5.0191 Rs: Law and Order Topos (3/79)

Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Wed, 26 Jun 91 21:47:03 EDT

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 5, No. 0191. Wednesday, 26 Jun 1991.


(1) Date: Tue, 25 Jun 91 23:18:35 CDT (15 lines)
From: gary forsythe <gfgf@midway.uchicago.edu>
Subject: law and order

(2) Date: Wed, 26 Jun 91 9:40 BST (32 lines)
From: Don Fowler <DPF@vax.oxford.ac.uk>
Subject: RE: 5.0186 Rs: Law and Order

(3) Date: Wed, 26 Jun 91 10:47 EST (32 lines)
From: JPARMER@BGSUOPIE
Subject: RE: 5.0179 Qs: Law&Order Topos

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 25 Jun 91 23:18:35 CDT
From: gary forsythe <gfgf@midway.uchicago.edu>
Subject: law and order

Timothy Reuter asks whether the idea of law and order from a strong
ruler has a classical precedent. Indeed it does. As he surmises, it
can be found in the panegyric literature of the Roman empire. Perhaps
the most famous such panegyric is that of Aelius Aristeides, delivered
in praise of the Roman imperial rule. An edition of this speech with
ample commentary was done years ago by James H. Oliver and was published
as part of the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society.

Gary Forsythe


(2) --------------------------------------------------------------35----
Date: Wed, 26 Jun 91 9:40 BST
From: Don Fowler <DPF@vax.oxford.ac.uk>
Subject: RE: 5.0186 Rs: Law and Order (2/49)

There is a slightly deviant version of the law and order topos earlier
than Aelius Aristides in the pseudo-Vergilian Elegiae in Maecenatem. It
is a common topos that lovers are immune to danger as they wander at
night: the author of the Elegiae uses this topos when arguing that
although Maecenas led a life of ease and luxury, he was also a great
success when in charge of the city of Rome as custos urbis (the
historical background to all this is difficult, and we don't know when
or by whom the Elegiae were written: but certainly not by Vergil!):

livide, quid tandem tunicae nocuere solutae
aut tibi ventosi quid nocuere sinus?
num minus Urbis erat custos et Caesaris obses,
num tibi non tutas fecit in Urbe vias?
nocte sub obscura quis te spoliavit amantem,
quis tetigit ferro durior ipse latus?

That is, when Maecenas was in charge, lovers could go about their
business without being mugged (lines 25-30).

But can I ask about that famous phrase Laura Norder so beloved by
conservative politicians? What is its history? Classicists will think
of the injunction to the Roman in Aeneid 6. 852 pacique imponere morem,
to impose a settled pattern upon peace. In a celebrated note on this
the German scholar Norden showed that morem corresponded to kosmos and
taxis in the Greek panegyric tradition, but when exactly do we first
find law and order as a set phrase?

Don Fowler
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------34----
Date: Wed, 26 Jun 91 10:47 EST
From: JPARMER@BGSUOPIE
Subject: RE: 5.0179 Qs: Law&Order Topos

"To T. Reuter, Law&Order Topos, ancient versions:

Juvenal 3.306-314: Umbricius laments the middle class's subjection to
violence in the streets of Rome, up to and including murder. Duff's
remark, in his commentary ed. M. Coffey (Cambridge, 1970), that the
Pomptine marsh and the Gallinarian forest were, because sparsely
populated, favorite hang- outs of *grassatores*, probably needs to be
checked. F. Cairns, *Generic Compositi* 38-40 classifies Juvenal 3 as a
*syntaktikon*, or poem in praise (blame) of one's home town. Dio
Chrysostom 7 (I haven't checked this number) speaks at length of the
migration from Rome to the country in the early 2nd century, and may
have materials on the topos of law and order.

You can be sure that the Romans were, as a matter of daily life, up to
date on the performance of the *custodes reorum*, who were Rome's
Imperial jail- ers and thus responsible for defendants who, if they
escaped, often left Rome for the countryside; and on the performance of
the *cohortes urbanae* under the *praefectus urbi(s)*--and office
restored by Augustus to stand in for the Emperor when he was out of
Rome. According to A. Berger, *Encyclo- pedic Dictionary of Roman Law*,
644, Diocletian gave the praef. urb. great power by abolishing the
*quaestiones perpetuae*, or permanent criminal courts. If you search
Berger, you may find more than you ever wanted on your topos.

I'd be interested to hear how your work proceeds.

Jess Parmer
JPARMER@BGSUOPIE