bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Diocletian, Roman emperor, 284–313 CE
Authors: Hellström Monica
Published: April 2016

Although not the watershed once considered, it remains justified to treat Diocletian’s reign (284–305 ce) as the beginning of Late Antiquity. Its length allowed for changes to take root, and the introduction of a ruling college of two Augusti (Diocletian and Maximian) and two Caesares (Galerius and Constantius I, also made sons-in-law) deterred civil wars by creating predictable lines of succession. Even so, serious civil conflicts arose in Gaul, Britannia, and Egypt, while peoples across the Rhine and Danuble required constant attention. The most glorified campaign was against Sasanian Persia (295/6–298/299), concluded by a signal victory celebrated at a joint triumph/jubilee in Rome (303). Diocletian enlarged the army but did not radically transform its structure, concentrating on consolidation. The empire retained its integrity, and evidence for permanent imperial residences is lacking, but Nicomedia emerges as an eastern imperial centre. Better substantiated is the subdivision of provinces, which increased the presence and capacity of the bureaucracy. The fiscal reform (287–) supported the war effort, making extraction predictable and effective (if not necessarily heavier). A new, global coinage was introduced in 294, and the Edict of Maximum Prices (301) set maxima for commodities, likely to contain inflation. Adjudication was supported by the collection and distribution of Rome’s earliest law codes. Among Diocletian’s most fateful legal actions were those against Christians (303–), doing much to shape his legacy. The notion of a “dominate” has been rejected, but Diocletian’s presentation took on novel aspects, and an extension of court ceremonial indicates an elevation of the imperial office. It became formally separated from the person, as shown by Diocletian’s retirement, settling at Spalato (305). By the time Diocletian died in 313, usurpations had thwarted his system, but his own authority remained undisputed, drawn upon by successors.
Diophantus
Authors: Christianidis Jean
Published: April 2016

Diophantus was a Greek mathematician who lived in late antiquity. His magnum opus, the Arithmetica, is the earliest preserved work which presents the use of algebra in solving arithmetical problems in a systematic way. This entry discusses the available information on Diophantus’ life, the general characteristics of his project, the existing evidence for practising algebra before Diophantus, and the reception of the Arithmetica by mathematicians, scholars, and humanists in subsequent periods.
Domus Aurea
Authors: Ball Larry
Published: April 2016

The Domus Aurea (Golden House) was the opulent residence of the emperor Nero (r. 54–68 ce), set in a vast park in Rome. Ancient literary sources on the Domus Aurea are abundant, albeit not wholly reliable or fair to Nero. Both Suetonius (Ner. 31) and Tacitus (Ann. 15.38–40 and 42) describe the construction. The first phase started in c. 60 ce. This was called the Domus Transitoria, which was interrupted by the great fire of 64 ce. “Domus Aurea” refers to the second phase, after the fire. Given its enormous scale, the Domus Aurea may not have been fully completed in just four years, but at least part of it was finished, most likely the core of the residence, on the Palatine Hill, near the forum, and Nero did move in. The palatine core is largely unknown to us, but the vast parklands created to the east of the forum area include a fine villa on the Esquiline Hill that bespeaks a spectacular new standard both for architectural design in vaulted Roman concrete and in decoration. After Nero, systematic obliteration of the Domus Aurea began with Vespasian (r. 69–79 ce), who sought to erase Nero’s memory. The Esquiline Villa was the last standing element of the Domus Aurea, buried under the Baths of Trajan after another urban conflagration in 104 ce.
Dracontius, Blossius Aemilius
Authors: Kaufmann Helen
Published: April 2016

Blossius Aemilius Dracontius was one of the most remarkable Latin poets in Vandal North Africa. He lived in Carthage around 500 ce, and combined poetry with a career in law. His major Christian work De laudibus dei (‘Praises of God’) combines biblical narrative with exegesis, doctrine, and autobiography. He also wrote a ‘Plea’ (Satisfactio) to the Vandal king Gunthamund, who had imprisoned him, as well as four short mythological epics (on Hylas, Helen, Medea, and Orestes respectively), two epithalamia, two prefaces, three rhetorical pieces, two epigrams, and two now lost panegyrics. Dracontius’ work stands out for its originality in combining sources, for its creative use of literary forms and rhetoric, and for its character descriptions.
Akkadian
Authors: Worthington Martin
Published: April 2016

Akkadian—the umbrella term for Babylonian and Assyrian—is an ancient but well-understood Semitic language (or group of languages) with a documented history of more than two thousand years. It was normally written in the cuneiform script and offers a dizzying array of written sources, more of which appear by the year.
eisangelia
Authors: Harris Edward
Published: April 2016

The noun eisangelia normally meant “a report” and the verb eisangelllein “to report.” These words could be used as synonyms of the noun mênysis (denunciation) and the verb mênyein (to denounce) for reporting crimes to the Council and Assembly. There was a special procedure of eisangelia against officials to the Council, which could vote to hand the case to a court. After 403 bce, a new procedure was created against those plotting against the democracy, against betraying the armed forces, and against corrupt speakers in the Assembly. These cases were tried in court; the penalty was death. There was also a procedure eisangelia against public arbitrators and another type of eisangelia against guardians and those who harmed orphans.
Eleatic school
Authors: Palmer John
Published: April 2016

Parmenides of Elea, Zeno of Elea, and Melissus of Samos are often considered as a group within Presocratic philosophy because of the supposed similarity of their doctrines. Some ancient reports, drawing on Plato (Soph. 242d), identify Xenophanes of Colophon as their forebear. Although these thinkers were variously associated throughout antiquity, the notion that Parmenides, Zeno, and Melissus comprised a distinct school of thought is more a historiographic invention than a historical reality, given that there were no actual philosophical schools in antiquity prior to the founding of Plato's Academy. In modern times, advocacy of strict monism and the concomitant denial of all change and radical denigration of the evidence of the senses have been regarded as the characteristic doctrines of the Eleatic school. Only Melissus, however, indisputably propounded these views. It has become increasingly controversial whether Parmenides did so and whether Zeno designed his ingenious paradoxes to support them. Although the notion of an Eleatic School is historically unreliable, Parmenides’ profoundly original metaphysical poem should nevertheless be seen as engendering a broader trend of Eleatic-style ontology in works as diverse as Gorgias's On Nature or On What Is Not and the dialectical exercise in Plato's Parmenides.
Erechtheus
Authors: Rappold Adam
Published: April 2016

Erechtheus was both one of the ten tribal (phyle) heroes of Athens and a mythical founding king of the city. Originally born from the very land of Attica (gēgenēs / γηγενής), his myths served as a symbol of the developing concepts of autochthony, with his birth demonstrating that the Athenians were the original inhabitants of Attica, and of nationalism, with the Athenians referring to themselves as the “sons of Erechtheus.” His most important myth, as exemplified in Euripides’ fragmentary Erechtheus, has him sacrificing one of his daughters to preserve Athens from the armies of Eumolpus. As a cult figure, in the classical era, he was associated with the Athenian worship of Athena and Poseidon, his name sometimes functioning as an epithet of Poseidon, and he had a major cult in the Erechtheum on the Acropolis. The scholarship on Erechtheus has primarily been concerned with whether or not he was originally combined with another earth-born Athenian king, Erichthonius, albeit with inconclusive results.
Erichthonius (1), Athenian hero
Authors: Rappold Adam
Published: April 2016

Erichthonius is one of the original, legendary kings of the Athenians. In his myth, he was born directly from the soil of Attica, after Hephaestus attempted to rape Athena, but instead cast his seed upon the ground. Athena conceals the child in a basket and entrusts the child to the daughters of Cecrops with a command to never look inside. Some (or all) of the daughters disobey this command and, in response, Athena forces them to jump off of the Acropolis. This sequence of events suggests that his existence was heavily tied to aitiologies of the cults and cult buildings of the Cecropides on the Acropolis, as well as the Arrhephoria ritual, which seemingly recreates this narrative sequence. As a king, he was thought to have created the Panathenaea festival. In general, although his earth-born origin means that he is sometimes connected to the development of Athenian autochthony in the 5th century bce, he is not particularly prominent in myth or cult. One notable exception is that Erichthonius is sometimes referred to as the guardian snake that often accompanies Athena in statues and, according to Herodotus, may actually have inhabited Athena’s oldest temple. Most scholarship on Erichthonius has revolved around whether or not he is a double of the similar autochthon, Erechtheus—separated either in the 6th or 5th century bce—albeit inconclusively.
Hannibal
Authors: MacDonald Eve
Published: April 2016

Hannibal Barca, Carthaginian general, lived from c. 247 to 182 bce. He is considered one of the greatest military strategists of the ancient world, but little is known of the real man. Born in Carthage, Hannibal spent most of his life away from the city, first in the Iberian Peninsula (238–218 bce) and then in Italy fighting the Romans (c. 218–203 bce). His battles in Italy made him a legend, and his victories at Trasimeno and Cannae resonate still in the early 21st century. After a short period back in Carthaginian territory, he was defeated at the Battle of Zama by Scipio Africanus (c. 202 bce), and Carthage lost its second war with Rome. Hannibal survived Zama to be elected as one of the civic magistrates in Carthage (sufetes) in 196 bce before going into political exile in the eastern Mediterranean until his death at age 65 (c. 182 bce).
Heliodorus (4), Greek novelist, c. 4th century CE
Authors: Kruchió Benedek
Published: April 2016

Heliodorus was the author of the Aethiopica, the latest and longest Greek novel to survive from antiquity. In his work, Heliodorus claims to be a Phoenician from Emesa, but there are good reasons against treating this as an authoritative autobiographical statement. The Aethiopica tells the adventures of Charicleia, the white daughter of the black queen and king of Ethiopia. Her mother abandons her, and she is brought up by foster-fathers in Ethiopia and Delphi. There she falls in love with the young Greek Theagenes, with whom she travels via Egypt to Ethiopia. They are almost sacrificed to the local gods, but Charicleia’s parents eventually recognise her. The protagonists become priests and marry. The novel is a narratologically ambitious work that draws on the structure of the Odyssey (in mediis rebus beginning, embedded heterodiegetic narratives) and takes these devices to a whole new level. A wide range of topics play important roles in the Aethiopica, such as religion, multiculturalism, identity, and epistemology.
horse- and chariot-races
Authors: Bell Sinclair W. , Thuillier Jean-Paul , Willekes Carolyn
Published: April 2016

From the Olympian Games to the modern film Ben-Hur , horse- and chariot-races have proven a potent and enduring symbol of the agonistic culture of Classical Antiquity. Similarities did exist between Greek, Etruscan, and Roman cultures: equestrianism of all forms, due to the expense involved, had aristocratic overtones. But in contrast to the Greeks’ equal passion for mounted horse races and chariot racing, Romans strongly favored the latter, which they developed under the primary influence of the Etruscans and expanded into an empire-wide, professionalized industry.
Hyperides, Athenian orator and politician, 389–322 BCE
Authors: Herrman Judson
Published: April 2016

Hyperides (Ὑπερείδης), son of Glaucippus of the deme Collytus, was one of the ten canonical Attic orators and was esteemed by ancient critics as a versatile speechwriter; as a politician, he was a prominent opponent of Macedon in the period before and after the battle of Chaeronea.
Achilles
Authors: Burgess Jonathan S.
Published: April 2016

Achilles is the grandson of Aeacus of Aigina and son of Peleus and the Nerei.d Thetis. He rules the Myrmidons of Phthia in southern Thessaly and is generally considered the best (aristos) of the Greeks in the Trojan War. In Homer’s Iliad he is said to have led fifty ships to Troy (2.681–685). The Iliad’s plot turns on his withdrawal from battle in anger at the Greek commander Agamemnon and his return to take vengeance on Hector for killing his close friend Patroclus. Many episodes in the life of Achilles, including his early life and death at Troy, were popular in Greek and Roman literature and iconography. Summaries of mythological events found in the life of Achilles can be found in the Epitome of Apollodorus and the Fabulae of Hyginus (1st century bce to 1st century ce). Reception of myths about Achilles has continued in post-antiquity.
Isaeus (1), Athenian speech-writer, c. 420–340s BCE
Authors: Griffith-Williams Brenda
Published: April 2016

Isaeus was a logographer (professional speechwriter) working for Athenian litigants in the 4th century bce. Eleven of his twelve extant speeches, and most of the surviving fragments, are concerned with disputed inheritance claims, while speech 12 is from a case of disputed citizenship. Hardly anything is known about Isaeus’s life; he was apparently never involved in any litigation on his own account, or in the political life of Athens, and it is not even certain whether he was an Athenian citizen or a metic. One of the ten “Attic orators” recognized in later antiquity as having classic status, he was reputed to have been a pupil of Isocrates and teacher of Demosthenes. For modern scholars his speeches are an important source of information on social history and family life in 4th-century Athens, as well as on Athenian inheritance law and legal culture, but in comparison with other Athenian orators, notably Demosthenes and Lysias, his work has been relatively neglected. Commentaries published in the last fifty years focus on individual speeches or selections, and the only comprehensive English language commentary on the entire Isaean corpus is still that of William Wyse, published in 1904. Wyse’s work remains influential, although more recent scholars have discredited his extreme scepticism about the reliability of Isaeus’s speeches as a source of Athenian law. Later research has also shed new light on the historical background to some of the speeches.
Laodice (2), Seleucid queen, wife of Antiochus (2) II, c. 285–unknown
Authors: D'Agostini Monica
Published: April 2016

The first wife of the Seleucid king Antiochos II Theos, Laodice, was the daughter of Achaeus the Elder, a Greco-Macedonian local dynast of Asia Minor. She had estates in both Asia Minor and Babylonia. Following the second wedding of her husband Antiochos II with Berenice, Ptolemy II’s daughter, in 252 bce, Laodice remained the wife of the king and member of the royal family. Her son Seleucus II was acclaimed king after the death of his father, Antiochus II, in 246 bce. War broke out between Laodice and Seleucus II and Berenice, who claimed the throne for her infant Antiochus. Laodice controlled Asia Minor, whereas Berenice’s authority extended over Cilicia and Syria. Berenice’s brother Ptolemy III sailed for Seleucia, to his sister’s aid with a fleet and an army, and waged war against Seleucus II. Berenice and her son were killed in Antioch by supporters of Laodice. During the reign of Seleucus II, Antiochus Hierax rebelled against his brother in Asia Minor causing the so-called “War of the Brothers,” and Laodice supported his secession. The circumstances of her passing are unknown. Appian alone claims she died in 246 bce, killed by Ptolemy III.
Livius Andronicus, Lucius, c. 280/270–200 BCE
Authors: Biggs Thomas , Manuwald Gesine , Jocelyn H. D.
Published: April 2016

Lucius Livius Andronicus (c. 280/70–200 bce) was a Latin author of probable Greek origin who is credited with initiating the tradition of scripted dramatic performance at Rome and composing the first epic poem in Latin. Andronicus’s life appears to have spanned a large part of the 3rd century bce; the only firmly transmitted date concerns the performance of a hymn to Juno for which he was commissioned during the Second Punic War (207 bce). He is often linked to the year 240 bce, a widely accepted but controversial date for his first staging of Latin plays during the Ludi Romani (“Roman Games”). His translation of the Odyssey was influential, although its initial audience and level of circulation are debated. His works survive exclusively in fragments. Andronicus’s skeletal ancient biography suggests his status as a formerly enslaved person who was trafficked to Rome from Magna Graecia in the aftermath of war. Latin literature’s first author was thus a forcibly displaced migrant for whom Latin was a second or third language. This account may not be wholly accurate, but it aligns with other near-contemporary authorial biographies and various attested trends in Roman sociopolitical and cultural history during the increasingly mobile Middle Republic.
Lucian, of Samosata
Authors: Baumbach Manuel
Published: April 2016

The 86 writings from the 2nd century ce that have come down to us under Lucian’s name are characterized by their creative appropriation of literary traditions. The thematic and formal range of Lucian’s oeuvre is enormous: there are rhetorical works such as declamations, paradoxical encomia, prolaliai and ekphraseis, literary-critical treatises, novel-like narratives, epistles critical of society, pamphlets, letters, and a multitude of dialogical writings. With the comedic dialogue, Lucian creates a new hybrid form of comedy and Platonic dialogue. He establishes the tradition of the genre of “dialogues among the dead” and his True Stories (Verae historiae) are taken as a model for fantastic travel novels. Against the background of the educational culture of the Second Sophistic, his writings address appearance and reality, lies and truth in cultural, philosophical, religious, and social discourses. An important key to understanding his works is their intertextual richness of allusion, not only to the canon of classical literature but also to Hellenistic and imperial writings. By using various author figures and different settings, Lucian’s texts constantly change perspectives and lead their recipients to the most diverse places of the Roman Empire, to its margins or to utopian spaces. The unfamiliar views of the real world break with customary ways of looking at things, open up new insights, require new aesthetic approaches, and encourage the listeners and readers of Lucian’s writings to reflect on the relationship between historical life and literary representation. Despite criticism of some works (e.g. De mort. Peregr., Philopatris) for supposed hatred of Christians, Lucian has been read since the 3rd century ce and is highly regarded for his style. From humanism to the Enlightenment, he is one of the most widely received authors of the imperial period.
amphorae and amphora stamps, Greek
Authors: Lawall Mark L.
Published: April 2016

Transport amphorae, used throughout the ancient Mediterranean world, were plain clay vessels with two handles, used for the transportation and storage of wine, olive oil, and many other commodities. The specific shapes of the jars varied over time and from region to region, so they can be identified with some degree of accuracy today. Stamped impressions of names and images on the jars were used at times to manage civic control over their production and perhaps facilitate their distribution. The stamps are often helpful, too, by indicating the place and date of manufacture. As these jars played such an important role in ancient commerce, studies of their distribution patterns can shed light on trade routes and commercial networks around the Mediterranean.
Lycurgus (2), legendary Spartan
Authors: Nafissi Massimo
Published: April 2016

Lycurgus was the legendary founder of Sparta’s political order and of many of its social institutions. His legend initially developed as part of the transformation that gave Sparta its distinctive features during the Archaic period. The role that Spartan tradition attributed to Lycurgus ended up subsuming and eventually cancelling any memory of this process, and his role in the establishment of the city’s laws and customs, along with Apollo’s blessing, rendered them more legitimate and binding. As it was Lycurgus’s laws that granted Sparta her distinctive greatness, the lawgiver continued to be an influential source of civic identity throughout antiquity, and in Sparta, his legend continued to be revived through a process known as invention of tradition. Throughout the Greek world, Lycurgus and his legislation were the object of deep historical, political and ethical-philosophical interest, usually admired or idealised, but occasionally viewed more critically.
meteorology
Authors: Taub Liba
Published: April 2016

Greco-Roman meteorology included the study of what we today consider to be atmospheric, astronomical, and seismological phenomena; wind, rain, comets, and earthquakes were subjects of meteorological study, as were many other phenomena. For the most part, those authors and texts that treated meteorology were not concerned with weather prediction but rather with explaining phenomena. Various philosophers, including the Presocratics, Aristotle, Theophrastus, and Epicurus, as well as other philosophically-minded authors such as Lucretius and Seneca, approached the topic from the standpoint of their own interests, including ethics as well as physics. The traditional gods were not wholly absent from philosophical accounts, but they were not thought responsible for weather. Various authors and texts addressed weather prediction, providing lists of weather signs. Ancient Greco-Roman meteorology and weather prediction were both characterized by conservatism and a valorization of tradition, but nevertheless permitted a degree of innovation and originality.
Mycenae
Authors: Shelton Kim
Published: April 2016

Mycenae is a fortified palatial citadel located in the NE Peloponnese of mainland Greece that was occupied primarily during the Late Bronze Age. Its name is used for the Mycenaean culture of the mainland and for the relevant period, also known as Late Helladic. Mycenae was the largest, wealthiest, and probably most important palatial center on the mainland controlling a region surrounding it full of exploited natural and agricultural resources. Excavated almost continuously since the late 19th century, it is known for monumental architecture, the Cyclopean walls, the Lion Gate, and the beehive Tholos tombs, for the production of high-quality materials such as decorative ivories and painted pottery, and as the home of the legendary king Agamemnon.
Nicomachus (4) Flavianus, Virius, Roman senator, c. 340–394 CE
Authors: Kelly Gavin
Published: April 2016

Virius Nicomachus (4) Flavianus (c. 340–394 ce), was a Roman aristocrat, officeholder, and author, though no works survive. He has traditionally been seen alongside his fellow senators Vettius Agorius Praetextatus and Q. Aurelius Symmachus as a major figure in the last days of Roman paganism; Flavianus in particular is seen as having supported a pagan revival under the usurper Eugenius, whom he served as praetorian prefect and consul in 394 before committing suicide upon Eugenius’s defeat by Theodosius I at the Battle of the River Frigidus. The supposed pagan revival has been called into question in recent scholarship. Flavianus is also known to have written a history, which is lost.
Nonnus, of Panopolis, Greek epic poet, mid-5th c. CE
Authors: Verhelst Berenice
Published: April 2016

The 5th-century ce Greek poet Nonnus of Panopolis (the modern Akhmim, Upper-Egypt) is known as the author of two poems. The Dionysiaca is the longest extant ancient Greek poem, a mythological epic (48 books, 21,286 lines) about the young god Dionysus. The much shorter Paraphrase of the Gospel of John (3,640 lines) closely follows the structure of its gospel model, but renders its story in Nonnus’ impeccable hexameters and florid language.
Oppian
Authors: Kneebone Emily
Published: April 2016

Oppian: author of a five-book Greek didactic poem on fish and fishing at sea, composed around 177–180 ce and addressed to the emperor Marcus Aurelius and his son Commodus. The first two books of the poem deal with the habits and habitats of marine species; the last three deal with methods for their capture. The poem, which contains a wealth of material on fish and fishing, is notable for its extended epic similes and representation of the affinities between human and non-human animals.
Ovid, poet, 43 BCE–17 CE
Authors: Hinds Stephen
Published: April 2016

Born in 43 bce, Ovid first made his name at Rome as a playful and experimental love poet, in the Amores, the epistolary Heroides, and the didactic Ars Amatoria and Remedia Amoris; by about 2 ce, he was able to claim that “elegy owes as much to me as epic does to Virgil.” Concurrently with the epic Metamorphoses, he was at work (2–8 ce) on the elegiac Fasti, a poetical calendar of the Roman year, with one book devoted to each month; and he would spend his final decade further extending the range of elegy with the pleas and laments of the Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto, sent to Rome from afar, along with the curse-poetry of the Ibis. When Ovid turned in his forties to epic, he did not attempt direct competition with the already classic Aeneid. The 15-book Metamorphoses recounted dozens of tales from classical and Near Eastern myth and legend, with no central hero, but with characters and settings changing every few pages; every episode was in some way a story of supernatural transformation, and the whole took the ostensibly chronological form of a history of the universe. As the epic neared completion in 8 ce, the poet was suddenly banished by the emperor Augustus to the Black Sea frontier, (a) for the perceived immorality of the almost decade-old Ars Amatoria, and (b) for a still-mysterious error or indiscretion. Ovid languished in his place of exile, Tomis (modern Constantsa), until his death, probably in 17 ce.
Parmenides of Elea, Presocratic philosopher, c. 515–post-450 BCE
Authors: Palmer John
Published: April 2016

Parmenides of Elea is one of the most profound and challenging of the early Greek philosophers. He wrote a didactic poem treating metaphysical and cosmological themes presented in the form of a mystical revelation. It comprised a proem describing his journey to the Halls of Night, where a goddess greets him and presents this revelation in two main parts, which have come to be known as the Way of Truth and the Way of Opinion. The Way of Truth presents a tightly structured sequence of arguments that What Is must be “ungenerated and deathless, | whole and uniform, and still and perfect” (28B8.3–4 DK). The Way of Opinion comprised a cosmology based on the elemental principles Light and Night that contained numerous innovations, including identification of the sun as the source of the moon’s light. Parmenides’ thought inspired diverse reactions and appropriations in antiquity, and both its details and ultimate significance have continued to be intensely controversial. Modern interpretations divide into three main types: those that view Parmenides as a strict monist who denied the existence of the sensible world, those that view him as providing a higher-order characterization of the principles of any acceptable cosmology, and those that understand him as pursuing the distinctions between necessary being, necessary non-being or impossibility, and mutable or contingent being.
Philodemus, c. 110–c. 35 BCE
Authors: Blank David
Published: April 2016

Philodemus (c. 110 Gadara, Syria–c. 35 bce Naples?) was an Epicurean philosopher. Philodemus eventually settled in Italy, where he was mentioned by Cicero as a companion of the Roman politician L. Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, a composer of elegant verse and a good explainer of Epicurean doctrine, along with Siro, with whom he had a school of Epicureans in Naples that included a number of Roman poets in the circle of Vergil and Horace. Some of Philodemus’ epigrams were anthologized in the Garland of Philipp and became known to early modern scholars in the Palatine Anthology. His philosophical writings were unknown until they were found, in the 18th century, to be the vast majority of the book-rolls discovered in excavations of the “Villa of the Papyri” in Herculaneum.

The philosophical books of Philodemus so far known cover a wide variety of topics and show a particular interest in theology and religious observance; arts such as rhetoric, poetics, music; vices such as flattery, anger, greed, arrogance, and the character types of those who suffer from them; the history of other philosophical schools, such as the Platonic Academy and the Stoa, as seen in short biographies of their leading figures; longer, almost hagiographical accounts of the lives of the early Epicureans, and letters indicating their relations with one another. In these books Philodemus is frequently seen defending the interpretations of Epicurean doctrine by his own revered teacher Zeno of Sidon. He also stresses the manner in which an Epicurean school should be conducted, with a culture of “frank criticism” among junior and senior members and an understanding that, when one initially feels that a wise teacher is being unfair, overly critical, or even angry, it is the result of pedagogical strategy.
Philonides (2), Epicurean Philosopher
Authors: Warren James
Published: April 2016

Philonides of Laodicea-on-Sea, in Syria, was an Epicurean philosopher of the 2nd century bce. He was first a student of some geometers (a Eudemus and a Dionysodorus) and then became a student of the Epicurean Artemon. He also studied with Basilides, scholarch of the Athenian Garden from about 205 bce. One of the papyri preserved in the Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum (PHerc. 1044) contains a biography. It is disputed whether Philonides was a practising geometer who attempted to reconcile his study of mathematics with his Epicurean commitment to the existence of partless but extended spatial minima. Most likely, he adopted an orthodox Epicurean position on these matters.
Pontius Pilatus
Authors: Bond Helen K.
Published: April 2016

Pontius Pilatus was the fifth Roman prefect of Judaea, c. 26–37 ce. Incidents from his administration appear in the works of Flavius Josephus and Philo of Alexandria. He is best known, however, for sending Jesus of Nazareth to the cross, an event noted by Tacitus (Ann. 15.44) and described at length in the Christian gospels.
population, Roman
Authors: Hin Saskia
Published: April 2016

Roman population size and population trends have been debated for long by proponents of low and high counts; these have recently been joined by proponents of a middle count. Each is based on a different interpretation of the enigmatic Roman census figures. Different understandings of patterns of death and disease, of marriage, of childbearing, and of infanticide follow on from these interpretations. Recent studies have added new perspectives, drawing on archaeological finds, and have started to pay more attention to migration flows.
portraiture, Greek
Authors: Dillon Sheila
Published: April 2016

Portrait statues were a major component of Greek sculptural production, and many of these statues were made by the most famous sculptors of Greek antiquity. A public honorific portrait statue was in fact the highest honour an individual could receive and as such was much coveted. However, as most of these monuments were of bronze, very few have survived. Given the absence of the statues themselves, we are left to reconstruct the history and appearance of Greek portraiture primarily through other kinds of evidence: later literary sources, Roman-period copies primarily of portrait heads, inscribed statue bases, decrees recording the decision to award an honorific portrait. Based on this evidence, it is clear that portrait statues were a prominent feature of the statuary landscape of Greek cities and sanctuaries, particularly in the Hellenistic period, when their numbers increased and the range of people represented by them came to include women and children.
portraiture, Roman
Authors: Walker Susan E. C.
Published: April 2016

Roman portraiture is noted for its verism, and for the imitation of imperial images by private citizens of the Roman empire, notably in their funerary monuments. Portraits were regarded as substitutes for living emperors and expressed the relationship between the ruling power and local elites, notably in Mediterranean urban centres, where local benefactors were often commemorated with portrait statues. With the onset of increasing central control in late antiquity, portraits of emperors and imperial officials became vulnerable to indifference and popular discontent.
pottery, Roman
Authors: Greene Kevin
Published: April 2016

Roman pottery plays an essential role in dating and interpreting excavated sites. It also reflects changes in Roman society, in terms of its economy, religion, and consumption practices. In addition, pottery gives further insights into the workings of Roman industry and trade. Most pottery was manufactured in specialized workshops and fired in carefully constructed kilns. Standardized forms with wide distributions, and frequent use of stamps showing workshop names, suggest that much of it was traded commercially. Nevertheless, traditional local industries survived in many places, supplying smaller regions.

Roman pottery comprises a full range of vessels for table and kitchen functions, as well as for use in storage and transportation. At the top of the quality scale was terra sigillata, a tableware with a smooth, red, glossy surface, and a suite of forms from cups to plates. Other kinds of fine, elaborately decorated cups and beakers were also used alongside dinner services. But the great majority of Roman pots were plain earthenware vessels designed for cooking and storage. Examples of more specialized forms include amphorae, used for transporting foodstuffs, and enormous globular dolia up to 2 m (6.5 ft) in height, which were employed on farms for storage and fermenting wine as well as for transporting foodstuffs on ships. In addition, mortaria (wide bowls with gritted or ridged internal surfaces and a pouring spout) were manufactured for use in food preparation. From the end of the 1st century ce, sites around the Mediterranean began to be supplied with red-slipped tablewares from Africa and Asia Minor, rather than terra sigillata. Late Roman kitchen vessels around the Mediterranean also diverged from those of the northern provinces. A simplified range of plain, robust, highly functional cooking pots and bowls was mass-produced, as well as amphorae, which continued to be used for transporting liquids and foodstuffs.
proxeny (proxenos)
Authors: Mack William
Published: April 2016

Proxeny (proxenia) was an official honorific status granted by Greek states to members of external political communities and was closely related to the private institution of ritualized friendship (xenia). Recipients, who became proxenoi as a result, constituted a formal network of local friends for the granting state, capable of facilitating interactions for both official delegates and their citizens visiting on private business. Proxeny was consequently a central element of the Greek system of interstate institutions. It enabled state actors to establish connections with individuals at a wide range of other political communities within the densely fragmented city-state culture of the ancient Mediterranean.
Quintilian, Roman advocate and rhetorician, 1st century CE
Authors: Dozier Curtis
Published: April 2016

Quintilian (Marcus Fabius Quintilianus) was a prominent orator and teacher of rhetoric in Rome during the Flavian period. His best-known work is the Institutio Oratoria, “The Orator’s Education,” which presents an idealized curriculum for the training of orators, beginning with their birth and extending through their retirement in old age. It has been treated primarily as a storehouse of information about ancient rhetorical theory and Roman educational practices but is increasingly recognized as a literary work in its own right, marked in particular by Quintilian’s own deployment of the same rhetorical techniques that the Institutio teaches.
Quintus Smyrnaeus, Greek epic poet, 2nd/3rd century CE
Authors: Bär Silvio
Published: April 2016

Quintus Smyrnaeus was a poet of the late 2nd or 3rd century ce, the author of the epic poem the Posthomerica (14 books, 8,786 lines), which covers the narrative lacuna between Homer’s Iliad and the Odyssey and thus treats stories that were originally covered by the Epic Cycle. The narrative technique is more episodic and linear than that of the Homeric epics, but it does not lack plot coherence and an overarching design. The language and style is strongly Homericising: vocabulary, syntax, and the use of formulaic phrases resemble that of the Homeric epics to a large degree. At the same time, Quintus’s language is also characterised by Alexandrian traits. In a wider cultural context, Quintus belongs to the same period as the Second Sophistic, and the Posthomerica can be understood as a response to revisionist tendencies against Homer. Scholars debate the question as to whether Quintus still had access to the Epic Cycle and whether he was influenced by Roman authors, especially by Vergil’s Aeneid.
rabbis
Authors: Lapin Hayim
Published: April 2016

The term “rabbis” generally refers to Jewish scholars and ritual specialists who flourished in Palestine and Babylonia, from the late 1st to the 6th centuries ce. Although some evidence for rabbis exists outside literary texts, most of our knowledge derives from rabbinic or Talmudic literature itself. This literature is undoubtedly rich, but also produced by and for a community of insiders. This makes drawing historiographical (especially chronological or biographical) conclusions problematic. Traditionally and in some older scholarship, rabbis were viewed as the leadership of the Jewish people, at least in Palestine and Mesopotamia, and were often thought to derive their authority from formal or informal imperial mandate. A more common view today recognizes that rabbis were a numerically small group with little or no official power, although there remains considerable debate over how influential or representative of a wider population rabbis may have been.
Sidonius Apollinaris
Authors: van Waarden Joop
Published: April 2016

Sidonius Apollinaris, c. 430–c. 485 ce, Gallo-Roman aristocrat, poet and letter writer, civil servant, and bishop, is one of the most distinct voices to survive from Late Antiquity as an eyewitness of the end of Roman power in the West. Born in Lyon to a family of high-ranking Gallo-Roman administrators, he became a leading resident of the Auvergne through his marriage. In the 450s and 460s, he delivered poetic panegyrics to three emperors: his father-in-law Avitus, Majorian, and Anthemius, voicing Gallic, and especially Auvergnat, interests. His other poetic output consists of occasional verse, celebrating moments of high-profile aristocratic, and Christian life. He put out a carefully crafted collection of his selected letters in nine books against the foil of his personal and contemporary history, including significant elements like his early career, culminating in the urban prefecture in Rome (468/469), lettered leisure in the company of sophisticated friends on Gallic estates, and the turning of the scales that made him into bishop of his hometown Clermont, in vain opposing the onset of the Visigoths and having to put up with the final withdrawal of Roman authority from Gaul (475/476). After a period of exile, he was reinstated as bishop under Visigothic sovereignty. His career is typical for the kind of aristocratic bishop that emerged in Gaul as imperial career opportunities vanished, social distinction being transferred to office holding in the Church, and a distinguished ascetic lifestyle.

His works are a sustained effort, against all odds, to maintain a high standard of Roman culture and language, in constant interaction with the whole of Roman literature. He was much admired and imitated by posterity, well into the Renaissance, for his resounding prose style. A prime example of Late Antiquity literary artistry as well as a treasure trove of knowledge of his times, his work is a continuing source of fascination.
Vegetius Renatus
Authors: Charles Michael B.
Published: April 2016

Vegetius Renatus was a Latin author writing in the Late Empire. He wrote the Epitoma rei militaris, which deals with ways to improve Rome’s flagging military prowess—including revival of the antiqua legio (“old-fashioned legion”) and reduction of reliance on barbarian mercenaries—and the Digesta artis mulomedicinae, which deals with animal husbandry and the care of horses in particular. Vegetius appears to have been a Christian and likely occupied a senior post in the Roman imperial bureaucracy. It is uncertain when Vegetius was active. Vegetius dedicated the Epitoma to an unnamed emperor. Traditionally, this has been assumed to have been Theodosius I (reign, 379–395 ce) because of presumably later manuscript dedications, but the context of the text arguably suits a fifth-century date better (especially one after 425 ce). Valentinian III (425–455 ce) or Theodosius II (408–450 ce) have emerged as the most likely candidates. Given that a certain Eutropius amended the manuscript of the Epitoma in 450 ce, it is clear that Vegetius must have written before that year.
Victorinus, Marius, c. 285–c. 365 CE
Authors: Cooper Stephen A.
Published: April 2016

Marius Victorinus is one of the few direct links between the Platonist schools of late antiquity and Latin theology. A professor of rhetoric in mid-4th century Rome, Victorinus is perhaps the only Latin author whose writings, composed before and after his conversion to Christianity, survive. His school works of grammar and rhetoric were used for over a millennium, and he anticipated Boethius in integrating logic and dialectic into the rhetorical curriculum. He also translated the Neoplatonic works that deeply impacted Augustine. After conversion, Victorinus composed theological works of various genres: treatises and hymns in defense of the Nicene Creed and commentaries on the Pauline epistles, the first in Latin. The treatises reveal his chief contribution to the history of Christian thought: a philosophical interpretation of the trinity that drew deeply on late antique Platonist language and conceptuality to formulate a pro-Nicene theology. His commentaries on Paul employ the grammarian’s literal treatment of the text to identify the situational context of the epistles and the apostle’s rhetorical strategy. Victorinus was a pioneer of the synthesis of Christianity and Platonism in the Latin church, which reached its heights in late antiquity with Augustine and Boethius and flowered variously in the medieval Latin church.
wine, Greek and Roman
Authors: van Limbergen Dimitri
Published: April 2016

Grape cultivation reached Greece towards the end of the 3rd millennium bce, and Italy around the beginning of the 1st millennium bce. From the 8th century bce onward, systematic viticulture expanded, and wine became deeply embedded in Greco-Roman society at all levels. It was the beverage of choice for both the wealthy and the poor, a major intoxicant in the ancient world, and an essential source of energy in the daily diet. Wine was widely used in religion, feasts, and medicine, and was considered a key marker of civilized culture. Combined with the vine’s high productive potential and its low agronomic needs, all this made wine a primary feature of the agrarian economy and an important product of (inter)national trade. Literature, iconography, and archaeology sketch a picture of significant Greek and Roman realizations in vine-growing techniques and winemaking technology, thus testifying to a level of scientific expertise unmatched until the 19th century. The consumption of wine was stratified and diversified, with the market divided between premium vintages for the rich, ordinary wines for the masses, and winery drinks for the lower classes.
women in philosophy
Authors: Connell Sophia
Published: April 2016

Many philosophical schools included female followers, such as Pythagoreans, Cynics, Cyrenaics, Platonists, Epicureans, and Stoics. The most extensive fragmentary writings by female philosophers are those of Neopythagorean women, particularly Theano, Perictione, Phintys, and Ptolemaïs. The most well-attested women philosophers in antiquity include Aspasia, Diotima, Arete, Hipparchia, Sosipatra, and Hypatia. These women appear to have held many different positions and views. There is no distinct feminine philosophy in antiquity, although some fragments from Pythagorean women are an attempt to apply philosophical principles to the everyday lives of women.
opera
Authors: Ewans Michael
Published: April 2016

Opera is one of the most important sites for the reception of Greek and Roman literature, history, and myth. Significant operas have been based on classical topics from the invention of the medium (Peri’s Eurydice, 1600) through to the present day. Important composers of classically based operas include Monteverdi, Handel, Gluck, Cherubini, Berlioz, Richard Strauss, Tippett, Henze and Turnage.
Plato, ethical and political thought
Authors: Bobonich Christopher
Published: April 2016

Plato’s dialogues are divided into Early, Middle, and Late. The early dialogues accept Psychological and Rational Eudaimonism. The four cardinal virtues form a whole identical with knowledge of what is overall best for the person and is sufficient for happiness.

The middle dialogues hold that all knowledge requires knowledge of transcendental Forms. They also partition the soul which allows for the possibility of akratic action. (An agent acts akratically when she acts contrary to what she knows or believes is overall best for her.) Contemplating Forms becomes a major part of happiness. Plato still recognises inter-entailing four virtues including wisdom which requires knowledge. Since non-philosophers cannot attain knowledge, they lack genuine virtue and have seriously deficient lives. So long as they obey philosopher rulers, however, they are better off in Kallipolis (the Republic’s good city) than outside it.

The late dialogues, the Politicus and the Laws, restrict citizenship to those capable of genuine virtue. The Laws’ city tries to develop genuine virtue in all citizens and provides for them a better education than that of the Republic’s auxiliaries.