bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Eusebius ‘ Vita Constantini and the Construction of Constantine
Authors: Cameron Averil
Published: November 2023

For all the difficulties involved in judging its reliability, Eusebius ‘ Vita Constantini has served many generations of historians as a guide to Constantine ‘s life and career, none more so than T. D. Barnes, whose standard work, Constantine and Eusebius (1981) relies heavily on its evidence. That the Vita uneasily combines history and panegyric is well known; accordingly, G. Pasquali in 1910, followed by Barnes in 1989 and 1993, argued for a two-stage composition and change of genre midstream.1 Certainly Eusebius has left a very untidy, and in the eyes of many scholars unfinished, work, a fact which makes judgements of genre somewhat unsafe. But genre is one thing, reading another. The Vita (henceforth VC, not necessarily to be taken as Eusebius ‘ original title) has to be read as a text before it can be read as a source. Yet its very ambiguity has rendered it capable of several different readings. A full history of the interpretation and reception of the VC would require a substantial volume, and would be a volume worth writing.
Deiotarus
Authors: Birley Anthony
Published: November 2023

OF the client princes in the last age of the Roman Republic the best known is beyond doubt Deiotarus the Galarian. The oration survives which Cicero delivered before Caesar the Dictator, vindicating an old friend and a steadfast vassal of Rome. Allegiance to the vanquished cause of Pompeius and of Cato curtailed the dominions of Deiotarus and imperilled a regal ride but magnified his posthumous fame. Eager testimony expounds his manifold excellences. The splendid and monarchic virtues, all were his. Not less the primordial elements in the moral code of the Roman aristocrat: ‘quid de virtute eius dicam, de magnitudine animi gravitate constanria’. Nor was the Galarian devoid of certain solid and less decorative qualities that went to the hearts of a different order in society, with different standards, the equestrian class. Deiotarus did not succumb to luxury and extravagance. He practised ‘frugalitas’. Romans gainfully employed in the eastern lands knew him as a sound man of affairs, the model farmer and stock-raiser ‘oprimus paterfamilias et diligenrissimus agricola et pecuarius’. This is high praise. Indirect testimony supplements the reference to the agronomic interests of Deiotarus: a citizen of Nicaea compiled for his use an abridgement of the classic Carthaginian manual of agricultural science. Further, if a dubious anecdote be admitted, Deiotarus’ exertions did not stop with the rational exploitation of his resources but were directed to the advancement of civilization: Crassus found him building a city. That was the path of progress in a land of temples, castles, and villages.
The Status of Armenia Minor
Authors: Birley Anthony
Published: November 2023

Pompeius’ settlement of the eastern lands took due account of strategic needs, for offence as well as for defence. The main crossings of the River Euphrates were placed in the hands of Roman vassals. For an invasion of the high country of Armenia, the best route ran from Pontus through the region called Armenia Minor, in the direction of Erzurum. Armenia Minor was highly important. To which king or dynast was it awarded by grant of the Imperator? The dynasts of Armenia Minor extended their rule northwards over the wild regions towards Pharnacia and Trapezus. The last of them, Antipater the son of Sisis, had surrendered his realm to Mithridates Eupator. Now Deiotarus the Galatian, i:he tetrarch of the Tolistobogii, received from Pompeius Magnus the territories about Pharnacia and Trapezus ‘as far as Colchis and Armenia Minor’: that is to say, the eastern and southern limits of his possessions in Pontus are thereby indicated.
Lycomedes the Lord of Comana
Authors: Birley Anthony
Published: November 2023

The civil dissensions of the Romans, spreading rapidly to their imperial domain, unfolded brilliant prospects of advancement for foreign as well as for Italian adventurers—wealth, power, and kingdoms to be won. Of the adherents of the Roman leaders in the eastern lands, some were just brigands. That appellation adheres with some justice to Cleon the Mysian, if not to Antipater the despot of Derbe and Laranda; and some spoke derisively of Caesar’s partisan, Mithridates of Pergamum.
Pisidia and the Milyas
Authors: Birley Anthony
Published: November 2023

The incorporation of certain Pontic territories (c.2 B.C.) was perhaps a measure not merely local in significance. It might have led to something more. As the event showed, it was a change without consequence. The prime action in this age of Anatolian history concerns Galatia and the mountain zone in the south. A vast new province was created (in or soon after 25 B.C.). Amyntas in the execution of his duties as an agent of the imperial peace met his end in a valley of the Taurus, taken and killed by the savage Homonadenses (26 or 25 B.C.). What was to be done with that vast conglomeration of countries that extended from the borders of Bithynia, Paphlagonia, and Pontus southwards over the plateau and over the mountains to the plain of Pamphylia and the precipitous coast of Rough Cilicia? Amyntas showed signal merit, and he left a son, Pylaemenes, whose name betrays some claim or hope for the reversion of the adjacent principality of Paphlagonia.4 But the new dynasty was not perpetuated, even in its native land.
The Eastern Legions
Authors: Birley Anthony
Published: November 2023

In January 27 B.C., Octavianus confronted the Senate with an offer to resign all his powers. Rendering an account of his activities, the Princeps no doubt insisted on laying before the high assembly facts and figures — armies and provinces, the demobilization since Actium, the present establishment, and future needs. A document of this type existed forty years later, written by Augustus in his own hand. Tiberius Caesar ordered it to be read out. After the first regulation of the ruler’s province and prerogatives, twenty-six legions or thereabouts were kept in service, I-XX, with half a dozen others bearing duplicate numbers. Of the latter, most if not all were old Antonian units, and they were stationed in the eastern lands. The highest number, XX, may have a significance that is more than decimal. It may correspond to the full strength of the Roman army existing, or deemed to exist, at some time before the Civil Wars-at least the last generation of the Republic shows no formation numbered above XVIII. When Augustus later enrolled two legions they were styled XXI and XXII. None of his successors, though they augmented the army, deserted the numerical precedent until Trajan produced XXX Ulpia Victrix, a proud title uniting his name and his glory, a symbol but also a fact. The emperor was the master of thirty legions.
The Homonadensian War
Authors: Birley Anthony
Published: November 2023

Promoted through the patronage of Augustus, P. Sulpicius Quirinius, like most of the novi homines, failed to endear himself to a society in which all classes were imbued with aristocratic prepossessions. They despised the man from Lanuvium for his municipal origin; his wealth provoked anger and resentment. The last years of Quirinius exhibited an ugly spectacle—’sordida et praepotens senecta’. His wife Aemilia Lepida sought to ensnare his fortune with a supposititious heir. Quirinius was not content to divorce—there were other charges, and he was bent on ruining her. Though Lepida got up a public demonstration in the theatre of Pompeius Magnus, society ladies and the Roman plebs competing to execrate the upstart, justice or the influence of Quirinius prevailed.
The Expedition of Caius Caesar
Authors: Birley Anthony
Published: November 2023

IN the year 2 B.C. the city of Rome witnessed a cumulation of governmental acts and public shows. A loyal Senate, interpreting the wishes of a grateful nation, confered upon Augustus the official title of ‘pater patriae’. It had been his for the asking since nearly thirty years—’hic ames dici pater atque princeps’. Though not novel, the theme was invested with permanent value: no doubt the eloquent Messalla made the most of it. Perspicacious or malevolent observers may have discovered a greater significance in the institution, for the ‘first time, of regular commanders of the Praetorian Guard.
The sassanian period and early islam, c.AD 224-651
Authors: Dalley Stephanie
Published: November 2023

By The Time The Parthians Gave Way To The Sassanians as rulers of Mesopotamia, the physical presence of cuneiform writing and libraries had come to an end. This change is sometimes seen as making a clean break with ancient times. But clear evidence that some major cults continued is recorded in the Babylonian Talmud in the sayings of Rav, who began to teach in Mesopotamia after 219 and founded a new academy there at Sura.
Mediation, Competition, and Sovereignty: The Evolution of Rural Sanctuaries in Geometric Greece
Authors: De Polignac François
Published: November 2023

Any general theory which seeks to account for phenomena previously considered separately runs the risk of producing an interpretative model which is too rigid and which treats in an over-schematic way a reality which is rather more variable and nuanced than the explanations proposed for it, In the case of a theory based on archaeological data, there is a further danger of which one must be more or less aware: that of being proved false by a new discovery which brings into question facts until then held to be certain. Even in the best of circumstances it is not possible to escape from the necessity of adjusting the theory in the light of the development of archaeological knowledge and interpretation. Until now, perhaps simply by chance, the ideas advanced a decade ago in La Naissance de la cite grecque, about the early history of cults in the countryside and their role in the formation of cities during the Archaic period, have not been formally contradicted by the results of excavations carried out in the mean time. Nevertheless, the moment has come to return critically to some of the concepts which that work put into play, and to refine them in bringing more recent discoveries into the picture.
The Spatial Configuration of Belief: The Archaeology of Mycenaean Religion
Authors: Wright James C
Published: November 2023

The archaeological traces of Mycenaean religion demonstrate three broad types of religious sites. These are the megaron with its central hearth and throne, the shrine building, and open air settings. But there is no agreement among scholars as to how the available evidence fits into these categories. For example, Hagg has argued forcefully in favour of identifying a house shrine type, Lam brinoudakis has suggested that the remains at the Maleatas terrace at Epidauros are of a Minoan-type peak sanctuary, and Klaus Kilian has hypothesized that the remains from Ayíos Ilias near Tiryns are part of a cult located in a small cavern. These examples illustrate the need for clear-cut criteria that distinguish among the different types and that allow us to speak comprehensively about the nature of Mycenaean religious practice and belief.
The Distribution of Sanctuaries in Civic Space in Arkadia
Authors: Jost Madeleine
Published: November 2023

The distribution of sanctuaries in a region is related to the physical lie of its land, its human geography, and its political life (Ill. 9.1). Arkadia is a region where the landscape is sufficiently varied and the historical development sufficiently well known to allow an enquiry into the factors which play a part in the choice of sanctuary sites. In this paper I will examine the placing of sanctuaries, considering them both individually and as part of the network which they form in marking out the territory of a city. The factors which emerge as important in Arkadia are the factors which generally influence the placing of sanctuaries in other areas of Greece, but the particular blend apparent in Arkadia is part of what gives that region its characteristic identity. In Arkadia, as elsewhere, certain places seem destined to be considered sacred, and certain types of landscape attract cults of one divinity rather than another.
Reciprocity and Ritual
Authors: Seaford Richard
Published: November 2023

This is an exciting and entirely new synthesis, combining anthropology, political and social history, and the close reading of central Greek texts, to account for two the most significant hallmarks in Homeric epic and Athenian tragedy: the representation of ritual and codes of reciprocity. Both genres are pervaded by these features, yet each treats them in entirely different ways. In this book, Dr Seaford shows that these differences cannot be accounted for in merely literary terms, but require a historical explanation. Homer in its final form is a product of the city state at an earlier historical stage than is tragedy. It is the growth of the city-state and its concomitant developments - in particular of law and of money, as well as in the practice of ritual - that provide a key to the crystallization of the Homeric narrative tradition, to the specificity of tragedy, and to certain features of the thought of the period. In the case of reciprocity, again - whether the positive reciprocity associated with gift-giving or the hostile reciprocity of revenge - the systematic distinctions between Homer and tragedy can be explained only from a historical perspective. In its characteristic movement tradegy reflects and confirms the transition from one kind of society towards another: from a network of reciprocial relations, characteristic of societies where the state is weak or absent, to the organization of citizens around a single centre or series of centres, the institutions and cults of the city-state. Challenging, thoroughly lucid, and at times controversial, this lively and original work is the first to attempt to understand the development of early Greek literature from the perspective of state-formation. It should interest all serious students and scholars of both the literature and the history of classical Greece.
Some Twentieth-century Views of Horace
Authors: Harrison S J
Published: November 2023

Even to list all the scholarly work that has been published on Horace since 1900 would consume a whole volume. This survey will therefore be limited to a brief sketch of some of the main lines of Horatian criticism in the present century, providing a context in which the studies which follow may be set. For the same reason, it will be largely confined to material published in book form; those seeking articles on particular subjects are directed towards the useful bibliographical collections of Kissel (1981) and Doblhofer (1992).
Reading Horace in the Quattrocento: The Hymn to Mars of Michael Marullus
Authors: Mcgann M J
Published: November 2023

In 1482, about a decade after the appearance of the editio princeps, Cristoforo Landino’s edition of Horace was published in Florence. It was prefaced by a poem in asdepiads composed by Politian, in which he welcomed the liberation of Horace from the barbarian fetter, the removal of the cloud from his brow, and his restoration, rejuvenated and all nicely scrubbed, to the band of nimble dancers: Quis te a barbarica compede vindicat? Quis frontis nebulam dispulit, & situ Deterso levibus restituit choris Cur(a)ta iuvenem cute? This was not Politian’s first essay in a Horatian form. An ode to the bishop of Arezzo arises from the Pazzi conspiracy of 1478 against the Medici.
Authorial Rhetoric in Virgil’s Georgics
Authors: Rutherford Richard
Published: November 2023

As an undergraduate I learned from Donald Russell’s wide-ranging lectures on ancient criticism; in my years as a graduate student his profound knowledge of Greek philosophy and rhetoric proved a constant aid while I puzzled over the writings of Marcus Aurelius. His expertise in these fields is familiar to all classical scholars; those outside Oxford may not know that for years he lectured on Virgil, and his renderings of passages from that poet’s most perfect work, the Georgics, are well remembered. He has been known to say that too much is written about Virgil: but his well-known magnanimity will, I hope, forgive this writer’s insanabile scribendi cacoethes, and his pupils all know that they can rely on him as a candidus index.
Reflections on Ekphrasis in Ausonius and Prudentius
Authors: Wilson Anna
Published: November 2023

Thybris ea fluvium, quam longa est, nocte tumentem leniit, et tacita refluens ita substitit unda, mitis ut in morem stagni placidaeque paludis sterneret aequor aquis, remo ut luctamen abesset. ergo iter inceptum celerant. rumore secundo labitur uncta vadis abies, mirantur et undae, miratur nemus insuetum fulgentia longe scuta virum fluvio pictasque innare carinas. olli remigio noctemque diemque fatigant et longos superant flexus, variisque teguntur arboribus, viridisque secant placido aequore silvas. Virgil, Aeneid 8. 86–96
Dio Chrysostom, Greece, and Rome
Authors: Moles John
Published: November 2023

Donald Russell’s commentary on Dio happily unites the best Greek orator and the greatest connoisseur of Greek prose of their respective ages. No scholar has argued more persuasively for the literary, philosophical, and indeed moral excellence of Euboicus, Olympicus, and Borystheniticus. I here offer a sketch of their attitudes to Rome. While my interpretations differ from Donald’s, they owe his scholarship an incalculable debt.
‘Subject to the Erotic’: Male Sexual Behaviour in Plutarch
Authors: Stadter Philip
Published: November 2023

Early in the Life of Pompey, Plutarch reports that the great general, when a young man, was madly in love with the courtesan Flora, so much so, in fact, that in later years she boasted that he never left her without a bite. Soon Pompey’s friend Geminus also became infatuated with Flora, but she rebuffed him, reminding him of her tie to Pompey. However, after Geminus spoke to Pompey, Pompey surrendered Flora to him and never tried to see her again, much to Flora’s dismay.
Names and a Gem: Aspects of Allusion in Heliodorus’ Aethiopica
Authors: Bowie Ewen
Published: November 2023

Names can evoke a vast range of associations. Dropped into the calm flow of a narrative they set up ripples which persist long after they have first splashed into the reader’s awareness. Any classicists reading a novel with a character named Donald Russell would expect him to be learned, helpful, and companionable, with a nice sense of humour. A novelist who then constructed a quite different character would challenge readers by a constant play between his construction and their expectation. Inventing (or borrowing) names for characters is one trick open to novelists (and to Athenian comic poets, as Antiphanes reminded his audience) that is largely denied to genres that work with traditional myths. Thus whereas writers (who are most often poets) drawing on a mythological tradition can exploit the ethical qualities which that tradition associates with certain characters (e.g. sit Medea ferox), others with freely invented plots and dramatis personae can create expectations of character and behaviour by telling choice of names; though here too a tradition can establish expectations, as for the servile name Davus in New Comedy. The first part of this discussion explores the way in which Heliodorus, a novelist who draws on a wide range of sophisticated literary tricks, exploits the potential of names to create expectations, partly simply to entertain the reader by offering a character or actions that defeat these expectations, partly to force the reader’s attention on the all-important ethical qualities of his principal characters. The second part of my discussion considers a different rhetorical technique for using subordinate elements of a narrative to throw its main features into greater relief.
Phantasia and Analogia in Proclus
Authors: Sheppard Anne
Published: November 2023

Any Platonist is bound to have an ambivalent attitude towards images. On the one hand, images fall short of the reality they represent and are liable to mislead and deceive. On the other, an image can make the beholder think of what lies beyond the image and help him or her to grasp the higher reality reflected in the image. Both views can be found in Plato himself! and both recur in the Neoplatonists. Both views have implications for literary criticism and for art in general. Literary and artistic images may be frowned upon, as they often are by Plato, precisely because they distract from the contemplation of philosophical truth. Yet such images may also be valued, not for themselves, but for their power to stimulate the mind towards that contemplation. It is well known that the Neoplatonists valued art more highly than Plato did precisely because they saw artistic images as having a positive value of this kind. I have argued elsewhere that Proclus’ theory of literary interpretation combines both views of images. He terms ‘good’ images eikones. They stand in a relationship of analogia to the paradeigma or model they represent; they resemble the model and can help us to grasp it. ‘Bad’ images are eidola; they are associated with artistic mimesis which Proclus condemns just as Plato did in Republic IO. There is a further, important aspect to Proclus’ theory: higher realities may be revealed not only through eikones but also, in a different way, through symbola.
Arcadia
Authors: Rhodes P J , Lewis David M
Published: November 2023

Errington, Philopoemen, 273–4, comments: ‘no grounds for believing that this list of Arcadians ⃛ represents a secessionist movement from the Achaean League. As they are involved in a purely religious function, the natural interpretation is that they retained their “national consciousness” for this religious purpose. ’
Megarid
Authors: Rhodes P J , Lewis David M
Published: November 2023

In the series of proxeny decrees from Megara the offices of basileus and secretary are annual; the boards of five strategoi are annual, but the same board of six strategoi serves throughout years E-H. Strategoi are always listed in the same order in the same year, the board of six in one order in years E, F and G and a different order in year H.
Delphi
Authors: Rhodes P J , Lewis David M
Published: November 2023

In view of the large number of decrees from Delphi, I present the catalogue in a compact form, without transcribing the formulae of each decree separately, and I normally give only one reference to each text, using the system indicated above. Editions of Delphic texts in SIG  3 differ considerably from those in the French series, and I do not normally cite SIG3.
Phocis
Authors: Rhodes P J , Lewis David M
Published: November 2023

From the decrees of the koinon, I. Magnesia 34 instructs the nomographoi to incorporate the decree in the archives among the nomoi; 101 seeks a volunteer to serve on an embassy.
Opuntian Locris
Authors: Rhodes P J , Lewis David M
Published: November 2023

Most of the (abbreviated) proxeny decrees from Opuntian Locris are enacted in the joint names of Opus and the Opuntian Locrians, and there is no indication of the enactment process; but 268 is enacted by the people and boule, and does not mention the koinon.
Ozolian Locris
Authors: Rhodes P J , Lewis David M
Published: November 2023

In 748 (Myania and Hypnia) it is envisaged that diorthomata may be required: if they are disputed, the matter will be decided by six named men from other Locrian cities, three constituting a quorum. Monthly accounts are to be exchanged between Myania and Hypnia. Myania has one boularchos and Hypnia a plurality (which should imply that each city has a boule ), and there is also a joint boularchos (implying a joint boule ).
Aetolia
Authors: Rhodes P J , Lewis David M
Published: November 2023

I first cite the epigraphic evidence, then catalogue the abundant literary evidence. Precise dates are those of Klaftenbach in IG ix2. i: they are not certain.
Islands Of The Ionian Sea
Authors: Rhodes P J , Lewis David M
Published: November 2023

694, labelled ‘for salvation’, contains (i) a donation by Aristomenes and his wife Psylla to Corcyra for the payment of Dionysiac artists, and (ii) a lengthy decree of the council (to which they had entrusted the details) for the administration of the money. I note the following points in particular. The administrators are to be elected by the council, as stipulated by the donors (with a minimum age of thirty-five and, unique to my knowledge, a maximum age of seventy), and accounts are to be submitted to the council, but major decisions (e.g. that circumstances make compliance with the regulations impossible) are to be taken by the council and the assembly.
Epirus And Illyria
Authors: Rhodes P J , Lewis David M
Published: November 2023

Decrees are anonymous, but 16, 32, 33, and 34 are based on an approach made by an individual. Apart from references to the ekklesia in 5 and 32, and to a secretary of the synedroi in 33, they tell us nothing about the decisionmaking bodies. Larsen suggested that membership of the assembly was probably restricted, at any rate de facto . From Nicopolis we have a voting figure, probably indicating unanimous approval.
Macedonia
Authors: Rhodes P J , Lewis David M
Published: November 2023

Texts cited by serial number are from IG x. ii. 1 (1972). Texts marked with an asterisk are so marked in IG , as not necessarily having been found in Thessalonica; but the attribution of 2 and 14 to Thessalonica is certain.
THRACE from the Nestus to the Bosporus
Authors: Rhodes P J , Lewis David M
Published: November 2023

Our third-century decree from Abdera, SEG xxiv 382, is restored with provision for theoroi to be elected from all the citizens by the assembly, as often in Greek states; on the present occasion, once the decree has been passed; on subsequent occasions, when the Aetolians ask. The second-century texts are more striking.
Moesia And Pontic Thrace
Authors: Rhodes P J , Lewis David M
Published: November 2023

When Tomi was under pressure from the barbarians, two men were elected from all the citizens to enlist and command a small garrison; they were to have full powers of coercion and were themselves to be unaccountable; once the crisis was over, the commanders and their garrison were praised (2). Another decree of Tomi refers to an annual electoral assembly (6).
The Western Greeks
Authors: Rhodes P J , Lewis David M
Published: November 2023

In the transcriptions which follow, A denotes the three-letter abbreviation for what is assumed to be a deme.
Caria
Authors: Rhodes P J , Lewis David M
Published: November 2023

In Aph. & Rome 2 men to be appointed as envoys must be distinguished and pro-Roman, but in Le Bas & Waddington 16 n any citizen who wishes may prosecute. The latter decree contains an entrenchment clause.
Troas
Authors: Rhodes P J , Lewis David M
Published: November 2023

Merkelbach in IK p. 25 suggests that the earliest of our decrees of Assus, 11a, had to go twice through the council and assembly, but I think it more likely that here we have a cumbersome formulation of the ordinary procedure than a cumbersome procedure. 26 shows the new atmosphere of the Roman empire not only in the addition of the Roman residents to the council and assembly but also in the decision that the envoys should be chosen not from all citizens but from the first and best of the Romans and Greeks; and it is not surprising that those who were appointed were men who volunteered to serve at their own expense.
Pontus
Authors: Rhodes P J , Lewis David M
Published: November 2023

Two other unpublished decrees of Sinope, of similar date, are mentioned by D. H. French, Thracia Pontica ii. 85–8.
Phrygia
Authors: Rhodes P J , Lewis David M
Published: November 2023

Three of the texts from Phrygia are of particular interest.In 661, from Acmonia, the will of T. Praxias is accepted by the city in a decree which is ‘made law to be preserved as long as the Roman Empire endures’. An entrenchment clause allows changes to be made by Praxias but not by any one else.
Pamphylia
Authors: Rhodes P J , Lewis David M
Published: November 2023

In these gifts from benefactors we find councillors, members of the gerousia and members of the assembly as separate categories ranking above plain citizens.
Isauria
Authors: Rhodes P J , Lewis David M
Published: November 2023

It is not clear whether ‘with the whole mass’ denotes just the assembly as opposed to a smaller body, or an assembly in which a quorum requirement was satisfied, or a unanimous vote in the assembly.
Lycaonia
Authors: Rhodes P J , Lewis David M
Published: November 2023

The sender of the letter in document i is the Ptolemaic commander in Cilicia; Arsinoe was founded by his father with land taken from Nagidus, and he wishes to make further arrangements for Arsinoe.
Cappadocia
Authors: Rhodes P J , Lewis David M
Published: November 2023

Here politeuma has the same meaning as polis’. Robert 476-8. Does ‘in accordance with the vote that has taken place in the council and the assembly’ refer to this decree or to an earlier stage in the proceedings? I suspect it refers to this decree; Robert does not discuss the question.
Susiana
Authors: Rhodes P J , Lewis David M
Published: November 2023

I agree with Welles against F. Cumont that it was Hestiaeus himself who ‘came forward and objected’ that he was not yet eligible to hold the office again.
Media
Authors: Rhodes P J , Lewis David M
Published: November 2023

From Laodicea in Media we have a clear example of the authoritarian form which the government of a city could take in a place remote from the Greek heartland: a provincial governor sends a letter to the king’s epistates , the archontes , and the city, attaching a copy of the edict embodied in the king’s letter to him and calling for obedience.
Persis
Authors: Rhodes P J , Lewis David M
Published: November 2023

Since Magnesia is said to have shown good will to Antiochus as well as to Antioch in Persis, the restoration of OGIS , in which the theoroi are to sacrifice ‘for the salvation of the king and of both cities’, is plausible. If further restorations of OGIS are correct, the prytaneis who propose the decree leave the assembly free to fix the expense allowance for the theoroi , and to elect the theoroi and a theorodokos .
An Active Assembly
Authors: Rhodes P J , Lewis David M
Published: November 2023

An assembly of citizens was normally the body with final decision-making power in a state, at any rate on major issues (subject perhaps, as at Athens, to the right of a law-court to rule that a decision was illegal). Almost all Greek states had such a body—but perhaps not quite all.
The Form of Decrees
Authors: Rhodes P J , Lewis David M
Published: November 2023

In this chapter I put together material which concerns the form in which the text of decrees was drawn up rather than the procedure by which decrees were enacted and put into effect.
Athenian Religion
Authors: Parker Robert
Published: November 2023

Tantalizingly inadequately documented, ancient Greek religion can all too easily be reduced to the dry analysis of archaeological remains and so-called "ritual objects", or the isolated interpretation of other scattered fragments of evidence. This authoritative new work is an innovative attempt to bridge the gap that usually divides Greek religion from Greek history, setting it firmly in the thick of contemporary events and politics. The book discusses the actual dates and circumstances of the foundation of temples at Athens, its festivals and cults, the historical development of the social structures within which religious activities took place, and the effects on the religious sphere of the radical shift in Athens' political life from tyranny to democracy and the acquisition of an empire. Dr Parker brings to life the details of what actually went on in worship, considers the introduction of new gods and looks in detail at such key personalities and events in the religious history of Athens as Lycurgus the Eteoboutad and his religious policies and the trial of Socrates. Rich in detail and providing a wealth of information, this is a book that promises to be the definitive work on the subject for some time to come. It covers the whole of the archaic, classical, and hellenestic period up to the middle of the third century BC.
Solon’s Calendar
Authors: Parker Robert
Published: November 2023

In contrast to its predecessor, the sixth century seems like the great age of transformation. By the end of it, Athens was equipped, at last, with temples of truly monumental scale; and near the beginning had occurred, perhaps, one of the great landmarks in the history of Greek religion-the drafting by Solon of a written calendar of sacrifices, possibly the first such that existed and the only one from archaic or even classical Greece that is known in any detail. Whether or not it was in fact Solon who drew up a systematic programme for the religion of the state, a corpus of written prescriptions on religious matters evidently built up during the course of the century. A traditional, pre-literary religion therefore made its first, limited contact with the art of writing.
The Sixth Century: New Splendours
Authors: Parker Robert
Published: November 2023

Architecturally, the sixth century was an age of transformation for Athens. Indeed, in a certain sense, it was then that she became a polis. ‘From Chaeronea it is 20 stades to Panopeus, a polis of the Phocians, if one can give the name of polis to people who lack magistrates’ offices and gymnasia, who have no theatre, no agora, no water brought to a fountain,’ grumbles Pausanias. In Athens, every one of these amenities (if we neglect the ‘old agora’) is first attested in the sixth century. Fine temples too began to arise, of which we can still see substantial remains. This new architectural magnificence is accompanied by a proliferation of festivals of a new type, urban and spectacular.
Introduction
Authors: Lada-Richards Ismene
Published: November 2023

The first word belongs to Dionysus, the formidable, multifaceted god, who fired the imagination of poets and artists throughout antiquity and beyond, the ambiguous god, who, despite having sparked ‘a wider spectrum of different and often contradictory interpretations’ (Henrichs 1984a: 240) than any other Greek divinity, still remains as ‘elusive’ and defying definition (cf. Henrichs 1984a: 209), as mysterious and surprising as ever.
‘Separation’, ‘Limen’, ‘Aggregation’: The Frogs as a ‘Rite of Passage’
Authors: Lada-Richards Ismene
Published: November 2023

In a highly influential article published in 1961, C. P. Segal (1961: 213) argued that the Frogs is to be seen as the representation of ‘a carefully worked out development’ within the dramatic figure of Dionysus: the journey into the Unknown becomes on a symbolic level the expression of the god’s advancement towards a unified conception of himself and the reintegration of his own personality. Segal, however, was not primarily concerned with exploring the wider pattern into which Dionysus’ transition falls. It was only in 1986 that David Konstan (1986: 291) suggested-in an important development of Segal’s position-that there are three levels in this play which follow ‘a logical arrangement imitating a ritual of initiation’.
Private Rescripts
Authors: Corcoran Simon
Published: November 2023

Private rescripts are the subject of this and the next two chapters. This chapter gives an account of the rescript system and rescripts in general, their legal force, their format, the nature of the petitions that prompted them, and the citation of precedent and uses of the past as found both in the rescripts and other pronouncements. Chapter 4 discusses the Honore method of dividing rescripts according to marks of style attesting to their authorship by different magistri libellorum and summarizes evidence for those officials known or supposed to have been connected with the composition of imperial rescripts or pronouncements in general. Chapter 5 details all the information that can be gathered on the recipients of the rescripts, both as to their status and occupation and as to their geographical origin. The role of the governor as revealed by the rescripts is examined in the first part of Chapter 9.
The Recipients of Private Rescripts
Authors: Corcoran Simon
Published: November 2023

The Gregorian and Hermogenian Codes were officially sponsored pro ductions. But if the impetus for their compilation was imperial, the rescripts included in them were prompted by private petitions, originating often far from the court. Thus, whatever selection procedure chose rescripts for the codes, the population of texts, from which the selection was made, came into being as a function of private initiative. Indeed, with around I ,200 surviving rescripts, the number of private individuals known by name to have petitioned Diocletian exceeds that for any other emperor.1 Whatever effect upon the accessibility of the ruler was caused by the gorgeous ceremonial of the late antique court (as reputedly intro duced by Diocletian),2 there was no adverse effect upon the flow of petitions, at least in the early years of the tetrarchy
Imperial Letters
Authors: Corcoran Simon
Published: November 2023

The main purpose of this and the next chapter is to provide a survey of imperial letters and edicts in the form of chronological catalogues, with appropriate brief comments on notable features of the texts listed. In view of the relatively small number of surviving edicts, Chapter 7 gives a complete catalogue of them for the entire period under discus sion (284– 324). In this current chapter, letters for the period 284– 313 are listed, with a more summary catalogue for 314– 24 in Appendix D. The catalogue style of presentation not only assembles in one place information gathered from diverse sources, but in so doing tackles the inherent difficulty of identifying whether documents are indeed letters (especially for texts in the Justinian Code). For Constantine’s letters, the need is less pressing. A good (if now slightly outdated) chronologi cal account already exists in Seeck’s Regesten,1 and a recent palingenesia of Constantinian documents from literary sources is already available.2 Further, the mass of texts from the Theodosian Code are readily identifiable as epistulae. The catalogue in this chapter, therefore, only goes up to the end of 313, which gives a good idea of the range of material for Constantine. The considerable number of letters for the period 314– 24 is listed in summary form in Appendix D, although this also includes comments on selected matters of dating and recipient.
Tragic Filters for History: Euripides ‘ Supplices and Sophocles ‘ Philoctetes
Authors: Bowie A M
Published: November 2023

Scholarship has something to make good here. It should do justice to the products of genius. But here, as so often, false ingenuity has presumed to illuminate its dimmed object by flashes of impertinent inspiration; picking out, for example, isolated words or phrases and relating them to facts (often imaginary) outside the poet ‘s creation. Suggestions of such references are now made almost apologetically, even for plays which have especially figured in discussions of the problem in the past.
The Theatre Audience, the Demos, and the Suppliants of Aeschylus
Authors: Sommerstein Alan H
Published: November 2023

The tragedies and comedies composed for production at the Athenian dramatic festivals in the fifth and early fourth centuries sc are priceless historical documents. For much of the period they are, apart from inscriptions, the only contemporary documents we possess emanating from Athens itself. Their historical interpretation is problematic, of course, in many ways, some of which are discussed elsewhere in this volume. The particular issue that I am going to take up may be approached by considering the question which, it has been said, historians should. always put to themselves in respect of every document they use: who wrote it, for whom, and why? In the case of Greek tragedy and comedy, we usually know the answer to the first question, and we also know the answer to the third: the plays were composed with a view to being successful in a competition, before a small panel of judges whose identity was not known at the time of composition but was known at the time of performance, and who thus, even if their actual voting was secret, in practice (as many remarks in comedy make clear2) were very liable to be influenced by the attitude of the mass of the audience. And as to the remaining question- ‘for whom ‘-we know the answer to that too. Essentially the plays were written to be seen, to be heard, to be judged, to be appreciated by those who sat in the Theatre of Dionysus when they were first staged. There might be other audiences later. Plays seem often to have been reperformed at deme theatres in various parts of Attica. They had begun to be performed abroad, too, as early as Aeschylus ‘ time, and convincing arguments have recently been advanced3 that in the second half of the fifth century there were frequent productions of Athenian tragedy at least in southern Italy.
Gods Cruel and Kind: Tragic and Civic Theology
Authors: Parker Robert
Published: November 2023

The gods protect us: that proposition, so far from self-evident to most modern readers of Greek tragedy, was none the less in some contexts of public speech in Athens a truism. It is said that under the ancien regime in France it was an article of popular faith that the king himself was good and a friend to the people; his ministers, that was where the problem lay. An identical faith is characteristic of the Athenian democracy, if one substitutes ‘the gods ‘ for ‘the king ‘, and ‘politicians ‘ or (when a politician is speaking) ‘my political opponents ‘ for the king ‘s ministers. The theme echoes out with remarkable consistency over 250 years, starting with Solon: ‘Our city will never perish by the destiny of Zeus or the other blessed immortal gods: such a protectress, ... daughter of a mighty father, Pallas Athena, is holding her hands out over it. But the citizens themselves want to ruin the great city in their folly. ‘ It is taken up in Clouds-comedy, we note, sides with oratory against tragedy-where the chorus claim to have tried to protect Athens from Cleon by thundering during an election meeting, but the Athenians in their folly chose him general all the same: ‘for they say that foolish decisions are typical of this city, but the gods turn for the best whatever mistakes you make. ‘ They then suggest drastic action against Cleon as a way of ‘turning the mistake for the best ‘. ‘For they say ‘: the idea of the gods ‘ active benevolence to Athens, mentioned again in Ecclesiazusae as a piece of proverbial wisdom, was evidently a cliche. It comes up again repeatedly in Demosthenes.
Back to the Roots
Authors: Kingsley Peter
Published: November 2023

Academically, doubt is a virtue. It is wise to be cautious, virtuous to allow for different points of view. The problem arises when this attitude hardens: then doubting becomes a certainty in itself, and we forget the importance of doubting our doubt. To hesitate rather than pass premature judgement is one thing; it is quite another thing when scholarship flounders in disagreement over questions that could easily be settled once and for al1 on the basis of the evidence available. One example of this situation is the various opinions that have been put forward regarding the nature and divine identity of Empedodes’ four elements. They are an accurate indication of how little progress has been made in understanding him over the last century.
Aither
Authors: Kingsley Peter
Published: November 2023

The ancient traditions about the identity of Empedocles’ elements, plus the modern status of opinion, are all linked to each other by a network of interlocking assumptions. Only by unravelling these presuppositions, one by one, will we be able to get to the reality underlying them. In later antiquity it was generally taken for granted that when Empedocles spoke of aither he meant the element of fire. Recently it has been common to assume instead that for Empedocles aither was not an element at all, but a secondary combination of fire plus air. Both these assumptions are tributaries of an even larger and more enduring one. This is that Empedocles’ basic name for the fourth element—in addition to fire, water, and earth—was aer: the origin of our word ‘air’.
A History of Errors
Authors: Kingsley Peter
Published: November 2023

In the last chapter we saw how the Philolaic system needs to be approached and understood. However, something also deserves to be said about the misunderstanding of it. As one might expect, the problems begin in antiquity.
Pythagoreans and Neopythagoreans
Authors: Kingsley Peter
Published: November 2023

No discussion of the involvement in ritual, cult, and magic on the part of Empedocles and early Pythagoreans would be complete without saying a few words about the subsequent history of Pythagoreanism—and, in particular, about the phenomenon which has come to be known as ‘Neopythagoreanism’. This word, like the terms ‘Neoplatonism’ or ‘Middle Platonism’, is a creation of modern scholarship; and as with all such constructs it is important to examine the assumptions and presuppositions which led to its creation.
Nestis
Authors: Kingsley Peter
Published: November 2023

Empedocles the magician, the healer, the expert in esoteric lore, and the initiate throwing himself into Mount Etna: these are all so many connected aspects of fact and legend that we have encountered as a direct result of following up Empedocles’ own equation of divinities with elements-and, above all, his equation of Hades with fire. But there is one last detail which needs looking into, and that is the identity of the goddess equated by Empedocles with the element of water. Interestingly, in this case the limitations of our information about the goddess will prove to be almost as significant as the extent of it.
Images of the Gods
Authors: Trapp M B
Published: November 2023

The first of Maximus’ lectures on what may be called broadly theological and/or cosmological themes, showing points of contact with Orr. 4-11, 13,and 41. An initial survey of primitive and rustic divine images introduces the question whether sophisticated, urban man will have recourse to such practices too (§ 1). He will, is the reply, but as a concession to the feebleness of human intellect, not as a fundamental necessity either to men or to the divine (§ 2). An extended survey of Greek and foreign (‘barbarian’) religious images then underlines how widely and how variously this concession has been made (§ § 3-9). The concluding sections return to the initial question and amplify the answer given in § 2, that images used in cult do not embody God’s essential nature, but are a useful aid to human worship.
Socrates on Trial
Authors: Trapp M B
Published: November 2023

Introduction

This is the first of a number of orations to take some aspect of the life and thought of Socrates as their starting-point: see also Orr. 8-9 and 18-21. In the others, Socrates is used more as a convenient point of entry to a major issue in Platonic philosophy than as a topic of interest in his own right; here, however, he remains the centre of attention throughout. Thematically, the lecture belongs with the group devoted to problems of philosophy and civic life (see Introduction, pp. xv-xvi): compare above all Or. 16, in defence of Anaxagoras and the Contemplative Life.
Poetry and Philosophy on the Gods
Authors: Trapp M B
Published: November 2023

A lecture arguing for a historical continuity and an identity of purpose between the poetry of Homer and Hesiod and the philosophy of later centuries. The basic thesis is stated with the aid of an analogy with the development of medicine in § § 1 - 3, in the course of which the use of myths (allegories) is identified as the central pedagogical device of early poetry; § 4 illustrates the persistence of allegorical technique in subsequent philosophical writing, while § § 5-6 explain just why myth and poetic form are so valuable to the educator.