bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Autarky, self‐sufficiency
Authors: Morley Neville
Published: December 2012

Autarky (Greekautarkeia) was widely accepted as the ideal both for individuals and their households and for cities. In Thucydides' account of the funeral oration (2.63.3), Perikles argues that the best city is one that is self‐sufficient for both war and peace, meaning that it has the power to command the resources it requires from across the world and so is not dependent on local agriculture.
Barter
Authors: Morley Neville
Published: December 2012

Barter is a form of exchange without money changing hands. Goods or services are exchanged directly for other goods or services of equivalent value; this may take place in a single one‐off transaction or over a period of time (e.g., if someone offers a month's worth of labor in return for goods).
Bees
Authors: Ebert Adam W.
Published: December 2012

Bees provided the ancient world with products including honey, wax, fermented drinks, and medicinal ingredients.
Brass
Authors: Ratliff Melissa
Published: December 2012

Brass, a metal alloy of zinc and Copper, appeared relatively late in the evolution of metallurgy.
Bronze
Authors: Sowder Amy A.
Published: December 2012

The term
bronze
(Greek:
chalkos; Latin: aes
) refers to an alloy of Copper and Tin.
Bronze coinage
Authors: Hollander David B.
Published: December 2012

Bronze coinage, struck or cast from an alloy of copper and tin, formed a major part of Greek and Roman monetary systems throughout much of Classical Antiquity.
Byssos
Authors: Gleba Margarita
Published: December 2012

Originally byssos/byssus was a Greek/Latin term for fine white cloth of vegetal origin, but today it generally refers to sea‐silk, which is a fiber derived from the long, silky filament secreted by the Mediterranean bivalve pen shell mollusc
Pinna nobilis
L., with which it attaches itself to hard surfaces.
Canalization
Authors: Lemak Joseph
Published: December 2012

Canals were used for the purpose of drainage, irrigation, shipping, or some combination of the three. Early irrigation projects, which would divert a small portion of river flow to arid farmland, are almost as old as agriculture itself.
Castration, animals
Authors: Carlà Filippo
Published: December 2012

Castration was widely performed on domestic animals (also dogs: Varro
Rust
. 3.9.3) and sometimes on semi‐domestic populations (Arist.
Hist. an
. 9.50). The aims were of reducing aggressiveness (Varro
Rust
. 2.5.17), improving the smell of meat (Mart. 3.24), and fattening (Arist.
Hist. an
. 9.50).
Cheese
Authors: Paulas John
Published: December 2012

Cheese (Gr.tyros, L.caseusorcaseum, Sum. GA. À R A(?), Akk.eqidu(?)) generally referred to a product composed of curd produced in the coagulation of milk by an added enzyme. The coagulant typically used, rennet, was derived from a stomach chamber (the abomasum) of suckling ruminants (e.g., calves, lambs, kids, or fawns), but ancient authors also mention hares as a source for rennet. Plant‐derived coagulant enzymes were also used, most prominently one found in the latex of fig trees. Varro (Rust. 2.11) briefly mentions vinegar as a coagulant.
Collegia
Authors: Gibbs Matt
Published: December 2012

The Latin termcollegiumhas a variety of uses in Roman society. It was used to refer to groups of individuals who organized themselves in collectives with either one or a variety of interests and motives.
Coloni adscripti
Authors: Grey Cam
Published: December 2012

Coloni adscriptiwere a particular type of tenant or estate laborer that emerged in the period following the tax reforms of Diocletian and his colleagues in the Tetrarchy at the end of the third centuryCEWhile dating and exact chronology are unclear,coloni adscriptiare first solidly attested in the late fourth century. Acolonus (censibus) adscriptuswas an individual whose name was added to the tax return (professionoriugatio) of his landlord and entered into the census rolls, as the cultivator of a particular estate or field.
Columella
Authors: von Stackelberg Katharine T.
Published: December 2012

L. Iunius Moderatus Columella (ca. 4–70CE) was a Roman agronomist, whose treatise on farming and estate management (De re rustica) is one of the seminal works on Roman agricultural practice.
Commercium
Authors: Pittenger Miriam R. P.
Published: December 2012

Commercium
is the Roman term for the right to enter into legal contracts and to conduct property transactions that were legally binding in a Roman court (cf. Ulp. 19.5:
emendi vendendique invicem ius
, “the reciprocal right of buying and selling”).
Kopais Lake
Authors: Burke Brendan , Fappas Ioannis
Published: December 2012

The Kopais was a shallow, seasonal lake for most of the prehistoric and historical periods, located approximately 15 km northwest of Thebes, in Boiotia. It was named after Kopai, one of the many ancient settlements surrounding it in historical times. It was also known as the Kephissian to Pausanias (9.38.7). In the Mycenaean period great drainage works channeled water run‐off from surrounding mountains that formed the lake and led the water out to the east through modified drainage chambers, known as
katavothroi
. This created the Copaic basin. About 25
katavothroi
of variable size, located mostly on the eastern and southeastern sides of the basin, have been identified.
Crop schedule
Authors: Spanier Ethan
Published: December 2012

A crop schedule is the correlation of agricultural tasks to specific times of the year.
Dates
Authors: Spanier Ethan
Published: December 2012

The date is an edible sweet fruit called a drupe from the Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera), of which numerous varieties have been cultivated. They are high in carbohydrates, fiber, and sugar, and contain vitamins and amino acids.
Dioikesis
Authors: Blouin Katherine
Published: December 2012

The
Dioikesis
or “Department of Finance” was, together with the
Hieratika
(“Department of Sacred Income”) and the Idios Logos, one of the three main departments of the Ptolemaic and Roman administration of Egypt.
Dispensator
Authors: Verboven Koenraad S.
Published: December 2012

Dispensatoris etymologically derived frompendere(“weighing”; ab aere pendendo (VarroLing. 5.183)) and dates back to before the third centuryBCE, when uncoined bronze (aes rude) served as money.
Double cropping
Authors: Thompson Dorothy J.
Published: December 2012

Double cropping is the term applied to the cultivation of more than one cereal crop a year. This was not common practice in the ancient world since it requires extra watering. It was, however, attempted in early Hellenistic Egypt on the initiative of Ptolemy II Philadelphos as part of the intense outburst of agricultural experimentation of his reign.
Economy, eastern Roman provinces
Authors: Nappo Dario
Published: December 2012

The eastern provinces of the Roman Empire were by far wealthier, more culturally sophisticated, and more economically developed than their western counterparts. Provinces like Egypt, Asia, Syria, and Dacia represented a huge source of revenue for the empire and most of them played a crucial economic role up to the Byzantine period.
Environmental history
Authors: Blouin Katherine
Published: December 2012

Environmental history emerged as a historiographical school in the 1960s.
Fenerator
Authors: Verboven Koenraad S.
Published: December 2012

Fenerator
is the
nomen agentis
of
fenerari
, “to lend at interest.”
Fish, fishing, Greece and Rome
Authors: Carlà Filippo
Published: December 2012

Fishing was an important economic activity in the Classical world.
Gold
Authors: Jackson Monica M.
Published: December 2012

Gold (Latin
aurum
, Greek
chrysos
) is a precious inert metal known to ancient societies as far back as 6000
BCE
.
Horrea
Authors: Brown Kimberly M.
Published: December 2012

Horrea(sg.horreum) designates rooms where items may be safely and securely stored.
Horticulture
Authors: von Stackelberg Katharine T.
Published: December 2012

Horticulture in the ancient world was an important part of the Mediterranean agri‐system, initially providing households with a source of both nourishment and income, and subsequently providing status‐markers in the form of luxury produce and dedicated garden space.
Hydraulic civilization
Authors: Manning Joseph G.
Published: December 2012

The concept of “hydraulic civilization” and its related terms “hydraulic bureaucracy,” and “hydraulic society,” were developed in an important monograph,Oriental despotism, by Karl Wittfogel.
Interest rates
Authors: Gibbs Matt
Published: December 2012

The societies of the ancient world made use of various interest rates, and notably, both Greek and Roman authors appear to hold a prejudicial perspective against lending at interest, as well as the difficulties it supposedly caused (e.g., Ar.Nub.1155; Arist. [Pr.] 950a28–b4; PlatoLeg. 5.742c; 8.842d; Plut.Mor. 827f–828e; 830b; Tac.Ann. 6.16).
Land and landholding, Rome
Authors: Marzano Annalisa
Published: December 2012

Land ownership remained an important way of investing wealth throughout Roman history.
Landscapes, Roman
Authors: von Stackelberg Katharine T.
Published: December 2012

All landscapes are loosely embedded in the social, economic, and political matrix of their occupying culture. Therefore, although Roman attitudes toward landscape were necessarily shaped by the Italian countryside, the Roman landscape is not analogous to the Italian landscape since imperial expansion (ca. 100BCE–200CE) exported the ideals of the Roman landscape throughout Europe and the Mediterranean. Although the geographical scope of the Roman Empire encompassed extreme variations of climate and topography, the perception, utilization, and modification of whatever raw environmental material constituted the local landscape expressed a remarkable degree of consistency. At the heart of this expression was the Roman aesthetic preference for cultivated and managed landscapes, centered on the structure of the villa. From the water‐ and timber‐rich regions of Britain and Gaul to the fertile coastal regions of the Maghreb the villa was used as a mechanism for inscribing and framing the settled, subdivided landscape of centuriation brought in the wake of Roman expansion.
Laurion
Authors: Tiersch Claudia
Published: December 2012

At about 80 km2Laurion, situated in southeastern Attica, was the largest mining area in Greek antiquity. This triangular area with its apex at Cape Sounion (modern Cape Kolonnaes), pointing southeast, had a hilly surface (Plaka mountain: 359 m; Megalo Rimbari: 373 m) divided by small valleys and gullies. The name Laurion possibly comes fromlaura, a narrow lane or a valley, here presumably a stream bed or a mining gallery. The following demes have a part in this district: Amphitrope, Anaphlystos, Besa, Phrearrioi, Sounion, Thorikos.
Leather, leatherwork
Authors: Flohr Miko
Published: December 2012

Leather is a supple and versatile material which can be used for a wide variety of purposes in everyday life, especially in dress. It is made from the skin of an animal by means of tanning, a treatment which permanently changes the chemical properties of the skin, making it durable and water‐resistant. Animals whose skin or hide are processed into leather include cattle, horses, goats, sheep, and pigs. Leather must, strictly speaking, be distinguished from other products that may be made of animal skins, such as rawhide, cured hide, and parchment, which have not been tanned and as a consequence have different physical properties and are less durable, though some of these materials may have comparable uses.
Markets, Greek
Authors: Schaps David M.
Published: December 2012

The word “market” may refer, as the corresponding ancient terms did, to a place where trade is carried out, or in its more modern sense to the aggregate of real and potential buyers and sellers. In the first sense the Greeks distinguished between anAgora, in which trade was predominantly local, and anEmporion, a center of international – generally, in Greece, maritime – trade.
Phialai exeleutherikai
Authors: Wrenhaven Kelly L.
Published: December 2012

Phialai exeleutherikai(“freedmen's bowls”) is the name given to a group of late fourth‐centuryBCEstone inscriptions from ancient Athens.
Piraeus
Authors: Lovén Bjørn , Davis Dan L.
Published: December 2012

The Piraeus, located on a peninsula ca. 7 km southwest of Athens, served in Antiquity as Athens' naval and commercial port.
Postal services
Authors: MacKay Camilla
Published: December 2012

Of the state‐run postal services in use in the ancient world, the best known is the Romancursus publicus, but earlier Persian and Hellenistic systems also existed.
Pottery trade
Authors: Iacono Francesco
Published: December 2012

The study of the pottery trade has been one of the main domains of expertise for archaeologists, as this class of materials is extremely well represented in archaeological records and suffers less than others from distortions of data related to preservation and reuse.
Poultry
Authors: Carlà Filippo
Published: December 2012

The first domesticated bird in the Mediterranean was the goose, known in Egypt since about the 5th Dynasty.
Presses
Authors: Schneider Helmuth
Published: December 2012

Presses were used in ancient agriculture to produce olive oil or wine.
Proletarii
Authors: Kendall Seth L.
Published: December 2012

Proletariiwere Romans whose property, according to the Servian reforms, was such that they were too poor to be consideredAssiduiand were therefore liable neither for taxation nor conscription into the army for infantry service.
Ravenna Papyri
Authors: Everett Nicholas C.
Published: December 2012

The term “Ravenna papyri” is used to refer to around 50 surviving documents, most of them fragmentary, dating to the period 455–700, as primarily known from the modern edition of the Swedish scholar Jan‐Olof Tjäder (published 1955–82), though not all papyri relate to Ravenna: Tjader included labels for saints' relics and other fragments from Rome and elsewhere.
Rivers
Authors: Laurence Ray
Published: December 2012

Rivers were regarded as wonders for poets to recall (Polybius 2.16), and were a focus for historians from Herodotus (2.10) onwards. Literature from antiquity presents rivers as both dividing and connecting geographical features, for example, the Euphrates.
Salt tax
Authors: Clarysse Willy
Published: December 2012

Salt is a regular necessity for both humans and animals, and because its extraction from salt‐pans or quarries can fairly easily be controlled, from an early date governments have been interested in this product.
Seals, Roman
Authors: Meyers Rachel
Published: December 2012

The production of seals in the Roman world was undoubtedly influenced by Etruscan and Greek traditions.
Seisachtheia
Authors: Garnett Sterling
Published: December 2012

The
seisachtheia
, literally a “shaking‐off of burdens,” was a label applied in antiquity to certain economic reforms enacted by Solon of Athens during his archonship in 594
BCE
, when he was granted extraordinary powers to remake Athenian law and society in response to the agrarian and economic crisis then coming to a head.
Ships, shipping, Greece
Authors: Davis Dan L.
Published: December 2012

Commercial and non‐military vessels in the Greek world evolved into a variety of shapes and sizes suited to different purposes, from small rowed passenger boats to modest merchant galleys to sizeable merchant ships propelled solely by the wind.
Silk
Authors: Wiesehofer Josef
Published: December 2012

Silk was the finest and therefore most valuable natural (protein) fiber in antiquity, some forms of which could be woven into textiles.
Societas
Authors: Malmendier Ulrike
Published: December 2012

The Romansocietas, or “partnership,” showcases both the sophistication of Classical Roman law and its limitations.
Tabellarii
Authors: Meyers Rachel
Published: December 2012

During the Roman Republictabellariiwere slaves, freedmen, and free citizens who served as private messengers, used by officials and private citizens alike.
Taxation, Roman
Authors: B. Hollander David
Published: December 2012

Roman taxation took an array of forms and varied across time and space as well as with respect to what was collected and by whom.
Textiles, Greece and Rome
Authors: Gleba Margarita
Published: December 2012

A textile is a flexible, two‐dimensional material produced by interconnecting fibers, which have generally been twisted into a yarn. Fiber is a basic unit of raw material having suitable length, pliability, and strength for conversion into yarns and fabrics. In ancient Greece and Rome, two basic fiber groups, divided on the basis of their origin into vegetal and animal, were used for textile manufacture. Vegetable fibers are derived from plants and include flax (seelinen), hemp, nettle, esparto, and the lining of the bark of trees, such as linden, oak, and willow, known as bast. Tree‐bast was more important in prehistoric times, but it occasionally turns up during the Greek and Roman periods as well, in particular in the rigging found in shipwrecks. Besides these locally available plant fibers, cotton was imported to Europe from the East (see Cotton).
Unemployment
Authors: Mahon Ardle Mac
Published: December 2012

The causes of unemployment were likely to be numerous, but the literary sources are silent on these except in relation to agriculture.
Viticulture
Authors: Vandorpe Katelijn
Published: December 2012

The Neolithic period provided the necessary preconditions to develop the domesticated grapevine (vitis vinifera sativa).
Weights and measures, Greek
Authors: Kroll John H.
Published: December 2012

Necessary for the valuation and exchange of all manner of commodities and property – land, agricultural produce, raw materials including metals and wood, manufactured goods such as cloth – the establishment of common units for measuring weight, volume, length, and area was a fundamental concern of every developing society.
Wool
Authors: Gleba Margarita
Published: December 2012

Wool was one of the major textile fibers in antiquity. A hair fiber, it was obtained predominantly from the coat of a sheep, which was composed of three parts: coarse kemp, coarse hair, and the under‐wool.
Administration, Roman Egypt
Authors: Kruse Thomas
Published: December 2012

The administration of Egypt after the Roman conquest in 30BCEdeveloped in two opposing directions: the continuity of administrative institutions of the former Ptolemaic kingdom on the one hand, and the introduction of new elements by the Romans on the other.
Aegyptus
Authors: Capponi Livia
Published: December 2012

On his arrival in Alexandria on August 1, 30
bce
, Octavian addressed the crowd in the hippodrome and demonstrated his clemency by saying that he would spare the city because of its beauty, its founder Alexander, and as a mark of respect for the philosopher Areius, an Alexandrian who had taught him in Rome.
Arcadia, Egypt
Authors: Palme Bernhard
Published: December 2012

Arcadia is the name of one of the Roman provinces located in Egypt in Late Antiquity. Created not long before 398
CE
(
P.Flor
. I 66), the province was named after the young emperor Arcadius, who ruled the eastern part of the Roman Empire following the death of his father Theodosius I in January 395.
Arsinoe I
Authors: Llewellyn–Jones Lloyd
Published: December 2012

Arsinoe I, the first wife of Ptolemy II, is an obscure figure in the history of the Ptolemaic Dynasty, and little information beyond the key facts of her life survives.
Arsinoe II Philadelphos
Authors: Vandorpe Katelijn
Published: December 2012

Arsinoe II was one of the most prominent and popular queens of the Ptolemaic Dynasty, and set an enviable example for her successor‐queens in many respects. Arsinoe was born in 316BCEas a daughter of Ptolemy I and his third wife, Berenike I.
Arsinoe III
Authors: Llewellyn‐Jones Lloyd
Published: December 2012

Arsinoe III Philapator, the sister‐wife of Ptolemy IV, was born to royal parents: Ptolemy III Euergetes I and his queen, Berenike II. Her birth can probably be dated between November 246 and June 245
BCE
.
Cleopatra I
Authors: Vandorpe Katelijn
Published: December 2012

Cleopatra I (ca. 204–176BCE) was a Seleucid princess and a Ptolemaic queen. Daughter of King Antiochos III Megas and, presumably, of his first wife Laodike III, she was the first of the Seleucid house to bear the name Cleopatra.
Cleopatra VI Tryphaina
Authors: Llewellyn‐Jones Lloyd
Published: December 2012

Cleopatra VI Tryphaina, queen of Egypt and wife of Ptolemy XII, is a frustratingly obscure individual in the history of the Ptolemaic Dynasty.
Coptic
Authors: Delattre Alain
Published: December 2012

Coptic represents the last stage in the development of the Egyptian language.
Dynastic cults, Egypt
Authors: Clarysse Willy
Published: December 2012

The Greek royal cult in Alexandria developed from and around the cult of Alexander the Great, whose mummified body in thesemawas surrounded by the divinized Ptolemies from the end of the third century onward. The reigning kings were the living representatives of an ever‐growing divine line.
Herakleopolis Magna
Authors: Falivene Maria Rosaria
Published: December 2012

Herakleopolis, “south of Memphis,” was the name the Greeks gave to (Hwt)‐nn(y)‐nswt(“Mansion of the Royal Child”), the capital of the “southern nome of the pomegranate tree” (n'ar t ẖntt).
Hermits
Authors: Delattre Alain
Published: December 2012

A hermit (from the Greekeremos, “desert”) is a monk who lives a life of prayer and solitary ascetic practice. From the end of the third centuryCE, some men dedicated their lives to God by withdrawing from the secular world in order to live their faith in seclusion. The origins of eremitism are still difficult to locate, although similar ascetic practices were known among the Essenes and Therapeutae.
Julia Balbilla
Authors: Bowie Ewen L.
Published: December 2012

Julia Balbilla claimed as her mother's father Tiberius Claudius Balbillus “the wise” (ὁ σоφóς), the astrologer and man of letters who became secretary to the emperor Claudius and then prefect of Egypt from 55–59
CE
, and as her father's father Antiochos IV, the last king of Commagene.
Karanis
Authors: Heilporn Paul
Published: December 2012

From the third centuryBCEto at least the sixth centuryCE, Karanis was a small town in the northeastern part of the Fayyum region of Egypt, close to modern Kom Aushim (29° 31' N, 30° 54' E).
Literacy, Greco‐Roman Egypt
Authors: Clivaz Claire
Published: December 2012

Born at the end of the nineteenth century at a time of the introduction of mass schooling, the notion of “literacy” is current in many fields of the arts and humanities.
Liturgy, Greco‐Roman Egypt
Authors: Reiter Fabian
Published: December 2012

While the word
leitourgia
generally means any kind of service, be it private, public, or religious, in Greco‐Roman Egypt the term is understood in a narrower sense as a compulsory public service of limited duration.
Lupercus of Berytos
Authors: Miguélez‐Cavero Laura
Published: December 2012

According to theSuda(Λ 691), Lupercus was a scholar shortly before the time of the emperor Claudius Gothicus (268–270CE).
Memphis, Ptolemaic and Roman
Authors: Thompson Dorothy J.
Published: December 2012

Memphis (modern Bedrashein), located on the Nile some 40 km south of the Delta apex, had been the first capital of Egypt in the Old Kingdom.
Myos Hormos
Authors: Cuvigny Hélène
Published: December 2012

Myos Hormos was at today's Qusayr al‐Qadîm (26° 09′ 12'' N, 34° 14′ 40'' E). A harbor on the Egyptian coast of the Red Sea, it was founded by the Ptolemies for their trade with Southern Arabia and the Horn of Africa (the earliest evidence is in the second‐century
BCE
author Agatharchides of Knidos). Claudius Ptolemy's
Geography
has long misled scholars in locating it, by providing erroneous coordinates and placing a port called Leukos Limen in the region of Qusayr al‐Qadîm. It is now admitted that Leukos Limen is a ghost name resulting from confusion with the Nabataean harbor of Leuke Kome, situated on the other side of the Red Sea.
Oasis Magna (Dakhleh Oasis)
Authors: Moss Jennifer Sheridan
Published: December 2012

The Dakhleh Oasis lies in the southwestern desert of Egypt, near the border with Libya.
Oxyrhynchos
Authors: Benaissa Amin
Published: December 2012

A city in Middle Egypt (modern al‐Bahnasa), situated ca. 180 km south of Cairo and on the western bank of the Nile channel known as the Bahr Yusuf. It is the most prolific single source of Greek papyri, chiefly dating from the Roman and Late Antique periods (late first centuryBCEto seventh centuryCE), and arguably the best‐documented provincial city of the Roman Empire.
Popillius Laenas, Gaius
Authors: Lefebvre Ludovic
Published: December 2012

Gaius Popillius Laenas was an important figure of the Roman Republic of the second centuryBCE, at a time when Rome was gradually extending its operations into the eastern Mediterranean.
Prefect of Egypt
Authors: Jördens Andrea
Published: December 2012

The
Praefectus Aegypti
, or rather
praefectus Alexandreae et Aegypti
(Greek: ἔπαρχoς Aἰγύπτoυ; on the titles and appellatives, see Bastianini 1988), was the governor of the province of Egypt.
Ptolemy II Philadelphos
Authors: Nadig Peter
Published: December 2012

Ptolemy II (ruled 282/1–246BCE) was born on Kos in 308 as the son of Ptolemy I and Berenike I.
Ptolemy III Euergetes
Authors: Nadig Peter
Published: December 2012

Ptolemy III (r. 246–222/1
BCE
) was born around 284 as the son of Ptolemy II and Arsinoe I, the daughter of Lysimachos of Thrace.
Ptolemy VI Philometor
Authors: Nadig Peter
Published: December 2012

Ptolemy VI (r. 180–145
BCE
) was the oldest son of Ptolemy V Epiphanes and Cleopatra I.
Ptolemy VII Neos Philopator
Authors: Nadig Peter
Published: December 2012

Ptolemy VII was the youngest son of Ptolemy VI Philometor and Cleopatra II as well as the brother of Ptolemy Eupator, who was briefly made his father's co‐ruler in 152
BCE
, but died the same year.
Ptolemy XI Alexander II
Authors: Nadig Peter
Published: December 2012

Ptolemy XI Alexander II (r. 80
BCE
), the only son of Ptolemy X Alexander I, was born around 105; his mother is unknown. Like his father, he was originally named Alexander (App.
B Civ
. 1.102). He had the shortest reign of all Ptolemies, lasting only a few days.
Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysos Auletes
Authors: Nadig Peter
Published: December 2012

Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysos Auletes (r. 80–58 and 55–51
BCE
) was a son of Ptolemy IX Soter II, and was born between 116 and 108.
Red Sea
Authors: Zimmerle William
Published: December 2012

Part of the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea divides the continent of Africa and the Arabian peninsula, ranging in width from 160 to 281 km.
Religion, Greco‐Roman Egypt
Authors: Tallet Gaëlle
Published: December 2012

After the Macedonian conquest in 332, Egyptian culture underwent major social, economic, and political changes under Greek influence.
Revenue Laws
Authors: Verhoogt Arthur
Published: December 2012

“Revenue Laws” are traditionally understood to refer to a number of official decrees contained in two mid‐third‐centuryBCEpapyrus rolls, first published in 1896 (P.Rev.). These decrees, together with the contemporaneous Zenon Archive, are the most important sources about matters of taxation, including royal monopolies and tax farming, in Ptolemaic Egypt.
Rosetta Stone
Authors: Verhoogt Arthur
Published: December 2012

The Rosetta Stone is a dark granite stone that bears an inscription in three languages: hieroglyphic, Demotic, and Greek. The text dates to March 27, 196
BCE
, and contains a decree issued by Egyptian priests, assembled in Memphis from all over the country, on the occasion of the coronation of Ptolemy V Epiphanes the previous day.
Siwa Oasis
Authors: Müller Sabine
Published: December 2012

Located in the Libyan Desert of western Egypt, the Siwa Oasis was known for the cult of Ammon (
see
Amun‐Re) in the temples of Aghurmi and Umm Ubayda, and for the so‐called “Spring of the Sun” (Diod. Sic. 17.50.4).
Zenon Archive
Authors: Clarysse Willy
Published: December 2012

Shortly before World War I, about two thousand papyri were found in or near Philadelpheia on the northeastern border of the Fayyum oasis.
Death, registrations of
Authors: Rowlandson Jane
Published: December 2012

There is no direct evidence that registers of deceased persons were kept at Rome, despite a few possible allusions in literary sources.
Ptolemaic possessions outside Egypt
Authors: Meadows Andrew
Published: December 2012

The satrapy of Egypt was seized by Ptolemy I (305/4–283/2BCE) on the death of Alexander the Great in 323 and became a kingdom following Ptolemy's assumption of the diadem in 305.
Petosarapis
Authors: Clarysse Willy
Published: December 2012

Petosarapis, also called Dionysios
(Pros. Ptol
. VI 14600), is attested in a single fragment of Diodorus 31.17b, as an Egyptian member of the Ptolemaic court, a man with great military experience, and a “friend of king Ptolemy.” The episode relating to him can be dated to the end of 168 or early 167
BCE
. Despising the two young princes, who had fallen out during the Seleucid invasion the year before, he accused Ptolemy VI of trying to murder his younger brother. When a large crowd gathered in support of Ptolemy VIII, the princes, giving a public show of unity in the Alexandrian gymnasium, stopped Petosarapis' attempt to “appropriate for himself the affairs of the reign.” Petosarapis then assembled about 4,000 seditious soldiers but was defeated in battle by Ptolemy VI in the suburb of Eleusis and barely escaped alive. After this he withdrew among the Egyptians, whom he successfully incited to secession. It is unclear, however, how far this revolt spread in the countryside and whether the uprisings mentioned in documentary papyri of the 160s can be linked with the events mentioned in Diodorus.
Antiochos of Syracuse
Authors: Champion Craige B.
Published: December 2012

Antiochos of Syracuse (
FGrH
555) was one of the earliest of the Sicilian Greek historians. He wrote during the fifth century
BCE
, following Herodotus, whom he may have consciously imitated (he too wrote in the Ionic dialect, not in Doric or Attic).
Asinius Pollio, Gaius
Authors: Barrett Anthony A.
Published: December 2012

Gaius Asinius Pollio (ca. 76
BCE
–4
CE
) was a Roman literary and political figure of the Late Republican and early imperial periods. His brother was the Asinius Marrucinus accused by
catullus
of stealing napkins (Catullus 12). Pollio entered public life in the mid‐50s and supported
julius caesar (c. iulius caesar
) in the civil war. He subsequently backed Mark Antony (
see
antonius marcus (mark antony
)), serving as his legate in Transpadane Gaul. As consul, in 40
BCE
, Pollio brokered the Treaty of Brundisium between Antony and Octavian (
see
augustus
). He celebrated a triumph in 39 for victories in Illyricum. He became a supporter of Octavian but declined to participate at Actium. Thereafter he retired from public life and devoted himself to his literary pursuits.
Atticism
Authors: Dugan John
Published: December 2012

Atticism was a literary‐critical and aesthetic position that idealized Classical Athenian language and style.
Aufidius Bassus
Authors: Pagán Victoria E.
Published: December 2012

Aufidius Bassus, Roman historian of the Julio‐Claudian era, died in old age, shortly after 60
CE
(Sen.
Ep
. 30.1). He was slightly older than Servilius Nonianus, cos. 35 (Quint.
Inst
. 10.1.103).
Autopsy
Authors: Longley Georgina M.
Published: December 2012

The Greekautopsiameans “seeing for oneself,” “one's own sight”;autoptes, “eyewitness,” is an important derivative.
Calpurnius Piso Frugi, Lucius
Authors: Forsythe Gary
Published: December 2012

Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi, Roman politician and historian, was born ca.180
BCE
. As plebeian tribune in 149, he secured the passing of a law that established a permanent procedure by which Roman officials could be sued for misappropriating money or valuables from people under Roman rule.
Diyllos of Athens
Authors: Keyser Paul T.
Published: December 2012

Diyllos was an Athenian historian (
FGrH
73), likely an important source for Diodorus of Sicily. He was a demesman of Thymaitadai, whose father Phanodemos and grandfather Diyllos were atthidographers (
FGrH
325T2–5); his name, though archaic (Paus. 10.13.7) is especially Athenian (
Lexicon of Greek Personal N
ames
). He was a
bouleut
ē
s
in 303/2
BCE
), thus was born before 333/2, probably ca. 345.
Fabius Pictor, Quintus
Authors: Beck Hans
Published: December 2012

Quintus Fabius Pictor was the earliest Roman historian. His lasting impact on the formation of content, form, and style of history writing at Rome made him a true founder of a new literary genre.
Festus, Sextus Pompeius
Authors: Serrati John
Published: December 2012

Sextus Pompeius Festus was a Roman author who abridged an encyclopedia,De verborum significatione (On the meaning of words), originally written by the Augustan antiquarian Marcus Verrius Flaccus.
Foundations (ktiseis)
Authors: Vivero Manuel Albaladejo
Published: December 2012

In discussing the bibliography concerning Greek colonial foundations in the Archaic period, brief reference must be made to the descriptions and reflections already contributed by three major authors in antiquity: Archilochos, Herodotus, and Thucydides.
Hecataeus of Miletos
Authors: Hunt Peter
Published: December 2012

Hecataeus of Miletos (ca. 560–480BCE), a prominent intellectual of the Ionian Enlightenment, made a famous map and wrote two books: thePeriegesis, a pioneering work on geography, and theGenealogies, a rationalizing account of the age of heroes. His work survives only in fragments, but it represents an important step in the intellectual history of Greece and a crucial antecedent to Herodotus'History.
Historiography, Greek and Roman
Authors: Champion Craige B.
Published: December 2012

The root meaning ofhistoriain ancient Greek was simply “inquiry,” and the verbgrapheinoriginally meant to “scratch, scrape, graze”; then to “delineate, draw, paint”; and finally, by extension, to “write.”. Taking the cue from etymology, then, “historiography” should simply mean something like “to write up the results of an inquiry,” and such a loose definition serves rather well in encompassing the wide range of subjects and approaches that fall under the broad rubric of ancient Greek and Roman historiography, which indeed contains what we should call elements of Biography, mythology, legend, Geography, Antiquarianism, rhetorical display, ethnography, and Genealogy, to give but a partial list.
Homer
Authors: Nodar Alberto
Published: December 2012

Nothing is certain about the man whom the Greeks simply called “the poet”; not even that he was the author of theIliadandOdyssey.
Isocrates
Authors: Walter Uwe
Published: December 2012

The writings of Isocrates provide us with a most valuable commentary on the political issues of the fourth centuryBCE.
Kallisthenes of Olynthos
Authors: Grillo Luca
Published: December 2012

Kallisthenes of Olynthos (ca. 360–327
BCE
) was a nephew and pupil of Aristotle and became famous for being the historian of Alexander III, the Great, although his writings display interest not only in history and biography but also in geography and ethnography, and include compilation lists of Panhellenic games (
Pythionikai
and
Agonothetai
).
Ktesias of Knidos
Authors: Johnston Andrew C.
Published: December 2012

Ktesias of Knidos (ca. 440‐after 391
BCE
) was a Greek physician and historian. His works survive only in fragments.
Laudatio funebris
Authors: Flower Harriet I.
Published: December 2012

Laudatio funebriswas the name given to public eulogies of Roman politicians delivered at their funerals.
Marvels
Authors: Brodersen Kai
Published: December 2012

Throughout the ancient world, outstanding works of art and architecture, both historical and contemporary, are marveled at because of their size and workmanship, both individually (notably in Herodotus) and in comprehensive listings.
Megasthenes
Authors: Roller Duane W.
Published: December 2012

Megasthenes was a Greek diplomat in the late fourth century
BCE
who may have been one of the companions of Alexander III, the Great.
Mommsen, Theodor (1817–1903)
Authors: Briggs Ward
Published: December 2012

Theodor Mommsen is regarded as the greatest Roman historian after Niebuhr, and arguably one of the most prominent and powerful classics scholars of the nineteenth century.
Nicolaus of Damascus
Authors: Sievers Joseph
Published: December 2012

Nicolaus of Damascus was a peripatetic philosopher, diplomat, confidant, and emissary of Herod the Great, biographer of Augustus (
see
Augustus (Imperator Caesar Augustus)), and writer of a world history. He was born (ca. 64 Bce) of Stratonike and Antipater, an orator and prominent politician in Damascus. The date of his death is unknown, but he must have survived Herod (d. 4 BCE) by several years.
Oikoumene
Authors: Thornton John
Published: December 2012

Originally the passive present participle of the Greek verboikeo(“inhabit”), the wordoikoumenehad the force of an adjective referring to the earth (gè); its basic meaning is “the inhabited (parts of the) earth”.
Pausanias
Authors: Hutton William
Published: December 2012

Pausanias (ca. 115–180CE) is the author of a detailed description of mainland Greece based on his own travels.
Peripeteia
Authors: Grillo Luca
Published: December 2012

Peripeteia(fromperipipto“to fall, happen, contradict”) is an unexpected, often undesirable change.
Pherekydes of Athens
Authors: Morison William S.
Published: December 2012

Pherekydes of Athens (ca. 475BCE) authored a ten‐volumeHistoriaethat established him as one of the most important early mythogra‐phers. Pherekydes’ work not only contained extensive genealogies combined with traditional stories from the heroic past, but he also wrote about early migrations and, in some cases, connected his stories with his contemporaries — most famously with the family of the prominent Athenian politicians Miltiades and his son Kimon. No biographical tradition exists for Pherekydes. As a result, he sometimes has been confused with the earlier theologian Pherekydes of Syros, as well as certain other homonymous individuals. However, Pherekydes of Athens is demonstrably a distinct individual, whose work was widely quoted by later Hellenistic and Roman scholars. Pherekydes was a central figure in the transition from a mythological understanding of the past to the creation of chronology and historical thinking that would blossom later in the fifth centuryBCE.
Philochoros of Athens
Authors: Brodersen Kai
Published: December 2012

Philochoros of Athens (FGrH328), son of Cycnus (ca. 340–261BCE), was the last and most important of the Greek historians dealing with the history of Athens Atthidographers.
Ptolemy I Soter
Authors: Nadig Peter
Published: December 2012

Ptolemy I (r. 305–282
BCE
), the son of Lagos and an Arsinoe, was born in 367/6 of the lower Macedonian nobility. After the death of Alexander the Great, he received the satrapy of Egypt, which became the base of the dynasty named after him; due to his patronymic, Lagos, it has also been called “Lagids” since antiquity. Later legend made Ptolemy an illegitimate son of Philip II of Macedon and thus a half‐brother of Alexander, but he himself claimed to have descended from Amyntas I through his mother.
Recitations, historical works
Authors: Gibson Bruce
Published: December 2012

The phenomenon of public recitation of historical texts is a powerful reminder of ancient historiography's links with oral forms such as oratory, as well as the centrality of historical discourse in cultural life.
Sempronius Asellio
Authors: Clark Jessica H.
Published: December 2012

Sempronius Asellio (ca. 160–90BCE), Roman historian, witnessed the turbulent late second century in Rome and wrote about his own times.
Theophanes of Mytilene
Authors: Harvey Paul B.
Published: December 2012

Gnaeus Pompeius Theophanes (ca. 90–after 48BCE) was a member of a politically‐prominent family of Mytilene on Lesbos (seeMytilene; Lesbos) and served as chief magistrate (prytanis) there before 67BCE.
Tragic history
Authors: Longley Georgina M.
Published: December 2012

The debate and controversy surrounding what “tragic history” was and how it should be defined have never been fully resolved, and trends in scholarship have swung significantly in the last century.
Valerius Maximus
Authors: Mueller Hans‐Friedrich
Published: December 2012

Valerius Maximus (fl. ca. 27–31CE) begins hisFacta et dicta memorabilia(Memorable deeds and sayings) with a prayer, in which he explicitly substitutes the reigning emperor Tiberius for Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the grounds that this novel divinity fosters the virtues and suppresses the vices that serve as the theme of this, his sole‐surviving, work (praef.).
Xanthos,Lydiaca
Authors: Hunt Peter
Published: December 2012

In the fifth centuryBCE, Xanthos the Lydian wrote a work in Greek, theLydiaca, which survives only in fragments, some of which may not be authentic.
Achaian League
Authors: Roy James
Published: December 2012

The Achaian League was an important federal state in southern Greece in the third and the first half of the second centuryBCE.
Achaios
Authors: Strootman Rolf
Published: December 2012

Achaios, the son of Andromachos, was a kinsman and general of Seleukos III Keraunos and Antiochos III Megas. He is best known for his rebellion against Antiochos III, which allowed him to become king of a short‐lived empire in Asia Minor in the late third centuryBCE. The history of Achaios is relatively well‐known through the work of Polybius (in Books 4, 5 and 8).
Administration, Hellenistic
Authors: Grieb Volker
Published: December 2012

Administration in the ancient world was regarded as a means of ruling and therefore has to be understood as a form of government. In Hellenistic times, the variety of states and communities with state‐like structures – kingdoms, city‐states (poleis), leagues (koina), and sanctuaries – led to diverse forms of administration. Military, financial, religious, and economic matters would all have been included.
Agathokles of Syracuse
Authors: Zambon Efrem
Published: December 2012

Agathokles (361–289
BCE
) was tyrant of Syracuse from 316 to 304, when he became the first to bear the title of king.
Age‐class (ephebes,neoi)
Authors: Chankowski Andrzej
Published: December 2012

The importance attached by the Greeks to youth finds its expression in the ritual role played by young men on the occasion of religious ceremonies and in the existence of different integration rites, the goal of which was to dramatize the passage from childhood to adulthood, as well as of educational institutions. Different local terminology of age‐class division was used in these various contexts during Archaic and Classical periods.
Agon
Authors: Aneziri Sophia
Published: December 2012

The contest (agon) is one of the main manifestations of the Greek way of life and expresses two basic constituents of the Greek spirit: competition and rivalry. It is interesting to note that, alongside Hermes Enagonios, Agon itself was personified and depicted in a statue at Olympia.
AlexanderIIof Epirus
Authors: Aneziri Sophia
Published: December 2012

Son of king Pyrrhos by Lanassa (daughter of Agathokles of Syracuse), born in 294/3BCE(Diod. Sic. 22.8.2; Paus. 4.35.3; Plut.Pyrrh. 9), Alexander II had three children, Pyrrhos, Phthia, and Ptolemy, from his marriage to Olympias (Just. Epit. 28.22). Alexander accompanied his father on the expedition to Italy and became king of the Molossians in 272 after the death of Pyrrhos at Argos. He abandoned his father's conquests in the Peloponnese, Macedonia, and Thessaly and also the military operations in the west.
Alexander IV, son of Alexander III
Authors: Wallace Shane
Published: December 2012

Alexander IV (323–310/9BCE; RE Alexandros 11), son of Alexander III the Great, and of the Bactrian princess Roxane, was born in Babylon in September/October 323. For most of his life he was a political tool of the Successors (Epigonoi), conferring on each a semblance of royal authority.
Andriskos
Authors: Kosmetatou Elizabeth
Published: December 2012

Andriskos or “Pseudo‐Philip” was a pretender to the Macedonian throne (150–148BCE). Allegedly of obscure origins, he came from Adramyttion in the Troad, bore some resemblance to the Antigonid family, and claimed to be Philip, an illegitimate son of Perseus, the last king of Macedonia, who had been presumably raised in foster care away from the royal court.
Antigonids
Authors: Kosmetatou Elizabeth
Published: December 2012

The Antigonid Dynasty descended from Alexander the Great's generalantigonos i monophthalmos(“the One‐Eyed”), who created the first Hellenistic kingdom after Alexander's empire was dissolved during the succession conflict of 323–301BCE(seeSuccessors, Wars Of).
Antigonos II Gonatas
Authors: Kralli Ioanna
Published: December 2012

Antigonos II, nicknamed Gonatas (the meaning is obscure), was born ca. 320BCEand effectively ruled from 277 to 239; he assumed the Macedonian royal title upon the death of his father Demetrios I Poliorketes in 283. Antigonos had witnessed his father's grand failure. Demetrios had weakened Mace‐don by costly preparations for an invasion of Asia, had been expelled from his kingdom, and had died in Asia the defeated prisoner of Seleukos I. As king, Antigonos set himself more modest goals, protecting Macedon by asserting himself in Greece and throughout the Aegean.
Antiochos III Megas
Authors: Strootman Rolf
Published: December 2012

Antiochos III the Great (243/2–187) was the sixth king of the Seleucid Empire. His thirty‐five‐year reign (223/2–187) was the longest in the empire's history.
Antiochos VII Sidetes
Authors: Ehling Kay
Published: December 2012

Antiochos VII was the son of the Seleucid king Demetrios I and an unknown mother; officially, however, he was considered the son of Laodike, Demetrios' sister and wife (from about the end of 161 on).
Apame, wife of Seleukos I
Authors: Schäfer Christoph
Published: December 2012

Apame/Apama was a daughter of the Bactrian leader Spitamenes (Arr.Anab. 7.4.6). Strabo, who regarded her as daughter of the Persian Artabazos (Strabo 12.8.15), probably confused her with Ptolemy I Soter's wife of the same name, who was in fact descended from Artabazos. Livy wrongfully considers her to be a sister of Seleukos (38.13.5).
Apamea, Peace of
Authors: Koehn Clemens
Published: December 2012

The peace named after the city of Apamea Kibotos in western Asia Minor, at the sources of the Maeander, ended the war between the Seleucid King Antiochos III Megas and Rome in 188BCE.
Apollonios, Ptolemaic minister
Authors: Manning Joseph
Published: December 2012

Apollonios was thedioiketes, the chief financial official of the Ptolemaic state, in the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphos (282–246).
Apollonius Rhodius
Authors: Baumbach Manuel
Published: December 2012

The poet and scholar Apollonius Rhodius was one of the major literary figures at Alexandria in the third centuryBCE.
Aratos of Sikyon
Authors: Gray B. D.
Published: December 2012

Aratos of Sikyon (271–213) was the leading figure of the Achaian League from 245 to 213, being instrumental to its development into a major political force.
Aristonikos
Authors: Daubner Frank
Published: December 2012

Aristonikos (ca. 160–126
BCE
) was the natural son of Eumenes II (only Velleius Paterculus 2.4.1 doubts this fact; Daubner 2006: 53) and, as Eumenes III, he was the last of the Attalid kings.
Armenia
Authors: Coloru Omar
Published: December 2012

Armenia was a region in easternasia Minorcorresponding only to a small extent to the modern country of the same name.
Army, Hellenistic
Authors: Boulay Thibaut
Published: December 2012

The royal Hellenistic armies, heirs of Alexander the Great's army and of the Macedonian traditions and institutions, constituted the most solid foundation for the power of the kings, warrior chiefs who had responsibility for military strategy and the selection of the trained personnel.
Asandros, satrap of Caria
Authors: Müller Sabine
Published: December 2012

Asandros, son of Agathon from Beroia and often erroneously called “Cassander” (Curt. 10.10.2; Just.Epit. 13.4.15), was one of the Macedonian Satraps of Caria, appointed after the death of Ada, the last Hekatomnid (seeHekatomnids).