bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Method and field experiment of target tracking via multi‐static Doppler shifts in high‐frequency passive radar
Authors: Yu De , Ma Hong , Cheng Li , Li Yang , Qin Yong , Yin Shi , Chen Wenjun
Published: April 2016

The passive radar (PR) systems working in the high‐frequency (HF) band take advantage of numerous high‐power stations and long wavelength, which are useful for anti‐stealth, while suffering from the bad range resolutions compared with systems working in other bands. In this study, the method and field experiment of tracking a close‐in moving target via only Doppler‐shift data provided by an HF PR are described. The non‐cooperative illuminators are far away from surveillance area, the direct wave and illumination wave reach the receiver and target, respectively, via reflection from the ionosphere, while the echo scattered from the target propagates directly to the receiver by line of sight. The Doppler measurement model in this particular multi‐static scenario is proposed and the Gaussian mixture Bernoulli filter is introduced to process the Doppler data to estimate the target position and velocity. The experiment of tracking a close‐in civilian aeroplane was carried out using an experimental PR system. The estimated target positions and velocities are provided and compared with the true values derived from the automatic dependent surveillance‐broadcast data. The initial result indicates the feasibility of this method used in a practical PR system for moving target tracking.
Gyrotactic trapping: A numerical study
Authors: Ghorai S.
Published: April 2016

Gyrotactic trapping is a mechanism proposed by Durham et al. [“Disruption of vertical motility by shear triggers formation of thin Phytoplankton layers,” Science 323, 1067–1070 (2009)] to explain the formation of thin phytoplankton layer just below the ocean surface. This mechanism is examined numerically using a rational model based on the generalized Taylor dispersion theory. The crucial role of sedimentation speed in the thin layer formation is demonstrated. The effects of variation in different parameters on the thin layer formation are also investigated.
Scaling of granular temperature in vibro-fluidized grains
Authors: Bhateja Ashish , Sharma Ishan , Singh Jayant K.
Published: April 2016

Granular temperature quantifies velocity fluctuations in fluidized granular materials. There is ongoing effort to understand granular temperature T in vibro-fluidized grains through the power law T∝Vpα, where Vp is peak vibrational velocity. However, the present literature disagrees on the value of α. We utilize dimensional analysis and discrete element simulations to show that granular temperature, and therefore the exponent α, depends crucially on a non-dimensional number W representing the competition between vibrational and gravitational energies but is much less sensitive to other system parameters. Furthermore, change in the barycentric height Δhcm of the vibrated grains, and their temperature T, typically behaves differently with Vp. Thus, Δhcm cannot generally be used as a surrogate for T, as is often done at present. Our computations help explain the currently contradictory results on how granular temperature scales with peak vibrational velocity. Finally, we also briefly investigate the dependence of the temperature on system parameters, as well as its spatial variation.
Spinodals and critical point using short-time dynamics for a simple model of liquid
Authors: Loscar Ernesto S. , Ferrara C. Gastón , Grigera Tomás S.
Published: April 2016

We have applied the short-time dynamics method to the gas-liquid transition to detect the supercooled gas instability (gas spinodal) and the superheated liquid instability (liquid spinodal). Using Monte Carlo simulation, we have obtained the two spinodals for a wide range of pressure in sub-critical and critical conditions and estimated the critical temperature and pressure. Our method is faster than previous approaches and allows studying spinodals without needing equilibration of the system in the metastable region. It is thus free of the extrapolation problems present in other methods, and in principle could be applied to systems such as glass-forming liquids, where equilibration is very difficult even far from the spinodal. We have also done molecular dynamics simulations, where we find the method again able to detect the both spinodals. Our results are compared with different previous results in the literature and show a good agreement.
A revisit to self-excited push pull vacuum tube radio frequency oscillator for ion sources and power measurements
Authors: Hlondo L. R. , Lalremruata B. , Punte L. R. M. , Rebecca L. , Lalnunthari J. , Thanga H. H.
Published: April 2016

Self-excited push-pull vacuum tube oscillator is one of the most commonly used oscillators in radio frequency (RF)-ion plasma sources for generation of ions using radio frequency. However, in spite of its fundamental role in the process of plasma formation, the working and operational characteristics are the most frequently skip part in the descriptions of RF ion sources in literatures. A more detailed treatment is given in the present work on the RF oscillator alone using twin beam power tetrodes 829B and GI30. The circuit operates at 102 MHz, and the oscillation conditions, stability in frequency, and RF output power are studied and analyzed. A modified form of photometric method and RF peak voltage detection method are employed to study the variation of the oscillator output power with plate voltage. The power curves obtained from these measurements are quadratic in nature and increase with increase in plate voltage. However, the RF output power as measured by photometric methods is always less than the value calculated from peak voltage measurements. This difference is due to the fact that the filament coil of the ordinary light bulb used as load/detector in photometric method is not a perfect inductor. The effect of inductive reactance on power transfer to load was further investigated and a technique is developed to estimate the amount of power correction needed in the photometric measurement result.
Effects of configurational disorder on the elastic properties of icosahedral boron-rich alloys based on B6O, B13C2, and B4C, and their mixing thermodynamics
Authors: Ektarawong A. , Simak S. I. , Hultman L. , Birch J. , Tasnádi F. , Wang F. , Alling B.
Published: April 2016

The elastic properties of alloys between boron suboxide (B6O) and boron carbide (B13C2), denoted by (B6O)1−x(B13C2)x, as well as boron carbide with variable carbon content, ranging from B13C2 to B4C are calculated from first-principles. Furthermore, the mixing thermodynamics of (B6O)1−x(B13C2)x is studied. A superatom-special quasirandom structure approach is used for modeling different atomic configurations, in which effects of configurational disorder between the carbide and suboxide structural units, as well as between boron and carbon atoms within the units, are taken into account. Elastic properties calculations demonstrate that configurational disorder in B13C2, where a part of the C atoms in the CBC chains substitute for B atoms in the B12 icosahedra, drastically increase the Young’s and shear modulus, as compared to an atomically ordered state, B12(CBC). These calculated elastic moduli of the disordered state are in excellent agreement with experiments. Configurational disorder between boron and carbon can also explain the experimentally observed almost constant elastic moduli of boron carbide as the carbon content is changed from B4C to B13C2. The elastic moduli of the (B6O)1−x(B13C2)x system are also practically unchanged with composition if boron-carbon disorder is taken into account. By investigating the mixing thermodynamics of the alloys, in which the Gibbs free energy is determined within the mean-field approximation for the configurational entropy, we outline the pseudo-binary phase diagram of (B6O)1−x(B13C2)x. The phase diagram reveals the existence of a miscibility gap at all temperatures up to the melting point. Also, the coexistence of B6O-rich as well as ordered or disordered B13C2-rich domains in the material prepared through equilibrium routes is predicted.
Exciton binding energy in bulk MoS2: A reassessment
Authors: Saigal Nihit , Sugunakar Vasam , Ghosh Sandip
Published: April 2016

Transmittance and photocurrent (PC) spectroscopy has been used to study absorption in bulk 2H-MoS2 at energies close to its direct bandgap at the K-point of the Brillouin zone. Spectral lineshape analysis using the hydrogenic exciton model, together with temperature dependence of absorption and PC spectrum, and also bias dependence of PC, suggests that the feature previously identified as the n = 2 excited state transition of the A exciton, and used to estimate its binding energy Eb, has a different origin. The feature is reproduced in simulations only after including the recently identified H-point exciton transition. A consistent picture, which explains Eb in terms of other experimentally and theoretically determined parameters, emerges when excitons in bulk MoS2 are considered as quasi 2-dimensional with Eb∼84 meV for the A exciton at the K-point. This value when scaled appropriately matches fairly with a measured Eb of the A exciton in monolayer MoS2.
Ultra low emittance electron beams from multi-alkali antimonide photocathode operated with infrared light
Authors: Cultrera L. , Gulliford C. , Bartnik A. , Lee H. , Bazarov I.
Published: April 2016

The intrinsic emittance of electron beams generated from a multi-alkali photocathode operated in a high voltage DC gun is reported. The photocathode showed sensitivity extending to the infrared part of the spectrum up to 830 nm. The measured intrinsic emittances of electron beams generated with light having wavelength longer than 800 nm are approaching the limit imposed by the thermal energy of electrons at room temperature with quantum efficiencies comparable to metallic photocathodes used in operation of modern photoinjectors.
Magnetization reversal in individual Py and CoFeB nanotubes locally probed via anisotropic magnetoresistance and anomalous Nernst effect
Authors: Baumgaertl K. , Heimbach F. , Maendl S. , Rueffer D. , Fontcuberta i Morral A. , Grundler D.
Published: April 2016

Using anisotropic magnetoresistance in a multi-probe configuration and local heating with a scanning laser, we investigate the magnetization reversal of individual permalloy (Py) and CoFeB nanotubes with spatial resolution. Nanocrystalline Py and amorphous CoFeB nanotubes are found to reverse via domain wall movement and chirality switching, respectively. Our experiments provide an understanding of the role of microstructure and magnetic anisotropy in the switching of ferromagnetic nanotubes at room temperature.
An atomic-scale optical modulator
Authors: Wilson R. Mark
Published: April 2016

The movement of a few metal atoms in a narrowly tapered waveguide dramatically alters the transmission of light through it.
Printed shape-shifting materials mimic biological structures
Authors: Miller Johanna L.
Published: April 2016

A hydrogel composite ink adopts different three-dimensional configurations depending on how the ink is patterned on a surface.
What can Chernobyl teach us?
Authors: Feder Toni
Published: April 2016

Disaster preparation is getting more attention since Fukushima underscored that nuclear accidents can occur anywhere.
Physics in 100 years
Authors: Wilczek Frank
Published: April 2016

The fundamental questions of the future will be profound, sophisticated, and difficult to answer. And the great projects of the future will be grand indeed.
The framing of argumentation in the making of a political editorial
Authors: Burger Marcel , Delaloye Laura
Published: April 2016

This paper aims at pointing out the normative expectations constraining political editorials. We adopt an internal perspective focusing on the process of “making” an editorial: how and why is argumentation constructed and what is at stake with it from the journalistic point of view. The focus is on the making of an editorial on David’s Cameron speech about his plans for a referendum on British membership of the European Union. Taking into account the editorial conferences where the topic is discussed as well as the writing process and the verbal protocol leading to proper comments by the journalist himself on the making of the text, we analyze in detail the emergent normative expectations and the individual credos of argumentation in the editorial.
The development of comprehensible speech in L2 learners
Authors: Gordon Joshua , Darcy Isabelle
Published: April 2016

Developing comprehensible speech is an important goal for L2 learners. At present, there is clear evidence indicating that pronunciation instruction can help develop comprehensibility compared to no instruction at all (see Thomson & Derwing, 2015, for a review). However, it is unclear whether rapid improvements can be obtained through explicit pronunciation instruction. This study investigated the effects of explicit and nonexplicit instruction in the development of comprehensible speech in ESL learners. Three groups (n = 12) received about four hours of pronunciation instruction over three weeks using the same teaching sequence. Groups differed in the type of explicit instruction received: two experimental groups received explicit instruction either on suprasegmental features or four vowel sounds. The same content was presented to the third group without explicit instruction. Speech samples collected from all L2 learners before and after treatment revealed an effect of explicit instruction on comprehensibility: the group instructed in suprasegmentals was rated as more comprehensible. No significant improvement was seen in the nonexplicit group. These results suggest that focusing on suprasegmental aspects seems to be most effective for comprehensibility when time is limited, and argue for a major role for explicit phonetic instruction in developing enhanced comprehensibility (e.g., Derwing, Munro, & Wiebe, 1998; Munro, 1995).
Smuggling the other
Authors: Semenenko Aleksei
Published: April 2016

The first Russian translation of J. D. Salinger’s novelThe Catcher in the Rye(1951) was produced in 1960 by Rita Rait-Kovaleva, a renowned translator of contemporary Western literature (English, French, German) in the Soviet Union. This essay examines Rait’s translation ofThe Catcher in the Ryein the context of the problem of censorship and translation, focusing on several instances of Rait’s translation of profanities and sex-related passages ofThe Catcher in the Rye. It demonstrates how the creative strategies of the translator not only helped her overcome censorship barriers but also transformed a foreign text into a new cultural model.
Tenascin-C promotes migration of hepatic stellate cells and production of type I collagen
Authors: Ma Jian-Cang , Huang Xin , Shen Ya-Wei , Zheng Chen , Su Qing-Hua , Xu Jin-Kai , Zhao Jun
Published: April 2016

Tenascin-C (TN-C) is an extracellular matrix glycoprotein markedly upregulated during liver fibrosis. The study is performed to explore the role of TN-C during the growth and activation of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs). We found that TN-C was accumulated accompanying with the HSC activation. Our data on cell migration assay revealed that the rTN-C treatment enhanced HSC migration in a dose- and time-dependent manner, but did not influence their proliferation. HSCs transfected with pTARGET-TN-C overexpression vector displayed increased the type I collagen (Col I) production. TN-C overexpression enhanced the process of HSC activation through TGF-β1 signaling. Moreover, the anti-α9β1 integrin antibody treatment blocked the TN-C-driven Col I increase in rat HSCs. Collectively, TN-C had a positive role in activation of HSCs mediated by TGF-β1 and α9β1 integrin, manifesting elevation of Col I production and promotion of cell migration. Our results provide a potential insight for the therapy of hepatic fibrosis.
Concessive and semifactual interpretations during reasoning with multiple conditionals
Authors: Ruiz-Ballesteros José Antonio , Moreno-Ríos Sergio
Published: April 2016

The present research evaluates how people integrate factual ‘if then’ and semifactual ‘even if’ conditional premises in an inference task. The theory of mental models establishes that semifactual statements are represented by two mental models with different epistemic status: ‘A & B’ is conjectured and ‘not-A & B’ is presupposed. However, following the principle of cognitive economy in tasks with a high working memory load such as reasoning with multiple conditionals, people could simplify the deduction process in two ways, by discarding: (a) the presupposed case and/or (b) the epistemic status information. In Experiment 1 and Experiment 2, we evaluated each of these hypotheses. In Experiment 1, participants make inferences from two conditionals: two factual conditionals or one factual and one semifactual, with different representations. In Experiment 2, participants make inferences with a factual conditional followed by two different semifactual conditionals that share the same representations but differ in their epistemic status. Accuracy and latency data suggest that people think of both the conjectured and the presupposed situations, but do not codify the epistemic status of either when the task does not require it. The results are discussed through theoretical predictions about how people make inferences from different connected conditionals.
When Deception Influences Memory: The Implication of Theory of Mind
Authors: El Haj Mohamad , Antoine Pascal , Nandrino Jean Louis
Published: April 2016

When deceiving, one should remember to whom a falsified story was previously told; otherwise he or she may include inconsistencies, and the deception will probably be discovered. Bearing this in mind, we investigated the potential relationship between deception and the ability to remember to whom a piece of information was previously told (i.e., destination memory). Forty-one adults were given a destination memory task in which they had to decide to whom proverbs had previously been told. They were also given a questionnaire about deception (e.g., “I sometimes tell lies if I have to) and a cognitive theory of mind task in which they had to predict the behaviour of protagonists who hold a mistaken belief about the state of the world. Results showed a positive correlation between deception and destination memory ( p < .001), a relationship that was further mediated by cognitive theory of mind ability ( p < .01). Deception requires monitoring and inferring what targets know, suspect, and believe. This monitoring ability (i.e., cognitive theory of mind) results in better processing of the target and consequently better destination memory. By showing the involvement of deception and theory of mind in destination memory, our findings emphasize the memory variations in social and interpersonal interactions.
The future of change in the Arab world: towards an exit plan from the current Arab impasse
Authors: Haseeb Khair el-Din
Published: April 2016

This paper attempts to trace the achievements and failures that have affected the Arab nation (the Ummah), and the impediments that have been strewn in its path, preventing the realization of the visions it had for its future, since the end of the Second World War. It discusses the reasons behind the subjugation of the Arab nation to the hegemonic interests of external factors, primary actors and stakeholders. It elaborates on how foreign interests and interventions have conspired, along with internal factors and determinants endemic to the various infrastructures of Arab regimes, to fragment the Arab nation and perpetuate the divisions between the Arab countries and their underdevelopment/backwardness. It analyses the current situation, and proposes a set of recommendations that may help to extricate it from the current impasse in which the Arab nation is blocked.
Parliamentary elections and the future of the political system in Egypt
Authors: Nafaa Hassan
Published: April 2016

Egypt’s recent parliamentary elections held from 17 October to 2 December 2015 took place at the end of an unsettled transitional period in the country that lasted for almost five years since the January 2011 revolt ousted the almost 30-year-old Hosni Mubarak regime. This paper discusses the road to these recent parliamentary elections that began with the ‘Corrective Revolution’, ‘road map’ and constitution of 2013. General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s victory in the presidential elections of 2014 was followed by controversial legislation, unnatural political alliances, and a troubled and unfavourable political environment for holding the parliamentary elections. The paper examines some of the candidates in these parliamentary elections and the absence of the Muslim Brotherhood as well as the election results and the parliament they produced, concluding with the repercussions for the future of the political system.
The future of reform in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar
Authors: al-Yousef Yousef Khalifah
Published: April 2016

When Britain elected to relinquish its colonies east of the Suez Canal, of which the Emirates and Qatar were a part, doubts were many, among observers, as to the possibility of transforming these sheikhdoms into a unified entity. And, even in the eventuality that such should transpire, wagers were that whatever did would not be characterized by any sort of permanence or sustainability. Despite the fact that the native inhabitants of the region were considering a union that would comprise Bahrain and Qatar, in addition to the seven Emirates, the historical legacy of border disputes with regional states and the influence of global powers colluded to facilitate only the inception of the union in 1971 of the seven Emirates, consisting of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Al-Sharjah, Ajman, Ra’s al-Khaimah, al-Fuairah and Umm al-Quwain, at a time when Qatar and Bahrain had previously announced their independence. This research paper sheds a light on the extent of what the states of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar have accomplished in the spheres of growth and security since their inception, in addition to the nature of the challenges they confront as well as how their governments dealt with the ‘Arab Spring’. Then, it concludes the discussion with some focal points for reform in the coming years. Furthermore, it is the author’s belief that the analysis and conclusions derived herein can be considered to have a connection of applicability to the other Arab countries, especially the oil-producing ones, as they are expressive of a pervasive regional developmental crisis. This research is divided into an introduction, five sections and a conclusion. The first section examines the difficult birth of these two entities at the outset of the 1970s; the second section discusses the fragility of the institutional environment and framework of the two states at this stage; the third section shed some light on the constraints and effects of regional development in the two states; the fourth section analyzes the extent of the overspill and of the ‘Arab Spring’ and its repercussions in these two nations; and the concluding section proposes some recommendations for reform for them in the coming years.
The interaction between fishbone modes and shear Alfvén waves in tokamak plasmas
Authors: He Hongda , Liu Yueqiang , Dong J.Q. , Hao G.Z. , Wu Tingting , He Zhixiong , Zhao K.
Published: April 2016

The resonant interaction between the energetic particle triggered fishbone mode and the shear Alfvén waves is computationally investigated and firmly demonstrated based on a tokamak plasma equilibrium, using the self-consistent MHD-kinetic hybrid code MARS-K (Liu et al 2008 Phys. Plasmas

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112503). This type of continuum resonance, occurring critically due to the mode’s toroidal rotation in the plasma frame, significantly modifies the eigenmode structure of the fishbone instability, by introducing two large peaks of the perturbed parallel current density near but offside the q  =  1 rational surface (q is the safety factor). The self-consistently computed radial plasma displacement substantially differs from that being assumed in the conventional fishbone theory.
Belus/Marduk
Authors: Frazer Mary
Published: April 2016

Belus (or Bēlos or Bēlias) is the Latin or Greek rendering of the names of two important Near Eastern gods: Bēl-Marduk, the tutelar deity of the city of Babylon and the head of the Babylonian pantheon from c. 1200 bce; and Baal, a Canaanite god attested in New Kingdom Egypt, the Levant, and at Ugarit. In Greco-Roman literature, Belus is often treated as an ancestor of various mythological dynasties of the Near East or as the founder of Babylon and Babylonian astronomy.
Calpurnius Siculus
Authors: Baraz Yelena
Published: April 2016

One of three surviving collections of Latin bucolic poetry, the seven Eclogues transmitted under the name of Calpurnius Siculus are generally assigned to the reign of Nero, although the debate on dating continues, with proposals ranging between the later 1st and 3rd centuries ce. Calpurnius follows Vergil’s Eclogues as his main model, but reaches back to Theocritus for additional pastoral features, and the poems show the influences of later works of Vergil, Ovid, and elegy. Marked as imperial by the presence of the emperor as an aspirational patron and a source of inspiration, the collection foregrounds prophesy (Calp. Ecl. 1) and panegyric (Calp. Ecl. 1, 4, 7). Calpurnius has a distinctive poetics that departs from Vergil’s Eclogues book, such as a presence of agricultural material derived from the Georgics, disruption of unity of human and natural sound, and expansion of the role of writing, but these features of his poetics are not taken up by his successors in antiquity and beyond. The last two poems close off the possibility of further pastoral writing by depicting two kinds of failure: a failed bucolic competition in Eclogue 6 and the poet’s failure to approach the emperor on his visit to the city in Eclogue 7.
capitalism
Authors: Morley Neville
Published: April 2016

Capitalism is a contested term, both in the modern world and in historical studies; different theoretical traditions understand it in radically different ways and, hence, disagree both as to its utility in analysing the ancient economy and as to the meaning and significance of a claim that classical antiquity was in any sense capitalist. These questions overlap with other major debates in ancient economic history. This article identifies the theoretical issues and debates involved in the use of the term, rather than engaging with substantive questions about the nature and development of the ancient economy.
centaurs
Authors: Griffiths Alan H. , Burden-Strevens Christopher , Weston Aedan
Published: April 2016

In Classical mythology, centaurs were half-man, half-equine beasts whose representation in art and literature changed significantly throughout antiquity.
climate
Authors: Post Ruben
Published: April 2016

The climate of the Mediterranean is defined by hot summers and mild, wet winters; high inter-annual variability; and strong seasonal winds. These characteristics impacted numerous aspects of life in the classical world, most notably agriculture and seafaring. The Greeks displayed a strong interest in climatic patterns beginning with Hesiod, and between the Archaic and Roman periods, Graeco-Roman intellectuals developed increasingly complex theories and models to explain them. Natural philosophers also posited that climatic conditions determined human characteristics, such as intelligence and behaviour.

The dramatic increase of interest in and evidence for pre-modern climate change in the 21st century has revolutionised our understanding of climatic shifts in antiquity. While the scope and nature of ancient climatic developments are disputed, some major trends and their possible societal impacts have emerged as topics of interest, most notably the late Bronze Age–Iron Age climatic downturn, the “Roman Climatic Optimum,” and the “Late Antique Little Ice Age.”
associations, Roman
Authors: Verboven Koenraad
Published: April 2016

Voluntary associations are attested already in early republican times, but they became important especially during the late Republic. Their role in street politics in the 1st century bce led to a general ban and lasting imperial apprehension. Yet by the mid-2nd century ce, important collegia were an essential part of urban public life, participating in processions and ceremonies and having reserved seats in (amphi)theatres. The three central activities of all associations were shared dinners, religious cults, and funerary practices. Religious (and) neighbourhood-based collegia prevailed during the Republic. Professional associations became more important during the Principate as authorities began to use them to facilitate and supervise public works and provisions (particularly for the annona), and for levying taxes. Some collegia received privileges and had extensive funds and property. Professional collegia continued to be important at least until early Byzantine times. Imperial control intensified in late antiquity, but the overall legal framework hardly changed.
cuneiform
Authors: Worthington Martin , Chetwood Mark
Published: April 2016

The cuneiform writing system originated in Southern Iraq in the mid-to-late 4th millennium bce and was used into the Common Era. Hence for over half of human history there were people writing in cuneiform. Extant sources suggest that it was the usual script for writing Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite, and Elamite. Cuneiform documents, mostly consisting in clay tablets, are thus attested from Egypt and Turkey in the West to Iran in the East. The majority are written in Sumerian and/or Akkadian, and stem from ancient Iraq.
Delphi
Authors: Scott Michael C.
Published: April 2016

The sanctuary of Delphi developed from the end of the 9th century bce into, by the early 6th century bce, one of the most important sanctuaries in ancient Greece. Home to the Delphic oracle, as well as the Pythian Games, it was populated on a regular basis by large numbers of people from across the ancient Mediterranean world. As a result it also became a place of frequent dedication (in the form of objects, statues, and treasuries) by those keen to demonstrate their achievements and renown. It was overseen, from the 6th century bce, by an amphictyonic council and the polis of Delphi. The sanctuary complex, spread over the side of Mount Parnassus, provided distinct spaces for the worship of several deities, most notably Apollo and Athena, alongside (from the 4th century bce) a gymnasium and stadium (and a hippodrome for chariot racing in the valley below) for the Pythian Games as well as, from slightly later, a stone theatre for musical and theatrical competitions. The sanctuary’s oracle and games continued through until the 4th century ce, with the sanctuary only being abandoned completely in the early 7th century ce and re-excavated in the late 19th century.
ekphrasis
Authors: Squire Michael
Published: April 2016

Ekphrasis refers to the literary and rhetorical trope of summoning up—through words—an impression of a visual stimulus, object, or scene. As critical trope, the word ekphrasis (ἔκφρασις) is attested from the first century ce onwards: it is discussed in the Imperial Greek Progymnasmata, where it is defined as a “descriptive speech which brings the subject shown before the eyes with visual vividness.”
epithalamium
Authors: Wasdin Katherine
Published: April 2016

An epithalamium (pl. epithalamia) is a song, poem, or speech performed at or composed for a wedding. The Latin word comes from the Greek epithalamion (ἐπιθαλάμιον), originally an adjectival form which can be applied to various genres (e.g. ἐπιθαλάμιος ὕμνος) or used as a substantive. The genre has a long and varied history from Sappho through late antiquity and beyond. At its core, however, it designates a performance or literary work which praises and encourages the bridal couple and offers them communal recognition. Epithalamia often feature refrains, sometimes variants of the ritual cry hymen hymenaee or other significant phrases. They have a strong association with performance during the wedding ritual itself, an association maintained even in literary works which may not have been performed at the ceremony.
Etruscan language
Authors: Wallace Rex E.
Published: April 2016

This article describes the current state of our knowledge of the Etruscan language. The presentation covers language relationships, approaches to interpretation, alphabet and phonology, morphology and syntax, and the lexicon. Illustrative examples of Etruscan inscriptions complement the linguistic description.
gladiators, combatants at games
Authors: Fagan Garrett G.
Published: April 2016

Gladiators were armed combatants who performed in the arena during Roman games called munera. They could be slaves, freeborn, or freedmen (ex-slaves). Slave gladiators were usually trained professionals based in a training school (ludus) run by a manager (lanista). Freeborn or freed gladiators were volunteers who fought under contract to a manager (such fighters were termed auctorati). There were different styles of armaments, carefully considered to pitch advantage against disadvantage. Thus the net-man (retiarius) was largely unprotected but carried a net and a trident with a long reach, whereas his opponent (secutor) carried a short sword but was more heavily armored and had a large shield. Evidence from gladiatorial graveyards and gravestones confirms the violent, often lethal nature of the contests, though a win could be achieved without a kill and the fighters clearly took pride in their skills and status with their peers and their fans. Despite their popularity, gladiators were officially regarded as infames (people of bad reputation) and ranked alongside or below actors, prostitutes, pimps, and bankrupts as social and moral outcasts. Roman sources date the first gladiatorial performances in the city to 264 bce, and gladiators continued to perform into the 5th century ce, when financial and pragmatic concerns (rather than moral ones) brought the shows to an end. Modern scholars theorize a variety of reasons for the popularity of gladiatorial shows among the Romans and the role gladiators played in Roman culture.
Gorgias (1) of Leontini, orator, c. 485– c. 380 BCE
Authors: Wilburn Josh
Published: April 2016

Gorgias of Leontini, orator, c. 485–c. 380 bce, was one of the most well-known and influential of the early Greek rhetoricians. He spent much of his life as an itinerant speaker and reputed educator throughout Greece and contributed to the early development of the art of speech. His extant works include two complete speeches, Encomium of Helen and Defense of Palamedes, and ancient authors also summarize, provide fragments from, or report several additional works: On What-Is-Not, a Funeral Speech, a Pythian Speech, an Olympian Speech, a Speech for the People of Elis, a treatise on the “opportune moment” or kairos, and some manuals of rhetoric.
grammar, grammarians, Latin
Authors: Keeline Thomas J.
Published: April 2016

For the Romans, “grammar” (grammatica) encompassed the study of both language and literature. Although its precise origins are unclear, Latin grammar in its developed form—and in the only form that survives in the early 21st century—is a Romanised version of a Greek discipline, with the Greek influence pervasive and everywhere visible.

The word grammarian (grammaticus) was applied especially to professional teachers of Latin to children—native speakers at first but, in late antiquity, increasing numbers of non-native speakers too. According to Quintilian, the grammaticus had two tasks: to instruct his charges in correct Latinity and to elucidate the texts of the poets. In fact, these two tasks were bound up in each other: proper usage was shown by citations from approved authors, and approved authors were explicated particularly to illustrate proper usage. In teaching students about Latin with reference to the canonical authority of the past, the grammarian was also teaching students how to be good Romans in the traditional mould.

Only fragments remain from the early period of Roman grammatica; from late antiquity, a number of full treatises, such as Donatus’s canonical three-book Ars maior, Servius’s commentary on Vergil, and Priscian’s massive eighteen-volume Ars grammatica, survive. These would exercise a dominant influence on Latin instruction through the Middle Ages and beyond.
Horace (Horatius Flaccus, Quintus), Roman poet, 65–8 BCE
Authors: Harrison Stephen
Published: April 2016

Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus, 65–8 bce) is one of the most important Roman poets, a friend and contemporary of Virgil, who composed in the time of Augustus. He wrote significant works in a number of genres: hexameter satires and epistles, iambic epodes, and lyric odes. The first three books of his Odes (c. 23 bce) are his most influential work.
inheritance, Greek
Authors: Griffith-Williams Brenda
Published: April 2016

Ancient Greek inheritance systems were predominantly patrilineal, with (at least by the Classical period) provision for adoption of an heir or transmission through a female line in default of male descendants. Each city-state had its own inheritance laws, but detailed sources are available only for Athens and Gortyn, with some information from Sparta and Aegina. The distinctive features of the Athenian system were apparently unrestricted choice in adoption and relatively limited rights of property ownership and inheritance for women. It is clear (chiefly from the Athenian sources) that the continuity of an oikos (‘house’, or ‘line of descent’) was of major concern to the individual for religious as well as material reasons: he wanted an heir and successor not only to take over his property but also to conduct the commemorative rituals for him. The state, too, had an interest in maintaining a sufficient number of oikoi (‘households’ or ‘estates’) to provide income through public services and taxation, and to discourage the consolidation of land into the hands of a wealthy elite.
Iulia Balbilla
Authors: Rosenmeyer Patricia A.
Published: April 2016

Iulia Balbilla accompanied the emperor Hadrian and his wife, Sabina Augusta, as they travelled up the Nile to Egyptian Thebes in November 130 ce . Her precise status in the group is unclear, but she commemorated the imperial visit by inscribing four poems—a total of fifty-four lines—in Greek on the left leg of the Memnon colossus. The colossus had become a site for sacred tourism a century earlier because of a mysterious sound that emanated from the stones each morning; it was covered with Greek and Latin inscriptions left behind by visitors announcing that they had “heard Memnon.” Balbilla wrote her poems in an archaizing Aeolic dialect and style that have been compared to that used by Sappho, although the poems’ elegiac metre and content are quite different from those of her archaic predecessor. While documenting the miraculous voice, Balbilla also alluded to Hadrian’s royal power, Sabina Augusta’s beauty, the colossus’s complex history, and her own noble ancestry.
magister equitum
Authors: Jordan Bradley
Published: April 2016

The magister equitum was an irregular magistrate, integrally linked to the dictator, during the Roman Republic. It was a subordinate position but one which entailed representing the most powerful magistrate in the Republican framework, as well as playing a key role at critical moments for the Roman state. The sources stress the position’s origins as the commander of the archaic Roman cavalry, first attested in the consular year 501 bce, and in Republican historiography magistri equitum are attested as subordinate commanders in the field and as lieutenants in absence of the dictator. The magister equitum held imperium and likely auspicium and played an important role in Republican historiography and the history of the late Republic.

After the Second Punic War, the office—alongside the dictatorship—lay dormant until its revival by Sulla in 81 bce. Caesar radically reconfigured the office as his representative in Italy and seems to have appointed multiple men to the position in parallel. In the aftermath of his assassination in 44 bce, the magistracy was effectively abolished alongside the dictatorship. The title briefly re-emerges in the 4th century ce to describe a high-ranking military commander, alongside various other magistri (e.g., peditum, militum).
medicine
Authors: Nutton Vivian
Published: April 2016

The history of ancient medicine depends largely on two blocks of written material. One, loosely called the Hippocratic Corpus, dates mainly from 450 to 350 bce, and the second, dominated by Galen, dates from the 2nd century ce. Traces of medical ideas and practices outside these dates are few, and must be supplemented by literary, epigraphic and archaeological evidence. Early medicine is described in the Homeric poems and in fragments of pre-Socratic philosophy, and already exhibits a detailed empiricism coupled with a high degree of speculation. The vigorous debates in the Hippocratic Corpus mark ancient medicine off from that of many other cultures. The Roman takeover of the Greek world from the 3rd century bce brought Greek medicine westwards, and made Rome a new centre of medical debate on a par with Hellenistic Alexandria. Doctors like Soranus and Galen migrated there. Galen, in particular, became so influential as an imperial physician, a philosopher, an observer, an anatomist, and a champion of the theory of the four humours, that much later medicine down to the 16th century followed his ideas and helped to marginalize alternative views to his. The vibrant medical culture of Rome and Alexandria became a near-monolithic Galenism.
Meleager (2), poet and philosopher, fl. 100 BCE
Authors: Gutzwiller Kathryn
Published: April 2016

Meleager was a famous editor and author of Greek epigrams. As an editor, he produced an important collection of epigrams titled Garland. As a prolific epigrammatist, Meleager primarily composed erotic poems. He spent his early years in Syrian Gadara, dwelled as a youth in Phoenician Tyre, and later lived on Greek Cos.
Minoan civilization
Authors: Bennet John
Published: April 2016

The distinctive Minoan civilization of Crete emerges some time after Crete’s first permanent settlement c. 7000 bce. The Early Minoan period (c. 3100–2000 bce) demonstrates increasingly sophisticated material culture and emergent social complexity. The Palatial period (c. 2000–1300 bce)—so called after the “palaces” constructed at Cnossus, Phaestus, and Malia—saw the appearance of writing, strong links with the East Mediterranean, and a uniquely vibrant material culture that spread throughout the southern Aegean. Cnossus was one of the largest Mediterranean urban centres of its day. The Thera eruption in late LM IA indirectly ushered in instability marked by destructions c. 1470 bce, after which Cnossus established administrative control, using the Linear B script, recording the Greek language, over most of the island until c. 1300 bce. Following Cnossus’ destruction, Crete fragmented politically, before succumbing to the general collapse of civilization in the Mediterranean c. 1200 bce.
Mycenaean civilization
Authors: Rutter Jeremy
Published: April 2016

Mycenaean civilization takes its name from the hilltop citadel of Mycenae in the Argolid, celebrated in Homer’s epics as “rich in gold” and the capital of Agamemnon. In 1876, Heinrich Schliemann, fresh from his excavations at Troy, which in his view had established the historical reality of the Greeks’ legendary siege and sack of that city, unearthed five astonishingly rich tombs at Mycenae and claimed them to contain the burials of Agamemnon and his followers, thus inaugurating the study of Greece’s Late Bronze Age (LBA) past. One and a half centuries of subsequent fieldwork have exposed the remains of hundreds of settlements and thousands of tombs characterized by the distinctive material culture termed Mycenaean that flourished for over six centuries (c. 1700–1050 bce). This lengthy duration of the mainland Greek LBA (better known as the Late Helladic [LH] or Mycenaean era) is conventionally subdivided into three major stages of development: pre-palatial or early Mycenaean (LH I–IIB; c. 1700–1425/1400 bce); palatial (LH IIIA1–LH IIIB2; c. 1425/1400–1200/1190 bce); and post-palatial (LH IIIC; c. 1200/1190–1050 bce). The regions within which Mycenaean material culture was dominant changed significantly as a function of time, as did the culture’s external contacts within the Mediterranean world and continental Europe.
Mylitta
Authors: Frazer Mary
Published: April 2016

Mylitta is the Greek form of Mullissu, the name of a Mesopotamian goddess worshipped in Assur and Babylon. Whether or not the practice of her cult included prostitution, as, e.g., Herodotus alleges, is uncertain.
animals, knowledge about
Authors: Li Causi Pietro
Published: April 2016

The Graeco-Roman zoological discourse comprises various development stages and various methods of observation and research. Traces of popular knowledge on animals are already present in the archaic literature, and several references to animals are found in the excursuses of the ancient ἱστορίαι. Aristotle organizes an autonomous body of philosophical theories on animals, the diffusion of which, among his contemporaries, is confined to the Peripatetic school. Subsequently, Theophrastus and the Hellenistic philosophers increasingly shift the focus of inquiry towards the behaviours and mental capacities of animals. That choice reinforces in turn the interest in marvels and singularities in both paradoxography and Roman natural history.
optimates, populares
Authors: Yakobson Alexander
Published: April 2016

Optimates and populares are political terms from late-Republican sources referring to a political divide between supporters of the senatorial authority and champions of popular liberty and popular demands. The precise meaning of these terms and the nature of the divide to which they refer have long been disputed among scholars. Though the sources sometimes speak of partes in this context, it is obvious that the Republic had no “senatorial party” or “popular party” in anything like the modern sense of the term. Based on this, and on the tendency to describe Republican politics as wholly dominated by personal and family connections and rivalries within the ruling class, the significance of the political divide in question has often been dismissed or minimized.

However, the sources repeatedly indicate that this divide could, at least on occasion, play an important role in public affairs—alongside other factors including personal ties, family alliances, and oligarchic cliques. One of the consequences of the fact that the labels optimates and populares did not signify a formalized affiliation was that their usage was highly flexible, often inconsistent, and certainly open to manipulation. Pro-senatorial politicians might claim, in public, to be “true friends of the people (populares),” unlike their allegedly demagogic anti-senatorial opponents. But terms that are meaningless or insignificant to the wider public are of little use to political manipulators—who have in any case no guarantee, in a competitive political system, that their manipulation, rather than a rival one, will always carry the day. As long as Republican politics lasted, the optimate/popular divide appears to have been a significant feature. Its relative importance, and specific import, must have varied greatly from case to case, and should in every case be assessed individually.
Persephone/Kore
Authors: Jiménez San Cristóbal Ana Isabel
Published: April 2016

Persephone/Kore (Περσεφόνη/ Κόρη) is a goddess, Demeter’s daughter by Zeus, wife of Hades, and queen of the underworld. Her most important myth is that of her abduction by Hades, her father’s brother. In Orphic literature, she is Dionysus’ mother by Zeus. Persephone/Kore is often worshipped in association with Demeter and Hades, but independent cults of the goddess are also attested. Persephone was adopted by the Romans as Proserpina.