Classical Studies

Calendars in Antiquity: Empires, States, and Societies

Sacha Stern

This book offers a study of the calendars of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Persia, Greece, Rome, Gaul, and all other parts of the Mediterranean and the Near East, from the origins up to ... More

This book offers a study of the calendars of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Persia, Greece, Rome, Gaul, and all other parts of the Mediterranean and the Near East, from the origins up to and including Jewish and Christian calendars in late Antiquity. Particular attention is given to the structure of calendars and their political context. Most ancient calendars were set and controlled by political rulers; they served as expressions of political power, as mechanisms of social control, and sometimes, on the contrary, as assertions of political independence and dissidence. Ancient calendars were very diverse, but they all shared a common history, evolving on the whole from flexible, lunar calendars to fixed, solar schemes. The Egyptian calendar played an important role in this process, most notably inspiring the institution of the Julian calendar in Rome, the forerunner of our modern Gregorian calendar. In this book it is argued that the rise of fixed calendars was not the result of scientific or technical progress, but of major political and social changes that transformed the ancient world under the great Near Eastern, Hellenistic, and Roman Empires. The institution of standard, fixed calendars served the administrative needs of these extensive empires, but also contributed to their cultural and political cohesion. This ultimately led, conversely, to late antique perceptions of calendar diversity as an expression of heresy and cause of social schism. Less

The Captor's Image: Greek Culture in Roman Ecphrasis

Basil Dufallo

An influential view of ecphrasis (the literary description of art objects) treats it primarily as a way for authors to write about their own texts, and even to insist upon the aesthetic dominance of ... More

An influential view of ecphrasis (the literary description of art objects) treats it primarily as a way for authors to write about their own texts, and even to insist upon the aesthetic dominance of the literary text over the visual image. The Captor's Image argues for the inadequacy of this view in the case of ancient Rome, and the need to see Roman ecphrasis, with its prevalent focus on Hellenic images, as a site of subtle, ongoing competition between Greek and Roman cultures. Through close readings of ecphrases in a wide range of Latin authors—including Plautus, Terence, Catullus, Horace, Vergil, Propertius, Ovid, Petronius, Statius, and Martial—Dufallo shows that Roman ecphrasis stages an ambivalent receptivity to Greek culture with implications for shifting notions of Roman identity in the Republican and Imperial periods. Individual chapters explore how the simple assumption of a self-asserting ecphrastic text is called into question by comic performance, self-consciously inconsistent narrative, the thematization of civil discord, Greek religious iconography, the contradictory associations of epic imagery, satiric poetry and the satiric novel, and the author's subjection to a patron. Visual material such as wall painting, statuary, and drink ware contextualizes the discussion. The first book-length treatment of artistic ecphrasis at Rome, The Captor's Image resituates a major literary trope deep within its hybrid cultural context, and argues for ecphrasis as a cultural practice through which the Romans sought, over some four hundred years of their history, to redefine Romanness both with and against Greekness.Less

Caves and the Ancient Greek Mind: Descending Underground in the Search for Ultimate Truth

Yulia Ustinova

In ancient Greece, a common method of search for divine wisdom was to descend into caves or underground chambers. Entering caves persistently appears as a major requirement for ... More

In ancient Greece, a common method of search for divine wisdom was to descend into caves or underground chambers. Entering caves persistently appears as a major requirement for prophecy-giving, both in established cults and in the activities of individual seers. Underground sojourns recur in the activities of several early Greek sages and philosophers. Mystery initiations comprise rites located in caves or dark chambers. The sages, seers, and initiates shared a quest for hidden truth, which they attained as revelation or vision. Exploring the reasons for the predilection for caves in the search for ultimate truth, this book juxtaposes ancient testimonies with the results of modern neuroscience. This approach, new in Classical Studies, enables an examination of the consciousness of people who were engaged in the vision quest. It is argued that cave environment creates conditions which force the human mind to deviate from its normal waking state and to enter altered states of consciousness, in many cases leading to the sensation of ineffable revelation of ultimate reality. Altered states of consciousness often occur in people exposed to sensory deprivation. As a result, various mediators between gods and mortals practice prolonged isolation in caves and other closed spaces in their quest of ecstatic illumination. The book demonstrates that multiple cave experiences of the Greeks are culturally patterned responses to the states determined by the neurology of the human brain. Less

Chariton of Aphrodisias and the Invention of the Greek Love Novel

Stefan Tilg

No issue in scholarship on the ancient novel has been discussed as hotly as the origin of the Greek love novel, also known as the ‘ideal’ novel. The present book proposes a new solution ... More

No issue in scholarship on the ancient novel has been discussed as hotly as the origin of the Greek love novel, also known as the ‘ideal’ novel. The present book proposes a new solution to this old problem. It argues that the genre had a personal inventor, Chariton of Aphrodisias, and that he wrote the first love novel, Narratives about Callirhoe, in the mid‐first century AD. This conclusion is drawn on the basis of two converging lines of argument, one from literary history, another from Chariton's poetics. A revisitation of the literary‐historical background provides the basis for further analysis: among other things, it considers Chariton's milieu at Aphrodisias (especially the local cult of Aphrodite), the dating of other early novels, and Chariton's potential authorship of the fragmentarily preserved novels Metiochus and Parthenope and Chione. Chariton's status as the inventor of the Greek love novel, suggested by the literary‐historical evidence, finds further support in his poetics. I argue that Narratives about Callirhoe is characterized by an unusual effort of self‐definition, which can be best explained as a consequence of coming to terms with a new form of writing. The book is rounded off by a study of the motif of Rumour in Chariton and its derivation from a surprising model, Virgil's Aeneid. This part also makes a significant contribution to the reception of Latin literature in the Greek world. Less

Children, Memory, and Family Identity in Roman Culture

Véronique Dasen, Thomas Späth (eds)

This book discusses the transmission of social memory and social identities in elite and non-elite families. It provides definitions of the notion of individual and collective memory, ... More

This book discusses the transmission of social memory and social identities in elite and non-elite families. It provides definitions of the notion of individual and collective memory, and examines the importance of children in the transmission of family tradition and values from the Republican period to the Late Roman world. It deals also with threats to familial memory, in terms of children deliberately or accidentally excluded from the family group. This collection of chapters reveals a multifaceted picture of the Roman family, based on the analysis of material, epigraphical, and literary evidence. The focus is on relationships and practices, rather than institutions, reflecting shifting concerns among a new generation of Roman family historians. Twenty-five years after the first Roman Family Conference, this fifth volume continues a tradition of innovation: it presents the latest approaches of American, Australian, and European research on Roman family history. Less

Christian Persecution, Martyrdom, and Orthodoxy

Geoffrey de Ste. Croix

Michael Whitby, Joseph Streeter (eds)

The volume presents in seven chapters papers on early Christian topics by Geoffrey de Ste. Croix. Three of the chapters include papers which have previously been published and are widely ... More

The volume presents in seven chapters papers on early Christian topics by Geoffrey de Ste. Croix. Three of the chapters include papers which have previously been published and are widely accepted as classic studies, while the other four now appear in print for the first time – though they have already proved influential as a result of presentation at seminars and circulation in manuscript. The volume's central themes are: martyrdom, the evidence for which Ste. Croix scrutinizes closely in order to reveal the extent to which Christians, through the process of volunteering, were responsible for bouts of persecution; persecution, which extends from the Christian experience as recipients to their role as far more effective agents of the persecution of non-Christians and doctrinal opponents; orthodoxy, the determination of which through Church Councils, especially at the Council of Chalcedon, emerges as the product of calculated imperial intervention; and finally property and slavery, on which a clear divide emerges between the radical message of the Gospels and the actual practice of the early Church. In addition, the editors of the volume contribute essays on the historiographical impact of Ste. Croix's contributions to the study of early Christianity and on his views of toleration in the ancient world. Less

Cicero as Evidence: A Historian's Companion

Andrew Lintott

The book is intended to show historically-minded readers how they should read Cicero's abundant writings: not only the letters, but the speeches and the theoretical texts on rhetoric and ... More

The book is intended to show historically-minded readers how they should read Cicero's abundant writings: not only the letters, but the speeches and the theoretical texts on rhetoric and philosophy. Though neither a complete biography nor a history of the late Republic, it seeks to provide fundamental material for both topics, which are made both interesting and difficult to study by the wealth of evidence provided. It also seeks to serve as a corrective for interpretations of them based either on belief in what Cicero himself chose to say or on accounts circulated after the statesman's death, based on the bitterness of hindsight and the propagandistic exploitation of the past. It is divided into four parts: ‘Reading Cicero’, on the general problem of seeking historical evidence in his works; ‘Reading Oratory’, on the same problem with specific relation to his speeches down to his defence of C. Rabirius in his consulate; ‘History in Speeches and Letters’, covering the period between his earliest preserved correspondence and his return from exile; and ‘History and Ideas’, on the remaining portion of his life. Each part is subdivided into short chapters. There are eight appendices covering particular matters in more detail. Less

Cicero in Letters: Epistolary Relations of the Late Republic

Peter White

This book is a guide to the first large letter collection that survives from the Greco‐Roman world. The correspondence of Cicero consists of nearly 950 letters and embraces almost every ... More

This book is a guide to the first large letter collection that survives from the Greco‐Roman world. The correspondence of Cicero consists of nearly 950 letters and embraces almost every major political figure of the Late Republic. Chapters 1 through 3 of this study describe external constraints affecting the letters that have come down to us. Some were the result of Roman conventions regarding social interaction, while others reflect logistical difficulties of long‐distance communication. Another series of constraints on the way letters were written arose from generic expectations about epistolary form. In addition, an editor helped to shape the published collection by imposing criteria of selection and arrangement that favored certain categories of subject matter and correspondent over others. Chapters 4 through 6 turn from the context of the letters to their content, and discuss three of Cicero's most characteristic epistolary preoccupations. It shows how, in a time of deepening crisis, he and his correspondents drew on a common literary background, on the habit of exchanging advice, and on a rhetoric of leadership in an effort to improve cooperation and to maintain the political culture which they shared. Less

Cicero the Advocate

Jonathan Powell, Jeremy Paterson (eds)

This book considers Cicero's forensic speeches as acts of advocacy, that is, designed to ensure that the person he represents is acquitted or that the person he is prosecuting is found ... More

This book considers Cicero's forensic speeches as acts of advocacy, that is, designed to ensure that the person he represents is acquitted or that the person he is prosecuting is found guilty. It sets the speeches within the context of the court system of the Late Roman Republic and explores the strategies available to Roman advocates to win the votes of jurors. The book deals with issues concerning the general nature of advocacy, the court system in ancient Rome as compared with other ancient and modern systems, the Roman ‘profession’ of advocacy and its etiquette, the place of advocacy in Cicero's career, the ancient theory of rhetoric and argument as applied to courtroom advocacy, and the relationship between the published texts of the speeches as we have them and the speeches actually delivered in court. Other topics covered by the book include legal procedure in Cicero's time, Cicero's Italian clients, Cicero's methods of setting out or alluding to the facts of a case, his use of legal arguments, arguments from character, invective, self-reference, and emotional appeal. Some particular speeches are discussed as case studies covering the period of the height of Cicero's career, from 70 BC, when he became acknowledged as the leading Roman advocate, to 49 BC when Julius Caesar's dictatorship required Cicero to adapt his well-tried forensic techniques to drastically new circumstances. Those speeches contain arguments on a wide range of subject matter, including provincial maladministration, usurpation of citizenship rights, violent dispossession, the religious law relating to the consecration of property, poisoning, bribery, and political offences. Less

Cicero's Philosophy of History

Matthew Fox

Cicero has long been seen to embody the values of the Roman Republic. This study of Cicero's use of history reveals that rather than promoting his own values, Cicero uses historical ... More

Cicero has long been seen to embody the values of the Roman Republic. This study of Cicero's use of history reveals that rather than promoting his own values, Cicero uses historical representation to explore the difficulties of finding any ideological coherence in Rome's political or cultural traditions. The book looks to the scepticism of Cicero's philosophical education for an understanding of his perspective on Rome's history, and argues that neglect of the sceptical tradition has transformed the doubting, ambiguous Cicero into the confident proponent of a form of Roman identity formed in his own image. The close reading of a range of his theoretical works make up much of the book: De republica, De oratore, Brutus, and De divinatione are treated in detail, and a range of other works are also discussed. The book explores Cicero's ironic attitude towards Roman history, and connects it to the use of irony in mainstream Latin historians, in particular Sallust and Tacitus. It also examines Cicero's approach to the history of rhetoric at Rome. The book concludes with a study of a little-read treatise on Cicero from the early 18th century, by the radical thinker John Toland, which sheds new light on the history of Cicero's reception. Cicero's use of history shows the flexibility of his understanding of Roman identity. The book argues against the image of Cicero as a writer hoping to coerce his readers into identifying himself and his own achievements with the dominant ideologies of Rome. Less