bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Roman Inscriptions 1966–1970
Authors: Reynolds Joyce
Published: May 2006

The harvest of new inscriptions from the past five years seems to be larger than ever, which is, no doubt, to be attributed to new developments in agriculture and building, especially in those countries which had hitherto changed little since antiquity; these are sharply increasing the number of monuments found (and sometimes destroyed) by chance, while more systematic search organized ahead of the machines in some areas (Italy is notable) has also increased the number found by design. It must be admitted that not all the new texts are being published very well; and that some are appearing only in sketchy or popular accounts and in newspapers or journals which are either irrelevant to Classical studies, or are mushrooms which die after a few numbers and so do not find their way into most Classical libraries. This is tedious, but better, surely, than that they should remain quite unreported. In any case, although the writer's own record in this matter is blacker than it should be, it seems reasonable to urge again that excavators and epigraphists should be more willing to give quickly an initial publication which does not aim to be definitive on the first round.
Fortifications in the North-Western Roman Empire from the Third to the Fifth Centuries A.D.
Authors: von Petrikovits Harald
Published: May 2006

Roman methods of fortification in the north-western portions of the Empire change significantly during the second half of the third century, the difference from the Principate being more apparent in military building than in civil. We may accept the universal view that these changes were due to increasing insecurity in Dacia, on the Rhine and Danube frontiers, and along the coast. From its beginnings in the first half of the century, the threat to the north-west by Germans and tribes from the steppes reached such a pitch in and after the 250's that it seriously endangered Roman rule in Europe. The Goths broke through the Danube frontier into Moesia several times from 238 onwards, and Roman morale was gravely affected when they killed Decius and his son in the disastrous battle of Abrittus (251). The northern barbarians fell upon towns in Greece and Asia Minor, and plundered them; only in the years following 268 did some emperors succeed in mastering the danger.
The Opening Campaigns and the Battle of the Aoi Stena in the Second Macedonian War
Authors: Hammond N. G. L.
Published: May 2006

In writing a book on Epirus which is in the press I omitted a full description of the battle of the Aoi Stena and of the campaigns in which it is set partly because it involves areas outside Epirus and partly because I had not space for such a description. My travels in Albania included the traversing of the higher ground just east of the Myzeqija plain (see Map II) and the crossing by ferry of the three great rivers, the Genusus (Shkumbi), the Apsus (Semeni) and the Aous (Vijosë), in late March and early April 1931. At that time these rivers were in spate, and the upper parts of the plain were full of sheep, enjoying the spring pastures before moving up to the summer pastures of the mountains. I went from Durazzo (Dyrrachium) up the Shkumbi valley to Elbasan, inspected some sites on the south side of the valley, walked through the low sink which separates the Shkumbi from the Devoli SSW. of Elbasan, and then visited Berat (Antipatrea). On other occasions I walked through the hill country southwards of Berat to Byllis and to Han Qesarat (Map I) in the middle Vijosë valley. In other years I explored the lower Vijosë valley as far as Apollonia, walked through the Aoi Stena and traversed the Vijosë valley from Kelcyrë to Konitsa and the whole length of the Drin valley. The course of these and other travels I have made is shown on Map I. Acquaintance with this terrain has enabled me, I think, to present a new interpretation of parts of Philip's campaigns and of the battle of the Aoi Stena; new in the sense that it is different from those of Kromayer and De Sanctis, who did not visit this area. The paper falls into the following parts: A, a geographical description; B, the campaigns of 200 and 199 B.C. in as far as they concern this area; C, the campaign of 198 B.C. An appendix, dealing with some topographical points, is added.
The Autopsy of C. Asinius Pollio
Authors: Morgan Llewelyn
Published: May 2006

The historical record of the Roman civil wars gives an unusual prominence to C. Asinius Pollio (76b.c.–a.d.4). There is more than one reason for the anomaly, not the least being that Pollio was himself largely responsible for creating that record in the form of his celebratedHistoriaeof the civil wars. It was this work which provided the authors we read — Appian, Dio, Plutarch, and Suetonius — with their major source for the period, and a characteristic feature of the work, as these later texts attest, was the emphasis which Pollio placed on his presence on the scene and immediate, eyewitness knowledge of much of the historical material he narrated.

And yet Pollio had earned for himself at least a small place in history, independently of his historiographical activity. After the death of Caesar he played an important role in the manoeuvring which brought Mark Antony to power (three letters to Cicero survive from the period), and held the consulship in 40 B.C. (cf.Ecl.4.1–17). Whilst consul he acted as co-sponsor of the pact of Brundisium between Antony and Octavian, and subsequently celebrated a triumph over the Parthini, a Balkan tribe.
Ritual, Myth, Doctrine, and Initiation in the Mysteries of Mithras: New Evidence from a Cult Vessel
Authors: Beck Roger
Published: May 2006

Despite the wealth of the cult's material remains, we still know relatively little about the ritual of the Mithraic mysteries. What was it, in the sense of liturgy performed, that Mithraists actually did in mithraea? How did it relate to myth, to the story of the god, which, by contrast, is singularly well documented on the monuments? Was it, in some way, a mimesis or re-enactment of that story? How, if at all, was it an expression of the initiate's progress, an actualization of his ‘salvation’, and thus of cult doctrine on these matters.

There are three major pieces of this puzzle already in place. First, and most important, we know that the cult meal, shared by the initiates on the banquet benches of their mithraeum, replicated the feast of Mithras and the Sun god at a table draped with the hide of the newly slain bull. We know this primarily from representations on the Konjic relief and the Sa. Prisca frescoes, where we see the initiates participating in roles defined by their positions within the hierarchy of grades: the Father (Pater) and the Sun-Runner (Heliodromus) represented Mithras and Sol reclining at their feast, the remaining grades their ministers. It is worth noting that there is no known counterpart in ritual to the central mythic act which precedes the feast, the bull-killing itself. Nevertheless, since the bull-killing in some sense effected ‘salvation’, we may suppose that the feast of the initiates, replicating the feast of the gods, celebrated this salutary effect for mortals. That the divine feast follows, and followsfrom, the bull-killing is assured by (1) the fact that it was served on the hide of the slaughtered bull, and (2) its depiction on the reverse of tauroctony reliefs, at least some of which could be rotated at the appropriate ritual moment. Finally, the ubiquity of the mithraeum's distinctive banqueting benches implies the ubiquity of the cult meal as the ‘liturgie ordinaire’.
Seasons of Death: Aspects of Mortality in Imperial Rome
Authors: Shaw Brent D.
Published: May 2006

Within the last decade significant advances have been made towards a better understanding of the fundamental demographic regimes that characterized the Mediterranean world of Graeco-Roman Antiquity. Coincident with this improvement in our knowledge has come a renewed interest in the rituals and cultural practices associated with death and burial in the societies that were part of the Roman Empire. These divergent interests are reflected in two distinct approaches to the analysis of death in Roman society. The cultural method, which finds significance in reading the quality of a given death and burial, has tended to concentrate on eliciting connections between the archaeological remains of burial, the ritualistic celebration of death, and the social values of the living. The other approach to the phenomenon of death is more directly concerned with the crude biological facts of life and death: the historical demography of human mortality that has emphasized the analysis of quantitative data. In almost any consideration of death, however, the two approaches are pragmatically inseparable. This interdependence of the evaluative and quantitative aspects of death is apparent from the fact that it was a dramatic shift in cultural values that produced the consciousness and the recording of the temporal ‘quantity’ that made the writing of this study possible. What I propose to do is to track the seasonal variations of mortality in Roman society. Pronounced seasonal fluctuations in the demographics of any given human population are one of the most fundamental and enduring aspects of its characteristic profile. This applies not only to crudely biological processes such as birth and death, but also to practices, like marriage, that are apparently culturally driven. These annual oscillations rarely alter very much over the long term; they are one of the ‘deep structures’ that identify the main environmental and cultural factors that form a given population. As such, they mirror the interplay between the bare biological forces and the human decisions that give any population its peculiar shape. The delineation of a central diagnostic feature of a given population, in this case that of a vanished population of one and a half millennia ago, is something that will enable us better to understand its basic demographic structure.
The So-called Letter of Domitian at the End of the Lex Irnitana
Authors: Mourgues Jean-Louis
Published: May 2006

It is not the purpose of this paper to propose a new commentary on the legal provisions recorded in the Lex Irnitana, or to attempt to re-interpret as a whole what is certainly one of the major epigraphic discoveries of this century. Much more modestly, it employs an analysis of the diplomatic form to understand the imperial document called until now the ‘letter of Domitian’, which stands at the end of this copy of the Flavian municipal law.
Augustus, the Res Gestae and Hellenistic Theories of Apotheosis
Authors: Bosworth Brian
Published: May 2006

The literary genre of the Res Gestae has always been a source of perplexity. Over a century ago Mommsen compared efforts to categorize it with attempts to pin a literary label upon Dante's Divina Commedia or Goethe's Faust. That did not prevent his arguing that the work was a ‘Rechenschaftsbericht’, a formal report of Augustus' achievements as princeps. Nowadays it can perhaps be accepted that the document has a multiplicity of models and many purposes, all of them propagandist in nature. However, the complexity of the work is even now insufficiently appreciated. It is, for instance, well accepted that world conquest is a primary and pervading theme, and Augustus' imperial ideology has been well documented and discussed in recent years. But world conquest suggests another theme, that of apotheosis. The two motifs are inextricably linked in Hellenistic literature after Alexander, and the linkage was inherited by Roman authors, not least by the poets of the Augustan age. As for Augustus himself, his propaganda owes much to the Hellenistic ruler cult. His victory issues after Actium show a startling similarity to the famous tetradrachms commemorating Demetrius Poliorcetes' naval triumph at Cypriot Salamis; he adopted the same pose, and assimilated himself to Neptune, just as Demetrius had recalled Poseidon. Augustus may have been directly influenced by Demetrius' issues. He was possibly aware of the divine honours which the Athenians had conferred upon Demetrius a few months before his victory, and made similar claims in his own right. But the relationship was probably more indirect — Augustus used motifs which had become familiar during the previous centuries, emphasizing simultaneously the protection of the gods and his own godlike status. Demetrius' issue helped inspire the general pattern of thought, but there was no direct imitation.
Quae Corpore Quaestum Facit: The Sexual Economy of Female Prostitution in the Roman Empire
Authors: Flemming Rebecca
Published: May 2006

Prostitution, it seems to be generally agreed, was a phenomenon firmly embedded in imperial Roman society. It has, however, yet to achieve a similar level of scholarly integration. Moves are undoubtedly being made in this direction. Several topics which have a direct bearing on patterns of prostitution, or in which prostitution is implicated, such as the complex hierarchy of male and female, the patterning of erotic desires and pleasures, the acquisition and dissipation of wealth, and the organization of urban life, can certainly be described as major preoccupations in present enquiries into the Roman world; and a couple of monographs on the subject, or aspects of it, have recently appeared. None the less, there is as yet no study that can really bear comparison with any of the substantial historical works on prostitution in a range of other times and places that have been published in the last two decades. In particular, there has not been any serious effort to take the perspective of the prostitutes themselves into account, which is one of the most emphatic developments in the new historiography of prostitution emerging elsewhere.
Demography, Geography and the Sources of Roman Slaves
Authors: Harris W. V.
Published: May 2006

Where did a large-scale Roman slave-owner obtain new slaves? Varro in effect tells us: Ephesus. And the answer would probably have been the same for many generations after his time. But can we work out more systematically and more thoroughly the relative importance of differentkindsof sources? The sources which most require consideration are: (1) children born to slave-mothers within the Empire; (2) persons enslaved in provincial or frontier wars; (3) persons imported across the frontiers; (4) the ‘self-enslaved’; and (5) infants abandoned at places within the Empire.

Several years ago, I argued on a number of grounds that the last of these sources, child-exposure, was more important than had previously been recognized. Subsequent reconsideration of the problem has led me to suspect that the source-material under-represents the amount of slave-importation across the frontiers, but not to doubt that child-exposure was very widespread or that it made an important contribution to the slave supply. Of the many subsequent discussions, the most original is that of Ramin and Veyne, who, in an article of 1981 too little attended to in the Anglo-Saxon world, made it appear very likely that those who voluntarily sold themselves into slavery were a larger category than scholars usually imagine. More recently, Scheidel has attempted to revive the case, previously propounded by Shtaerman among others, in favour of the self-reproductivity of the slave population.
Plautus on the Palatine
Authors: Goldberg Sander M.
Published: May 2006

It was probably in the agora at Athens and possibly in the seventieth Olympiad (i.e. 499–496 B.C.) that a wooden grandstand collapsed while a play by Pratinas was being performed. The Athenians responded quite sensibly to this disaster by moving their dramatic performances to the precinct of Dionysus Eleuthereus, where the audience could be more safely accommodated on the south slope of the acropolis. Or so it appears: no fact of this early period in ancient theatre history is ever entirely secure. By the time of Aeschylus, however, what we call the Theatre of Dionysus was certainly the place where Athenian tragedies and comedies were performed, and the facility grew in size and grandeur along with the festivals it served. One result of this continuity has been a great boon to the performance-based criticism of Greek drama.
A Book Made New: Reading Propertius Reading Pound. A Study in Reception
Authors: Comber Michael
Published: May 2006

In situations in which understanding is disrupted or made difficult, the conditions of all understanding emerge with the greatest clarity. Thus the linguistic process by means of which a conversation in two languages is made possible through translation is especially informative. (Gadamer)

This article was prompted by a reading of Pound'sHomage to Sextus Propertius, and, in particular, by a basic question: why might the argumentative, edgy poet Pound have been drawn to Propertius? What might he have seen in him? Some of the attraction, no doubt, lay in Propertius' slightly marginal status as a Classical author, part of the main tradition but on the edge. But it does not seem to have been the romantically agonized version of Propertius that Pound saw. Nor the merely clever, witty, light and playful Propertius – though he saw more of the second figure than the first.
Dreams, Theurgy and Freelance Divination: the Testimony of Iamblichus
Authors: Athanassiadi Polymnia
Published: May 2006

The men of the Antonine era shared with us a keen interest in divination, which they expressed in a variety of complementary or apparently contradictory ways: in polemic and dispassionate research, but more obviously in the act of reviving their ancient prophetic shrines and of establishing new oracles. If the rage that the vaticinating demons inspired in Oenomaus of Gadara and in Lucian is sufficient evidence of the rationalist's reaction to a mounting social and intellectual trend, the scholarly achievement of Artemidorus of Daldis at the instigation of Apollo himself exemplifies in more positive fashion the involvement of the age with prophetic lore. So does the incredible success of the Pythagorean Alexander's oracular establishment on the inhospitable shores of the Black Sea, and the personality of Aelius Aristides, that professional valetudinarian whose night-diaries dictated by Asclepius covered more than three hundred thousand lines. It was in precisely this world that the Delphic oracle underwent a remarkable renaissance under the auspices of a Platonist philosopher, and that an emperor commended the publication by a senator of a work about the dreams which foretold his ascent to the throne.
The Romance of the Novel
Authors: Bowie E. L. , Harrison S. J.
Published: May 2006

Students of the ancient world are falling for the ancient Greek and Latin novels in increasing numbers, a state of affairs of which there were few intimations a generation ago. To be sure, theSatyricaof Petronius and theMetamorphosesof Apuleius were given standing-room on the edge of the classical canon, though few scholars and fewer students made the acquaintance of the complete texts. Encounters were usually restricted to theCena TrimalchionisandCupid and Psyche, and linguistic oddities were the chief topics of polite conversation (nothing evil in this, so long as other topics are not barred). There were of course exceptions, like Eduard Fraenkel's Oxford seminar on Petronius in 1958/9, where study of language was but one of many techniques harnessed to the establishment and interpretation of the whole text. The Greek novels were still wallflowers: partly, no doubt, because they constituted only a small portion of a vast Greek prose literature written in a period generally judged decadent, whereas the Latin novels were welcome and substantial contributors to the comparatively exiguous remains of Latin prose written by Romans at their imperial acme. No explosion of interest had followed Rohde'sDer griechische Roman und seine Vorläuferof 1876, and although some important work was done on establishment and interpretation of texts and on the development of the genre, scholars active in this field were isolated from each other and their results made little impact on their colleagues. Furthermore much of that work was focused, like Rohde's, on trying to elucidate the genre's origins.
The God of the Lupercal
Authors: Wiseman T. P.
Published: May 2006

On 15 February, two days after the Ides, there took place at Rome the mysterious ritual called Lupercalia, which began when the Luperci sacrificed a goat at the Lupercal. There was evidently a close conceptual and etymological connection between the name of the festival, the title of the celebrants, and the name of the sacred place: as our best-informed literary source on Roman religion, M. Terentius Varro, succinctly put it, ‘the Luperci [are so called] because at the Lupercalia they sacrifice at the Lupercal … the Lupercalia are so called because [that is when] the Luperci sacrifice at the Lupercal’.

What is missing in that elegantly circular definition is the name of the divinity to whom the sacrifice was made. Even the sex of the goat is unclear — Ovid and Plutarch refer to a she-goat, other sources make it male — which might perhaps imply a similar ambiguity in the gender of the recipient. Varro does indeed refer to a goddess Luperca, whom he identifies with the she-wolf of the foundation legend; he explains the name aslupa pepercit, ‘the she-wolf spared them’ (referring to the infant twins), so I think we can take this as an elaboration on the myth, and not much help for the ritual.
The Papyrology of the Roman Near East: A Survey
Authors: Cotton H. M. , Cockle W. E. H. , Millar F. G. B.
Published: May 2006

Not all students of the Roman world may have realized that, following extensive discoveries in the last few years, Egypt has ceased to be the only part of the Empire from which there are now substantial numbers of documentary texts written on perishable materials. This article is intended as a survey and hand-list of the rapidly-growing ‘papyrological’ material from the Roman Near East. As is normal, ‘papyrology’ is taken to include also any writing in ink on portable, and normally perishable, materials: parchment, wood, and leather, as well as on fragments of pottery (ostraka). The area concerned is that covered by the Roman provinces of Syria (divided in the 190s into ‘Syria Coele’ and ‘Syria Phoenice’); Mesopotamia (also created, by conquest, in the 190s); Arabia; and Judaea, which in the 130s became ‘Syria Palaestina’. These administrative divisions are valid for the majority of the material, which belongs to the first, second and third centuries. For the earlier part of the period we include also papyri from Dura under the Parthian kings (Nos 34, 36–43, and 166), since they belong to the century before the Roman conquest and illustrate the continuity of legal and administrative forms; and five papyri from the kingdom of Nabataea, which after its ‘acquisition’ in 106 was to form the bulk of the new province of Arabia, on the grounds that in some sense dependent kingdoms were part of the Empire (Nos 180–184). Both groups are listed in brackets. We also include the extensive material from the first Jewish revolt (Nos 230–256) and from the Bar Kochba war of 132–5 (Nos 293–331), even though it derives from regimes in revolt against Rome. The private-law procedures visible in the Bar Kochba documents are continuous with those from the immediately preceding ‘provincial’ period (that of the later items in the ‘archive of Babatha’ and other documents). What changes dramatically after the outbreak of the revolt is language use: Hebrew now appears alongside Aramaic and Greek. But even as late as the third year of the revolt we find contracts in Aramaic. Our list at this point will supplement and correct that given by Millar in The Roman Near East, App. B.
In Search of the Author of Strabo's Geography
Authors: Clarke Katherine
Published: May 2006

‘As intellectuals and academics we are constantly engaging in projects of representation, but in the dominant epistemologies that guide our work, our role as representers is effaced’.

‘At the heart of the issue lies a fundamental insistence on the contextualised nature of all forms of knowledge, meaning and behaviour. There is a further recognition of the partial and partisan edge to inquiry, theory construction, and scholarly (re)presentation, as well as an explicit acknowledgement of the importance of the author's biography in this creative process’.

The assertions of two modern geographers, Katz and Merrifield, are symptomatic of an underlying, but persistent, debate within their field of study. To what degree should academic prose aim at impersonality? The discipline of modern geography, perhaps more than any other academic subject at pains constantly to justify and redefine itself, has taken on this problem, formulated its history, and posited some solutions.
The Public Image of Licinius I: Portrait Sculpture and Imperial Ideology in the Early Fourth Century
Authors: Smith R. R. R.
Published: May 2006

Ancient history, it could be said, is composed of long and broad bands of unchanging social and political culture, punctuated in the upper levels by periods of upheaval and re-orientation. Ancient art works document and make visible both aspects: numbing continuity and static production on the one hand and sudden shifts and sharp turns in representation on the other. This paper takes as an example one of those periods of highly-charged visual re-orientation, the early fourth century A.D., and is intended as an alternative to the discussion and explanation of ancient images in this period in terms of artistic and formal processes. It aims to set an unusual and fat-faced late antique portrait (Pl. I) in its proper context alongside the thin-faced portraits of a better known figure (Pl. XII), and looks at the wider implications of this for the interpretation of imperial portrait sculpture as a significant expression of political ideology. The leanfaced man is Constantine, the other it will be argued is Licinius.
Satyrs in Rome? The Background to Horace'sArs Poetica
Authors: Wiseman T. P.
Published: May 2006

At the central point of Horace's epistle to the Pisones (ll. 220–50 out of 476) is a lengthy passage on the history and composition of satyr-plays. At the central point within that passage (ll. 234–5), with emphatic use of the vocative and the first-person pronoun, Horace presents himself and his addressees as actively involved in writing satyr-plays:

non ego inornata et dominantia nomina solum

verbaque, Pisones, satyrorum scriptor amabo.
The Roman Imperial Quaestor from Constantine to Theodosius II
Authors: Harries Jill
Published: May 2006

The greatest legal monuments to Late Antiquity are theCodeof Theodosius II, published in 438, and theCode, DigestandInstitutesof Justinian, produced between 529 and 534. The men on whose shoulders the main responsibility for their compilation rested were two imperial quaestors, each backed by teams of experts. Antiochus Chuzon, quaestor in 429, saw theTheodosian Codefrom its inception in the year of his quaestorship through a second stage in 435 to its completion in time for the marriage of Valentinian III and Theodosius' daughter Eudoxia in October 437 and publication in the following year. century later, under Justinian, Tribonian, perhaps the most famous and powerful of all quaestors, proved his organizational and legal ability during the production of the first edition of Justinian'sCodein 529 and became the moving force behind theDigestof the works of the Roman jurists, theInstitutes(an update of Gaius on the principles of law) and the second edition of theCode, all of which were crammed into the five years that followed.
Moneta and the Monuments: Coinage and Politics in Republican Rome
Authors: Meadows Andrew , Williams Jonathan
Published: May 2006

The mint of Republican Rome was located on the Capitol somewhere in the vicinity of the temple of Juno Moneta. This is one of the best known but perhaps worst attested pieces of topographical information concerning the Republican city of Rome. The evidence that the coins of the Roman Republic were made there is exiguous to say the least. Indeed, there are only two literary sources that explicitly site the mint at Juno Moneta's temple. The first is Livy's account of the condemnation and execution of M. Manlius Capitolinus, the hero who had previously saved the Capitol from assault by the Gauls. Livy mentions that the people passed a law to the effect that no patrician would thereafter be permitted to live on the Capitol or the Arx, for Manlius' house had stood on the site where, Livy says, now stands the aedes atque officina Monetae, the temple and the workshop of Moneta. The second is contained in the Suda (s.v. Μονήτα), in a passage to be discussed below. These are the sole threads of evidence on which the location of the mint of Republican Rome hangs. Nevertheless, despite an attempt to impugn Livy's reputation for topographical accuracy, they should suffice.
A PaintedExemplumat Rome's Temple of Liberty
Authors: Koortbojian Michael
Published: May 2006

In 214b.c., the army of Ti. Sempronius Gracchus defeated Hannibal's Carthaginian forces near the town of Beneventum. Gracchus, proconsul with imperium in Apulia, had led his troops from Luceria in the North-East, while Hanno, Hannibal's lieutenant, arrived with his forces from Bruttium in the South, and a pitched battle was fought by the river Calor. The Romans were victorious. According to Livy, the Carthaginian force of more than 18,000 was routed, less than 2,000 survived, and 38 standards were taken; but the truly striking fact about Gracchus' victory is that his army was largely comprised of slaves. This had been necessary, in contradiction of Roman law and custom, following the tragic and massive casualties suffered in the previous years' battles, most famously at Cannae. Exceptional circumstances called for exceptional measures:pueridonned men's armour;libertiniwere called to serve; criminals, too; then slaves, who were purchased to fight for the state. The status of such troops posed a significant problem, both legally as well as socially, a problem that was to have a long history.
Reconstructing Plancus (Horace,C.1.7)
Authors: Moles John
Published: May 2006

This paper is organized as follows: (I) text; (II) translation; (III) problems and divergent readings; (IV) the ode's literary constituents; (V) interpretation.
Columella's Living Hedge: The Roman Gardening Book
Authors: Henderson John
Published: May 2006

The subject of this essay is not Roman gardens, their reconstruction or restoration, but Roman gardening. This must be found on the page, and specifically in the work of Columella, who has more to say on this aspect of Country Life than the rest of Classical Antiquity put together — literally more, in quantity, but also, and more to the point, more to the point.

Reference to Columella's Garden always means the poem of 436 hexameters that bursts into the prose De re rustica as Book 10. It appears on its own in a cluster of manuscripts, and has regularly been read as a free-standing composition. In this paper, I resist this sin of excerption, to explore the role of gardening on Columella's farm.
Strategies in Mediterranean grassland annuals in relation to stress and disturbance
Authors: Fernández Ales R. , Laffarga J. M. , Ortega F.
Published: May 2006

Abstract. Morphological (size and shape) and functional (growth, reproduction and phenology) attributes are used to characterize 42 annual species of Mediterranean grasslands according to their strategy. Principal component analysis of the matrix of 42 species x 9 attributes shows that the main trend of variation is related to plant size. Larger species have larger seeds, lower relative growth rates and lower reproductive output. The second and third trends of variation are related to plant shape. Ordination of species shows differences in shape between taxa and growth forms (grasses, legumes, forbs). The relative abundance of species with different attributes vary with the level of stress (water and nutrient availability) and disturbance (grazing and ploughing). Size is related to stress, with larger plants dominating in productive habitats and smaller ones in the most unproductive. Disturbance is related to shape and phenology, since grazing favours species with low canopies and ploughing favours species with shorter life cycles, that are usually small in size. Relations between plant attributes and habitat characteristics are examined within the more general framework of plant strategy theory.
Penumbral rock communities in campo rupestre sites in Brazil
Authors: Alves R.J.V. , Kolbek J.
Published: May 2006

Abstract. A syntaxonomic study of penumbral (open‐shade) communities in small rock caves in five campo rupestre sites in Minas Gerais, Brazil, was carried out according to the Braun‐Blanquet method. On the basis of 41 releves, the following new syntaxa were described: the associations Doryopterido ornithopodis‐Eriocauletum cipoensis, Coccocypselo erythro‐cephali‐Anemietum oblongifoliae in the alliance Coccocypselo erythrocephali‐Eriocaulion cipoensis, and the Trichoma.no pilosi‐Anemietum elegantis in the alliance Trichomano pilosi‐Anemion oblongifoliae, both order Coccocypselo erythro‐cephali‐Anemietaliaelegantis andclass Coccocypselo erythro‐cephali‐Anemietea elegantis.

Additional synecological observations and measurements of environmental factors were correlated to the zonation and distribution of plant species within the caves. Relevant literature on South American penumbral plant communities is virtually non‐existent and restricted to floristic data and usually superficial habitat descriptions.
Growth rate and basal area response curves of four Eucalyptus species on Mt. Wellington, Tasmania
Authors: Pyrke A. F. , Kirkpatrick J. B.
Published: May 2006

Abstract. The heights, diameters and regrowth basal areas of 22‐yr old fire‐initiated regeneration of Eucalyptus delegatensis ssp. tasmaniensis, E. urnigera, E. coccifera and E. johnstonii were measured over altitudinal, solar radiation and drainage gradients on Mt. Wellington, Tasmania. The growth rate responses to the altitude gradient‐complex vary from linear to curved depending on the performance measure, the species and the gradient. Much of the variation in growth rate appears to be a direct response to the physical environment. However, disparities between trends in growth rate and trends in re‐growth basal area are consistent with the hypothesis that competition (sensu Grime 1979) is more important in productive environments and less important in stressful environments. A glasshouse trial with Eucalyptus seedlings indicated that potential growth rates decline with increasing altitude of seed source.
Microsite differentiation in a Mediterranean oak savanna
Authors: Olsvig‐Whittaker L. S. , Naveh Z. , Giskin M. , Nevo E.
Published: May 2006

Abstract.Microscale variation of vegetation was studied in a Mediterranean oak savanna dominated by annual plants at Neve Ya'ar Experimental Station, in the lower Galilee of Israel. Species presence/absence data were recorded in 20 cm x 20 cm quadrats on a 500‐quadrat transect. These data were ordinated with Detrended Correspondence Analysis. Soil nitrate, phosphorous, potassium, pH, soil moisture and salinity were determined at 2‐m intervals on the 100‐m transect, at monthly intervals from November 1981 to April 1982. Litter cover and canopy shade were surveyed in October 1981 and April 1982. A sharp rise in available nitrate occurred in November, following the first winter rains. Patterns in herbaceous vegetation, as expressed by sample ordination scores, correlated best with litter cover in October. This suggested that vegetation pattern in this community may be strongly influenced by environmental conditions at the time of seedling germination and establishment.
Hydrometeorological differences between opposite valley slopes and vegetation asymmetry in Hawaii
Authors: Noguchi Yasuo
Published: May 2006

Abstract. Hydrometeorological observations over a 15‐month period and the evaluation of calculated water balance components across a selected valley in the northeast trade‐wind environment in Hawaii showed the following:

A large reduction in wind speed and evaporation occurred on the upper protected west‐facing slope as compared with an exposed ridge immediately in front of it and within a short horizontal distance.

Can evaporation values measured across the valley closely reflect the wind exposure and the availability of energy at each station. In terms of Penman potential evapotranspiration, the ridge station was again found to be the most exposed and the upper leeward slope the most protected.

The upper protected west‐facing slope was comparatively more favourable for vegetation development in terms of the annual soil moisture conditions (both measured and calculated) and protection against mechanical damage by wind and air‐borne salt; all the other parts of the slopes were exposed and occasionally received severe salt spray damage in winter. Most probably, these factors have contributed to the difference in speed of vegetation recovery from the disturbance, thus producing a, temporary, vegetation asymmetry.
Towards a classification of the environment and the community of Quercus robur
Authors: Niven B.S. , Liddle M.J.
Published: May 2006

Abstract. The environment of the oak Quercus robur is precisely classified using a mathematical definition of the environment of a plant previously developed by the senior author. The definition is explained in words and a minimum of symbolism is used. The inclusion of each object in the environment of the oak is justified by a semi‐formalized sentence, fully translated into ordinary English at the first usage. A diagram known as an ‘envirogram’, originally developed for the animal environment, is described. It presents the classification of the environment of a specific organism in simple graphic form. Two envirograms are given, for acorn and mature oak tree. These are the first plant envirograms to be constructed. A simplified community in a small habitat containing oaks and other organisms is described. It is fully analysed using a minimum of symbolism and classified as being of second order. The method gives mathematical precision to the notion that living organisms in a habitat are functionally related and it provides a modus operandi for the analysis of such a community.
A new method of survey and data analysis in phenology
Authors: Schirone B. , Leone A. , Mazzoleni S. , Spada F.
Published: May 2006

Abstract. A new, computerized method is presented for the survey and analysis of phenological data on the vegetative cycle of tree species in complex forest structures. It is based on the principles of classical phenology, phytosociological sampling techniques and the main concepts of growth analysis. The method considers the development of phenological phases as a stochastic process, and allows a quantitative and mathematical‐statistical comparisonbetweenphenorhythms of trees and crown sections, and correlations with environmental variables.
Population structure and growth‐stress relationship of Pinus taeda in rock outcrop habitats
Authors: Houle G. , Delwaide A.
Published: May 2006

Abstract. On the granite outcrops of the southeastern United States, soil accumulates in shallow depressions on the rock surface. A specific sequence of vascular plants characterizes the temporal development of these systems. The edaphic end point of the succession is apparently attained with a herb‐shrub‐tree stage with Pinus taeda as the dominant tree. We studied the characteristics of this stage and the population structure of P. taeda on outcrop islands in order to specify the successional status of the species in this habitat. We compared the radial growth pattern of outcrop and Piedmont populations of P. taeda, and of two outcrop sub‐populations. We checked whether trees on outcrops experience more limiting conditions than trees on the Piedmont, and studied the recent change in the relationship between growth and stress (e.g. drought and atmospheric deposition) reported for loblolly pine in the southeastern United States. We also attempted to identify the climatic variables most critical for tree growth on outcrops.

On outcrop soil islands, P. taeda maintains populations that are of irregular age distribution, possibly in response to irregular recruitment and survival. There are no signs of loblolly pine replacement by hardwood species on any of the islands studied, although an understory of shrubby oak appears to characterize larger and deeper‐soil islands. Although trees on the Piedmont were growing at a higher rate than those on the outcrop in the first part of the 1950–1988 period, their growth declined at a higher rate than that of trees on the outcrop. As a result, at the end of the period considered (1950–1988), the differences in radial growth between outcrop and Piedmont populations were relatively small. On the outcrop, trees < 22 yr old in 1989 were growing at a rate somewhat lower than that of trees of similar age, 40 yr ago. Differences were apparent in the initial growth patterns between the two outcrop subpopulations (1989 and 1949 stems), and these could have resulted from differences in competition regime, stress or climatic conditions, or a combination thereof. However, a repeated‐measures ANOVA failed to reveal a significant recent decrease in the radial growth of loblolly pine in the system studied.

The identification of numerous signature years (years with ≥ 80 % of the trees with similar increasing or decreasing trend in their radial growth) suggests that similar environmental variables control the growth of loblolly pine in both outcrop and Piedmont habitats. High temperature and low precipitation in the first part of the summer (June‐July) seem to limit radial growth. Those pines growing on outcrop soil islands, however, appear more sensitive to climatic fluctuations.
Population structure and dynamics of the clonal dwarf‐shrubLinnaea borealis
Authors: Eriksson Ove
Published: May 2006

Abstract.The demography of the long‐lived clonal dwarf‐shrubLinnaea borealiswas studied during four years in a coniferous forest in central Sweden. The main object was to infer patterns of temporal variation in population dynamics of this species. The shoot population is organized in fragments, i.e. physically connected systems of shoots partly covered by the moss carpet. The age and size structure of the fragment population is described, but shoots are more convenient units for a study of population dynamics. A stochastic model of shoot population dynamics was constructed, and simulations indicated a considerable temporal variation in population size and flowering. Hence, variability as such is an essential aspect of the dynamics of established populations ofLinnaea.

Simulations of extinction risks revealed that small‐sized shoot populations (ca. 250 shoots) are likely to be long‐lived when experiencing environmentally induced demographic variation of the range observed. Mortality agents for established genets, such as large‐scale disturbances, were not incorporated in the models. Some implications of variable population growth rates in clonal plants in woodlands are discussed.
Aquatic vegetation and hydrology of a braided river floodplain
Authors: Bornette G. & Amoros, C.
Published: May 2006

The response of aquatic vegetation to the complex hydrology of a river floodplain was investigated on a stretch of former braided channels of the Rhône River near Lyon, France, which is fed by three different water inputs: underground water, surface flow from a small tributary and river overflow during spates.

Water temperature, pH, conductivity, alkalinity, sulfate, nitrate, and phosphate content were measured monthly at seven sampling stations. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of these data revealed two gradients: a gradient of spatial heterogeneity and a gradient of temporal fluctuations. A PCA of samples based on substrate grain size, flow velocity, channel width and depth, height and shade of bank vegetation suggested the division of the braided system into four zones.

Along these former channels, the vegetation varies from communities with Potamogeton coloratus of nutrient‐poor water, to meso‐eutraphent communities with Callitriche platycarpa, Elodea canadensis, and Ranunculus trichophyllus. Correspondence Analysis (CA) of the floristic data revealed four zones. Regarding the habitat parameters investigated, one zone is assumed to be linked to the instability and the nutrient inputs of a former channel (running water from the tributary and flood disturbances), while another is linked to the stability and nutrient‐poor conditions of the other former channel (supplied by underground water). The other two zones are considered as ecotones, each of them occurring in a former channel, upstream of the confluences. The location as well as the floristic and functional differences between these two ecotones are discussed.
Vegetation of a coastal sand dune system in southern New Zealand
Authors: Sykes Martin T. , Wilson J. Bastow
Published: May 2006

The introduction of vigorous exotic species has destroyed much of the native sand dune vegetation along the coasts of South Island, New Zealand. However, some dunes built by the native cyperad Desmoschoenus spiralis still remain in the southwest.

The dunes at Cole Creek, on the West coast of South Island, were chosen as a relatively pristine study area. 15 transects were laid through semi‐fixed dunes into dwarf forest. Environmental measurements were taken at regular intervals through the dunes: pH, soil moisture, organic matter, conductivity, nutrient status and elevation. Classification and ordination of these data demonstrated that two major environmental areas were present ‐ open dune and dwarf forest ‐ with an abrupt ecotone between them. Vegetation analyses revealed a loosely‐banded pattern, parallel to the sea. Vegetation types with few but constant species such as Desmoschoenus spiralis and Calystegia soldanella, predominated in the open dune. Forest species were rarely found seaward of the dune/forest boundary, though there was evidence the Spatial Mass Effect was operating.

Multiple regression and canonical correlation of the vegetation and environmental factors showed that the main factors affecting vegetation patterns were the environmental complex related to distance from the sea, elevation above mean tide, soil alkalinity and moisture.
Simulation modeling of the effects of site conditions and disturbance history on a boreal forest landscape
Authors: Fulton Mark R.
Published: May 2006

Abstract. Computer simulations were used to elaborate hypotheses about controls on forest structure and composition in a 0.7 km ≤ area of boreal forest in Central Sweden. DBH and species of all adult trees and stand conditions were recorded for 57–10 m radius plots. Ordination of these data suggested that nutrient‐availability and time‐since‐disturbance were the main controls of forest composition and structure within the area.

The simulation model couples equations representing the effect of tree canopy structure and biomass on light and soil conditions with equations representing the effect of these conditions on reproduction, growth and mortality in height cohorts of trees on a 0.1 ha patch. Nitrogen‐availability levels for each modeled plot were simulated by species‐specific growth multipliers. The model was run for 400 simulated yr at six levels of N availability. Age and N status of each study plot were inferred by matching with the most similar model output. Inferred ages agreed with what is known of the disturbance history, and site factors related to soil fertility were correctly correlated with the inferred N status.

The consequences of size‐selective disturbance were explored by model experiments. Biomass was removed from large or small size classes at 100 ‐ 200 yr and the simulations were run for an additional 300 yr. Disturbed stands of high N status often became similar to undisturbed stands of different N status. Size‐selective disturbances produced stands that were different from any in the undisturbed succession, but these differences disappeared within 50 ‐ 100 yr, implying successional convergence in stand structure and composition. Plots of simulated basal area against time and nitrogen‐availability for the four species illustrate the time dependence of species performance along a fertility gradient.