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Molosser
The Molossus ( el, Μολοσσός, Molossós; also known as the Molossian hound, Epirus mastiff) was a breed of dog from Ancient Greece. History The Molossus were dogs that were kept by the ancient Greek tribe and kingdom of the Molossians, who inhabited the region of Epirus. The Molossus were famous throughout the ancient world for their size and ferocity and were frequently mentioned in ancient literature, including the writings of Aristophanes, Aristotle, Grattius, Horace, Lucan, Lucretius, Martial, Nemesianus, Oppian of Apamea, Plautus, Seneca, Statius, Ovid, and Virgil. The Molossians issued silver coinage with an image of a Molossus as their emblem. It is sometimes stated in books and magazines, particularly in Continental Europe and North America, that all mastiff-type dogs are descended from the Molossus. This theory states that the breed's progenitors arrived in Molossia from Asia and were eventually discovered by the Romans who employed large numbers as guards fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jennings Dog
The Jennings Dog (also known as The Duncombe Dog or The Dog of Alcibiades) is a Roman sculpture of a dog with a docked tail. Named for its first modern owner, Henry Constantine Jennings, it is a 2nd-century AD Roman copy of a Hellenistic bronze original. The original was probably of the 2nd century BC. It is high; its leonine muzzle and one leg have been repaired since its rediscovery. Though it is one of only a few animal sculptures surviving from Classical Antiquity, antiquity, a pair of similar marble mastiffs of the same model can be seen in the Cortile del Belvedere, Belvedere Court of the Vatican Museums. Molossian dog It is identified at the British Museum as a Molossus (dog), Molossian guard dog. The Molossian breed was native to Epirus in northwestern Greece, which was sacked by Rome in 168 BC, so it is assumed to have been associated with some civic monument in Epirus, and to have been brought to Rome. Natural History (Pliny), Pliny mentions a highly valued bronze d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucan
Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (3 November 39 AD – 30 April 65 AD), better known in English as Lucan (), was a Roman poet, born in Corduba (modern-day Córdoba), in Hispania Baetica. He is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of the Imperial Latin period, known in particular for his epic '' Pharsalia''. His youth and speed of composition set him apart from other poets. Life Three brief ancient accounts allow for the reconstruction of a modest biography – the earliest attributed to Suetonius, another to an otherwise unknown Vacca, and the third anonymous and undated – along with references in Martial, Cassius Dio, Tacitus's ''Annals'', and one of Statius's ''Silvae''. Lucan was the son of Marcus Annaeus Mela and grandson of Seneca the Elder; he grew up under the tutelage of his uncle Seneca the Younger. Born into a wealthy family, he studied rhetoric at Athens and was probably provided with a philosophical and Stoic education by his uncle. His wife was Polla Arge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Statius
Publius Papinius Statius ( Greek: Πόπλιος Παπίνιος Στάτιος; ; ) was a Greco-Roman poet of the 1st century CE. His surviving Latin poetry includes an epic in twelve books, the ''Thebaid''; a collection of occasional poetry, the '' Silvae''; and an unfinished epic, the '' Achilleid''. He is also known for his appearance as a guide in the ''Purgatory'' section of Dante's epic poem, the ''Divine Comedy''. Life Family background Information about Statius' life is almost entirely drawn from his ''Silvae'' and a mention by the satirist Juvenal. He was born to a family of Greek-Campanian origin; his Roman cognomen suggests that at some time an ancestor of his was freed and adopted the name of his former master, although neither Statius nor his father were slaves. The poet's father (whose name is unknown) was a native of Velia but later moved to Naples and spent time in Rome where he taught with marked success. From boyhood to adulthood, Statius' father proved hims ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phaedra (Seneca)
''Phaedra'' is a Roman tragedy written by philosopher and dramatist Lucius Annaeus Seneca before 54 A.D. Its 1,280 lines of verse tell the story of Phaedra, wife of King Theseus of Athens and her consuming lust for her stepson Hippolytus. Based on Greek mythology and the tragedy '' Hippolytus'' by Euripides, Seneca's ''Phaedra'' is one of several artistic explorations of this tragic story. Seneca portrays Phaedra as self-aware and direct in the pursuit of her stepson, while in other treatments of the myth, she is more of a passive victim of fate. This Phaedra takes on the scheming nature and the cynicism often assigned to the nurse character. When Seneca's plays were first revived during the Renaissance, the work that soon came to be known as ''Phaedra'' was titled ''Hippolytus.'' It was presented in Latin in Rome in 1486. The play has influenced drama over the succeeding two millennia, particularly the works of Shakespeare and dramas of 16th- and 17th-century France. Other no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seneca The Younger
Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (; 65 AD), usually known mononymously as Seneca, was a Stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome, a statesman, dramatist, and, in one work, satirist, from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature. Seneca was born in Córdoba in Hispania, and raised in Rome, where he was trained in rhetoric and philosophy. His father was Seneca the Elder, his elder brother was Lucius Junius Gallio Annaeanus, and his nephew was the poet Lucan. In AD 41, Seneca was exiled to the island of Corsica under emperor Claudius, but was allowed to return in 49 to become a tutor to Nero. When Nero became emperor in 54, Seneca became his advisor and, together with the praetorian prefect Sextus Afranius Burrus, provided competent government for the first five years of Nero's reign. Seneca's influence over Nero declined with time, and in 65 Seneca was forced to take his own life for alleged complicity in the Pisonian conspiracy to assassinate Nero, in which he was probably ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Captivi
''Captivi'' is a Latin play by the early Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus. The title has been translated as ''The Captives'' or ''The Prisoners'', and the plot focuses on slavery and prisoners of war. Although the play contains much broad humor, it is a relatively serious treatment of significant themes compared to most of Plautus’ other comedies. Plautus himself points out the difference in tone between this play and his other works in ''Captivi’s'' prologue. Plot summary Philocrates and his slave Tyndarus, from the Greek district of Elis, have been captured in war with another Greek region, Aetolia. They are now prisoners and slaves bought by Hegio, a well-to-do resident of Aetolia, who is planning to trade them for his son, Philopolemus, who has been captured in Elis. Pretending to be each other, the supposed slave Philocrates is sent to make the trade, while Tyndarus risks his life by remaining. A friend of Philocrates named Aristophontes has also been capture ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plautus
Titus Maccius Plautus (; c. 254 – 184 BC), commonly known as Plautus, was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by the innovator of Latin literature, Livius Andronicus. The word Plautine refers to both Plautus's own works and works similar to or influenced by his. Biography Not much is known about Titus Maccius Plautus's early life. It is believed that he was born in Sarsina, a small town in Emilia Romagna in northern Italy, around 254 BC.''The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature'' (1996) Ed. M.C. Howatson and Ian Chilvers, Oxford University Press, Oxford Reference Online According to Morris Marples, Plautus worked as a stage-carpenter or scene-shifter in his early years. It is from this work, perhaps, that his love of the theater originated. His acting talent was eventually discovered; and he adopted the names "Maccius ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oppian Of Apamea
Pseudo-Oppian ( grc, Ὀππιανός, ''Oppianós''; la, Oppianus), sometimes referred to as Oppian of Apamea or Oppian of Syria, was a Greco- Syrian poet during the reign of the emperor Caracalla. His work, a Greek didactic epic poem on hunting called the ''Cynegetica'' (), has been erroneously ascribed to Oppian of Anazarbus. The real name of Pseudo-Oppian is not known. Biography There are only a few facts that can be established about the author of the ''Cynegetica''. The poem is dedicated to the reigning emperor, Caracalla, and his mother, Julia Domna. The absence of any reference to Caracalla's brother and co-emperor Geta has led scholars to assume that the ''Cynegetica'' postdates Geta's death in 211. The ''Cynegetica'' can thus be dated somewhere between 212 and Caracalla's death in 217. Caracalla's visit to Syria in 215 may have been the occasion for the poem's composition. He also claims to have personally seen a black lion that was being sent to the emperor. The poet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cynegetica (Nemesianus)
The Cynegetica is a didactic Latin poem about hunting by Marcus Aurelius Olympius Nemesianus. The poem is usually dated to 283/284 A.D. - as it refers to the reign of the Roman Emperors Carinus and Numerian (AD 283 - 284). Structure and Synopsis The following structural division of the poem is proposed by Toohey ;I Proem (lines 1- 102) :Nemesianus announces that his poem's theme is hunting and the "battles of the countryside" (''proelia ruris''). He is inspired by Castalius (i.e. Apollo), the Muses and Bacchus to set off on untested ground. Nemesianus briefly refers to various clichéd mythological themes (the myths of Niobe, Semele, Pentheus, Dirce, Hippodamia, the Danaides, Biblis, Myrrha, Cadmus, Io and Argus, Hercules, Tereus, Phaethon, the house of Tantalus, Medea, Glauce, Nisus, Circe and Antigone), but states that poets have already sung all about them. Instead, Nemesianus states that his preferred theme is hunting hares, does, wolves, foxes, ichneumon, pole ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nemesianus
Marcus Aurelius Olympius Nemesianus was a Roman poet thought to have been a native of Carthage and flourished about AD 283. He was a popular poet at the court of the Roman emperor Carus ( Historia Augusta, ''Carus'', 11). Works The works below are by, or sometimes attributed to, Nemesianus Didactic poetry Nemesianus wrote poems on the arts of fishing (''Halieutica''), aquatics (''Nautica'') and hunting ('' Cynegetica''), but only a fragment of the last, 325 hexameter lines, has been preserved. It is neatly expressed in good Latin, and was used as a school textbook in the 9th century AD. Two fragments exist of a poem about bird catching (''De aucupio''), which are sometimes attributed to Nemesianus, although this attribution is considered doubtful.Hornblower, S. and Spawforth, A. (eds) (1996), the Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3rd ed. p 1033 The Eclogues Four eclogues, formerly attributed to Titus Calpurnius Siculus, are now generally considered to be by Nemesianus. The Pra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Epigram
An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word is derived from the Greek "inscription" from "to write on, to inscribe", and the literary device has been employed for over two millennia. The presence of wit or sarcasm tends to distinguish non-poetic epigrams from aphorisms and adages, which tend to lack those qualities. Ancient Greek The Greek tradition of epigrams began as poems inscribed on votive offerings at sanctuariesincluding statues of athletesand on funerary monuments, for example "Go tell it to the Spartans, passersby...". These original epigrams did the same job as a short prose text might have done, but in verse. Epigram became a literary genre in the Hellenistic period, probably developing out of scholarly collections of inscriptional epigrams. Though modern epigrams are usually thought of as very short, Greek literary epigram was not always as short as later examples, and the divide between " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martial
Marcus Valerius Martialis (known in English as Martial ; March, between 38 and 41 AD – between 102 and 104 AD) was a Roman poet from Hispania (modern Spain) best known for his twelve books of ''Epigrams'', published in Rome between AD 86 and 103, during the reigns of the emperors Domitian, Nerva and Trajan. In these short, witty poems he cheerfully satirises city life and the scandalous activities of his acquaintances, and romanticises his provincial upbringing. He wrote a total of 1,561 epigrams, of which 1,235 are in elegiac couplets. Martial has been called the greatest Latin epigrammatist, and is considered the creator of the modern epigram. Early life Knowledge of his origins and early life are derived almost entirely from his works, which can be more or less dated according to the well-known events to which they refer. In Book X of his ''Epigrams'', composed between 95 and 98, he mentions celebrating his fifty-seventh birthday; hence he was born during March 38, 39, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
