bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
“Demaratus”: A Study in Some Aspects of the Earliest Hellenisation of Latium and Etruria
Authors: Blakeway Alan
Published: May 2006

The first commercial contact of the Greeks with Etruria is certainly earlier than the foundation of the Greek colony at Cumae. Vulci, Chiusi, Terni, Bisenzio, Vetralla, Capodimonte, Leprignano, Veii, Falerii, Tarquinia, Cerveteri, have produced evidence of the importation of Greek pottery of a style considerably earlier than that of the contents of the earliest Greek graves of that colony.

The general conclusions which can be derived from this evidence for the history of Greek commerce with the Western Mediterranean have been discussed elsewhere; it is the particular significance of it as evidence for the earliest Hellenization of Italy that I wish to consider here.
Actium: A Note
Authors: Tarn W. W.
Published: May 2006

I am writing this note on Mr. G. W. Richardson's Actium (JRS xxvii, 1937, 153) for the sake of one general principle, drawing attention briefly to the main points.

First, Horace. Mr. Richardson says sinistrorsum will not fit my interpretation because it is ‘commonly assumed’ that Antony's centre was opposite the mouth of the Gulf. Horace wrote within a few days of the battle, and was in a position to know; suppose we keep to what he says, and forget all about ‘common assumptions.’ If he says sinistrorsum, he means that Antony's whole fleet was north of the Gulf. Antony came out in line ahead—he could not do otherwise through the narrow exit; he could turn either north or south, and Horace shows he turned north, i.e. to his right. When all his ships were out—he could not do it earlier—he changed to line abreast; the last ship out, now the last on his left, might still have been opposite the mouth of the Gulf, but the three squadrons of the centre and left, taken as a whole, were northward of it, and if they wanted to get back into the Gulf they would go sinistrorsum. It is simple enough, provided we follow the primary evidence. Mr. Richardson further seeks to get rid of Horace's reference to the desertion of Antony's fleet, or of part of it, by saying that it means ships fleeing from (or after) the battle. But puppes navium citae, as a long line of commentators have pointed out, can only mean backing water, i.e. going stern first; and I am sure no galley ever fled from a lost battle stern first.
The Coin of Arcadius from Heddon-on-the-Wall
Authors: Stevens C. E.
Published: May 2006

Romano-British archaeologists are now generally agreed in supposing that the final abandonment of Hadrian's Wall occurred about the time of the usurpation of Maximus in 383. This theory was first put forward by Dr. H. H. E. Craster in 1914, and it is supported by the results of the Birdoswald Excavations of 1929. It rests mainly on negative evidence, but it is evidence which was formidable in 1914 and is still more formidable to-day, since no coin later than 383 has ever been reported from the Wall—except the one which is the subject of this paper. Moreover it becomes evident that the reason for the cessation is historical and not numismatic, when it is realised that at other sites, some quite close to the Wall, the coin-series extends beyond 383. Romano-British archaeologists, therefore, impressed by the weight of the evidence, have assumed that the one exception to Dr. Craster's rule, the coin of Arcadius from Heddon-on-the-Wall, is a stray, the presence of which does not imply a garrison on the Wall at the time of its issue. Dr. Schultz, however, writing in this Journal, seems to imply that it is not a stray, but a testimony to the maintenance of a garrison on the Wall down to the fifth century.
John Horsley
Authors: Macdonald George
Published: May 2006

On January 12th, 1732, John Horsley, Presbyterian divine and schoolmaster, died suddenly at Morpeth at the early age of 46. The following March or April witnessed the publication of his great book, in which real scholarship was for the first time brought to bear upon the interpretation of Romano-British antiquities. The occurrence of this double bicentenary seems to provide an appropriate opportunity for reminding readers of the Journal of the magnitude of the achievement represented by the Britannia Romana. A fully documented account of the author's career, together with an estimate of the value of his work, will appear in the forthcoming volume of Archaeologia Aeliana. For the present purpose, therefore, a brief summary will suffice.
The Reckoning by the Regnal Years and Victories of Valerian and Gallienus
Authors: Alföldi A.
Published: May 2006

The statement of L. Wickert that the numbers of the tribuniciae potestates of Gallienus (and of Valerian) are contradictory and also in part evidently wrong can also be applied to the numbering of the consulates of those rulers. There are, however, two kinds of discrepancy in the reckoning of imperial years in this period, caused respectively by ordinary blunders and by abnormal methods of numbering. As the latter kind of discrepancy does not alter the relative exactness of the chronology, abnormal reckoning has, rightly interpreted, the same documentary value as the strictly correct system. Inscriptions, of course, do not offer opportunities of discriminating between occasional mistakes and incorrect systems as the cause of error, but the character of erroneous reckonings can be discerned on coins through continuity of reckoning in successive years in any given mint.
Some Notes on Roman Coast Defences
Authors: Bushe-Fox J. P.
Published: May 2006

Four of the Saxon-shore forts—Richborough, Pevensey, Portchester and Burgh Castle—are now under the control of H.M. Office of Works. The first of these is being excavated by the Society of Antiquaries and any finds made by H.M. Office of Works are published in the Society's Reports; H.M. Office of Works is carrying out repairs to the masonry of the other three, and at Pevensey and Portchester the mediaeval moats have been cleared out and walls, etc., of the same period uncovered. During these operations certain discoveries of interest connected with the Roman occupation of the sites have come to light and I am taking this opportunity of placing them on record.
Roman Drift in Caledonia
Authors: Curle James
Published: May 2006

The products of a highly civilised community must always tend to drift across its political frontiers to less advanced peoples beyond. In the early centuries of our era the output of Roman workshops, following perhaps the older amber routes, was finding its way north of the Rhine and reaching Scandinavia. The same process was going on in Caledonia. The troops marching northward carried their supplies with them, and on the sites of their forts the excavator unearths their pottery and glass, their vessels of bronze, their ornaments, tools and weapons,—the familiar things of provincial Roman civilization. But out beyond the limits of the forts and camps the same products from time to time come to light—picked up near the lines of communication, gathered from the sites of native dwellings, or found far out among the hills or by coasts where the Roman soldier never penetrated, telling their tale of traffic or of plunder.
The Property Qualifications of the Roman Classes
Authors: Mattingly H.
Published: May 2006

It is rapidly coming to be agreed among scholars that a re-dating of the earliest Roman coinage, centring round the transference of the denarius from 269 to circa 187 B.C., is now inevitable. Such a re-dating is bound to have very wide effects outside the coinage. The whole question of the expression of values in terms of money must come up for reconsideration. It is my object in this paper to concentrate on one part of the general question—the property qualifications of the Roman classes. The evidence is scanty and, for the earlier period, of problematic value. The figures of the Servian constitution, in particular, even if we admit them to have any real reference to early Roman history, must have been expressed in terms of money at a comparatively late date. Until we know when they began to be so expressed, we do not know what they really mean in value. Even our scanty records, however, if critically examined in their correct historical order, will yield definite results of a somewhat surprising character.
Charops and Roman Policy in Epirus
Authors: Scullard H. H.
Published: May 2006

In the settlement of Greece after the Third Macedonian War Roman policy was at times moderate, at times harsh. On occasion the difference might represent only an individual point of view: thus the terms imposed upon Macedonia might seem generous to a Roman who contemplated the grant of ‘freedom’ to the Macedonians, the reduction of taxation and the absence of territorial aggression on Rome's part, while they might equally seem harsh to a Macedonian who felt that his sense of nationhood had been violated by Rome's creation of the four independent Republics. But towards Epirus Roman policy seems to have been marked by two successive stages, the first moderate, the second brutal. It is the purpose of this note to attempt to consider the causes which determined this change and to examine what influence the Epirote Charops exercised upon the measures which turned his country into a playground for Roman brutality and ultimately into an abomination of desolation.
The Villa Item and a Bride's Ordeal
Authors: Toynbee Jocelyn
Published: May 2006

The paintings in the triclinium of the Villa Item, a dwelling-house excavated in 1909 outside the Porta Ercolanese at Pompeii, have not only often been published and discussed by foreign scholars, but they have also formed the subject of an important paper in this Journal. The artistic qualities of the paintings have been ably set forth: it has been established beyond all doubt that the subject they depict is some form of Dionysiac initiation: and, of the detailed interpretations of the first seven of the individual scenes, those originally put forward by de Petra and accepted, modified or developed by Mrs. Tillyard appear, so far as they go, to be unquestionably on the right lines. A fresh study of the Villa Item frescoes would seem, however, to be justified by the fact that the majority of previous writers have confined their attention almost entirely to the first seven scenes—the three to the east of the entrance on the north wall (fig. 3), the three on the east wall and the one to the east of the window on the south wall, to which the last figure on the east wall, the winged figure with the whip, undoubtedly belongs.
Sallust and Dissimulatio
Authors: Hands A. R.
Published: May 2006

Among much else that has been written on Sallust recently, we have been informed or reminded of his ‘deep antipathy’ for Cicero among the political figures of his own day (Syme, Tacitus, 1958, 203), whilst it is Scaurus ‘whom he hates especially’ (K. von Fritz, TAPh. A 74, 1943, 145) of the nobility of the Jugurthine War period. We believe these two judgments to be essentially correct, although ‘hatred’ for one who was not a contemporary is perhaps too strong a term in the case of Scaurus. In the case of Cicero, indeed, it is still a matter for argument how far a dislike on Sallust's part is revealed in the Catilina, which we do not propose to re-argue; for us, not only Sallust's ‘curious and elaborate creation of an anti-Ciceronian style’ (Syme, l.e., cf. E. Sikes, CAH IX, 769), but still more the way in which he deliberately proceeds to glorify Caesar and Cato in Cicero's annus mirabilis seems sufficient evidence of his attitude to the latter; nor should the –Invective necessarily be rejected as evidence, however much we may doubt its authen-ticity, since even a bogus document must be basically plausible if it is to gain any acceptance. Our purpose here, rather, is to seek the common ground of Sallust's dislikes; to suggest that the attitude of Sallust to Cicero may help to explain his hostile representation of Scaurus and that, by a corollary, the latter confirms the former.
Treason in the Early Empire
Authors: Rogers Robert Samuel
Published: May 2006

Twenty years after its publication the present writer's Criminal Trials and Criminal Legislation under Tiberius has now been laid under attack, in general and in particular, by C. W. Chilton. He endeavours to establish the following major conclusions:

(1) That Ulpian's word ‘perduellio’ for certain offences of treason was as obsolete as ‘the clumsy ritual and barbarous punishment’.

(2) That the author of Trials and ‘Ignorance of the Law in Tacitus and Dio’ should not have rejected the clear evidence of Tacitus and Dio that suicide by a defendant would avoid the confiscation of his property.

(3) That Roman law was ‘constantly changing’ and so a jurist affords no evidence except for his own time.
Rome and the Druids: A Note
Authors: Last Hugh
Published: May 2006

During the Congress of Classical Societies at Oxford in August 1948, in discussing the nature and significance of Romanization, I ventured to mention an opinion which had lately found fresh expression about the policy of the Roman government in the early years of its responsibility for the Tres Galliae towards certain features of Gallic life which in ancient times were commonly associated with the Druids. It is an opinion which I myself was once so hasty as to adopt (Universal History of the World—London, n.d.—3, 1998); but when the totalitarians, by setting up a return to barbarism as an ideal, made it the urgent duty of Roman historians to analyse the civilization of Rome and to understand the part played by the Empire in spreading it, the serious examination of the evidence which I ought to have given it before raised very grave doubts about an interpretation which had gained the widespread acceptance of any view commended by the authorityof Mommsen. My reason for raising this matter was its importance; for it is directly relevant to an issue of the most immediate interest—about the nature of the central problem which confronts Europe to-day. And my reason for returning to it now is that it was impossible in an hour's talk, which ranged over a much wider field, to set out the evidence on one particular point in the detail needed to make the position wholly clear— which it is the purpose of this note to do.
The Bronze Mace from Willingham Fen, Cambridgeshire
Authors: Alföldi A.
Published: May 2006

The bronze votive object shown on plate I forms part of a hoard which must have come from some small shrine or sanctuary. Professor M. Rostovtzeff's essay with its detailed interpretation has already called general attention to this find.

The swollen lower part of this typical Hercules club most certainly belongs to the stem adorned with figures and shown with it, though there is a break between the two parts. This must be so, not only because the diameters correspond, but also because the carefully engraved grooves which encircle both the upper part and the lower broken-off part of the club prove their original connection.
The Fall of the Capitol
Authors: Skutsch O.
Published: May 2006

Three times Silius Italicus refers to the Gallic catastrophe in a somewhat startling manner : Pun. I, 525 f. ‘Gallisque ex arce fugatis Arma revertentis pompa gestata Camilli’; 4, 150 f. ‘ipse tumens atavis Brenni se stirpe ferebat Crixus et in titulos Capitolia capta trahebat’; 6, 555 f. ‘Allia et infandi Senones captaeque recursat Attonitis arcis facies.’ Taken individually each passage can be explained away: ‘ex arce fugatis’ may be a metrical substitute for ‘de arce depulsis’ Crixus may boast and exaggerate; and in their terror at the news of Lake Trasimene the Romans may see more than actually happened. Taken together, however, the three statements very strongly suggest that Silius had in mind a story according to which not only the city but the Capitol itself was captured. Or did Vergil's ‘Galli per dumos aderant arcemque tenebant’ (see below), though not actually misinterpreted by him, create a formal pattern in his mind, which he applied without considering its content ? Silius apart, tradition is unanimous in making the geese and the prompt action of Manlius save the Capitol; in fact the defenders do not even suffer any casualties.
Alexandria ad Aegyptum
Authors: Bell H. I.
Published: May 2006

In JRS xxxiii, 58, Dr. F. Schulz writes: ‘The place is Alexandria or, as our documents always put it, Alexandria ad Aegyptum. This is a translation of the Greek’ Ἀλ. ἡ πρὸς Αἰϒύπτῳ which occurs in pre-Roman times. The legal meaning in the period of our documents is nothing else but “Al. in Aegypto”’; and in a footnote he states: ‘Wilcken's opinion … is not acceptable’.

This statement, which is utterly contrary to the prevailing view, gave me, I confess, something of a shock, for I had myself more than once made the assertion that Alexandria was, for the Romans, not officially a part of Egypt; but so dogmatically was Dr. Schulz's obiter dictum formulated that I was so far shaken as to make up my mind to investigate the point before again committing myself. I was at the time too much occupied with other work to do so, but recently I have had an opportunity to examine the evidence, and I think it desirable to place the result of this examination on record without delay.
A new Greek Calendar and Festivals of the Sun
Authors: Weinstock Stefan
Published: May 2006

It is known that the Greeks found the means of time-reckoning when they began to observe and to record the rising and setting of the stars. Such recording had already been made in Babylonia and Egypt and taken up in Greece (and further developed) by Hesiod, Democritus, Eudoxus, and Ptolemy. Our knowledge of what they achieved was based until the end of the nineteenth century on the calendars of Geminus, Ptolemy, Aetius Amidenus, the Quintilii, Clodius Tuscus (and on some occasional references in other writers). In recent decades further examples have been found in astrological manuscripts and in papyri, amongst which the Calendar of Antiochus and that of the Pap. Hibeh 27 are the most prominent. Professor Rehm in his admirable Parapegmastudien has recently shown how much can be learnt from the simple entries in calendars about time-reckoning, astronomy, and, in general, about the cosmic system of a nation or a period. Religious entries on the other hand (which are of great importance for the origin and development of festivals) are less frequent—we find in the Hibeh Papyrus a number of local Egyptian festivals and in the Calendar of Antiochus two festivals of the Sun and a festival of the Nile.
A Roman Writing-Tablet from London
Authors: Turner Eric G. , Skutsch Otto
Published: May 2006

The seventeen pieces of wood which together form the tablet here described (Guildhall Museum E.R. no. 444) were found on 10th February, 1959, 15 feet below street level in a timber-lined pit on the site of Temple House, Queen Street, in the City of London. Ink writing on the wood was at once recognized. Even in the wet and sodden state of the tablet Latin words could be made out and a preliminary copy was taken. The surface which showed writing was twice photographed by Mr. M. B. Cookson, of the Institute of Archaeology of London University, using infra-red light. The other surface, on which no writing could be discerned, was not photographed, unfortunately, since when the wood was bleached some traces of ink appeared on this side too, but were subsequently lost. The wood was then dried out, using the carbo-wax process, in the laboratory of the Guildhall Museum; to everyone's disappointment the ink was found to have vanished, and it seems as though the gum adhesive of the carbon ink must have been interfered with. The account given here of the contents of the tablet therefore rests entirely on a preliminary examination of the wood while it was still wet and on the photographs. One of the latter, together with a line drawing, is reproduced in plate XI.
The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, 1910–60
Authors: Taylor M. V.
Published: May 2006

The events which led up to the formation of the Society are recorded in the history of the Hellenic Society written by Mr. George Macmillan and published with the Jubilee issue of the Hellenic Journal in 1929. We read that Dr. Ashby, Director of the British School at Rome, in the Session 1908–9, sent a memorandum to the Council of the Hellenic Society requesting it to approve the making of a grant comparable with that made to the British School at Athens. The Hellenic Society, unable to meet this request, recommended, on the advice of a special committee, that members of the Hellenic Society, the Classical Association and other bodies should be asked to approve the inclusion of Latin studies in the purview of the Hellenic Society with a corresponding increase in its annual subscription, or alternately, to support some other scheme which could command adequate financial support. The great majority replied that they were in favour of the creation of a new Society on the lines of the Hellenic Society, but for the promotion of Roman studies, and this solution was endorsed at a joint conference of the Hellenic Society, the British School at Rome and the Classical Association. The Hellenic Society most generously undertook to work in harmony and collaboration with the new Society and to offer it access to the Library, with the same facilities for borrowing books and slides as those enjoyed by its own members.
Excavations and Discoveries in the Forum Romanum and on the Palatine during the last Fifty Years
Authors: Carettoni Gianfilippo
Published: May 2006

The first decade of the twentieth century ended with a substantial sum of important discoveries in the Forum to its credit. Between 1898 and 1903 Giacomo Boni's intensive work had resulted in sensational finds—the Lapis Niger, the republican Comitium and the archaic cemetery ; he had finished excavating both on the north side of the Forum, uncovering the front of the Basilica Aemilia and the Curia, and to the south, where the shrine of the Fountain of Juturna had returned to light, together with the approach from the Forum to the Imperial Palace and the series of early Christian paintings in S. Maria Antiqua. Excavation of the House of the Vestals was also brought to completion. Interest in republican and archaic development had led to investigation beneath the paving of the Forum itself (Equus Domitiani, Lacus Curtius, underground galleries and ritual wells and pits), and to a search for the ancient track of the Via Sacra, with exploration of its shops and wells of Republican date. A mass of information and material collected as a result of these excavations has unfortunately, although scrupulously catalogued, remained largely unpublished. Aerial photographs made at this time give a clear picture of the Forum valley during the first years of the century : one vast excavation stretching from the Vulcanal to the Arch of Titus.
Some Political Notions in Coin Types between 294 and 313
Authors: Sutherland C. H. V.
Published: May 2006

Within the next few years greater attention will be given to a period of Roman Imperial coinage which, apart from special and isolated studies, has so far lacked a broad and balanced treatment. The completion, now near, of volumes VI, VII and VIII of ‘Mattingly-Sydenham’ will fill the large and difficult gap between the end of the third century and Pearce's volume IX, i.e. from c. 294 to 364. For the earlier Empire the great sequence of British Museum catalogues has furnished a powerful instrument by which imperial achievement can in some degree be measured against imperial claims or aspirations; and it is now reasonable to assert that a valid distinction is to be made between the imperial image as the emperors presented it and that which the ancient historians wished or chose to reflect. In the third century, and especially in the middle of the third century, the imperial coinage suffered an increasing debasement, not only in actual metal but also in types used with such indiscriminate generality that they must have diluted the previously selective imperial image to an ultimately negligible significance. Hence the interest of the coinage from c. 294 to 364. Avoiding altogether the excessive type-variation of the mid-third century, this seems often to wear a stereotyped or even rigid air; but in fact this economy of usage will allow a much more perceptive interpretation of those lesser variations which were from time to time permitted or necessitated. Such interpretation, against the general historical context of the time, should be a major exercise in the coming years.
City Population in Roman Africa
Authors: Duncan-Jones R. P.
Published: May 2006

Modern assessments of city population in the Roman provinces of Africa have been based on notions about the numbers that a given area of land is likely to have supported; upon estimates of the size of the piped water-supply; upon comparisons between ancient and modern city areas; and upon inferences from the density of surviving Roman remains. Reference has also sometimes been made to the seating capacity of theatres or amphitheatres. While each of these methods can suggest loose probabilities, none of them provides firm or precise information.
Panegyricus Messallae and ‘Panegyricus Vespasiani’
Authors: Momigliano Arnaldo
Published: May 2006

I. Dio Cassius mentions Augustus' plans to conquer Britain under the years 34, 27, 26 B.C. (49, 38, 2; 53, 22, 5; and 53, 25, 2). Dateable literary evidence supports Dio. Before 36 B.C. and after 23 B.C. there is no clear allusion in contemporary poets to any intention or desire to attack the Britons.
Some Reflections on the ‘Quinquennium Neronis’
Authors: Lepper F. A.
Published: May 2006

Both Victor and the Epitomator, who are the only ancient authorities to mention the matter, clearly understood Trajan's alleged remark about Nero's quinquennium as a compliment: in which case it is very high praise indeed from an impressive quarter. Both also clearly understood the quinquennium as the first five years, when Nero was a mere youth. Consequently, when it became fashionable to rehabilitate the reputations of Roman emperors, historians of the reign of Nero, at any rate in England, seldom forbore to invoke the authority of Trajan for a favourable verdict on the administrative record of its opening years. They would then proceed to catalogue examples of good government, both at home and abroad, down to A.D. 59, or even to A.D. 62. In 1911, in the first volume of this Journal, J. G. C. Anderson, who later preceded Mr. Hugh Last in the Camden Chair at Oxford, made a sharp attack on this procedure, and suggested an entirely new interpretation of the quinquennium. Since then historians of Nero have been, with some exceptions, more guarded on the subject, partly because of Anderson's paper, and partly, no doubt, because the degeneration of emperors after virtuous beginnings was recognized as a common topos in imperial biography. A few have explicitly accepted Anderson's thesis. None of them, however, has discussed Anderson's arguments in detail, which is what I wish to do here.
The Image and the Chair of Germanicus
Authors: Weinstock Stefan
Published: May 2006

The Tabula Hebana ( = TH) has brought fresh evidence about the honours decreed for Germanicus after his death in A.D. 19. These clauses of the tablet, in contrast to the central, legal, clauses, have been unduly neglected in the discussion. I do not claim that they are as important as the legal clauses; but I feel that they are worth greater attention than they have so far received and that at least one of the two honours which I propose to discuss in this article, the provision of the empty curule chairs (1. 50 ff.), is of considerable interest. My answer to the question it raises need not be the right one; but often questions are more important than the answers.
A New Fragment of the Acta Alexandrinorum
Authors: Musurillo Herbert
Published: May 2006

The batch of papyrus fragments which were numbered P. Mich. Inv. 4800 was discovered, according to an attached note, right at the site of Kôm Ushîm (or Karanis) during the campaign carried out so efficiently in the year 1926 by the University of Michigan. Of the pieces which concern us here, all written in the same hand and on the same roll, we have three large fragments (i, ii, and iii, measuring 13·9 by 14·7 cm., 14·4 by 10·9 cm., and 7·7 by 5·5 cm. respectively) and twelve small ones (fragments a to 1). It is difficult either on the basis of content or of fibre-alignment to unite any of these fragments very closely; it may be said, however, that it is just possible that frag, iii may belong to the bottom of frag, i (col. i) on the left side.
Social Mobility and the Theodosian Code
Authors: MacMullen Ramsay
Published: May 2006

Until recent centuries, historians had to reckon with only limited social movement. I use the phrase in a very wide sense, to cover change of habitation, profession, or class; but even so defined, in a world dominated numerically by small farmers, people rarely moved around, or up or down, socially. This is as true of the thirteenth as of the third century.

But it is usual to say that, granted these limitations, social movement was still much more restricted after 250 than before. This has recently been challenged by A. H. M. Jones. ‘The late Roman empire is often conceived of as a rigid hierarchical society, in which every man was tied to the station in life to which he was born.’ But the laws directing this confess, in their repetitions and relaxations, that they could not really be applied. Society, he says, was actually less static after 250 than before. Despite what has become the almost canonical view of the question, Professor Jones is certainly in the right. Under three major headings, all perfectly well known, many people did change jobs and homes. Some fled from invasion, in numbers powerfully suggested by the thousands of coin hoards from Britain to the Black Sea—we must assume that for every treasure we find, a hundred are still hidden, and for every man who buried his money, a hundred took it with them—; another group, from one to two hundred thousand, joined an expanded army; an equal number in Egypt alone turned monk. If we say, then, that over the century 250–350, half a million people were taken from one life and newly rooted in another, we have a figure by no means fantastic, yet without parallel in any earlier era of the Empire.
Vicarius and Vicarianus in the Familia Caesaris
Authors: Weaver P. R. C.
Published: May 2006

In the study of social structure in the Roman world of the first and second centuries A.D. nothing is more important or more complex than the slave and freed-slave classes. Their numbers are indeterminately large and predominant in many urban and some rural areas. Most have a reasonable expectation of early manumission and enjoy a high rate of social advancement. But it is important to distinguish between the different social levels of the slave classes in general in order to isolate, if possible, those elements of exceptionally high mobility which are an example and incentive to the rest. Among the most important of these in the early Imperial period are the slaves and freedmen of the Emperor, the Familia Caesaris, itself comprising groups of differing legal and occupational status. By comparing different groups of Imperial slaves both with each other and with those of equivalent legal status outside the Familia Caesaris it is possible to illustrate the extent of social differentiation within the slave classes.
‘Lustrum Condere’
Authors: Ogilvie R. M.
Published: May 2006

In any reconsideration of the meaning of the phrase ‘lustrum condere’ the first stage must be to decide its approximate antiquity. If it were shown to be an antiquarian imposture, it would have to be regarded in a very different light from a genuine survival of religious language. Three passages are relevant to this first point.
Un Nouveau Diplôme Militaire De Dacia Porolissensis
Authors: Daicoviciu C. , Protase D.
Published: May 2006

Le diplôme a été découvert, à I'occasion de travaux de fondation, à Gherla (département de Cluj), sur le territoire de l'ancien castram romain, vers le début du mois d'août 1960. Des deux tablettes, seule la tabella I a été retrouvée. Elle est assez bien conservée, étant encore pourvue du fil de fer en bronze qui la rattachait à la tabella II, laquelle n'a pas été retrouvée. Sa longueur est de 147 mm., la largeur de 117 mm. et l'épaisseur de 14 mm. La tablette dégrossie pèse 146·20 grammes. Le texte, nettement lisible, est écrit en lettres hautes de 3·5 mm sur la face externe et de 4 mm. sur la face interne.
The Elder Seneca and Spain
Authors: Griffin Miriam
Published: May 2006

The Seneca family came to Rome from Spain, the province that Rome took from Carthage in the Second Punic War, acquiring thereby great mineral wealth, splendid soldiers, and a war of conquest that took nearly two centuries to complete. Rome's motive in acquiring Spain was strategic, yet she had been impressed by the wealth that had recently sustained Hannibal's armies and with the abilities of the Spanish troops that both sides had used. But nothing so impressed the Romans with the military talents of the Spaniards as the resistance they put up to their rule. By the second half of the second century Baetica was already pacified, so that the main trouble there came from the raids of Lusitanian brigands; at that time horrific stories were being told of the Celtiberians who fought at Numantia; they in their turn were becoming τογᾶτοι when similar tales were being told, more than a century later, of the Astures and Cantabri with whom Augustus had to deal.
‘Salvation from the Sea’: Amphorae and Trade in the Roman West
Authors: Paterson Jeremy
Published: May 2006

‘Le salut, pour l'histoire économique de l'antiquité, ne peut venir que de la mer’—heady talk, but typical of its time. It may well be that the decade of the’ 70s will come to be seen as the high summer of amphorae studies and it is, perhaps, no accident that such great claims have been made in a report on a wreck at Port-Vendres which is closely dated by the stamps on a remarkable series of ingots and also has an exceptional series of painted inscriptions on the amphorae of the cargo. Few wrecks have produced information of such quality.
The Authorship of the Historia Augusta
Authors: White Peter
Published: May 2006

This paper is meant to strengthen Hermann Dessau's contention that one man composed the Historia Augusta, not six as the collection itself attests. In the first and positive part I have gathered the soundest of his arguments together with any other evidence that seemed cogent, and supported the whole with representative citations from the text. The next three sections expose basic weaknesses in the defence of multiple authorship offered by his opponents. I will show how criticism based upon linguistic differences and upon contradictions between Scriptores fails, or at least has so far failed, to confirm the traditional view; and I will also insist upon the shallowness of that compromise which postulates far-reaching interpolation rather than original falsification. The paper ends with some suggestions about argumentation which I hope will win the sympathy of anyone else who must deal with the problem of authorship.
The Development of Roman Imperialism
Authors: North J. A.
Published: May 2006

William Harris' War and Imperialism (Oxford, 1979) has already received a long review in last year's Journal (70 (1980) 177 f.) by A. N. Sherwin White; but the importance of the book and of its theme clearly justifies further discussion of the essential problems raised. In any case, the review concentrated almost entirely on points of disagreement and hardly stated a position on the general questions raised by Harris' work. What is more the author and his reviewer, sharp though their disagreements may be, seem to share a range of assumptions about the scope of the problem and the appropriate methods of dealing with it; in my view, these assumptions need to be stated and examined.
The Silver Lanx as means of propaganda of a Roman Family
Authors: Svoboda Bedřich
Published: May 2006

Out of a grave containing a skeleton that was accidentally discovered in 1939 near the village of Stráže, in the vicinity of the world-famous spa of Pieštany in south-western Slovakia, archaeologists succeeded in recovering a large circular plate (33 cm. in diameter)—a lanx (Pl. III). It is decorated on its upper surface with a very interesting engraved design in the centre and a series of scenes in graded relief on its flat flange, along the outer edge of which is a row of minute half globules. No niello is employed, but the ornament is richly gilded with gold foil, which today shows cracks in many places and has in some places even fallen off.

In the central roundel (119 mm. in diameter; Pl. IV) there is a picture of an oath-taking over a sacrificial victim, similar to that on gold coins of the Roman Republic ascribed to the family of the Veturii. This scene is drawn by a skilled hand, in fine lines and with great feeling for its decorative potentialities. The interpretation of the coin-type (Pl. VI, 2) has already given rise to a number of different opinions which, however, agree on one point, namely that it was struck to commemorate some significant event in which a member of the house of Veturii had played the decisive role.
Papyri and Roman Imperial History, 1960–75
Authors: Bowman Alan K.
Published: May 2006

‘For those outside the circle of learned devotees important work by papyrologists too often remains unfamiliar’ (J. J. Wilkes, JRS 65 (1975), 187). In the past few years the contribution of the papyri to the history of the Roman Empire has been very important, and it is the main purpose of the notes which follow to provide for the historian a convenient summary of recent documentary evidence which demands his attention. This survey encompasses work which has appeared in the last fifteen years (though with reference to documents published earlier which have recently received significant discussion) and covers the period of Roman imperial history from Augustus to Constantine. The material is divided into three sections. In the first I collect items which provide new information on topics of general imperial history, mainly matters of chronology and prosopography relating to Emperors and the imperial house; to which I have added evidence for Emperors in direct contact with Egypt, relating largely to imperial visits and revolts. In the second part I discuss Egypt as a Roman province, its organization, officials, social and economic history; some of the fresh conclusions which have emerged naturally have a broader application, which I hope to have indicated in the course of my discussion. In the brief final section documents are collected which either have their provenance outside Egypt or specifically relate to places other than Egypt. It is hardly necessary to add that the overall selection of items is subjective and cannot hope to be comprehensive. It will be noticed that some important topics are intentionally excluded from systematic examination—in particular, Roman Law, Graeco-Roman religion and Christianity.
Roman Inscriptions 1971–5
Authors: Reynolds Joyce
Published: May 2006

New discovery (and rediscovery), often through rescue surveys and excavation, has maintained pace in the past five years; and there have been most notable achievements in the assembly ofdisiecta membra, especially at Ostia. The bulk of publications continues to increase, and more new periodicals have appeared to provide more space—an uncertainly welcome development at a time when the finances of many established publications are insecure (observe the sad disappearance ofSEG) and those of purchasing libraries, still more of private ones, are declining. Unless they can be produced at very low cost they will surely tend to block the channels of communication. It is difficult enough to lay hands on much that is produced in any case. With the Greek materialBulletin Épigraphiquewas more or less abreast to the end of 1974; the issue for 1975 has not yet been received in London or Cambridge at the time of writing:L'Année Épigraphiquehas fallen badly behind, and Prof. Barbieri cannot be the only reader who would forego the recently-introduced commentaries (I would add the Greek texts too) in order to enable the editors to catch up.
The ImperialNvmenin Roman Britain
Authors: Fishwick Duncan
Published: May 2006

With the welcome appearance ofThe Roman Inscriptions of Britain, Vol. I: Inscriptions on Stone, by R. G. Collingwood and R. P. Wright, the major part of the epigraphical evidence for the Roman presence in Britain has at last been conveniently assembled under one cover. An Index is still forthcoming and inscriptions have not been included which came to light after 1954; but so clearly is the material laid out that it is a comparatively light task to comb the 2,400 inscriptions of the collection and to add later texts published in the annual report of theJournalfrom 1955 onwards. The following remarks have been occasioned by a survey of British inscriptions attesting the worship of the Imperialnumen. They are not concerned, except incidentally, with the religious doctrine underlying this concept, still less with the thorny problem of the relationship between thenumenand thegenius. My main purpose is to consider some of the epigraphical problems resulting from the various ways in which the cult of thenumenis recorded in order to establish a basis on which to discuss the nature and significance of this particular form of worship in Britain.
Dionysius on Romulus: a Political Pamphlet?
Authors: Balsdon J. P. V. D.
Published: May 2006

Dionysius of Halicarnassus arrived in Rome at one of the most exciting moments in Roman history, on the morrow of Actium in 30 B.C. He lived in Rome for twenty-two years and at the end, in 7 B.C., his history was finished, an authoritative—indeed, he claimed, the first authoritative—history of Rome from the Foundation down to 265 B.C. His work would be the first in the triad of reliable Greek histories of Rome. Possessing his book and the books of Polybius and Posidonius, a Greek reader would at last have a continuous and reliable history of Rome written for him in Greek and by Greeks from the Foundation down to the late Republic.

In chapters 7 to 29 of book 2, Dionysius gave an analytic account of the ordinances of Romulus, painting him in the character of a Greek nomothetes, responsible for nearly everything that was fundamental in Romanità.
The Consuls Of A.D. 13
Authors: Syme R.
Published: May 2006

In the year 13 of our era C. Silius and L. Munatius Plancus held the fasces, known characters. But the inscribed record presents a double and intricate problem. First, nomenclature. Is Silius by his full and proper style to be registered as ‘C. Silius Caecina Largus’ ? Second, was there also a consul suffect—and was there perhaps another suffectus or a pair of suffecti ?

That Silius was polyonymous, Borghesi claimed, and so did Mommsen. The persuasion obtained in the standard works of reference. Recently, however, a firm and reasoned negation was issued. It seemed cogent. None the less, it failed to win the assent of the scholar whose authority stands paramount in this field. And somebody else has essayed a refutation, reinstating ‘C. Silius Caecina Largus’. It is expedient to look into the matter again. That can be done briefly, thanks to the arguments already adduced—and no fresh evidence accrues.
Demosthenes of Oenoanda and Models of Euergetism
Authors: Rogers Guy M.
Published: May 2006

On 25 July A.D. 124 C. Iulius Demosthenes, the prytanis and secretary of the boule of the Oenoandians, made a promise to found a penteteric thymelic festival in Oenoanda to be called the Demostheneia. As part of that formal promise, Demosthenes set out terms about how the festival would be financed, how the prize money was to be divided, and how the agonothete, or president of the festival, was to be elected. At the same time, in the announcement of 25 July, the arrangement and dates of the competitions to take place at the festival over slightly more than a three-week period in July were spelled out in detail
Maximinus and the Christians in A.D. 312: a New Latin Inscription
Authors: Mitchell Stephen
Published: May 2006

Two historical events occupy central positions in the conversion of the Roman empire to Christianity. To study them makes for a radical and intriguing contrast in historical method. One, the conversion of Constantine, can surely only be approached by examining private and personally held beliefs as they were made public by a single individual, Constantine himself. A biographical approach will be the only way to approach the truth about an individual conversion. The other, the persecution of Christians at the beginning of the fourth century, initiated by an edict of Diocletian of 24 February 303, and concluded by the so-called ‘edict of Milan’, issued by Licinius on 13 June 313, cannot be understood except by examining the public documents which made known the various imperial decisions which implemented persecution, or toleration, of the Christian community at large.
Vegetation development in abandoned gravel pits: effects of surrounding vegetation, substrate and regionality
Authors: Borgegård Sven‐Olov
Published: May 2006

Abstract. Vegetation development in 68 abandoned gravel pits and their surroundings in five regions in Sweden is described by means of classification and ordination. Most pits were less than 10 yr old, but some pits in central Sweden were up to 100 yr old. For 26 pits in central Sweden the results of mechanical and chemical soil analyses are presented.

Vegetation in young pits is more homogeneous than the vegetation in the surroundings. The surrounding vegetation type strongly affects pit vegetation. There are regional differences in pit vegetation between pits in coniferous forests in different parts of Sweden. Old gravel pits are clearly distinguished from young ones and show more resemblance to the surrounding vegetation. Tree layer cover and nitrogen content increase, whereas C/N ratio and pH decrease with age. Species richness of the gravel pits was not related to their size.
Litter fall and nutrient dynamics in a Nigerian rain forest seven years after a ground fire
Authors: Muoghalu Joseph I. , Akanni Samuel O. , Eretan Olaniyi O.
Published: May 2006

Abstract. Seasonal litter fall and mineral element content (N, P, Ca, Mg, K) of regrowth forest communities at the base and on the slope of an inselberg in Ile‐Ife, Nigeria, were studied 7 yr after a ground fire ravaged the forest. Litter fall (tha−1 yr−1) was 4.6 (total), 4.2 (leaf), 0.3 (small wood < 2.5 cm diameter) and 0.1 (reproductive parts: fruits and flowers) in the base community and 6.4 (total), 5.4 (leaf), 0.9 (small wood) and 0.1 (reproductive parts) in the slope community. There was significant monthly variation in litter fall in the two communities with lowest amount of litter recorded during the wettest months of the year (May ‐ August) and the highest amount during the dry season. Significant monthly variation (P<0.05) in Ca, Mg and K concentration in leaf litter and for Mg (P < 0.01) in fruit litter occurred, with the lowest concentration recorded during the wettest months (May‐August). In leaf and wood litter the order of mineral element concentration was Ca>N>K> Mg > P while in fruit litter it was N > K > Ca > Mg > P. Quantities of mineral element (kg ha‐1 yr1) returned to the soil via litterfall were N: 66; P: 4; Ca: 97; Mg: 15; K: 45 in base forest, and N: 112; P: 5; Ca: 142; Mg: 20; K: 66 in slope forest. Through leaf litter >88.5% of these elements was returned into the two communities, through wood > 4.0% and through reproductive organs > 0.3%. The order of quantities of these elements returned in leaf and wood litter was Ca > N > K > Mg > P, in fruit litter N ∼ K > Ca > Mg > P. Significant monthly variation in the amounts of the various elements returned were recorded in leaf litter, but not in wood and fruit litter. The lowest amount of various elements was returned during the wettest months (May‐August) which coincided with the period of the lowest element concentration and litter fall.