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P. CATALANO, Linee del sistema sovrannazionale romano, I (Università di Torino, Memorie dell'istituto giuridico, Serie II, 99). Torino, G. Giappichelli, 1965. XVI, 318 p. Pr. L. 3600

P. CATALANO, Linee del sistema sovrannazionale romano, I (Università di Torino, Memorie... 455 DE NOVIS LIBRIS IUDICIA critical falsifications Of the three great wars in the third century two (the war against Tarentum and the second Punic war) were unchained by the Romans by means of violating the ius fetiale; with regard to the first Punic war it is highly probable, though not certain, that they acted in the same way. Well, one cannot admire effusively the wonderful obverse of the medal and leave the horrible reverse out of sight. Life is not as simple (and simplistic) as that: there are two sides to every medal, two faces to every Janus. In Catalano's book the obverse of the medal is very much in sight; but this can be easily explained by the fact that his first volume gravitates strongly towards the older Roman history. Supposedly the reverse of the medal will come into its own in the second volume. I am looking forward to reading it. As for the history of hostis, the parade-horse of all those who believe in the dogma of "natural hostility", I may be allowed to add two notes. i'. Roman thought has always displayed a tendency to distingu- ish between "foreigner" and "enemy". In the age of the duodecim tabulae hostis meant "foreigner", even "guest" (its original meaning) and there was the word perduellis for "war-enemy". In the classical period perduellis was dead and hostis had taken its place in the sense of "war-enemy" but in that age there was the word ?eyegyinus to denote the "foreigner". Only in the period of transition, say in the age of Plautus and Ennius, almost everything was possible: per- duellis was dying, but not yet dead, hostis could be used both ways, to denote the "foreigner" or the "enemy", but peregrinus for "foreigner" was coming on. Only... that was a period of tyansition : in a general way there was a strong tendency to have separate words for "stranger" and "enemy". 2°. I ask myself whether the author is aware of the fact that the fate of perduellis played an important part in the development of hostis from "stranger" to "enemy". The abstract perduellio came to denote exclusively "high-treason", i.e. the crime of the traitor, of the enemy within the wall. So in the long run the related word perduellis could hardly be maintained to denote the "war-enemy", the enemy outside the walls: it died, though slowly, and the gap left by its death was filled up by hostis (in the sense of "war-enemy"). In its turn the gap left by hostis (in the sense of "foreigner") was filled up by peregrinus. See my essay. DE MEERN, Rheyngaerde E 1 (Utr.) J. H. THIEL 1) Even Polybius (not to speak about annalists) localizes Saguntum north of the Ebro; no comment is necessary. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Mnemosyne Brill

P. CATALANO, Linee del sistema sovrannazionale romano, I (Università di Torino, Memorie dell'istituto giuridico, Serie II, 99). Torino, G. Giappichelli, 1965. XVI, 318 p. Pr. L. 3600

Thiel, J.H.
Mnemosyne , Volume 19 (4): 455 – Jan 1, 1966
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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 1966 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0026-7074
eISSN
1568-525X
DOI
10.1163/156852566X00862
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

455 DE NOVIS LIBRIS IUDICIA critical falsifications Of the three great wars in the third century two (the war against Tarentum and the second Punic war) were unchained by the Romans by means of violating the ius fetiale; with regard to the first Punic war it is highly probable, though not certain, that they acted in the same way. Well, one cannot admire effusively the wonderful obverse of the medal and leave the horrible reverse out of sight. Life is not as simple (and simplistic) as that: there are two sides to every medal, two faces to every Janus. In Catalano's book the obverse of the medal is very much in sight; but this can be easily explained by the fact that his first volume gravitates strongly towards the older Roman history. Supposedly the reverse of the medal will come into its own in the second volume. I am looking forward to reading it. As for the history of hostis, the parade-horse of all those who believe in the dogma of "natural hostility", I may be allowed to add two notes. i'. Roman thought has always displayed a tendency to distingu- ish between "foreigner" and "enemy". In the age of the duodecim tabulae hostis meant "foreigner", even "guest" (its original meaning) and there was the word perduellis for "war-enemy". In the classical period perduellis was dead and hostis had taken its place in the sense of "war-enemy" but in that age there was the word ?eyegyinus to denote the "foreigner". Only in the period of transition, say in the age of Plautus and Ennius, almost everything was possible: per- duellis was dying, but not yet dead, hostis could be used both ways, to denote the "foreigner" or the "enemy", but peregrinus for "foreigner" was coming on. Only... that was a period of tyansition : in a general way there was a strong tendency to have separate words for "stranger" and "enemy". 2°. I ask myself whether the author is aware of the fact that the fate of perduellis played an important part in the development of hostis from "stranger" to "enemy". The abstract perduellio came to denote exclusively "high-treason", i.e. the crime of the traitor, of the enemy within the wall. So in the long run the related word perduellis could hardly be maintained to denote the "war-enemy", the enemy outside the walls: it died, though slowly, and the gap left by its death was filled up by hostis (in the sense of "war-enemy"). In its turn the gap left by hostis (in the sense of "foreigner") was filled up by peregrinus. See my essay. DE MEERN, Rheyngaerde E 1 (Utr.) J. H. THIEL 1) Even Polybius (not to speak about annalists) localizes Saguntum north of the Ebro; no comment is necessary.

Journal

Mnemosyne – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 1966

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