Cicero's Definition of politikos

While Cicero's use of Greek has been the subject of a number of studies, scholars have generally ignored his use of politikos. Most assume that Cicero simply utilized the Platonic definition of the word. However, an investigation of Cicero's use of politikos and its derivatives reveals a much more nuanced meaning, one that is particularly suited to the political situation of the late republic. As opposed to being a ruler, as in Plato, the Ciceronian politikos holds no permanent position within the state, and his only purpose is to resolve temporary crises in the functioning of the state

A Duet of Praise: Horace, Vergil and the Subject of Canemus in Carm. 4.15.32

The Vergilian references in Carm, 4.10-15 suggest that Horace and Vergil, not Horace and a Roman crowd, are the subjects of canemus in 4.15.32. Horace has resurrected Vergil through his poetry to help him praise Augustus, because a true encomium of the princeps lies outside the capabilities of Horace's lyric persona

Matthew Fox, Cicero’s Philosophy of History.

The purpose of Matthew Fox's (hereafter F.) latest book is to examine Cicero's use of historical exempla in his philosophical and rhetorical dialogues. These exempla reveal the depth and influence of Cicero's academic skepticism and his belief that Rome did not possess any sort of historical or ideological consistency. F. enjoins us to replace the "unseemly" desire (4) to discover Cicero's own thoughts in his philosophical works (which Cicero's own comments at Nat. Deo. 1.5.10 indicate to be a fruitless exercise) and instead look at them through the very lens that Cicero himself used, that of strict Academic skepticism. History is consistently treated by Cicero with an open-ended skepticism that denies certainty; we should not seek, nor will we find, coherence of thought regarding Rome, her history, or her future. Historical exempla open up the possibility of argument rather than closing it down. Cicero made no attempt to create a sort of dogmatic world view, for to do so would countermand his adherence to the Academy; history provides its own authority, and does not need Cicero's. A book on Cicero's philosophy of history would seem to be an impossible one to write because, as F. notes, "there was no such thing as 'philosophy of history' in the ancient world, and Cicero did not write it" (1). F. has nevertheless succeeded in writing a book which, though it will not satisfy the need to seek the "real" Cicero in Cicero's works, will at least give cause for a reexamination of the evidence

The Cypriot Exemption from Evocatio and the Character of Cicero’s Proconsulship.

Q. Volusium, tui Tiberi generum, certum hominem et mirifice abstinentem, misi in Cyprum ut ibi pauculos dies esset, ne cives Romani pauci qui illic negotiantur ius sibi dictum negarent; nam evocari ex insula Cyprios non licet. (Cic. Att. 5.21.6) I sent Quintus Volusius, the son-in-law of your friend Tiberius, a man both trustworthy and extraordinarily moderate, to Cyprus for only a couple of days, lest the few Roman citizens who do business there should claim that they had no legal recourse available to them, since it is not permitted for Cypriots to be summoned off the island. Scholars have taken slight notice (if they mention it at all) of Cicero's interesting comment that Cypriots were exempt from evocatio, the summons of a defendant or witness to a legal proceeding by a Roman magistrate with imperium. While the legal ramifications of the ban on evocatio on Cyprus are clear, the origin of this exemption is not. The only explicit theory on its origin – Badian's argument that the prohibition was part of Lentulus' lex provinciae, a law for the formal organization of the province of Cyprus – has been influential, though it is based on tenuous evidence. Few ancient sources for Roman rule on Cyprus during the Late Republic have survived, and we must rely almost entirely on Cicero's letters. Cicero's correspondence, however, indicates (against Badian) that the ban on evocatio was a codicil of Cicero's provincial edict, and not a part of either Lentulus' lex provinciae or his provincial edict. Personal, political, and military considerations all played a role in Cicero's decision to make the citizens of Cyprus exempt from being called to the administrative gathering for the dispensation of justice and other legal and political matters known as a conventus

Daniel Kapust, Republicanism, Rhetoric, and Roman Political Thought.

The study of Roman political theory is undergoing a renaissance, and Daniel Kapust has added his own contribution to the discussion with this concise, accessible, and interesting volume. In this work, a revision and expansion of his dissertation, Kapust ‘explores rhetoric, liberty, and their relationship to social and political conflict in Roman thought of the first century BCE and the first century CE’ (6). He argues that the free exercise of rhetoric is inextricably bound together with the ideas of Republicanism and liberty. Rhetoric is necessary for political activity to occur, and represents the means by which a res publica is publicly defined and conceived (21). Kapust presents Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus as promoting, respectively, an antagonistic conception of rhetoric and community, a consensualist conception, and rhetoric as a means of navigating political unfreedom (22)

Pandora and the Good Eris in Hesiod

HE PANDORA NARRATIVE in the Theogonia and Opera is one of the most discussed elements of the Hesiodic corpus; one need only consult Blümer‘s massive bibliography to see the interest that Pandora has drawn, particularly in the past forty years.1 While many aspects of the Hesiodic corpus are open to dispute, the communis opinio about Pandora is well expressed by West: "Hesiod plainly conceives her, with her various feminine characteristics, as being herself the final, unanswerable affliction imposed by Zeus on man."

Henrik Mouritsen, Politics in the Roman Republic [book review]

If his goal was to produce an “original and readable book” that would be “important for all students and scholars of Roman history and of politics in general”, as the back-cover copy claims, then Henrik Mouritsen has succeeded. In this slim, 172-page entry in the Key Themes in Ancient History series from Cambridge University Press, Mouritsen not only engages with the giants in Roman political history but challenges them, and the status quo of scholarship on the Roman Republic, while lucidly offering a vibrant reading of populism, republicanism, and political legitimacy in the Roman world that will give any readers with an interest in the subject much to ponder

Jon Hall, Politeness and Politics in Cicero’s letters.

We have all wrestled at some point with the concept of politeness, since so much of our professional interaction is done via the written word. Whether as a newly-minted Ph.D. wondering how to address a senior scholar, as an instructor dealing with overly-chummy emails from students, or even in writing a book review, the struggle with the proper methods of address and how to raise concerns without resorting to personal attacks is omnipresent

Week-by-week changes in serum levels of bone-related circulating microRNAs and bone turnover markers

MicroRNAs are involved in post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. Due to their regulatory role, microRNAs are differently expressed during specific conditions in healthy and diseased individuals, so microRNAs circulating in the blood could be used as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for various diseases and conditions. We want to investigate the variability of circulating microRNAs and bone turnover markers in weekly time intervals in older women. In a single-site longitudinal study, a panel of 19 bone-related miRNAs was measured using the osteomiR RT-qPCR assay in serum samples of 35 postmenopausal women divided into 3 groups: healthy controls (n = 12), low BMD (n = 14), and vertebral fractures (n = 9). Blood samples for measurement of CTX, PINP, OC, and bone ALP were collected once per week for 8 weeks at 9:00 AM after overnight fasting. Serum samples from all participants were analyzed for 19 microRNA bone biomarkers and 4 bone turnover markers over 8 weeks. We analyzed the data using a mixed model analysis of variance and found no significant changes between week-by-week time points in any of the groups. To estimate intraindividual variability between weekly time points, we have calculated the median coefficient of variation (CV). This was between 28.4% and 80.2% for microRNA, with an assay CV of 21.3%. It was between 8.5% and 15.6% for bone turnover markers, with an assay CV of 3.5% to 6.5%. The intraindividual variability was similar between groups. Circulating microRNAs measured in serum had a higher weekly intraindividual variability than bone turnover markers due in part to a higher assay CV

Changes in MiRNA-5196 expression as a potential biomarker of anti-TNF-α therapy in rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis Patients

In this study, we analysed the expression level of sera circulating miRNA-5196 in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS) patients before and after tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α therapy as biomarkers predicting positive treatment outcome. We enrolled 10 RA patients, 13 AS patients, and 12 healthy individuals in the study. The expression of miRNA-5196 was measured by real-time polymerase chain reaction before and after anti-TNF-α therapy. Disease activity of RA patients was assessed using disease activity score 28 (DAS28), whereas ankylosing spondylitis DAS (ASDAS) was used in AS patients. MiRNA-5196 expression was significantly higher in patients with RA and AS before TNF-α therapy than in those following anti-TNF-α therapy and healthy controls. Changes in miRNA-5196 expression positively correlated with delta DAS28 or delta ASDAS, respectively, following TNF-α therapy. In contrast, changes in C-reactive protein (CRP) levels in RA and AS patients did not positively correlate with DAS28 or ASDAS changes. Receiver-operating characteristic analysis showed better diagnostic accuracy of miRNA-5196 expression both in RA (area under curve (AUC) = 0.87, p = 0.055) and AS patients (AUC = 0.90, p = 0.050) compared to CRP levels in RA (AUC = 0.75, p = 0.201) and AS patients (AUC = 0.85, p = 0.086) upon biologic therapy treatment. Finding novel biomarkers, including miRNA-5196 which allow to predict and monitor anti-TNF-α response, would be of clinical value especially during the early phase of RA or AS development