安、攸纳皮乌斯、克劳迪安、奥林匹奥多鲁斯等六位作家在表达各自历史观念的作品中不约而同地采取了高度相似的叙述模式。他们以罗马城为帝国的文化象征,赞美罗马往昔的文治武功,谴责当前的道德没落,坚信某位杰出的精英人物能够带领罗马再造辉煌。这种再造罗马的模式继承了帝国早期的意识形态传统,并在基督教势力相对忽视世俗历史的背景下得以生存。这些多神教知识精英的历史撰述为后世留下了重要遗产,它们反映了古典文化的强大生命力,并与同时代的基督教文化产生了互动,对中世纪基督教政治理论和历史观的形成起到了推动作用。     

Areopagitica,freedom of the press,and heterodox religion in the Holy Roman Empire

Milton’s Areopagitica (1644) is widely recognised as a foundational work in the philosophical history of the freedom of the press, although it had little impact upon first publication. However, in 1989 Leo Miller discovered an early German-language critique of Areopagitica from 1647, preserved among the papers of the Anglo-Prussian intelligencer Samuel Hartlib. The present article identifies the critic as the Brandenburg scholar Joachim Hübner, a key member of Hartlib’s networks. Available evidence suggests strongly that Hübner considered translating Milton’s tract in order to promote the printing and distribution of heterodox doctrines of spiritualist Christianity in the Holy Roman Empire. Using the short critique of Areopagitica as a springboard, this article demonstrates through biographical and contextual research the interrelations of political and religious cultures of the period, and that questions of freedom of the press were central to promoters of heterodox religious doctrine not only in England but also on the continent.