|
:''Not to be confused with the Titus Labienus who was Julius Caesar's legate.'' Titus Labienus was an orator and historian in the time of Augustus, nicknamed Rabienus for his vigorous style. He killed himself when the Senate had his books burned. Caligula later overrode the Senate and had the books restored. == Life == Little is known about his early life. He did not come from aristocracy or the influential Roman family Labieni.〔 Instead, he grew up poor and unpopular.〔 Although in his youth Titus Labienus Rabienus was considered unimportant, as an adult he garnered fame for his works as an historian and orator〔 and has come to be regarded as one of the most instrumental and important historians of all time. At the time, Rome was a new monarchy, Augustus had assumed power, and there was a lot of animosity in the air between the people who were for and those who were against the monarchy that had taken over the Roman Empire. Continuously, people would go throughout the city of Rome and either publicly state or publish pamphlets with negative comments and accusations about the new emperor and monarchy. Titus Labienus Rabienus eagerly joined the cause against the new monarchy, "flailing Augustan order"〔 and vigorously supported Pompey the Great (106 BC to 46 BC), a statesman and general of the late Roman Republic and opponent of Julius Caesar for forming the monarchy.〔“Pompey the Great,” Britannica Online, Encyclopædia Britannica, Sacred Heart Schools, Lucas Family Library, Atherton, CA, 29 Nov. 2008 As a historian, Titus Labienus would viciously attack the different classes of Roman society thus eventually leading to his nickname Rabienus or “rabid one”, for his "furious invective".〔Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth, “Labienus, Titus,” Def. 2, The Oxford Classical Dictionary, (New York: Oxford University Press).〕 His writings were full of such controversial material that when he recited his works in public, he would have to pass over sections that were too discordant.〔 Instead, he would allude to the missing information by saying that they were to be read after his death.〔Elaine Fantham, Roman Literary Culture: From Cicero to Apuleius, (New York: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999) 124.〕 Titus Labienus Rabienus was also recognized throughout Rome as an important member of the academic profession or “manus orator”.〔 As time progressed the amount of pamphlets swirling about Rome began to grow and the Emperor Augustus began to put into place stricter regulations on writing, initially punishing any writers who attacked anyone (particularly himself) then moving to censor writings themselves.〔 As both an author and a professor, both changes to Roman law further angered Titus Labienus Rabienus. As an author he wanted the freedom to write what he wanted to write, not what the government wanted or would allow. And as a professor, he wanted to be able to teach the truth, not just what the Roman government wanted people to know. The loss in general of freedom of speech aggravated Titus Labienus Rabienus to voice his disapproval even more of the new monarchy. As even more time progressed, Augustus became even stricter until he finally created a new type of punishment for this “new crime” of voicing one’s opinion. With this new type of punishment, depending on how guilty one was or how serious the crime one committed against the state was, either one or all one’s life works were to be burned at the stake.〔 When the new law was first declared, even members of the Senate thought that was “an unusual way of inflicting punishment upon scholarship.”〔 It was the professors, like Titus Labienus Rabienus, who began to feel the effects of the new law first because it was also illegal to even own, carry, or read any of the restricted material that was to be burned at the stake. His conflict with the government eventually led to his own trial (6 to 8 AD), the first of its kind, where the senate found him guilty〔 of harming the state and literary treason and as the law stated, his life works were sentenced to the stake.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Titus Labienus (historian)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|