- In the earlier historiographic tradition (Fabius Pictor and Cato), the establish-
ment of the Decemvirate in 458 b.c.e.will have been another crucial staging post:
Chassignet 1986, xi n. 5. - Tacitus makes a great deal of the refoundation of the destroyed temple of
Jupiter, begun in a ceremony on 21 June 70 c.e.(Hist.4.53). Kathleen Coleman com-
pellingly suggests to me that Tacitus is using the refoundation of the temple to respond
to the way the Flavians used Republican imagery to stress their return to pre-Neronian
norms, as he capitalizes on the identification of the initial foundation of the temple and
the Republic after the expulsion of the Tarquins. A key piece of evidence for the Fla-
vian recycling of Republican nomenclature is the use of the anachronistically Repub-
lican phrase ex manubiisto describe the construction of the Colosseum, reclaiming land
from the autocrat ’s pleasure palace for public use: Coleman 2000, 229 – 30, referring to
the reconstruction of the original dedication by Alföldy (1995). - In general, on the fabulous dimension to Nero’s portrayal in Tacitus, see
Woodman 1998, 187 – 89; O’Gorman 2000, 162 – 70. - Good discussions in Kraus 1994b, 285 – 87; O’Gorman 2000, 172 – 75; Cham-
plin 2003b, 194 – 200. - Note that Tacitus uses the Republican name of the month in this anniversary
context, Sextilis, not Augustus. - First worked out by Grotefend (1845) — actually, as he says, 454 years minus
8 days. - J. H. C. Williams 2001, 177.
- On the distinction between the two periods implied in Tacitus’s sentence here,
see Rouveret 1991, 3067 – 68. - I have learned much from discussions with Tony Woodman, who is working
on this topic. - Zeitlin 1986 continues to be richly thought-provoking for students of Rome to
work with: Nero’s Rome is locked into the eternal regress that the paradigm of reen-
actment always threatens, just as Thebes is in Attic tragedy.
Chapter 4.TRANSITIONS FROM MYTH INTO
HISTORY II: AGES OF GOLD AND IRON
- In describing this template I do not mean to endorse it. The fantasy of a natural
human life in harmony with nature is precisely that — a fantasy. On the inextricable
mutual implication of the “natural” and the “human,” see Cronon 1995a. - Mazzoli 2001, 136: “Dalla preistoria alla storia, al tempo relativo, il passaggio è
traumatico.” - In general, Lowenthal 1985, 371 – 72; Heinberg 1989; Slater 1995, on “Edenic
narratives”; Herman 1997, a study of the concept of decline concentrating on the last
two centuries; Zerubavel 2003, 16 – 18.
notes to pages 105 – 109. 259