Free Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff Page B

Julius
(
Lives of the Caesars
)
Valerius

Valerius Maximus,
Memorable Doings and Sayings
VP

Velleius Paterculus,
Compendium of Roman History

CHAPTER II: DEAD MEN DON’T BITE

On the “strange madness” (Cicero to Tiro, 146 [XVI.12], January 27, 49) of the Roman civil wars: Appian, JC, Dio, Florus, Plutarch. Suetonius provides the portrait of CR. For a different view of C’s removal from power, Cecilia M. Peek, “The Expulsion of Cleopatra VII,”
Ancient Society
38 (2008): 103–35. Peek argues that C was removed only in the spring of 48.
Among the classical sources on Alexandria, I have leaned most heavily on Achilles Tatius, Ammianus Marcellinus, Arrian, Diodorus, Pliny, Plutarch, Polybius, Strabo, Theocritus, and Philo, especially “On the Contemplative Life,” “On Dreams, Book 2,” “On the Embassy to Gaius.” Josephus provides descriptions of Herod’s temple and palace in JW, V.173–225; C’s could only have been more opulent. Athenaeus, V. 195–7 offers details on the fittings. I have taken Lucan and Aristeas’s palatial descriptions with a grain of salt. Among modern reconstructions: Inge Nielsen,
Hellenistic Palaces: Tradition and Renewal
(Aarhus, Denmark: Aarhus University Press, 1999); and Maria Nowicka,
La maison privée dans l’Egypte ptolémaïque
(Wroclaw, Poland: Wydawnictwo Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 1969).
For modern accounts of Alexandria: Pascale Ballet’s very good
La vie quotidienne à Alexandrie
(Paris: Hachette, 1999); Diana Delia, “The Population of Roman Alexandria,”
Transactions of the American Philological Association
118 (1988): 275–292; Jean-Yves Empereur,
Alexandria: Jewel of Egypt
(New York: Abrams, 2002); E. M. Forster,
Alexandria: A History and a Guide
(London: André Deutsch, 2004); Franck Goddio,
Alexandria: The Submerged Royal Quarters
(London: Periplus, 1998); William LaRiche,
Alexandria: The Sunken City
(London: Weidenfeld, 1996); John Marlowe’s exquisite
The Golden Age of Alexandria
(London: Gollancz, 1971);
Alexandria and Alexandrianism
, papers delivered at J. Paul Getty, April 22–5, 1993, Symposium (Malibu: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 1996); Justin Pollard and Howard Reid,
The Rise and Fall of Alexandria: Birthplace of the Modern Mind
(New York: Viking, 2006); J. Pollitt,
Art in the Hellenistic Age
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986); Paul Edmund Stanwick,
Portraits of the Ptolemies: Greek Kings as Egyptian Pharaohs
(Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002); Theodore Vrettos,
Alexandria: City of the Western Mind
(New York: Free Press, 2001). On the city plan itself, W. A. Daszweski, “Notes on Topography of Ptolemaic Alexandria,” Mieczysław Rodziewicz, “Ptolemaic Street Directions in Basilea (Alexandria),” and Richard Tomlinson, “The Town Plan of Hellenistic Alexandria,” in
Alessandria e il Mondo Ellenistico-Romano
(Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider, 1995); and Barbara Tkaczow’s illuminating
The Topography of Ancient Alexandria
(Warsaw: Travaux du Centre d’Archéologie Méditerranéenne, 1993).
On education, to Aristotle “an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity”: Cicero, in particular
Brutus
and
On the Orator;
Seneca,
Epistulae Morales, II;
Suetonius, “On Grammarians” and “On Rhetoricians”; Quintilian, “Exercises”; Lucian, “Salaried Posts in Great Houses.” On the subjects for composition, Quintilian, III.8.48–70 and Seneca,
Epistulae Morales,
LXXXVIII.6–9. Among modern sources: Stanley F. Bonner,
Education in Ancient Rome
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977); Alan K. Bowman and Greg Woolf, eds.,
Literacy and Power in the Ancient World
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994); M. L. Clarke, who is especially good on the rhetorical assignments,
Higher Education in the Ancient World
(London: Routledge, 1971); Raffaella Cribiore’s excellent work, in particular
Gymnastics of the Mind
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001); Bernard Legras, “L’enseignement de l’histoire dans