Susan P. Mattern > Quotes

“Many gladiators boast on their epitaphs of having harmed none of their opponents, and this may have been expected and honorable conduct: thus some complain that they were killed by deceit or betrayal, and one epitaph even records the revenge-killing of a renegade gladiator who unnecessarily slew his opponent.”
― Susan P. Mattern, The Prince of Medicine: Galen in the Roman Empire

“Tacitus provides a clearer illustration of the tension between imperial authority and the need to make decisions quickly, on the
spot, when the governor of Syria learns that Rome's nominee to the throne of Armenia has been deposed and killed. He calls a council of his own friends to decide what action to take; they determine to do nothing at first, but nevertheless the governor, Quadratus, sends an embassy with a stiffly worded message to the invaders, "lest he appear to condone the crime and Caesar should order something different" (Ann. 12.48). Here, Quadratus intends to write to the emperor about the situation but cannot wait for his reply to make an important decision. Thus the emperor's authority placed limits-albeit vague ones-on what a governor could do.”
― Susan P. Mattern, Rome and the Enemy: Imperial Strategy in the Principate

“No one inside was wailing. For Theagenes had neither servant nor boy nor wife, but only his philosopher friends were around him, who behave properly in the care of the dead, not being inclined to mourn.”
― Susan P. Mattern, The Prince of Medicine: Galen in the Roman Empire

“Traditionally, in the system that Augustus inherited from the Republic, the Roman command structure was class-based. As mentioned earlier, the officer class came from the narrow aristocracy of senators and equestrians. The great armies of the Republic were commanded by senators who had attained the rank of consul, the pinnacle of their society. Their training in military science came mainly from experience: until the later second century B.C., aspiring senators were required to serve in ten campaigns before they could hold political office 49 Intellectual education was brought to Rome by the Greeks and began to take hold in the Roman aristocracy sometime in the second century B.C.; thus it is the Greek Polybius who advocates a formal training for generals in tactics, astronomy, geometry, and history.50 And in fact some basic education in astronomy and geometry-which Polybius suggests would be useful for calculating, for example, the lengths of days and nights or the height of a city wall-was normal for a Roman aristocrat of the late Republic or the Principate. Aratus' verse composition on astronomy, several times translated into Latin, was especially popular.51 But by the late Republic the law requiring military service for office was long defunct; and Roman education as described by Seneca the Elder or Quintilian was designed mainly to produce orators. The emphasis was overwhelmingly on literature and rhetoric;52 one did not take courses, for example, on "modern Parthia" or military theory. Details of grammar and rhetorical style were considered appropriate subjects for the attention of the empire's most responsible individuals; this is attested in the letters of Pliny the Younger, the musings ofAulus Gellius, and the correspondence of Fronto with Lucius Verus and Marcus Aurelius.53”
― Susan P. Mattern, Rome and the Enemy: Imperial Strategy in the Principate

“A gladiator’s chance of death in any particular contest, either in the arena or later of his wounds, was about one in nine.”
― Susan P. Mattern, The Prince of Medicine: Galen in the Roman Empire

“There is concern, first of all, about what is "dishonorable"; and, apparently closely related to this, a strong necessity not to appear afraid in front of barbarians; and the idea that a lack of aggressive action will undermine security by producing a certain state of mind ("confidence") in the enemy.”
― Susan P. Mattern, Rome and the Enemy: Imperial Strategy in the Principate

“Galen thus includes the corpses of “bandits lying unburied on a hillside” among opportunities to observe human remains (”
― Susan P. Mattern, The Prince of Medicine: Galen in the Roman Empire

“The Greenland ice sheet preserves the record of elevated levels of lead released into the atmosphere by Roman-era silver smelting. From”
― Susan P. Mattern, The Prince of Medicine: Galen in the Roman Empire

“Laws prohibiting the throwing of feces, animal carcasses, and human corpses into the street would not have been necessary if there were not a problem,”
― Susan P. Mattern, The Prince of Medicine: Galen in the Roman Empire