Landscapes of War in Greek and Roman Literature

"In this volume, literary scholars and ancient historians from across the globe investigate the creation, manipulation and representation of ancient war landscapes in literature. Landscape can spark armed conflict, dictate its progress and influence the affective experience of its participants. At the same time, warfare transforms landscapes, both physically and in the way in which they are later perceived and experienced. Landscapes of War in Greek and Roman Literature breaks new ground in exploring Greco-Roman literary responses to this complex interrelationship. Drawing on current ideas in cognitive theory, memory studies, ecocriticism and other fields, its individual chapters engage with such questions as: how did the Greeks and Romans represent the effects of war on the natural world? What distinctions did they see between spaces of war and other landscapes? How did they encode different experiences of war in literary representations of landscape? How was memory tied to landscape in wartime or its aftermath? And in what ways did ancient war landscapes shape modern experiences and representations of war? In four sections, contributors explore combatants' perception and experience of war landscapes, the relationship between war and the natural world, symbolic and actual forms of territorial control in a military context, and war landscapes as spaces of memory. Several contributions focus especially on modern intersections of war, landscape and the classical past"-- Provided by publisher Cover page Halftitle page Series page Title page Copyright page CONTENTS ILLUSTRATIONS CONTRIBUTORS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS INTRODUCTION 1 The ‘landscape of war’ 2 The case of Scamander 3 This volume Bibliography PART I PERCEPTION AND EXPERIENCE OF WAR LANDSCAPES CHAPTER 1 HOMER’S LANDSCAPE OF WAR: SPATIAL MENTAL MODEL AND COGNITIVE COLLAGE 1 Introduction 2 The topography of the Trojan plain: Homer’s locative information 3 Landscape as a realm of experience: Homer’s nonlocative information 4 Conclusions: language as a surrogate for experience Bibliography CHAPTER 2 WAR, WEATHER AND LANDSCAPE IN LIVY’S AB URBE CONDITA1 1 Introduction 2 Suspense and prefiguration 3 Focalization 4 Characterization: Philip V, the Romans and the fog at Cynoscephalae 5 Symbolism: the mist at Magnesia and the vacuity of Eastern display 6 Fog and the landscape of ambush 7 Conclusions: historiography, war and landscape Bibliography CHAPTER 3 THE CHALLENGE OF HISTORIOGRAPHIC ENARGEIA AND THE BATTLE OF LAKE TRASIMENE1 1 Introduction: the paradox of enargeia 2 The limits of sight: Thucydides’ naval battle at Syracuse 3 Between reality and representation 4 Polybius and the spectacle of history 5 Approaching Lake Trasimene in Polybius and Livy 6 Trasimene and the battle of perceptions 7 The clearing: the death of Flaminius Bibliography PART II LANDSCAPES OF RUIN AND RECOVERY89 CHAPTER 4 THE PROBLEMS WITH AGRICULTURAL RECOVERY IN LUCAN’S CIVIL WAR NARRATIVE 1 Introduction 2 Literary and historical antecedents 3 Destabilization 4 Fertility and mutation 5 War perpetuates war 6 Agricultural imagery for war 7 Conclusion Bibliography CHAPTER 5 LANDSCAPES IN SOPHOCLES’ OEDIPUS AT COLONUS AND THE POETRY OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR 1 Introduction 2 Landscapes of war in Sophocles’ OC 3 Landscapes in the British poetry of the First World War 4 Landscapes of war: a comparison 5 Possible reactions to the landscapes of Sophocles’ OC Bibliography CHAPTER 6 DISSENTING VOICES IN PROPERTIUS’S POST-WAR LANDSCAPES 1 1 Introduction 2 Perusia and around10 3 Veii 4 The Actian sea 5 Conclusion Bibliography PART III CONTROLLING LANDSCAPES AND THE SYMBOLISM OF POWER CHAPTER 7 JUSTIFYING CIVIL WAR: INTERACTIONS BETWEEN CAESAR AND THE ITALIAN LANDSCAPE IN LUCAN’S RUBICON PASSAGE (BC 1.183-235) 1 Introduction 2 Decentralizing Rome: landscape and identity 3 Arriving at the riverbanks: Patria voices her concerns 4 Caesar’s response: rituals of war 5 Caesar’s response: an invocation of ancient Roman gods 6 Abandoning treaties and seeking war 7 Conclusion Bibliography CHAPTER 8 WRITING A LANDSCAPE OF DEFEAT: THE ROMANS IN PARTHIA 1 Introduction 2 Geographies of victory and defeat 3 Lost in Parthia 4 Failing ethnographies 5 Parthia as another world 6 Roman traces in the Parthian landscape 7 Conclusion Bibliography CHAPTER 9 LANDSCAPE AND CHARACTER IN HERODIAN’S HISTORY OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE: THE WAR BETWEEN NIGER AND SEVERUS 1 Introduction 2 Some formal characteristics 3 Byzantium 4 Mount Taurus 5 Issus 6 Conclusion Bibliography PART IV MEMORY IN WAR LANDSCAPES CHAPTER 10 SEASCAPES OF WAR: HERODOTUS’S LITTORAL GAZE ON THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS1 1 Introduction 2 Reconstructing seascapes of war 3 Commemorating the battle of Salamis 4 Psyttaleia 5 Kynosoura 6 The Aigaleos ridge: Xerxes’ throne 7 Conclusion Bibliography CHAPTER 11 WAR IN A LANDSCAPE: THE DARDANELLES FROM HOMER TO GALLIPOLI Bibliography CHAPTER 12 MUTABLE MONUMENTS AND MUTABLE MEMORIES IN LUCAN’S BELLUM CIVILE AND THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA1 1 Introduction 2 Shifting landscapes, shifting memories 3 Forms of attention 4 Conclusion Bibliography INDEX LOCORUM INDEX Introduction / Marian W. Makins and Bettina Reitz-Joosse -- Perception and experience of war landscapes. Homer's landscape of war : spatial mental model and cognitive collage / Ellizabeth Minchin -- War, weather and landscape in Livy's Ab urbe condita / Virginia Fabrizi -- The challenge of historiographic Enargeia and the Battle of Lake Trasimene / Andrew Feldherr -- Landscapes of ruin and recovery