bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Plato on the Treatment of Heretics1
Authors: Saunders Trevor J
Published: November 2023

Before embarking on this summary the reader needs to be made aware of the key features of Platonic penology. In his Laws and else where Plato argues, in a radically utilitarian spirit, that punishment ought not to be inflicted with an eye to the past, retributively and vindictively, but solely with a view to the future: it should be so calculated as to ‘cure’ the offender, not merely by brute deterrence, but by affecting his mental state and moral outlook for the better. But efficient ‘cure’ demands efficient diagnosis; and at many points in the model penal code he describes in the Laws Plato there fore pays close attention to the analysis of many different criminal states of mind. The chapter here summarized is a study of how in pursuit of this reformative policy he adopted and adapted the Athenian legislation on ‘impiety’ (asebeia); we observe a philoso pher working creatively on the raw material of contemporary law.
Lysias against Nikomachos: The Fate of the Expert in Athenian Law1
Authors: Law Athenian , Todd Stephen
Published: November 2023

abstract

There are six preliminary questions which scholars traditionally ask about any surviving Athenian forensic (i.e. lawcourt) speech. Three of these questions concern the personalities of the trial: who wrote the speech? who was the speaker? and who was the opponent? The other three questions are about issues: what was the date of the trial? under what legal procedure did it take place? and what was the result? In terms of our level of knowledge, Lysias 30, Against Nikomachos is a typical speech: we are neither particularly well nor particularly badly informed. Out of the six preliminary questions outlined here, we know the answer to three (subject in each case to qualification), and the other three are unknown (although we may be able to guess at the answer to one of these).
The Law and the Lady: Women and Legal Proceedings in Classical Athens
Authors: Foxhall Lin
Published: November 2023

The title of this paper is derived from Wilkie Collins’s virtually unknown legal thriller, The Law and the Lady. In Collins’s novel the heroine persistently accumulates sufficient evidence to change a Scottish verdict of ‘not proven’ to ‘not guilty’ in the case of her hus band, accused of murdering his first wife. True love, of course, wins out. But though the plot turns on a peculiarity of Scottish law (the possibility of delivering a verdict of ‘not proven’), it derives its real interest and poignancy from the brave struggle of a woman in a man’s world of detection and lawcourts.
Christian Sarcophagi
Authors: Huskinson Janet
Published: November 2023

The inclusion of Christian sarcophagi in this study allows comparisons and contrasts to be made. Their background contains both continuity and discontinuity with the non-Christian traditions: Christian art of this period drew heavily on earlier imagery, yet Christian religious beliefs involved new perspectives on life and death and on the status of the child. By looking at the decoration of Christian child sarcophagi, first against their pagan equivalents, and then against adult Christian examples, we might expect to see how these aspects were balanced out. In this section I am primarily concerned with form; discussions of content follow in Section 21.
The Child as Adult
Authors: Huskinson Janet
Published: November 2023

Here, as in the last section, my principal aim is to view the material for what it reflects of the standing of living children in Roman society. But the situation is more complex, since rep resentations of the child as an adult fall into two different categories. The first depicts youths, children who had grown out of childhood to reach the physical stage of young adulthood. The second shows younger children represented with the attributes of mature adults. Within the conventions of funerary art the imagery ranges from realism to metaphor.
The Child in the Context of Death
Authors: Huskinson Janet
Published: November 2023

The images of the child in the context of death which are considered in this section represent different angles on the event (though all are obviously taken from the viewpoint of its survivors). There are scenes which contain some prescience of death, scenes which show the child at the moment of death, and others which may suggest an existence after it.
Images of Death
Authors: Huskinson Janet
Published: November 2023

Thiss section concentrates on two particular aspects of this imagery which have a special relevance for children. The first is to do with leisure and tranquillity and the second with premature death.

This is a central strand of Roman funerary imagery which combines experiences of this world (feasting, fishing, the abundant produce of earth and sea, activities of leisure) with elements of fantasy (idyllic settings, cupids, fanciful beasts). Read prospectively(pace Nock 1946) it offers a happy fate after death which is perhaps especially attractive for children, and not just because it contradicts the miseries which allegedly await those who die young (see Sect. 14). The decoration of the tomb of the young Octavia Paulina, with its images of recreation and a flowery paradise, illustrates a world of peace and plenty which a child can safely enjoy for eternity: even the ‘rape’ by untimely death is enacted prettily by cupids (Sect. u).
Introduction
Authors: Lyne R O A M
Published: November 2023

The Aeneid is an unusually complex and rich poem. Its dense texture conveys a multiplicity of meanings. More particularly, I would say, it conveys a multiplicity of opinions; it offers a variety of ways of interpreting the events enacted. It is as if one heard different voices speaking to one in and behind the action. And 'voices' is the term I find most useful in trying to explain how this complex poem works; I use it not wholly metaphorically. I shall now proceed to outline with all brevity what I mean by the 'further voices' of the Aeneid. I would not wish to dignify my approach with the title of 'theory'. It is simply one way of looking at the communicative methods of Vergil's poetry. After my outline account I shall turn straight to examples, the core of the book. At the end I shall return to expound my approach, my way of viewing the Aeneid, more fully. But I should like to stress at the beginning that my book is designed to stand or fall not by the impressive way in which I choose to phrase my approach, but by the practical exegetical value of the examples.
In Medias Res: Examples Various
Authors: Lyne R O A M
Published: November 2023

In Book 12 Trojan victory is imminent. At the beginning of the book a truce is arranged and a duel between Turnus and Aeneas organized. Aeneas views the prospect of this duel in what we could call a truly Augustan manner.
Euripidea
Authors: Diggle James
Published: November 2023

James Diggle is well known among classicists as one of the foremost Euripidean scholars of our time. His ground-breaking studies on the text of Euripides, culminating in his new edition of the complete plays in the Oxford Classical Texts series, have won him a wide reputation as one of the leading authorities on Euripides. This collection comprises forty one papers and reviews (including five papers not previously published) designed as a companion to the Oxford Text. The published papers and reviews have been lightly revised and updated and equipped with copious cross-references. There are full indexes. The collection not only offers a commentary on an extensive range of problematic passages in the plays; it also provides an up-to-date grammar of Euripidean usage - linguistic, stylistic, and metrical - and deals with many aspects of the manuscript tradition. It will be an indispensable handbook for all future serious students of Euripides.
Apologies to Bothe (and Others)
Authors: Diggle James
Published: November 2023

F. H. Bothe (1770(?)-1855), before he published his text of Euripides with commentary (Leipzig 1825-6), had already published two separate editions of a German translation of Euripides (Berlin and Stettin 1800-3; Mannheim 1823-4, reprinted 1837). The first edition of the translation was accompanied by extensive textual notes, the second by much sparser notes, many of them new. In his text and commentary Bothe ignored most of the conjectures published with the translations. These two sets of textual notes remained unknown, until they were rediscovered by David Sansone.
Proclus: The Elements of Theology
Authors: Dodds E R
Published: November 2023

Proclus' Elements of Theology is a concise summa of the Neoplatonic system in its fully developed form; and for the student of late Greek thought second in importance only to the Enneads of Plotinus. Professor Dodds has provided a critical text based on a personal examination of some forty manuscripts, together with an English translation and a philosophical and linguistic commentary. First published in 1933, this second edition includes an Appendix of Addenda et Corrigenda and is widely regarded and respected as the definitive edition of the text today.
Megaris, Corinthia And Sikyonia
Authors: Legon Ronald p.
Published: November 2023

Megaris, Corinthia and Sikyonia constitute the Isthmus of Corinth and the territory immediately south of the Isthmus in the north-eastern Peloponnese. See Maps 57–58. This region has no specific identity in Greek nomenclature. It is set off from the territory of Attika and Boiotia by the mountains of Kithairon, Pateras and Kerata, but, despite these physical barriers, the Athenians regarded Megaris as originally part of Attika (Strabo 8.1.5–7). The region was conquered and settled by the Dorian Greeks between C11 and C9.
Achaia
Authors: Morgan Catherine , Hall Jonathan M
Published: November 2023

Achaia spans the north coast of the Peloponnese, from the border with Sikyon at the river Sythas in the east to the river Larisos which marked the Eleian frontier in the west (Strabo 9.5). Mt. Skollis served as a common frontier between Elis, Dyme and Tritaia (Strabo 8.3.10) and in the south, Mts. Erymanthos, Aroania and Kyllini in northern Arkadia formed a striking natural barrier dividing Achaia from the central Peloponnese (Paus. 8.15.8–9, 17.5). Geographically and culturally, Achaia may be divided into four sub-regions, which show great variety in the pace and pattern of local development (Morgan and Hall (1996) 166–93).
Argolis
Authors: Piérart Marcel
Published: November 2023

At the western end of an alluvial plain of c.250 km², on the site where later the city of Argos grew up, habitation is attested from the Neolithic period. From MH onwards the site had become a nucleated settlement of some size, but not large enough to deserve the name of “city” or “town”. Further extended in LH, it was still smaller than Mykenai and Tiryns.
Makedonia
Authors: Hatzopoulos M B
Published: November 2023

The collective use of the ethnic is attested externally for the first time in the C5l treaty between Perdikkas II and Athens (IG i3 89.26) and internally in the C4l list of priests of Asklepios from Kalindoia (Hatzopoulos (1996b) ii. no. 62.6) and in the dedication of Kassandros from Dion, also C4l (ibid. no. 23). For the oldest individual and external use, see, perhaps, IG i3 422.i.79–80 (414/13) (a slave) and SEG 34 355.4–6 (365).
Thrace From Axios To Strymon
Authors: Flensted-Jensen Pernille
Published: November 2023

In 356 Philip took Poteidaia (no. 598), and in 348 Olynthos (no. 588) was taken and destroyed, a fate it probably shared with Stagiros (no. 613). Dem. 9.26 asserts that Philip destroyed thirty-two cities, which is probably an exaggeration (see useful discussion in Hammond and Griffith (1979) 365–79).
Aiolis And South-Western Mysia
Authors: Rubinstein Lene
Published: November 2023

The communities in this part of Asia Minor are relatively poorly documented in the extant Archaic and Classical authors and inscriptions, and archaeological evidence for the settlements in our period is sparse. Only a few sites have been excavated, and most of the architectural remains observed by travellers and archaeologists in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries date from the Roman period.
Ionia
Authors: Rubinstein Lene
Published: November 2023

Although Herodotos draws attention to dialectal differences between individual Ionian poleis (1.142.3–4)⁴ and is aware of differences between the Ionian and Dorian dialects (1.139), the Ionian dialect plays only a marginal role in his definition both of regional ethnic identity and of the region itself. Herodotos’ narrow definition of the Asiatic Ionians includes only the inhabitants of the Ionian dodekapolis (1.142.3–4, 145–46.1).
Constitution
Authors: Hansen Mogens Herman , Nielsen Thomas Heine
Published: November 2023

Bas. = Basileia Dem. = Demokratia Ol. = Oligarchia Pol. = Politeia Tyr. = Tyrannis.
Stasis
Authors: Hansen Mogens Herman , Nielsen Thomas Heine
Published: November 2023

Spain and France

Massalia C6–C4

Sikelia

Adranon 340s

Akragas c.570, 554, 488, 471,

450s, 413, 394

Gela C7–C6e, 505, 498, 491,406

Henna C4f

Himera C5e

Kamarina 425
Synoikismos
Authors: Hansen Mogens Herman , Nielsen Thomas Heine
Published: November 2023

syn. X created by synoecism persists: partial synoecism, X persists after the synoecism disappears: full synoecism, X disappears in consequence of the synoecism reappears: X disappears but is refounded later with Y population of X moved to Y reinf. X reinforced by population from pol.
City Walls
Authors: Hansen Mogens Herman , Nielsen Thomas Heine
Published: November 2023

Akrop. remains of walls enclosing the acropolis Town remains of walls enclosing the town Fortified information about walls in written sources, e.g. siege Demolished information about demolished walls in written sources.
The Biographer of the Sophists
Authors: Bowersock G W
Published: November 2023

Literature, illuminating the society of an age through acquiescence or dissent, must always have its place in history as a reflection of attitudes and taste. The relation of literature to politics, however, has not been uniform through out the ages; from time to time there have developed close alliances between literature and politics,—in England, for example, in the early eighteenth century. Similarly, in the second century of the present era, literary men helped to determine the destiny of the Roman empire and never enjoyed more public renown. Their social and political eminence was not necessarily matched by superior literary attainments. The quality of the second-century works we possess (and they are many) is not high :1 they are often over-elaborated productions not on unreal, unimportant, or traditional themes. Such works were rhetorical showpieces, whose authors, highly trained in oral presentation, were showmen. Yet this fact does not preclude composition for important persons and occasions. The authors were themselves important men.
Special Privileges
Authors: Bowersock G W
Published: November 2023

The wealth and social standing of the majority of sophists in the second and early third centuries are beyond dispute. Their contributions to the economic revival of cities like Smyrna and Ephesus are patent, and it appears that on the whole the sophists were glad in that age to undertake local magistracies and the attendant financial burdens. Their own prestige and influence were thereby enhanced. Official recognition of the eminence of these men and their families was to be expected from the Roman government : they clearly qualified for special favour. And they received favour, notably in the form of advancement into the equestrian and senatorial orders; the consulate was within reach.
Pherekydes Of Syros
Authors: Schibli Hermann S
Published: November 2023

In the sixth century BC, Pherekydes of Syros, the reputed teacher of Pythagoras and contemporary of Thales and Anaximander, wrote a book about the birth of the gods and the origin of the cosmos. Considered one of the first prose works of Greek literature, Pherekydes' book survives only in fragments. On the basis of these as well as the ancient testimonies, the author attempts to reconstruct the theo-cosmological schema of Pherekydes. An introductory chapter on the life of Pherekydes is followed by four chapters on the contents of his book. From Pherekydes' mythopoeic creation account, his colourful narratives of a divine marriage and a battle of the gods, and finally from his remarks on the soul, Professor Schibli is careful to unfold the philosophical implications. Pherekydes emerges as a figure who moved in that fascinating frontier between myth and philosophy. The theogonies of Hesiod and the Orphics, the cosmological speculations of certain Presocratics, and the Pythagorean tenets on the soul are all profitably compared with the remnants of Pherekydes' book. Pherekydes is thus shown to be an important witness to early Greek thought in its various manifestations. This is the first book-length study in English dedicated to Pherekydes. It includes a comprehensive appendix of the fragments and ancient testimonies, along with limited critical apparatus and English translations.
ΠEnte-/EΠTamyxoi: In Pherekydes
Authors: Schibli Hermann S
Published: November 2023

The theo-cosmology of Pherekydes, as far as we are able to reconstruct it from the remaining fragments and testimonia, may be outlined as follows: is also that found in Damaskios and may be assumed to be Pherekydes‘ own. 6 Steps 2 to 4 of the outline may be called the first creation. Chronos without a consort produces three primary elements.
Verse-Internal Boundaries
Authors: Higbie Carolyn
Published: November 2023

The statistics of enjambement reveal the frequency of each enjambement type and something of the syntactical relationship between verses, but say nothing about the internal structure of the verse itself. This internal structure is important because sentences and clauses, both enjambed and not, can end almost anywhere between the first syllable of the line and the sixth foot; further, there is a relationship between enjambement and these internal breaks, especially those separating sentences because they are stronger than those dividing clauses.
Formulae and Fnjambement
Authors: Higbie Carolyn
Published: November 2023

With this chapter, the quantifiable aspects of enjambement are set aside to concentrate on the relation between enjambement and the formula. In Chapter 1, the formula was defined and its variations presented, and it was asserted that formulae could be enjambed. It is now time to explore that assertion, to try to understand whether it is unusual for a formula to be enjambed, and to explain, where possible, the reasons for the enjambement. To do so will reveal much about the flexibility of formulae as well as the significance of enjambement in the construction of the verse.
Introduction
Authors: Pomeroy Sarah B
Published: November 2023

Is there a history of the Greek family? Since history studies change over time, we must ask whether there were changes in the Greek family from the classical to the Hellenistic period. Were new family shapes, structures, values, and behaviour introduced in response to the changing world? The principal historiographic question I shall pose here is whether a synchronic or a diachronic approach is most appropriate to the study of the Greek family.
Defining the Family
Authors: Pomeroy Sarah B
Published: November 2023

The family in classical and Hellenistic Greece had a far greater range of functions and manifestations than it has in the modern Western world. Consequently, the definition of the Greek family is not only broad, but protean, including in some cases people who are not related to one another by blood, marriage, or adoption, or sometimes even people who never shared a household. Because the greatest range of definitions, the most clearly articulated historical development, and the most numerous and varied primary sources appear in Athens, the Athenian family will serve as the paradigm in the first part of the following discussion. The Spartan family will then be described as ‘the exception that proves the rule’. Very little is known about the family lives of Greeks of the classical period who lived in city-states other than Athens or Sparta.
Heredity and Personal Identity
Authors: Pomeroy Sarah B
Published: November 2023

Family membership was a critical factor in shaping a person’s identity.1 Those of us who live anonymously in vast cosmopolitan cities of the Western world and who cherish our individuality and our freedom to create our own identity may consider such a situation stifling, but, as the following discussion will show, family membership could serve not only as an unfailing source of security and welfare, but also as a font of honour, achievement, and social and political privilege, or, conversely, might confer an inescapable burden of debt, dishonour, or physical imperfection. In Athens a man became a citizen only by being acknowledged first as a member of a citizen family. Women’s identity was more hazy than men’s, and because of this ambiguity, family membership could be challenged on the basis of female descent. As we shall see, however, women’s invisibility varied geographically, chronologically (even within their own life cycle), and according to social class.
Death and the Family
Authors: Pomeroy Sarah B
Published: November 2023

The treatment of dead members of a family reveals much about personal relationships within the family, as well as the relationship between the family and the larger society. For the social historian of antiquity, material evidence from the dead constitutes a relatively fruitful source of information. In many cases, however, the data from individual cities span several centuries, and frequently show changes in quantity and kind over time. Local variation is marked. As usual, the best historical evidence comes from Attica, for it is abundant, and has been subjected to intensive scholarly analysis. Therefore the sources for this chapter will be principally Athenian. Yet even within the scope of one city, the various genres of evidencelegal, literary, and archaeological-often present conflicting information. This heterogeneity is the result of regional and class variation, of changes in belief, behaviour, and artistic representation over time, and perhaps of the ambivalent attitudes of families towards their dead.
Pelagius’s Commentary on St Paul’s Epistle to the Romans
Authors: Bruyn Theodore De
Published: November 2023

Romans from both Jewish and Gentile backgrounds came to faith. In an arrogant dispute the one group sought to put down the other. For the Jews said, ‘We are the people of God, whom he has loved and cherished from the beginning. We, the circumcised, descend from Abraham’s line, from holy stock, and in times past “God was known” only “in Judaea”. After we had been freed from Egypt by signs and wonders [from God], we crossed the sea on dry ground, while huge waves overwhelmed our enemies. On us the Lord rain[ed] manna in the desert, and for us he provided heavenly food, as if we were his children. Before us he went day and night in the pillar of cloud and fire, to show us a way where there was none. And, not to mention his other immeasurable benefits towards us, we alone were worthy to receive God’s law, to hear the voice of God when he spoke, and to know his will. In this law was Christ promised us; in fact, he himself declared that he had come for us, when he said, “I have come only for the lost sheep of the house oflsrael”, whereas he called you dogs rather than people.
Roman Theatres
Authors: Sear Frank
Published: November 2023

This book is a definitive architectural study of Roman theatre architecture. In nine chapters it brings together a massive amount of archaeological, literary, and epigraphic information under one cover. It also contains a full catalogue of all known Roman theatres, including a number of odea (concert halls) and bouleuteria (council chambers) which are relevant to the architectural discussion, about 1,000 entries in all. Inscriptional or literary evidence relating to each theatre is listed and there is an up-to-date bibliography for each building. Most importantly the book contains plans of over 500 theatres or buildings of theatrical type, as well as numerous text figures and nearly 200 figures and plates.
The Scene Building
Authors: Sear Frank
Published: November 2023

The scaenae fronswas the wall of the scene building facing the audience. In theatres of the western type it contained the three doorways through which the actors entered the stage (Fig. 20). In some eastern theatres there were five such doorways (Fig. 27). The sides of the stage were enclosed by walls (versurae). These also contained doorways, which led onto the stage from the lateral rooms or basilicas beyond. Thus in theatres of the western type there were five possible entrances onto the stage. The columnatiowhich ran in front of the scaenae fronswall usually turned to frame the doorways at the sides of the stage.
Provincial Theatres
Authors: Sear Frank
Published: November 2023

This chapter examines provincial variations in Roman theatre design. It follows broadly the same order as the catalogue. After looking briefly at the geographical and historical background, a short account is given of the main theatre literature for each area. Then the theatres in each province or area are discussed and particular stylistic and design features are noted.
The Levant
Authors: Sear Frank
Published: November 2023

Two rows of seats under later cavea and section of euripustaken to belong to an earlier theatre, shallower than later one, and larger because of radius of curve; excavators believe they found earlier scaenae fronsunder scene building. It had hospitaliaenclosed in shallow curved niches angled towards orchestra and regiain rectangular recess.
Asia minor
Authors: Sear Frank
Published: November 2023

DThe only recognizable public building is the theatre sunk into the rim of the hill at its north-western extremity and looking don on Ahat. The foundations of the stagestructure are still traceable: it ran southeast northwest and was 30 metres in length’ (Buckler and Calder).D c.66 m, facing south-west; very short analemmata parallel to scene building; all but lowest part of ima cavea restricted to an arc of less than 120° sides of cavea contained within oblique walls; ima cavea: 21 rows in 5 cunei; separated by praecinctio (W c.1.85 m) from summa: 11 rows, top row with continuous stone back, in 8 cunei; praecinctio(Wc.3.4 m) at top.
Avitus and the Goths
Authors: Harries Jill
Published: November 2023

Eparchius Avitus seized power over the Western Empire in 455, exploiting the chaos caused by the Vandalic sack of Rome and the lynching of the previous emperor, Petronius Maximus, after a mere eleven weeks of rule. Avitus had the support of a number of Gallo-Roman senators, who had assembled at Beaucaire (Viernum),1 but his coup would not have been possible had it not been backed by the military support of the Goths of Aquitaine under their king, Theoderic II. His reign was effectively over by late 4562 but, brief though it was, it marked an important stage in the involvement of Germanic peoples in internal Roman affairs. For the first time, a Germanic king with an inde pendent power-base set up a Roman emperor and dictated the destiny of the imperial purple; although Avitus was an influential figure in Gaul in his own right and therefore not entirely a puppet emperor, the Goths were indispensable to his survival.
Majorian
Authors: Harries Jill
Published: November 2023

Julius Valerius Maiorianus ‘ victory over Avitus at Placentia was in itself no more than that of one war-lord over another; he had won a battle but not the empire.1 As one who claimed power as a military challenger, he was a symptom of the tendencies to fragmentation that had already made themselves felt in the West, and, if he was to survive, he had to build an enduring coalition by which unity could be preserved. He therefore made no immediate claim to the title of Augustus, but spent more than a year seeking the endorsement and support of the army, which acclaimed him in April 457, his ‘colleagues ‘ in the Senate, and the emperor of the East. His patience was rewarded when, on 28 December 457, Leo and Majorian were finally proclaimed joint emperors at Ravenna.2 Now, as Augustus and consul for 458, Majorian could with confidence assert his title to the Senate in an oratio (imperial proclamation) of 11 January, in which he could claim that his elevation by the Senate and army was due to his services to the state, not his own wish.3 It was expected of all aspirants to office that they showed some reluctance-Sidonius had made the same point of Avitus and was to make it of Majorian himself but the interregnum had at least given some colour to the new emperor ‘s pretensions.
Otium: The Christian Layman, AD 461-467
Authors: Harries Jill
Published: November 2023

The overthrow of Majorian caused a temporary interrup tion in Sidonius ‘ aspirations for office in the imperial service. However it also marked the effective beginning of a period of reading, writings, and discussion, which would pave the way to a second career in the Christian Church. In 461, Sidonius ‘ consecration at Clermont still lay far in the future and his main concern was to keep open the option of seeking further secular dignitates, but these worldly pre occupations should not detract from the importance to Sidonius of this formative period of otium in Gaul, which lasted down to his journey to Italy in 467. Sidonius ‘ Christian convictions were profound. His active participa tion in the affairs of the Church went far beyond the routine attendance at services expected of his class, which could on occasion be interspersed with ball-games and witty epigrams. ‘ His religion was no mere matter of form and, from a religious standpoint, his consecration at Clermont was a natural progression in his career.
The Bishop at Work
Authors: Harries Jill
Published: November 2023

By Gregory of Tours in the sixth century, Sidonius would be remembered above all as a bishop whose saintliness won him the love of his people and confounded the plots of his enemies. ‘ The fame of his resistance to Euric endured but so too did his reputation gained from his daily life as a bishop. Gregory was to record his works of charity, his command of the liturgy, and the devotion of his flock but it was Sidonius who preserved in his Epistulae many of the ‘case-histories ‘ which he, as bishop, had to handle.
Archaic Georgia: The Arrival of Greeks in Colchis
Authors: Braund David
Published: November 2023

Much has been written about Greek colonization of the Mediterranean and Black Sea region in the archaic period, but the evidential basis for such writings is scant, even by the humble standards of ancient history, where evidence is never in excess. Most important issues remain in dispute. However, Hellenocentric models of colonization are now seldom adopted: they have been replaced by a more nuanced concern for all participants in the historical developments of the archaic Mediterranean and Pontic worlds and their respective hinterlands.1 In approaching the colonization of Colchis, we must first consider the broad problems of evidence and interpretation which surround colonization in general. And that consideration will provide an historical framework within which the limited evidence for the colonization of Colchis may then be interpreted.
Mithridates, Pompey, and the Emergence of Iberia
Authors: Braund David
Published: November 2023

When Strabo considered the growth of Graeco-Roman geographical knowledge over the centuries down to his own time (c.64 BC-AD 25), he regarded the reign of Mithridates VI Eupator of Pontus as a time of substantial advance. The king and his generals had made known much of the northern coast of the Black Sea as far east as Colchis. Moreover, Pompey’s campaigns and their aftermath had generated sound information about the peoples of Transcaucasia. At the same time, Mithridates put Colchis on to the map of Roman politics: his acquisition of Colchis had been an issue for Rome. And, with the Mithridatic Wars and their aftermath, Colchis gained a new significance at Rome.
Sulla and the Asian Publicans
Authors: Carolyn Higbie
Published: November 2023

In his recent work on the equites ( The Roman Middle Class, Oxford 1952) H. Hill has re-asserted a view, which goes back to Mommsen, that probably ‘Sulla, whose hostility to the publicani and the whole Middle Class is well-known, kept them out of Asia as long as he could by continuing the collection of the revenues on the system he had established in 84 BC’, i.e. that of direct assessment of the cities (p. 69). This view has never found universal acceptance. Rice Holmes, for instance, held that there was no evidence that Sulla abolished the taxfarming system in Asia, and T. R. S. Broughton has maintained that the operations of the publicani were never suspended there. In my opinion a controversy that has long divided scholars admits of a simple solution. In 84 Sulla resorted to direct assessment of the cities because he had no choice; he had no intention of abolishing the publican system for ever, and in fact it was restored as soon as he had re-established order in Italy .and the unity of the empire.
Tacitus on the Batavian Revolt
Authors: Carolyn Higbie
Published: November 2023

For the revolt of the Batavians and some other peoples in Gaul and Germany in A.D. 69–70 Tacitus is virtually our only source. This does not mean that we may properly succumb to the temptation of adopting his account without reserve and without subjecting it to critical examination. There is, however, a high initial probability that it deserves respect. In the rest of his work, though his interpretations have often been questioned, too often indeed without sufficient reason, by critics who have neither experience of the kind of conditions he represents nor the imagination to recreate them, his reputation for veracity on particular matters of fact is good, and has been upheld by some of his severest critics. Moreover Tacitus was a contemporary of the events of 69-70, and though he was too young to have had firsthand knowledge of affairs on the Rhine at this time, we should not expect to find that his account is here distorted by preconceptions drawn from the experience of a later age. It is indeed probable that he derived his account chiefly (though not only) from the elder Pliny, who was a contemporary of the revolt and well acquainted with the region where it broke out. Modern scholars have therefore, for the most part, been content to follow Tacitus’ account, in which they discern I no incoherence or implausibility. However, G. Walser has recently developed a theory of Munzer (n. 4) in such a way as to impugn the reliability of his interpretation and narrative.
Roman Imperial Illusions’
Authors: Carolyn Higbie
Published: November 2023

Vitruvius, writing not long before 27 BC, asserted that Augustus (as he was soon to be known) was possessed of the government of the whole world and had subdued all peoples (i. pr. 1 ). Like Augustus’ claim in his own record of his achievements that he had waged wars throughout the world (RG 3. 1), and that in the prescript composed posthumously, that he had subdued the world to the imperium of the Roman people, this language, which had been commonly used by Romans in the late Republic, appeared to equate the extent of Roman dominion with that part of the earth’s surface within which were to be found all lands known to be inhabited, enclosed (so Greeks and Romans thought) by the encircling Ocean, and called by the Greeks oikoumene and by the Romans orbis terrarum.
A Political Group
Authors: Birley Anthony R
Published: November 2023

A Nexus formed easily among congenial families of the better sort in a city or a region. With that support the ambitious departed, intent on the career of honours. Some brought with them provincial parsimony and the traditional standards that had abandoned the capital long since (so it was averred). Patavium adhered to severe morality, and some cities paraded a sentimental attachment to the Republic. Mediolanum had its statues of Cassius and Brutus. No impediment, since a Caesarian loyalty blended with the Roman patriotism of a frontier zone.
Sophocles
Authors: Cairns Douglas L
Published: November 2023

The extant plays of Sophocles belong to an age in which the idea that there are two sides to every story became a commonplace, and problems based in sophistic relativism—that people may differ over the meanings of words, may have subjective ideas of what is right and what is true, and find it difficult, sometimes impossible to communicate—loom large in his work. Sophocles understands partiality, aware that people often hold views or attitudes that are contradictory and that they interpret events and situations to suit themselves; accordingly, it is common in his work for one kind of aidōs to be set against another, and his characters often have only a partial grasp of what aidōs is, and of what course of action it dictates; conflicts of values, sometimes irreducible, underlie much of the tragic force of Sophocles’ plays, and it is in such cases that his use and treatment of aidōs are most important and intriguing.
Mirabilia
Authors: Healy John F
Published: November 2023

Words commonly used to categorize wonders, curiosities, monstrosities, extravagant fictions, the seemingly inexplicable, and things beyond normal, everyday experience include mirabilia, miracula, prodigia, and portenta (explained as ‘praeter naturam hominum pecudumque’).1 Similarly, mirum and mirabilis are applied to the unusual. Such mirabilia are to be found in the shadowy realms of ‘sub-science’.
Language and Style
Authors: Healy John F
Published: November 2023

A discussion of Pliny’s use of language and of his style1 may seem an unwarranted intrusion in a review of his contribution to early imperial science and technology. However, the problems that Pliny, like Lucretius and others, encountered because of the paucity of technical terms in Latin, and the style in which he presents his subject matter, have a critical bearing on the content and character of the Natural History. The importance also of nomenclature cannot be overstressed, as Fleury2 writes in another context.
Chemistry
Authors: Healy John F
Published: November 2023

Chemistry,1 as a closely defined area of study, dates from the eighteenth-century fashion for the ordering of knowledge.2 * It is the branch of physical science concerned with the composition, properties, and reactions of substances, including the accompanying energy changes. Analysis, which plays a major role in chemistry, involves the examination of substances of unknown composition in order to determine their composition.
Gems and Precious Stones
Authors: Healy John F
Published: November 2023

In the final book of the Natural History (37) Pliny discusses precious stones, or gems.1 Here (37. 1), Nature’s grandeur is gathered together within the narrowest limits. ...very many people find that a single gemstone alone is enough to provide them with a supreme and perfect aesthetic experience of the wonder of Nature.’ (‘in artum coacta rerum naturae maiestas. ... ut plerisque ad summam absolutamque naturae rerum con- templationem satis sit una aliqua gemma.’)
The Natural History in the Middle Ages and After
Authors: Healy John F
Published: November 2023

The Natural History became an influential book in the all- embracing field of natural science from the moment of its publication c. AD 77. Already cited, epitomized, and even plagiarized by late Roman and patristic authors, this survey of scientific knowledge was to survive the breakdown of Roman political and educational institutions. Although the transmission of such a long, detailed, and specialized text presented great problems, it was too valuable a work to be lost, or to be replaced adequately by derivative works. The Natural History was conceived on a larger scale than other works belonging to the encyclopaedic genre which the Romans had learned to imitate from the Greeks—for example, the lost nine volumes of Marcus Terentius Varro (Libri IX Disciplinae). As Pedersen3 observes, it has been praised as an inexhaustible source of information relating to the scientific knowledge and social conditions of the early Roman imperial period.
Genre and Philosophy,History,and High Poetry
Authors: Hutchinson G O
Published: November 2023

In this chapter we shall look principally at the aspects of genre considered in the first: sublimity, grandeur, greatness; truth and reality. With reality and truth we shall again look at the handling of the author; emotion and intellectualism will also be drawn in. The full complexity or these questions will properly appear only with succeeding chapters; the discussion of the verse is little more than an introduction. On prose we shall say something at the start about one or two other authors, but we shall largely concentrate on Seneca and Tacitus, the two main representatives of philosophy and history and the two greatest writers of Latin prose in our (or perhaps any) period.
The Gods in Mythological, Poetry
Authors: Hutchinson G O
Published: November 2023

We have considered some important aspects of these writers’ art, and of differences and relations between writers and genres. This last section of the book will seek to provide the discussion with more dimension and substance, and to give a solider and richer sense of writers and genres, in regard to the book’s primary areas of concern. Our attention Will now be concentrated almost entirely on the ‘highest’ genres in poetry and prose, on epic, tragedy, philosophy, and history; in prose we shall confine ourselves somewhat less rigorously. We shall mostly consider sizeable but delimited episodes or passages, and shall view these authors handling themes of special significance for our inquiry. It must be stressed that for the most part the section is not at all attempting a balanced or synoptic survey of how the writers treat these areas. We shall rather be watching their art at work and seeing some memorable and suggestive instances of what these genres can do on these subjects. Still less is the section attempting to outline the views of the authors on these topics.
Death in High Poetry
Authors: Hutchinson G O
Published: November 2023

Death, so important to high poetry, has appeared many times in the book already. The purpose here is not to offer a representative picture of the treatment of death in these poets; rather the contrary. One fundamental aspect in particular will now pass under-represented. It will already have been seen how high poetry, boldly exploiting this sublimest of subjects, likes to create from it strange and disconcerting mixtures, in which bizarreness and incongruous ingenuity are freely cultivated. The epic tradition of describing wounds precisely, and of varying its deaths within strong conventions, is converted into a source of (among other things) black grotesquerie and macabre elegance. This audacity with genre and with instinctive reactions, though its origins lie in Ovid and even Virgil, is eminently characteristic of the period.
The Cities of Seleukid Syria
Authors: Grainger John D
Published: November 2023

This book is the first detailed study of the foundation, history, government, growth and decline of the cities founded in Syria by Seleukos I in 301BC shortly after the time of Alexander the Great. It throws new light on an important period in ancient history. In particular, Dr Grainger concentrates on the relationship between the kings and the cities in their kingdoms and reveals that former theories concerning such a relationship require drastic revision. Most importantly the relationship is shown to have been much more to the kings' advantage than previous discussions on Hellenistic states have supposed. He argues in fact that neither the kings nor the cities intended the cities to be autonomous or independent since they were far too reliant on royal support against the enmity of the surrounding population. Evidence for this can be seen in the actions of the cities on the collapse of the Seleukid dynasty in the first century BC; then they were forced to cast about for a new protector and eventually accepted Rome albeit reluctantly. Dr Grainger discusses the differing fate of the cities during this process when some failed altogether, most declined, and only one, Antioch, prospered.
Introduction
Authors: Grainger. John D
Published: November 2023

After their victory at the battle of Ipsos in 301 BC, the three winners, Kassandros, Lysimachos, and Seleukos, divided the spoils, each taking a section of the kingdom of their defeated rivals Antigonos and Demetrios. Seleukos took two adjacent lands, Mesopotamia and Syria, which were thus added to his existing empire which stretched away to the east as far as the borders of lndia. It was not quite so rich an acquisition as he had perhaps hoped for when he had joined in the war against Antigonos and Demetrios. Even more galling, he found that his erstwhile colleague Ptolemy had already seized control of Phoenicia and Palestine now and refused to leave, even though he had not been present at the decisive fight2. Seleukos’ expected gains were in effect halved. This dispute between Seleukos and Ptolemy set in process the long sequence of ‘Syrian Wars’ which plagued both kingdoms for the next two hundred years.
Seleukos’ Cities: Sites and Situations
Authors: Grainger. John D
Published: November 2023

Seleukos’ Syrian cities were carefully placed geographically so as to ensure the king’s control over his conquest. But the king’s wishes in this respect could not override geographical factors, and the future history of the land was also out of his control. In the two centuries after his death the pattern he imposed slowly changed. Cities declined and new cities grew, so that when Syria became a Roman province, the urban pattern had distorted from its pristine regularity into a far more natural one.
Violent Opposition
Authors: Stockton David
Published: November 2023

That feelings had run high over the reforms of Ephialtes is clear. What is less easy to determine is whether, or for how long, any considerable number of Athenians continued to cherish hopes of reversing the situation. There were surely those among the richer and better-born citizens who would have preferred a less egalitarian system (the same can be said of modern democracies; and we have noted the continuing existence of upper-class clubs and societies as late as the last decade of the fifth century.) But that is not by any means the same as realistically hoping or actively working for a major change in the constitution.
Dwarfs in Ancient Egypt and Greece
Authors: Dasen Véronique
Published: November 2023

Véronique Dasen here examines dwarfs in myth and everyday life in ancient Egypt and Greece. In both cultures physical beauty was highly admired, even to excess. What happened to those whose appearance did not conform to the `ideal proportion'? The spectacular forms of dwarfism were always a focus of interest, and it is the most depicted disorder in antiquity. In this study Dr Dasen brings together for the first time a whole range of mostly unpublished or little known iconographic, epigraphic, literary, and anthropological evidence. She covers areas such as the history of caricature and the portrait; medical history, in particular the development of the perception of congenital disorders; social history; and history of religion, with questions on the magical and ritual efficacy of the malformed in sacred and theatrical contexts. She considers also the complex relations between mythology and ethnography, as shown, for example, in the Greek myth of the Pygmies. This is a fascinating work, with a wealth of insights for anyone interested in the history of medicine or the ancient world.