Charles River Editors provides superior editing and original writing services across the digital ... more Charles River Editors provides superior editing and original writing services across the digital publishing industry, with the expertise to create digital content for publishers across a vast range of subject matter. In addition to providing original digital content for third party publishers, we also republish civilization's greatest literary works, bringing them to new generations of readers via ebooks. Sign up here to receive updates about free books as we publish them, and visit Our Kindle Author Page to browse today's free promotions and our most recently published Kindle titles. Dominated to this day by the sprawling white marble complex of the Acropolis, Athens is a city which is immensely and rightly proud of its past. For a period of roughly three centuries, the polis of Athens stood, if not in a position of unchallenged supremacy among the cities of Hellas, then at the very least among its three most important polities. Its fledgling Empire, though small by the standards later set by Alexander or the Romans, or even by those of its ancient enemy Persia, nonetheless encompassed cities as far afield as Asia Minor and Southern Italy, a remarkable fact considering such expansion was achieved by the inhabitants of a single city and its immediate surroundings, rather than by an entire nation. For much of its history, the Athenian navy was the single mightiest force in the Mediterranean, having defeated the overwhelming might of Persia in pitched battle upon the open sea numerous times. The Athenian army itself, though subordinate to its naval power-a sop to the fact that it was trade and empirebuilding that had made Athens rich-was nothing to be sneered at, as it succeeded in meting out a humiliating defeat to Darius's Persians at Marathon. Yet despite a martial tradition that, if taken as a whole, was second to none save the Spartans, Athens is chiefly remembered for two reasons: its political system, which would in time form the nucleus of all Western democratic systems of government, and the remarkable number of outstanding individuals which, during the Golden Age of Athens, lived and flourished in the enlightened city-state. The Ancient Athenians formed the backbone of the West's entire culture, from the arts to philosophy and everything inbetween. In virtually all fields of human endeavor Athens was so much at the forefront of dynamism and innovation that the products of its most brilliant minds remain not only influential but entirely relevant to this day. In the field of medicine, the great physician Hippocrates not only advanced the practical knowledge of human anatomy and care-giving but changed the entire face of the medical profession. The great philosophers of Athens, men like Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato, interrogated themselves with startling complexity about the nature of good and evil, questioned the existence of divinity, advocated intelligent design, and went so far as to argue that all life was composed of infinitesimal particles. Great architects and sculptors such as Phidias produced works of art of such breathtaking realism and startling dynamism that they later formed the driving force behind the resurgence of sculpture during the Renaissance and served as masters to artists such as Michelangelo, Bernini, and Donatello. The plays of dramatists such as Aristophanes not only displayed an acerbic wit and a genius for political satire so pronounced that their works continue to be performedand topical-to this day, but served as the inspiration for virtually all playwrights from Shakespeare to the present day. And this does not take into account the host of equally brilliant mathematicians, natural philosophers, historians, astronomers and politicians that the city's great schools nurtured and produced. The flowering of Greek civilization was further made possible by an increase of trade between the cities and with other civilizations. Trade became a major occupation on account of the scarcity of agricultural land in the largely mountainous regions of the Balkan peninsula. The polis of Athens, in particular, assumed economic dominance in the Aegean in from the sixth-century BC. The consequent increase in wealth, resources and population made a cultural renaissance possible. Commerce, in turn, led to the rise of an affluent aristocratic class which had the leisure to devote itself to learning, philosophy, and art. It also led to an industrial class of freemen who were artists and craftsmen. Religion also played a role in the development of Greek culture and technology. The ancient Greeks worshipped a multiplicity of gods, the chief of which dwelt on Mount Olympus in the first mountainous region of central Greece. The city-states would regularly send athletes to compete in the Olympic Games in their honor. Each city-state, however, had their own particular god: Athena was honored at Athens; Apollo at Delphi; Poseidon at Corinth; Zeus at Olympia, and so forth. Sculptures, temples and other buildings were built in honor of the gods who were believed to control the forces of nature. The truly great benefit that the gods gave the Greeks was something they did not have, and that was a sense of meaning and purpose to human action and to the natural world of which men and women were a part. For the ancient Greeks, the gods were capricious beings subject to the same passions, emotions, and vicissitudes as humans were, and no more enlightened as to the nature of existence and the path to a good and happy life. The new class of wealthy men who had the leisure to think stepped in where religion refused to go. Thales of Miletus (c.524-546 BCE), named by the classicist John Burnet "the first scientist," observed the natural world and sought rational explanations for it. From him a tradition emerged which explored the world and the actions of humans through natural science, reason, mathematics, metaphysics, and ontology. After Thales a stream of philosophers, mathematicians and engineers emerged including names that are well known today, including Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Pythagoras, Archimedes, Heraclitus, Epicurus, Diogenes, and Plutarch. When considering the ancient Greek philosophers and their contribution to civilization it must be remembered that for them there was no separation of disciplines as we have them today. Philosophy was considered an attempt to understand the entire cosmos and not just a part of it. And so it was that every aspect of life and every observable thing might be considered under the umbrella of philosophy, including technology and art. Indeed, it was the ancient Greek philosophers who devised the very concept of technology. Techne, meaning art or craft knowledge, was conceived of as an attempt to imitate the natural order. Plato, in particular, argued that the cosmos was created by the divine craftsmen or Demiurge according to the eternal, immaterial, pre-existent forms, rather as an artist and or engineer creates a work according to a blueprint. He argued that a craftsman imitates the Demiurge and in so doing accomplishes something divine. To the ancient Greeks, the cosmos was ordered and harmonious. Consequently, reason and intellect were considered the architects of all art and craftsmanship. The absolute perfection of form was sought in everything and the Greek passion for simplicity, elegance, harmony, and beauty is to be found everywhere, particularly in architecture. Ancient Greek Technology: The History and Legacy of the Technological Advances Made in Greece during Antiquity looks at how Greek civilization developed, and the various technological advances that resulted. Along with pictures depicting important people, places, and events, you will learn about Greek technology like never before.
Athletics represented an important institution through which the Greek aristocracies sought to ma... more Athletics represented an important institution through which the Greek aristocracies sought to maintain their privileged political position. Victory, however, had always involved the use of others, such as charioteers, jockeys, and trainers, and in the late archaic and early classical period, the relationship between the victors and these helpers changed radically. This threatened the political value of athletics and thus undermined the utility of the institution for aristocrats. Nigel Nicholson examines how aristocrats responded to these changes through a study of victory memorials. New Historicist in method, the book draws on odes, dedications, vases, and coins, as well as anecdotes about the victors. It asks how the vulgar details of winning are represented by the memorials, and it assumes that the value of athletics was always under threat, from groups both inside and outside the elite. The result is a fascinating look at one area of social struggle in ancient Greece.
PLUTARCH (c. 50-c. 120 AD) was a writer and thinker born into a wealthy, established family of Ch... more PLUTARCH (c. 50-c. 120 AD) was a writer and thinker born into a wealthy, established family of Chaeronea in central Greece. He received the best possible education in rhetoric and philosophy, and travelled to Asia Minor and Egypt. Later, a series of visits to Rome and Italy contributed to his fame, and it was said that he had received o cial recognition by the emperors Trajan and Hadrian. Plutarch rendered conscientious service to his province and city (where he continued to live), as well as holding a priesthood at nearby Delphi. His voluminous surviving writings are broadly divided into the 'moral' works and the Lives of outstanding Greek and Roman leaders. The former (Moralia) are a mixture of rhetorical and antiquarian pieces, together with technical and moral philosophy (sometimes in dialogue form). The Lives have been in uential from the Renaissance onwards. REX WARNER was a Professor of the University of Connecticut from 1964 until his retirement in 1974. He was born in 1905 and went to Wadham College, Oxford, where he gained a ' rst' in Classical Moderations, and took a degree in English Literature. He taught in Egypt and England, and was Director of the British Institute, Athens, from 1945 to 1947. He wrote poems, novels and critical essays, worked on lms and broadcasting, and translated many works, of which Xenophon's History of my Times and The Persian Expedition, Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War, and Plutarch's Lives (under the title Fall of the Roman Republic) and Moral Essays have been published in Penguin Classics. Rex Warner died in 1986.
Anthia held her breath. She was nervous. Dorema's labor was not progressing well, and Anthia coul... more Anthia held her breath. She was nervous. Dorema's labor was not progressing well, and Anthia could see from her friend's bloodshot eyes and blank stare that she was exhausted from pushing. Making a conscious effort to breathe normally, Anthia patted Dorema's arm and told her that all was well. Dorema needed to believe it so that she could manage her contractions and push. Anthia stood at Dorema's back, where she was supporting her friend's body on the birthing stool. The midwife pulled out a small metal mirror and placed it between Dorema's legs. "See, Dorema! The baby's head is here! Look!" Greek deity and a local goddess (or local goddesses). During the period of the New Testament, the historical evidence points to the likelihood of Ephesians hosting two major festivals in her honor every year. One was a celebration of her birth, complete with music, dancers, sacrifices, feasts, and priests acting out the role of demonic protectors of Artemis during her birth, frightening away the goddess Hera. The second was the Artemisia, which likely included competitions in music, theater, and athletics. There is also some evidence for female priestesses as officials of her temple. Along with being associated with a general focus on health and safety (as her name was often understood to communicate those values), Artemis was acclaimed as greatest, holiest, and most manifest along with the titles "Queen of the Cosmos," "Lady" (female version of "Lord"), and "Savior." She was a specific kind of savior to the many women who petitioned her for safety in childbirth. She was the patron goddess of Ephesus, and her temple, the Artemision, was built outside the wall, a little over a mile from the city center. The Artemision was famous in antiquity, known as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world for its size and grandeur. It measured approximately 140 by 75 yards (four times the size of the Parthenon in Athens) and included 127 columns that stood over 60 feet high. The works of many of the greatest sculptors and painters of the day decorated it, and because of its financial deposits-assets that included land and water-and ability to lend money, it functioned at the center of the city's economic life. The women's encouraging words grew louder as they saw Dorema's lack of response. Soon Anthia found that she was yelling into her friend's ear. "Push! Push! You're so close! Push!" She could hear the terror in her voice, and as it overtook her a small part of her knew that she was watching her friend die. "No! Breathe!" she screamed, grabbing Dorema's shoulders and shaking them. Dorema's body was limp, not responding to Anthia or the other women. She said nothing. Anthia moved to face her friend, and when she saw Dorema's face she had the distinct sense that her friend was giving up. The look reminded her of her own labor and delivery. With her first child, her belly had been huge, and her labor long and intense. When she was finally instructed by the midwife to push, she could barely muster the energy. After a few hours of pushing, she was done. She could not push anymore. She recalled her awareness in that moment, as she had not pushed during the entire course of a contraction: I am dying. I am not pushing-cannot push-and I am allowing myself to die. It had been Dorema in that moment who had rallied her, called her back, insisted that she push one more time. The baby had come. As if in response to her thoughts, the unborn child in her own womb kicked, and Anthia touched her own protruding belly with one hand. She grabbed her friend's chin with the other. "Dorema, look at me! Look at me!" Dorema's only response was to gaze past her and exhale. Anthia waited for the inhale, holding her friend's face. It never came.
This study explores the development of ancient festival culture in the Greek East of the Roman Em... more This study explores the development of ancient festival culture in the Greek East of the Roman Empire, paying particular attention to the fundamental religious changes that occurred. After analysing how Greek city festivals developed in the first two Imperial centuries, it concentrates on the major Roman festivals that were adopted in the Eastern cities and traces their history up to the time of Justinian and beyond. It addresses several key questions for the religious history of later antiquity: Who were the actors behind these adoptions? How did the closed religious communities, Jews and pre-Constantinian Christians, articulate their resistance? How did these festivals change when the empire converted to Christianity? Why did emperors not yield to the long-standing pressure of the Church to abolish them? And finally, how did these very popular festivalsdespite their pagan traditioninfluence the form of the newly developed Christian liturgy? fritz graf is Distinguished University Professor and Director of Epigraphy at the Ohio State University. He has published widely on Greek mythology, local cults in ancient Asia Minor, eschatological texts from Greek graves, and ancient magic.
Germanicus was born on 31 August in the year A.D. 12 to Germanicus and the elder Agrippina. At th... more Germanicus was born on 31 August in the year A.D. 12 to Germanicus and the elder Agrippina. At the time no one could have foreseen that at the age of only twenty-four this young man, known by then under his nickname, "Caligula," would become Roman emperor. On 18 March 37, he would become ruler of an empire that spanned virtually the entire known world of antiquity, from Syria to the English Channel, from North Africa to the Danube region, and from Spain to Asia Minor. No one could have anticipated how many intrigues and murders, trials and executions would take place in Rome, the center of that Empire, in the two and a half decades leading up to his succession. Nor could anyone have possibly imagined in the year 12 how Gaius would come to exercise his rule in the end. At the time of his birth, his great-grandfather Augustus was still in power. Although aristocrats criticized Augustus in private, they were all agreed on the most important achievement of his long sole rule (31 B.C.-A.D. 14): After almost a hundred years of violent political conflict and civil wars, which had affected the entire Mediterranean region and could be described in retrospect as a process of gathering monopolization of political power, Augustus had brought peace. Admittedly in doing so he had also ended the old collective rule of the aristocracy that had characterized the Roman Republic and functioned with great success for centuries, replacing it with a form of sole rule-something that had clearly become unavoidable. His exceptional position, which he had usurped however, so that the choice finally fell on his stepson Tiberius. He, too, had to marry Julia, and of all the candidates was the one who actually lived to become her father's successor. The politics of the imperial family had, however, produced other aspirants for the throne. Augustus had married off his second stepson, Drusus, to his niece, Antonia II (Antonia Minor, Antonia the Younger). At the time of Drusus's death in 9 B.C. they had two sons-Claudius, the later emperor, and Germanicus-who were thus great-nephews of the emperor. Claudius received little notice initially because of a physical handicap, but for Germanicus a marriage was arranged with Agrippina the Elder, Augustus's granddaughter from the marriage of Julia and Agrippa. Germanicus and Agrippina's children included three sons: Nero (not the later emperor), another Drusus (III), and Caligula. At the time of Augustus's death they were all still children, but unlike Tiberius they acquired the prestige of the imperial family by virtue of being the first emperor's biological great-grandchildren and great-great-nephews. Augustus "solved" this problem by requiring Tiberius to adopt Germanicus, thereby opening the way to the succession for his great-grandchildren. The fate of Tiberius's own son, Drusus II (Drusus the Younger) remained undecided. An attempt was made to resolve it by arranging further marriages between the different branches of the imperial family. Thus Drusus the Younger married Livilla, Augustus's greatniece, while Livilla's daughter in her turn married one of Germanicus's sons, Nero. One last grandson of Augustus, named Agrippa Postumus, from the marriage of Julia and Agrippa, had fallen into disfavor for reasons that remain unclear. He was murdered in the year 14, possibly on Augustus's own initiative or that of Livia or Tiberius. These complicated family relationships-difficult not only for modern prosopographers, but probably also for contemporaries to keep straight-signal a central problem that resulted directly from Augustus's construction of the Principate. Because he chose to forgo a hereditary monarchy and thus the concomitant legal clarification of the succession, he found it difficult to control the political prestige derived from blood relationships to the emperor. Rivalries could arise within the imperial family, which in turn offered ideal openings for groups of aristocrats to back possible successors. Sometimes these alliances developed into conspiracies. Augustus's own daughter, Julia, started the ball rolling. In the year 2 B.C. she was banished because of her contacts with young aristocrats in Rome, including Iullus Antonius, the son of the triumvir Marcus Antonius, who had been Augustus's last remaining rival in the civil war. Whether adultery was involved, as the official charge claimed, or a political conspiracy, as many suspected, is in the last analysis irrelevant. If the daughter
This volume explores the role that republican political participation played in forging elite Rom... more This volume explores the role that republican political participation played in forging elite Roman masculinity. It situates familiarly "manly" traits like militarism, aggressive sexuality, and the pursuit of power within a political system based on power sharing and cooperation. In deliberations in the Senate, at social gatherings, and on military cam paign, displays of consensus with other men greased the wheels of social discourse and built elite comradery. Through literary sources and inscrip tions that offer censorious or affirmative appraisal of male behavior from the Middle and Late Republic (ca. 300-31 BCE) to the Principate or Early Empire (ca. 100 CE), this book shows how the vir bonus, or "good man," the Roman persona of male aristocratic excellence, modulated imperatives for personal distinction and military and sexual violence with political coop eration and moral exemplarity. While the advent of one-man rule in the Empire transformed political power relations, ideals forged in the Republic adapted to the new climate and provided a coherent model of masculinity for emperor and senator alike. Scholars often paint a picture of Republic and Principate as distinct landscapes, but enduring ideals of male self-fashioning constitute an important continuity. Roman Masculinity and Politics from Republic to Empire provides a fascinating insight into the intertwined nature of masculinity and political power for anyone interested in Roman political and social history, and those working on gender in the ancient world more broadly.
Fees are subject to change. PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS Or, il y avait clans chaque bourg et clans... more Fees are subject to change. PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS Or, il y avait clans chaque bourg et clans chaque village un ou plusieurs Heros Medecins, designes parfois par un nom, le plus souvent par le simple qualificatif qui marquait leur activite bienfaisante. Ils guerissaient generalement en imposant la main droite-d'ou des noms comme Cheiron, Dexion-, et en souriant. Leur popularite resta grande mais purement locale. Asclepios les eclipsa, du reste sans les evincer, parce que ses pretres surent utiliser une technique mysterieuse, qui excitait la curiosite des simples et des habiles. Marie DELCOURT, Les grands sanctuaires de /,a Grece, •Paris, 1947, pp. 93-94 (a propos d'Epidaure).
Die politische Bedeutung des Octavian beruhte anfangs auf seiner testamentarischen Adoption durch... more Die politische Bedeutung des Octavian beruhte anfangs auf seiner testamentarischen Adoption durch Gaius Iulius Caesar. Mit der Adoption erbte er 44 v. Chr. nicht nur den größten Teil des Privatvermögens, sondern er wurde auch Patron von Caesars Klienten. Vor allem aber konnte er sich von nun an auf die in Italien angesiedelten Veteranen des Diktators verlassen. "Du, mein Junge, verdankst alles deinem Namen", soll Marcus Antonius zu Octavian, in Anspielung auf die testamentarische Adoption durch Caesar, gesagt haben (Cicero, Philippica 13,24). Mit dem Antritt des Erbes ließ sich Octavian Gaius Iulius Caesar nennen. Begründung des Prinzipats Die formale Begründung des Prinzipats erfolgte im Januar 27 v. Chr., Begründung nachdem Octavian zuvor seinen Widersacher Marcus Antonius in der See-des Prinzipats schlacht bei Actium am 2. September 31 v. Chr. besiegt hatte. Seine Stellung als Alleinherrscher bemäntelte er, indem er dem Anschein nach die Republik wiederherstellte (res publica restituta). Feierlich legte er in der Senatssitzung vom 13. Januar 27 v. Chr. seine Ausnahmegewalt nieder und gab die Herrschaftsgewalt der Form nach zurück in die Obhut von Senat und Volk, ein Staatsakt, der gut vorbereitet war. Die tatsächliche Macht, die Gefolgschaft des Heeres, blieb Zeit seines Lebens in seiner Gewalt. Der Senat wurde zudem in einer weiteren Senatssitzung am 16. Januar 27 v. Chr. genötigt, ihm die Kommandogewalt, das imperium proconsulare, über die unbefriedeten Grenzprovinzen, in denen die meisten Legionen stationiert waren, zu übertragen. Q Adoptionen und Adrogationen (Gaius, Institutionen 1,97-99) Es sind aber nicht nur leibliche Kinder gemäß dem Gesagten in unserer Hausgewalt, sondern auch die, die wir adoptieren. Und zwar geschieht die Adoption auf zweifache Art, entweder mit Ermächtigung des Volkes oder durch die Befehlsmacht eines obersten Beamten, insbesondere des Prätors. Mit Ermächtigung des Volkes adoptieren wir solche Personen, die rechtlich selbständig sind; diese Art der Adoption heißt ,Adrogation', weil der Adoptierende ,rogiert', das heißt gefragt wird, ob er wolle, dass Adoption heißt ,Adrogation', weil der Adoptierende ,rogiert', das heißt gefragt wird, ob er wolle, dass der, den er adoptieren will, sein rechtmäßiger Sohn sei, und der der adoptiert wird, gefragt wird, ob er zulasse, dass dies geschehe; auch das Volk wird gefragt, ob es befehle, dass dies geschehe. Später kam zur Adrogation die Adoption (adoptio) im engeren Sinne. Durch diese wird jemand an Kindesstatt angenommen. Ein Gewaltunterworfener wird in die Hausgewalt (patria potestas) eines andern adoptiert, indem der Vater den zu Adoptierenden in einem Scheinprozess dreimal symbolisch an den Adoptivvater verkaufte (datio in adoptionem). Der Adoptivsohn erbte damit die Rechte und Pflichten des Adoptierenden. Mit der Übernahme des Vermögens und der Verantwortung für die Klientel des Adoptivvaters durch den Adoptivsohn wurde die Familientradition bewahrt. Die rechtliche Bindung des Adoptierten an seine eigentliche Familie wurde dadurch aufgehoben. Q Adoptionsformel (Aulus Gellius, Attische Nächte 5,19,9) Der Gesetzesantrag lautet: "Wollt ihr (velitis), befehlt ihr (iubeatis), dass L. Valerius so dem Gesetze nach der Sohn des L. Titus ist, als ob er von diesem Vater und dieser Mutter in dessen Familie geboren wurde, und dass dieser die Gewalt über dessen Leben und Tod besitzt, wie es dem Vater über den Sohn gebührt? Ist dies so, wie ich gesagt habe, so frage ich euch, ihr Quiriten?" Adoption und Adrogation erfolgten in der Zeit der Republik vor den Bürgern von Rom, wie aus der überlieferten Adoptionsformel hervorgeht. Dadurch übten sie die Funktion einer Kartellbehörde aus. Unerwünschte Machtkonzentration in der Oberschicht wurde durch das Votum der Mehrheit unterbunden, genauso wie gewünschte Verbindungen zustande kommen konnten. Schließlich kannte das römische Recht noch die testamentarische Adoption. Sie war wohl nach griechischem Vorbild konzipiert und der Erbe wurde Sie war wohl nach griechischem Vorbild konzipiert und der Erbe wurde moralisch verpflichtet, den Namen des Erblassers zu führen.
In the two surviving descriptions of Domitian's assassination, by Suetonius and Dio Cassius, a to... more In the two surviving descriptions of Domitian's assassination, by Suetonius and Dio Cassius, a total of seven men are named as being directly involved in the work. Parthenius the cubicularius is depicted as the prime mover and organiser; Stephanus was the agent of the killing, or at least was so designated; Maximus, Clodianus, the anonymous gladiator, Satur or Sigerius, and the a libellis Entellus were all involved as secondary agents either beforehand or assisting Stephanus. All these men were connected in some way with the palace-even the gladiator is said to be an 'imperial' gladiator; Clodianus is described as a cornicularius, and was no doubt one of the Praetorian Guards assigned to palace duty-he was also, like Stephanus, under suspicion of dishonesty, if not worse. 1 To the contemporary historians (Dio clearly used sources contemporary with the events) 2 the murder was seen as an inside job, a servants' plot confined to the palace; some of the killers were criminals. Yet there are substantial discrepancies between the two accounts, and even more important contradictions within them. Of the men involved, four-Parthenius, Stephanus, Satur/Sigerius and Maximus-are named by both historians, but Entellus is only in Dio, and Clodianus and the gladiator only in Suetonius. It is through such discrepancies that the real conspiracy becomes visible. For these historians are reflecting, or transmitting, a particular version of the event, the story put about after the murder by those whose involvement rendered them targets for recrimination or revenge, in particular by the senators who, with some reason, later feared for their lives; this may be referred to as the 'official' version of events. For it turned out that in many areas of the empire, geographical or societal, Domitian was not nearly as unpopular as he had been among many of the senators and some of the staff at the palace.
This volume presents an essential but underestimated role that Dionysus played in Greek and Roman... more This volume presents an essential but underestimated role that Dionysus played in Greek and Roman political thought. Written by an interdisciplinary team of scholars, the volume covers the period from archaic Greece to the late Roman Empire. The reader can observe how ideas and political themes rooted in Greek classical thought were continued, adapted and developed over the course of history. The authors (including four leading experts in the field: Cornelia Isler-Kerényi, Jean-Marie Pailler, Richard Seaford and Richard Stoneman) reconstruct the political significance of Dionysus by examining different types of evidence: historiography, poetry, coins, epigraphy, art and philosophy. They discuss the place of the god in Greek city-state politics, explore the long tradition of imitating Dionysus that ancient leaders, from Alexander the Great to the Roman emperors, manifested in various ways and show how the political role of Dionysus was reflected in Orphism and Neoplatonist philosophy. Dionysus and Politics provides an excellent introduction to a fundamental feature of ancient political thought which until now has been largely neglected by mainstream academia. The book will be an invaluable resource to students and scholars interested in ancient politics and religion.
or Moral Essays; De Lib. Educ. = De liberis educandis, or O n the Education of Children; Adv. Col... more or Moral Essays; De Lib. Educ. = De liberis educandis, or O n the Education of Children; Adv. Col. = Adversus Colotem, or Against Colotes s., ss. = section, sections (of a prose work) SEG = Supplernentum Epigraphicum Graecum Strabo, Geogr. = Geography Note on Orthography In the spelling of Greek names, I have in general avoided Latinised forms: so e.g. Stephanos, not Stephanus, Neaira, not Neaera, Kriton, not Crito (though I prefer to transliterate Greek chi as 'ch', not 'kh', e.g. Chrysilla, not Khrysilla). However, in the case of well-known Greek authors, such as Homer, Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, Menander or Plutarch, or such figures as Croesus or Socrates, whose names have passed into the English language, I have preferred to preserve the usual Anglicised forms; similarly in the case of titles of works, such as Plato's Euthyphro or Crito (as opposed to the historical figures Euthyphron and Kriton), geographical names (Athens, Byzantium, Corinth), and names for Athenian units of currency (obol, drachma, mina, talent). I trust that this minor inconsistency will cause no serious confusion. Glossary I include here a number of terms for basic features of Athenian society with which the reader may not be familiar. Most Greek terms are explained in the text, but some frequently occurring ones may usefully be gathered here as well. Antidosis 'Exchange (of property)'. A remarkable provision of Athenian law whereby a citizen who had been nominated for a leitourgia could challenge another citizen, whom he considered to be wealthier than himself, but who had not been so nominated, either to take up his leitouyia or to undergo an exchange of properties with him. Archon This term, meaning simply 'ruler', denotes the board of nine administrators elected each year at Athens to oversee the day-today administration of the state. One chief duty they had was to preside over the various courts of law. The three chief archons met with in this book are: the Eponymous Archon, who gave his name to the year (so that one expresses dates by 'the archonship of X'); the King-Archon, or Basileus, the surviving remnant of the kings of archaic Athens, who preserved certain of the religious functions of the earlier king; and the Polemarch, or 'War-Leader', also the remnant of an earlier military leader, subordinate to the King. The other six archons, known as thesmothetai, or 'law-givers', presided over various lawcourts, and had various miscellaneous duties. All, as from 487 BC, were selected by lot (one from each of the ten tribes), which meant that the office came to be of little real political importance. A l l ex-archons, however, became members of the Areopagus. O n the legal level, the Eponymous Archon was particularly concerned with family disputes, and the protection of orphans and heiresses; the King with religious questions, such as charges of impiety; and the Polemarch with cases involving foreigners or freed-persons. Areti? This term is usually translated 'virtue', but may more properly be rendered 'human excellence.' moral, social and even physical excellence proper to a human being. It is conventionally divided into four particular 'virtues', wisdom (phron&is), x GLOSSARY Preface This book takes its origin from a seminar I have offered for some years now in Trinity College, Dublin, to the senior (fourth year) undergraduates in our Classical Civilisation programme, entitled 'Greek Popular Morality'. The title, a bow in the direction of Sir Kenneth Dover's book of that title, which I initially used as a basic background text for the course, is to a certain extent inaccurate. In the event the course became confined, more or less of necessity, to the study of the 'popular morality' of the Athenians of the second half of the fifth century RC and the whole extent ofthe fourth. What the Spartans, the Argives, or the Epizephyrian Locrians of that or any other age thought about anything is something that must always remain very largely a mystery to us, from simple lack of evidence, and I made no attempt to penetrate their psyches in this course. Even in the case of the Athenians, as we shall see, there are many surprising and annoying gaps in our knowledge. For one thing, very little is heard from, or even about, that half of the population which was female. It was a convention of Greek manners that respectable women should be neither seen nor heard (even to the extent of almost never mentioning the names of mothers, wives, or daughters in public, except for offensive purposes), so that the few women we hear much of are less than respectable in one way or another. For another, we cannot expect to hear much from the perspective of slaves or even non-citizens, though both of these do figure in the literature quite frequently, viewed from the perspective of middle-class adult male Athenians. Furthermore, as we shall have cause to note againand again, many aspects of Athenian public and private life are only revealed to us incidentally, if at all, in the sources, for the simple reason that it did not occur to any of our authors that these matters needed explaining to anyone. Sometimes, indeed, we may make deductions from the very fact that a given aspect oflife did not seem to need explaining, but that is One large area of mystery, which is of great interest to modern historians, is that of economics. We really do not know, even in xiv PREFACE ' One notable aspect ofAthenian forensic oratory is that, owing to the exigencies of the Athenian legal system, which required that the defendant defend himself, speeches are conlposed (when they are so composed) by hired speech-writers with a degree of dramatic skill, since it has to sound as if the defendant is speaking for himself. For the translation of this speech, Otz the Murder of Eratosthenes (Lysias, Oration I) , I borrow the Loeb translation of W. R. M. ' We may assume that he was at this stage about decision. Cf. W. K. Lacey, The Family in Classical Greece, pp. 106-7. '' This detail throws an interesting light on the alleged confinement of Athenian women. It is plain that, as in contemporary conservative Mediterranean society, such confinement, whlle real enough, does not exclude visits to neighbours for 'borrowing' and gossip. Cf. David Cohen, Law, Sexuality and Society, chs '' The customary period of was a nlemorial feast. " Sc. back to the farm, no doubt for another week or so. 20 This distinction between 'indoor' and 'outdoor' (endon and e x 4 is replicated in other traditional societies, see the useful discussion of Cohen, Law, Sexuality and Society, pp. 41ff ('The Politics of Spatial Differentiation'). 2' This apparently monotheistic use of ho theos, in the singular (the less problematic plural has been used just above, 7. 18), is in fact quite common, in both philosophical and non-philosophical contexts. educated Greeks did have a sense of 'the divinity' general, corresponding somewhat to the modern use of 'nature' in similar contexts. Q Unless, perhaps, they are combined, as they would be in the magical trahtion, with suitable formulae, specifying the beneficiary or beneficiaries. But there is n o mention in the narrative of the uttering of spells; and in any case, how would one do this in an intimate situation? Out in the " As a slave (as we can conclude from this that she was), she was liable to torture, both to extract evidence and as punishment, and to death, as having compassed, even unintentionally, the death of her master. '' Sc. Aegospotarni, in 405. 5' This seems almost incredible, '$ We have in fact two speeches, the first (Demosthenes composed by Demosthenes himself, and delivered in 348/347the battle of Tamynae, part of ' I borrow here the Loeb translation of H. N. This oath has more or less the connotation, 'Well, 1' 11 be darned!'. '' Sc. at the defeat o f Athens in 404. " This is slightly ambiguous, but he must mean after the settlement o f 403, following o n the overthrow o f the Thirty. 28 This trial is taking place sacrilege. 2" Particularly after the Spartan occupation o f Decelea i n 41 3 .
with the most useful information. This book is organized around two themes: on the one hand, the ... more with the most useful information. This book is organized around two themes: on the one hand, the daily, reallife experience of slaves, on the other, the important place they occupy in economic and social structures-in the household and sometimes even in the machinery of the Greek city and the Roman Empire. In several chapters we will raise questions that we deem critical to the understanding of our basic themes. How does one define the ancient slave? Can we speak of a slave society? How are we to understand the functioning and profitability of slavery in the economy? Since Rome experienced early on the influence of Greece and its culture, and the Hellenistic world in turn was integrated into the Roman world starting in the second century BCE, we believed it necessary to deal simultaneously with slaves of the Greek world and those of Rome-something which has not been done in France since the new edition, in 1879, of Henri Wallon's Histoire de l'esclavage dans l'Antiquité. Since one of us is a specialist in ancient Greece and the other a specialist in the Roman world, the blending of our two points of view enriched our perception of the historical facts. The first chapter addresses, with respect to these two halves of classical Antiquity, a problem of definition: what is a slave, and what distinguishes a slave from a non-slave dependent? Chapter 3 deals with the size of the slave population, their demographics and the sources of supply of slaves. Chapter 4 describes their work, their working conditions and their role in different sectors of economic life: agriculture, manufacturing, and commerce. Chapter 5 studies their relationships with their masters, their place in the family and in society. Chapter 6 examines the means at their disposal for escaping from slavery, especially manumission. For the archaic period, which is the subject of chapter 2, we decided to draw a sharper distinction between Greece and Rome, as the differences between the two are much more pronounced in those ancient times; this second chapter, "The Earliest Forms of Slavery," is thus divided into two parts, one on archaic Greece, the other on archaic Rome. Finally, the last chapter, which is devoted to the evolution of slavery in the last centuries of the Western Empire-between the third century and the early fifth century CEnecessarily applies only to the Roman world. A Definition of the Slave What, then, is a slave, the slave that one encounters in the Greek cities from the end of the archaic period through the Hellenistic period, or in Rome and the Roman world? To begin with, a slave is a man, a woman, or a child who is considered to be the property of a master (or a mistress). At the same time, everyone knows that a slave is a human being, that he is not necessarily born a slave, and that, conversely, any freeborn man or woman can become a slave. Legally and The Fourteenth and Thirteenth Centuries BCE: The Mycenaean Period of the Linear B Tablets In the Greek world, the first known slaves lived in the Mycenaean period, in Knossos and Pylos, during the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries BCE. In the tablets inscribed in Linear B, the syllabic Mycenaean script, we find the words doero in the masculine and doera in the feminine, which are the equivalent of doulos (feminine doulè), the most common Greek term in the first millennium for slave (doulos is based on a contraction of doelos). Our evidence for this period is very specific: it consists of administrative texts established under the authority of the royal palaces, which mention accounting activities. Many of these documents register, either collectively or individually, persons who are subject to palace authority and whose activity is controlled. Reference is made to the food and raw materials they receive, the work and chores they must undertake, the gifts or access to land from which they benefit. But for the Mycenaean period, there are no comprehensive legal texts. Nor have any chronicles or narrative texts presenting these individuals in specific situations been preserved. The word doero is therefore the principal indication we have of the existence of slavery as a condition. In these texts, capture or war never appear as sources of slavery, probably because the texts refer to slaves who are already integrated into the palaces or other ownership structures. On the other hand, two tablets from Knossos mention purchases (qirijato, the equivalent of the first millennium Greek word ēpriato: "bought"). One of the two tablets refers to a man ("so-and-so bought the slave from Kurios"), the other to a woman. 1 It is impossible to know whether these are first-time purchases after capture. These slaves, then, have masters: most of the time the mention of the doero is accompanied by a name that-even if this is not explicit-refers to an owner, either by name or through his administrative duties. When their function is specified, these masters are various types of dignitaries: priests and priestesses (ijereja doera) or "collectors." There are also "slaves of the god" (teojo doero). The tablets mention, for instance, the goddesses Artemis and Divia. Sometimes, however, the god is not named (in which case, he is probably Poseidon, the great god of Pylos). This is why a distinction is usually made between two types of slaves, those that belong to a "human" owner, and the "slaves of the god." But the exact significance of that distinction is not known. Although we have no indication of the sale of a teojo doero, this does not mean that the "slaves of the god" are not sold. The single observable difference is that the "slaves of the god" appear only in texts alluding to the allocation of land, never in those mentioning labor obligations. It is impossible to assess the numerical significance of slavery, as we do not know all the terms that designate the status of persons-often women-who work in the service of the palace. For both Knossos and Pylos, there are lists of women who, in most cases, card wool, and for whom food, the supervision of work, and even, in certain cases, the education of their children are the responsibility of the authorities. These women, who appear to be single, are sometimes called doera, and this name is followed by a given name. Yet it is difficult to identify them as slaves: there are more than a thousand of them in both Knossos and Pylos; this would mean according extraordinary importance to the phenomenon of slavery. Consequently, there are those who prefer to view this simply as women subjected to chores, at least for a part of the year. Finally, among the certain examples of slavery, in addition to the slaves of the god-of 63 known names of slaves, 44 belong to slaves of the god-the two most important slave owners mentioned possess 32 and 20 slaves respectively. The names of several dozen of these slaves have been preserved. They show great variety. Some, known through myths and epics, are traditional names in Mycenaean society. It is remarkable that the names Hector, Theseus, and Idomeneus were borne by slaves! Other names are more characteristic of slave onomastics, referring, for instance, to trades (shepherd) or to geographical origins (Trojan, Corinthian). Their economic role is clear, but difficult to assess. All sectors of activity have their slaves, from agriculture and tending livestock to craft, textile and metalworking activities. Some slaves are blacksmiths; they are occasionally mentioned along with their master, who is also known as a blacksmith. Or they appear without mention of their master, and seem to enjoy greater autonomy. Others, especially slaves of the god, appear among the beneficiaries of land distribution; in certain cases, on the lists of beneficiaries, their names even appear next to those of hierarchically important individuals-priests and
NV reserves the right to protect this publication against unauthorized use. Requests for re-use a... more NV reserves the right to protect this publication against unauthorized use. Requests for re-use and/or translations must be addressed to Koninklijke Brill NV via brill.com or copyright.com. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner. To my mother ∵ Contents Acknowledgements ix 1 Introduction 1 1 Subjects, Abjects and Others: The Narrative Construction of Subject Positions in War Epic 5 2 Origins of War 22 1 Casus belli: War-Bringing Marriages and Ill-Omened Brides 27 2 Warmongering Furies and Active Agitators 41 3 Divine Interventions and Semiotic furor: Virgil's Amata and Turnus 58 3 Victims of War: Gendered Dynamics of Suffering 71 1 The Victimised Female Body and the Construction of Roman Identity 72 2 The Victim's Viewpoint: Female Gaze and Epic Subjectivity 81 3 Marginal Mothers? The Threatening Overtones of Maternal Fear 89 4 Grief, Lament and the Dissolution of Differences 106 4 'Playing Supermen': The Manly Matrons of Roman Epic 130 1 Mentem aequare viros et laudis poscere partem: Female Groups in Defense of Their Cities 131 2 Fida coniunx: comes ultima fati? 137 3 Da mihi castra sequi: The Female Intrusion in the World of War 148 5 Means of Production or Weapons of Destruction? Gender and Violence in Roman War Epic 163 1 Manly Men versus Effeminate Others: Armed Violence in the Construction of Romanitas 167 2 Women in Arms: The Absolute Other? 177 3 Bellatrix virgo: An Outsider or an Insider? 202 4 Fragile Warriors and the Questioning of the Male Subject Position 220 viii contents 6 Sabine Successors? The Failure of Female Mediation 232 1 The Futility of mora, the Failure of Mediation: Mixing and Juxtaposing Epic with Historiography 235 2 Functional Failures: Epic Women Tangled Up with War 260 7 Dynamics of Death 267 1 Death, Power and Narrative Control: Creusa, Dido, and Cleopatra 269 2 Getting Rid of the Queen: The Archetype of regina moritura 289 8 Conclusion 300 Bibliography 309 Index 327 x acknowledgements pensable impact on this project. My particular gratitude goes to Professor Irene de Jong, who took interest in my work and encouraged me to approach Brill and The Language of Classical Literature with my manuscript. I am also grateful to my editors at Brill, to the anonymous referee for their most helpful and insightful comments, and of course to Brian McNeil for patiently proofreading and correcting my English. Last but not least, I want to thank my nearest and dearest-my partner Tim, my family, and my friends-for their endless encourangement and interest in my work, and for their love and support during this project.
In this book, Gabriel Zuchtriegel explores the unwritten history of Classical Greece-the experien... more In this book, Gabriel Zuchtriegel explores the unwritten history of Classical Greece-the experience of nonelite colonial populations. Using postcolonial critical methods to analyze Greek settlements and their hinterlands of the fi fth and fourth centuries BC, he reconstructs the social and economic structures in which exploitation, violence, and subjugation were implicit. He mines literary sources and inscriptions, as well as archaeological data from excavations and fi eld surveys, much of it published here for the fi rst time, that off er new insights into the lives and status of nonelite populations in Greek colonies. Zuchtriegel demonstrates that Greece's colonial experience has far-reaching implications beyond the study of archaeology and ancient history. As refl ected in foundational texts such as Plato's "Laws" and Aristotle's "Politics," the ideology that sustained Greek colonialism is still felt in many Western societies. Gabriel Zuchtriegel holds a PhD degree in Classical Archaeology from University of Bonn. He has been fellow of Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes, the German Archaeological Institute and the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation and has conducted fi eldwork in southern Italy and Sicily. He has taught courses at University of Bonn (Germany) and at University of Basilicata (Italy). He has worked for the Soprintendenza di Pompeii and is currently in charge of the Museum and Archaeological site of Paestum. Published works include a monograph on ancient Gabii (Latium), edited volumes, journal papers, and articles in newspapers and popular science magazines.
Frankness, Greek Culture, and the Roman Empire discusses the significance of parrhesia (free and ... more Frankness, Greek Culture, and the Roman Empire discusses the significance of parrhesia (free and frank speech) in Greek culture of the Roman empire. The term parrhesia first emerged in the context of the classical Athenian democracy and was long considered a key democratic and egalitarian value. And yet, references to frank speech pervade the literature of the Roman empire, a time when a single autocrat ruled over most of the known world, Greek cities were governed at the local level by entrenched oligarchies, and the social hierarchy was becoming increasingly stratified. This volume challenges the traditional view that the meaning of the term changed radically after Alexander the Great, and shows rather that parrhesia retained both political and ethical significance well into the Roman empire. By examining references to frankness in political writings, rhetoric, philosophy, historiography, biographical literature, and finally satire, the volume also explores the dynamics of political power in the Roman empire, where politics was located in interpersonal relationships as much as, if not more than, in institutions. The contested nature of the power relations in such interactionsbetween emperors and their advisors, between orators and the cities they counseled, and among fellow members of the oligarchic elite in provincial citiesreveals the political implications of a prominent post-classical intellectual development that reconceptualizes true freedom as belonging to the man who behavesand speaksfreely. At the same time, because the role of frank speaker is valorized, those who claim it also lay themselves open to suspicions of self-promotion and hypocrisy. This volume will be of interest to students and scholars of rhetoric and political thought in the ancient world, and to anyone interested in ongoing debates about intellectual freedom, limits on speech, and the advantages of presenting oneself as a truth-teller.
Charles River Editors provides superior editing and original writing services across the digital ... more Charles River Editors provides superior editing and original writing services across the digital publishing industry, with the expertise to create digital content for publishers across a vast range of subject matter. In addition to providing original digital content for third party publishers, we also republish civilization's greatest literary works, bringing them to new generations of readers via ebooks. Sign up here to receive updates about free books as we publish them, and visit Our Kindle Author Page to browse today's free promotions and our most recently published Kindle titles. Dominated to this day by the sprawling white marble complex of the Acropolis, Athens is a city which is immensely and rightly proud of its past. For a period of roughly three centuries, the polis of Athens stood, if not in a position of unchallenged supremacy among the cities of Hellas, then at the very least among its three most important polities. Its fledgling Empire, though small by the standards later set by Alexander or the Romans, or even by those of its ancient enemy Persia, nonetheless encompassed cities as far afield as Asia Minor and Southern Italy, a remarkable fact considering such expansion was achieved by the inhabitants of a single city and its immediate surroundings, rather than by an entire nation. For much of its history, the Athenian navy was the single mightiest force in the Mediterranean, having defeated the overwhelming might of Persia in pitched battle upon the open sea numerous times. The Athenian army itself, though subordinate to its naval power-a sop to the fact that it was trade and empirebuilding that had made Athens rich-was nothing to be sneered at, as it succeeded in meting out a humiliating defeat to Darius's Persians at Marathon. Yet despite a martial tradition that, if taken as a whole, was second to none save the Spartans, Athens is chiefly remembered for two reasons: its political system, which would in time form the nucleus of all Western democratic systems of government, and the remarkable number of outstanding individuals which, during the Golden Age of Athens, lived and flourished in the enlightened city-state. The Ancient Athenians formed the backbone of the West's entire culture, from the arts to philosophy and everything inbetween. In virtually all fields of human endeavor Athens was so much at the forefront of dynamism and innovation that the products of its most brilliant minds remain not only influential but entirely relevant to this day. In the field of medicine, the great physician Hippocrates not only advanced the practical knowledge of human anatomy and care-giving but changed the entire face of the medical profession. The great philosophers of Athens, men like Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato, interrogated themselves with startling complexity about the nature of good and evil, questioned the existence of divinity, advocated intelligent design, and went so far as to argue that all life was composed of infinitesimal particles. Great architects and sculptors such as Phidias produced works of art of such breathtaking realism and startling dynamism that they later formed the driving force behind the resurgence of sculpture during the Renaissance and served as masters to artists such as Michelangelo, Bernini, and Donatello. The plays of dramatists such as Aristophanes not only displayed an acerbic wit and a genius for political satire so pronounced that their works continue to be performedand topical-to this day, but served as the inspiration for virtually all playwrights from Shakespeare to the present day. And this does not take into account the host of equally brilliant mathematicians, natural philosophers, historians, astronomers and politicians that the city's great schools nurtured and produced. The flowering of Greek civilization was further made possible by an increase of trade between the cities and with other civilizations. Trade became a major occupation on account of the scarcity of agricultural land in the largely mountainous regions of the Balkan peninsula. The polis of Athens, in particular, assumed economic dominance in the Aegean in from the sixth-century BC. The consequent increase in wealth, resources and population made a cultural renaissance possible. Commerce, in turn, led to the rise of an affluent aristocratic class which had the leisure to devote itself to learning, philosophy, and art. It also led to an industrial class of freemen who were artists and craftsmen. Religion also played a role in the development of Greek culture and technology. The ancient Greeks worshipped a multiplicity of gods, the chief of which dwelt on Mount Olympus in the first mountainous region of central Greece. The city-states would regularly send athletes to compete in the Olympic Games in their honor. Each city-state, however, had their own particular god: Athena was honored at Athens; Apollo at Delphi; Poseidon at Corinth; Zeus at Olympia, and so forth. Sculptures, temples and other buildings were built in honor of the gods who were believed to control the forces of nature. The truly great benefit that the gods gave the Greeks was something they did not have, and that was a sense of meaning and purpose to human action and to the natural world of which men and women were a part. For the ancient Greeks, the gods were capricious beings subject to the same passions, emotions, and vicissitudes as humans were, and no more enlightened as to the nature of existence and the path to a good and happy life. The new class of wealthy men who had the leisure to think stepped in where religion refused to go. Thales of Miletus (c.524-546 BCE), named by the classicist John Burnet "the first scientist," observed the natural world and sought rational explanations for it. From him a tradition emerged which explored the world and the actions of humans through natural science, reason, mathematics, metaphysics, and ontology. After Thales a stream of philosophers, mathematicians and engineers emerged including names that are well known today, including Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Pythagoras, Archimedes, Heraclitus, Epicurus, Diogenes, and Plutarch. When considering the ancient Greek philosophers and their contribution to civilization it must be remembered that for them there was no separation of disciplines as we have them today. Philosophy was considered an attempt to understand the entire cosmos and not just a part of it. And so it was that every aspect of life and every observable thing might be considered under the umbrella of philosophy, including technology and art. Indeed, it was the ancient Greek philosophers who devised the very concept of technology. Techne, meaning art or craft knowledge, was conceived of as an attempt to imitate the natural order. Plato, in particular, argued that the cosmos was created by the divine craftsmen or Demiurge according to the eternal, immaterial, pre-existent forms, rather as an artist and or engineer creates a work according to a blueprint. He argued that a craftsman imitates the Demiurge and in so doing accomplishes something divine. To the ancient Greeks, the cosmos was ordered and harmonious. Consequently, reason and intellect were considered the architects of all art and craftsmanship. The absolute perfection of form was sought in everything and the Greek passion for simplicity, elegance, harmony, and beauty is to be found everywhere, particularly in architecture. Ancient Greek Technology: The History and Legacy of the Technological Advances Made in Greece during Antiquity looks at how Greek civilization developed, and the various technological advances that resulted. Along with pictures depicting important people, places, and events, you will learn about Greek technology like never before.
Athletics represented an important institution through which the Greek aristocracies sought to ma... more Athletics represented an important institution through which the Greek aristocracies sought to maintain their privileged political position. Victory, however, had always involved the use of others, such as charioteers, jockeys, and trainers, and in the late archaic and early classical period, the relationship between the victors and these helpers changed radically. This threatened the political value of athletics and thus undermined the utility of the institution for aristocrats. Nigel Nicholson examines how aristocrats responded to these changes through a study of victory memorials. New Historicist in method, the book draws on odes, dedications, vases, and coins, as well as anecdotes about the victors. It asks how the vulgar details of winning are represented by the memorials, and it assumes that the value of athletics was always under threat, from groups both inside and outside the elite. The result is a fascinating look at one area of social struggle in ancient Greece.
PLUTARCH (c. 50-c. 120 AD) was a writer and thinker born into a wealthy, established family of Ch... more PLUTARCH (c. 50-c. 120 AD) was a writer and thinker born into a wealthy, established family of Chaeronea in central Greece. He received the best possible education in rhetoric and philosophy, and travelled to Asia Minor and Egypt. Later, a series of visits to Rome and Italy contributed to his fame, and it was said that he had received o cial recognition by the emperors Trajan and Hadrian. Plutarch rendered conscientious service to his province and city (where he continued to live), as well as holding a priesthood at nearby Delphi. His voluminous surviving writings are broadly divided into the 'moral' works and the Lives of outstanding Greek and Roman leaders. The former (Moralia) are a mixture of rhetorical and antiquarian pieces, together with technical and moral philosophy (sometimes in dialogue form). The Lives have been in uential from the Renaissance onwards. REX WARNER was a Professor of the University of Connecticut from 1964 until his retirement in 1974. He was born in 1905 and went to Wadham College, Oxford, where he gained a ' rst' in Classical Moderations, and took a degree in English Literature. He taught in Egypt and England, and was Director of the British Institute, Athens, from 1945 to 1947. He wrote poems, novels and critical essays, worked on lms and broadcasting, and translated many works, of which Xenophon's History of my Times and The Persian Expedition, Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War, and Plutarch's Lives (under the title Fall of the Roman Republic) and Moral Essays have been published in Penguin Classics. Rex Warner died in 1986.
Anthia held her breath. She was nervous. Dorema's labor was not progressing well, and Anthia coul... more Anthia held her breath. She was nervous. Dorema's labor was not progressing well, and Anthia could see from her friend's bloodshot eyes and blank stare that she was exhausted from pushing. Making a conscious effort to breathe normally, Anthia patted Dorema's arm and told her that all was well. Dorema needed to believe it so that she could manage her contractions and push. Anthia stood at Dorema's back, where she was supporting her friend's body on the birthing stool. The midwife pulled out a small metal mirror and placed it between Dorema's legs. "See, Dorema! The baby's head is here! Look!" Greek deity and a local goddess (or local goddesses). During the period of the New Testament, the historical evidence points to the likelihood of Ephesians hosting two major festivals in her honor every year. One was a celebration of her birth, complete with music, dancers, sacrifices, feasts, and priests acting out the role of demonic protectors of Artemis during her birth, frightening away the goddess Hera. The second was the Artemisia, which likely included competitions in music, theater, and athletics. There is also some evidence for female priestesses as officials of her temple. Along with being associated with a general focus on health and safety (as her name was often understood to communicate those values), Artemis was acclaimed as greatest, holiest, and most manifest along with the titles "Queen of the Cosmos," "Lady" (female version of "Lord"), and "Savior." She was a specific kind of savior to the many women who petitioned her for safety in childbirth. She was the patron goddess of Ephesus, and her temple, the Artemision, was built outside the wall, a little over a mile from the city center. The Artemision was famous in antiquity, known as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world for its size and grandeur. It measured approximately 140 by 75 yards (four times the size of the Parthenon in Athens) and included 127 columns that stood over 60 feet high. The works of many of the greatest sculptors and painters of the day decorated it, and because of its financial deposits-assets that included land and water-and ability to lend money, it functioned at the center of the city's economic life. The women's encouraging words grew louder as they saw Dorema's lack of response. Soon Anthia found that she was yelling into her friend's ear. "Push! Push! You're so close! Push!" She could hear the terror in her voice, and as it overtook her a small part of her knew that she was watching her friend die. "No! Breathe!" she screamed, grabbing Dorema's shoulders and shaking them. Dorema's body was limp, not responding to Anthia or the other women. She said nothing. Anthia moved to face her friend, and when she saw Dorema's face she had the distinct sense that her friend was giving up. The look reminded her of her own labor and delivery. With her first child, her belly had been huge, and her labor long and intense. When she was finally instructed by the midwife to push, she could barely muster the energy. After a few hours of pushing, she was done. She could not push anymore. She recalled her awareness in that moment, as she had not pushed during the entire course of a contraction: I am dying. I am not pushing-cannot push-and I am allowing myself to die. It had been Dorema in that moment who had rallied her, called her back, insisted that she push one more time. The baby had come. As if in response to her thoughts, the unborn child in her own womb kicked, and Anthia touched her own protruding belly with one hand. She grabbed her friend's chin with the other. "Dorema, look at me! Look at me!" Dorema's only response was to gaze past her and exhale. Anthia waited for the inhale, holding her friend's face. It never came.
This study explores the development of ancient festival culture in the Greek East of the Roman Em... more This study explores the development of ancient festival culture in the Greek East of the Roman Empire, paying particular attention to the fundamental religious changes that occurred. After analysing how Greek city festivals developed in the first two Imperial centuries, it concentrates on the major Roman festivals that were adopted in the Eastern cities and traces their history up to the time of Justinian and beyond. It addresses several key questions for the religious history of later antiquity: Who were the actors behind these adoptions? How did the closed religious communities, Jews and pre-Constantinian Christians, articulate their resistance? How did these festivals change when the empire converted to Christianity? Why did emperors not yield to the long-standing pressure of the Church to abolish them? And finally, how did these very popular festivalsdespite their pagan traditioninfluence the form of the newly developed Christian liturgy? fritz graf is Distinguished University Professor and Director of Epigraphy at the Ohio State University. He has published widely on Greek mythology, local cults in ancient Asia Minor, eschatological texts from Greek graves, and ancient magic.
Germanicus was born on 31 August in the year A.D. 12 to Germanicus and the elder Agrippina. At th... more Germanicus was born on 31 August in the year A.D. 12 to Germanicus and the elder Agrippina. At the time no one could have foreseen that at the age of only twenty-four this young man, known by then under his nickname, "Caligula," would become Roman emperor. On 18 March 37, he would become ruler of an empire that spanned virtually the entire known world of antiquity, from Syria to the English Channel, from North Africa to the Danube region, and from Spain to Asia Minor. No one could have anticipated how many intrigues and murders, trials and executions would take place in Rome, the center of that Empire, in the two and a half decades leading up to his succession. Nor could anyone have possibly imagined in the year 12 how Gaius would come to exercise his rule in the end. At the time of his birth, his great-grandfather Augustus was still in power. Although aristocrats criticized Augustus in private, they were all agreed on the most important achievement of his long sole rule (31 B.C.-A.D. 14): After almost a hundred years of violent political conflict and civil wars, which had affected the entire Mediterranean region and could be described in retrospect as a process of gathering monopolization of political power, Augustus had brought peace. Admittedly in doing so he had also ended the old collective rule of the aristocracy that had characterized the Roman Republic and functioned with great success for centuries, replacing it with a form of sole rule-something that had clearly become unavoidable. His exceptional position, which he had usurped however, so that the choice finally fell on his stepson Tiberius. He, too, had to marry Julia, and of all the candidates was the one who actually lived to become her father's successor. The politics of the imperial family had, however, produced other aspirants for the throne. Augustus had married off his second stepson, Drusus, to his niece, Antonia II (Antonia Minor, Antonia the Younger). At the time of Drusus's death in 9 B.C. they had two sons-Claudius, the later emperor, and Germanicus-who were thus great-nephews of the emperor. Claudius received little notice initially because of a physical handicap, but for Germanicus a marriage was arranged with Agrippina the Elder, Augustus's granddaughter from the marriage of Julia and Agrippa. Germanicus and Agrippina's children included three sons: Nero (not the later emperor), another Drusus (III), and Caligula. At the time of Augustus's death they were all still children, but unlike Tiberius they acquired the prestige of the imperial family by virtue of being the first emperor's biological great-grandchildren and great-great-nephews. Augustus "solved" this problem by requiring Tiberius to adopt Germanicus, thereby opening the way to the succession for his great-grandchildren. The fate of Tiberius's own son, Drusus II (Drusus the Younger) remained undecided. An attempt was made to resolve it by arranging further marriages between the different branches of the imperial family. Thus Drusus the Younger married Livilla, Augustus's greatniece, while Livilla's daughter in her turn married one of Germanicus's sons, Nero. One last grandson of Augustus, named Agrippa Postumus, from the marriage of Julia and Agrippa, had fallen into disfavor for reasons that remain unclear. He was murdered in the year 14, possibly on Augustus's own initiative or that of Livia or Tiberius. These complicated family relationships-difficult not only for modern prosopographers, but probably also for contemporaries to keep straight-signal a central problem that resulted directly from Augustus's construction of the Principate. Because he chose to forgo a hereditary monarchy and thus the concomitant legal clarification of the succession, he found it difficult to control the political prestige derived from blood relationships to the emperor. Rivalries could arise within the imperial family, which in turn offered ideal openings for groups of aristocrats to back possible successors. Sometimes these alliances developed into conspiracies. Augustus's own daughter, Julia, started the ball rolling. In the year 2 B.C. she was banished because of her contacts with young aristocrats in Rome, including Iullus Antonius, the son of the triumvir Marcus Antonius, who had been Augustus's last remaining rival in the civil war. Whether adultery was involved, as the official charge claimed, or a political conspiracy, as many suspected, is in the last analysis irrelevant. If the daughter
This volume explores the role that republican political participation played in forging elite Rom... more This volume explores the role that republican political participation played in forging elite Roman masculinity. It situates familiarly "manly" traits like militarism, aggressive sexuality, and the pursuit of power within a political system based on power sharing and cooperation. In deliberations in the Senate, at social gatherings, and on military cam paign, displays of consensus with other men greased the wheels of social discourse and built elite comradery. Through literary sources and inscrip tions that offer censorious or affirmative appraisal of male behavior from the Middle and Late Republic (ca. 300-31 BCE) to the Principate or Early Empire (ca. 100 CE), this book shows how the vir bonus, or "good man," the Roman persona of male aristocratic excellence, modulated imperatives for personal distinction and military and sexual violence with political coop eration and moral exemplarity. While the advent of one-man rule in the Empire transformed political power relations, ideals forged in the Republic adapted to the new climate and provided a coherent model of masculinity for emperor and senator alike. Scholars often paint a picture of Republic and Principate as distinct landscapes, but enduring ideals of male self-fashioning constitute an important continuity. Roman Masculinity and Politics from Republic to Empire provides a fascinating insight into the intertwined nature of masculinity and political power for anyone interested in Roman political and social history, and those working on gender in the ancient world more broadly.
Fees are subject to change. PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS Or, il y avait clans chaque bourg et clans... more Fees are subject to change. PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS Or, il y avait clans chaque bourg et clans chaque village un ou plusieurs Heros Medecins, designes parfois par un nom, le plus souvent par le simple qualificatif qui marquait leur activite bienfaisante. Ils guerissaient generalement en imposant la main droite-d'ou des noms comme Cheiron, Dexion-, et en souriant. Leur popularite resta grande mais purement locale. Asclepios les eclipsa, du reste sans les evincer, parce que ses pretres surent utiliser une technique mysterieuse, qui excitait la curiosite des simples et des habiles. Marie DELCOURT, Les grands sanctuaires de /,a Grece, •Paris, 1947, pp. 93-94 (a propos d'Epidaure).
Die politische Bedeutung des Octavian beruhte anfangs auf seiner testamentarischen Adoption durch... more Die politische Bedeutung des Octavian beruhte anfangs auf seiner testamentarischen Adoption durch Gaius Iulius Caesar. Mit der Adoption erbte er 44 v. Chr. nicht nur den größten Teil des Privatvermögens, sondern er wurde auch Patron von Caesars Klienten. Vor allem aber konnte er sich von nun an auf die in Italien angesiedelten Veteranen des Diktators verlassen. "Du, mein Junge, verdankst alles deinem Namen", soll Marcus Antonius zu Octavian, in Anspielung auf die testamentarische Adoption durch Caesar, gesagt haben (Cicero, Philippica 13,24). Mit dem Antritt des Erbes ließ sich Octavian Gaius Iulius Caesar nennen. Begründung des Prinzipats Die formale Begründung des Prinzipats erfolgte im Januar 27 v. Chr., Begründung nachdem Octavian zuvor seinen Widersacher Marcus Antonius in der See-des Prinzipats schlacht bei Actium am 2. September 31 v. Chr. besiegt hatte. Seine Stellung als Alleinherrscher bemäntelte er, indem er dem Anschein nach die Republik wiederherstellte (res publica restituta). Feierlich legte er in der Senatssitzung vom 13. Januar 27 v. Chr. seine Ausnahmegewalt nieder und gab die Herrschaftsgewalt der Form nach zurück in die Obhut von Senat und Volk, ein Staatsakt, der gut vorbereitet war. Die tatsächliche Macht, die Gefolgschaft des Heeres, blieb Zeit seines Lebens in seiner Gewalt. Der Senat wurde zudem in einer weiteren Senatssitzung am 16. Januar 27 v. Chr. genötigt, ihm die Kommandogewalt, das imperium proconsulare, über die unbefriedeten Grenzprovinzen, in denen die meisten Legionen stationiert waren, zu übertragen. Q Adoptionen und Adrogationen (Gaius, Institutionen 1,97-99) Es sind aber nicht nur leibliche Kinder gemäß dem Gesagten in unserer Hausgewalt, sondern auch die, die wir adoptieren. Und zwar geschieht die Adoption auf zweifache Art, entweder mit Ermächtigung des Volkes oder durch die Befehlsmacht eines obersten Beamten, insbesondere des Prätors. Mit Ermächtigung des Volkes adoptieren wir solche Personen, die rechtlich selbständig sind; diese Art der Adoption heißt ,Adrogation', weil der Adoptierende ,rogiert', das heißt gefragt wird, ob er wolle, dass Adoption heißt ,Adrogation', weil der Adoptierende ,rogiert', das heißt gefragt wird, ob er wolle, dass der, den er adoptieren will, sein rechtmäßiger Sohn sei, und der der adoptiert wird, gefragt wird, ob er zulasse, dass dies geschehe; auch das Volk wird gefragt, ob es befehle, dass dies geschehe. Später kam zur Adrogation die Adoption (adoptio) im engeren Sinne. Durch diese wird jemand an Kindesstatt angenommen. Ein Gewaltunterworfener wird in die Hausgewalt (patria potestas) eines andern adoptiert, indem der Vater den zu Adoptierenden in einem Scheinprozess dreimal symbolisch an den Adoptivvater verkaufte (datio in adoptionem). Der Adoptivsohn erbte damit die Rechte und Pflichten des Adoptierenden. Mit der Übernahme des Vermögens und der Verantwortung für die Klientel des Adoptivvaters durch den Adoptivsohn wurde die Familientradition bewahrt. Die rechtliche Bindung des Adoptierten an seine eigentliche Familie wurde dadurch aufgehoben. Q Adoptionsformel (Aulus Gellius, Attische Nächte 5,19,9) Der Gesetzesantrag lautet: "Wollt ihr (velitis), befehlt ihr (iubeatis), dass L. Valerius so dem Gesetze nach der Sohn des L. Titus ist, als ob er von diesem Vater und dieser Mutter in dessen Familie geboren wurde, und dass dieser die Gewalt über dessen Leben und Tod besitzt, wie es dem Vater über den Sohn gebührt? Ist dies so, wie ich gesagt habe, so frage ich euch, ihr Quiriten?" Adoption und Adrogation erfolgten in der Zeit der Republik vor den Bürgern von Rom, wie aus der überlieferten Adoptionsformel hervorgeht. Dadurch übten sie die Funktion einer Kartellbehörde aus. Unerwünschte Machtkonzentration in der Oberschicht wurde durch das Votum der Mehrheit unterbunden, genauso wie gewünschte Verbindungen zustande kommen konnten. Schließlich kannte das römische Recht noch die testamentarische Adoption. Sie war wohl nach griechischem Vorbild konzipiert und der Erbe wurde Sie war wohl nach griechischem Vorbild konzipiert und der Erbe wurde moralisch verpflichtet, den Namen des Erblassers zu führen.
In the two surviving descriptions of Domitian's assassination, by Suetonius and Dio Cassius, a to... more In the two surviving descriptions of Domitian's assassination, by Suetonius and Dio Cassius, a total of seven men are named as being directly involved in the work. Parthenius the cubicularius is depicted as the prime mover and organiser; Stephanus was the agent of the killing, or at least was so designated; Maximus, Clodianus, the anonymous gladiator, Satur or Sigerius, and the a libellis Entellus were all involved as secondary agents either beforehand or assisting Stephanus. All these men were connected in some way with the palace-even the gladiator is said to be an 'imperial' gladiator; Clodianus is described as a cornicularius, and was no doubt one of the Praetorian Guards assigned to palace duty-he was also, like Stephanus, under suspicion of dishonesty, if not worse. 1 To the contemporary historians (Dio clearly used sources contemporary with the events) 2 the murder was seen as an inside job, a servants' plot confined to the palace; some of the killers were criminals. Yet there are substantial discrepancies between the two accounts, and even more important contradictions within them. Of the men involved, four-Parthenius, Stephanus, Satur/Sigerius and Maximus-are named by both historians, but Entellus is only in Dio, and Clodianus and the gladiator only in Suetonius. It is through such discrepancies that the real conspiracy becomes visible. For these historians are reflecting, or transmitting, a particular version of the event, the story put about after the murder by those whose involvement rendered them targets for recrimination or revenge, in particular by the senators who, with some reason, later feared for their lives; this may be referred to as the 'official' version of events. For it turned out that in many areas of the empire, geographical or societal, Domitian was not nearly as unpopular as he had been among many of the senators and some of the staff at the palace.
This volume presents an essential but underestimated role that Dionysus played in Greek and Roman... more This volume presents an essential but underestimated role that Dionysus played in Greek and Roman political thought. Written by an interdisciplinary team of scholars, the volume covers the period from archaic Greece to the late Roman Empire. The reader can observe how ideas and political themes rooted in Greek classical thought were continued, adapted and developed over the course of history. The authors (including four leading experts in the field: Cornelia Isler-Kerényi, Jean-Marie Pailler, Richard Seaford and Richard Stoneman) reconstruct the political significance of Dionysus by examining different types of evidence: historiography, poetry, coins, epigraphy, art and philosophy. They discuss the place of the god in Greek city-state politics, explore the long tradition of imitating Dionysus that ancient leaders, from Alexander the Great to the Roman emperors, manifested in various ways and show how the political role of Dionysus was reflected in Orphism and Neoplatonist philosophy. Dionysus and Politics provides an excellent introduction to a fundamental feature of ancient political thought which until now has been largely neglected by mainstream academia. The book will be an invaluable resource to students and scholars interested in ancient politics and religion.
or Moral Essays; De Lib. Educ. = De liberis educandis, or O n the Education of Children; Adv. Col... more or Moral Essays; De Lib. Educ. = De liberis educandis, or O n the Education of Children; Adv. Col. = Adversus Colotem, or Against Colotes s., ss. = section, sections (of a prose work) SEG = Supplernentum Epigraphicum Graecum Strabo, Geogr. = Geography Note on Orthography In the spelling of Greek names, I have in general avoided Latinised forms: so e.g. Stephanos, not Stephanus, Neaira, not Neaera, Kriton, not Crito (though I prefer to transliterate Greek chi as 'ch', not 'kh', e.g. Chrysilla, not Khrysilla). However, in the case of well-known Greek authors, such as Homer, Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, Menander or Plutarch, or such figures as Croesus or Socrates, whose names have passed into the English language, I have preferred to preserve the usual Anglicised forms; similarly in the case of titles of works, such as Plato's Euthyphro or Crito (as opposed to the historical figures Euthyphron and Kriton), geographical names (Athens, Byzantium, Corinth), and names for Athenian units of currency (obol, drachma, mina, talent). I trust that this minor inconsistency will cause no serious confusion. Glossary I include here a number of terms for basic features of Athenian society with which the reader may not be familiar. Most Greek terms are explained in the text, but some frequently occurring ones may usefully be gathered here as well. Antidosis 'Exchange (of property)'. A remarkable provision of Athenian law whereby a citizen who had been nominated for a leitourgia could challenge another citizen, whom he considered to be wealthier than himself, but who had not been so nominated, either to take up his leitouyia or to undergo an exchange of properties with him. Archon This term, meaning simply 'ruler', denotes the board of nine administrators elected each year at Athens to oversee the day-today administration of the state. One chief duty they had was to preside over the various courts of law. The three chief archons met with in this book are: the Eponymous Archon, who gave his name to the year (so that one expresses dates by 'the archonship of X'); the King-Archon, or Basileus, the surviving remnant of the kings of archaic Athens, who preserved certain of the religious functions of the earlier king; and the Polemarch, or 'War-Leader', also the remnant of an earlier military leader, subordinate to the King. The other six archons, known as thesmothetai, or 'law-givers', presided over various lawcourts, and had various miscellaneous duties. All, as from 487 BC, were selected by lot (one from each of the ten tribes), which meant that the office came to be of little real political importance. A l l ex-archons, however, became members of the Areopagus. O n the legal level, the Eponymous Archon was particularly concerned with family disputes, and the protection of orphans and heiresses; the King with religious questions, such as charges of impiety; and the Polemarch with cases involving foreigners or freed-persons. Areti? This term is usually translated 'virtue', but may more properly be rendered 'human excellence.' moral, social and even physical excellence proper to a human being. It is conventionally divided into four particular 'virtues', wisdom (phron&is), x GLOSSARY Preface This book takes its origin from a seminar I have offered for some years now in Trinity College, Dublin, to the senior (fourth year) undergraduates in our Classical Civilisation programme, entitled 'Greek Popular Morality'. The title, a bow in the direction of Sir Kenneth Dover's book of that title, which I initially used as a basic background text for the course, is to a certain extent inaccurate. In the event the course became confined, more or less of necessity, to the study of the 'popular morality' of the Athenians of the second half of the fifth century RC and the whole extent ofthe fourth. What the Spartans, the Argives, or the Epizephyrian Locrians of that or any other age thought about anything is something that must always remain very largely a mystery to us, from simple lack of evidence, and I made no attempt to penetrate their psyches in this course. Even in the case of the Athenians, as we shall see, there are many surprising and annoying gaps in our knowledge. For one thing, very little is heard from, or even about, that half of the population which was female. It was a convention of Greek manners that respectable women should be neither seen nor heard (even to the extent of almost never mentioning the names of mothers, wives, or daughters in public, except for offensive purposes), so that the few women we hear much of are less than respectable in one way or another. For another, we cannot expect to hear much from the perspective of slaves or even non-citizens, though both of these do figure in the literature quite frequently, viewed from the perspective of middle-class adult male Athenians. Furthermore, as we shall have cause to note againand again, many aspects of Athenian public and private life are only revealed to us incidentally, if at all, in the sources, for the simple reason that it did not occur to any of our authors that these matters needed explaining to anyone. Sometimes, indeed, we may make deductions from the very fact that a given aspect oflife did not seem to need explaining, but that is One large area of mystery, which is of great interest to modern historians, is that of economics. We really do not know, even in xiv PREFACE ' One notable aspect ofAthenian forensic oratory is that, owing to the exigencies of the Athenian legal system, which required that the defendant defend himself, speeches are conlposed (when they are so composed) by hired speech-writers with a degree of dramatic skill, since it has to sound as if the defendant is speaking for himself. For the translation of this speech, Otz the Murder of Eratosthenes (Lysias, Oration I) , I borrow the Loeb translation of W. R. M. ' We may assume that he was at this stage about decision. Cf. W. K. Lacey, The Family in Classical Greece, pp. 106-7. '' This detail throws an interesting light on the alleged confinement of Athenian women. It is plain that, as in contemporary conservative Mediterranean society, such confinement, whlle real enough, does not exclude visits to neighbours for 'borrowing' and gossip. Cf. David Cohen, Law, Sexuality and Society, chs '' The customary period of was a nlemorial feast. " Sc. back to the farm, no doubt for another week or so. 20 This distinction between 'indoor' and 'outdoor' (endon and e x 4 is replicated in other traditional societies, see the useful discussion of Cohen, Law, Sexuality and Society, pp. 41ff ('The Politics of Spatial Differentiation'). 2' This apparently monotheistic use of ho theos, in the singular (the less problematic plural has been used just above, 7. 18), is in fact quite common, in both philosophical and non-philosophical contexts. educated Greeks did have a sense of 'the divinity' general, corresponding somewhat to the modern use of 'nature' in similar contexts. Q Unless, perhaps, they are combined, as they would be in the magical trahtion, with suitable formulae, specifying the beneficiary or beneficiaries. But there is n o mention in the narrative of the uttering of spells; and in any case, how would one do this in an intimate situation? Out in the " As a slave (as we can conclude from this that she was), she was liable to torture, both to extract evidence and as punishment, and to death, as having compassed, even unintentionally, the death of her master. '' Sc. Aegospotarni, in 405. 5' This seems almost incredible, '$ We have in fact two speeches, the first (Demosthenes composed by Demosthenes himself, and delivered in 348/347the battle of Tamynae, part of ' I borrow here the Loeb translation of H. N. This oath has more or less the connotation, 'Well, 1' 11 be darned!'. '' Sc. at the defeat o f Athens in 404. " This is slightly ambiguous, but he must mean after the settlement o f 403, following o n the overthrow o f the Thirty. 28 This trial is taking place sacrilege. 2" Particularly after the Spartan occupation o f Decelea i n 41 3 .
with the most useful information. This book is organized around two themes: on the one hand, the ... more with the most useful information. This book is organized around two themes: on the one hand, the daily, reallife experience of slaves, on the other, the important place they occupy in economic and social structures-in the household and sometimes even in the machinery of the Greek city and the Roman Empire. In several chapters we will raise questions that we deem critical to the understanding of our basic themes. How does one define the ancient slave? Can we speak of a slave society? How are we to understand the functioning and profitability of slavery in the economy? Since Rome experienced early on the influence of Greece and its culture, and the Hellenistic world in turn was integrated into the Roman world starting in the second century BCE, we believed it necessary to deal simultaneously with slaves of the Greek world and those of Rome-something which has not been done in France since the new edition, in 1879, of Henri Wallon's Histoire de l'esclavage dans l'Antiquité. Since one of us is a specialist in ancient Greece and the other a specialist in the Roman world, the blending of our two points of view enriched our perception of the historical facts. The first chapter addresses, with respect to these two halves of classical Antiquity, a problem of definition: what is a slave, and what distinguishes a slave from a non-slave dependent? Chapter 3 deals with the size of the slave population, their demographics and the sources of supply of slaves. Chapter 4 describes their work, their working conditions and their role in different sectors of economic life: agriculture, manufacturing, and commerce. Chapter 5 studies their relationships with their masters, their place in the family and in society. Chapter 6 examines the means at their disposal for escaping from slavery, especially manumission. For the archaic period, which is the subject of chapter 2, we decided to draw a sharper distinction between Greece and Rome, as the differences between the two are much more pronounced in those ancient times; this second chapter, "The Earliest Forms of Slavery," is thus divided into two parts, one on archaic Greece, the other on archaic Rome. Finally, the last chapter, which is devoted to the evolution of slavery in the last centuries of the Western Empire-between the third century and the early fifth century CEnecessarily applies only to the Roman world. A Definition of the Slave What, then, is a slave, the slave that one encounters in the Greek cities from the end of the archaic period through the Hellenistic period, or in Rome and the Roman world? To begin with, a slave is a man, a woman, or a child who is considered to be the property of a master (or a mistress). At the same time, everyone knows that a slave is a human being, that he is not necessarily born a slave, and that, conversely, any freeborn man or woman can become a slave. Legally and The Fourteenth and Thirteenth Centuries BCE: The Mycenaean Period of the Linear B Tablets In the Greek world, the first known slaves lived in the Mycenaean period, in Knossos and Pylos, during the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries BCE. In the tablets inscribed in Linear B, the syllabic Mycenaean script, we find the words doero in the masculine and doera in the feminine, which are the equivalent of doulos (feminine doulè), the most common Greek term in the first millennium for slave (doulos is based on a contraction of doelos). Our evidence for this period is very specific: it consists of administrative texts established under the authority of the royal palaces, which mention accounting activities. Many of these documents register, either collectively or individually, persons who are subject to palace authority and whose activity is controlled. Reference is made to the food and raw materials they receive, the work and chores they must undertake, the gifts or access to land from which they benefit. But for the Mycenaean period, there are no comprehensive legal texts. Nor have any chronicles or narrative texts presenting these individuals in specific situations been preserved. The word doero is therefore the principal indication we have of the existence of slavery as a condition. In these texts, capture or war never appear as sources of slavery, probably because the texts refer to slaves who are already integrated into the palaces or other ownership structures. On the other hand, two tablets from Knossos mention purchases (qirijato, the equivalent of the first millennium Greek word ēpriato: "bought"). One of the two tablets refers to a man ("so-and-so bought the slave from Kurios"), the other to a woman. 1 It is impossible to know whether these are first-time purchases after capture. These slaves, then, have masters: most of the time the mention of the doero is accompanied by a name that-even if this is not explicit-refers to an owner, either by name or through his administrative duties. When their function is specified, these masters are various types of dignitaries: priests and priestesses (ijereja doera) or "collectors." There are also "slaves of the god" (teojo doero). The tablets mention, for instance, the goddesses Artemis and Divia. Sometimes, however, the god is not named (in which case, he is probably Poseidon, the great god of Pylos). This is why a distinction is usually made between two types of slaves, those that belong to a "human" owner, and the "slaves of the god." But the exact significance of that distinction is not known. Although we have no indication of the sale of a teojo doero, this does not mean that the "slaves of the god" are not sold. The single observable difference is that the "slaves of the god" appear only in texts alluding to the allocation of land, never in those mentioning labor obligations. It is impossible to assess the numerical significance of slavery, as we do not know all the terms that designate the status of persons-often women-who work in the service of the palace. For both Knossos and Pylos, there are lists of women who, in most cases, card wool, and for whom food, the supervision of work, and even, in certain cases, the education of their children are the responsibility of the authorities. These women, who appear to be single, are sometimes called doera, and this name is followed by a given name. Yet it is difficult to identify them as slaves: there are more than a thousand of them in both Knossos and Pylos; this would mean according extraordinary importance to the phenomenon of slavery. Consequently, there are those who prefer to view this simply as women subjected to chores, at least for a part of the year. Finally, among the certain examples of slavery, in addition to the slaves of the god-of 63 known names of slaves, 44 belong to slaves of the god-the two most important slave owners mentioned possess 32 and 20 slaves respectively. The names of several dozen of these slaves have been preserved. They show great variety. Some, known through myths and epics, are traditional names in Mycenaean society. It is remarkable that the names Hector, Theseus, and Idomeneus were borne by slaves! Other names are more characteristic of slave onomastics, referring, for instance, to trades (shepherd) or to geographical origins (Trojan, Corinthian). Their economic role is clear, but difficult to assess. All sectors of activity have their slaves, from agriculture and tending livestock to craft, textile and metalworking activities. Some slaves are blacksmiths; they are occasionally mentioned along with their master, who is also known as a blacksmith. Or they appear without mention of their master, and seem to enjoy greater autonomy. Others, especially slaves of the god, appear among the beneficiaries of land distribution; in certain cases, on the lists of beneficiaries, their names even appear next to those of hierarchically important individuals-priests and
NV reserves the right to protect this publication against unauthorized use. Requests for re-use a... more NV reserves the right to protect this publication against unauthorized use. Requests for re-use and/or translations must be addressed to Koninklijke Brill NV via brill.com or copyright.com. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner. To my mother ∵ Contents Acknowledgements ix 1 Introduction 1 1 Subjects, Abjects and Others: The Narrative Construction of Subject Positions in War Epic 5 2 Origins of War 22 1 Casus belli: War-Bringing Marriages and Ill-Omened Brides 27 2 Warmongering Furies and Active Agitators 41 3 Divine Interventions and Semiotic furor: Virgil's Amata and Turnus 58 3 Victims of War: Gendered Dynamics of Suffering 71 1 The Victimised Female Body and the Construction of Roman Identity 72 2 The Victim's Viewpoint: Female Gaze and Epic Subjectivity 81 3 Marginal Mothers? The Threatening Overtones of Maternal Fear 89 4 Grief, Lament and the Dissolution of Differences 106 4 'Playing Supermen': The Manly Matrons of Roman Epic 130 1 Mentem aequare viros et laudis poscere partem: Female Groups in Defense of Their Cities 131 2 Fida coniunx: comes ultima fati? 137 3 Da mihi castra sequi: The Female Intrusion in the World of War 148 5 Means of Production or Weapons of Destruction? Gender and Violence in Roman War Epic 163 1 Manly Men versus Effeminate Others: Armed Violence in the Construction of Romanitas 167 2 Women in Arms: The Absolute Other? 177 3 Bellatrix virgo: An Outsider or an Insider? 202 4 Fragile Warriors and the Questioning of the Male Subject Position 220 viii contents 6 Sabine Successors? The Failure of Female Mediation 232 1 The Futility of mora, the Failure of Mediation: Mixing and Juxtaposing Epic with Historiography 235 2 Functional Failures: Epic Women Tangled Up with War 260 7 Dynamics of Death 267 1 Death, Power and Narrative Control: Creusa, Dido, and Cleopatra 269 2 Getting Rid of the Queen: The Archetype of regina moritura 289 8 Conclusion 300 Bibliography 309 Index 327 x acknowledgements pensable impact on this project. My particular gratitude goes to Professor Irene de Jong, who took interest in my work and encouraged me to approach Brill and The Language of Classical Literature with my manuscript. I am also grateful to my editors at Brill, to the anonymous referee for their most helpful and insightful comments, and of course to Brian McNeil for patiently proofreading and correcting my English. Last but not least, I want to thank my nearest and dearest-my partner Tim, my family, and my friends-for their endless encourangement and interest in my work, and for their love and support during this project.
In this book, Gabriel Zuchtriegel explores the unwritten history of Classical Greece-the experien... more In this book, Gabriel Zuchtriegel explores the unwritten history of Classical Greece-the experience of nonelite colonial populations. Using postcolonial critical methods to analyze Greek settlements and their hinterlands of the fi fth and fourth centuries BC, he reconstructs the social and economic structures in which exploitation, violence, and subjugation were implicit. He mines literary sources and inscriptions, as well as archaeological data from excavations and fi eld surveys, much of it published here for the fi rst time, that off er new insights into the lives and status of nonelite populations in Greek colonies. Zuchtriegel demonstrates that Greece's colonial experience has far-reaching implications beyond the study of archaeology and ancient history. As refl ected in foundational texts such as Plato's "Laws" and Aristotle's "Politics," the ideology that sustained Greek colonialism is still felt in many Western societies. Gabriel Zuchtriegel holds a PhD degree in Classical Archaeology from University of Bonn. He has been fellow of Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes, the German Archaeological Institute and the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation and has conducted fi eldwork in southern Italy and Sicily. He has taught courses at University of Bonn (Germany) and at University of Basilicata (Italy). He has worked for the Soprintendenza di Pompeii and is currently in charge of the Museum and Archaeological site of Paestum. Published works include a monograph on ancient Gabii (Latium), edited volumes, journal papers, and articles in newspapers and popular science magazines.
Frankness, Greek Culture, and the Roman Empire discusses the significance of parrhesia (free and ... more Frankness, Greek Culture, and the Roman Empire discusses the significance of parrhesia (free and frank speech) in Greek culture of the Roman empire. The term parrhesia first emerged in the context of the classical Athenian democracy and was long considered a key democratic and egalitarian value. And yet, references to frank speech pervade the literature of the Roman empire, a time when a single autocrat ruled over most of the known world, Greek cities were governed at the local level by entrenched oligarchies, and the social hierarchy was becoming increasingly stratified. This volume challenges the traditional view that the meaning of the term changed radically after Alexander the Great, and shows rather that parrhesia retained both political and ethical significance well into the Roman empire. By examining references to frankness in political writings, rhetoric, philosophy, historiography, biographical literature, and finally satire, the volume also explores the dynamics of political power in the Roman empire, where politics was located in interpersonal relationships as much as, if not more than, in institutions. The contested nature of the power relations in such interactionsbetween emperors and their advisors, between orators and the cities they counseled, and among fellow members of the oligarchic elite in provincial citiesreveals the political implications of a prominent post-classical intellectual development that reconceptualizes true freedom as belonging to the man who behavesand speaksfreely. At the same time, because the role of frank speaker is valorized, those who claim it also lay themselves open to suspicions of self-promotion and hypocrisy. This volume will be of interest to students and scholars of rhetoric and political thought in the ancient world, and to anyone interested in ongoing debates about intellectual freedom, limits on speech, and the advantages of presenting oneself as a truth-teller.
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