European History: BCE to 500CE

The Alamanni and Rome 213-496: (Caracalla to Clovis)

John F. Drinkwater

The Alamanni were a Germanic people that figure prominently in the history of the later Empire. Despite their high profile, there has been surprisingly little written on them in English. ... More

The Alamanni were a Germanic people that figure prominently in the history of the later Empire. Despite their high profile, there has been surprisingly little written on them in English. This study aims to fill the gap. Drawing on the latest literary, historical, and archaeological research, it seeks to establish the origins of the Alamanni, the pattern and character of their settlement, the main features of their society, and the nature and significance of their relationship with Rome. It centres on the mid-4th century, recorded in detail by a variety of sources including Ammianus Marcellinus and the emperor Julian. It argues that, like the other western Germani encountered by Rome from the 1st century BC, the Alamanni were economically, socially, and politically far too weak to endanger the Empire. However, Roman rulers conjured up a ‘Germanic threat’, and exploited it for their own political ends. Rather than constantly imperilling the Empire's existence, the Alamanni became too closely linked to its fortunes. It was for this reason, in particular Roman restriction of their ability to unite under strong leaders, that unlike their long-standing neighbours the Burgundians and Franks, the Alamanni failed to establish a post-Roman successor kingdom in the 5th century. Less

Almsgiving in the Later Roman Empire: Christian Promotion and Practice 313-450

Richard Finn OP

The book examines the various sources, distinctive forms, privileged recipients, and likely extent of almsgiving in the churches of the later empire. Almsgiving was crucial in the ... More

The book examines the various sources, distinctive forms, privileged recipients, and likely extent of almsgiving in the churches of the later empire. Almsgiving was crucial in the construction of the bishop's authority, but was also a cooperative task involving clerics and laity in which honour was shared and which exposed the bishop to criticism. Almsgiving by monks belongs in the context of self-dispossession and attracted further alms for distribution to the destitute, but proved controversial not least because of the potential for competition with bishops. Lay people were encouraged to give, at set times and in particular places, both through the Church's agency and directly to the poor. These practices gained meaning from the promotion of almsgiving in many forms, of which preaching was the most important. It involved redescription of the poor and the incorporation of almsgiving within the virtues of generosity and justice. So cast, Christian almsgiving differed from pagan almsgiving as an honourable benefaction typical of leadership. This distinctive pattern of thought and conduct existed alongside an older classical pattern of benefaction, and the interaction between them generated controversy over the conduct of bishops and consecrated virgins. The co-inherence of co-operation and competition in Christian almsgiving, together with the continued existence of traditional euergetism, meant, however, that Christian alms did not, as is sometimes thought, turn bishops into the megapatrons of their cities. Less

Ancient Greek Ideas on Speech, Language, and Civilization

Deborah Levine Gera

The source and nature of earliest speech and civilization are puzzles which have intrigued people for many centuries. This study explores ancient Greek views on the source and nature of ... More

The source and nature of earliest speech and civilization are puzzles which have intrigued people for many centuries. This study explores ancient Greek views on the source and nature of the world’s first society and first language. Two of the book’s chapters are based on close readings of passages in Homer and Herodotus, while the remaining chapters are broader surveys of a variety of Greek literary texts. Topics covered include the nature of the language used both by men and animals in the idyllic golden age, accounts of humans' ascent to civilised life and their acquisition of language, and exotic creatures and peoples who have only limited linguistic capacities. Discussions of Enlightenment thinkers and modern theories of glottogenesis and language acquisition set Greek assumptions in a wider perspective. Less

Ancient Historiography and its Contexts: Studies in Honour of A. J. Woodman

Christina S. Kraus, John Marincola, Christopher Pelling (eds)

This volume collects essays written by colleagues and friends as a tribute to Tony Woodman, Gildersleeve Professor of Latin at the University of Virginia. These essays, like Woodman's ... More

This volume collects essays written by colleagues and friends as a tribute to Tony Woodman, Gildersleeve Professor of Latin at the University of Virginia. These essays, like Woodman's own work, cover topics in Latin poetry, oratory, and Greek and Roman historiography. Recurrent themes are the importance of rhetoric and rhetorical training, the skilful use of language and recurrent motifs in narrative, the use and adaptation of topoi, the importance of intertextuality, and the subtle and varied ways in which literary texts can have a contemporary resonance for their own day. Less

Ancient Slavery and Abolition: From Hobbes to Hollywood

Richard Alston, Edith Hall, Justine McConnell (eds)

Originating in a conference held at the British Library in 2007 to mark the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade in British colonies, this book offers a study of the role ... More

Originating in a conference held at the British Library in 2007 to mark the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade in British colonies, this book offers a study of the role played by ancient Greek and Roman sources and voices in the struggle to abolish slavery in Britain and North America. It contains thirteen chapters by an interdisciplinary team of specialists in literature, history, political thought, postcolonial studies, drama and classics from three continents, led by the Centre for the Reception of Greece and Rome at Royal Holloway University of London. Focussing on Britain, North America, the Caribbean, and South Africa from the late 17th century, the chapters, which are chronologically arranged, examine the arguments created by both critics and defenders of slavery, in media ranging from parliamentary speeches to historiography, nationalist polemic to poetry, fiction, drama, cinema, and the visual arts. In particular, they ask how, why and to what effect these often passionate as well as learned campaigners summoned the ghosts of the ancient Spartans, Homer, Aristotle, Aeschylus, Pliny, Spartacus, and Prometheus to participate in this most significant of debates. Less

Animal Sacrifice in Ancient Greek Religion, Judaism, and Christianity, 100 BC to AD 200

Maria-Zoe Petropoulou

Next to older scholarly approaches to sacrifice, a new way of understanding the mechanism of animal sacrifice is presented in this book, based on the intersection of two axes: the one ... More

Next to older scholarly approaches to sacrifice, a new way of understanding the mechanism of animal sacrifice is presented in this book, based on the intersection of two axes: the one vertical (linking humans to the deity), the other horizontal (that of reality). The horizontal axis consists of many sections, each one representing a particular realm of the offerer's reality. The book emphasizes the vigorous continuity of both Greek and Jewish animal sacrificial worship in the period studied. After presenting the sacrificial multiplicity characterizing Greek religion, the book stresses the sometimes obligatory character which the act of offering a sacrifice had in Greek communities, and so the importance of the objection to sacrifice. As regards to Judaism, the vigour of animal sacrifice in the Jerusalem Temple is stressed. Animal sacrifice was important even to the Diaspora, as an original study of Philo's sacrificial allegorisations proves. The Mishnah is used as a source for attitudes towards sacrifice before and after AD 70. The section dedicated to Christianity emphasizes the different backgrounds of early Christians (e.g., Jewish, Gentile). Evidence for anti-sacrificial attitudes is mainly attested in the 2nd-century Apologetics. However, the book finds anti-sacrificial hints in the earliest layers of Christianity. The book emphasizes on the use of sacrificial metaphors by Christians. Returning to the initial interpretive scheme, the book explains how metaphors transpose meanings from one section of the horizontal axis to the other, and thus help to dissociate sacrificial terms from animal sacrifice. Finally, attempting at answering the question of why Christians abolished animal sacrifice, the book traces the existence of an anti-sacrificial stream of thought emanating from the contact with Jesus. Less

Athenian Democratic Origins: and Other Essays

Geoffrey de Ste. Croix

David Harvey, Robert Parker (eds)

This book presents a number of interconnected essays, in which the late Geoffrey de Ste. Croix defends the institutions of the Athenian democracy, showing that they were much more ... More

This book presents a number of interconnected essays, in which the late Geoffrey de Ste. Croix defends the institutions of the Athenian democracy, showing that they were much more practical, rational, and impartial than has usually been acknowledged. One major essay provides a new view of Aristotle's use of sources in The Constitution of the Athenians, on which so much of our knowledge of Athenian constitutional history depends. The essays also argue that commercial factors had much less influence on Greek politics than modern scholars tend to assume, and that there was no such thing in any Greek state as a ‘commercial aristocracy’. As always, Ste. Croix works out these general positions with lucidity and pungency, and in meticulous detail. Though written in the 1960s, these hitherto unpublished essays by a great radical historian will still constitute a major contribution to contemporary debate. Less

Athens and the Cyclades: Economic Strategies 540-314 BC

Brian Rutishauser

This book examines the history and economy of the region of the Cyclades during the late sixth through late fourth centuries bc. Although certain aspects of geography in the Cyclades ... More

This book examines the history and economy of the region of the Cyclades during the late sixth through late fourth centuries bc. Although certain aspects of geography in the Cyclades remained constant through ancient Greek history, islanders were able to adapt to changing conditions and to changing hegemony imposed from outside the region, in order to increase their levels of economic prosperity. By the end of the Archaic period, many of these islands had constructed their own naval forces and monumental architecture, and also minted their own coins. Athens established a naval hegemony over the region during the fifth century, which eventually put an end to independent navies and coinage and set the tone for conditions in the Cyclades until the end of the Classical period. Until the Peloponnesian War the Athenians maintained stability but redirected a portion of the wealth generated from the export of local island products and from commerce to Athens, through the exaction of tribute and other forms of taxation. The end of the Peloponnesian War saw a period of shifting hegemonies during the early fourth century, the most influential being the Second Athenian League. After this second period of Athenian hegemony came to an end, the Cyclades renewed local monumental construction and the issue of local coinage during the second half of the fourth century. This took place at a time when Athens became more dependent upon grain, including grain shipped on routes through the Cyclades, and when the Athenians took steps to promote commerce. The Cyclades prospered during this period due to their mutual economic interests with Athens. 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