bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Bayesian approach to sequential meta‐analysis
Authors: Spence Graeme T. , Steinsaltz David , Fanshawe Thomas R.
Published: August 2016

As evidence accumulates within a meta‐analysis, it is desirable to determine when the results could be considered conclusive to guide systematic review updates and future trial designs. Adapting sequential testing methodology from clinical trials for application to pooled meta‐analytic effect size estimates appears well suited for this objective. In this paper, we describe a Bayesian sequential meta‐analysis method, in which an informative heterogeneity prior is employed and stopping rule criteria are applied directly to the posterior distribution for the treatment effect parameter. Using simulation studies, we examine how well this approach performs under different parameter combinations by monitoring the proportion of sequential meta‐analyses that reach incorrect conclusions (to yield error rates), the number of studies required to reach conclusion, and the resulting parameter estimates. By adjusting the stopping rule thresholds, the overall error rates can be controlled within the target levels and are no higher than those of alternative frequentist and semi‐Bayes methods for the majority of the simulation scenarios. To illustrate the potential application of this method, we consider two contrasting meta‐analyses using data from the Cochrane Library and compare the results of employing different sequential methods while examining the effect of the heterogeneity prior in the proposed Bayesian approach. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
An overview of inference methods in probabilistic classifier chains for multilabel classification
Authors: Mena Deiner , Montañés Elena , Quevedo José Ramón , del Coz Juan José
Published: August 2016

This study presents a review of the recent advances in performing inference in probabilistic classifier chains for multilabel classification. The interest of performing such inference arises in an attempt of improving the performance of the approach based on greedy search (the well‐knownCCmethod) and simultaneously reducing the computational cost of an exhaustive search (the well‐knownPCCmethod). UnlikePCCand asCC, inference techniques do not explore all the possible solutions, but they increase the performance ofCC, sometimes reaching the optimal solution in terms of subset 0/1 loss, asPCCdoes. Theε‐approximate algorithm, the method based on a beam search and Monte Carlo sampling are those techniques. An exhaustive set of experiments over a wide range of datasets are performed to analyze not only to which extent these techniques tend to produce optimal solutions, otherwise also to study their computational cost, both in terms of solutions explored and execution time. Onlyε‐approximate algorithm withε=.0 theoretically guarantees reaching an optimal solution in terms of subset 0/1 loss. However, the other algorithms provide solutions close to an optimal solution, despite the fact they do not guarantee to reach an optimal solution. Theε‐approximate algorithm is the most promising to balance the performance in terms of subset 0/1 loss against the number of solutions explored and execution time. The value ofεdetermines a degree to which one prefers to guarantee to reach an optimal solution at the expense of increasing the computational cost.WIREs Data Mining Knowl Discov2016, 6:215–230. doi: 10.1002/widm.1185

This article is categorized under:

Technologies > Classification

Technologies > Machine Learning
Chemical Composition, Anti‐oxidant, and Antimicrobial Activities of Four Saline‐Tolerant Plant Seed Oils Extracted by SFC
Authors: Wei Qi , Wei Yue , Wu Haiwen , Yang Xiuyan , Chen Huangli , Zhang Huaxin
Published: August 2016

The supercritical CO2 fluid extraction process was used to obtain seed oils. The compositional analyses of the seed oils of Amorpha fruticosa L., Caragana microphylla Lam and Elaeagnus angustifolia L. were performed by GC–MS, from which 18–22 fatty acid compositions were identified, and their main components were linoleic acid (49.10–66.39 %) and oleic acid (11.95–41.10 %). The seed oils were rich in unsaturated fatty acids, which accounted for 79.75–91.19 %. The in vitro anti‐oxidant activities of the seed oils were measured by the DPPH, ABTS and phosphomolybdenum complex assays. The IC50s of the seed oils were 6.5110–12.6599 mg/mL tested by DPPH assay, and the IC50s were in the range of 0.6872–1.9310 mg/mL tested by ABTS assay. The anti‐oxidant activities of seed oils decreased in the order of A. fruticosa > C. microphylla > E. angustifolia (A) > E. angustifolia (D). In vitro antimicrobial activities of seed oils against five bacteria were tested by microdilution method. The MIC values of the oils against Bacillus subtilis, E. coli, S. aureus, P. solanacearum and B. thuringiensis were in the range of 26–36, 30–38, 58, 56–58 and 56–58 mg/mL, respectively, while the MBC values were in the range of 30–40, 34–42, 58, 56–58 and 58 mg/mL, respectively. In vitro antifungal properties of the seed oils against four plant pathogenic fungi were tested by the mycelial growth rate method. The EC50s of seed oils against V. mali, C. gloeosporioides, F. graminearum and B. cinerea were in the range of 17.51–19.25, 15.58–19.12, 8.00–17.12 and 18.76–19.14 mg/mL, respectively. The seed oils showed moderate anti‐oxidant and antimicrobial activities.
An evaluation of the current patterns and practices of educational supervision in postgraduate medical education in the UK
Authors: Patel Priyank
Published: August 2016

Introduction Globally, clinical supervision has been widely adopted and studied. But in the UK, another variant of supervision has developed in the form of educational supervision. The quality of supervision remains highly variable and inadequate time, investment and guidance hinders its ability to actually benefit trainees. Therefore, undertaking a detailed study of the patterns and practices in educational supervision to inform developments in supervisory practice would be extremely beneficial.

Methods In this mixed methods study, educational supervisors and trainees working within a large London Trust were surveyed online about their experiences of educational supervision. In addition, observations of supervision sessions with a small group of supervisor and trainee pairs followed-up by semi-structured interviews were conducted. The quantitative data were analyzed using statistical software via descriptive statistics. The qualitative data underwent thematic framework analysis.

Results Both the qualitative and quantitative data revealed that whilst most junior doctors and supervisors value the ideal of educational supervision as a process for engaging in mentoring dialogues, it can become a tick box exercise, devaluing its usefulness and purpose. Trainees highlighted the need for more frequent formal meeting along with better preparation by supervisors. Supervisors would appreciate more support from trusts to help them enhance supervision for trainees.

Conclusion The effectiveness of educational supervision can be improved with trainees and supervisors engaging in meaningful preparation and proactive communication before meetings. During these formal meetings, improving the quality of feedback and ensuring that regular mentoring dialogues occurred would be highly valuable.
Integrating supply chains for emergencies and ongoing operations in UNHCR
Authors: Jahre Marianne , Kembro Joakim , Rezvanian Tina , Ergun Ozlem , Håpnes Svein J. , Berling Peter
Published: August 2016

Humanitarian organizations (HOs) often base their warehouse locations on individuals' experience and knowledge rather than on decision‐support tools. Many HOs run separate supply chains for emergency response and ongoing operations. Based on reviews of humanitarian network design literature combined with an in‐depth case study of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), this paper presents a warehouse location model for joint prepositioning that incorporates political and security situation factors. Although accessibility, co‐location, security, and human resources are crucial to the practice of humanitarian operations management, such contextual factors have not been included in existing network optimization models before. We found that when quantified, and modeled, such factors are important determinants of network configuration. In addition, our results suggest that joint prepositioning for emergency response and ongoing operations allows for expansion of the global warehouse network, and reducing cost and response time.
Kayalidere 1965 David Hawkins' caricatures
Authors: Collon Dominique
Published: August 2016

This Festschrift in honour of David Hawkins has provided the opportunity of publishing a set of caricatures by David, recording some of the participants in the excavations at Kayalıdere in eastern Turkey in 1965.
New lives for old stones
Authors: Reade Julian
Published: August 2016

Assyrian sculptures have been treated in various ways. Neglected original records about pieces found at Nineveh can still be informative. Pieces that did not go at once to major public museums were sometimes liable to rejuvenation, detached from their original contexts but endowed with new significance as commercial assets, as independent works of art, or as integral parts of contemporary architecture. Two Nimrud sculptures, built into the walls of Newbattle Abbey near Edinburgh, represent a unique fusion of Assyrian and Scots artistry, now vulnerable to financial pressures.
The Old Babylonian tuning text UET VI/3 899
Authors: Mirelman Sam , Krispijn Theo J. H.
Published: August 2016

The text discussed here is one of only two identified fragments of Mesopotamian instructions for tuning a stringed instrument. Apart from its rarity, this text is important in several other respects. It confirms the reconstruction of the tuning cycle suggested by the other tuning fragment (UET VII 74), it appears to belong to a duplicate manuscript of the tuning cycle, it supports the argument for the presence of the verb nê'um (as opposed to enûm) in Akkadian terminology for tuning, and it offers a revised reading of the music-theoretical term nīš GABA.RI as nīš tuḫri(m).
The Queen under attack—A rejoinder
Authors: Collon Dominique
Published: August 2016

The object once known as the Burney Relief, and now renamed The Queen of the Night (hereinafter referred to as the Queen) is a mould-made plaque of straw-tempered clay (Fig. 1). Integral with the rectangular background (49.5 × 37 cm) is a nude figure who wears the horned headdress of a Mesopotamian goddess, has lowered wings, dewclaws and bird's talons, holds the divine rod-and-ring symbol in each hand, stands on the backs of two addorsed lions, and is flanked by large owls. Traces of black, red and white paint survive. Since it was first published in the Illustrated London News on 13 June 1936, the plaque has been hailed as a masterpiece of ancient Mesopotamian art generally dated to the Old Babylonian period and, more specifically, to the age of Hammurabi (reigned 1792–1750 BC according to the Middle Chronology). After more than seven decades in private ownership, the plaque finally came into the public domain when, in 2003, the British Museum celebrated its 250th anniversary with the acquisition of this iconic work.

One would expect such a unique piece to have its detractors, and in 1936–7 Dietrich Opitz published an article in which he raised doubts about its authenticity, although Van Buren, in her article appended to his (1936–7), came out in favour of the plaque. Then “a seminal article by Henri Frankfort (1937–9)… caused Opitz (1937–9) to change his mind” (Curtis and Collon 1996: 91–2), and other major scholars have agreed with Frankfort, including Thorkild Jacobsen (1987).

In 1970, Pauline Albenda published a short article that focused on two features of the plaque's iconography, namely the “ring and rod” (normally referred to as rod-and-ring) symbols held by the goddess, and the overlapping lions on which she stood. These led her to “conclude that the Burney relief is not genuine”. In 2005, she revived the debate in an article in the Journal of the American Oriental Society. I shall consider in turn the various points she raises (giving the relevant page numbers in brackets) and seek to demonstrate why I think her arguments to be flawed and why I am convinced that the Queen of the Night is a genuine work of the age of Hammurabi of Babylon.
Capital punishment at Hatra: Gods, magistrates and laws in the Roman-Parthian period
Authors: Kaizer Ted
Published: August 2016

This paper deals with gods, magistrates and laws. It centres on one example from the Roman-Parthian period. Its title derives from five Hatrean Aramaic inscriptions which record legal statements on capital punishment at Hatra, a city in the steppe of northern Mesopotamia that came to flourish suddenly (and briefly) in the second and early third century AD. I will argue that the information in these inscriptions about the divine world, institutional aspects and legislation can contribute to our understanding of the interaction of various cultural spheres of influence at Hatra. As such, this information may throw some light on the modes in which one can study the civilization of a Near Eastern city in the Roman-Parthian period, and it may help us to understand the gap left by the archaeological record. The paper aims to locate the inscriptions in the framework of the divine world of Hatra, and it will also make suggestions as to their contribution to our understanding of processes of urbanization in the “Classical” Near East. A detailed look at this material can help us to comprehend more fully the history of the Levantine lands in the period during which the Roman imperial armies spread over the eastern provinces. In the words of Fergus Millar, it is necessary to look beyond the range of sources generally used to define the field of Classical studies, “to discern the material development of human life and settlement in the whole vast range of different areas which at one time or another came within the orbit of Graeco-Roman civilisation”.

Hatra was of course brought within the power of the Roman empire only late, a few years before the Sasanian conquest in AD 240. By then — so we are told by Cassius Dio (LXVIII 31, 1–4; LXXVI 10–12) and Herodian (III 1, 2–3; 5, 1; 9, 1–7) — the city had already won renown for withstanding attacks by Trajan and (probably twice) Septimius Severus, and also by the Sasanian king Ardashir. The second Sasanian attempt, however, ended its existence as an inhabited city. When the historian Ammianus Marcellinus passed by its ruins in AD 363, on the way back from the emperor Julian's disastrous Persian campaign, he saw “an old city situated in an uninhabited area and deserted for a long time past” (25.8.5).
Excavations in Iraq: The Ray Jazirah Project, first report
Authors: Altaweel Mark
Published: August 2016

This article is the first in a series that aims to present the results of Iraqi excavations from the Ray Jazirah Project (RJP) that took place between 1987 and 1994. An Iraqi archaeologist involved in the RJP, who has chosen to remain anonymous, has recently provided all the primary data used in this and future reports. Gratitude to my Iraqi colleague, who continues to work in difficult circumstances, must be given for contributions to, and involvement in, our collaboration. I wish to thank this colleague, and other Iraqi archaeologists involved in the RJP, for granting permission to publish their work in English prior to publication in Arabic journals. Several colleagues from Iraq's State Board of Antiquities and Heritage have also made this project possible, and my colleague and I would like to thank them for granting permission for this publication project. We would also like to thank the American Academic Research Institute in Iraq (TAARII) for making this joint project possible through their generous funding. Professor McGuire Gibson (President of TAARII) first suggested this project and gave his encouragement; Dr Stephanie Platz (Executive Director of TAARII) and Dr Hala Fattah (Resident Director of TAARII) made many of the necessary arrangements to facilitate this effort from its inception. Special thanks are also due to Dr Rafi Altaweel for his tireless work in cleaning and improving the image quality of figures in this and forthcoming publications: many of the figures derive from drawings and photographs that were stored in less than ideal circumstances for almost two decades.
Kish in the Kassite Period (c.1650–1150 B.C.)
Authors: Clayden T.
Published: August 2016

After over half a century systematic excavation is once again underway at Kish. A team of Japanese archaeologists led by Prof. Hideo Fujii has reopened the archaeological investigation of this large ancient site where many periods of occupation are to be found. This study focuses on only a small fragment of the history of settlement at Kish, drawing together the evidence for habitation on the site in the Kassite Period.

The evidence may broadly be separated into three groups: inscribed objects found at Kish; references to Kish in texts of the Kassite Period; and artifacts peculiar to the Kassite Period found on the site.

The history and results of the excavations conducted at Kish before the Second World War have been well summarized by Moorey [1978]. I do not intend to present an even briefer summary in this paper. Suffice it to note that the bulk of the material discussed below derives from the two major campaigns at Kish: those of de Genouillac in 1912 [1925; Gibson: 1972: 69–70], and those of the Oxford–Field Museum Expedition between 1923 and 1933 [Field: 1929; Langdon: 1924; Mackay: 1925, 1929; Watelin: 1930, 1934; Gibson: 1972: 69–70]. Important supplementary evidence is also contained in the results of the surface survey work conducted at and around Kish by Gibson [1972].
The trouble with “Hairies”
Authors: Ellis Richard S.
Published: August 2016

Of all figures seen in Mesopotamian art, the naked or kilted human male figure with curls of hair on either side of his face is one of the most familiar. A form of this figure was portrayed already in the Jemdet Nasr period; he became common in Early Dynastic III, and particularly in the Akkadian period, after which he was less popular, though he was revived from time to time, probably until Achaemenid times. Since the early identification with Gilgamesh has been abandoned, he has been referred to by many names: the “six-locked hero”, “wild man”, “naked hero”, or whatever. Long ago Erich Ebeling cited evidence that his Akkadian name was talīmu, the “twin”. F. A. M. Wiggermann, in his article “Exit talim!”, and later in his valuable book Mesopotamian Protective Spirits, has argued that this familiar figure was instead referred to in Akkadian, at least in the first millennium B.C., as laḫmu, the “hairy one”, the “Hairy”. This identification has been accepted by numerous other scholars.

Wiggermann presents the following evidence for his identification (listed from the most general to the most specific, rather than in Wiggermann's own order):

1. Lexical evidence to show that the root lḫm means “to be hairy”, and that the noun laḫmu means “the hairy one”.

2. Various citations of the noun laḫmu that in general are consistent with the identification.

3. A very specific association of the term and the image in the Neo-Assyrian texts which prescribe the preparing of figurines to be buried in houses and palaces for protection against evil spirits. This evidence is the same as was used by Ebeling for his identification of the “wild man” as talīmu, which Wiggermann wishes to discredit.
Akkadian poetry: metre and performance
Authors: West M. L.
Published: August 2016

Despite scholarly efforts that now extend over more than a century, the governing principles of Akkadian verse remain elusive. It is obviously not based, like Greek or Latin verse, on the counting and measuring of syllables. The idea that it is based on the counting of accentual peaks has a much greater immediate appeal. There are long stretches of poetic texts that seem amenable to analysis on these lines. Most scholars would be willing to recognize the existence of a “standard” Vierheber, a verse with four apparent accentual peaks, giving the sense of a balance of two against two, as in Enūma eliš I 47–50:

īpulma Mummu / Apsû imallik,

sukkallum lā māgiru / milik mummīšu:

“Hulliqamma, abī, / alkata ešīta;

urriš lū šupšuhāt, / mūšiš lū ṣallāt.”

This measure may be called “standard” because it occurs at all periods, and in many texts it predominates. But everywhere we find shorter lines interspersed, on no discernible principle, and often longer ones too. The shorter lines generally have three apparent accents, but on occasion only two, while the longer ones may have five or six. According to A. E. Housman,

To think that two and two are four

And neither five nor three

The heart of man has long been sore

And long 'tis like to be.

But what vexes the Akkadian metrician's heart, if he has one, is

To think that two and two are four

but sometimes five or three.
Proem
Authors: Gadd Emeritus C. J.
Published: August 2016

The entire volume of Iraq for the year 1969 is in honour of Professor Emeritus C. J. Gadd, a former Editor of this Journal and one of the most distinguished orientalists in this country. His 75th birthday which fell on 2nd July 1968 was celebrated by a small gathering of friends in London. The ensuing articles have been written by a number of colleagues, who have joined their contributions in token of the warm gratitute and friendship which they feel for one who has devoted a lifetime to oriental learning with signal success.

It will be seen from the bibliography that C. J. Gadd has a remarkable record of continuous publication over a period of forty-seven years. The long list of titles is impressive not only for the weight but for the variety of his learning, which embraces linguistics, philology, literature, religion, history, art and archaeology. His contributions, which reflect a remarkable erudition, have been enlivened by a lively, human touch and a pungent wit. Such qualities endear him to his fellow academicians all of whom have enjoyed his writing and benefited from the generosity with which he has always been ready to impart his knowledge to others.
The Buddhist Origin of the ‘Sumerian’ Heads From Memphis
Authors: Gordon D. H.
Published: August 2016

In the museum of the Department of Egyptology at the University of London there is a collection of terra-cotta heads and figures discovered by Sir Flinders Petrie in the workmen's quarter at Memphis. They have been published by the Egyptian Exploration Fund in the volumes Memphis I, Palace of Apries (Memphis II), and Meydum and Memphis III.

My interest was aroused by the fact that there were among them a number of terra-cottas of Indian type, but I soon found that the dates given by Sir Flinders Petrie differed greatly from those which, on stylistic grounds, I should have myself assigned to figures of this type had they been discovered in India. In addition to this I felt very sceptical about the ‘Sumerian’ heads, which I considered had survived in a manner little short of miraculous. This article is an attempt to show that the ‘Sumerian’ heads are not in fact Sumerian at all but the heads of Buddhist priests, and that the whole collection covers a period not exceeding one hundred and fifty years: probably that of middle first century B.c. to the end of the first century A.D.
Commentary on Thomas S. Mullaney, “Controlling the Kanjisphere,” and Antonia Finnane, “Cold War Sewing Machines”
Authors: Arnold David
Published: August 2016

As studies of technology in modern Asia move from production to consumption, and from big machines to small, so they confront increasingly complex and nuanced issues about the relationship between the local, the regional, and the global; between political economy and culture; and, perhaps most crucially, between technology and modernity. From a South Asian perspective (and perhaps from a Southeast Asian one as well), many of these issues are inescapably bound up with the Western colonial presence, decolonization, and the post-independence quest for national self-sufficiency and economic autarky. In East Asia, as the articles by Antonia Finnane and Thomas Mullaney demonstrate, the issues play out somewhat differently, not least because of the pivotal role of Japan as a major regional force, an industrial nation, and an imperial power. In South Asia in the period covered by these essays, Japan was a far more marginal presence, with only some industrial goods—such as textiles, bicycles, or umbrella fittings—finding a market there by the mid-1930s. At their height in 1933–34, some 17,000 Japanese bicycles were imported into India (out of nearly 90,000 overall), and in 1934–35, barely 1,400 sewing machines (out of 83,000); within three years this had fallen to less than 700. However, as Nira Wickramasinghe has recently demonstrated with respect to Ceylon (colonial Sri Lanka), Japan had a significance that ranged well beyond its limited commercial impact: it inspired admiration for the speed of its industrialization, for its scientific and technological prowess, and as the foremost exemplar of an “Asian modern” (Wickramasinghe 2014, chap. 5). One other way in which Japan figured in postwar regional history was through demands for compensation made in 1946 for sewing machines destroyed by Japanese bombing (or the looting that accompanied it) and the occupation of the Andaman Islands. And yet, relatively remote though Japan and China might be from South Asia's consumer history, across much of the Asian continent there was a common chronology to this unfolding techno-history, beginning in the 1880s and 1890s and dictated less evidently by the politics of war and peace than by the influx of small machines, of which sewing machines and typewriters were but two conspicuous examples.
Problems in Non-Athenian Drama: Some Questions about South Italy and Sicily
Authors: Bosher †Kathryn
Published: August 2016

As Martin Revermann forecast in 1999, the reception history of Greek drama has become ‘big business’ and, as the present volume demonstrates, we are indeed trying to move beyond the ‘Atheno-centric civic ideology approach to Greek drama, which has, fruitfully, been dominating our mode of thinking for quite some time now'. Nevertheless, like Revermann, I believe that work on the reciprocity between social context and theatre that Nothing to do with Dionysos? Athenian Drama in its Social Context (1990) so well exemplifies has been and continues to be an important approach to the field. Examining plays not simply as literary works, but as integral parts of social and political systems, remains a useful method of inquiry. Indeed, one strand of useful research may build on the work that has been done to situate Greek drama in Athens to ask similar questions about theatre outside Athens.

In the case of South Italy and Sicily, the problem is particularly pressing. This is not only because of the traditional separation between the fields of philology, epigraphy, history, archaeology, art history and political science, which made comprehensive examination of theatre as a social and political phenomenon difficult in Athens, but also because of competing histories of the development of theatre in the ancient Greek world. In particular, the history of Athenian theatre, both from the literary perspective and now from the socio-political perspective, is so dominant that it often incorporates into its own narrative what evidence there is for theatre outside Attica. Likewise, from the later period, Roman theatre includes the evidence from Sicily and South Italy into its own history, though to a lesser extent. Nothing to Do with Dionysos? may nevertheless serve as a model for the development of a vital, and still missing, perspective on the theatrical evidence that remains from the West. How did drama and the theatre fit into the socio-political contexts of Greek cities outside Attica? Is it possible to write the history of Sicilian and South Italian theatre, or were these new world cities only recipients of the Attic theatre and stepping stones to that of Rome?

I attempt below to set out a few of the questions that, I think, frame the debate. This is a preliminary, tentative examination of some of the problems that arise in this field, and it is not in any way exhaustive.
‘A Simple Girl’? Medea in Ovid Heroides 12
Authors: Davis P. J.
Published: August 2016

For Homer's Circe the story of Argo's voyage was already well known. Although we cannot be sure that the Odyssey's first audience was aware of Medea's role in Jason's story, we do know that by the time that Ovid came to write Heroides, she had already appeared in numerous Greek and Latin texts, in epic and lyric poetry and on the tragic stage. Given her complex textual and dramatic history, it seems hardly likely that any Ovidian Medea could actually be ‘a simple girl'. And yet precisely this charge of ‘simplicity’ has been levelled against Heroides 12 and its Active author. I propose to argue that the Medea of Heroides 12 is complex, not simple, and that her complexity derives from the fact that Ovid has positioned his elegiac heroine between past and future, guilt and innocence, epic and tragedy.

Like all of Ovid's heroines, Medea writes at a critical juncture in her mythic life. But Medea's myth differs significantly from those of her fellow authors, for it requires her to play five distinct roles in four separate locations. Thus while Penelope, for example, plays only the part of Ulysses' loyal wife on Ithaca immediately before and during her husband's return, Medea plays the ‘simple girl’ in Colchis, the murderous wife in Iolcus, the abandoned mother in Corinth, the poisonous stepmother in Athens and the potential filicide back in Colchis. She is a heroine with a well-known and extensive history and so it is not surprising that the first line of Heroides 12 invokes the concept of memory: memini (‘I remember’).
Representing Medea on Roman Sarcophagi: Contemplating a Paradox
Authors: Buchanan Sophie
Published: August 2016

It is one thing to find Medea compelling, another to make her art, let alone funerary art. This article faces this complexity head on by examining Medea's visual identity within a sepulchral context. It interrogates her presence on Roman sarcophagi of the mid to late second century CE. The corpus is not insubstantial—nine intact relief panels plus further fragmentary pieces offer ample testament to Medea's presence in the funerary context. Beyond this sphere, Medea's emotionally charged legacy needs no introduction, and her characterisation—outsider, avenger, semi-divine sorceress, victim and murderer—is fleshed out by her capacity to fascinate and repel. Modern scholarship fans the flames, as she remains a popular subject for scholars of Latin and Greek literature, mythology and gender studies.

In contrast, Medea's visual sphere of interest has attracted less in-depth attention. Recent studies have acknowledged the implications of her presence on pots and in freestanding sculpture, and most notably, wall painting is beginning to receive careful treatment. Yet art-historians have been more reluctant to confront Medea within the enclosed and predisposed funerary context. Traditional approaches to mythological sarcophagi more generally have favoured consolado as the dominant mode of commemoration, in which empathy and pothos are paramount and protagonists like Adonis and Endymion seen as positive exempla worthy of analogy and assimilation. The deceased is elevated by association with these figures (an association which is often underlined by the use of a portrait head) and the bereaved reassured by the implied interaction of mundane and heroic, mortal and divine. In this way, desire becomes a gloss for grief and loss is translated as yearning.
Festina Lente: Progress and Delay in Ovid's Fasti
Authors: Geue Tom
Published: August 2016

‘Wait a minute.’

Martin Amis,Time's Arrow

We start with a stop. In recent years, long pause has been taken for inquest into the narrative dynamics of ancient literature. How stories are told, by whom, in what order—these have become key questions of narratology, a discipline whose tools most critics would now keepsomewherein their kit. Narratological criticism of poetry has ‘naturally’ drifted towards poems of long narrative span (i.e. hexameter epics). Recently, however, the ‘smaller’ genres have been extended the benefits of narratological civilisation, particularly in the realm of temporality. To take a loaded and leading example, Latin love elegy has been well serviced by narratology of late; what was once considered a genre ‘unfit’ for narrative, let alone narratological study, is now a prime setting for both. But it surprised me that the recent volumeLatin Elegy and Narratologyall but neglected Ovid's most ‘narrative’ elegy of all: theFasti. Such an editorial decision may have been motivated by the perception that theFastineeds no reclamation as a narrative poem; at any rate, the volume's interests lie in the processes of ‘fragmentation’, the way that elegy claims its own non-narrativity as alternative. Whatever the reasoning, I felt that theFasti'snear-relegation from this fascinating volume was something of an oversight. Many of the concerns emerging from the chapters on ‘other’ elegy can be usefully transferred to theFasti.
Jason at Colchis: Technology and Human Progress in Valerius Flaccus
Authors: Davis P J.
Published: August 2016

For the Argonauts of Valerius Flaccus the Black Sea and its surrounding lands are an alien world. As Argo leaves the Mediterranean behind and enters the Propontis, we are told that the Minyans begin to gain ‘a view into another world’ (alium prospectus in orbem, 2.628). So too when the ship makes its way through the Bosporus, on the point of entering the Black Sea, we are told that the Greeks ‘see all things new’ (noua cuncta uident, 4.424). Clearly this voyage is presented by Valerius as a major event in world history.

One question which must confront any reader of Valerius’ poem is whether the effects of this voyage should be viewed negatively or positively. Indeed the poem itself poses that question at the outset, through its inclusion of two versions of Argo's destiny: the negative prophecy of Mopsus (1.211-26) and the more reassuring prediction of Idmon (1.234-38). In this paper I propose to consider aspects of this problem through an examination not of Valerius' treatment of the voyage itself, but of its consequences as they are presented in the second half of the poem.
Old Men and Metatheatre in Terence: Terence's Dramatic Competition
Authors: Moodie Erin K.
Published: August 2016

Within the Terentian corpus thesenes(‘old men’) Simo (of theAndria) and Chremes (of theHeauton Timorumenos) enjoy an extraordinary understanding of the conventions of Roman comedy. While slaves in Plautine comedy certainly exhibit similar knowledge of their genre's conventions, as do the young men who are allied with them (one thinks of Charinus' prologue to theMercator), Plautinesenesdo not usually share in this awareness. This paper focuses on theAndria'sSimo and theHeauton'sChremes because—despite their unusual generic knowledge, which each man reveals in several metatheatrical remarks—they nevertheless misinterpret their slaves. Indeed, we shall see that both men's knowledge of the character type of the clever slave leads to their belief that they can control the slaves and see through their attempts at deception. However, in the end both men actually deceive themselves because their knowledge leads them to see deceptions where there are none—to interpret truth as a fiction contrived by their slaves. Interestingly, Simo and Chremes have something else in common: they both appear in plays whose prologues feature references to an unnamed opponent of Terence—themaleuolus uetus poeta(‘spiteful old poet’). This individual is alleged to have charged Terence with (1) mixing the plots of multiple Greek comedies together in the composition of his own plays, and (2) accepting the help of powerful friends in the writing of his comedies.
Introduction
Authors: Penwill John
Published: August 2016

…sed pro his praeoptare me fateor uno chartario calamo me reficere poemata omnigenus apta uirgae, lyrae, socco, coturno, item satiras ac griphos, item historias uarias rerum nec non orationes laudatas disertis nec non dialogos laudatos philosophis atque haec et alia eiusdem modi tarn Graece quam Latine, gemino uoto, pari studio, simili stilo.

ApuleiusFlorida9

…but in place of these I confess that I prefer to employ one single reed to bring to life on papyrus poems of all kinds, ones attuned to the rod, the lyre, the slipper, the buskin, likewise satires and riddles, likewise various accounts of things, and of course speeches that win plaudits from experts, and again dialogues that win plaudits from philosophers—and these and other things of the same kind in both Greek and Latin: double offering, equal application, similar style.

non respondeo tibi, Aemiliane, quem colam βασιλέα; quin si ipse proconsul in-terroget, quid sit deus meus, taceo.

ApuleiusApology65

I am not telling you, Aemilianus, who I worship as my king; nay, even if the proconsul himself should question me as to what my god is, my lips are sealed.

‘immo uero,’ inquam, ‘impertite sermone non quidem curiosum, sed qui uelim scire uel cuncta, uel certe plurima.’

ApuleiusMetamorphoses1.2
Homeric Flyting and How to Read It: Performance and Intratext in Iliad 20.83-109 and 20.178-258
Authors: Hesk Jon
Published: August 2016

TheIliadandOdysseyare replete with single speeches or exchanges of speech which are described by the noun νεῖκος (‘quarrel’, ‘strife’) or its derived verb νεικέω. Some time ago, A.W.H. Adkins showed that νεῖκος and νεικείω are used in Homer to designate various kinds of agonistic discourse: threats, rebukes, insults, quarrels and judicial disputes. Critics often now describe νεῖκος-speeches and νεῖκος-exchanges in theIliadas examples of ‘flyting’. This term, shared by the languages of Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse and the dialect of Old Scots, is transferred to the combination of boasting, invective and threats which Homeric heroes hurl at each other. This is because Iliadic νεῖκος has affinities with the traditional and highly stylised verbal exchanges which take place in the feasting halls and battles depicted in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Germanic heroic poetry.

In his bookThe Language of HeroesRichard Martin has argued persuasively that the flyting νεῖκος is a significant speech-act genre performed by Homeric characters and that its competitive mode is analogous to the Homeric poet's poetic projecttout court. Just as Homer produces a monumental epic whose focus on Achilles may well be competitive with other renderings of epic tradition and is certainly derived through the manipulation of memory, Homeric heroes and gods flyte by manipulating and contesting the resources of memory. The best Homeric flyting is creatively poetic within existing conventions or strategies and is thereby rhetorically devastating. And Martin sees Achilles as the best flyter because he rhetorically manipulates memory better than any other hero. Thus, the hero is like his poet and the poet is like his hero. Achilles' competitive way with words is unique in (and to) theIliadand is emblematic of Homer's overpowering competitive poetic achievement.
‘Book-Ends’: Statius Silvae 2.1 and 2.7
Authors: Newlands Carole
Published: August 2016

My purpose in this article is straightforward, to counter some misconceptions about two of Statius' poems,Silu.2.1, his consolatory poem for the death of the twelve-year old Glaucias, andSilu.2.7, his consolatory poem for the death of the poet Lucan. These are the first and last poems of Book 2. Poems of lament and consolation constitute the majority of the poems of Statius'Siluae. Yet these poems have been generally dismissed as wearisomely rhetorical and have been largely overlooked in the critical literature aboutconsolationesas they endorse lamentation, elaborate upon it, and thus run counter to philosophical strictures against overt grief. Issues of class also surely play a role in their dismissal as trivial poems. Unlike Augustan poems of lament—for instance Ovid's poem on the death of Tibullus—two of the poems in Book 2 mourn a child of low birth and a young slave (Silu.2.1 andSilu.2.6). A proper understanding of the social occasions and circumstances in whichSilu.2.1 andSilu.2.7 are embedded, however, will show that they can offer valuable insight into contemporary Flavian society. Such an understanding moreover can point the way to a freshliteraryappreciation of these poems, although that is not the chief aim of this article.
More Than Menander's Acolyte: Terence on Translation
Authors: McElduff Siobhan
Published: August 2016

Michael Cronin once described translation as ‘what saves us from having to read the original’. To cite this statement at the start of any discussion of Terence is a little ironic given that critics have not infrequently used his comedies as an opaque glass through which, if only one squints hard enough, one can read the original Greek New Comedy. Noticeably, these lost originals usually live their imagined existences free from the dramatic flaws of Terence's adaptations. For example, Grant writes on the seeming abruptness of Micio's challenge to Demea at Adelphoe 829-31, that in the Greek original ‘the challenge would not have been as abrupt as it is in the Terentian adaptation. The probable reason for the abruptness is that Terence did not realize the difference between Attic and Roman law [on inheritance] in this respect.’ It is certainly possible that he is right, and that Terence omitted something in Menander which caused problems for the flow of his play. It is, however, also entirely possible that the original was similarly abrupt or that there was some other reason for the scene's choppiness than Terence's lamentable ignorance of the inheritance laws of Athens or his poor skills in translation.
Evasive Epiphanies in Ekphrastic Epigram
Authors: Platt Verity
Published: August 2016

(Greek Anthology 16.160, attributed to ‘Plato’)

Paphian Cytherea came through the waves to Knidos,Wishing to see her own image.Having viewed it from all sides in its open shrine,She cried, ‘Where did Praxiteles see me naked?’

‘Through a glass, darkly:’ not just a hackneyed, Biblical phrase summing up our inability to apprehend God, but a pithy visualisation of the gap between divine truth and our perception of it. Yet Paul's words might also stand as an image for the trope of ekphrasis, the bewildering textual prism through which the frustrated reader attempts to view an enclosed and distant image. In this paper I will attempt to unite these two themes; one, the complexities of viewing and representing the divine, and two, the unrequited desire engendered by the ekphrastic text. Both of these rely upon an interplay of presence and absence which is, in a literary context, brilliantly communicated by the series of epigrams in the Greek Anthology dealing with images of gods, particularly, if we are to speak of desire, those which address images of Aphrodite.
Dazzling Likeness: Seeing Ekphrasis in Aeneid 10
Authors: Rogerson Anne
Published: August 2016

What, exactly, identifies the ekphrastic at work? Some basic definitive properties can be agreed: ekphrasis is a descriptive trope that brings what it describes vividly before the imaginative gaze of its audience. It is through its vivid evocation of a scene or object unseen to this audience that the ekphrasis fulfils its purpose, and makes an emotional impact upon them. The affective power of ekphrasis thus draws its audience into the fictional world of its narrative, blurring the boundaries necessarily erected by its verbal frame, while at the same time the focus on crafted objects that we often see in ekphraseis (particularly in those on which scholars have predominantly chosen to concentrate)—and the break that an ekphrasis can create when it is interposed in a continuing narrative—serve to highlight the very createdness of this world.

So ekphrasis is on the face of it a well-defined literary figure, easily recognisable both by its intrinsic attributes and by its effects. Nevertheless the boundaries of ekphrasis are not as clearly defined as the summary above might suggest. Ekphraseis of art objects have commanded the most scholarly attention: they allow for discussion of the fashioning of the text as well as its function and they conform to modern understandings of what an ekphrasis looks like. But defined in classical terms, ekphrasis covers a far broader descriptive territory than does verbal representation of representative art alone and can include, as well as descriptions of objets d'art, descriptions of battles, of cities, of persons, places, times and events, of plants and animals, and of festivals…
‘Can You Tell What it is Yet?’ Descriptions of Sex Change in Ancient Literature
Authors: Langlands Rebecca
Published: August 2016

This paper returns at first to ancient definitions of ekphrasis as vivid description, including that of bodies or persons conjured up before the eyes of the reader. The passages from Ovid and Diodorus Siculus on which I focus (DS Library 32.10-12 and Ovid Met. 9.669-797), represent descriptions not of works of art, but of bodies. To complicate matters, these bodies as objects of description are also undergoing change from one sex to another; they are also events. Nevertheless, although they do not describe works of art, this literary trope (ekphrasis in the modern understanding of the term) does prove to be an important reference point for both these highly aware authors in their description of the phenomenon of sex-change. As generations of writers have done before them, Ovid and Diodorus Siculus allude to the tradition of ekphrasis as a means to reflect upon their own artistry and creative endeavour. They also invoke this trope to introduce into their narratives the issues of illusion and deception, and of viewpoint and interpretation, that are associated with this ekphrastic tradition. They use the concept of ekphrasis to problematise the relationship between text and reader, viewer and object of gaze, reality and appearance, seeing and believing.
The Camillus Factory: Per Astra AD Ardeam
Authors: Henderson John
Published: August 2016

None but dry-eyed, calculating, angular little gentlemen can take much delight in the studies of the University.(Tennyson on Cambridge)

Hard to believe. We are told something obvious, something reassuring, something foundational by Servius at the outset of theAeneid:

totius autem Italiae curiosissimum fuisse Vergilium multifariam apparet.

(ad Aen.1.44)

Virgil cared the most to know all Italy—it's obvious in many a way.

Any Roman rhetoric graduate knew that the surefire way to subvert all arguments is to argue that theyprevaricate: clearly, since texts are systemically interpretable, there is always a gap between the ‘multifarious’ moves they make and their ‘totality’, there is always a point passed by which could, so arguably should, have been featured; copiousness is always interested distraction. Thus, as a display of love supreme for all Italy, theAeneidrevels in wholesale incuria, acknowledging the guilt of pretention in massive, genocidal, proportions.