Valentina Arena
Biographic Data
| ID | 3094923 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Valentina Arena |
| GIVEN NAMES | Valentina |
| FAMILY NAME | Arena |
| SIGNATURE | ARENA V |
| AFFILIATIONS | Professor of Ancient History, University College London London UK |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7010-9410 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 5 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 14 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
The Roman Democracy of Fergus Millar
In his The Roman Republic in Political Thought (his Jerusalem Lectures in History, delivered in memory of Menahem Stern), Millar refers to the reforms implemented in 1980s by Thatcher’s government as the historical context in which he first conceived his work on the Roman Republic. However, the political climate of that era, this paper shows, did not merely serve as the context in which Millar thought about the Republican political system. Rather…
Arbitrium and potestas in Ancient Rome
Preventing lead leakage in perovskite solar cells with a sustainable titanium dioxide sponge
A Companion to the Political Culture of the Roman Republic
Varro, the Name-Givers, and the Lawgivers
This essay aims at identifying a tradition of lawgivers in the political culture of the late Republic. It focuses on the antiquarian tradition of the second half of the first century BC, which, it argues, should be considered part of the wider quest for legal normativism that takes place towards the end of the Republic. By reconstructing the intellectual debates on the nature of the consulship, which at the time was carried out through the means …
Between Rhetoric, Social Norms, and Law
Although modern Republicanism, which highly values the right of freedom of speech, finds its inspiration in the historical reality of the Roman Republic, it seems that in the course of the Republican period citizens shared a recognised ability to speak freely in public, but did not enjoy equal status with one another in the domain of speech as protected by law. Of course, Republican Rome knew laws regulating free speech and perhaps even later pro…
Ancient history and contemporary political theory
Providing an introduction to this special issue on the ancient notions of liberty and its modern perspectives, this essay contains, first, some reflections about the relation between the fields of ancient history and contemporary political theory. Building on the comments of the final roundtable with Kinch Hoekstra and Quentin Skinner, it then makes an attempt at extrapolating some theoretical understandings of liberty from a wide range of geogra…
Fighting Corruption
Corruption was seen as a major factor in the collapse of Republican Rome, as Valentina Arena’s subsequent essay “Fighting Corruption: Political Thought and Practice in the Late Roman Republic” argues. It was in reaction to this perception of the Republic’s political fortunes that an array of legislative and institutional measures were established and continually reformed to become more effective. What this chapter shows is that, as in Greece, the…
Popular sovereignty in the late Roman Republic
This chapter is concerned with the development of Cicero's conception of the relationship between popular sovereignty and aristocratic government from the De re publica to the De legibus. When placed in its political and intellectual contexts, this development represents a significant strengthening of its aristocratic bias – specifically when considering Cicero's proposed reforms to the institutions of the senate and censorship as well as to the …
Libertas and the Practice of Politics in the Late Roman Republic
The Orator and His Audience
This chapter explores how oratorical audiences were portrayed in works that were specifically meant to function as a means of practical guidance to the study of rhetoric. According to Cicero, the ultimate power lay with the audience who would proclaim the orator’s success or failure by agreeing or rejecting his description of affairs. In these rhetorical texts, the audience is portrayed as holding this power by virtue of its prudentia, the attrib…
The consulship of 78 bc. Catulus versus Lepidus
Introduction It has long been known, if not always plainly stated, that the Roman elite commonly described in our sources as optimates acted in support and defense of the Sullan constitution, interpreted as the traditional republican settlements centered on the senate. However, what scholars have failed to see is that such support for the Sullan arrangements could be justified in the political conflicts of the first century bc by recourse to Stoi…
Roman sumptuary legislation
This article argues that, next to a certain intellectual tradition of Roman liberty, often labelled ‘neo-Roman’ or ‘Republican’, we should also take into account the existence of, at least, two other conceptions of liberty, which have so far remained occluded under the prominence of Cicero’s ideas and the appropriation of them by later thinkers. By analysing the debate in opposition and in favour of sumptuary laws enacted from the 3rd century bc …
Roman Oratorical Invective
Invocation to Liberty and Invective of Dominatus at the End of the Roman Republic
Journal Article INVOCATION TO LIBERTY AND INVECTIVE OF DOMINATUS AT THE END OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC Get access VALENTINA ARENA VALENTINA ARENA Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, Volume 50, Issue 1, December 2007, Pages 49–73, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2041-5370.2007.tb00264.x Published: 12 March 2010
Invocation to Liberty and Invective of Dominatus at the End of the Roman Republic
Journal Article INVOCATION TO LIBERTY AND INVECTIVE OF DOMINATUS AT THE END OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC Get access VALENTINA ARENA VALENTINA ARENA Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, Volume 50, Issue 1, December 2007, Pages 49–73, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2041-5370.2007.tb00264.x Published: 12 March 2010
Roman sumptuary legislation
This article argues that, next to a certain intellectual tradition of Roman liberty, often labelled ‘neo-Roman’ or ‘Republican’, we should also take into account the existence of, at least, two other conceptions of liberty, which have so far remained occluded under the prominence of Cicero’s ideas and the appropriation of them by later thinkers. By analysing the debate in opposition and in favour of sumptuary laws enacted from the 3rd century bc …
Roman Oratorical Invective
Invocation to Liberty and Invective of Dominatus at the End of the Roman Republic
Journal Article INVOCATION TO LIBERTY AND INVECTIVE OF DOMINATUS AT THE END OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC Get access VALENTINA ARENA VALENTINA ARENA Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, Volume 50, Issue 1, December 2007, Pages 49–73, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2041-5370.2007.tb00264.x Published: 12 March 2010
The consulship of 78 bc. Catulus versus Lepidus
Introduction It has long been known, if not always plainly stated, that the Roman elite commonly described in our sources as optimates acted in support and defense of the Sullan constitution, interpreted as the traditional republican settlements centered on the senate. However, what scholars have failed to see is that such support for the Sullan arrangements could be justified in the political conflicts of the first century bc by recourse to Stoi…
Roman sumptuary legislation
This article argues that, next to a certain intellectual tradition of Roman liberty, often labelled ‘neo-Roman’ or ‘Republican’, we should also take into account the existence of, at least, two other conceptions of liberty, which have so far remained occluded under the prominence of Cicero’s ideas and the appropriation of them by later thinkers. By analysing the debate in opposition and in favour of sumptuary laws enacted from the 3rd century bc …
Libertas and the Practice of Politics in the Late Roman Republic
The Orator and His Audience
This chapter explores how oratorical audiences were portrayed in works that were specifically meant to function as a means of practical guidance to the study of rhetoric. According to Cicero, the ultimate power lay with the audience who would proclaim the orator’s success or failure by agreeing or rejecting his description of affairs. In these rhetorical texts, the audience is portrayed as holding this power by virtue of its prudentia, the attrib…
Popular sovereignty in the late Roman Republic
This chapter is concerned with the development of Cicero's conception of the relationship between popular sovereignty and aristocratic government from the De re publica to the De legibus. When placed in its political and intellectual contexts, this development represents a significant strengthening of its aristocratic bias – specifically when considering Cicero's proposed reforms to the institutions of the senate and censorship as well as to the …
Fighting Corruption
Corruption was seen as a major factor in the collapse of Republican Rome, as Valentina Arena’s subsequent essay “Fighting Corruption: Political Thought and Practice in the Late Roman Republic” argues. It was in reaction to this perception of the Republic’s political fortunes that an array of legislative and institutional measures were established and continually reformed to become more effective. What this chapter shows is that, as in Greece, the…
Ancient history and contemporary political theory
Providing an introduction to this special issue on the ancient notions of liberty and its modern perspectives, this essay contains, first, some reflections about the relation between the fields of ancient history and contemporary political theory. Building on the comments of the final roundtable with Kinch Hoekstra and Quentin Skinner, it then makes an attempt at extrapolating some theoretical understandings of liberty from a wide range of geogra…
Between Rhetoric, Social Norms, and Law
Although modern Republicanism, which highly values the right of freedom of speech, finds its inspiration in the historical reality of the Roman Republic, it seems that in the course of the Republican period citizens shared a recognised ability to speak freely in public, but did not enjoy equal status with one another in the domain of speech as protected by law. Of course, Republican Rome knew laws regulating free speech and perhaps even later pro…
Varro, the Name-Givers, and the Lawgivers
This essay aims at identifying a tradition of lawgivers in the political culture of the late Republic. It focuses on the antiquarian tradition of the second half of the first century BC, which, it argues, should be considered part of the wider quest for legal normativism that takes place towards the end of the Republic. By reconstructing the intellectual debates on the nature of the consulship, which at the time was carried out through the means …
A Companion to the Political Culture of the Roman Republic
Preventing lead leakage in perovskite solar cells with a sustainable titanium dioxide sponge
The Roman Democracy of Fergus Millar
In his The Roman Republic in Political Thought (his Jerusalem Lectures in History, delivered in memory of Menahem Stern), Millar refers to the reforms implemented in 1980s by Thatcher’s government as the historical context in which he first conceived his work on the Roman Republic. However, the political climate of that era, this paper shows, did not merely serve as the context in which Millar thought about the Republican political system. Rather…
Arbitrium and potestas in Ancient Rome
Law (12 works) · Political science (12 works) · Classical Antiquity Studies (10 works) · Politics (10 works) · History (7 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Epistemology (5 works) · Law (5 works) · American Constitutional Law and Politics (4 works)