bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
M. Porcius Cato and the Annexation and Early Administration Of Cyprus
Authors: Badian E.
Published: May 2006

I. Cato's title and commission: the problem.

II. Cic., fam. XIII, 48: C. Sextilius Rufus, quaestor in Cyprus, and his family.

III. The arrangements for annexation and administration.

IV. The precedent: P. Lentulus Marcellinus and Cyrene.

In 58 B.C. M. Cato, then of tribunician standing, was sent to Cyprus to confiscate and realize the King's property. The mission, with its political context, has been frequently discussed—best by S. I. Oost, with his usual historical insight and critical acumen. The present article proposes to base itself on Oost's discussion and investigate some further matters that did not come within the scope of his enquiry.

I

We must start with Cato's title, on which the truth has only quite recently been recognized. Amid dozens of references to the famous mission, we have only two that purport to give his title accurately. The author of de uiris illustribus tells us that Cato was sent to Cyprus as quaestor. Since he is notoriously inaccurate in such matters, to the confusion of much modern scholarship, this would not be worth a great deal by itself. But it is fully supported by Velleius, who in fact gives more details: Clodius passed a law that Cato, as quaestor with praetorian status, and with a quaestor to assist him, should be sent to Cyprus to strip Ptolemy of his kingdom.
The Origin and Plan of Roman Florence
Authors: Hardie Colin
Published: May 2006

There has been much argument and little agreement about the date of the foundation of Florentia, about the purpose of its foundation with regard to Faesulae, and about the relation of the city's site and orientation to the Consular road which joined Arretium and Luca, the Via Cassia, and to the crossing of the River Arnus by the Roman equivalent of Ponte Vecchio. Although the Via Cassia is agreed to belong to the second century B.C., its precise date is uncertain, and for the stretch from Arretium to Faesulae and Florentia two different routes are recorded, one on the north bank (after the first few miles out of Arretium) and the other on the south as far as Ponte Vecchio. It is agreed that the southern route is later, but not whether it and the crossing of the Arno is a cause or a consequence of the foundation of Florentia.
Tiberivs Ivlivs Alexander
Authors: Turner E. G.
Published: May 2006

In the reign of Tiberius, and probably early in the reign, two sons, one of them the subject of this paper, were born to a member of the Jewish community of Alexandria, Alexander mistakenly surnamed Lysimachus. His respectability was vouched for by the learning and standing in the community of his brother Philo, his piety by the gift of new gates to the temple at Jerusalem, and his wealth brought him into contact with prominent personalities in both the Roman and Jewish worlds. Agrippa, the grandson of Herod the Great by Aristobulus, was the beneficiary, at a crisis in his fortunes, of Alexander's sympathetic banking transactions; a letter of credit on Puteoli for a large sum enabled this winsome but wasteful scion of the Jewish royal house to face his creditors and return to Italy, and the investment turned out well for Alexander himself, and was to associate his children, particularly Tiberius Iulius, closely with the family of Agrippa for the rest of the latter's lifetime.
The Legionary Fortress at Lincoln
Authors: Webster Graham
Published: May 2006

Lincoln occupies a commanding position on the north side of the gap made in the north-south limestone escarpment by the River Witham as it turns in its course towards the Wash. The escarpment is part of the continuous upland link between the Humber and the Severn, forming a natural boundary to prehistoric occupation in south-east England; to the north-west lies the damp, low, midland area, the human penetration of which was never in early times on an extensive scale.
Air Reconnaissance of Southern Britain
Authors: Joseph J. K. St.
Published: May 2006

This paper, a companion to one printed in vol. XLI of the Journal, describes discoveries made by air reconnaissance during the eight summers 1945–52 in the southern half of Roman Britain. The area concerned, extending from the English Channel to Yorkshire, embraces the whole of the civil district of the province and the highland regions of Wales and the Pennines that were throughout much of the Roman occupation under direct military control (pl. VIII). There is a broad difference, too, in the terrain of these two parts. The civil district corresponds to the lowland zone of Britain, which includes the most fertile soils and to-day the largest proportion of arable land. In Wales and the Pennines grass and moorland predominate. This difference is reflected in the results obtained by air reconnaissance. In the Midlands and the south, structures of the Roman period do not commonly survive above ground in open country, and by far the largest number of new discoveries have come from observation of crop marks, revealing features otherwise hidden. In Wales and the Pennines the aerial camera has recorded military remains, already known as they are visible on the surface as earthworks; and here additions to knowledge have come when such a site happened to be under a cereal crop rather than grass, or when earthworks were seen that escaped previous notice on the ground. The scale of the flying has varied much from one year to another in the period under review. In 1945 and 1946 the flying over southern Britain only amounted to a few hours; there were rather more in 1947, but most of the results here described were obtained in the years 1948–1951. This period included the exceptionally dry summer of 1949, when many features were seen that have not been visible at any other time.
The Constitutional Position of Odoacer and Theoderic
Authors: Jones A. H. M.
Published: May 2006

Mommsen in his Ostgotische Studien (Ges. Schr. VI, 362 ff.) enunciated the theory that Odoacer and Theoderic were kings of their German followers, but ruled their Roman subjects as commissaries of the emperors, holding the office of magister militum with certain precisely defined additional powers. Stein (Bas-Empire II, 116 ff.) and Ensslin (Theoderich der Grosse) have considerably modified this theory, admitting that Theoderic acted as king of all his subjects. They nevertheless still maintain that he was at the same time magister militum, and that his powers were limited in certain respects by a formal concordat with the emperor. In my opinion Odoacer and Theoderic were kings pure and simple, in the same position as the other barbarian kings.
Atticus, Legate of Judaea Under Trajan
Authors: Smallwood E. Mary
Published: May 2006

Eusebius, quoting Hegesippus, records that during Trajan's reign Symeon son of Cleopas, a cousin of Christ, was martyred in Judaea as a Christian ἐπὶ … Άττικοῦ τοῦ ὑπατικοῦ —which at first sight appears to mean ‘when Atticus was consular legate’. Atticus was clearly the legate of Judaea at the time. The suggestion that he was legate of the consular province of Syria can be disregarded, as there is no reason why an event in Judaea should be dated by the governor of another province. Two problems arise—the date of Atticus' command, and his rank as legate.
The Roman Siege-Works of Masàda, Israel
Authors: Richmond I. A.
Published: May 2006

The western shore of the Dead Sea, the most remarkable natural feature in Palestine (fig. 4), is a strip of flat or very gently sloping land, mostly barren, its parched surface seamed with a wrinkled pattern of erosion channels. The strip represents in part the old bed of the lake, once larger than now, and in part the spill of detritus from the rocky cliffs which tower above it. These precipitous heights form an almost unbroken wall some 300 ft. high extending from Qumran to Sdom, being patterned in high relief only by the few wadis which bite through them and carry the rare but torrential winter rains. The cliffs themselves are but the floor of the plateau through which the Jordan valley has opened its deep and famous rift, reaching a depth of over a thousand feet below Mediterranean sea-level; and from the plateau itself rises the mountainous, pitiless desert of Judah, stretching to Hebron 21 miles westward and draining eastwards towards the rift-valley. Where the eastward face of the cliffs is cut by water-courses it is carved into promontories, but in the main these constitute an integral part of wide sweeps of hinterland and are not positions of strength. At one point only (fig. 5) do two wadis flow close together and then divide, to tear out deep ravines behind a promontory, and almost to cut it off on the landward side. The spot in question is Masàda (pl. XVI), a lozenge-shaped table-mountain, 730 yds. long and 215 yds. wide overall, lofty, isolated and to all appearance impregnable.
P. Decius P. f. Subulo
Authors: Badian E.
Published: May 2006

A P. Decius Subulo appears twice in the extant books of Livy. The cognomen is only given on the first occasion and there spelled ‘Subolo’; and that may well be the correct original form. The word, we are told, is Etruscan for ‘tibicen’ and we may thus deduce, despite the Oscan nomen, a partly Etruscan (and perhaps priestly) origin for the family. It will have come from one of those regions of Central Italy pervaded by Etruscan influence—perhaps Campania; but nothing is known about it. We have no further reference to this P. Decius. It would be interesting to know whether he reached the praetorship: if he lived long enough, it is quite probable, to judge by others in similar positions; but we cannot tell.

The son of this man first appears in history in an unfortunate manner. Cicero tells us of a man whom Q. Opimius (cos. 154), at some time after his consulship, mocked for his effeminacy—a charge which, according to Cicero, was undeserved and which the. young man neatly returned. The impudent retort to a consular shows that the youth must have been of some social standing. Unfortunately his name is corrupt in our manuscripts; but with the help of a citation by Nonius, Cichorius has restored it with certainty as ‘Decius’. This same man—who, in the circumstances, must be the son of the senator P. Decius Subulo— was also the butt of a joke by Scipio Aemilianus, which Cicero greatly admired, but which we cannot understand, except to see that it was probably indecent.
Pax and the ‘Ara Pacis’
Authors: Weinstock Stefan
Published: May 2006

We call a monument Ara Pacis without any support from ancient tradition. It was Friedrich von Duhn who first so called it in 1879 and he justified it in the briefest fashion. He considered three sacrificial slabs and three processional slabs. He did not produce any analysis but based his case on the fact that some of those reliefs were discovered in the grounds of the Palazzo Fiano, that is on the Campus Martius, and that the Ara Pacis was built on the Campus Martius. That was all. Nevertheless, his conjecture was enthusiastically received: it was the golden age of classical archaeology, when numberless monuments were assigned to great Greek artists and great historical events and thus the foundations were laid for a more critical and sceptical study of Greek art. This scepticism destroyed many identifications but it never reached the Ara Pacis, and that I believe for special reasons. There was great excitement in the years after 1873 when Carl Humann discovered the great altar of Pergamum ; excavations began in 1878 with sensational results. Friedrich von Duhn made his ‘discovery’ in the following year and it concerned another great altar, but this time in Rome. He was clearly spellbound and so were his contemporaries. They did not ask for proof. In that atmosphere such credulity was natural. Yet however much the altar has been studied during the last eighty years the question has never been asked why it should be the Ara Pacis. My answer is that it is not. My first task, however, is to reconsider the evidence about Pax and I shall do this as if our altar did not exist. I shall return to it in the second part of my paper and end with the interpretation of a specimen relief, the sacrifice of Aeneas which seems to me the most revealing of the reliefs.
Scipio Aemilianus and Roman Politics
Authors: Scullard H. H.
Published: May 2006

In the decade or so before the tribunate of Tiberius Gracchus the Roman political scene was bristling with perplexing problems: the relation of Senate and People; the claims of the business classes; Rome's attitude to the allies; declining standards in provincial administration and military conduct; threats from Greece to traditional Roman ways of thought; deteriorating moral standards; the influx of wealth; the supersession of peasant husbandry by latifundia; land as an object of speculation; slave labour; the decline in the absorption of provincial corn by the armies abroad after 167 B.C. and its importation to Rome, which thus needed less from Latium; and behind all the changing conditions of agriculture was the steady decline after 164 of the free population, attested by the census figures, provided that these are admitted to have any demographical value at all. Although the first radical attempt to grapple with some aspects of this Hydra-headed monster was made by Ti. Gracchus, his was not the first mind to apply itself to the challenge even though it was his will and courage that first promoted resolute action. Earlier attempts at reform loom dimly through the mists that hide from us any proper understanding of the preceding years. The evidence is fragmentary, but one obvious way of trying to unify the surviving scraps of information is to try to view the period through the eyes of one of its dominant leaders: thus an examination of some aspects of the political career and thought of Scipio Aemilianus and his supporters and their attitude towards the problems of their day and towards reform, together with the views of their opponents, may help to throw some light on the revolution that flared up, with such apparent suddenness, in 133 B.C.
Fifty Years of Republican History
Authors: McDonald A. H.
Published: May 2006

Fifty years ago, when the founders of this Society looked to the future of Roman studies, the general lines of development in Republican history must have seemed fairly clear. On the technical side Mommsen had opened up the main fields of systematic research, Eduard Meyer was at the height of his influence, and Beloch was testing new methods of historical survey, while Niese had arranged the evidence for Hellenistic politics. Historical scholarship could face a great access of material with confidence, as archaeology and epigraphy extended its scope, though this was less likely to affect Republican than Imperial history. At the same time the problems of historical interpretation had taken shape; for the events of the nineteenth century illustrated the play of power politics, which were relevant to the understanding of Roman imperialism. The ‘economic’ interpretation of history was coming into vogue, and this could lead into ‘social history’. If the influence of family connections and personal ambition was felt less urgently, it could be argued that a ‘scientific’ analysis of Roman politics should probe more deeply into the forces that broke out in the constitutional crisis of the Late Republic. We may admit at once that the main work in Republican history during our period has continued along these lines : we are still heavily in debt to the fundamental study of the older masters. The concept of ‘scientific’ history may have been modified, since it is a task of complicated inference to arrive at historical knowledge; yet the actual methods to which we have succeeded are well fitted for the systematic treatment of detailed evidence. Collingwood did less than justice to the school of Mommsen when he charged it with mastery over small-scale problems but weakness in dealing with large-scale ones. Only strict analysis and reconstruction of the evidence allowed the chief issues of Republican history to be defined critically, and subsequent research has refined on this procedure.
Agathias and Cedrenus on Julian
Authors: Cameron Averil M.
Published: May 2006

In a recent article, Sir Maurice Bowra accepted the view of E. A. Thompson that the Emperor Juliandidreceive a Delphic oracle before setting off for the East—the lines quoted by Theodoret (HEIII, 21, p. 200, Parmentier, and again in theGraec. Affect. Curatio, PG 83, 1069), and repeated by the eleventh-century Byzantine chronicler Cedrenus (1, p. 538, Bonn). When Cedrenus introduces the oracle he cites Agathias, the sixth-century historian: Ίουλιαòς δὲ μαντείαις καὶ θυσίαις καὶ ἐπῳδαῖς δαιμόνων καὶ ἀπάταις φραξάμενος,ὡς φησὶν Άγαθίας, κατὰ Περσῶν ἐστράτευσεν, ὅτε καὶ χρησμὸν ἔλαβεν ἔχοντα οὕτως…. Bowra therefore assumed that Cedrenus took his oracle from Agathias, ‘who may well have got his information from Theodoret’ (o.c., p. 428). And he also speaks of ‘the occasion mentioned, in different ways’ by Theodoret, Agathias, and Cedrenus, as though the fact of Cedrenus's having the oracle added something to the value of the story.
De Commentariolo Petitionis
Authors: Henderson M. I.
Published: May 2006

The document called by its author commentariolum petitionis, though not transmitted in the Codex Mediceus of the Epistulae ad Quintum fratrem, appears at the end of these letters in the Codices Berolinensis and Harleianus, and in minor and deterior texts, under two alternative headings: ‘Incipit commentarium consulatus petitionis feliciter’ (Harl.), and ‘Q. Ciceronis de petitione consulatus ad M. Tullium fratrem’ (dett.). The work itself begins with the regular epistolary superscription, ‘Quintus Marco fratri s.d.’ Its diction has often been disparaged on aesthetic grounds, but the best editors have found no reason of Latinity or of stemmatology sufficient to exclude it from the corpus of Ciceronian correspondence.
C. Crepereius Gallus and his Gens
Authors: Levick Barbara , Jameson Shelagh
Published: May 2006

During the last two centuries of the Roman Republic, Italian business-men swarmed into newly acquired provinces and lands that had fallen under Roman influence. Sometimes they settled abroad with their families and, as landowners, obtained a form of wealth that raised them in the social scale. At the end of the second century B.C. Italians began to emigrate and become landowners in another way—by the foundation in the provinces of colonies, veteran and civilian. It was Gaius Gracchus who initiated colonization overseas, and it remained a radical, controversial policy—but an indispensable one. Both forms of emigration kept up their momentum until the Imperial age. As they passed through the empire or settled abroad, families of Italian negotiatores and colonists left evidence of their movements, mainly in the form of inscriptions. Under the Caesars we may, in some cases, trace their progress in reverse: the descendants of Italian émigrés—negotiatores, colonists, and landowners—returned to Italy and held posts to which some at any rate of their ancestors could never have aspired.
The Lex Rubria: Reconsiderations
Authors: Frederiksen M. W.
Published: May 2006

For the municipal jurisdiction of the Roman Republic, the bronze tablet found at Veleia, which is commonly and, as I assume, rightly called the Lex Rubria, is clearly important but it is not in all places intelligible. The law dealt with the conduct of a range of civil cases in the courts of Cisalpine Gaul, from the proceedings in iure and the granting of a formula to the appointment of a iudex (cf. ‘ex hac lege’ ch. xxi 24), the delivery of the iudicium (cf. ch. xx) and the methods of execution available to local magistrates. Together with another more carefully drafted fragment from Ateste, which is at least closely related and may be a portion of the same law (cf. ‘ex hac lege’ in lines 8–9), it offers a glimpse of the legal structure in a crucial period. The Lex Rubria is longer, less carefully drafted, and at the same time more obscure; whence some contributions are offered towards the meaning of the text (I, II, III) and its implications (IV).
The Dictatorship of Minucius
Authors: Dorey T. A.
Published: May 2006

The constitutional position of M. Minucius as a result of the plebiscitum of Metilius in 217 B.C. has never been satisfactorily defined; this is due to the vagueness of the ancient authorities. Polybius does indeed make the explicit statement that there were two dictators appointed to carry on the same campaign, a thing unprecedented in Roman history. On the strength of this passage, it has often been assumed that the formal title of ‘dictator’, with all that it implied, was conferred on Minucius by the proposal of Metilius. But the other authorities are not so explicit, and their language seems to contradict Polybius. Livy, for example, refers to the rogatio of Metilius as a proposal ‘de aequando magistri equitum et dictatoris iure’ (XXII, 25, 10), or ‘de aequato imperio’ (26, 7). Nowhere does Livy refer to Minucius as Dictator; in fact, he seems deliberately to avoid doing so. In this respect Plutarch, too, seems to follow Livy. In his Life of Fabius he states that Metilius proposed that Minucius should share the command with Fabius and have equal authority in conducting the campaign; he concludes by saying that the People conferred on Minucius a power equal to that of the Dictator. To judge from the language of both Livy and Plutarch it would appear that whatever position Minucius may have held as a result of the rogatio it was not that of Dictator.
Aelius Aristides, ΕΙΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΑ
Authors: Jones C. P.
Published: May 2006

A short speech preserved among the writings of Aelius Aristides is addressed to an unnamed emperor. At present, it is generally agreed to be spurious, spoken by an unknown orator before the emperor Philip the Arab. It has been called ‘the only preserved specimen of the oratory of the third century’, ‘perhaps the only speech preserved in the corpus of Aristides of which the authenticity can be denied with confidence’, and it has been used as a primary document for the history of Philip's reign.

It was not always so. Up to the end of the nineteenth century, the authenticity of the speech was never questioned, though there was disagreement about the identity of the emperor.
The Collegia of Numa: Problems of Method and Political Ideas
Authors: Gabba Emilio
Published: May 2006

Chapter Seventeen of Plutarch's Life of Numa is well known to students of early Rome for the statement that it was the second king of Rome who created collegia for the craftsmen of Rome. Nor is Plutarch alone in his belief: two passages of Pliny's Natural History attribute the collegia of the bronze workers and brick makers to Numa (XXXIV, I; XXXV, 159); Pliny indeed seems to refer to an actual list of collegia in which these two figured. On the other hand, neither Cicero in the Republic nor Livy nor Dionysius displays any knowledge of such an initiative by Numa; an entirely different tradition indeed appears in Florus, according to which it was Servius Tullius who distributed the Roman people between collegia, in the general context of his timocratic organization of the census classes (1, 6, 3).
Was there a Roman Charter for the Jews?
Authors: Rajak Tessa
Published: May 2006

In the cities of the pre-Christian Roman empire, Jewish groups were in general free to pursue their own religious and social practices and, at any rate until Hadrian, they were not persecuted by the Roman government; even the exceptional and provocative demands for worship which came from a tyrannical emperor such as Gaius Caligula do not amount to planned persecution. There is a contrast with the subsequent fate of the early Christians, whose cult was, of course, often suppressed by the emperor and his governors. There is also a contrast with the later plight of the Jews themselves under Christian rule.

Since, at the local level, Jews on the one hand and Greeks and natives on the other were often profoundly hostile to one another, the fact that the central government was on the whole proof against anti-Jewish pressure coming from below is indeed noteworthy. The edict of L. Flaccus as proconsul of Asia, by which in 62/1 B.C. he had confiscated the Jewish Temple contributions collected for export from his province, was never repeated, so far as we know (Cic., Flac. 66–9). Not only that: the Romans appear at times to have chosen to put their influence behind Jewish communities in dispute with their neighbours, as occurred to some extent in the cases which we shall discuss here, and did not cease even after A.D. 70.
Nobilitas and Novitas
Authors: Brunt P. A.
Published: May 2006

I. No Roman definition of nobilis or novus homo exists. Mommsen held that the nobiles comprised:

(a) all patricians;

(b) those descended from patricians who had effected a transitio ad plebem;

(c) those descended from plebeians who had held curule offices, viz. the offices of dictator, magister equitum, censor, consul, praetor, curule aedile. They were thus identical with the persons who had the ius imaginum. (On this footing Mommsen ought to have included plebeian aediles, at least for the post-Sullan era.) All others, including those who were the first of their lines to hold curule office, were novi. This theory has been generally abandoned in favour of Gelzer's; Afzelius argued that it corresponded to the conception of nobility in the second century, but not to that prevalent in Cicero's time. Yet it may after all be right.
The Last Consul: Basilius and his Diptych
Authors: Cameron Alan , Schauer Diane
Published: May 2006

This article is concerned with a late antique consular diptych now divided between Florence and Milan. The front panel, in the Castello Sforzesco at Milan, displays a personification of Victory, seated frontally on the back of an eagle and holding an oval shield to her left (Pl. IV). In the centre of the shield is a bust of the consul and around the edge the inscription BONO REI PUBLIC(a)E ET ITERUM. A small portion of the top and the lower third of the panel are missing. The rear panel of the diptych, still intact, is in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence (Pl. V). The figure of the consul is standing, holding the mappa in front of his chest, and in his left hand a cross-surmounted sceptre. To the left of the consul stands the figure of Roma, who places her right hand on the consul's right shoulder and in her left holds the fasces. In the lower quarter of the panel is a scene of a chariot race and to the right are two small male figures. Across the top of both panels runs the inscription: ANIC(ius) FAUST(us) ALBIN(us) BASILIUS V(ir) C(larissimus) ET INL(ustris) EX COM(ite) DOM(esticorum) PAT(ricius) CONS(ul) ORD(inarius).
The Tribune C. Cornelius
Authors: Griffin Miriam
Published: May 2006

That Roman politicians function neither in splendid isolation nor in durable groups with common policies is a lesson we have grasped in large part through the imagination of the scholar who is honoured in this volume. Therefore a study aiming to put a tribune of 67 B.C. in his immediate context may be thought an appropriate offering, especially if the author does not fail ‘to keep the absent Pompeius in mind’ (Syme, Sallust 102).

If Sallust in his Histories reached the tribunate of C. Cornelius, he probably treated him as one of a number of sincere tribunes crusading against Optimate corruption; similarly, W. McDonald, writing in 1929 the first separate treatment of Cornelius' tribunate, saw him more as a representative of the Popular Party than as an agent of the ambiguous Pompey, whose quaestor he had been and who, McDonald thought, had put him forward to defend his own interests.
Rome and the Eastern Provinces at the end of the Second Century B.C.
Authors: Hassall Mark , Crawford Michael , Reynolds Joyce
Published: May 2006

A new inscription discovered by some workmen at Cnidos during excavations conducted by Professor Iris Love preserves considerable portions of a Roman law in a Greek translation, in date and content closely related to (perhaps identical with) the text found at Delphi, commonly known as the ‘Piracy Law’. We give below the Cnidos text and a revision of the Delphi text which is necessitated by the new information, together with a brief commentary designed to bring out what seem to us to be the major implications for Roman historians. The original transcription of the Cnidos text was made by Hassall, but all three authors have checked and improved the readings, both from photographs taken by him and by Professor Love, and from the stones; the revision of the Delphi text, begun by Hassall, is in the event largely the work of Crawford. Archaeological information is contributed by Hassall; to the commentary we have all three made our contributions. The final integration of these and of our concluding remarks is due to Crawford.
The Development of Roman Mailed Cavalry
Authors: Eadie John W.
Published: May 2006

The willingness of the Romans to adopt foreign military practices and to modify, and hereby strengthen, legionary organization, equipment, and tactics is well-documented and thas been discussed frequently by modern scholars. One manifestation of this pragmatic approach, however, has not received the attention it deserves—viz. their attempts during the Empire to develop an effective cavalry. In this effort the Romans employed a variety of cavalrymen and cavalry tactics, but one of the most interesting and certainly one of the most enduring products was the mailed cavalry. The origin, development and success of this force—which became a prominent branch of the Roman army after the first century A.D.—cannot be analysed without some reference to earlier experiments with cavalry equipment and tactics in the Mediterranean area. The Romans did not invent the heavy-armoured horseman: on the contrary, the innovators were the Assyrians, whose monuments uniquely illustrate the evolution of cavalry technique in antiquity. Delineation of the Assyrian development is instructive, for they were required to solve many of the technical and tactical problems which later confronted the Romans. Moreover, the tactics employed and the cavalry types created by the Assyrians are remarkably similar to the later Roman. To facilitate comparison of the Assyrian and Roman experience, in the following assessment the equivalent Greek and Latin terminology has been supplied for each phase in the Assyrian development.
The Life and Times of Calpurnius Siculus
Authors: Champlin Edward
Published: May 2006

Until the early nineteenth century it was agreed that the Eclogues of Calpurnius Siculus were products of the reign of Carinus, for the name of the poet Nemesianus appeared in the manuscripts and Nemesian was known as the author of the (partly surviving)Cynegetica, which explicitly praises the sons of the emperor Carus. However, in 1819 G. Sarpe first raised some of the arguments for setting the poems in the early years of the reign of Nero, and in 1854, in what Wilamowitz subsequently lauded as a model of scholarship, M. Haupt firmly distinguished the seven poems of Calpurnius from the four of Nemesian. With the link to Nemesian went the only support for a date in the later third century, and Haupt settled the identification of Calpurnius Siculus as a Neronian poet which has remained entrenched to this day. Attempts there have been to upset it, by seeing in the young Caesar praised a Domitian, a Commodus, a Severus Alexander, a Gordian III, even a Probus, but such attempts were clearly heterodox and obviously flawed. Those that were not refuted were ignored, and only isolated doubt remains today.
P. Herennius Dexippus: The Greek World and the Third-Century Invasions
Authors: Millar Fergus
Published: May 2006

The legend of the Scythians and the books of Athens, with Petrus Patricius' comments on it, raises precisely the most crucial question about the culture and society of later Antiquity: what was the relationship between the all-pervasive literary culture of the time, with its obsessive and apparently sterile fascination with the classical past, and men's conduct in the world ? The question cannot of course be answered. If we wished to stress the positive and vital aspects of Imperial Greek culture, we could partly avoid answering it by concentrating on a few figures of real intellectual stature in the second to early fourth centuries, and thereby pointing to a number of fields in which the Greek Renaissance saw significant, sometimes revolutionary, progress. Ptolemy, Galen, Diophantus, Origen, Plotinus, Porphyry and Eusebius all in their different ways marked an epoch in the intellectual history of Europe. Even a man of much lesser originality, Cassius Dio, provided the Byzantine world with its definitive account of the history of Rome. But we can also try, if not to answer the question properly, at least to raise some themes directly relevant to it.
Air Reconnaissance in Roman Britain, 1973–76
Authors: St Joseph J. K.
Published: May 2006

Air reconnaissance over the United Kingdom has been continued during the last four years, a period which has seen a considerable extension of such work, and one notable for exceptionally dry summers. Thus, both the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments for England, through the Air Photographs Unit of the National Monuments Record, and the Royal Commission for Scotland have undertaken extensive surveys, while the growth of local flying has meant that many areas of the country have been reconnoitred more intensively than has hitherto been possible. The account that follows relates almost entirely to the work sponsored by the Committee for Aerial Photography of the University of Cambridge, though information is, indeed, often interchanged with others making similar surveys. The fullest knowledge of any given site comes from study of all available records. The first clue may be obtained by one observer, later reconnaissance by others may amplify the record, perhaps making plain what was previously only suspected. Nevertheless, had it not been for knowledge of the first, perhaps incomplete, observation, subsequent reconnaissance might never have been undertaken. This is a pursuit in which each participant may owe much to others: the cumulative results reflect the activities of many.
Pay Grades and Ranks below the Centurionate
Authors: Breeze David J.
Published: May 2006

The career of Tiberius Claudius Maximus, published in the last volume of this Journal, is unique. The relevant portion runs: militavit eque(s) in leg(ione) VII C(laudia) p(ia) f(ideli), factus qu(a)estor equit(um), singularis legati legionis eiusdem, vexillarius equitum, item bello Dacico ob virtute(m) donis donatus ab imp(eratore) Domitiano, factus dupli(carius) a divo Troiano in ala secu(n)d(a) Pannoniorum, a quo et fa(c)tus explorator in bello Dacico et ob virtute(m) bis donis donatus bello Dacico et Parthico, et ab eode(m) factus decurio in ala eade(m), quod cepisset Decebalu(m) et caput eius pertulisset ei Ranisstoro, missus voluntarius honesta missione a Terent[io Scau]riano, consulare [exerci]tus provinciae nov[ae …

His career not only contains two otherwise unattested posts, quaestor equitum and singularis legati legionis, but is unparalleled in the promotion from principalis in a legion to duplicarius, an alternative title for optio, in an auxiliary unit. Speidel assumes that this latter move involved a pay rise, since transfer from a legion to an ala would usually be accompanied by an increase in pay. This assumption if correct has such far reaching implications that it requires detailed examination.
The Zealots: the Case for Revaluation
Authors: Applebaum Shimon
Published: May 2006

Two events have conspired to redirect the attention of scholars towards the Zealots, who played so decisive a part in the Jewish rebellion against Rome between A.D. 66 and 73: the discovery of the Judaean Desert manuscripts, and the total excavation of Masada (1955–56; 1964–65). Both events have cast new light on the Zealot movement, but, as is so often the case with new discoveries, they have also created new problems, and neither can furnish a substitute for the careful examination of, and reflection upon, the character and origins of the movement. The important material has for long been available to scholars. Despite this, agreement has been rare. However conscientious historians have wished to be, they have tended to be influenced by the traditions to which they are the heirs. Denounced by their enemies in the ancient world, the Zealots, it may be thought, have also been exposed to subtler misunderstandings on the part of modern historians.
Inconsistency and Lassitude: the Shield Emblems of the Notitia Dignitatum
Authors: Grigg Robert
Published: May 2006

It has usually been held that the shield emblems in the Notitia Dignitatum (Not. Dig.) were based upon an official pictorial register or pattern book, containing the unit emblems of the late Roman army. Thought to have been based upon an official source, as the text was, the shield emblems of the Not. Dig. are imagined to have been accurate in the original manuscript. It was only later, according to this view, that errors crept in during the transmission of the text and illustrations, so that the emblems now appear to be somewhat debased. For example, it is held that some of them no longer accompany the titles for which they were apparently intended.

Shifts in the relationship between the emblems and titles have long been noted. But there are other, more fundamental, inconsistencies that have escaped the attention of scholars. These previously led me to raise doubts about the truth of the conventional view above and to entertain the possibility ‘that the artist's sources were so impoverished that he was reduced to relying upon his own powers of invention’. I should now like to explain in greater detail my reasons for rejecting the conventional view and advancing the alternative explanation that the shield emblems of the Not. Dig. were largely ad hoc fabrications. The consequences for our understanding of the Not. Dig. and of the art of the later Roman Empire are obviously considerable.
The Lex Iulia and Appeal under the Empire
Authors: Garnsey Peter
Published: May 2006

The aim of this article is to challenge a theory which is current about the operation of criminal appeal under the Principate. Since the important essays of Professor Jones on the subject, it has been commonly accepted that there were two separate and distinct systems of appeal in the period from Augustus to the Severans. In the first century, appeal, provocatio, was lodged before trial. The judge did not try the case at all, but at most made a preliminary investigation. By the reign of Hadrian, a new system, appellatio, has supplanted the old one. Appeal is now after sentence.
Cicero for and against Divination
Authors: Schofield Malcolm
Published: May 2006

This paper is a study of the way Cicero wrote philosophy. Or rather a way: as one would expect of an author of his ambition and versatility, Cicero produced different sorts of philosophical writing in different works. What I am considering here, accordingly, is the way Cicero wrote philosophy in one particular treatise, de Divinatione. Section I examines the place of Div. in his philosophical oeuvre, and asks why he should have decided to devote a treatise to the topic. It suggests inter alia that he was attracted by the special opportunities for philosophical rhetoric which it afforded him. Section II explores the two distinctive styles of rhetoric in Div., and proposes that they are best seen as a particular kind of marriage of the Greek and the Roman. Section III discusses the claim that Div. is to be read as a tract against superstition, and opposes to it a conception of the work—at once more straightforward and more nuanced—as an exercise in the opposition of arguments. It focuses particularly on the avowedly Socratic dimension of Div. Section IV supports the same view of the dialogue by emphasizing the philosophical weight of the arguments for as well as against divination.
Scriptor Historiae Augustae
Authors: Honoré Tony
Published: May 2006

A recent study of the Theodosian Code, which includes the identification of constitutions composed by Ausonius (A.D. 375 to 377) and Nicomachus Flavianus (A.D. 388 to 390) as quaestors prompts a fresh interpretation of the Historia Augusta and its author, whom I shall call Scriptor. On this interpretation his work is subtler than is generally conceded. The enigmatic series of biographies meant, and was intended to mean, different things to different people: to the vulgar it was an entertaining and often salacious series of lives interspersed with jokes; to the author an enjoyable exercise in teasing others and not least himself; to the insider a set of puzzles behind which lurked personal and political allusions, but also a reflection on certain political themes: the role of the Roman senate and urban prefecture, the importance of regular administration, the overriding need to defend Gaul and the west.
What's in a Name? A Survey of Roman Onomastic Practice from c. 700 B.C. to A.D. 700
Authors: Salway Benet
Published: May 2006

Perusal of over a thousand years of the fasti of the Romans' eponymous magistracy is sufficient to demonstrate that Roman onomastic practice did not stand still. Why, then, is there a tendency to see the system of three names (tria nomina, i.e. praenomen, nomen gentilicium, and cognomen) as the perfection and culmination of the Roman naming system rather than as a transitory stage in an evolutionary process? The simple answer is probably that usage of the tria nomina happens to be typical of the best documented class in one of the best documented, and certainly most studied, eras of Roman history — the late Republic and early Empire. This perspective tends to pervade discussion of post-classical developments, the basic outline of which is clear from a glancing comparison of the Prosopographia Imperii Romani, which catalogues eminent persons of the first to third centuries A.D., with the Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, covering the fourth to seventh. The difference in their very organizational structure betrays the change since, while the entries in PIR are classified alphabetically by nomen, those of PLRE are arranged by last name, usually cognomen. The major problem requiring explanation is why the nomen gentilicium, the central element of the classical tria nomina, should have been displaced by the cognomen as the one most consistently attested element.
Mining in the Later Roman Empire and Beyond: Continuity or Disruption?
Authors: Edmondson J. C.
Published: May 2006

One of the more tangible benefits that accrued to Rome from the conquest of an empire was the acquisition of significant mineral resources, significant because Italy, although rich in iron, could not provide a sufficient supply of the whole range of metals needed by the Roman state for coinage and by members of the élite for the luxury artefacts that helped to enhance their social status. Once Rome had gained control over metalliferous regions of the Mediterranean, Romans, and especially Italians, were not slow to become involved in mining overseas, while the state came to gain considerable revenue from the leasing of contracts for the right to exploit state-owned mineral resources.
Marseille: A Late Antique Success Story?
Authors: Loseby S. T.
Published: May 2006

Documentary and archaeological evidence concurs in placing the foundation of Marseille by colonists from Phocaea in around 600 B.C. The site can only have been chosen with an eye to its maritime commercial potential. Surrounded on the landward side by a chain of hills, the city's immediate hinterland was tiny, and only moderately fertile. Geographically, in the words of Camille Jullian, ‘Marseille … semble tourner le dos à la Provence’. But thanks to its magnificent, sheltered, deep-water harbour, now known as the Vieux-Port, the city has been a focal point for Mediterranean trade throughout its long history, and its immediate landward isolation has not affected its ability to exploit the Rhône corridor and establish commercial relations with the interior of France. Its location makes it a classic gateway community.
Comparing three classification strategies for use in ecology
Authors: Belbin Lee , McDonald Cam
Published: May 2006

Abstract. We compare three common types of clustering algorithms for use with community data. TWINSPAN is divisive hierarchical, flexible‐UPGMA is agglomerative and hierarchical, and ALOC is non‐hierarchical. A balanced design six‐factor model was used to generate 480 data sets of known characteristics. Recovery of the embedded clusters suggests that both flexible UPGMA and ALOC are significantly better than TWINSPAN. No significant difference existed between flexible UPGMA and ALOC.
50 years of change in a Swedish boreal old‐growth Picea abies forest
Authors: Hofgaard Annika
Published: May 2006

Abstract. Changes in the tree layer (> 1.3m) and sapling layer (< 1.3m, including seedlings) of a Swedish boreal old‐growth Picea abies (Norway spruce) forest from the 1930s to the 1980s were studied in permanent plots. The plots were established in 1938–1939 and re‐analysed in 1983–1988. Regeneration, mortality, turnover rate in the tree layer and amount of decomposing logs as well as the time required for complete decomposition of logs were investigated using the detailed data from the 1930s.

Ca. 25 % of the trees present during the first analysis were no longer alive. This mortality was balanced by recruitment from the sapling layer. The rate of mortality suggests a turnover time for the tree layer of ca. 200 yr. The number of spruces in the sapling layer has increased by ca. 85 %, hypothetically in response to an increase in amount of decomposing wood that can serve as nurse logs and stumps. The mean time for total decomposition was calculated as ca. 200 yr. Spruce regeneration on logs does not occur until the log is at least ca. 50 yr old. The survival pattern in the sapling layer suggests a high mortality rate at the seedling stage (≤ 1 yr) and a low mortality rate at the sapling stage.

In conclusion, it is suggested that the amount of coarse woody debris available for regeneration, the occurrence of seedlings, and seedling mortality constitute concurrent factors through which climatic fluctuations, in a long‐term perspective, direct stand recruitment and density. As a consequence, these boreal forests will be kept in a dynamical equilibrium.
Predicting the potential distribution of rain‐forest structural characteristics
Authors: Mackey Brendan G.
Published: May 2006

Abstract. Models are reviewed that predict the potential distribution of classes of rain‐forest structural characteristics in relation to indices of climate and soil parent material. A description is given of the field survey undertaken to examine these relations in the Wet Tropics of Queensland, Australia. The predicted probabilities are compared with the observed values and the extent of correspondence between the two data sets examined. Environmental relations based on finer‐scaled landscape processes are proposed to explain the mismatches. An index of catchment hydrology is described that represents the most feasible additional independent variable for spatial extension purposes.
The impact of grazing and human disturbance on the dynamics of woodland in S. W. Ireland
Authors: Mitchell F. J. G.
Published: May 2006

Abstract. Pollen data from three mor humus profiles taken from within native woodland in the Killarney National Park are presented. The pollen records illustrate the woodland history over about 250 years.

The dynamics of woodland on the mainland are compared with those of a small ungrazed lake island. Human disturbance of the woodland in the form of felling and burning is recorded at both locations. Following the disturbance, open vegetation predominated in which Arbutus unedo was widespread. This species declined as canopy woodland re‐developed. The pollen records illustrate the dynamics of the developing woodland during which the role of Ilex aquifolium and Taxus baccata was strongly influenced by grazing. The past importance of Taxus baccata in western Irish woodland is considered.
BOOK REVIEWS
Authors: Peet Robert K.
Published: May 2006

Book reviewed in this issue.

Chung, In‐Cho. 1989. Eastern North America as seen by a botanist: Pictorial. I. The Arctic region. II. The Wooded Regions. 419 pp. Available from In‐Cho Chung.