bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Letter of Gordian III from Aphrodisias in Caria
Authors: Erim Kenan T. , Reynolds Joyce
Published: May 2006

During the 1965 and 1966 campaigns of excavation at Aphrodisias in Caria, conducted under the aegis of New York University, investigations of the large Theatre of the city were initiated. The Theatre lies mostly buried along the eastern slope of the ‘acropolis’, a conical hillock in the southeastern part of the site. Dr. Elisabeth Alföldi-Rosenbaum supervised four initial trenches and soundings (Theatre I to IV) excavated on the north side of the building, which revealed the proscenium, the adjacent lowest tiers of seats, the north parodos and the analemma. In August, 1966, two adjoining pieces of a large block of coarse-grained local marble inscribed with a letter from Gordian III were discovered. The lower piece of the inscription was found built into the analemma, facing the north parodos at a height slightly above eye-level. The upper fragment came to light on the parodos floor and was removed to the surface and photographed by Dr. E. Alföldi. Progress in the excavation of the parodos in 1967 and 1968 allowed careful inspection of the lower portion which remains in situ. The two fragments (inv. nos. 66–608 A and B) are well-preserved and constitute virtually the whole block, although some damage is evident on the upper left-hand corner of the face and along the break. The total measurements are 1·53 m. × 0·72 m. × 0·72 m. It cannot be entirely excluded that the block may have been reused in the analemma wall since there is some evidence of repairs in this area. The letters average 0·025 m. in height and are cut in a style typical of the later second and third centuries A.D. at Aphrodisias; particularly characteristic is the form of B, see Pl. I.
Coastal Settlement in Cyrenaica
Authors: Jones G. D. B. , Little J. H.
Published: May 2006

The location of the majority of major sites in Cyrenaica is well established. This has obscured the fact that our knowledge of the detailed topography of the area is in reality highly fragmentary, and can only be increased by detailed work in the field. The purpose of this article is to review the archaeological evidence from the area between Benghazi and Derna as it has been collected by the authors in recent years, and to give an account of its more important implications. On this basis one may examine the complex interrelation of local climate and geography that has controlled the development of settlement between the northern edge of the Cyrenaican plateau and the sea.

The administrative unit known to the Romans as Cyrenaica lies on the coast of North Africa between longitude 19° east and 24° east. Its southern limits were never defined, but any route to the south was effectively blocked by the Calanshu sand sea and the wastelands of the Jebel Zelten.
Diocletian's Currency Reform; A New Inscription
Authors: Erim Kenan T. , Reynolds Joyce , Crawford Michael
Published: May 2006

During the 1970 campaign of excavations at Aphrodisias in Caria, investigations begun during the previous summer in the Portico of Tiberius were continued and brought to light some 150 fragments of marble panels bearing inscriptions in Latin in a hand of the fourth century A.D. Initially, these fragments were considered additional evidence to the considerable harvest of pieces of Diocletian's Edict on Maximum Prices found in the course of preceding seasons. Most of them, indeed, proved to belong to the Edict. On closer examination and more careful transcription, however, it became clear that, while the Price Edict was cut on free standing panels, most of which were c. 0·12–0·14 m thick, a small number of fragments belonged to thicker panels.
The Emperor, The Senate and the Provinces
Authors: Millar Fergus
Published: May 2006

Our sources for the constitutional settlement and division of the provinces in 27 B.C., and the modification of the settlement in 23 B.C., are notoriously brief and inadequate. Neither Augustus in the Res Gestae nor Velleius Paterculus mentions the provincial aspects of either settlement. The earliest source is Strabo (840): ‘(Caesar) δίχα διεῖλε πᾶσαν τὴν χώραν καὶ τὴν μὲν ἀπέδειξεν ἑαυτῷ τὴν δὲ τῷ δήμῳ (military provinces for himself, peaceful ones for the People)…ἑκατέραν δὲ τὴν μερίδα εἰς ἐπαρχίας διένειμε πλείους, ὡν αἵ μὲν καλοῦνται Καίσαρος, αἵ δὲ τοῦ δήμου. καὶ εἰς μὲν τὰς Καίσαρος ἡγεμόνας καὶ διοικητὰς Καῖσαρ πέμπει, διαιρѽν ἄλλοτε ἄλλως τὰς χώρας…εἰς δὲ τὰς δημοσίας ὁ δῆμος στρατηγοὺς ἤ ὑπάτους…(list of public provinces)…τὰς δὲ ἄλλας ἐπαρχίας ἔχει Καῖσαρ, ὧν εἰς ἃς μὲν πέμπει τοὺς ἐπιμελησομένους ὑπατικοὺς ἄνδρας,εἰς ἃς δὲ στρατηγικούς, εἰς ἃς δὲ καὶ ἱππικούς…’Then there is Suetonius (Div. Aug. 47) : ‘provincias validiores et quas annuis magistratuum imperiis regi nec facile nec tutum erat, ipse suscepit, ceteras proconsulibus sortito permisit.’ Finally there is the account in Cassius Dio (LIII, 12, 2–3): ‘τὴν μὲν φροντίδα τήν τε προστασίαν τѽν κοινѽν πᾶσαν ὡς καὶ ἐπιμελείας τινòς δεομένων ὑπεδέξατο, οὔτε δὲ πάντων αὐτòς τѽν ἐθνѽν ἄρξειν, οὔθ' ὅσων ἄν ἄρξῃ, διὰ παντòς τοῦτο ποιήσειν ἔφη, ἀλλὰ τὰ μὲν ἀσθενέστερα ὡς καὶ εἰρηναϊα καὶ ἀπόλεμα ἀπέδωκε, τὰ δὲ ἰσχυρότερα … κατέσχε, λόγῳ μὲν ὅπως ἡ μὲν γερουσία ἀδεѽς τὰ κάλλιστα τῆς ἀρχῆς καρπῷτο….’

These are the only accounts of the division of the provinces in 27. For the settlement of 23 our evidence is even poorer, a single sentence in Cassius Dio (LIII, 32, 5) ‘… τήν τε ἀρχὴν τὴν ἀνθύπατον ἐσαεἱ καθάπαξ ἔχειν ὥστε μήτε ἐν τῇ ἐσόδῳ τῇ εἴσῳ τοῦ πωμηρίου κατατίθεσθαι αὐτὴν μήτ' αὕθις ἀνανεοῦσθαι, καὶ ἐν τῷ ὑπηκόῳ τὸ πλεϊον τѽν ἑκασταχόθι ἀρχόνων ἰσχύειν ἐπέτρεψεν’.

The paucity of the sources—combined with the fact that they are mainly in Greek—has led to insoluble problems about how Augustus' position was described at the time, or (alternatively) what the nature of his imperium vis à vis the provinces was. None the less there is a fair consensus of opinion about the division of the provinces itself, and the nature of the administrative pattern which it produced. This can be summarized as follows:

Augustus undertook the administration of a large provincia, comprising Spain, Gaul and Syria, for a period of ten years, possibly with proconsular authority. He governed these provinces through legati appointed by, and responsible to, himself. The other provinces were governed by pro-magistrates responsible to the Senate. Down to 23 Augustus was also consul. In 23, while retaining his provincia, he abandoned the consulate and accepted imperium mains, which gave him superior authority to pro-magistrates, and enabled him to intervene outside his provincia when necessary. In normal circumstances, however, control of the provinces was divided between the Emperor and the Senate.
Mela's Phoenician Geography
Authors: Batty Roger
Published: May 2006

The appearance in 1998 of F. E. Romer's English translation of Pomponius Mela's De Chorographia has helped to raise further the profile of this previously rather obscure author. Indeed, since the publication a decade previously of the Budé edition by Alain Silberman, interest in Mela seems to have grown quite steadily. Important contributions in German by Kai Brodersen have widened our appreciation of Mela's place within ancient geography as a whole, and his role within the history of cartography has been the subject of a number of shorter pieces.

One element common to all these works, however, is a continuing tendency to disparage both Mela himself and the work he created. This is typified by Romer, for whom Mela was ‘a minor writer, a popularizer, not a first-class geographer’; one ‘shocking reason’ for his choice of genre was simply poor preparation, ‘insufficient for technical writing in geography’. Similar judgements appear in the works of Brodersen and Silberman. Mela's inaccuracies are, for these critics, typical of the wider decline of geography in the Roman period. Perhaps such negative views sprang initially from a sense of frustration: it was counted as one of our author's chief defects that he failed to list many sources for his work. For scholars interested in Quellenforschung it makes poor reading. Yet, quite clearly, the De Chorographia has also been damned by comparison. Mela's work has been held against the best Graeco-Roman learning on geography during antiquity—against Strabo, Ptolemy, or Pliny—and it has usually been found wanting. Set against the achievements of his peers, his work does not stand close scrutiny. Thus, for most scholars, the text has been read as a failed exercise in technical geography, or a markedly inferior document in the wider Graeco-Roman geographical tradition.
Memory, Money, and Status at Misenum: Three New Inscriptions from the Collegium of the Augustales
Authors: D'Arms J. H.
Published: May 2006

More than thirty years — a generation of man — have passed since the chance discovery in 1968 of what has been referred to since as the collegium of the Augustales at Misenum. In addition to statuary and architectural elements of exceptional interest, the excavations, which presented formidable technical problems, have yielded a rich epigraphical dossier pertaining to the local Augustales, and to political, social, economic, religious, and administrative aspects of their organization from the Julio-Claudian and late Flavian periods to the end of the Antonine age. One of these inscriptions has at last received appropriate scholarly attention; it both whets the appetite for more and reveals the inadequacies of the cursory accounts of the dossier published previously. Now that all the material recovered from the site has been transported to the Castello Aragonese di Baia, and is attractively displayed in the new Museo Archeologico dei Campi Flegrei, one dares to hope that the entire complex and its contents will soon receive the comprehensive archaeological and historical treatment that they so richly deserve.
The Praise Singer: Horace Censorinus and Odes 4. 8
Authors: Harrison S. J.
Published: May 2006

The criticism of the eighth ode of Horace's fourth book has been bedevilled by three major uncertainties: probable interpolation in its text, confusion about the identity of its addressee, and doubt as to its literary quality.1These issues will form the central concerns of this discussion. Earlier critics have been consistently scathing in their view ofOdes. 4. 8: some editors have even gone so far as to deny Horatian authorship,2many have made dismissive judgements, following the verdict of Wilamowitz (‘really very bad’), and a recent commentator has classed 4. 8 as ‘the least lyrical of theOdes …much of it, indeed, reads like prose—limpid, logical, but pedestrian’.3I shall not claim that the poem is a previously unacknowledged masterpiece of inspiration, but that it has been underestimated as a poetic artefact: as a careful analysis will show, it is a well-conceived, well-finished and allusive piece, relevant to its addressee and cohering well both with the following ode to Lollius and with the purposes of Book 4 as a whole.
Fatal Charades: Roman Executions Staged as Mythological Enactments
Authors: Coleman K. M.
Published: May 2006

Tertullian, illustrating the sacrilegious nature of pagan religion, records that in an auditorium he saw a person being burned to death in the role of Hercules and another being castrated as Attis; both of these examples he adduces to substantiate his assertion to his pagan audience that ‘criminals often adopt the roles of your deities’ (‘et ipsos deos vestros saepe noxii induunt’). The practice that Tertullian here deplores is the subject of this paper: the punishment of criminals in a formal public display involving role-play set in a dramatic context; the punishment is usually capital.
Late Roman Philosopher Portraits from Aphrodisias
Authors: Smith R. R. R.
Published: May 2006

The rich finds of statues and inscriptions from Aphrodisias in Caria have done much in recent years to illuminate the world of the late Roman politician, the world of governors and local magnates. Aphrodisias has also recently provided important new evidence for the philosophical image of late antiquity. In 1981–2, the excavations under Professor K. T. Erim recovered a remarkable group of marble shield portraits and busts that represent both contemporary late antique philosophers and ‘classic’ figures of the hellenic past. These portraits add a new dimension to our knowledge of Aphrodisias as an intellectual centre and provide a vivid insight into the pagan culture and education of late antiquity. We are in the world of Eunapius’ Lives of the Sophists. We are probably in the context of a philosophical school, perhaps the philosophical school of late Roman Aphrodisias.
The Construction of the Ancient Family: Methodological Considerations
Authors: Martin Dale B.
Published: May 2006

A remarkable new consensus, recognized even by its critics, has emerged among classical historians that ‘the normal Roman family seems to have been a “nuclear family” like our own’. The consensus is remarkable because practically all historians who support it admit that the portrait of the Roman family that emerges from many literary accounts and is enshrined in Roman law and language is nothing like the modern nuclear family. Saller demonstrates that the Romans had no term equivalent to ‘family’ in the modern sense, that is, the father-mother-children triad of the ‘nuclear family’. The English word ‘family’ has almost no relation to Roman concepts offamiliaanddomus. As Saller explains, ‘Domuswas used with regard to household and kinship to mean the physical house, the household including family and slaves, the broad kinship group including agnates and cognates, ancestors and descendants, and the patrimony’. The Latinfamilia, while usually narrower in reference thandomus, also had little relation to anything meant by the English ‘family’.
The Archaeology of Central and Southern Roman Italy: Recent Trends and Approaches
Authors: Curti Emmanuele , Dench Emma , Patterson John R.
Published: May 2006

For the historian of the Roman period, the archaeology of Central and Southern Italy raises (and sometimes provides answers to) a fascinating variety of questions. The Pontine plain and the valleys of the Liri and Sacco were the areas first affected by Roman expansion beyond the Latial plain, and it was here that the Romans tested and perfected the techniques of organization and control of territory that were to be used with such success elsewhere in Italy and eventually throughout the Mediterranean: in particular, colonization, municipalization, and the transformation of the rural landscape which accompanied them. This area too saw the development of the villa system of agriculture, which came to be predominant in Central Italy during the first century B.C., and was imitated throughout the Empire; but there were also striking differences between agricultural practices in the plains and in the mountains above. This geographical diversity was paralleled by a complex cultural mix, as aspects of both Greek and Roman culture were adopted by the local populations, who themselves moved around an increasingly unified Italy with greater ease, leading to further cultural transformations.
Imperium Romanum: Empire and the Language of Power
Authors: Richardson J. S.
Published: May 2006

The vocabulary of empire, as it has developed in European contexts since the period of the Roman empire, reveals clearly enough the significance of the inheritance of Rome for the regimes which have followed it. From Charlemagne to the Tsars, from British imperialism to Italian Fascism, the language and symbols of the Roman republic and the Roman emperors have been essential elements in the self-expression of imperial powers. Such communality of language, by creating a sense of familiarity in the mind of a modern observer of the Roman empire, may hinder a proper understanding of antiquity, because the importance of the after life of these words and symbols tends to obscure the nature of the contexts from which they originated. An obvious parallel instance can be seen in the case of the word ‘democracy’, where the adoption of the Athenian term to describe a series of political developments in the modern world which claim some connection with the Greek notion ofdemokratiahas tended to make more difficult the modern understanding of what happened at Athens in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.
Narrate and Describe: The Problem of Ekphrasis
Authors: Fowler D. P.
Published: May 2006

The subject of ekphrasis, and in particular of the ekphrasis of works of art, has recently begun to receive a great deal of attention from classical scholars. As will become clear, I believe that the reason for this is that many of the theoretical issues that are most pressing in classical studies — and indeed in cultural studies in general — are raised by the study of ekphrasis. The purpose of this note on the other hand is modest: I want to say a little about the narratological issues that are raised by set-piece description (I), and to look at one example in the Aeneid (II). But even so I have found it impossible not to offer some thoughts of a frighteningly general nature (III). I shall concentrate on the ekphrasis of works of art for reasons that will again become clear, but some at least of what I shall say will also be relevant mutatis mutandis to the ekphrasis of natural features and events.
Imperial Subscriptions and the Administration of Justice
Authors: Turpin William
Published: May 2006

Scholars have given much attention to the procedure for submitting private petitions to the Roman emperor. Literary sources suggest that emperors spent a lot of time answering petitions from private individuals, and papyri and inscriptions offer tangible evidence that this was so. But our richest evidence is provided by the Roman legal sources, which preserve over 2,500 of the replies written by the emperors, at least in theory, beneath the petitions themselves. The sheer quantity of these subscriptions, and the fact that some of them were addressed to petitioners of relatively humble status, have suggested that the emperors attended to their subjects in a surprisingly personal way. Even more important is the fact that subscriptions in our legal sources consist almost entirely of formulations of principle; it has been assumed that they were issued to clarify the law, for private petitioners who had questions about it.
Ovid on Reading: Reading Ovid. Reception in OvidTristiaII
Authors: Gibson Bruce
Published: May 2006

In this paper I propose to consider Ovid's poem as a document of literary criticism, which offers us a striking treatment of the role of the audience in reception. Ovid's concerns are twofold: on the one hand he is concerned with the ostensible manner in which his own works have been read, but he also discusses a wide range of other texts, and in doing so, offers readings of them, which, I will argue, illustrate the open-ended nature of reception and meaning.

Now, undoubtedly we are sometimes too willing to label works as ‘anti-Augustan’ or ‘Augustan’, as if that was all that could be said about them; the glib use of such terms often seems to obscure more complex and more interesting questions (theAeneidand theGeorgicsare familiar examples). But with Ovid, however, such issues are at least raised by the poet himself, since the exile poems do deal with Ovid's attitude to Augustus, and the twin possibilities of writing poetry which can offend the emperor, or which can please him. Now while Ovid's famous explanation of the causes of his exile as ‘carmen et error’ (Trist.2.207) may perhaps be a smokescreen — Ovid adducing theArs Amatoriaas his fault in order not to have to go into the details of what theerrorwas that had offended Augustus —Tristia2 must still be considered on its own terms; Ovid writes as if it is possible for Augustus to be offended by his poetry, and therefore the issue is an important one.
Late Antique Portraits in a Public Context: Honorific Statuary at Aphrodisias in Caria, A.D. 300–600
Authors: Smith R. R. R.
Published: May 2006

Aphrodisias in Caria is an unusually well preserved site that offers exceptional material for a case-study of the impact of changed social, political, and religious structures on the urban centre of a medium-sized prosperous city of the Late Empire, probably typical of others in Asia. Against the background of the city's well preserved late antique townscape and the (relatively modest) architectural reconfiguring of its classical fabric, this paper looks at the public statuary of the period, its context and significance.
Lactantius, Porphyry, and the Debate over Religious Toleration
Authors: Digeser Elizabeth DePalma
Published: May 2006

Did the events surrounding Diocletian's persecution of 303–311 launch a debate over religious toleration? The first suggestion that they did occurs in Porphyry's Philosophy from Oracles, a defence of traditional religion and theology in three books. Writing before the persecution, the celebrated Neoplatonist philosopher from Tyre, a man whom several Christian emperors and church councils would soon condemn, asked the question that stood at the heart of the persecution:

How can these people [i.e., Christians] be thought worthy of forbearance (συϒϒώμη) ? They have not only turned away from those who from earliest time are referred to as divine among all Greeks and barbarians … and by emperors, law-givers and philosophers—all of a common mind. But also, in choosing impieties and atheism, they have preferred their fellow creatures [i.e., to worshipping the divine]. And to what sort of penalties might they not justly be subjected who … are fugitives from the things of their fathers?
Patterns of Madness in Statius'Thebaid
Authors: Hershkowitz Debra
Published: May 2006

The traditional problem of Silver Latin poetry, and Silver Latin epic especially, has been its attraction to the extravagant, the grotesque, the infinite, the absurd, in other words, its propensity for excess. Statius'Thebaidin particular has been considered guilty of this offence. Recent criticism, however, has tended to see Silver Latin poetry not simply as being excessive, but as being deeply concerned with excess—cultural, ideological, and poetic. In this paper I hope to demonstrate that such a concern is a prominent characteristic of Statius'Thebaid, by exploring perhaps the most important manifestation of excess in the poem, madness. I will argue that theThebaid's excessiveness is fundamental and necessary, rather than detrimental, to its overall effect. But this paper, like theThebaid, will not concentrate exclusively on excess, for it will prove to be only the starting-point for a specific interpretation of the patterns of action and madness in theThebaid.
The Language of the Vindolanda Writing Tablets: An Interim Report
Authors: Adams J. N.
Published: May 2006

The recent publication by A. K. Bowman and J. D. Thomas ofThe Vindolanda Writing Tablets (Tabulae Vindolandenses II)(1994) provides another substantial corpus of Latin from a military outpost in the early Empire. The tablets take their place alongside such important military finds as the letters of Claudius Terentianus, which are roughly of the same date, the ostraca from Bu Njem, and the ostraca from Wâdi Fawâkhir, which again are dated to the first/second centuries.

The Latin of the Vindolanda tablets has recently been discussed by H. Petersmann as a specimen of ‘Vulgar Latin’, at a conference devoted to Vulgar and Late Latin. But while the influence of spoken varieties of the language can be detected in some misspellings, and in aspects of the syntax, morphology, and lexicon of the tablets, one must resist the temptation to find ‘Vulgar Latin’ (however one defines that problematical term: see below, IX.4) as the sole or principal element of the tablets. Many of the documents were not composed by free composition, but have a formulaic structure which made little or no demand on the linguistic competence of the writer (e.g. applications for leave (166–77), the daily reports of a type found at Bu Njem, which have certain distinctive features of syntax (155–6)). Accounts and lists (178–209) too may in their syntax and format, if not necessarily in their spellings, be heavily influenced by the conventions of their genre. Moreover record-keeping of this type usually falls to individuals with a degree of education and numeracy, and their writing may have little or nothing to reveal about the spoken language which they used or heard.
Sallust'sJugurtha: An ‘Historical Fragment’
Authors: Levene D. S.
Published: May 2006

The ancient historian is used to dealing with texts that are fragments through the accident of transmission. This paper is concerned with a deliberate fragment: a work that is notionally complete, in that it is written and presented as something finished and whole, but which at the same time draws the reader's attention in a more or less systematic fashion to the fact that it is incomplete; it shows itself to be only part of the whole. The mode was especially popular in the Romantic period; the best-known example for English readers is Coleridge'sKubla Khan, but it also revealed itself in such diverse forms as the aphoristic writings of thinkers like Friedrich Schlegel, or the widespread admiration of the ruins of ancient buildings. I intend to argue that Sallust'sJugurthais a work of this sort.
The Ethics of Brutus and Cassius
Authors: Sedley David
Published: May 2006

Among that select band of philosophers who have managed to change the world, and not just to interpret it, it would be hard to find a pair with a higher public profile than Brutus and Cassius — brothers-in-law, fellow-assassins, and Shakespearian heroes. Yet curiously little is understood of the connection, if any, between the fact that they were philosophers and their joint decision to form the conspiracy against Caesar. It may not even be widely known that they were philosophers.

What work has been done on this question has been focused on Cassius' Epicureanism, thanks above all to a famous review published by Momigliano in 1941 which included a seminal survey of the evidence for politicized Epicureans. I shall myself have less to say on that topic than on the richer, and less explored, evidence for Brutus. For the present, we may note that at the time of the assassination, March 44 B.C., Cassius had been an Epicurean for just three or four years; that he had already prior to that been actively engaged in philosophy; but that his previous allegiance is unknown. His conversion to Epicureanism seems to have been timed to reflect his decision in 48 B.C. to withdraw from the republican struggle and to acquiesce in Caesar's rule, expressing his hopes for peace and his revulsion from civil bloodshed. This sounds in tune with a familiar Epicurean policy: minimal political involvement, along with approval of any form of government that provides peaceful conditions. We may, therefore, plausibly link Cassius' withdrawal to his new-found Epicureanism. In which case it becomes less likely that his subsequent resumption of the political initiative in fomenting conspiracy against Caesar was itself dictated purely by his Epicureanism. Yet he did remain an Epicurean to the end.6 At its weakest then, the question which we must address might simply be how, when he became convinced that Caesar must be eliminated, he managed to reconcile that decision with his Epicureanism. I shall have a suggestion to make about Cassius' Epicurean justification, but it will emerge incidentally during the examination of the evidence for Brutus, who is the real hero of this paper.
The Survival and Supremacy of Rome: The Unity of the Shield of Aeneas
Authors: Harrison S. J.
Published: May 2006

What is the most plausible connection which can be constructed between the various scenes from Roman history selected for depiction on the Shield of Aeneas, described inAeneid8.626–728? This question has found a variety of answers since Warde Fowler raised it in 1918, but none is entirely satisfactory. The order of presentation of the individual scenes is evidently chronological, from the beginnings of Rome to the poet's own day, but the poet's own explicit programme, that the Shield containsres Italas Romanorumque triumphos(626), is very general, and could apply equally well to the Show of Heroes inAeneid6. The reader feels that a more specific criterion of selection is in operation — whytheseparticular pieces of Roman military history?

The most significant modern proposals for such a criterion are reviewed by West in an important article. For instance, Drew's argument that the scenes represent the four imperial virtues ofvirtus, clementia, iustitia, andpietasascribed to Augustus on the golden shield presented to him by the Senate in 27 B.C. (Res Gestae34.2,CILVI.876), a stone copy of which survives at Arles, laudably makes the connection with a real, contemporary, and ideologically significant shield, but (as West points out) it is too schematic and does not account for all the details (how are the she-wolf and the rape of the Sabines to be accommodated under those labels?). West's own answer, that the scenes chosen are those particularly suited to depiction in plastic art, has many attractions, but it is difficult to see it as the sole criterion for selection: this is too important an ideological moment in theAeneidfor such a purely aesthetic explanation.
Quantifying the Sources of Slaves in the Early Roman Empire
Authors: Scheidel Walter
Published: May 2006

The relative importance of different sources of slaves in the Roman Empire during the Principate cannot be gauged from ancient texts. However, simple demographic models show that, for purely statistical reasons, natural reproduction made a greater contribution to the Roman slave supply than child exposure, warfare, and the slave trade taken together and was in all probability several times as important as any other single source. The most plausible projections also suggest that on average the incidence of manumission was rather low. By implication, overall fertility of ex-slaves in general and of freedwomen in particular would be low as well, which must have reduced their chances of acquiring legal privileges that accrued from sexual reproduction.
The Transformation of Italy, 225–28 B.C.
Authors: Morley Neville
Published: May 2006

For a study of social and economic questions an assessment of population is indispensable. It must make a difference to our picture of the agrarian troubles that vexed the late Republic, whether we take Italy to have been densely or thinly settled.

Although debate continues on the causes, chronology, and extent of the ‘second-century crisis’ in Italy, a consensus has developed on its main symptom: the free peasantry, numbers already depleted by the burdens of military service, was displaced from the land by imported slaves and so continued to decline, a development which contributed significantly to the troubles of the succeeding century. Underpinning this consensus is widespread acceptance of what might be called the ‘Beloch-Brunt’ model of the demographic history of Italy in this period. This model suggests that between the late third century (Polybius' account of the numbers of Romans and Italians under arms in 225 B.C. permits an estimate of the total population) and the late first century (Augustus' first census of Roman citizens in 28 B.C., the first truly reliable one since the enfranchisement of the Italians) the free population had declined from about four and a half million people to about four million.
Machines, Power and the Ancient Economy
Authors: Wilson Andrew
Published: May 2006

This paper explores, in a very preliminary fashion, the relationship in the ancient world between the design and use of mechanical technology, social or political patronage and investment, and economic return, using three main areas as case studies: water-lifting devices, the water-powered grain mill, and the diverse uses of water-power in mining. The emphasis is on the use of devices and techniques which replaced human power with alternative power sources, and especially on water-power for driving machinery and hydraulic mining techniques employing the erosive power of water. It is argued that water-power was used on a wide scale and in diversified forms at an early date (by the first century A.D.), and that the use of mechanical technology to perform economically critical work had an important impact on economic performance and the potential for per capita growth, especially in the latter centuries B.C. and the first two centuries A.D. Conversely, in the third century A.D. the cessation of the employment of hydraulic mining techniques enabling large-scale extraction of gold and other metals may have had an adverse economic impact on the economy as a whole. Growth and progress do not necessarily follow a linear pattern of advance; technologies are lost as well as adopted.
Variation in terricolous bryophyte and macrolichen vegetation along primary gradients in Canadian boreal forests
Authors: Carleton T. J.
Published: May 2006

Abstract. Compositional variation among 172 boreal forests stands, based upon the understorey terricolous bryophyte and macrolichen vegetation, is compared with that based upon vascular vegetation. Detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) of the two datasets yielded stand ordinations each indicating a single dominant upland‐bottomland gradient. This was most clear among 138 stands in the cryptogam dataset. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) of the 138 stand subset yielded a pronounced first axis gradient from dry, nutrient poor pine dominated forest sites to moist, nutrient rich bottomland sites dominated by balsam poplar woodland.

Individual species response curves, by the method of log‐linear least squares regression, yielded three different respective patterns among the most abundant tree, understorey vascular and cryptogamic plant species. Whereas curves for the tree species were ‘Gaussian’ in shape and displaced at somewhat regular intervals along the gradient, the abundant understorey vascular plant species curves clustered in the mesic, mixed wood region two thirds of the way along. Curves for the abundant cryptogams were mostly linear in shape and absent from the mixed wood zone, showing concentrations at one end of the gradient or the other.

Two interpretations of the understorey pattern are considered. One proposes competitive exclusion of cryptogams from the mesic mixed wood region by the vascular understorey plants. Another proposes that the cryptogams are adapted to the sharply contrasting ecosystems encountered at one end of the gradient or another but that none can effectively cope with the intermediate, mixed wood ecosystems. Evidence from the response curves favours this second interpretation.
Riverain vegetation in the Nile valley in Upper Egypt
Authors: Springuel Irina
Published: May 2006

Abstract. Naturaland semi‐natural plant communities occurring in the Nile Valley in Upper Egypt are described and their position in the zonation along the river bank interpreted. With the help of ordination and classification methods relationships among the 13 community types and their distribution along the predominating moisture gradient are elucidated. The vegetation of the Nile Valley can be described as a series of discrete plant community types on the basis of their floristic composition, structural components and habitat conditions. The communities can be grouped into four higher units, considered as formations: swamp, meadow, thorn‐bush and riverain woodland.
Correlations of liverwort species on an intermediate landscape scale
Authors: Duda Josef , Herben Tomáš , Ivan Novotn
Published: May 2006

Abstract. Floristic data on the occurrence of Hepaticae at 939 localities of 102 ‐ 103 m diameter in the Nizky; Jesenik Mts. (area 3624 km2) were subjected to TWIN‐SPAN classification. The results were interpreted in terms of the site conditions at each locality. Groups of localities showed marked differences in distribution within the areas, mainly in relation to altitude and substrate. The grouping of species partly corresponded to their sociological behaviour (i. e. their distribution on a smaller spatial scale). Joint occurrences of species of different sociological groups indicate the presence of habitat complexes whichbecome apparent on the larger spatial scale. The use of such data in landscape ecology is discussed.
BOOK REVIEWS
Authors: Walker Marilyn D.
Published: May 2006

Book reviewed in this issue.

Okland, R. H. Vegetation Ecology: Theory, Methods, and Application to Fennoscandia. 1990. 233 pp. Som‐merfeltia Supplement 1, Botanical Gardens and Museum, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway. ISBN 82–7420–006–3. Price: NOK 180.
Changes in ecosystem functioning after replacement of forest by Lantana shrubland in Kumaun Himalaya
Authors: Bhatt Y.D. , Rawat Y.S. , Singh S.P.
Published: May 2006

Abstract. Lantana camara shrubland is compared with the adjacent Quercus leucotrichophora and Pinus roxburghii forests to understand changes occurring in net primary productivity and nutrient cycling, as a consequence of degradation of these forests. The total net primary productivity of Lantana camara shrubland was 17 t ha‐1 yr‐1, which is similar to the values reported for forests: 16 ‐ 21 t ha‐1 yr‐1. Total nutrient content (N, P) in the soil in the L. camara shrubland: 2932 kg ha‐1 N and 111 kg ha‐1 P, was lower than that of the forest soils.
Quadrat variance analysis and pattern development during primary succession
Authors: Dale M. R. T. , Blundon D. J.
Published: May 2006

Abstract. The interpretation of Hill's ‘Two Term Local Quadrat Variance’ analysis to detect the scale of spatial pattern in vegetation is improved by an equation that relates the block size of a variance peak to the scale of the pattern that gave rise to it. (Contrary to previous belief, the two are not the same, especially for large block sizes.) Deviations of pattern from a perfectly regular alternation of equally sized gaps and patches of uniform density cause changes in the variance. To aid in the interpretation of these changes, two indices of pattern regularity are proposed, one based on density and one based onpresence/absence, in orderte distinguish the effects of irregularities of patch density from irregularities of patch size and position.

These methods are applied to a study of primary succession on glacial moraines near Mt. Robson, British Columbia, Canada, in order to evaluate certain hypotheses about the development of pattern. Other researchers have proposed that during succession, the pattern at first intensifies at the scales initially observed, then as succession proceeds some scales of pattern are lost due to coalescence of patches and eventually the intensity of those that remain decreases as the patterns become more and more irregular. The vegetation on the Mt. Robson moraines confirms this sequence of changes in vegetation pattern, only to the extent that patterns intensify initially in the chronosequence; the number of scales of pattern in the vegetation remains about the same throughout and there is no evidence that the patterns become more irregular.

The variance‐block size graphs derived from presence / absence data matched those from density data well, indicating that the simpler data, in this case, are almost as informative about pattern as the more detailed data.
Seasonal changes in stem diameter and leaf development in a tropical montane forest
Authors: Singh S. P. , Ralhan P. K. , Upadhyay V. P. , Negi G. C. S.
Published: May 2006

Abstract. Seasonal patterns of stem diameter changes in evergreen and deciduous species of a tropical montane forest in the Central Himalayas (300–2250 m a.s.l.) were investigated in relation to leaf development. Ca. 75 % of the annual rainfall in this region occurs in a short period, from mid‐June to mid‐September and the remaining months are dry. It was assumed that changes in stem diameter are correlated with changes in water stress. Each evergreen species could be characterized by leaf longevity of about one year; each species showed pronounced summer leaf drop and simultaneous new leaf formation. Winter stem shrinkage was more pronounced in deciduous species than in evergreen ones. The deciduous species also showed a greater proportional loss of leaf mass (before abscission) than the evergreen species. Winter leaf fall in deciduous species was related to the pronounced stem shrinkage. The leaf fall enabled these species to control further water loss. Being more resistant to desiccation, the evergreen species retained their leaves throughout the winter but showed gradual loss of leaf mass, presumably in order to control water loss. In all species, leaf expansion was completed before the onset of the rainy season, when water stress was high. This strategy has definite advantages in a climate with a monsoon pattern of rainfall. Evergreen species, showing pronounced leaf drop in summer, have advantages over deciduous species; hence their preponderance in the region.
Post‐fire diversity patterns in two subassociations of Californian coastal sage scrub
Authors: O'Leary John F.
Published: May 2006

Abstract.Coastal sage scrub exhibits floristically dissimilar subassociations on opposing aspects in the Santa Monica Mountains of southern California. Southward‐facing (Venturan I) and northward‐facing (Ventaran II) subassociations were sampled at two scales (1 m2and 625 m2) each spring for five years following a fire. Mature (10‐ and 28 yr‐old) sites of these subassociation types were also sampled in the study area. The subshrub and herbaceous components that were most prevalent on northerly slopes following the first post‐burn year contributed the most cover for all ages examined.

Aspect‐related differences in species richness were most apparent at the smaller sampling scale where they were equal the first post‐burn year and varied inversely thereafter. At this scale, richness values were two times higher on older north‐facing sites, largely due to the herbaceous component. South‐facing sites displayed progressive decreases in equitability through time. This pattern reflects gradual reduction in overall species richness combined with progressive site domination by fewer species, as manifested by increasing dominance concentration values. By contrast equitability on north‐facing sites fluctuated little through time, though dominance concentration tended to decrease. Higher richness, equitability, and overall cover with time after burning on north‐facing sites is associated with the relatively mesic habitats upon which this subassociation develops. Post‐burn patterns of species richness and stratal differentiation on south‐facing slopes are consistent with those reported for other mediterranean‐type shrublands, i.e. peak richness was attained the first two years following a fire with subsequent decrease to a constant level.
Data manipulation and gradient length estimation in DCA ordination
Authors: Eilertsen Odd , Okland Rune H. , Okland Tonje , Pedersen Oddvar
Published: May 2006

Abstract. The effects of different kinds of data manipulation on gradient length estimation by non‐linear rescal‐ing (as in DCA ordination) are evaluated by considering the first axis inDCA ordinations of 11 field data sets from four investigations. Gradient length estimates are dependent on the range of the abundance scale; the more the scale favours the quantitative aspect (abundance) of the data over the qualitative aspect (presence), the longer the DCA axes.

The gradient length estimate decreases when infrequent species are deleted. A new formula is proposed to replace the option for downweighting of rare species in DCA, as the option presently available has some undesirable properties. Some implications for interpretation of gradient length estimates by non‐linear rescaling in general (and in DCA in particular) and for comparison of gradient length estimates between studies, are discussed. The potential of non‐linear rescaling of gradients for estimation of β diversity is emphasized.
Predicting the distribution of plant communities using annual rainfall and elevation: an example from southern Africa
Authors: Palmer A. R. , Van Staden J. M.
Published: May 2006

Abstract. Using the results of a total floristic survey of two veld types (Arid Sweet Bushveld and Mixed Bushveld) in the northeastern Transvaal, South Africa, we linked median annual rainfall from a surface response model to each of 139 samples. The samples had been classified floristically into 15 plant communities. These communities represent two broad divisions, corresponding with the concepts embodied in the two veld types. Using contingency tables, we defined the conditions of median annual rainfall and elevation for each of the veld types. Using a geographic analysis system we predicted the distribution of the veld types in an area of 120 000 km2 outside the study area. The predicted distribution was validated by comparison with a digitized version of the Acocks map. We conclude that the defined conditions of median annual rainfall and elevation provide confident criteria for the definition of these veld types.
BOOK REVIEWS
Authors: Hill M. O.
Published: May 2006

Book reviewed in this issue.

Rodwell, J. S. (ed.) 1991. British Plant Communities, Vol. 1. Woodlands and Scrub. x+395 pp. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. ISBN 0–521–23558–8. Price USD 150.‐.
Changes in dry matter and nutrient yields during the restoration of species‐rich grasslands
Authors: Oomes M. J. M.
Published: May 2006

Abstract. In two moderately productive grasslands that had been withdrawn from agricultural use, one on humic sandy soil and one on heavy clay, the decrease in dry matter, N‐, P‐ and K‐yields were measured for 14 and 11 years respectively, after fertilization had been stopped. The grasslands were mown twice a year. The yields and concentrations of nutrients were compared with those of already unproductive grasslands under the same growing conditions.

On sandy soil, the annual dry matter yield decreased from 10.2 to 6.5 ton / ha in four years. After nine years, the dry matter (4.1 ton / ha) and K (20.5 kg / ha) yields were as low as those of the unproductive grassland. At that time yields and concentrations of N and P were still greater. The low K‐ concentration of 0.50 % and the lack of response upon N fertilizing indicate that the supply of K limits biomass production.

On clay, during the first three years, the dry matter yield decreased from 10.2 to 5.0 ton / ha, after 6 yr the production increased again. The low N‐concentration of 1.52 % after 10 yr indicates that N is likely to limit biomass production, but the low P‐concentration of 0.14% indicates that P shortage can also be expected. In the lower productive grassland on sand the number of species that invaded was higher.
Seed bank dynamics of Mediterranean pastures subjected to mechanical disturbance
Authors: Levassor C. , Ortega M. , Peco B.
Published: May 2006

Abstract. Vegetation and buried germinable seeds were examined in Mediterranean pastures differing both in time elapsed since last ploughing and in intensity of disturbance. Densities of buried germinable seeds in the greenhouse were determined from 10 × 10 × 3 cm soil cores taken during the autumn prior to the time of germination. Abundance of pasture species was recorded on the same sites during the following spring.

The species composition of the seed bank was very similar to that of the vegetation: 80.9 % similarity (Sorensen's index). The number of species and density of buried seeds ready to germinate increased with suc‐cessional age from 0 to 4 yr and decreased later to a constant level after 9 yr. Regarding disturbance intensity, the highest species numbers are found at intermediate intensities while there is a drastic decrease at high disturbance intensity. The floristic composition of the seedbankwas analyzed through Correspondence Analysis (CA) and Binary Discriminant Analysis (BDA). Seed bank composition reflected both successional stage and intensity of disturbance. Characteristic species of both gradients were identified.