bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Conon of Samos
Authors: Bowen Alan C.
Published: December 2012

Conon of Samos (250–200BCE) was a mathematician and astronomer in the time of Ptolemy III Euergetes. Conon is known mainly through the story told by Callimachus (Aetia4. fr. 110 Pfeiffer) and Catullus (Carm. 66) about how the constellationComa Berenicesgot its name. As this story goes, Berenike II, Ptolemy's recently wedded wife, dedicated a lock (coma) of her hair to ensure her husband's safe return from war (his invasion of Syria shortly after he became ruler in 246BCE). On his return, it was discovered that the lock was missing from the temple, but then Conon reported that he had observed it in the heavens.
Demiurge
Authors: Zeyl Donald J.
Published: December 2012

“Demiurge” (Gk.demiourgos) is the term commonly used to refer to the personified divine agent of Plato's dialogueTimaeus, who gives mathematical form to a pre‐existent chaos to create the visible universe. The use of this term – which means “handicraftsman” – repeatedly in theTimaeusand once previously in theRepublicattests to Plato's conviction that the observable order and beauty in the universe is not fortuitous, but the product of a craft‐like and hence purposeful, beneficent, and rational agency. The Demiurge is represented as an artist who copies the eternal forms (the realm ofbeing) by molding a spatio‐temporal manifold (the realm ofbecoming) into conformity with those forms. The task of creating individual “mortal” types of living beings is subsequently handed over to “lesser gods.”
Dentistry
Authors: Bliquez Lawrence J.
Published: December 2012

Apart from incantation and ritual, cuneiform tablets recovered from the library of Ashurbanipal (Assurbanipal) attest to applications derived from plants, etc., for cleaning, stabilizing, and relieving inflammation, toothache and the famous “worm” (probably decay) in ancient Mesopotamia. Extraction may also be mentioned. The sixteenth‐centuryBCEEbers and Smith papyri are extensive sources for dental conditions in pharaonic Egypt. The Ebers papyrus deals with dental wear and toothache as well as with pastes for gum disease, and the Smith papyrus with interventions for fractures and dislocations of the jaw. X‐rays of royal mummies reveal appalling examples of wear and disease.
Diaries, astronomical
Authors: Hunger Hermann
Published: December 2012

Astronomical diaries are Babylonian records of day‐by‐day observation of events in the sky and on earth. Written on clay tablets, they were composed regularly from the eighth to the first centuryBCE. More than one thousand mostly fragmentary tablets are preserved. With few exceptions they come from the city of Babylon and are kept in the British Museum.
Dogmatism, medical
Authors: Craik E.M.
Published: December 2012

The term “Dogmatism” is applied, somewhat artificially, to one of the medical “sects” regarded as originating in the Hellenistic period; the other main groups are Empiricism (at the opposite extreme from Dogmatism;seeEmpiricism, Medical) and Methodism (occupying an intermediate position).
Ecology
Authors: Sallares Robert
Published: December 2012

Ecology is the study of the distribution and abundance of populations of living organisms in relation to their natural environments, both animate and inanimate.
Encyclopedias
Authors: Almagor Eran
Published: December 2012

Although the word
encyclopedia
is modern, first attested in the works and correspondence of late fifteenth century Italian humanists, mentioned by Rabelais (1532), Ringelbergh (1541), and Skalić (1559), and made popular in the wide‐ranging volumes of Chambres (1728) and Diderot and D'Alembert (1751–65), its conceptual as well as etymological roots are to be found in Classical antiquity.
Engineering
Authors: Rihll T. E.
Published: December 2012

Engineering in the ancient world naturally falls under three heads: civil, hydraulic, and mechanical.
Epicycle‐on‐deferent
Authors: Duke Dennis W.
Published: December 2012

To an observer on the Earth, the Sun, the Moon, and the five visible planets appear to slowly orbit the Earth in a west‐to‐east direction, but their motion is irregular. The average forward motion is variable for all of these bodies, and the five planets exhibit retrograde motion: their forward motion appears to halt for a few days, then they move backward relative to the stars, and then they halt again before proceeding forward. Venus and Mercury never get very far from the Sun, and Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are always about 180° from the Sun during their retrograde motion.
Erasistratus, physician
Authors: Rocca Julius
Published: December 2012

Erasistratus of Keos (ca. 315–ca. 240
BCE
), younger contemporary of Herophilos, was the son of Kleombrotos, a doctor at the court of Seleukos I Nikator. That Erasistratus was tutored by the physician Chrysippos of Knidos and received instruction from Theophrastus cannot be proven. Although it is probable that Erasistratus did for a time practice medicine in Antioch (his curing the lovesick Stratonike, wife of Seleukos, is pure invention), he established his reputation and professional career in the newly minted, dynamic city of Alexandria. Erasistratus, like Herophilos, was undoubtedly drawn there by the vigorous climate of inquiry into literary, medical, scientific, and technical subjects, fostered by the first two Ptolemies.
Euclid
Authors: Vitrac Bernard
Published: December 2012

Book 7 of Pappus'Collection(fourth centuryCE) discusses a corpus of advanced geometric works and is dedicated to the theory of loci, traditionally called “the analytic corpus.” In the beginning of the preface, Pappus states: “The analytic corpuswas written by three men, Euclid the Elementarist, Apollonios of Perge, and Aristaios the elder” (Jones 1986: 83).
Euctemon
Authors: Hannah Robert
Published: December 2012

Euctemon is practically inseparable in the ancient sources from his colleague, Meton of Athens.
Eudoxos of Knidos
Authors: Bowen Alan C.
Published: December 2012

Eudoxos was a Greek intellectual (390–337BCE), perhaps a sophistes but known later as anastrologos(astronomer),mathematikos(mathematician), andphilosophos(philosopher).
Eutocius
Authors: Roby Courtney
Published: December 2012

Eutocius of Ascalon (ca. 480–530CE) wrote commentaries to Archimedes'On the Sphere and Cylinder(SC),Planes in Equilibrium, andMeasurement of the Circle, and to Appolonius'Conica. He is also said to have written scholia on Ptolemy'sSyntaxis Mathematica, which do not survive. His works were edited by Heiberg in the third book of hisArchimedis Opera; an annotated English translation of the commentaries toSCis included in Netz (2004a).
Firmicus Maternus, Iulius
Authors: Fündling Jörg
Published: December 2012

Firmicus (ca. 300–after 343
CE
) is the only known fourth‐century author whose writings reflect his thoughts both before and after his conversion to Christianity.
Fossils
Authors: Mayor Adrienne
Published: December 2012

Fossils, the mineralized remains of extinct creatures, have been part of the natural and cultural landscape since the first humans gathered stone shells for ritual and decorative uses (Oakley 1975). The literary, historical, and archaeological evidence for this fact remained unexamined, however, until Mayor (2000) and Boardman (2002: 33–43) drew convincing links between ancient Greek and Roman accounts of remarkable or gigantic bones in specific locations and modern paleontological discoveries of impressive fossil deposits of large extinct mammals in the same places.
Frontinus, Sextus Iulius
Authors: Gallia Andrew B.
Published: December 2012

Frontinus (34?–104CE) was one of the most prominent and influential figures in Roman public life from the time of the Flavian emperors through the early years of Trajan's reign.
Galen
Authors: Rocca Julius
Published: December 2012

Galen (129–ca. 216CE) was the most prolific and influential of all medical writers of antiquity. The incomplete but indispensable standard edition by Carl Gottlob Kuhn comprises twenty volumes.
Hemerology and menology
Authors: Livingstone Alasdair
Published: December 2012

Within Babylonian literature is a widespread but specialized group of texts that deal with the days of the months one by one, the hemerologies, and the months of the year, the menologies.
Heraclitus
Authors: Berrey Marquis
Published: December 2012

Heraclitus of Ephesos (
fl
. 500
BCE
) was a philosopher, known for the doctrines of flux, the unity of opposites, and fire as the basic element.
Hipparchos, astronomer
Authors: Jones Alexander
Published: December 2012

Hipparchos (born about 185
BCE
, died after 127
BCE
) was the most important Greek astronomer of the Hellenistic period.
Hippias, mathematician
Authors: Jones Alexander
Published: December 2012

Proclus (
Comm. on Euclid Elem. I
) makes a passing reference to
tetragônizousai
(“squrers,” conventionally translated as “quadratrices“), curved lines that he says were employed by Hippias and Nicomedes to solve the geometrical problem of constructing a square equal in area to a given circle.
Hippocrates of Chios
Authors: Van Brummelen Glen
Published: December 2012

Hippocrates of Chios, one of the earliest authors in the written tradition of Greek mathematics, was active in the second half of the fifth century
BCE
.
Horologium Augusti
Authors: Heslin Peter
Published: December 2012

Pliny the Elder (
HN
36.72–3) describes an obelisk and pavement with bronze markings erected by Augustus in the Campus Martius.
Hypsikles
Authors: Bowen Alan C.
Published: December 2012

Hypsikles was a mathematician and astronomer, who lived after Apollonios of perge and was roughly contemporary with Hipparchus.
Invention
Authors: Greene Kevin
Published: December 2012

As ancient polities grew in size, a wide range of technologies— especially those related to urban living, government, religion, warfare, agriculture, trade, and arts and crafts—were required to underpin them.
Lucretius (Titus Lucretius Carus)
Authors: Campbell Gordon Lindsay
Published: December 2012

Lucretius (ca. 94–ca. 55 or 51BCE) was a Roman Epicurean poet (seeEpicurus and Epicureanism), author of theDe rerum natura(DRN, “On the Nature of the Universe”).
Medicine, Mesopotamian
Authors: Heeßel Nils P.
Published: December 2012

Mesopotamian medicine developed out of folk tradition, characterized by basic beliefs in supernatural beings causing sickness and the efficacy of herbal remedies against disease. Texts dealing with medical problems are, therefore, mostly concerned with identifying the supernatural being responsible for the sickness of a patient, with the identification, healing power, and application of plants, and with prescriptions against all kinds of diseases.
Melampus
Authors: Oberhelman Steven M.
Published: December 2012

Melampus was a Greek mythological doctor and diviner/priest. He was reputed to be the first mortal to practice medicine, relying on incantations and cures based on animal and mineral substances.
Menelaus, astronomer
Authors: Brummelen Glen Van , Rodzinyak Daphne
Published: December 2012

Menelaus of Alexandria (fl. 100CE) was a scientist who contributed to the advancement of spherical trigonometry, astronomy, and geometry. We know virtually nothing of his life, other than a report of astronomical observations that he made in Rome in 98. We do have references to a number of his works.
Nechepso and Petosiris
Authors: Greenbaum Dorian Gieseler , Ross Micah
Published: December 2012

Certain astrological pseudepigraphies attribute early doctrines of ancient western astrology to “Nechepso” and “Petosiris.” Nechepso was supposedly a king of Egypt; Petosiris’ relationship to him is unclear, but they are often cited together.
Numbers, Roman
Authors: Montelle Clemency
Published: December 2012

The system of numeration in ancient Rome, the so‐called Roman numerals, was a base‐ten system using selected symbols to indicate absolute numerical values. From seven symbols – I for one, V for five, X for ten, L for fifty, C for one hundred, D for five hundred, and M for one thousand – numbers were formed from their combined sum or difference.
Philolaos ofKroton
Authors: Horky Phillip Sidney
Published: December 2012

Philolaos (ca. 470–after 388BCE) of Kroton or Taras was a Pythagorean and natural philosopher whose influence on the histories of philosophy and science spans Plato to Copernicus.
Plato, cosmology
Authors: Zeyl Donald J.
Published: December 2012

Cosmological speculation figures prominently in Plato's later dialogues. Substantial sections of theStatesman,Philebus, andLawsare devoted to cosmological issues and their significance for human life.
Procedure texts and lunar predictions, Babylonian
Authors: Brack‐Bernsen Lis
Published: December 2012

Babylonian astronomy is characteristic for being numerical and for concentrating on special phases – calculating the Moon's position not as a function of time, but calculating the times and positions at which some special events took place.
Straton of Lampsakos
Authors: Falcon Andrea
Published: December 2012

Straton was the second head of the Peripatos after Aristotle.
Sympathy and antipathy
Authors: Lehoux Daryn
Published: December 2012

Sympathy and antipathy are causal forces used to explain a wide range of phenomena in ancient physics.
Teleology
Authors: Zeyl Donald J.
Published: December 2012

Throughout the whole of antiquity, the Greek philosophers have sought to explain the origin, structure, and observable processes of the spatio‐temporal universe. A key question to which they have given divergent answers is whether or not the universe as a whole or its various natural parts exhibit purpose and if so, whether or not such purpose is attributable to a transcendent rational entity or principle.
Themison of Laodikeia
Authors: Langslow David
Published: December 2012

Themison of Laodikeia in Syria is one of the founders, perhaps the founder, of what is known as the Methodist School of medicine – although the origins and development of Methodism are obscured by hostile sources, above all Galen.
Theon of Smyrna
Authors: Bernard Wolfgang
Published: December 2012

Theon of Smyrna (early second centuryCE) was a Platonic philosopher and mathematician.
Thrasyllus, astrologer
Authors: Greenbaum Dorian Gieseler
Published: December 2012

Tiberius Claudius Thrasyllus (d. 36CE) was the personal astrologer and advisor of the emperor Tiberius (42BCE–37CE).
Veterinary medicine
Authors: Fischer Klaus‐Dietrich
Published: December 2012

Our modern conception of veterinary medicine differs considerably from that current in antiquity, as becomes clear when we examine the best evidence that survives, Greek and Latin texts dealing with the health of animals, including a few inscriptions and a much reduced number of papyri.
Vettius Valens
Authors: Greenbaum Dorian Gieseler
Published: December 2012

The nine books of theAnthologiesof Vettius Valens (fl. ca. 150–70CE) are probably the most extensive books of astrological technique and practice preserved from antiquity. Though Valens does not have the fame of his near contemporary Claudius Ptolemy, his treatises are equally important for our understanding of the practice of astrology in the second centuryCE. Ptolemy's and Valens' approaches to astrology were very different; where Ptolemy emphasized theory and physical causation, Valens focused on practice, and on astrology as divinely revealed doctrine.
Warfare, technology
Authors: Rihll T. E.
Published: December 2012

The technologies of warfare in the ancient world were many and various.
Weather prediction
Authors: Taub Liba
Published: December 2012

The potential impact of weather on crucial economic activities (including agriculture, navigation, and various businesses) motivated Greek and Roman efforts to predict weather.
Abduction
Authors: Schubert Charlotte
Published: December 2012

Abduction was a
leitmotif
in Greek representations of their earliest history.
Apartment buildings
Authors: Boozer Anna Lucille
Published: December 2012

Insulae(Latin: “islands”) are multi‐story housing complexes that served as lodging or tenement houses for multiple individuals and families.
Asthma
Authors: Touwaide Alain
Published: December 2012

The medical condition of the respiratory systemidentified asasthmain ancient medicine does not correspond in all cases to the modern nosological entity, characterized by a swelling of the airways and clotting of mucus provoking difficult breathing possibly also with cough, chest tightness, and wheezing.
Bastard (nothos)
Authors: Ellart Carlos Sánchez‐Moreno
Published: December 2012

The termnothos(bastard) refers to illegitimate children, concubinal or non‐concubinal.
Beer, Greek and Roman world
Authors: Sider David
Published: December 2012

Although the chemistry of beer and wine (and bread, too) is essentially the same–in a liquid suspension yeast converts sugars to alcohol and gaseous carbon dioxide–most drinkers find it easy to consider the two quite distinct.
Bilharzia
Authors: Touwaide Alain
Published: December 2012

Bilharzia is a chronic parasitic disease typical of Africa, particularly Egypt (especially the Nile Valley) and North Africa.
Books
Authors: Rohmann Dirk
Published: December 2012

Books are often referred to in classical antiquity, and were commonly in use throughout this period.
Burial, Greece
Authors: Sehlmeyer Markus
Published: December 2012

The study of burial practices is important for understanding the cultural development, religious ideas, and political culture of the Greek world. Since ceremonies connected with burial are well known only from the late Archaic period, the investigation of early Greek burials has to concentrate on cemeteries and objects found in graves; the survey otherwise is chronological with excurses on general topics such as funeral art or specific rituals. As there is a multitude of literary and archaeological sources for Athens, that city here serves an exemplary purpose. Other poleis and kingdoms can only be treated selectively – when they show different types of burial.
Canusium Album
Authors: Hahn Johannes
Published: December 2012

This bronze tablet (66×74 cm) (
CIL
IX 338 = ERCanosa I 35) comprises the complete list of the
ordo decurionum
of Canusium (Apulia) as revised by the
duoviri quinquennales
M. Antonius Priscus and L. Annius Secundus in 223
CE
and presumably displayed in the Forum.
Castration, human
Authors: Kuefler Mathew
Published: December 2012

The origins of human castration are obscure, but it was practiced in earliest recorded antiquity in both Mesopotamia and China, and may have arisen independently in these places.
Celibacy
Authors: Panzram Sabine
Published: December 2012

Celibacy (from Latin
caelebs,
living solitarily on one's own) names the unmarried state with the emphasis on sexual abstinence practiced by a certain social group.
Cemeteries, Greece and Rome
Authors: Bobou Olympia
Published: December 2012

The term “cemetery,” that is, a designated burial ground separate from other public or private areas, is misleading when we discuss burial practices in the Greek and Roman world. Tombs and burials were not located in specific areas, even though the rule was that they were to be found outside the town walls, usually on the major roads.
Climate
Authors: Horden Peregrine
Published: December 2012

Climates change, as we know to our probable future cost; but establishing the history of those changes and of their effects on humanity is fraught with controversy at every turn.
Clothing, Greece and Rome
Authors: Cleland Liza
Published: December 2012

Greek and Roman civilizations included complex clothing cultures, allowing dress to express a wide range of personal and social factors.
Dance, dancing, Greece and Rome
Authors: Naerebout Frederick G.
Published: December 2012

Dance is human bodily movement, intentional, rhythmized and patterned, with some sound as cue, and usually performed communally with any number of active and passive participants.
Domus
Authors: Goldbeck Fabian
Published: December 2012

The Latin termdomus, “house,” denotes (1)the physical building as well as (2)social term denoting the household, kinship group, or the patrimony.
Education, Greece and Rome
Authors: Bobou Olympia
Published: December 2012

By education, we refer to the imparting of skills through schooling and training, a process that was not fully formalized or state–controlled before the Classical period.
Emancipation (emancipatio)
Authors: Carlos Sánchez‐Moreno Ellart Matthew J. Perry and
Published: December 2012

Emancipatio(“emancipation”) was the release of a child or other dependent from the paternal power (patria potestas) of a paterfamilias during the latter's lifetime.
Emigrants
Authors: Isaac Benjamin
Published: December 2012

Like the term immigrants, “emigrants” can refer both to individuals and to groups.
Epikleros
Authors: Ellart Carlos Sánchez‐Moreno
Published: December 2012

When an Athenian citizen died leaving no male offspring, and he had not adopted a son who could marry the daughter, the daughter became
epikleros
and her hand was given to her nearest surviving male relative.
Ethnicity, Greek and Roman
Authors: Isaac Benjamin
Published: December 2012

Identity as a social and psychological concept is highly problematic: it represents a process of interaction, self‐perception, and the reflection of one's image in others' eyes. A person's identity is determined by who he or she thinks he or she is, and by how others are perceived to regard him or her. Ethnic identity is an even more complex and disputed topic, because it concerns groups and long‐term developments.
Famine and food shortages, Greece and Rome
Authors: Rovira‐Guardiola Charo
Published: December 2012

References to famine and food shortages are frequent in classical literature, as they had a significant impact on social and political life, but how often and how serious such famines and food shortages actually were is difficult to assess.
Fertility, natural
Authors: Hin Saskia
Published: December 2012

The concept of natural fertility refers to the fertility of a population which is not suppressed significantly by effective birth control.
Firefighting
Authors: Rohde Dorothea
Published: December 2012

Firefighting, fire protection and fire prevention have been part of the everyday life of people in antiquity since the time fire began to be used for food preparation, lighting, and cultic and military purposes.
Fostering, foster‐child
Authors: Dry David D.
Published: December 2012

Fostering is the practice whereby a family undertook the care and nurturing of a child that was not their biological progeny. Fosterage differed distinctly from adoption. While adoption was a legal change in familial affiliation that generally took place between free adults for political or economic purposes.
Fulling, fullers
Authors: Rohde Dorothea
Published: December 2012

Due to the equipment, chemicals, and large quantities of water required to clean fabrics and to process untreated woolen fabrics into cloth, the work was not generally done in individual households but was performed by free or enslaved fullers (Latin:fullones; Greek:gnapheis) in specialized workshops (fullonicae). The varying sizes of attested workshops shows a wide range of volume of production for either the local market or for a professional clientele. Given the tendency of Roman elites to look down upon those involved in urban labor and view such workers as being members of a single undifferentiated underclass, it is perhaps not surprising thatfullones– as urban workers – were the subject of derogatory remarks in Roman literature (e.g., Macrob.Sat. 2.2.9; Dio. 46.4–5), which often applied the inaccurate termfulloto their profession.
Genos, gene
Authors: Wilgaux Jérôme
Published: December 2012

In his famousHistory of Greece(1846–56), George Grote contended that thegenosplayed an essential part in the organization of ancient Greek societies, as did thegensin Roman society.
Gymnasium, Classical and Hellenistic times
Authors: Skaltsa Stella
Published: December 2012

The gymnasium constitutes one of the defining characteristics of Greek culture.
Heating
Authors: Habermann Wolfgang
Published: December 2012

Apart from the limited exploitation of geothermal and solar energy (for heating water, producing salt by evaporation, kindling fire through curved glass), heat was produced by combustion.
Hetaira
Authors: Henry Madeleine M.
Published: December 2012

Hetaira
is commonly translated as “courtesan,” and is used in Greek texts to refer to female prostitutes, but the social status and rights of persons so identified in these sources is far from clear.
Honestiores
Authors: Rohmann Dirk
Published: December 2012

Honestiores(“the more privileged persons”) was a legal category in the Roman Empire.
Honor — shame culture
Authors: Cantarella Eva
Published: December 2012

The concepts of “guilt” and “shame” cultures were adopted by the social anthropologist Ruth Benedict, member of a group charged by the US Government during World War II to study “Culture at Distance” in order to better understand the mentality and the mores of peoples with whom the US were at war, particularly the Germans and Japanese.
Hybris
Authors: Wendt Christian
Published: December 2012

Hybris
is a term used in different contexts, expressing various forms of moral transgression.
Hysteria
Authors: Touwaide Alain
Published: December 2012

Coming after a century‐long tradition,hysteriais a modern syndrome of a psychopathology considered typical of women.
Illegitimacy
Authors: Ellart Carlos Sánchez‐Moreno
Published: December 2012

In the ancient world, the social and legal consideration of illegitimate offspring (i.e., those born of unwed parents) did not imply a serious discrimination, nor did it signify an important social or moral problem.
Illness
Authors: Touwaide Alain
Published: December 2012

The pathological reality of Antiquity as a whole is difficult to perceive with some exactness, in spite of the texts describing single cases, such as the several books grouped under the titleEpidemicsand included in theCorpus Hippocraticum, the many works of descriptive anatomo‐pathology by Galen (for example,De locis affectis), or treatises on specific diseases, of the kidneys and the urinary tract, melancholia, and gout by Rufus of Ephesos (fl. ca. 100CE), and helminthology and ophthalmology by Alexander of Tralles (fl. ca. 565CE).
Immigrants
Authors: Isaac Benjamin
Published: December 2012

Like the term emigrants, immigrants can refer to individuals as well as to groups. If they form a group, they can assume a position of domination in society or occupy the lower rungs of the socioeconomic ladder.
Ingenuus
Authors: Ellart Carlos Sánchez‐Moreno
Published: December 2012

Ingenui
were freemen who were born as such. According to Gaius (Gai. 1.11), freemen (
liberi
) were either
ingenui
or
libertini
, the latter being those who had attained liberty through manumission. Children born from legal marriage were always
ingenui
(I. 1.4 pr.) since marriage implies citizenship.
Ingenuus
was frequently used as a qualification of
liber
(
liber et ingenuus
: Livy 6.40; Hor.
Ad Pis
. 383). This could explain Festus' assertion (Paul. Fest. 241, s.v.
patricios
excerpted from Cincius'
De comitiis
) that this name was originally strictly reserved for patricians, because at that time only they were considered to be Roman citizens (Livy 10.8.10).
Kinship, spiritual
Authors: Schwartz Daniel L.
Published: December 2012

Spiritual kinship is a type of fictive kinship having religious significance for the participants. Often confirmed through religious ceremonies, spiritual kinship included godparenthood, adoption, and ritual brotherhood. Ties of ritual kinship appear infrequently in Classical Greek and Roman sources.
Letters, letter writing, Greece and Rome
Authors: Cribiore Raffaella
Published: December 2012

It is not easy to define precisely the epistolary genre, and the ancient theorists' classifications are far from satisfactory. In general, a letter is a piece of writing from sender(s) to recipient(s), the former being physically separated from the latter.
Literacy, Rome and provinces
Authors: Haeussler Ralph
Published: December 2012

Literacy is conventionally defined as the ability to read and write. There are various forms of literacy depending on people's membership in a particular culture. We need to distinguish between active and passive literacy: starting with the ability to decipher or write simple texts, to the creative composition of complex texts with the complex syntax which may also imply forms of critical thinking and a reflection of one's self. Literacy may depend on people's status, their profession, gender, and age‐group, and their access to education.
Lodgers
Authors: Pudsey April
Published: December 2012

Lodgers are imperceptible in much of the textual, epigraphic, and archaeological record of the ancient Near East, China, and the Greco‐Roman world. The often temporary nature of their residence allowed lodgers to have evaded documentation in censuses, and their typically lower class status leaves them less visible in the record than other individuals.
Materfamilias
Authors: Hallett Judith P.
Published: December 2012

The Latin nounmaterfamiliasliterally means “mother” of a Roman “family”; that is, all persons subject to the control of one man, whether relations, freedmen, or slaves, organized into a household.
Memory, collective
Authors: Boozer Anna Lucille
Published: December 2012

Most theoretical conceptions of social memory follow the tradition established by Maurice Halbwachs, a sociologist, who argued that memory must be understood as a social phenomenon.
Menopause
Authors: Gerolemou Maria
Published: December 2012

Unlike the attention paid to Menstruation and the reproductive life of women in ancient medical texts, the interest shown in the menopause is rather limited.
Migration
Authors: Isaac Benjamin
Published: December 2012

Unlike the terms “emigrants” and “immigrants,” migration normally signifies a group phenomenon and may indicate movement in both directions.
Nutrition and malnutrition
Authors: Touwaide Alain
Published: December 2012

Study of nutrition in Antiquity has been based for a long time on primary sources as catalogs of foodstuffs (with their properties) in medical literature (e.g.,Corpus Hippocraticum,Regimen, and Galen,De alimentorum facultatibus, andDe bonis malisque sucis), pharmacological and natural history encyclopedias (Dioscorides,De materia medica, and Pliny,Naturalis Historia), or cookbooks (for example, Pseudo‐Apicius), sometimes also referring to artistic representations of foodstuffs (including still lifes) such as Pompeii frescoes.
Old age and aging
Authors: Boozer Anna Lucille
Published: December 2012

Most ancient societies viewed the active adult male as the social standard, while other individuals in society – the aged, children, women, foreigners, the mentally or physically weak, slaves, and so on – occupied the margins of this ideal.
Peristyle
Authors: Emme Burkhard
Published: December 2012

A major feature of Greek and Roman architecture, a peristyle consists of a central courtyard with porticoes usually on all four sides, stemming from the Greek wordperistylos, meaning “surrounded by columns.” The peristyle was developed in Greek architecture in the course of the fifth centuryBCE, and soon was used for buildings of different functions, such as dining halls, sanctuaries, markets, gymnasia, and magistrates' offices likeprytaneia.
Rape
Authors: Hofmann Dagmar
Published: December 2012

Although the phenomenon – rape as non‐consensual sexual intercourse – can be found in all periods, the moral and legal treatment of the act in Antiquity was significantly different from modern times.
Reliefs, Greece and Rome
Authors: Bobou Olympia
Published: December 2012

Reliefs are an integral part of Greek and Roman sculpture. The image is carved and set against a smooth background.
Sex and sexuality, Rome
Authors: Bobou Olympia
Published: December 2012

The study of sexuality in ancient Rome involves examining behaviors and attitudes toward sexual relations rather than a focus on biological functions.
Siblings
Authors: Harders Ann‐Cathrin
Published: December 2012

Brothers and sisters usually belonged to one generation, but death, divorce, and remarriage led to the dislocation of the family, adding step‐ and half‐siblings to the household.
Slavery, Rome
Authors: Watson Patricia
Published: December 2012

Slavery occupied an essential place in the fabric of Roman society; at its peak during the Late Republic, slaves accounted for around one third of the total population.
Sterility
Authors: Touwaide Alain
Published: December 2012

Infertility was traditionally attributed to women alone, even though it may also have been caused by sterility in men. However, the Pseudo‐GalenicDefinitionesattributes the cause to either one or to both (as is often the case, it adds) (19.451.4–5).
Stola
Authors: Cleland Liza
Published: December 2012

Thestolawas a long, sleeveless, tube‐shaped over‐tunic of thick fabric suspended from shoulder straps (institae), characteristic of the Roman matron.
Veiling
Authors: Cleland Liza
Published: December 2012

Veils and veiling can be seen purely as “covering the face,” but in many modern cultures it is simply important to have a garment (or fold of a garment)availableto cover the head and/or face.
Widows
Authors: Hanson Ann Ellis
Published: December 2012

The mortality rates experienced by ancient populations inhabiting the Mediterranean basin and adjacent lands were harsh.
Women's quarter
Authors: Kaffarnik Julia
Published: December 2012

The
gynaikonitis
,
gynaikon
or women's quarter appears in Greek (written) sources as the part of the house inhabited by women.
Games, Greek and Roman
Authors: Schaedler Ulrich
Published: December 2012

Games discussed in this article include games with dice, board games, and games of skill played by children or adults, excluding athletic, acrobatic, and theatrical activities, as for example the Olympic and other contests, gladiatorial combats, or chariot races, although the Greek term
paignion
and the Latin term
Indus
comprise all these kinds of games.
Foundation deposits
Authors: Van Haarlem Willem
Published: December 2012

This type of deposit is generally defined as a kind of offering placed in or beneath the foundations of a building or in its vicinity at the time of its founding (often under corners or other focal points such as doorways). This does not include objects or food items deposited after the structure was completed. In Egypt, the foundation ceremony for a temple was only the initial part of a ritual sequence that was not considered finished until the completed building had been ritually presented to its chief deity by a king. Hence, any offerings laid down before the completion of the final dedication rites must be included as foundation offerings.
Adad‐guppi
Authors: Melville Sarah C.
Published: December 2012

Adad‐guppi was the mother of Nabonidus, the last ruler of the Neo‐Babylonian Dynasty. Her extraordinary 104‐year life was recorded in a posthumous pseudo‐autobiography (Longman 1991) on twin funeral steles displayed at the Ehulhul, the temple of Sin in Harran (Pognon 1907; Gadd 1958).
Alalah
Authors: Dassow Eva
Published: December 2012

The ancient city of Alalah , whose ruins are today called Tell Atchana, is located on the Orontes River about 50 km upstream from the Mediterranean coast, at the river's northerly bend through the Amuq plain.
Andurārum
Authors: Lion Brigitte
Published: December 2012

The
Akkadian
term andurārum, with its Sumerian equivalent AMAARGI, meaning “return to origin,” denotes the return of persons or property to their former status.
Anshan
Authors: Emberling Geoff
Published: December 2012

Anshan (modern Tal‐i Malyan) is the highland capital of ancient Elam. The site is located in the Kur River Basin of Fars Province, Iran, about 40 km from Persepolis. Anshan is linked to Elam's lowland capital of Susa in historical sources, material culture, and by the migration routes of nomads who spent summers in the highlands and winters at lower elevations.
Anu
Authors: Hess Christian W.
Published: December 2012

The god An, “heaven” in Sumerian, was the Mesopotamian sky god; the Akkadian form of his name was Anu. He was king of the Anunnaku gods and, along with Enlil, he was head of the pantheon in the third and early second millenniabce.
Asherah
Authors: Smelik Klaas A. D.
Published: December 2012

Asherah is the name of a Northwest Semitic mother goddess. In texts from Ugarit, she is portrayed as the spouse of the supreme god El and as mother of the gods; she is also called “Lady Asherah of the Sea. ” In the Ba'al cycle, she intercedes with El to provide a palace for Ba'al. As mother goddess, Asherah is to be distinguished from Astarte, the Canaanite fertility goddess.
Ashurbanipal(Assurbanipal)
Authors: Frahm Eckart
Published: December 2012

Assurbanipal (Assyrian:Aššur‐bāni‐apli) was a king of Assyria who ruled from 669 to ca. 627BCE. His reign marks in some respects the apex of Assyrian civilization but signals as well Assyria's imminent downfall.
Assyrian kings, Middle Assyrian period
Authors: Cancik‐Kirschbaum Eva
Published: December 2012

The formation of the territorial state of Assyria, centered on the city of Ashur, had major importance for the subsequent history of the ancient Near East.
Awīlum, muškēnum
, and
wardum
Authors: Reculeau Hervè
Published: December 2012

The Laws of Hammurabi (eighteenth century
BCE
;
see
Hammurabi of babylon and his dynasty) divide Babylonian society into three social classes (or orders),
awīlum, muškēnum
, and
wardum
, the penalty inflicted for certain crimes varying depending on the status of the perpetrator and victim. The nature of this tripartite division and its social implications are still debated among scholars, especially since these terms are polysemic and vary according to the context in which they appear.
Aziru of Amurru
Authors: Rowe Ignacio Marquez
Published: December 2012

Aziru, son of Abdi‐Aŝirta, succeeded his father as ruler of
amurru
around 1345
BCE
; he is known from his own and other people's letters in the
amarna
correspondence.
Bala (palû)
Authors: Glassner Jean‐Jacques
Published: December 2012

BALA is a Sumerian word (borrowed into Akkadian as
palû
) denoting a period of time seen as a structural relationship between two points. This mode of time is conceptualized by reference to the cycles of seasons or the succession of generations. It denotes not a period of fixed length but a time span, whose specific length varied from a few days to several years. The word BALA also refers to the term of a rotating office, held in turn by a succession of officeholders; such rotating offices ranged from the humblest functions to the positions of governors, kings, or even gods.
Balaam
Authors: Smelik Klaas A. D.
Published: December 2012

Balaam was a prophet from Transjordan who is attested in the Old and New Testament as well as in an eighth centuryBCEplaster inscription found in Jordan. According to Num 22–24, Balak, king of Moab, sends messengers to Balaam requesting him to curse the Israelites. Balaam refuses but after divine interference arrives in Moab. He makes it clear that he will say only what Yhwh wants him to say. Having received a divine message, he blesses Israel in his first oracle. Balak makes two further endeavors, but each time Balaam's oracle is a blessing. Balaam pronounces a final oracle stating that Israel will rule over the Transjordanian kingdoms, including Moab.
Borsippa
Authors: Leick Gwendolyn
Published: December 2012

Borsippa (modern Birs Nimrud) was a Babylonian city, located 11 km southwest of Babylon, on the Euphrates.
Cuneiform
Authors: Taylor Jon
Published: December 2012

Cuneiform (“wedge shaped”) writing flourished in the ancient Near East over a period of more than three and a half thousand years.
Cyaxares
Authors: Rollinger Robert
Published: December 2012

The Median ruler Cyaxares, who reigned in the late seventh–early sixth centuries
BCE
, is attested in both Classical and Near Eastern sources.
El
Authors: Smelik Klaas A. D.
Published: December 2012

El is the northwest Semitic word for “deity.” In Canaan, it was also the name of the supreme god, the creator of all and the husband of the mother goddess Asherah. The other gods are his children, although Ba'al is called “son of Dagan.”
Elamite kings, Middle Elamite period
Authors: Vallat François
Published: December 2012

The Middle Elamite period, spanning roughly 1450–1100
BCE
, may be divided into three distinct phases, dated on the basis of synchronisms with Mesopotamian history.
Emesal (Sumerian dialect)
Authors: Michalowski Piotr
Published: December 2012

Emesal – that is, E M E S A L, literally “thin tongue” – is a dialect or sociolect of the Sumerian Language that is restricted to direct speech of goddesses and women in certain types of literary texts, in particular lamentations, divine love songs, a dialogue, proverbs, a “lullaby,” and a few more.
En, entu
Authors: Schrakamp Ingo
Published: December 2012

The Sumerian word E N, “lord,” is a prestigious title attested from the late fourth to the mid‐second millennium
bce
in Mesopotamia. Originally a designation for a high secular office, it became a title of male and female priests.
Ereshkigal and Nergal
Authors: Foster Benjamin R.
Published: December 2012

Ereshkigal (“Mistress of the Great Place”) was queen of the Netherworld.
Etana
Authors: Foster Benjamin R.
Published: December 2012

According to the Sumerian King List, Etana was the thirteenth king of Kish in the first dynasty to rule after the flood, a “shepherd” who “went up to heaven” and “put all countries in order.”
Girsu (Telloh)
Authors: Lafont Bertrand
Published: December 2012

Archaeological investigation shows that Telloh, the site of ancient Girsu in southern Iraq, was occupied beginning in the fourth millennium
BCE
.
Hammurabi of Babylon and his dynasty
Authors: Jacquet Antoine
Published: December 2012

The Old Babylonian period in Mesopotamia (twentieth–sixteenth centuriesBCE) is best known for the well‐documented reigns of Hammurabi, king of Babylon, and his son Samsu‐iluna, which constitute the apogee of this period. They belong to a line of ten kings who form the 1st Dynasty of Babylon.
Hana, Hanaean
Authors: Reculeau Hervé
Published: December 2012

The gentilic Hana (Akkadian
hanûm, hana
) appears in texts from Mari (Tell Hariri) (eighteenth century
BCE
), where it refers to nomads, and from Terqa (sixteenth–fourteenth centuries), perhaps with a geographic referent; it recurs occasionally in later literature.
Hattic language
Authors: Goedegebuure Petra
Published: December 2012

Hattic is the language of the pre‐Hittite non‐Indo‐European population of Central Anatolia (Hatti) of the late third to mid‐second millenniumBCE. It was spoken within the bend of the Halys River and perhaps beyond, but never recorded in writing by its native speakers.
Hazael of Damascus
Authors: Cline Eric H.
Published: December 2012

Hazael, an Aramaean king who attacked biblical Israel and Judah, ruled from Damascus ca. 843–796BCE.
Inanna (Ishtar)
Authors: Lewis Megan H. C.
Published: December 2012

The Sumerian goddess Inanna, equated with Ishtar in Akkadian, was the deity of sexual love, fertility, and war. She was also the goddess of the morning and evening star, Venus, and therefore symbolized by a star.
Jehu
Authors: Cline Eric H.
Published: December 2012

According to the Hebrew Bible, Jehu was a commander serving in the Israelite army during the ninth century bce.
Josiah
Authors: Cogan Mordechai
Published: December 2012

Josiah, son of Amon, was king of Judah from 639–609 bce.
Karum
Authors: Veenhof Klaas R.
Published: December 2012

A
kārum
, “quay, harbor, port,” was a common feature of Mesopotamian cities, which were situated on watercourses, where bulk transport was by boat.
Kashka
Authors: Goedegebuure Petra
Published: December 2012

The Kashka (Kaska) tribes were sedentary pastoralists who in historic times inhabited the Pontic Mountains of Anatolia.
Kassite Dynasty
Authors: Tenney Jonathan S.
Published: December 2012

The Kassite Dynasty ruled all of Babylonia from 1470 until 1155
BCE
, with the exception of a foreign interregnum from 1225–1217, making it the Babylonian kingdom with the greatest longevity.
Kassite, Kassites
Authors: Tenney Jonathan S.
Published: December 2012

The Kassites were an ethnic group attested in Mesopotamia from the early Old Babylonian to the Hellenistic period.
Kubaba
Authors: Mora Clelia
Published: December 2012

Kubaba was the principal goddess of Carchemish during the late second and early first millennia
BCE
. The name Kubaba (written
Ku‐ba‐ba
or
Ku‐pa‐pa
) is attested in several cuneiform tablets found at Hattusa, the Hittite capital, including lists of gods in rituals, descriptions of festivals, and prayers.
Lagash (Tell al‐Hiba)
Authors: Lafont Bertrand
Published: December 2012

Lagash was the name of both a city and a territory located in the southeast of Sumer, in southern Iraq. For a long time ancient Lagash was erroneously identified with modern Telloh, which is instead the site of ancient Girsu. It is the gigantic site of Tell al‐Hiba, almost 600 ha in extent, that represents the remains of Lagash.
Marduk‐apla‐iddin II (Merodach‐baladan)
Authors: Frahm Eckart
Published: December 2012

Marduk‐apla‐iddin II, known from the Bible (Is 39:1; 2 Kgs 20:12) as Merodach‐baladan, was a leader of the Chaldaean “tribe” of Bit‐Yakin who ruled as king of Babylon from 722 to 710BCEand then again for nine months in 704 or 703.
Medes, Media
Authors: Maraš Sabrina
Published: December 2012

The Medes were an Iranian people, closely related to the Persians, who began to make their presence felt in the northwestern part of the Iranian Plateau in the late second or early first millennium
BCE
.
Misharum
Authors: Lion Brigitte
Published: December 2012

The justice of the sovereign was exalted in the royal ideology of early second‐millennium Mesopotamia. This concept of justice had two distinct aspects,
kittum
(from the root
k‐w‐n
, “to be stable”), which guaranteed to each his due, and
misharum
(from
’‐š‐r
, “to be straight,” factitive “make straight”), rectification of troublesome situations.
Nabonidus
Authors: Joannès Francis
Published: December 2012

Through a plot, Nabonidus (Nabu‐na'id; r. 556–539BCE) came to the throne of Babylon at an advanced age. His singular personality can be explained by his illegitimacy and by his Assyro‐Aramaean heritage, through his mother Adad‐Guppi, who was closely linked with the temple of the moon‐god Sin at Harran.
Nabu
Authors: Oshima Takayoshi
Published: December 2012

Nabu was the patron deity of scribes. His main temple was Ezida (True House) in the city of Borsippa, located near Babylon.
Nippur
Authors: Lafont Bertrand
Published: December 2012

The ancient Mesopotamian city of Nippur, at the modern site of Nuffer, is located 160 km southeast of Baghdad.
Pigs, ancient Near East
Authors: Lion Brigitte
Published: December 2012

The pig (
Sus scrofa domestica
) has been domesticated in the Near East since the ninth millennium
BCE
; the earliest known examples come from southeastern Turkey and northern Syria.
Sargon II of Assyria
Authors: Frahm Eckart
Published: December 2012

Sargon II was king of Assyria from 722 to 705
BCE
; from 710 to 705, he was also king of Babylon. His actual Assyrian name was
Sharru‐ukin
; the name form “Sargon” is derived from the Hebrew Bible (Isa 20:1).
Sargon of Akkad and his dynasty
Authors: Schrakamp Ingo
Published: December 2012

The dynasty of Sargon, also known as the dynasty of Akkade is conventionally dated to ca.
Semiramis (Sammuramat)
Authors: Kuhrt Amelie
Published: December 2012

The legendary Assyrian queen Semiramis is generally thought to derive from the historical Sammuramat (ninth century
BCE
).
Shamshi‐Adad and sons
Authors: Villard Pierre
Published: December 2012

Šamiši‐Addu (Šamši‐Adad), a king of Amorite origin
(see
Amorites) who was a contemporary of Hammurabi Of Babylon, founded a realm that eventually encompassed all of upper Mesopotamia.
Suhu
Authors: Siddall Luis
Published: December 2012

Suhu was a region located on the Middle Euphrates that extended from Hindanu (perhaps located at modern Anqa or Tell al‐Gabriya) in the north to Rapiqu (near modern Falluja) on the border with Babylonia.