bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Aristotle and Absolute Rule
Authors: Mulgan R. G.
Published: July 2016

This article deals with three aspects of Aristotle's account of absolute rule in the Politics: firstly, the extent of Aristotle's debt to and divergence from Plato; secondly, the exact nature of the qualities which fit a man for absolute rule; thirdly, the relevance of Aristotle's account of absolute rule to his general political principles. Ancient historians will be eagerly waiting for the name of Alexander. They will not be altogether disappointed but will have to be content with a few general and inconclusive remarks at the end.
Quisquis in arma vocas: Turnus and Jupiter in the Aeneid
Authors: Mackie C.J.
Published: July 2016

Book 12 of the Aeneid is in many ways Turnus’ book: it begins with his name (Turnus ut…, 12.1) and ends with his life passing to the shades below (vitaque cum gemitu fugit indignata sub umbras, 12.952). His death completes the remorseless victory of Aeneas: the latter’s barbed final comment, ‘Pallas…Pallas’ (12.948) echoes the boast of Turnus, ‘Pallanta…Pallas’ (10.442). The death of Pallas in Book 10 changes the whole pattern of the action in the poem: Aeneas is thereafter at his most ruthless (e.g. 10.510-605; 11.81-2) and Turnus is at his most vulnerable (e.g. 10.668-88). It is Jupiter who makes it clear (to Juno, 10.607-32) that the balance has shifted, and it is Jupiter who increasingly takes a personal and threatening interest in what happens to Turnus. The realisation by Turnus (12.894-5) that Jupiter is an active hostis is uttered with bitterness, resignation and terror. It is the utterance of a man who genuinely expected events to go his way, the utterance of a deluded man. Turnus is forced by his imminent defeat to believe what previously seemed unbelievable — that Jupiter, far from being a patron god, is actively hostile to him.
Euripides, Troades 95-7
Authors: Dyson M.
Published: July 2016

With this reflection on mortal folly Poseidon concludes the divine prologue of Euripides' Troades. This text was printed by Murray with the addition of a comma at the end of line 95, but Diggle accepts Page's emendation I shall argue that the manuscript reading gives perfect sense and that, since it is good Greek, there is no need for emendation.

D. Kovacs has pointed out that these lines make no mention of desecration, for to bring temples into desolation () is quite different from desecrating them. Further, since it is regularly assumed in Greek thought that cities can be sacked without sacrilege, the folly on which Poseidon comments does not consist in a victor's incurring divine punishment simply by the act of sacking a city. I agree with Kovacs on these points and believe that his argument refutes the widely held view that in these lines Euripides is condemning on moral or religious grounds the sacking of cities in general.
Old Comedy 1982-1991
Authors: Storey Ian C.
Published: July 2016

A version of this commentary and bibliography was originally presented at the ‘Greek Drama II’ conference in Christchurch in February 1992. A subtitle could have been ‘What's been done since Sydney’ (site of ‘Greek Drama I’ in 1982), since my topic was to present a survey of the work of the past decade in Old Comedy. In a short period I cannot deal with all plays and topics, but will limit myself to six areas of discussion: (a) general studies, (b) Aristophanes’ early career, (c) Aristophanes and politics, (d) ritual as sub-text, (e) women in comedy, and (f) Eupolis and Kratinos.
The Declining Optative: Some Observations
Authors: McKay K.L.
Published: July 2016

It seems clear that the use of the optative mood declined after the classical period, so that it is less common in New Testament Greek and eventually disappeared, but there is room for some doubt about the rate and manner of its decline, especially as some of the evidence is potentially complicated by literary reminiscence, and the Attic revival apparently brought back some features that were no longer fully understood. A simple counting of occurrences is insufficient to establish statistical trends, for even in the classical period the possibilities for the use of the optative vary according to context: e.g. wishes may occur in dialogue and speeches, but are not normal in historical narrative.
The Dialectical Interchange between Agathon and Socrates: Symposium 198b–201d
Authors: Mooney T. Brian
Published: July 2016

In recent years philosophers working within the field of Platonic studies have begun to stress the relationship between form and content in Plato’s works. This ‘revelation’ in its turn has led to a richer understanding of Platonic texts; no longer (or at least not so often) do we find a Socratic argument excised from its dramatic context and syllogistically and analytically examined. Analysis, of course, can never be divorced from philosophy but with respect to the corpus Platonicum philosophical analysis has been supplemented by a sensitivity to the denouement of an argument, in other words, the dramatic context.
Social and Psychological Interpretations of Graeco-Roman Religion: Some Thoughts on the Ideal Benefactor
Authors: Stevenson T.R.
Published: July 2016

In the past couple of decades, scholarship on Graeco–Roman religion has been dominated by an approach which emphasises the social function of religion rather than matters relating to emotion and belief (Part I below). There is much in the new approach which is enlightening, but for various reasons it should not be allowed to supersede the traditional or psychological approach completely (II). In particular I would like to argue in this paper that the phenomenon of cult for mortals in the Graeco-Roman world can only be understood through a combination of the two modern approaches, because the figure of the ideal benefactor, which I take to underlie cult for mortals, presumed both a concern for relationship structuring and an emotional response. Indeed, the ambiguous interface between the social plane and the psychological plane was fundamental to the success and persistence of such cult (III).
The Date of Polyperchon’s Invasion of Macedonia and Murder of Heracles
Authors: Wheatley P.V.
Published: July 2016

The status and activities of Polyperchon in the period following 315 B.C. remain obscure to scholars, even after the several detailed reconstructions of the Diadochian era that were made during the 1980s. Heckel refers to him as a ‘jackal among lions’, Hornblower as one of the ‘second-class’ generals. He was propelled to prominence upon inheriting Antipater’s mantle as guardian of the young kings and supreme commander in late 319 (Diod. 18.48.4), and had ample opportunity to make himself the dominant figure among Alexander the Great’s Successors in Europe. However, he was indecisive, unlucky, and more than a little incompetent in his handling of affairs in Greece and Macedonia over the next two years, being thoroughly outmanoeuvred on the military, diplomatic, and propaganda fronts by Antipater’s son, Cassander. By 316 Polyperchon had lost custody of the royal family, and was little more than a fugitive in Aetolia, but ambiguity regarding his legal and diplomatic status in relation to the regency and the other Diadochs continued to dog him until his disappearance from recorded history some fifteen years later.
A Hellenistic Funerary Epigram in Burdur Museum, Turkey
Authors: Horsley G.H.R.
Published: July 2016

Of the c. 270 inscribed Greek and Latin inscriptions held at Burdur Archaeological Museum in Turkey, only three definitely are metrical, all of which are in Greek. A fourth, fragmentary item reused as a Moslem gravestone has not been located during research at the Museum in the last decade. The one presented here is unpublished, and will be included more briefly in an edition of all the Greek and Latin inscriptions at Burdur which is currently being prepared for publication by R. A. Kearsley and the present writer. As with the other unpublished verse text (inv. 23.43.88, also funerary), there is no specific provenance known, but both can be attributed generally to the region of Pisidia. The other inscription, first published last century, was brought into the Museum from Akören in 1994 (inv. no. 499.141.94); it has been presented in an improved edition with commentary and photographs elsewhere.
Building a Roman Funeral Pyre
Authors: Noy David
Published: July 2016

Until the second century A.D., the bodies of most people who died at Rome and in the western provinces of the Empire ended up on a funeral pyre, to be reduced to ashes which would be placed in a grave. The practical arrangements for this process have attracted some attention from archaeologists but virtually none from ancient historians. In this paper I shall try to combine literary and archaeological evidence to reconstruct how the pyre was prepared. I hope that this will provide a fuller background than currently exists for understanding the numerous brief references which can be found in Roman literature and the two surviving representations of a pyre (other than an emperor's) in Roman art. Cremation had different traditions in different areas, e.g. as an elite practice in parts of Gaul, even if ultimately it ‘may have been thought of as a sign of allegiance to Rome.’ There clearly were local differences, not just between provinces but between places quite close together, as well as changes over time, but many of the rites of cremation appear to have been similar throughout the Western Roman Empire, illustrating what Morris calls ‘a massive cultural homogenisation of the Roman world at a time when political and economic regionalism was increasing’.
Thucydides and the Sandbar at Pylos
Authors: Dyson Michael
Published: July 2016

Since W.K. Pritchett's discussion in 1965 of a Hellenistic site on the sandbar at Pylos there has grown a considerable body of support among scholars for the existence of the sandbar in 425 B.C. Nowadays it links the southern tip of the promontory of Coryphasion, which the Athenians occupied, to the mainland near Gialova, and to its north lies Osmanaga lagoon which it cuts off from the main body of Navarino Bay. The promontory is linked at two points to the mainland, at the sandbar and at the dunes to the north which curve round the bay called Voidokoilia. Thucydides in his account of the Pylos campaign at the beginning of Book Four does not mention a sandbar, and supporters of its existence generally assume that his text can be read so as to accommodate it in his account. This I believe is mistaken, for the plan attributed to the Spartans of besieging the fort only makes sense as described if there was no sandbar to use as a land bridge. The aims of this article, therefore, are first to remind readers that the plain meaning of the text at 4.13.1 strongly implies that there was no sandbar in Thucydides' day (this is the older view, clearly expressed by A.W. Gomme); second to show that Pritchett's influential inference from the Hellenistic site to a substantial fifth-century sandbar is not compelling; third to show that attempts to read the text in such a way that it is compatible with the sandbar's existence fail; and fourth to show that there is as yet no reliable scientific information to prove that in the fifth century the sandbar existed in any way that is relevant to the Pylos campaign. In these circumstances there is no reason to reject the plain meaning of the text. Further, this meaning is consistent with what few indications there are about the condition of the sandbar in the fifth century.
Aspect and Tense
Authors: Treloar Alan
Published: July 2016

In 1998 at the age of 94, Giuliano Bonfante published a book that he had written in 1940. He was an Italian, educated in Italy, but he withdrew to Paris for his advanced studies and to Spain for his first academic posts where he founded Emerita. He went on to Geneva and in 1939 sailed to America and a chair at Princeton. This was where he wrote a book ultimately published in English concerning the origin of the romance languages. Fifteen years later he left Princeton where he had helped to found Word, the journal of the Linguistic Circle of New York, to take up appointments successively at Genoa, Turin and finally in 1970 Rome, where in 1994 he published La Lingua parlata in Orazio (Venosa), a revised edition of a book first published in Spanish in 1936 (Los elementos populares en la lengua de Oracio). He admitted to his daughter Larissa, by then a scholar in her own right, that he would love to see his 1940 book also published. She undertook the editing of it and published it with some changes.
Hidden Kisses in Catullus: Poems 5,6,7 and 8
Authors: Tesoriero †Charles
Published: July 2016

Poems 5, 6, 7 and 8 of Catullus form an interconnected series. Catullus draws them together by referring to notions of display and concealment in a love affair. In particular, Catullus explores a paradox inherent in the competing needs to keep a relationship a secret and to announce it to the wider public. In the tongue-wagging world of Rome, hiding the existence of an affair, as Flavius attempts to do in poem 6, can never be successful and will attract the suspicious minds and cruel tongues of observers; hence Catullus advocates that Flavius confess, in order to control the gossip, in the case of poem 6, from Catullus himself. On the other hand, ostentatious display of felicity in love has the power to evoke theinuidiaof the observer which can manifest itself in a hex upon the affair: to counter this, in poems 5 and 7, Catullus recommends that the affair, or at least its precise details, be hidden from those who would watch in an envious spirit (5.11-13, 7.11-12). There is something fundamentally perplexing about 5 and 7, since Catullus proclaims what he would conceal, leaving himself, his girl and his affair exposed to theinuidiahe wishes to avoid.
The Testament of Sempronius Tuditanus
Authors: Hopwood Bronwyn
Published: July 2016

Sempronius Tuditanus, son of the consul of 129 BC and anobilisof some wealth, achieved notoriety on account of his eccentric behaviour. The ancient authors who mention him attribute this to insanity. Cicero alludes to Tuditanus early in the first century BC (Phil.3.16;Acad.2.89) and Valerius Maximus (7.8.1) comments on his will. Valerius' text, which has attracted its share of debate, is of particular interest to scholars working on the lex Voconia (not mentioned by Valerius Maximus) and the handling of wills drawn up by afuriosus. It occurs in a section of Valerius' work discussing instances of wills that were upheld, but which might have been set aside as void. Tuditanus' will provides Valerius' first example:

His rescissorum testamentorum exemplis contenti, attingamus ea quae rata manserunt, cum causas haberent propter quas rescindi possent Quam certae, quam etiam notae insaniae Tuditanus! Utpote qui populo nummos sparserit, togamque velut tragicam vestem in foro trahens maximo cum hominum risu conspectus fuerit, ac multa his consentanea fecerit. Testamento  instituit heredem, quod Ti. Longus sanguine ei proximus hastae iudicio subvertere frustra conatus est: magis enim centumviri quid scriptum esset in tabulis quam quis eas scripsisset considerandum existimaverunt.
The Dramatic Background of the Arguments with Callicles, Euripides' Antiope, and an Athenian Anti-Intellectual Argument
Authors: Tarrant Harold
Published: July 2016

This paper does not aim to establish the ‘dramatic date’ of Plato's Gorgias, nor does it seek to establish with any precision the date at which Euripides’ fragmentary Antiope was written. Nor does it aim to show that Athenian anti-intellectualism had some fixed beginning and conclusion rather than persisting, in some fashion, as long as intellectuals frequented its public places. It does, however, have aims that may easily be mistaken for these. First, while Plato was not too particular about fidelity to a dramatic date, he frequently shows a strong desire to supply an intellectual background for the views that his characters will propound and the debates that follow from them. In the case of dialogues that employ a single interlocutor that certainly tends to produce a reasonably coherent dramatic date, but what matters to Plato is not so much fidelity to history as the appropriate intellectual context.
The Resurrection of Aristeides, Miltiades, Solon and Perikles in Eupolis’Demes
Authors: Torello Giulia
Published: July 2016

The arrival of Aristeides, Miltiades, Solon and Perikles in Eupolis'Demeswas arguably one of the most celebrated scenes of Attic Old Comedy. Platonios (diff. char. 13-4) praises Eupolis for ‘being capable of resurrecting (ἀνάγειν) from Hades the characters of lawgivers and through them to discuss the establishment or the repeal of laws.’ Aelius Aristides (3.365) observes that ‘a certain comic poet depicted four of the Athenian leaders as coming back to life (ἀνεστῶτας).’ Platonios uses the verb ἀνάγω to refer to the ascent of the four statesmen to the upper world, whereas Aelius Aristides chooses ἀνίστημι. Both ἀνάγω and ἀνίστημι describe an upwards movement, and suggest a return to the world of the living. Neither of them, however, specifies the nature of this journey.
Le Roi Soleil:Demetrius Poliorcetes and the Dawn of the Sun-King
Authors: O'Sullivan Lara
Published: July 2016

Louis XIV may have made the image of the ‘sun-king’ his own, but the equation of monarch and sun has a long pedigree that stretches back into antiquity. For the Roman emperors, an association with Sol became commonplace, and both Caligula and Nero were explicitly saluted asνέος Ἥλιος. One of the earliest rulers to have adopted sun-related iconography within the western tradition is Demetrius Poliorcetes. His self-identification with Helius is not, to be sure, the most pronounced of his divine relationships. This was a king whose elevation to divine status in the Greek world of the late fourth and early third centuries was accompanied by a great number of religious and semi-religious associations: honoured by Athens as a Saviour, Demetrius himself seems to have cultivated above all an identification with Dionysus, whose combination of ferocity with a delight in wine and revels seems to have appealed to the character of the young king. Nonetheless, it is clear that imagery of the sun and of the heavenly bodies was employed of Demetrius in the representations of his status and power. The most explicit instance belongs to an ithyphallic hymn performed in Athens in 291/90 BC, in which Poliorcetes was hailed as the sun.
Audience, Communication and Textuality in CatullusCarmen67
Authors: Lewis Maxine
Published: July 2016

Catullusc. 67 is a problematic piece that has proved troublesome for scholars, primarily because its story of sexual scandal is highly ambiguous. Various scholars have claimed that they have finally solved the details of the poem's slippery narrative, and have identified the author's intention in creating such obscurity. Copley, Giangrande and Richardson argue that the storyisclear, and then create a web of hypothetical events to explain the ambiguities in the text. Unfortunately, the hypotheses contradict one another, and none provides an account of the story that explains away all the problems. So far, consensus on a ‘solution’ has not been reached. More recently, scholars have turned away from this controversial topic, focusing instead on the poetic and thematic effects of the poem.
A Tale of Seven Nudes: The Capitoline and Medici Aphrodites, Four Nymphs at Elean Herakleia, and an Aphrodite at Megalopolis
Authors: Stewart Andrew
Published: July 2016

The Capitoline Aphrodite (fig. 1) counts among the most copied statues of antiquity. In 1951, Bianca Felletti Maj collected 101 replicas of the type compared with 33 for the Medici Aphrodite (fig. 2) and a mere five for the so-called Aphrodite of the Troad; and many more examples have surfaced since.’ Yet despite the Capitoline type's popularity, the date, location and authorship of its original remain clouded, as does its relation to these other ‘pudica’-type Aphrodites, especially the Medici. Leaving aside the Aphrodite of the Troad, this article presents new evidence that may resolve one of these problems and sheds some new light upon some of the others.
Vespasian's Reorganization of the North-East Frontier
Authors: Bosworth A. B.
Published: July 2016

Perhaps the most important military development of the Flavian period was the establishment of the vast provincial complex of Galatia/Cappadocia. As a result the entire aspect of Roman Asia Minor was changed. Instead of a weak agglutination of unarmed provinces with client kingdoms at the periphery there emerged a single huge province extending from the borders of Asia as far as the Euphrates, all of it under a consular legate with a subordinate of praetorian rank. Central Anatolia could at last be treated as a unity. Accordingly in the 70s and 80s A.D. a network of military roads sprang up, leading from Pisidia in the west and Lycaonia in the south to the Euphrates frontier and to the Pontic coast. Then as now the military area was to the east. Two legions had permanent camps at Satala in Lesser Armenia and at Melitene oh the Euphrates; and there was a chain of subsidiary fortresses manned by legionary vexillationes or auxiliary cohorts, which extended as far as Dioscurias, halfway up the eastern coast of the Black Sea.
Politics and Interstate Relations in the World of Early GreekPoleis: Homer and Beyond
Authors: Raaflaub Kurt A.
Published: July 2016

This essay is part of a larger project concerned with determining how historians today can use the evidence of the Homeric epics in order to gain a better understanding of the evolution of early Greek society—but do so responsibly, that is, in ways that are adequate to the epics' nature as poetic and cultural documents surviving from a specific time and social context. Elsewhere I have discussed Homer and history, the role of thepolis, warfare and military organisation, and political thought in Homer, as well as ‘Homeric society’ in general and the problem of its historicity. Here I want to take a close look at interstate relations (sections I and III) and the political sphere (section II). I choose as my point of departure some of the views which M.I. Finley expressed inThe World of Odysseus—a book that is now more than forty years old, still illuminating and indispensable but partly outdated.
Fool's Gold and Silver: Reflections on the Evidentiary Status of Finely Painted Attic Pottery
Authors: Pritchard David M.
Published: July 2016

The imagery of black and red figure pottery continues to be a valuable source of information for the social and ideological history of ancient Athens. These images have traditionally provided historians with insights into material culture, religion and daily life activities, and increasingly, in large part due to francophone archaeologists like François Lissarrague, they are also being employed as detailed evidence of the conceptual world of archaic and classical Athenians. It is striking though that in spite of the clear evidentiary value of finely painted Attic pottery, almost no sustained scholarly attention has been paid to the critical issue of whose lifestyle and ideological point of view were replicated in images by Athenian pottery painters. In light of this lacuna the recent research project of David Gill and Michael Vickers to isolate more exactly the status of red and black figure pots in Attic society would appear to be most promising. Their findings end up challenging two widely held but never fully substantiated articles of faith of classical archaeology, namely that this type of pottery was used extensively and valued highly by the Athenian elite, and that these ‘vases’ were an important and privileged medium for the development of Greek art. Gill and Vickers seek to demonstrate that the homes of upper class Athenians were crammed full of precious metal vessels and had no place for mere painted pots. They maintain instead that such fictile pieces were inexpensive, and slavishly imitated the shapes, colours and even imagery of the vastly more valuable vessels made of gold and silver. Consequently, Gill and Vickers argue that Attic finely painted pottery was entirely dependent on the artistry and inventiveness of the designers and smiths of precious metallic pieces.
The Nostratic Theory
Authors: Treloar A.
Published: July 2016

The Nostratic Theory was first proposed by the Danish scholar, H. Pedersen, at the beginning of this century. He had observed certain similarities between Indo-European and Semitic and saw these two families of languages as belonging to our territory around mare nostrum and hence his name for this group.

Speakers of Finno-Ugrian languages were surprised that Indo-Europeanists after working on the comparative philology of IE should turn next to Semitic, but the interest in Arabic as the preserver of Greek mathematics and science and Hebrew as the language of the Old Testament inevitably suggested that Semitic had an interest for Philology as well as Theology. But there is a closer resemblance of Finno-Ugrian to Indo-European than there is between Indo-European and Semitic. Moreover, Finno-Ugrian has been in contact with and a close neighbour to the North of IE since prehistoric times. Burrow lists over 20 words of Sanskrit origin borrowed by Finno-Ugrian languages in the prehistoric period when both families of languages were in contact probably in south Russia. Strangely enough they include the Sanskrit svásar- ‘sister’ giving Finnish sisar, Mordvin sazor ‘younger sister’, Cheremis suzar id. where the survival of the sibilant is a clear indication of borrowing before the Aryan branch split into Indian and Iranian with the characteristic Iranian sound change to h as in Av. xvanhar-. It is surprising to find ‘sister’ among these loan words.
Cleisthenes and Ostracism: Precedents and Intentions
Authors: Develin R.
Published: July 2016

The standard body of primary evidence would seem to make it clear that Cleisthenes was responsible for the law on ostracism at Athens. The only contrary element is Harpocration’s use of Androtion (FGrH 324) F 6, when he talks of Hipparchos’ ostracism in 488/7, . However, verbal similarities and other considerations make it likely that Androtion was the source for Athenaion Politeia (henceforth Ath.Pol.) 22 and Philochoros (FGrH 328) F 30, both of which maintain a Cleisthenic origin for the law, so that this will have been Androtion’s view also. It is easy enough to see how Harpocration, in a passage where, let us remember, he is concerned with Hipparchos, not ostracism, could have been loose or confused in his usage. Unfortunately, the rediscovery of a late Byzantine account of ostracism has led to the supposition that there is a difference between Ath.Pol. and Androtion, but that in a way both were right.
To Help one’s Friends and Harm one’s Enemies A Study in the Oedipus at Colonus
Authors: Hester D.A.
Published: July 2016

The most commonly held interpretation of this play has been well summed up as follows: ‘Ismene utters in the words addressed to Oedipus in line 394 “Now the gods are setting you right; previously they ruined you” the object of our play.’ On this view, the main theme of the play is the divine restoration of Oedipus. ‘He whom the gods have smitten as a criminal, whom men have rejected as impious, is seen rehabilitated, venerated, glorified almost equally to a divine being, and will find a compensation for his undeserved sufferings in an apotheosis which will make of him the benign genius of a country.’ Oedipus’ sufferings have taught him humility: ‘I ask little, and get even less than that little, but this suffices me, for my suffering, my companion the length of time, and my nobility have taught me patience.’ ‘Precisely because he is a hero, he is humble.’ The combination of moral exaltation and physical degradation generates a new spiritual power which becomes increasingly evident as the play progresses: ‘Foreknowledge of the future belongs to Oedipus because he is more than man... To Creon’s taunts he replies with a declaration of his own superior power. Only a hero can do this with assurance.’ The process culminates in his mysterious end, whether we can call it an apotheosis or not: ‘We do not know precisely what his state will be, but we can be sure that he will be conscious and active, rather as Protesilaus was believed to be able to punish the wrongdoer from the grave because the gods gave him special favour.’ He is thus a kind of anticipation of Christ.
A Lost Work of Philitas?
Authors: McKay K. J.
Published: July 2016

TheSudais hardly communicative on the literary productivity of Philitas: ‘his output included epigrams and elegies.’ From the surviving fragments, which do little to establish the obvious influence which the poet exercised over Hellenistic poetic thinking, we learn of the following titles of works in verse:Demeter, Hermes, Telephos, Paignia(apart from epigrams) and possibly aHermeneia(Strab. iii 5.1). G. Luck emended Prop, ii 34B.31 to argue for the existence of aMerope, a work on Coan antiquities. G. Vitelli had already postulated aKos, with presumably the same content, from the lacunose text of Kall. fr.1.10 (Kῶν πο]λύ τήν μακρήν). The context requires the unknown work in question to have been unsuccessful because of its prolixity; the proposed title fails for the opposite reason: ‘brevius spatio’ (Pfeiffer). For the sake of completeness it may be mentioned that Philitas did not write a play calledThe Unruly, as Gulick ad Ath. iii 114 e assumes; Athenaios wrote έv τοῖς ‘Άτάκτοις, of course a reference to Philitas’ glossary (Atakta or Ataktoi Glossai).
Messalina and the Succession to Claudius
Authors: Ehrhardt C.
Published: July 2016

The first four Caesars formed a dynasty, and each successively was his predecessor’s chief and legitimate heir, inheriting the bulk of his private property, including his slaves, and taking his place as patron of his clientes, who included his freedmen. The conspirators who killed Gaius Caligula also ended the dynasty, and when the Senate met on the Capitol to consider the state of the Republic, it was proposed to obliterate the Julian name. The empire, it seemed, had ended, and though no one yet knew what would take its place, the Roman state would surely no longer be bequeathed like an heirloom in the family of the Caesars: ‘Liberty’ was restored.
The Letters of Themistokles: An Epistolary Novel?
Authors: Penwill J. L.
Published: July 2016

The notion that the Letters of Themistokles constitute some sort of ‘historical novelette in epistolary form’ has always run up against two major difficulties. One is that the letters are not arranged in chronological sequence; the other, that there are serious inconsistencies between individual letters in both factual material and the portrayal of the hero’s character. The existence of these difficulties has led some scholars to deny any real artistic unity to the collection; and the prevailing attitude seems to be that its only merit consists in the titbits of historical information that some of the letters contain – though even the reliability of these has been disputed.
‘Either … or’ versus ‘both … and’: A Dramatic Device in Sophocles
Authors: Hester D. A.
Published: July 2016

In the prologue of the Women of Trachis, Deianeira is telling Hyllus of an oracle concerning her husband, Heracles, which is about to be fulfilled. The relevant passage (lines 76-85 of the OCT) is:

As Deianeira states it, a critical issue is about to be decided. Hitherto she has had an absentee husband; Heracles has visited her but rarely, spending most of his time abroad in various exploits – humanitarian, military, and sexual. But the gods (to be exact, the oracle of Zeus at Dodona) have decreed that this half-marriage will not continue. Either her husband will die, in which case she has no interest in surviving him, or his labours will come to an end and he will live in peace, which she interprets as a life of domestic bliss with her. She sends their son, Hyllus, to help him; later she will act more drastically and send a robe dyed in what she believes is a love-charm to rekindle his love for her, but is in fact a deadly poison. By the time he is brought back in his mortal agony, she will have killed herself, and his only feeling for her will be regret that her suicide has deprived him of taking vengeance on her. Such will be the consequences of her interpretation of the oracle.
The Dismantling of the Gracchan Agrarian Programme
Authors: Develin R.
Published: July 2016

The elucidation of the laws which altered and dismantled the Gracchan agrarian legislation makes many demands on those who approach it. One has to consider possible textual emendation, the probable meaning of expressions in our texts, how this can best fit into a reasonable interpretation. Specifically we have three laws mentioned by Appian, a lex Thoria which appears twice in Cicero, and an inscriptional lex agraria. The last (CIL 12. 2. 585) I have attempted to remove from association with measures mentioned elsewhere on the ground that it is not tribunician. In any event, it will emerge that the laws of Appian should have been passed well before the inscriptional law (dated 111 B.C.). My concern, therefore, is with the process indicated in Appian.
Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannos: The Two Arrivals of the Herdsman
Authors: Arthur E. P.
Published: July 2016

The plays of Sophocles were written for performance, indeed primarily for one performance only. If their author intended them to produce any particular effect then that effect had to be conveyed in performance. This truism leads to another. In order to understand the function of any incident or utterance in the plays of Sophocles, one must examine it in context; one must consider the position it occupies within the play. The performance of a play is a linear experience. Events occur and information is transmitted in a strict temporal sequence. To understand a play one must respect that sequence.
Philip II of Macedon and the Boeotian Alliance
Authors: Kelly D. H.
Published: July 2016

In the history of Philip II’s conquest of Greece the part played by Boeotia must weigh heavily. Recently the view has been urged that in 346 B.C. Philip intended to bring Boeotia low by breaking the predominance of Thebes within the Boeotian federal state but was prevented from having his way by the successful scheming of his opponents in Athens, who persuaded their countrymen to frustrate Philip’s plans by withholding their co-operation, so that Philip was compelled to treat Thebes favourably. As a corollary to this view it is thought that Demosthenes, the foremost of Philip’s opponents at Athens, aspired from the time of the Peace of Philokrates on, if not earlier, after an alliance between Athens and Boeotia as the only realistic way of resisting Philip. At the same time Philip is believed to have preferred, if only he could have had his own way, to have Athens as some kind of partner and to make Thebes alone his enemy. Rebuttal of this view of Philip’s policy in 346 has been prompt and telling and no more may need to be said about it now that G.T. Griffith’s magisterial account of Macedonia has shown, amidst so much else, how Philip’s relations with Greek states are to be understood in the light of Philip’s own changing views of his interests.
Pro Milone: Cicero’s Second Thoughts
Authors: Stone A. M.
Published: July 2016

Asconius believed he had access to two published editions of Cicero’s defence of Milo. The first purported to be a record of the speech as delivered at the trial, in which Cicero was not at his best. The second edition was regarded by Asconius as Cicero’s supreme achievement in oratory. This edition is that which we still have; the first has perished, and it has even been suggested that Asconius — and Quintilian — were duped by a forgery. Even so Asconius’ knowledge of Cicero’s line of defence in the trial cannot have depended on the text of this supposed verbatim record alone, but rather on an ample historiography on which he drew for the long and circumstantialargumentumto his Milonian commentary. (A forger, for that matter, who could impose on Asconius and Quintilian must also have been historically well informed about the case.) Any indication by Asconius, therefore, of a divergence between the original defence and the extant version is likely to rest on specific knowledge.
2 B.C. and Julia’s Adultery
Authors: Lacey W. K.
Published: July 2016

Modern historians of Rome have expended much care and ingenuity in discussing the constitutional basis for the Augustan principate. Ancient historians had a much simpler view — it was a monarchy. And they were right, even if it was a monarchy within a constitution so that as monarch Augustus contrived to govern with the consent (and support in many cases) of the traditional governing classes without constantly having to invoke the reserve powers of a monarch whose will is ultimately sovereign.
The Ending of Eunapius’ History
Authors: Blockley R. C.
Published: July 2016

When in A.D. 378 Ammianus Marcellinus fails us we have for the rest of the century and, indeed, for the whole history of the Theodosian house in the East a considerable amount of varied documentation. But, lacking ‘an accurate and faithful guide’ like Ammianus, for a coherent picture of the political and military activity of the period we must have recourse to the inferior and derivative New History of Zosimus, partisan ecclesiastical histories, and late and skimpy chronicles. In these circumstances the fragments of the History of Eunapius, preserved mostly in the Excerpta of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, but also in some notices of the Suda, have considerable value. For, despite Eunapius’ clear inferiority to Ammianus as an historian, he was a contemporary of the events which he described. The fragments have been underused, which is probably due to the common, though not wholly accurate, opinion that Zosimus, being nothing more than a slavish copier of Eunapius, faithfully preserves what his source wrote. Yet (ignoring the problem of the degree of Zosimus’ dependence) he greatly condensed his source, and thus there is much in the Eunapian survivals that is not in the New History. The final fragments (80-88), to which I wish to address myself, are especially important because much of their material corresponds to a lacuna in Zosimus’ text, and the ecclesiastical historians,who make some use of Eunapius, appear to have deserted him here, probably because they found his version of events, especially those involving John Chrysostom, unpalatable.
Off-Stage Cries and the Choral Presence: Some Challenges to Theatrical Convention in Euripides
Authors: Arnott W. Geoffrey
Published: July 2016

Eduard Fraenkel’s celebrated remark, that ‘for Greek tragedy there exists also something like a grammar of dramatic technique,’ has recently been confirmed, explained and illustrated by a series of distinguished studies emanating from both sides of the Atlantic. These demonstrate clearly how recurrent incidents were habitually presented by the fifth-century Attic tragedians with similar structural patterns. The transmission and execution of orders, for example, became so conventionalized that a set of rules for what is permissible and not permissible in the dramatic treatment can readily be formulated. By the time that a playwright like Euripides began competing in the dramatic festivals towards the middle of the fifth century, there already existed a sufficient body of material in plays produced for the accepted and acceptable dramatic conventions to be equally familiar to dramatist, actor and spectator. Conventions, however, like other organisms, may develop; they are not necessarily static. An experimentalist such as Euripides could play on his audience’s expectations and experience by altering just one of the elements in the conventional model, and by a minimal shift in the pattern shock the audience and amend the convention. In this paper I should like first to exemplify the Euripidean method briefly with two instances from the Ion, where the chorus creates or sustains the challenge to the conventions, and then to examine at greater length Euripides’ use and exploitation of the dramatic conventions tied to off-stage cries.
The Iris-Lyssa Scene in Euripides’ Heracles
Authors: Lee K.H.
Published: July 2016

However much we may disagree about the meaning and function of the Iris-Lyssa scene in Euripides’ Heracles (815-73), we can be certain of one thing: it was meant to be startling. We can find, it is true, a handful of examples of the appearance of a deity in mid-action in tragedy, and no single feature of the scene to be discussed is without parallel, but viewed as a whole it is unique among the extant plays and the plays for which we have fragmentary evidence. For example, the appearance of Athena in Rhesus 595 ff. and the probable appearance of Artemis and Apollo during the course of Sophocles’ Niobe (cf. frs. 441a, 442, 445 Radt), must have been striking, but in each case the supernatural visitation advances the plot along not unexpected lines. In our scene the intervention of Iris and Lyssa drives the second part of the play in a completely surprising direction. Again, it is remarkable that two speaking characters appear and then not to agree but to quarrel heatedly about Lyssa’s assignment. The only even remote parallel is the discussion between Kratos and Hephaistos in Prometheus where the deities speak and act on ground-level and are found not at a crucial turning-point in the middle of the play, but at its beginning, when the disagreement of the speakers is a curtain-raiser to the more significant discord which pervades the drama.
Aristophanes, Ranae 1249-1363
Authors: Van Der Valk M.
Published: July 2016

In this passage which contains the second part of the contest between the two poets, their choral songs (μέλη) are under attack. Euripides, who has just now undergone a crushing criticism in the ληκύϑιον-episode (1201-47), is, however, as yet full of confidence (cf. 1249 f. and 1261 f.). When considering the choral song which introduces this part (1251-60), one must bear in mind that it presents a double-sided mentality: a) on the one hand because of the economy of the play Aristophanes has as yet to leave the contest undecided and so to keep the public in suspense; b) on the other it is obvious that in the choral song, just as in the whole play, the poet is partial to Aeschylus. This mentality appears in a typical way in the song, of which the last part (1257-60) has been bracketed by most critics, for they object that the chorus is over-abundant here and repeats in the second part the same point which was mooted in the first part: namely that an excellent poet (Aeschylus) will be subjected to criticism and this fact makes the chorus ponder.
On Reflexion: IG i3 66 (and 62) Again
Authors: Henry Alan S.
Published: July 2016

In a recent article Benjamin Meritt and Malcolm McGregor have sought to refute my criticisms of their text of the publication formula in the Athenian decree concerning relations with Mytilene.
The Indian Satrapies under Alexander the Great
Authors: Bosworth A.B.
Published: July 2016

Alexander’s administrative arrangements in India are an obscure and somewhat neglected subject. The obscurity is due to a crucial lacuna in the narrative sources, which take us to a crisis in government but say nothing of its resolution. Late in 325 the satrap of northern India, Philip son of Machatas, was assassinated by some of his native mercenaries. In his place Alexander appointed the native prince Taxiles to govern the territory along with Eudamus (the officer commanding the satrapal army of Thracians) until such time as he sent out a new satrap from court. Nothing more is heard of a replacement or of India. The sources foreshadow an administrative change but never report the outcome. Instead we have to wait for the reports of the satrapal distributions of Babylon and Triparadeisus, in which the division of the Indian provinces is sensibly different from what it had been in Alexander’s day. The change may be due to the king himself or to his successors. Both views have been stated, but the issue has never been fully argued and it is worth reopening. It has important implications for Alexander’s view of empire in his last years and for the status of India in his imperial plans.
Tacitus and Techniques of Insidious Suggestion
Authors: Develin R.
Published: July 2016

Tacitus is remarkably confident in the analysis and interpretation of motive and causal sequence. Having made up his mind on a matter, he opens up with all the stylistic artillery he can muster. With one eye open for pretence, he is by no means reticent to take upon himself the responsibility for stripping away the pretence and revealing the intentions and state of mind of characters. This will be readily granted. Yet it is in fact notable how often he seems to depart from the practice of simply setting forth the results of his researches and interpretations as outright statement. He creates, as it were, a distance between himself and facts, suspicions, rumours, motives and the reports of his sources. This provokes a number of questions, dealt with here in three sections. First, there are instances where he appears to allow uncertainty, where he uses expressions alluding to report, varying from rumour to historical record: why and when does he do this? In the same vein, why and when does he cite authorities and among them why does he cite some by name, which he does so seldom? Second, there is a distinct, but connected, category of usage which presents alternatives of motive. Last, I will examine larger, thematic areas where techniques are combined.
The Banishment of Oedipus
Authors: Hester D.A
Published: July 2016

The Choephori and the Bacchae remain masterpieces of Greek literature although an unkind fate has removed a leaf (or more) from their texts. For the first part of this article I would like to assume that an unkinder fate has deprived us of the end of that greater masterpiece, the Oedipus Rex. The play (as we have it) now concludes with the heart-breaking farewell of Oedipus to his infant daughters. We could wish no better end, but it is not characteristic of Greek tragedy in general or of Sophoclean tragedy in particular to end on a dramatic high-point; loose ends must be tied up and the tension must be eased. We may reasonably assume that some such development occurred at the end of the Oedipus Rex. Fortunately, there is a good deal of evidence to tell us (in general) what happened. The versions of Euripides’ Phoenissae and Seneca’s Oedipus may be useful, particularly the latter (which is much closer to the Sophoclean original); there is, of course, Sophocles’ own Oedipus Coloneus; most important of all, there is the evidence of the Oedipus Rex itself, to which I shall now turn.
Family Finances: Tullia and Terentia
Authors: Dixon Suzanne
Published: July 2016

This is a study of dotal arrangements and the disposition of matrimonial property as they are represented in Cicero’s correspondence. From Cicero’s explanations, suggestions and worries about his daughter’s third marriage and his own fortunes, I have tried to piece together a picture of the extent and function of a wife’s contribution to the economy of a senatorial marriage, and to gauge the scope of her material obligations to the children. For this purpose the letters are of particular value: Cicero wrote to and about his wife Terentia during his exile and, later, during a period of civil conflict, when he was not only absent from Rome, but in fear of confiscation. His situation obliged him to commit to writing those financial concerns which would otherwise have left no record. The correspondence exposes not only the arrangements actually made for the use of property within marriage, but the conventions which determined them.