Daniele Miano
Biographic Data
| ID | 3871176 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Daniele Miano |
| GIVEN NAMES | Daniele |
| FAMILY NAME | Miano |
| SIGNATURE | MIANO D |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oslo |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4408-5192 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
The Oxford Handbook of Universal History Writing
This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, however the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note that the online publication date for this handbook is the date that the first article in the title w…
Hellenistic and Roman Historiography
This chapter discusses how in the four centuries from 200 bce to 192 ce, a number of authors from localities across the Mediterranean attempted to write histories in Greek and Latin that explicitly articulate universal ambitions. Universal history was not a subgenre of historiography but encompassed a wide variety of forms, themes, and structures. This chapter discusses the broader literary and historical context of universal history writing, inc…
Instability and Change, 474–270 BCE
The years between 474 and 270 represent a period of transition in the history of pre-Roman Italy. Political division continues for most of this period, while new forms of organization develop. The dramatic movements of peoples cause significant cultural and demographic changes. At the same time, Rome forges the juridical and military instruments essential to its hegemony. In the final decades of the period, the cities and peoples of Italy gradual…
Introduction
Publishing a book on myth and history in Roman historiography entails stepping in territories that are familiar and yet now feel strangely uncharted.The reason for this ambiguity is that, in the last few decades, modern scholarship has vastly complicated these categories, both in their own right and in their relationship with one another.Once upon a time, myth in the historiography of early Rome was primarily an issue of separating historical fac…
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Theopompus, and the Historical Marvel
a rationalist when it comes to myth, but a flexible rationalist, ready to make exceptions. 4 This view was formulated in a particularly clear and concise way by Anouk Delcourt:On le voit : Denys ne rejette pas systématiquement les éléments fabuleuxne reconnaît-il pas quelque utilité philosophique aux mythes?-, mais se donne le droit de le faire s'ils viennent contredire sa logique rationaliste.Il démontre ici encore la profonde originalité avec l…
Myth and History in the Historiography of Early Rome
The histories of early Rome written in antiquity by the likes of Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus include many sensational stories, from the she-wolf suckling the twins to the miraculous conception of Servius Tullius and the epiphany of the Dioscuri at Lake Regillus. Even the more sober parts of the narrative are of dubious historicity, and certainly include a good deal of rhetorical invention, aetiologies and folktales. The essays composing t…
Bossuet and Hegel as readers of Polybius
In this article, we re-examine the oft-assumed link between theories of modernity and the “death of fortune”. It is often argued that recourse to “fortune” as a legitimate cause of events had declined substantially by the end of the seventeenth century, replaced by aetiologies based on the calculation of probabilities inspired by the techniques of the new science. Focusing on the reception of the Greek historian of the Hellenistic period, Polybiu…
Fortuna, Games, and the Boundaries of the Divine
This article discusses the connection between the goddess Fortuna and games, with a particular focus on the period going from late republican Rome to late antiquity. There seems to be an irresolvable tension between the divine status of Fortuna and the randomness inherent to the theme of the “game of fortuna” (ludus fortunae), to the extent that when the ludus appears, fortuna can be personified, but she is never clearly identified as a deity. Th…
Love, death, and funerals in ancient Rome
One of the most striking characteristics of Roman funerals, is that they and the related personnel were associated with a suburban grove consecrated to Libitina, whose name can also metonymically mean ‘death’. Several ancient writers talk about this goddess, and occasionally associate her with Venus. In this paper, I shall use metonymy to explore the semantics of the deity, and I shall argue that Libitina was a liminal deity, whose position at th…
The two Tarquins from Livy to Lorenzo Valla
This article examines the figure of Lorenzo Valla (1406-1457), and challenges his nineteenth-century interpretation as a precursor of modern critical historiography and philology, by focusing on two of his works on the ancient Roman historian Livy. The first is the Letter to King Alfonso on the Two Tarquins (1444), where Valla claimed to have discovered a mistake in Livy, and the second is the Confutation against Morandi (1455), a defence of the …
Ancient and modern knowledges
In this editorial, we introduce the main themes discussed in this special issue and advocate for a more integrative history of knowledge across disciplinary boundaries through a reconsideration of the language of 'ancient' and 'modern'. We discuss how the essays collected in this special issue seek to go beyond the recurring metaphor of quarrel and competition between antiquity and modernity, and the related representations of key individuals and…
The Explosion of Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Gods and Goddesses in Ancient Italy
"This collection explores the multifaceted nature of the gods and goddesses worshipped in ancient Italy. It examines Italic, Etruscan and Latin deities in context and in the material remains, and also in the Greco-Roman written record and later scholarship which drew on these texts. Many deities were worshipped in ancient Italy by different individuals and communities, using different languages, at different sanctuaries, and for very different re…
Fortuna
This book focuses on the Latin goddess Fortuna, one of the better known deities in ancient Italy. The earliest forms of her worship can be traced back to archaic Latium, and she was still a widely recognized allegorical figure during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The main reason for her longevity is that she was a conceptual deity, and had strong associations with chance and good fortune. When they were interacting with the goddess, commun…
Fortunae in Italy
This chapter analyses the cults of Fortuna through Italy up to the first century BC. Although the evidence for the cults is mostly fragmentary, contextual information shows that diverse meanings were attached to Fortuna by a variety of agents. Latium and Campania are the regions where most of the cults are attested, and the diffusion of the deity seems to have followed that of the Latin language. There are certain recurring features common to man…
Fortuna and the Republic
This chapter studies all the public temples of Fortuna at Rome in the Republican period. The main focal points of the chapter are the precise historical circumstances for the vow, construction, and dedication of each temple, and the connection between these circumstances and the epithets attributed to the goddess. One of the main points made by this chapter is that there is a very solid connection between Republican temples of Fortuna and the ple…
A Godless Goddess
This chapter studies the negative meanings attributed to Fortuna, related to instability and bad luck. These meanings have always been attributed to the deity, and are attested already from the earliest pieces of evidence. It is argued that after the connection between Fortuna and the conquest of the Empire was made in the second century BC, there was a strong tendency to minimalize and marginalize these negative associations of the deity. Howeve…
Conclusions
The conclusions further develop the arguments made in the specific chapters of this book, and make an evaluation of the methodology followed throughout the monograph. It is argued that a conceptual approach to Fortuna allows a balanced account of the fragmentation of the evidence, but at the same time this same conceptual approach is able to identify long-term continuities of meaning and moments of conflict as well as sudden semantic change. Thes…
The City of Fortuna
This chapter is focused on the most famous sanctuary of Fortuna in ancient Italy, the one dedicated to Fortuna Primigenia in the Latin town of Praeneste. It is argued that the diverse contexts in which Fortuna appears point at a variety of meanings attributed to her from the earliest period, including salvation and victory in war. The chapter also explores historiographical attempts at coping with the variety of the evidence using systematizing a…
Fortuna in Translation, Fortuna as Translation
This chapter considers the relationship between Fortuna and Tyche as one of translatability. The first half of the chapter focuses on Tyche, with the aim of determining semantic and structural elements common with Fortuna. The second part of the chapter looks at instances in which Fortuna is translated in Greek. The appearance of bronze strigils bearing the epithet soteira from Praeneste in the fourth century BC seems to presuppose this translati…
To Each His Own
This chapter studies Fortuna connected with age and gender groups or with individuals in the late Republican period. The first part focuses on Fortuna associated with age and gender groups through epithets including Muliebris, Virgo, Virilis, Barbata. The worship of these deities was not reserved to the relevant age or gender groups, and the complexity of rituals and representations implies that they were used for the social, political, and cultu…
The Goddess Ops in Archaic Rome
This article analyses the evidence on the goddess Ops in Archaic Rome, focussing on her two festivals in the archaic feriale, and on her connection with the god Consus. It contends that Ops was related to a nuanced concept of abundance, which included associations with sovereignty. At the same time, it questions the theory that Ops and Consus were associated with agriculture and granaries. It also considers the developing roles of Ops in Republic…
Myth and History in the Historiography of Early Rome
The histories of early Rome written in antiquity by the likes of Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus include many sensational stories, from the she-wolf suckling the twins to the miraculous conception of Servius Tullius and the epiphany of the Dioscuri at Lake Regillus. Even the more sober parts of the narrative are of dubious historicity, and certainly include a good deal of rhetorical invention, aetiologies and folktales. The essays composing t…
The Goddess Ops in Archaic Rome
This article analyses the evidence on the goddess Ops in Archaic Rome, focussing on her two festivals in the archaic feriale, and on her connection with the god Consus. It contends that Ops was related to a nuanced concept of abundance, which included associations with sovereignty. At the same time, it questions the theory that Ops and Consus were associated with agriculture and granaries. It also considers the developing roles of Ops in Republic…
Fortuna
This book focuses on the Latin goddess Fortuna, one of the better known deities in ancient Italy. The earliest forms of her worship can be traced back to archaic Latium, and she was still a widely recognized allegorical figure during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The main reason for her longevity is that she was a conceptual deity, and had strong associations with chance and good fortune. When they were interacting with the goddess, commun…
Fortunae in Italy
This chapter analyses the cults of Fortuna through Italy up to the first century BC. Although the evidence for the cults is mostly fragmentary, contextual information shows that diverse meanings were attached to Fortuna by a variety of agents. Latium and Campania are the regions where most of the cults are attested, and the diffusion of the deity seems to have followed that of the Latin language. There are certain recurring features common to man…
Fortuna and the Republic
This chapter studies all the public temples of Fortuna at Rome in the Republican period. The main focal points of the chapter are the precise historical circumstances for the vow, construction, and dedication of each temple, and the connection between these circumstances and the epithets attributed to the goddess. One of the main points made by this chapter is that there is a very solid connection between Republican temples of Fortuna and the ple…
A Godless Goddess
This chapter studies the negative meanings attributed to Fortuna, related to instability and bad luck. These meanings have always been attributed to the deity, and are attested already from the earliest pieces of evidence. It is argued that after the connection between Fortuna and the conquest of the Empire was made in the second century BC, there was a strong tendency to minimalize and marginalize these negative associations of the deity. Howeve…
Conclusions
The conclusions further develop the arguments made in the specific chapters of this book, and make an evaluation of the methodology followed throughout the monograph. It is argued that a conceptual approach to Fortuna allows a balanced account of the fragmentation of the evidence, but at the same time this same conceptual approach is able to identify long-term continuities of meaning and moments of conflict as well as sudden semantic change. Thes…
The City of Fortuna
This chapter is focused on the most famous sanctuary of Fortuna in ancient Italy, the one dedicated to Fortuna Primigenia in the Latin town of Praeneste. It is argued that the diverse contexts in which Fortuna appears point at a variety of meanings attributed to her from the earliest period, including salvation and victory in war. The chapter also explores historiographical attempts at coping with the variety of the evidence using systematizing a…
Fortuna in Translation, Fortuna as Translation
This chapter considers the relationship between Fortuna and Tyche as one of translatability. The first half of the chapter focuses on Tyche, with the aim of determining semantic and structural elements common with Fortuna. The second part of the chapter looks at instances in which Fortuna is translated in Greek. The appearance of bronze strigils bearing the epithet soteira from Praeneste in the fourth century BC seems to presuppose this translati…
To Each His Own
This chapter studies Fortuna connected with age and gender groups or with individuals in the late Republican period. The first part focuses on Fortuna associated with age and gender groups through epithets including Muliebris, Virgo, Virilis, Barbata. The worship of these deities was not reserved to the relevant age or gender groups, and the complexity of rituals and representations implies that they were used for the social, political, and cultu…
Gods and Goddesses in Ancient Italy
"This collection explores the multifaceted nature of the gods and goddesses worshipped in ancient Italy. It examines Italic, Etruscan and Latin deities in context and in the material remains, and also in the Greco-Roman written record and later scholarship which drew on these texts. Many deities were worshipped in ancient Italy by different individuals and communities, using different languages, at different sanctuaries, and for very different re…
The Explosion of Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Bossuet and Hegel as readers of Polybius
In this article, we re-examine the oft-assumed link between theories of modernity and the “death of fortune”. It is often argued that recourse to “fortune” as a legitimate cause of events had declined substantially by the end of the seventeenth century, replaced by aetiologies based on the calculation of probabilities inspired by the techniques of the new science. Focusing on the reception of the Greek historian of the Hellenistic period, Polybiu…
Fortuna, Games, and the Boundaries of the Divine
This article discusses the connection between the goddess Fortuna and games, with a particular focus on the period going from late republican Rome to late antiquity. There seems to be an irresolvable tension between the divine status of Fortuna and the randomness inherent to the theme of the “game of fortuna” (ludus fortunae), to the extent that when the ludus appears, fortuna can be personified, but she is never clearly identified as a deity. Th…
Love, death, and funerals in ancient Rome
One of the most striking characteristics of Roman funerals, is that they and the related personnel were associated with a suburban grove consecrated to Libitina, whose name can also metonymically mean ‘death’. Several ancient writers talk about this goddess, and occasionally associate her with Venus. In this paper, I shall use metonymy to explore the semantics of the deity, and I shall argue that Libitina was a liminal deity, whose position at th…
The two Tarquins from Livy to Lorenzo Valla
This article examines the figure of Lorenzo Valla (1406-1457), and challenges his nineteenth-century interpretation as a precursor of modern critical historiography and philology, by focusing on two of his works on the ancient Roman historian Livy. The first is the Letter to King Alfonso on the Two Tarquins (1444), where Valla claimed to have discovered a mistake in Livy, and the second is the Confutation against Morandi (1455), a defence of the …
Ancient and modern knowledges
In this editorial, we introduce the main themes discussed in this special issue and advocate for a more integrative history of knowledge across disciplinary boundaries through a reconsideration of the language of 'ancient' and 'modern'. We discuss how the essays collected in this special issue seek to go beyond the recurring metaphor of quarrel and competition between antiquity and modernity, and the related representations of key individuals and…
Introduction
Publishing a book on myth and history in Roman historiography entails stepping in territories that are familiar and yet now feel strangely uncharted.The reason for this ambiguity is that, in the last few decades, modern scholarship has vastly complicated these categories, both in their own right and in their relationship with one another.Once upon a time, myth in the historiography of early Rome was primarily an issue of separating historical fac…
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Theopompus, and the Historical Marvel
a rationalist when it comes to myth, but a flexible rationalist, ready to make exceptions. 4 This view was formulated in a particularly clear and concise way by Anouk Delcourt:On le voit : Denys ne rejette pas systématiquement les éléments fabuleuxne reconnaît-il pas quelque utilité philosophique aux mythes?-, mais se donne le droit de le faire s'ils viennent contredire sa logique rationaliste.Il démontre ici encore la profonde originalité avec l…
Myth and History in the Historiography of Early Rome
The histories of early Rome written in antiquity by the likes of Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus include many sensational stories, from the she-wolf suckling the twins to the miraculous conception of Servius Tullius and the epiphany of the Dioscuri at Lake Regillus. Even the more sober parts of the narrative are of dubious historicity, and certainly include a good deal of rhetorical invention, aetiologies and folktales. The essays composing t…
Instability and Change, 474–270 BCE
The years between 474 and 270 represent a period of transition in the history of pre-Roman Italy. Political division continues for most of this period, while new forms of organization develop. The dramatic movements of peoples cause significant cultural and demographic changes. At the same time, Rome forges the juridical and military instruments essential to its hegemony. In the final decades of the period, the cities and peoples of Italy gradual…
The Oxford Handbook of Universal History Writing
This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, however the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note that the online publication date for this handbook is the date that the first article in the title w…
Hellenistic and Roman Historiography
This chapter discusses how in the four centuries from 200 bce to 192 ce, a number of authors from localities across the Mediterranean attempted to write histories in Greek and Latin that explicitly articulate universal ambitions. Universal history was not a subgenre of historiography but encompassed a wide variety of forms, themes, and structures. This chapter discusses the broader literary and historical context of universal history writing, inc…
History (19 works) · Classical Antiquity Studies (18 works) · Art (15 works) · Philosophy (12 works) · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies (11 works) · Archaeology (9 works) · Humanities (9 works) · Ancient history (8 works) · Fortuna (8 works) · Law (8 works)