Lauren Donovan Ginsberg
Biographic Data
| ID | 5626122 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lauren Donovan Ginsberg |
| GIVEN NAMES | Lauren Donovan |
| FAMILY NAME | Ginsberg |
| SIGNATURE | GINSBERG L D |
| AFFILIATIONS | American Academy of Nursing |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 6 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 16 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Ennius Beyond Epic
Great Expectations
This article argues that Caesar puns on the cognomen of Pompey the Great through his use of the adjective magnus at least twice in his Bellum Civile . In each instance, the wordplay contributes to (1) evoking the memory of Pompey's past triumphs and (2) exploring the gulf between past reputation and present reality. By focussing on this particular wordplay, the article contributes to a wider discussion of Caesarean language and wit as well as to …
Allusive Prodigia
This paper examines Tacitus's notice of a comet and lightning at the close of his account of 64 c.e. I argue that these prodigia allude to Vergil's account of the chaos after Julius Caesar's death at the end of Georgics 1 and to Lucan's account of Caesar's invasion in Bellum Civile 1. Tacitus capitalizes on the prodigies of Neronian Rome, on the intertextual tradition of Caesarean prodigies in early imperial literature, and on his annalistic fram…
Brides, Mourners, Bacchae
Reviewed by: Brides, Mourners, Bacchae: Women's Rituals in Roman Literature by Vassiliki Panoussi Lauren Donovan Ginsberg Vassiliki Panoussi. Brides, Mourners, Bacchae: Women's Rituals in Roman Literature. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019. Pp. xvi, 296. $54.95. ISBN 978-1-4214-2891-8. Panoussi's book is a welcome addition to the study of Latin literature's captivating female characters. It focuses on women's roles in religion and r…
A Tale of Two Waters
This chapter discusses the sharp distinction between the Flavian present and the Julio-Claudian past through an analysis of the pseudo-Senecan Octavia . Historical events no less than fiction provide scintillating material, especially the surviving historiographical accounts of Nero’s attempt to drown his mother Agrippina in the Bay of Naples and her subsequent murder which is poetically transformed in the variant versions of the tragedy in Marti…
The Failure of Female Fides in the Octavia
After 69 CE - Writing Civil War in Flavian Rome
Epilogue
After concluding remarks, this epilogue turns to the problematic question of the play’s date. Recent work reads the play as a celebration of Galba’s victory over Nero and of the new emperor’s return to Rome; such arguments are based largely on the play’s anti-Neronian rhetoric as well as on perceived correspondences between Galba’s populist rhetoric and the play’s representation of the Roman people. This epilogue, however, reconsiders the evidenc…
Citizens of Discord
This chapter investigates the play’s use of parallel choruses of Roman citizens. It argues that this divided citizenry embeds civil strife’s divisiveness within the structure of the play, bifurcating the presentation of the Roman people in order to emphasize their inherent predilection to turn against each other. By examining each ode in turn, the chapter explores the people’s obsession with political strife and the role it plays throughout Rome’…
Seneca’s Augustan Narrative
This chapter analyzes the role of Seneca the Younger in the play’s second scene, as he attempts to dissuade Nero from executing seditious relatives. In particular, it explores Seneca’s manipulation of the memory of Augustus as the paradigmatic exemplum of peaceful rule. Through a multifaceted philosophical exposition of proper kingship that draws on Augustus’ own Res Gestae and political slogans as well as a series of Augustan texts, Seneca urges…
Remembering Octavian in Neronian Rome
This chapter examines Nero’s response to Seneca and to Seneca’s use of Augustus as a model for imperial peace. While Nero agrees that his ancestor provides a useful exemplum, he sees those lessons as rooted less in imperial clemency than in Triumviral butchery. Nero’s account of the Triumviral period—with its focus on the proscriptions, Naulochus, and Philippi—is a rhetorical and intertextual tour de force, as he weaves a gory account of his ance…
Vt Et Hostem Amarem
Over the past two decades, scholars have devoted increasing attention to Roman civil war literature and its poetics, from the vocabulary of nefas , paradox, and hyperbole to the pervasive imagery of the state as a body violated by its citizens. Thebes and especially the civil war between Oedipus’ sons became prominent lenses through which Romans explored their country's strife-ridden past. Seneca's Phoenissae , however, has received comparatively…
Staging Memory, Staging Strife
This book situates the Octavia within the literary and political context of Nero’s reign and the years after his death. As a product of these turbulent years, the Octavia powerfully challenges the image of the Julio-Claudians as bringers of peace. Instead, it re-envisions their history as a series of bloody civil wars that the imperial family waged on itself and on its people. In order to rewrite the dynasty’s history, the Octavia engages with th…
Tragic Rome? Roman Historical Drama and the Genre of Tragedy
Don’t Stand So Close to Me
Seneca’s Phoenissae imbues Antigone’s canonical pietas with elegiac associations. Her appeals to her father recycle familiar topoi from amatory poetry, especially the amator ’s pledge to follow ( sequor ) the beloved anywhere. Her father, in turn, is often disturbed by her physical proximity and attempts to escape further incestuous temptation ( timeo post matrem omnia ). In the end, however, Oedipus capitulates to his daughter’s elegiac rhetoric…
Wars More Than Civil
As the Octavia replays a moment in Rome’s recent history—the struggle to see which Caesar would outlast the rest—its characters simultaneously replay a crucial struggle from the Julio-Claudians’ rise to power: the civil war between Pompey the Great and Julius Caesar. The Octavia ’s allusive language recasts its Neronian characters as the Republic’s leading generals, turning strife within the imperial family into a civil war that threatens to engu…
Staging Memory, Staging Strife
This book situates the Octavia within the literary and political context of Nero’s reign and the years after his death. As a product of these turbulent years, the Octavia powerfully challenges the image of the Julio-Claudians as bringers of peace. Instead, it re-envisions their history as a series of bloody civil wars that the imperial family waged on itself and on its people. In order to rewrite the dynasty’s history, the Octavia engages with th…
Vt Et Hostem Amarem
Over the past two decades, scholars have devoted increasing attention to Roman civil war literature and its poetics, from the vocabulary of nefas , paradox, and hyperbole to the pervasive imagery of the state as a body violated by its citizens. Thebes and especially the civil war between Oedipus’ sons became prominent lenses through which Romans explored their country's strife-ridden past. Seneca's Phoenissae , however, has received comparatively…
Don’t Stand So Close to Me
Seneca’s Phoenissae imbues Antigone’s canonical pietas with elegiac associations. Her appeals to her father recycle familiar topoi from amatory poetry, especially the amator ’s pledge to follow ( sequor ) the beloved anywhere. Her father, in turn, is often disturbed by her physical proximity and attempts to escape further incestuous temptation ( timeo post matrem omnia ). In the end, however, Oedipus capitulates to his daughter’s elegiac rhetoric…
Wars More Than Civil
As the Octavia replays a moment in Rome’s recent history—the struggle to see which Caesar would outlast the rest—its characters simultaneously replay a crucial struggle from the Julio-Claudians’ rise to power: the civil war between Pompey the Great and Julius Caesar. The Octavia ’s allusive language recasts its Neronian characters as the Republic’s leading generals, turning strife within the imperial family into a civil war that threatens to engu…
Tragic Rome? Roman Historical Drama and the Genre of Tragedy
Don’t Stand So Close to Me
Seneca’s Phoenissae imbues Antigone’s canonical pietas with elegiac associations. Her appeals to her father recycle familiar topoi from amatory poetry, especially the amator ’s pledge to follow ( sequor ) the beloved anywhere. Her father, in turn, is often disturbed by her physical proximity and attempts to escape further incestuous temptation ( timeo post matrem omnia ). In the end, however, Oedipus capitulates to his daughter’s elegiac rhetoric…
Staging Memory, Staging Strife
This book situates the Octavia within the literary and political context of Nero’s reign and the years after his death. As a product of these turbulent years, the Octavia powerfully challenges the image of the Julio-Claudians as bringers of peace. Instead, it re-envisions their history as a series of bloody civil wars that the imperial family waged on itself and on its people. In order to rewrite the dynasty’s history, the Octavia engages with th…
Epilogue
After concluding remarks, this epilogue turns to the problematic question of the play’s date. Recent work reads the play as a celebration of Galba’s victory over Nero and of the new emperor’s return to Rome; such arguments are based largely on the play’s anti-Neronian rhetoric as well as on perceived correspondences between Galba’s populist rhetoric and the play’s representation of the Roman people. This epilogue, however, reconsiders the evidenc…
Citizens of Discord
This chapter investigates the play’s use of parallel choruses of Roman citizens. It argues that this divided citizenry embeds civil strife’s divisiveness within the structure of the play, bifurcating the presentation of the Roman people in order to emphasize their inherent predilection to turn against each other. By examining each ode in turn, the chapter explores the people’s obsession with political strife and the role it plays throughout Rome’…
Seneca’s Augustan Narrative
This chapter analyzes the role of Seneca the Younger in the play’s second scene, as he attempts to dissuade Nero from executing seditious relatives. In particular, it explores Seneca’s manipulation of the memory of Augustus as the paradigmatic exemplum of peaceful rule. Through a multifaceted philosophical exposition of proper kingship that draws on Augustus’ own Res Gestae and political slogans as well as a series of Augustan texts, Seneca urges…
Remembering Octavian in Neronian Rome
This chapter examines Nero’s response to Seneca and to Seneca’s use of Augustus as a model for imperial peace. While Nero agrees that his ancestor provides a useful exemplum, he sees those lessons as rooted less in imperial clemency than in Triumviral butchery. Nero’s account of the Triumviral period—with its focus on the proscriptions, Naulochus, and Philippi—is a rhetorical and intertextual tour de force, as he weaves a gory account of his ance…
Vt Et Hostem Amarem
Over the past two decades, scholars have devoted increasing attention to Roman civil war literature and its poetics, from the vocabulary of nefas , paradox, and hyperbole to the pervasive imagery of the state as a body violated by its citizens. Thebes and especially the civil war between Oedipus’ sons became prominent lenses through which Romans explored their country's strife-ridden past. Seneca's Phoenissae , however, has received comparatively…
After 69 CE - Writing Civil War in Flavian Rome
A Tale of Two Waters
This chapter discusses the sharp distinction between the Flavian present and the Julio-Claudian past through an analysis of the pseudo-Senecan Octavia . Historical events no less than fiction provide scintillating material, especially the surviving historiographical accounts of Nero’s attempt to drown his mother Agrippina in the Bay of Naples and her subsequent murder which is poetically transformed in the variant versions of the tragedy in Marti…
The Failure of Female Fides in the Octavia
Allusive Prodigia
This paper examines Tacitus's notice of a comet and lightning at the close of his account of 64 c.e. I argue that these prodigia allude to Vergil's account of the chaos after Julius Caesar's death at the end of Georgics 1 and to Lucan's account of Caesar's invasion in Bellum Civile 1. Tacitus capitalizes on the prodigies of Neronian Rome, on the intertextual tradition of Caesarean prodigies in early imperial literature, and on his annalistic fram…
Brides, Mourners, Bacchae
Reviewed by: Brides, Mourners, Bacchae: Women's Rituals in Roman Literature by Vassiliki Panoussi Lauren Donovan Ginsberg Vassiliki Panoussi. Brides, Mourners, Bacchae: Women's Rituals in Roman Literature. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019. Pp. xvi, 296. $54.95. ISBN 978-1-4214-2891-8. Panoussi's book is a welcome addition to the study of Latin literature's captivating female characters. It focuses on women's roles in religion and r…
Great Expectations
This article argues that Caesar puns on the cognomen of Pompey the Great through his use of the adjective magnus at least twice in his Bellum Civile . In each instance, the wordplay contributes to (1) evoking the memory of Pompey's past triumphs and (2) exploring the gulf between past reputation and present reality. By focussing on this particular wordplay, the article contributes to a wider discussion of Caesarean language and wit as well as to …
Ennius Beyond Epic
Classical Antiquity Studies (14 works) · History (11 works) · Art (10 works) · Literature (10 works) · Archaeology (5 works) · Classics (5 works) · History (5 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Political science (5 works) · Historical and Religious Studies of Rome (4 works)