bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Seneca Praedives
Authors: Griffin Miriam T
Published: November 2023

In antiquity and ever since, Seneca has been known best, and hated most, for combining philosophy with wealth. The most persistent charges of hypocrisy centred, then as now, on his fortune and its acquisition, for no one excelled this millionaire in singing the praises of poverty. The subject of Seneca’s wealth and his pronouncements, however, concerns not only the state of his soul: what he says, regardless of his practice, is bound to be interesting, for it should show where he stood on the fundamental issues of Stoicism, and what view he presented of how the statesman should live. In De Officiis in which Cicero set out the proper conduct for the Roman gentleman, especially the public man, the subject of wealth was discussed under three of the four cardinal virtues. Since then government by a Princeps—a magnified princeps civitatis whose personal wealth played as large a part in the conduct of the state as his precursors’ had in the conduct of their careers—had greatly complicated the questions of generosity and gratitude. Seneca’s views should be worth having.
Mors Diu Meditata
Authors: Griffin Miriam T
Published: November 2023

In the latter part of 64, Seneca, though again refused permission to retire from Rome, surrendered part of his fortune and retreated to his room to lead the life of an invalid. Early in the next year a plot was formed to assassinate Nero and set C. Calpurnius Pisa on the throne. On the very day fixed for the murder of the Emperor, probably 19 April 65, Seneca, who had apparently left Rome again to travel in Campania, returned to his villa near the city. Seneca may well have known of the conspirators’ plans, but he was probably not a conspirator, unlike his nephew Lucan from whom Seneca differed in temperament and political outlook. Soon after, certainly before 30 April 65, when Lucan committed suicide on imperial instructions, Seneca took his own life.
Studies in Greek History and Thought
Authors: Brunt P A
Published: November 2023

Professor Brunt was Camden Professor of Ancient History at the University of Oxford until 1982. This book contains a selection of his writings on Greek history and thought, both some previously published as papers in journals and some new. Subjects covered include Greek political history of the fifth century BC and ancient historiography - including an introduction to Thucydides designed for the more general reader, to which the author has now annexed a new study of Thucydides' funeral speech. Four essays concern the relationship between Greek philosophical thinking and social and political conditions, and of these, three, which constitute about a third of the volume, are new. Two examine the extent to which Plato and his pupils sought, or were able, to make any impact on the contemporary world, and the practicality of the model city in Plato's Laws; the third discusses Aristotle's theory of slavery in relation to the actual Greek institution and to other attempts to justify slavery as well as in the context of Aristotle's own ethical doctrines.
Plato’s Academy and Politics
Authors: Brunt P A
Published: November 2023

Plato’s concern with the problems of justice, law and the government of the city state is revealed in dialogues of all periods of his writing, especially in the Laws. He himself attempted to transform the government of Syracuse. We have reports of the political activities of persons who are styled his pupils. Scholars have consequently been prone to think that ‘the primary aim of education for statesmanship never left his thoughts’, that he sought ‘to produce political experts’, who would go out from the Academy ‘not as power-seekers themselves but to legislate or advise those in power’, that it was for this purpose that he founded the Academy, and that ‘the great work of his old age proves that his chief care was that of healing his fatherland’, a strange interpretation of the Laws, which designs the model of an agrarian state such as Athens could not be. Barker opined that he wished, somewhat in the spirit of Bentham, ‘to codify and modify Greek law in the light of his principles’ and that he succeeded in laying the foundations of Hellenistic law, whereas the truth is that Greek or Hellenistic law no more existed than European law when Barker was writing.
Reviews
Authors: Brunt P A
Published: November 2023

Professor Havelock has essayed an important task, that of recon structing the political thought most characteristic of the Greeks. The hierarchical, authoritarian theories of Plato and Aristotle, whatever their merits, had almost no effect in the Greek world.
The Distribution of Religious Groups in Palestine from AD 135 to 324
Authors: Taylor Joan E
Published: November 2023

BEFORE looking at developments in the early part of the fourth century that would in time establish Palestine as a holy land to which pilgrims came from the farthest corners of the Empire, it is useful to consider the centuries preceding these developments. The period from the quashing of the Bar Kochba Revolt until Constantine has often been viewed as a ‘dark age’ in the history of the land as a whole. Studies tend to concentrate on Galilee, where the Jewish rabbis were engaging in debates that would culminate in the formulation of the Jerusalem Talmud. Historians are often vague about the rest of the country.
Eleona
Authors: Taylor Joan E
Published: November 2023

THE fourth and final site of a Constantinian basilica is the Eleona Church on the Mount of Olives. Constantine, via Helena, constructed this edifice over a cave which, according to Bagatti, ‘had seen cult in former times, beginning with Apostolic days’. We shall consider here whether this statement is borne out by the surviving evidence, literary and archaeological. It was argued above that it is very unlikely that the tree at Mamre or the tomb and rock at Golgotha were subject to any Christian veneration before the fourth century. The cave at Bethlehem was visited by Christians in the latter part of the third century, but in fact its main identity was that of a cave of Tammuz Adonis. It is not surprising that the place of Christ’s crucifixion and burial left a distinct memory, but the Nativity did not and could not have done so, since it is very unlikely that the accounts of Christ’s birth in Bethlehem are historical.
Nazareth
Authors: Taylor Joan E
Published: November 2023

WITH Capernaum, Nazareth is one of the most extensive sites in which the Bagatti-Testa hypothesis has been used to interpret the archaeological evidence. According to Bagatti and Testa, Nazareth was a Jewish-Christian town until well into the fifth century. The Byzantine holy places of Nazareth were just a continuation of those venerated by Jewish-Christians, in particular a Jewish Christian synagogue-church. This theory has been devised by putting together various pieces of literary and archaeological data.
Apollodoros the Son of Pasion
Authors: Trevett Jeremy
Published: November 2023

This is a study of an influential fourth-century BC Athenian politician, Apollodoros the son of Pasion. It provides the first full-length treatment of his career and of the seven lawcourt speeches which he delivered, and which have come down to us attributed-wrongly—to the famous orator Demosthenes. These speeches, which are our main source of information about Apollodoros, not only tell us about his political career but also illuminate Athenian banking and social attitudes, since his father had risen from servile origins to become a very wealthy banker and, ultimately, an Athenian citizen. Dr Trevett also considers the authenticity, style, and rhetorical technique of the speeches, and argues conclusively that they were all written by the same author, probably Apollodoros himself. At the same time, he shows that the speeches were composed with considerably more skill than has generally been recognized.
The Speeches of Apollodoros II: Form, Function, and Style
Authors: Trevett Jeremy
Published: November 2023

In the previous chapter I argued that six of the speeches delivered by Apollodoros were also written by him (46, 49, 50, 52, 53, 59), but that 45 is the work of Demosthenes. I shall therefore exclude this last speech from consideration in the following two chapters. The general view of earlier scholars was that Apollodoros’ speeches are mediocre works: they are disorganized and slackly written; the narrative is far too long and often irrelevant; the arguments are brief and weak. Although these criticisms have some validity, I hope to show that they are exaggerated, and that the speeches are not only competently written but also display a number of interesting features. Hostile criticism has tended to pay too much attention to the differences between these speeches and the genuine works of Demosthenes, or to the extent to which they diverge from the rules of later rhetorical theory, and too little to the particular circumstances and demands of the individual cases for which they were written. Forensic speeches were practical works, written with the primary purpose of persuading the jurors to vote in favour of the speaker. They should therefore be judged in the first instance by their effectiveness in performing this function.
Comic Angels
Authors: Taplin Oliver
Published: November 2023

This book opens up a neglected chapter in the reception of Athenian drama, especially comedy; and it gives stage-centre to a particularly attractive and entertaining series of vase-paintings, which have been generally regarded as marginal curiosities. These are the so-called `phlyax vases', nearly all painted in the Greek cities of South Italy in the period 400 t0 360 BC. Up tll now, they have been taken to reflect some kind of local folk-theatre, but Oliver Taplin, prompted especially by three that have only been published in the last twelve years, argues that most, if not all, reflect Athenian comedy of the sort represented by Aristophanes. This bold thesis opens up questions of the relation of tragedy as well as comedy to vase-painting, the cultural climate of the Greek cities in Italy, and the extent to which Athenians were aware of drama as a potential `export'. It also enriches appreciation of many key aspects of Aristophanic comedy: its metatheatre and self-reference, its use of stage-action and stage-props, its unabashed indecency, and its polarised relationship, even rivalry, with tragedy. The book has assembled thirty-six photographs of vase-paintings. Many are printed here for the first time outside specialist publications that are not readily accessible.
Phlyakes
Authors: Taplin Oliver
Published: November 2023

Why, in the face of ever-increasing evidence of Athenian connections, has the association of the comic vases with the phlyax plays and with Rhinthon remained so firm? The strongest underlying argument has not been a positive one in favour of the phlyakes, but the negative sense that, whatever these plays on the vases are, they cannot be Athenian comedy, especially not Old comedy. That, one would have thought, was too topical and too local to have travelled beyond Athens, or even to have been reperformed after its original occasion. In the face of undeniable evidence to the contrary, these presuppositions have to be fundamentally reviewed. A start was made in Ch. 1, a11:d further considerations will be explored in Ch. 9 below, after more material has been gathered.
Markets in Rome and its Environs
Authors: Frayn Joan M
Published: November 2023

THE RE has been more study uf the markets in Rome itself than of those in any other part of Italy, and their position and structure have been very fully discussed. Their importance, however, in the social and economic life of the city and its environs has received less attention, and that is the aspect which will be emphasized here.
Sympotic History
Authors: Murray Oswyn
Published: November 2023

Storia simpotica, storia simpatica, histoire sympotique, histoire sympathique —the play on words intended in my title is hidden in English, but expresses an important truth. Sympotic history offers an approach to the classical past which is truly sympathetic, reflecting both the ancient perception of their world and modern interests. It is also (as it should be) truly collaborative, between fields of study and national traditions, demanding a variety of approaches and of skills which no one person can possess. The purpose of this introductory essay is to place sympotic history in its context, both in terms of its functional status and in terms of the historiographical tradition.
The Adoption of the Homeric Banquet in Central Italy in the Orientalizing Period
Authors: Rathje Annette
Published: November 2023

In his inspiring article on ‘The Symposion as Social Organisation’ Oswyn Murray lists ‘four types of approach open to us if we wish to talk about the culture and social structure of eighth century Greece … the archaeological, the Homeric, the comparative and the genetic’, and he then makes use of the last three approaches. As an archaeologist I feel challenged to supply some archaeological facts to the discussion, being well aware, however, that the archaeological evidence is not sufficient for reconstructing the past in question, but has to be combined with all the other information handed down regarding the period and the societies involved.
The Subjection of the Greeks of Asia
Authors: Cawkwell George
Published: November 2023

Herodotus’ account is curious. The Ionians were, it would seem, part of the army that Croesus led outside his kingdom and across the river Halys; Cyrus had sent heralds to the Ionians and tried to get them to abstain, but to no effect. After that battle Croesus dismissed them, and they had no part in the battle fought in the valley of the Hermus, not far from Sardis itself, nor in the unsuccessful defence of the city which ensued. Once Cyrus was established there and clearly master of the Lydian kingdom, the Ionians sent messages to him asking to be accorded the same terms of subjection as they had had under Croesus. Cyrus angrily refused; they had had their chance to secure lenient treatment but they had not taken it.
The Recovery of the Greeks of Asia
Authors: Cawkwell George
Published: November 2023

‘Artaxrxes thinks it just that the cities in Asia be his.’ Thus began the Royal Rescript of 387/386 which preluded the King’s Peace (Xen. Hell. 5. 1. 31), and from that year until Philip of Macedon began the invasion of Asia in 336, the complete subjection of the Greeks of Asia was never seriously challenged. On three occasions one or other of the leading states of Greece, Sparta, Athens, and Thebes, gave military support to satraps in revolt, but with no thought of liberating the Asiatic Greeks. Panhellenists like Agesilaus of Sparta or Jason of Pherae might talk of liberation, but they did nothing and could do nothing. For all practical purposes the King’s Peace had settled the matter. This chapter is concerned with the King’s progress over twenty-five years towards that successful conclusion.
Introduction:Demilitarization and Christianization
Authors: Liebeschuetz J H W G
Published: November 2023

This book is built around two related events at Constantinople in about the year AD 400: the Gainas crisis of 399-400 and the deposition of John Chrysostom in 403-4. Both were made possible by fundamental changes in Roman society since the Early Empire. The Gainas affair could happen only because the Empire had come to rely to a large extent on barbarian mercenaries. The career of Chrysostom involved situations unthinkable before the triumph of c. Both events illustrate the transformation of the Ancient World.
Reasons for the Recruiting of Barbarians
Authors: Liebeschuetz J H W G
Published: November 2023

The reasons why the Roman government came to rely to such a large extent on barbarians are not at all clear, even if some of the factors can be identified. In the second and third centuries the Roman army was recruited from sons of soldiers, and from inhabitants of the province in which the units were stationed.• Frontier areas, especially the lands along the Rhine and Danube were devastated in the third century, and their ability to furnish recruits was surely much reduced. Loss of farmers was made good by settlement of barbarian prisoners of war on a very large scale-over so long a period and so large a scale that social historians of the Later Empire still have to explain how there could have been so much empty space within the Empire. Devastation must be part of the answer, but probably not the whole. The conditions of settlement varied a great deal. Settlers who had volunteered to enter the Empire peacefully, and others who had entered violently, and whose settlement was not so much permitted as acquiesced in by the government, received freehold. The Visigoths who were settled in Moesia in 382 even kept the right to be ruled by their own chieftains. Others, usually prisoners of war who had surrendered and were compulsorily settled, might be handed over as tenants, or even as landless agricultural workers, to landowners. In either case their status was humble.
Regulars, Federates, and Bucellarii
Authors: Liebeschuetz J H W G
Published: November 2023

In the previous chapters repeated mention has been made of federate troops. Federates have been distinguished both explicitly and implicitly from regular soldiers. The difference between these· categories of troops has not, however, been defined. In fact there is no incident for which the evidence is full enough to provide a clear picture of the conditions of service of the various categories of troops involved. In order to get a more complete picture of late Roman federates it is necessary to take evidence from a succession of campaigns even if that involves referring to events which are dealt with in greater detail in later sections of this book.
The Visigoths and Alaric’s Goths
Authors: Liebeschuetz J H W G
Published: November 2023

In the ensuing decades a decisive part in the affairs of the Empire was played by the Goths. We have seen that Theodosius made a treaty with them in 383. The details are by no means clear, but it is certain that it provided for the settlement of at least a considerable part of the tribe in Thrace. It was hoped that they would eventually be assimilated to neighbouring citizens of the Empire, and Theodosius tried to further this process by entertaining Gothic nobles, presumably leaders of federate units, at his court. Clearly many Goths were not assimilated. In fact the procession of Alaric’s Goths through the provinces of the Western empire proved that they had very considerable ability to assimilate other Germans, and perhaps even Roman provincials to their own ways, or at least to get them to identify with Visigoths. It has been argued that Valens’ campaign of 367-9 had left them with a feeling of extreme bitterness.
The Rulers of the East and their Military Policy
Authors: Liebeschuetz J H W G
Published: November 2023

After the fall of Rufinus government at Constantinople passed into the hands of Easterners–in which it was to remain. Leading men at Constantinople were determined that they should never again be subject to a Western government. To most observers at the time it appeared that after the fall of Rufinus power in the East had been seized by Eutropius, the praepositus sacri cubiculi. Eutropius was a former slave and a eunuch. Although he entered palace service late in life with recommendations from the general Abundantius, he won the confidence of Theodosius, who sent him to Egypt to consult the hermit John as to whether the expedition to suppress Eugenius was likely to be successful. Eutropius was strongly favoured also by the empress Eudoxia. Eutropius’ reputation as the most powerful man at the Eastern court led to his becoming the object of vicious attacks by Claudian in the West. For Stilicho, Claudian’s patron, assumed that it was mainly the influence of Eutropius which was preventing himself from becoming regent for Arcadius in the East as well as for Honorius in the West.
The Age of Eutropius
Authors: Liebeschuetz J H W G
Published: November 2023

Eutropius owed his pre-eminence to a mutiny, but he and the leading officials during this period were no more creatures of the soldiers than Rufinus had been. Quite the reverse. Eutropius almost immediately demonstrated his independence by successive trials, disgrace, and exile of two highly distinguished generals, Abundantius (consul 393) and Timasius (consul 389). As far as we know neither was replaced. Gainas may well have expected one of the vacant commands. He did not get it. The affairs are described by Zosimus. It is significant that neither was of barbarian origin. If Eutropius rightly or wrongly thought them dangerous, it was because they were well-known soldiers, not because they were Germans. In charge of the trial were Saturninus,4 an even more senior soldier, who favoured diplomatic means of dealing with the Visigoths,5 and Procopius, a relative by marriage of the late emperor Valens.
The Fall of Eutropius and the Prefecture of Aurelian
Authors: Liebeschuetz J H W G
Published: November 2023

The defeat’ of Leo was the immediate cause of the fall of Eutropius and of his praetorian prefect Eutychianus. According to Zosimus, (iainas sent an ultimatum to the emperor Arcadius to the effect that he would not be able to put an end to Tribigild’s mutiny unless Eutropius was surrendered to him. His motive is said to have been jealousy: Eutropius had achieved rank and recognition which had been withheld from Gainas. As we have seen, Gainas had good reason to feel that his services merited the reward of high rank.2 One might add that Gainas might quite reasonably have feared that he too would eventually share the fate of Timasius and Abundantius. But Gainas had not only his own units, but the army as a whole, behind him. For while Gainas and his troops were in Phrygia,3 it is clear that there was a violent military demonstration in the capital itself.4 One suspects that anger at the condemnation of Timasius and Abundantius, resentment at denied promotion, and economies at the expense of the army, especially of the regular units, had united the army against Eutropius, so that Gainas was avenging not only his own grievances but those of the entire army, federates and regulars alike.
The Fall of Gainas
Authors: Liebeschuetz J H W G
Published: November 2023

After the exiling of Aurelian, Saturninus, and John, Gainas was at the height of his power. He had been appointed commander of the infantry and cavalry by the emperor and commanded not only his own federates but all imperial forces within striking range of Constantinople. A federate leader could hardly achieve more. A large part of Gainas’ army was billeted in Constantinople itself. He held at the heart of the Eastern Empire a position very like that which Alaric was holding in Illyricum, and Stilicho in Italy. That Gainas could not maintain this position was a fact of enormous significance for the future of the Eastern Empire.
After Gainas
Authors: Liebeschuetz J H W G
Published: November 2023

The Gainas episode clearly demonstrated the danger presented by federates, but it did not prove that the Eastern Empire needed a powerful regular army. After all, it had rid itself of Gainas without winning a major land battle. Gainas had been forced out of imperial territory by starvation and the decisive military victory had been won–not easily and in several battles–by Uldin, an allied king beyond the Danube frontier.
The Arcadian Establishment AD 392-412
Authors: Liebeschuetz J H W G
Published: November 2023

When we look at the military and foreign policy of the Eastern Empire from the prefecture of Rufinus (392-5), or even earlier, to the end of that of Anthemius (405-414), or a little longer, a striking feature is its consistency and continuity. These in turn can be seen to be linked to the fundamental stability of what might be called the ‘Arcadian Establishment’. Of course first impressions suggest otherwise: this was a period of violent political conflict. Rufinus was lynched by the rmy, Eutropius executed, Aurelian exiled, Eutychianus charged with treason and acquitted, or eventually exculpated and reinstated, John Chrysostom the archbishop exiled, recalled, and exiled again amidst riots. But these violent events must be seen in perspective. Radical changes of personnel in leading positions were offset by a homogeneity of attitude and outlook. The men who held the most important offices under Arcadius were remarkably similar in social background. Their rivalry, though intense, seems to have been for power and control of patronage, and does not seem to have involved significant differences over policy or ideology. Moreover the period was characterized not only by the overthrow of ministers but also by continuity of careers.
Orthodoxy Imposed at Constantinople
Authors: Liebeschuetz J H W G
Published: November 2023

Theodosius I became emperor on 19 January 379 at the height of the Gothic crisis after the disaster of Adrianople. It would be reasonable to assume that Gratian chose him in the first place because of his qualities as a soldier and politician, as the man most likely to lead the Eastern Empire out of its dangerous situation. But it is clear that from the beginning Theodosius considered that his task had an essential component: the restoration of unity in the Church. For already in August 379 an edict was issued jointly by Gratian and Theodosius forbidding all heresies ‘by divine and imperial law’, and annulling an edict of tolerance which Gratian had issued at Sirmium not long before. It is reasonable to suppose that this dramatic reversal of policy was made under the influence not only of Ambrose, the strong minded bishop of Milan,3 but also of Gratian’s new colleague. In spite of the obvious advantage of facing the crisis in unity based on tolerance, Gratian and ·. Theodosius decided, as Constantine had decided before them, that their responsibility to God for the unity of the Church must have priority.
The Election and Preaching of John Chrysostom
Authors: Liebeschuetz J H W G
Published: November 2023

When Nectarius died in 397 there were many candidates eager to succeed him. The decisive voice at Constantinople was of course the emperor’s. At this time, however, the emperor was the ineffective Arcadius, and the real ruler was Eutropius, then at the height of his influence. It was he who seems to have decided that the time had come for orthodoxy in the capital to be given a more conspicuous head, and who chose John Chrysostom as the most suitable man. Chrysostom had made a reputation as an exceedingly popular preacher at Antioch. Like Gregory of Nazianzus he was a master of rhetoric, whose sermons could be enjoyed by the most fastidious admirer of classical language. Compared with Gregory he was much less of a poet and theologian, and more of a teacher, in fact a born teacher. He was a publicist, but also a man of action, if perhaps in an unworldly way. Eutropius seems to have first persuaded the clergy and people of Constantinople to elect John. Next he had the election confirmed by the emperor. Only then did he bring John to Constantinople.
Chrysostom in the Gainas Crisis
Authors: Liebeschuetz J H W G
Published: November 2023

Chrysostom was a non-political bishop, who was careful to keep completely clear of involvement in secular political controversy. Nevertheless it was inevitable that his influence with important individuals, his popularity with many inhabitants of the capital, and his connections in the provinces, not least with the Goths, should make him a man of power. This appeared very clearly at the time of the fall of Eutropius, and throughout the ensuing Gainas crisis. When Eutropius had lost the favour of emperor and empress he sought asylum in church, and Chrysostom for a time protected him from the soldiers demanding his execution. The fallen favourite cowered under the altar while Chrysostom preached a sermon on moral lessons to be derived from his fall. Considering that Eutropius had made Chrysostom bishop of Constantinople, the sermon shows remarkably little sympathy with the eunuch’s fate.
Enemies and Friends of John Chrysostom: The Problem
Authors: Liebeschuetz J H W G
Published: November 2023

Earlier chapters have shown that Chrysostom was a formidable bishop of Constantinople. He had a mass following in the city. He was extending the authority of the bishop of Constantinople over bishops of the cities of neigh bouring dioceses. In a dangerous crisis he had shown himself to be a serious factor in secular affairs as well. This was something new. The East was not used to having a bishop of Constantinople who could be an independent power in its politics. There was no room for such a figure. He was bound to incur the hostility of all existing established powers, first of all his fellow bishops, but also the secular authorities. This, it will be argued, was the basic cause of the deposition of John Chrysostom.
Theophilus .
Authors: Liebeschuetz J H W G
Published: November 2023

The factor which made Chrysostom’s quarrel with Eudoxia so dangerous for himself was that he was already involved in a dispute with the powerful Theophilus, bishop of Alexandria. We have seen that bishops of Alexandria were chronically worried by the widening influence of the see of Constantinople. Theophilus had tried to prevent the election of Chrysostom and to bring about the election of Isidore, one of his own clergy, instead. He seems to have become reconciled to Chrysostom’s election, for the two bishops combined to send Isidore on a diplomatic mission to Rome to get the pope to recognize Flavian as bishop of Antioch. The initiative succeeded. Theophilus was an exceedingly violent prelate, but in the conflict with Chrysostom he does not seem to have taken the initiative.
Enemies in the Establishment
Authors: Liebeschuetz J H W G
Published: November 2023

Another consideration makes it almost certain that an important group of officials threw its influence on the side of Chrysostom’s opponents. Only so can it be explained that after the bishop’s return from his first exile Chrysostom’s enemies not only resumed their attack after a very short time, but were strong enough to prevent the case for Chrysostom from receiving any formal hearing at all. In consequence of our principal sources being ecclesiastical we are comparatively badly informed about the attitudes of laymen. There is, however, enough evidence to show that important members of what I have called the ‘Arcadian establishment’ were hostile.
Public Property in the City
Authors: Lewis David
Published: November 2023

The standard books on the Greek city either have no treatment of public property at all or take it for granted in treating public finances. This is an attempt to fill some of the gap. It is concerned mostly with classical Athens and operates with a rather narrow definition, pursuing the key Greek word for ‘public’, demosios.1 It will emerge in the course of the paper that other forms of communal ownership operate functionally in a very similar way, in that the city can exercise control of their administration and revenues.
Nova Nupta and Novus Coniunx
Authors: Treggiari Susan
Published: November 2023

A Marriage is initiated, in law, by an exchange of consent. The beginning, as an important event, was also often marked by ritual and celebration. The legal, religious, and social features of nuptiae were often almost inextricably intertwined. Such complexity is after all appropriate to an action which makes a transition for both bride and bridegroom, changes the composition of two families, and brings with it the hope of children and new dispositions of property.
Plato’s Penal Code
Authors: Saunders Trevor J
Published: November 2023

The Laws, Plato’s last and longest work, depicts in vivid detail a blueprint for an ideal state called Magnesia, which is to be founded in the South of Crete under guidance from the Academy. ‘Ideal’ does not imply the perfection of the state described in the Republic: Magnesia is simply the best state that Plato considered capable of realization in the circumstances of the Greek world in the middle of the fourth century BC.1 Though in that sense a utopia, it is a realistic and practical one; it must expect to have crimes and criminals. It therefore stands in need of a penology and a penal code. Indeed, to judge from the sheer amount of space Plato devotes to these two topics, he regards them as of central importance to the entire enterprise.
Historical Synthesis: 2. High Noon and Afternoon
Authors: West M L
Published: November 2023

By the last quarter of the fifth century the progressive music of Lasus and Simonides had become classic; but there was a more acute sense than ever of an opposition between old and new styles. Damon’s warning against the dangers of a musical revolution (p. 246) was one influential expression of this feeling. In a fragment of Eupolis some one asks, ‘Okay, do you want to hear the present-day pattern of song, or the old style?’ One of those addressed answers, ‘Give us both, and I’ll listen and take whichever I decide.’ Songs ancient and modern, with elements of exaggeration and parody, must have followed.
Eusebius
Authors: Cameron Averil , Hall Stuart G
Published: November 2023

Eusebius' Life of Constantine is the most important single record of Constantine, the emperor who turned the Roman Empire from prosecuting the Church to supporting it, with huge and lasting consequences for Europe and Christianity. The only English version previously available is based on a seventeenth-century Greek edition, but two new critical editions produced this century make a new English version necessary. The authors of this edition present the results of the recent scholarly debate, as well as their own researches so as to clarify the significance of Eusebius' work and introduce the student to the text and its interpretation, thus opening up the contentious issues. At face value much of what Eusebius wrote is false. This book shows how, once his partisan interpretations and rhetoric are properly understood, both Eusebius' text and the documents it contains give vital historical insights.
Introduction
Authors: Rawson Beryl
Published: November 2023

This volume reflects current trends in the study of ‘the family’ in ancient Rome. We hope that it will have a contribution to make not only to other fields of Classics but also to a range of other disciplines and areas of family studies.

Study of ‘the family’ in modern and pre-modern societies continues to engage the interest of historians, demographers, sociolo¬gists, anthropologists, psychologists, and lawyers (amongst others). This is not only a recognition of the central role which the family has played in most societies, but also a response to the complexity and variety of that role and indeed to the challenge of defining ‘the family’.

Pre-modern societies have left us little by way of census data and other systematic statistics, or by way of personal memoirs of women, children, servants, and slaves: we are thus limited in our ability to quantify, to trace developments, and to discuss the more private aspects of family life in these societies.
Divorce Roman Style: How Easy and how Frequent was it?
Authors: Treggiari Susan
Published: November 2023

We know much more about Roman divorce, at least in the sphere of law, than we know about Roman marriage. The possibility of divorce existed from the beginning of Roman customary law. A husband could always divorce his wife for serious marital fault, such as adultery. By the time of Cicero, at the beginning of the classical period of Roman law and when our sources become fuller, marriage had evolved from early patriarchalism and divorce could be initiated by either husband or wife. (There must have been residual difficulties if the wife was in her husband’s control, in manu mariti: our earliest evidence for her legal right to compel her husband to divorce her belongs to the time of Gaius, the second century AD.) Divorce was a potential outcome of which lawyers and presumably ordinary people had to take account at the beginning of a marriage. This chapter focuses on this developed legal and social system.
Remarriage and the Structure of the Upper-Class Roman Family
Authors: Bradley K R
Published: November 2023

In spite of the recent proliferation of interest in the history of the Roman family and the important advances in knowledge that mod¬ern scholars have made, the central problem of how the Roman family is to be defined or characterized has not yet been satisfactorily resolved. This chapter, therefore, attempts to work some way towards clarifying the issue, first by estimating the incidence of remarriage among the Roman elite of the late Republic and then by considering the effects of remarriage, or serial marriage, on the structure of the upper-class family. If the extent of remarriage were found to be high, the character of the family would have to be rather different from that produced in circumstances where a low rate of remarriage prevailed: in the former case a greater number of blended or reconstituted family groupings would be expected than in conditions where married couples remained in stable unions over long periods of time, and in turn a high degree of blending might be expected to lead to a typical family form distinct from that created in situations where reconstitution was of negligible significance. Prom¬inent individuals such as Sulla and Antony are known to have married several times, and a certain dislocation in their families was the inevitable result. But how typical were case-histories such as theirs, and how widespread the consequences?
Corporal Punishment, Authority, and Obedience in the Roman Household
Authors: Saller Richard
Published: November 2023

Alan Wats o Nin his recent book, Roman Slave Law, remarks that ‘in many regards the legal position of a slave was very similar to that of a son—of whatever age—in paternal power. [Aside from the capacity to enter into a legal marriage] at private law their positions were very similar. Thus, neither could own property of any kind, the fund called peculium given for their use by the father or master operated in law irrespective of whether the holder was slave or free, their contracts benefited and bound the father or. master to exactly the same extent in exactly the same way, the master acquired property or property rights through them in the same way, and the master was liable at private law for their wrongdoing in the same way [notably in the procedure of noxal surrender] ... It goes without saying that in practice sons and slaves would be treated very differently’ (1987: 46 f.).

Watson’s final common-sense qualification does not in fact ‘go without saying’ to some of the most prominent Roman historians of our day. From Paul Veyne’s contribution in A History of Private Life emerges an image of the family very different from our conventional idea of the family today, a unit marked by a ‘natural affection’ between parents and children. For Veyne, the Roman family and household of the Republic and early Principate were units bounded not by affection, but by the limits of the father’s power.
Houses and Households: Sampling Pompeii and Herculaneum
Authors: Wallace-Hadrill Andrew
Published: November 2023

The reconstruction of past families in the late medieval and early modern periods has been made possible by an abundance of documentary material, both percise and extensive. Only by careful statistical analysis of such documents, pioneered by the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure (Laslett 1972a etc.), has it been possible to break from Le Play’s simplistic hypothesis of a general historical development from the extended to the nuclear family (Flandrin 1979: 50 ff.).
Central Anatolia at the End of Antiquity The Life of Saint Theodore of Sykeon
Authors: Mitchell Stephen
Published: November 2023

The historian of central Anatolia has to wait until the final centuries of Antiquity before encountering a written account which even begins to offer something of the full flavour of life in this rural provincial milieu. The importance and value of the Life of St Theodore of Sykeon, completed around the middle of the seventh century, but describing events and conditions between the reigns of Justinian and the accession of Heraclius, has been often noted, and a recent edition, with translation and commentary, which prints many hitherto unpublished chapters of the Life, makes it readily accessible.
Germanicus
Authors: Herbert-Brown Geraldine
Published: November 2023

After the death of Augustus in ad 14, Ovid rededicated the Fasti and revised sections within it to incorporate the new dedicatee. That rededication was not, as might be expected, to the successor of Augustus, the new Princeps and Pontifex Maximus, but to Germanicus Caesar, nephew and adopted son of the new ruler. Yet Ovid’s reworking of the poem to honour his new dedicatee did not last long. Except for a brief outburst in the proem to book 4 (79-82), nothing beyond book 1 reveals any revisions to incorporate Germanicus. Even in book 1, the passages honouring him are few.
Introduction
Authors: Batty Roger
Published: November 2023

The title I eventually chose for this work may seem at first glance both vague and cumbersome. Rome and the Nomads: The Pontic-Danubian Realm in Antiquity gives the reader few hints about which nomads are in question, which time periods, or about the geographical scope of the work. The term ‘Pontic-Danubian’, it must be admitted, lacks a familiar ring. Nevertheless, the title does have its merits. For the book is about Roman relations with a range of nomadic peoples. I aim to discuss not only the powerful rulers of the steppes who have captured so much historical attention, but also the small-scale nomads of the Balkan peninsula typified by the Vlachs and Sarakatsans, who have remained relatively under-studied.
Ovid in Exile
Authors: Batty Roger
Published: November 2023

The two preceding chapters show how my interpretation of Pontic-Danubian history in the Middle Ages and beyond finds parallels in our evidence from the earliest periods of antiquity. The general evidence adduced in Chapter 4 was backed up by the crucial testimony of Strabo, who clearly understood how immigration and nomadism affected the region in the era before Roman control had solidified. Both these chapters discuss evidence about how people behaved on the large scale: with tribal movements, wars, and population changes. Yet one of the chief merits of the account of our region in Part I was that it examined life on the small scale.
Conclusions to Part II
Authors: Batty Roger
Published: November 2023

In the last three chapters I have tried to present a balance of historical evidence about the Pontic-Danubian region in early antiquity. General ideas common amongst Graeco-Roman writers were compared to the most learned account we have of this region and the testimony of a rare eyewitness. Taken together, this evidence undoubtedly conforms the analysis offered in Part I. To begin with, the evidence shows that the type of population influx which has characterized the region in later times was already present at this early date, with nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples moving into the region from the north, driving out or subjugating the local inhabitants.
Immigration and Empire
Authors: Batty Roger
Published: November 2023

Lucius Ampelius’ potted history of the conquests of the Roman people, penned sometime between the second and fourth century ad, neatly encapsulates the problems historians have in dealing with the Roman Empire in our region.2 Some peoples which have appeared regularly in the last part of this book are absent: he lists no Thracians, no Celts, no Bastarnae, no Getae. The Moesi and Triballi also fail to merit mention. Furthermore, some names which do appear seem unwarranted: Trajan’s triumphs extended no more to the Scythians and Sarmatians than to the Indians. Ampelius, of course, was hardly the best authority: his little potpourri of knowledge was designed as an educational refresher—a handy reference or a crib sheet.
Urban Development in the Roman Period
Authors: Batty Roger
Published: November 2023

The final chapter in this book, a treatment of urban development during the Roman period, will be relatively short. The reasons for this should by now be obvious. Considerable archaeological evidence and numerous inscriptions might have been adduced to provide a picture of life in the cities. But from the ten preceding chapters it will be clear that however successful the Roman introduction of cities was (and it was by many measures remarkable), urbanization in the region remained relatively weak. Social and political upheaval, involving nomadic or mobile peoples, coupled with powerful, conservative traditions in rural areas and the problem of banditry, hindered city growth and sapped confidence.
Conclusions to Part III
Authors: Batty Roger
Published: November 2023

The last five chapters contain only a selection of the available evidence. They were in no way meant to be an exhaustive survey; that would in any case hardly be desirable from the reader’s point of view. These chapters are meant to be read together; the themes they encapsulate interlock. As a result, the content has sometimes overlapped; but that, I feel, is a small price to pay for the chance to examine the issues from a variety of perspectives.
Portraits
Authors: Edwards M J , Swain Simon
Published: November 2023

Collections of articles or papers by different authors sometimes meet with prejudice among those who feel that only the mind of a single writer can give sets of ideas an acceptable unity. This viewpoint is not absurd; at the same time it is not absolutely valid. For it is a common enough practice to assign difficult problems to working-parties and discussion groups for clarification. We do this because we recognize the value of hearing a number of different voices and points of view on a subject of shared interest. This collection of papers arises from a seminar series held in All Souls College at the end of 1991. All but one of the pieces were delivered at the seminar; we regret that one of the original papers could not be written up by its author. The conception of the seminar was indeed after the model of a working-party. Our idea was to examine the growth of biographical representation in the Greek and Latin literature of the Roman imperial period and later antiquity. We felt that a seminar was the ideal forum for this because the phenomenon of biographical representation was one to which scholars had paid relatively little attention and was therefore in need of the collective input that only discussion can give. It was clear to all of us from the start that the growth of biographical representation was not simply a matter for students of overtly biographical texts. Whether the ancients identified biography as a separate genre is a big question in itself (and one to which we return in part in the epilogue to the volume). But in the literature of the period covered by our essays interest in the person and the structuring of texts as a result of this interest went far beyond biography (however defined). Rather, it is a subject of enquiry that is relevant to literary scholars, historians, philosophers, and theolo-gians. It was upon this basis that the seminar speakers were assembled.
Biography and Biographic in the Literature of the Roman Empire
Authors: Swain Simon
Published: November 2023

The Greek and Latin literature of the Roman Empire displays a marked biographical trend. The aim of this book is to illustrate this through studies of six relevant texts and authors. By way of introduction this first chapter examines the range and function of such texts against some of the historical and social changes of the age. As has been remarked in the Preface, this is not an introduction to the following chapters as such. Rather, this piece has its own distinctive interests and approaches. It aims to outline ways of reading the background to the literary-historical developments that are behind the concerns of this book.The biographical trend we are interested in amounts to much more than a style of presentation where people and persons are more important in texts than places and things.