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Alexander the Great and the Mystery of the Elephant Medallions

Frank Holt

To all those who witnessed his extraordinary conquests, from Albania to India, Alexander the Great appeared invincible. How Alexander himself promoted this appearance—how he abetted the belief that ... More

To all those who witnessed his extraordinary conquests, from Albania to India, Alexander the Great appeared invincible. How Alexander himself promoted this appearance—how he abetted the belief that he enjoyed divine favor and commanded even the forces of nature against his enemies—is the subject of this book. Solid evidence for the “supernaturalized” Alexander lies in a rare series of medallions that depict the triumphant young king at war against the elephants, archers, and chariots of Rajah Porus of India at the Battle of the Hydaspes River. Recovered from Afghanistan and Iraq in sensational and sometimes perilous circumstances, these ancient artifacts have long animated the modern historical debate about Alexander. The book considers the history of their discovery and interpretation, the knowable facts of their manufacture and meaning, and, ultimately, the king's own psyche and his frightening theology of war. The result is an analysis of Alexander history and myth, a vivid account of numismatics, and a fascinating look into the age-old mechanics of megalomania.Less

Archaeologies of Colonialism: Consumption, Entanglement, and Violence in Ancient Mediterranean France

Michael Dietler

This book presents a theoretically informed, up-to-date study of interactions between indigenous peoples of Mediterranean France and Etruscan, Greek and Roman colonists during the first millennium ... More

This book presents a theoretically informed, up-to-date study of interactions between indigenous peoples of Mediterranean France and Etruscan, Greek and Roman colonists during the first millennium B.C. Analyzing archaeological data and ancient texts, the book explores these colonial encounters over six centuries, focusing on material culture, urban landscapes, economic practices, and forms of violence. It shows how selective consumption linked native societies and colonists and created transformative relationships for each. It also examines the role these ancient encounters played in the formation of modern European identity, and colonial ideology and practices, enumerating the problems for archaeologists attempting to re-examine these past societies.Less

Archaeology: The Discipline of Things

Bjørnar Olsen, Michael Shanks, Timothy Webmoor, and Christopher Witmore

The “science of old things,” archaeology is marked by its care, obligation, and loyalty to things, from ancient cities in the Mexican heartland and megalithic monuments in Britain to the perfume jars ... More

The “science of old things,” archaeology is marked by its care, obligation, and loyalty to things, from ancient cities in the Mexican heartland and megalithic monuments in Britain to the perfume jars of the ancient Greek city-state and Leica cameras. This book seeks to understand the diverse practices that arise through this disciplinary commitment to things.Less

Athens and Macedon: Attic Letter-Cutters of 300 to 229 B.C.

Stephen Tracy

Little of the historiography of third-century Athens survives, and much of what is known—or might be known—about the period has come down in inscriptions carved by Attic stonemasons of the time. This ... More

Little of the historiography of third-century Athens survives, and much of what is known—or might be known—about the period has come down in inscriptions carved by Attic stonemasons of the time. This book provides new insight into an unsettled and obscure moment in antiquity.Less

Berenike and the Ancient Maritime Spice Route

Steven Sidebotham

The legendary overland silk road was not the only way to reach Asia for ancient travelers from the Mediterranean. During the Roman Empire's heyday, equally important maritime routes reached from the ... More

The legendary overland silk road was not the only way to reach Asia for ancient travelers from the Mediterranean. During the Roman Empire's heyday, equally important maritime routes reached from the Egyptian Red Sea across the Indian Ocean. The ancient city of Berenike, located approximately 500 miles south of today's Suez Canal, was a significant port among these conduits. This book, written by the archaeologist who excavated Berenike, uncovers the role the city played in the regional, local, and “global” economies during the eight centuries of its existence. The book analyzes many of the artifacts, botanical and faunal remains, and hundreds of the texts the author and his team found in excavations, providing a profoundly intimate glimpse of the people who lived, worked, and died in this emporium between the classical Mediterranean world and Asia.Less

The Berkeley Plato: From Neglected Relic to Ancient Treasure, An Archaeological Detective Story

Stephen Miller

This book explores the provenance of the so-called Berkeley Herm of Plato, a sculptural portrait that the author first encountered over thirty years ago in a university storage basement. The head, ... More

This book explores the provenance of the so-called Berkeley Herm of Plato, a sculptural portrait that the author first encountered over thirty years ago in a university storage basement. The head, languishing since its arrival in 1902, had become detached from the body, or herm, and had been labeled a fake. In 2002, while preparing another book, the author—now an experienced archaeologist—needed an illustration of Plato, remembered this piece, and took another look. The marble, he recognized immediately, was from the Greek islands, the inscription appeared ancient, and the ribbons visible on the head were typical of those in Greek athletic scenes. This book tells the story of how the author was able to authenticate this long-dismissed treasure. His conclusion, that it is an ancient Roman copy possibly dating from the time of Hadrian, is further supported by art conservation scientist John Twilley, whose essay appears as an appendix in this book. The author's discovery makes a significant contribution to the worlds of art history, philosophy, archaeology, and sports history and will serve as a starting point for new research in the back rooms of museums.Less

Caesar's Calendar: Ancient Time and the Beginnings of History

Denis Feeney

The ancient Romans changed more than the map of the world when they conquered so much of it; they altered the way historical time itself is marked and understood. This book investigates time and its ... More

The ancient Romans changed more than the map of the world when they conquered so much of it; they altered the way historical time itself is marked and understood. This book investigates time and its contours as described by the ancient Romans, first as Rome positioned itself in relation to Greece, and then as it exerted its influence as a major world power. The book welcomes the reader into a world where time was movable and changeable and where simply ascertaining a date required a complex and often contentious cultural narrative. It investigates the pertinent systems, including the Roman calendar (which is still our calendar) and its near perfect method of capturing the progress of natural time; the annual rhythm of consular government; the plotting of sacred time onto sacred space; the forging of chronological links to the past; and, above all, the experience of empire, by which the Romans meshed the city state's concept of time with those of the foreigners they encountered to establish a new worldwide web of time. Because this web of time was Greek before the Romans transformed it, the book also provides a study in the cross-cultural interaction between the Greek and Roman worlds. It closely examines the most important of the ancient world's time divisions, that between myth and history, and concludes by demonstrating the impact of the reformed calendar on the way the Romans conceived of time's recurrence.Less

Christian Figural Reading and the Fashioning of Identity

John David Dawson

This book makes an illuminating contribution to one of Christianity's central problems: the understanding and interpretation of scripture, and more specifically, the relationship between the Old ... More

This book makes an illuminating contribution to one of Christianity's central problems: the understanding and interpretation of scripture, and more specifically, the relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament. The book analyzes the practice and theory of “figural” reading in the Christian tradition of Biblical interpretation by looking at the writings of Jewish and Christian thinkers, both ancient and modern, who have reflected on that form of traditional Christian Biblical interpretation. It argues that Christian interpretation of Hebrew scripture originally was, and should be, aimed at not reducing the Jewish meaning, or replacing it, but rather at building on it or carrying on from it. The book closely examines the work of three prominent twentieth-century thinkers, who have offered influential variants of figural reading: Biblical scholar Daniel Boyarin, philologist and literary historian Erich Auerbach, and Christian theologian Hans Frei. Contrasting the interpretive programs of these modern thinkers to that of Origen of Alexandria, the text proposes that Origen exemplifies a kind of Christian reading, which can respect Christianity's link to Judaism, while also respecting the independent religious identity of Jews. Through a fresh study of Origen's allegorical interpretation, this book challenges the common charge that Christian non-literal reading of scripture necessarily undermines the literal meaning of the text.Less

Citizen Bacchae: Women's Ritual Practice in Ancient Greece

Barbara Goff

Terence Taylor (ed.)

What activities did the women of ancient Greece perform in the sphere of ritual, and what were the meanings of such activities for them and their culture? By offering answers to these questions, this ... More

What activities did the women of ancient Greece perform in the sphere of ritual, and what were the meanings of such activities for them and their culture? By offering answers to these questions, this study aims to recover and reconstruct an important dimension of the lived experience of ancient Greek women. A comprehensive investigation of the ritual roles of women in ancient Greece, it draws on a wide range of evidence from across the Greek world–including literary and historical texts, inscriptions, and vase paintings–to assemble a portrait of women as religious and cultural agents, despite the ideals of seclusion within the home and exclusion from public arenas that we know restricted their lives. As the author builds a picture of the extent and diversity of women's ritual activity, she shows that women were entrusted with some of the most important processes by which the community guaranteed its welfare. She examines the ways in which women's ritual activity addressed issues of sexuality and civic participation, showing that ritual could offer women genuinely alternative roles and identities, even while it worked to produce wives and mothers who functioned well in this male-dominated society. Moving to more speculative analysis, the author discusses the possibility of a women's subculture focused on ritual, and investigates the significance of ritual in women's poetry and in vase paintings that depict women. She also includes a substantial exploration of the representation of women as ritual agents in fifth-century Athenian drama.Less

City and Empire in the Age of the Successors: Urbanization and Social Response in the Making of the Hellenistic Kingdoms

Ryan Boehm

In the chaotic decades after the death of Alexander the Great, the world of the Greek city-state became deeply embroiled in the political struggles and unremitting violence of his successors’ contest ... More

In the chaotic decades after the death of Alexander the Great, the world of the Greek city-state became deeply embroiled in the political struggles and unremitting violence of his successors’ contest for supremacy. As these presumptive rulers turned to the practical reality of administering the territories under their control, they increasingly developed new cities by merging smaller settlements into large urban agglomerations. This practice of synoikism gave rise to many of the most important cities of the age, initiated major shifts in patterns of settlement, and consolidated numerous previously independent polities. The result was the transformation of the fragmented world of the small Greek polis into an urbanized network of cities. This book provides a new approach to this encounter between imperial powers and cities in northern Greece and Asia Minor. Drawing on a wide array of archaeological, epigraphic, and textual evidence, it reinterprets the role of urbanization in developing the structure of Hellenistic empire and argues for the agency and centrality of local actors in the formation of these new imperial cities.Less

City and School in Late Antique Athens and Alexandria

Edward Watts

This study of the men and ideas of late antique education explores the intellectual and doctrinal milieu in the two great cities of Athens and Alexandria from the second to the sixth centuries. It ... More

This study of the men and ideas of late antique education explores the intellectual and doctrinal milieu in the two great cities of Athens and Alexandria from the second to the sixth centuries. It sheds new light on the interaction between the pagan cultural legacy and Christianity. While previous scholarship has seen Christian reactions to pagan educational culture as the product of an empire-wide process of development, the book crafts two narratives that reveal how differently education was shaped by the local power structures and urban contexts of each city. Touching on the careers of Herodes Atticus, Proclus, Damascius, Ammonius Saccas, Origen, Hypatia, and Olympiodorus; and events including the Herulian sack of Athens, the closing of the Athenian Neoplatonic school under Justinian, the rise of Arian Christianity, and the sack of the Serapeum, this book shows that by the sixth century, Athens and Alexandria had two distinct, locally determined, approaches to pagan teaching that had their roots in the unique historical relationships between city and school.Less

City of Demons

Dayna S. Kalleres

City of Demons widens our view of the late antique urban environment by insisting upon a simple but far-reaching interpretive innovation: people believed in and continuously ritually interacted with, ... More

City of Demons widens our view of the late antique urban environment by insisting upon a simple but far-reaching interpretive innovation: people believed in and continuously ritually interacted with, against, and through demons. Cities were topographical, complex spaces, teeming with invisible, material powers that people interacted with to gain power, to compete, to survive. The city had unpredictable dangers, but also potencies. Ritual protections, defenses, and curses were common practices. This book projects John Chrysostom’s Antioch, Cyril’s Jerusalem, and Ambrose’s Milan against this backdrop. Sacramental rituals transform into powerful weapons in the baptized Christian’s ritual war to Christianize the city. I have adapted the term diabolization from the anthropologist Birgit Meyer, who studied exorcism and demon possession in Pentecostal churches in Ghana. Diabolization describes a ritual and discursive process whereby unseen forces of the city were identified as dangerous, predatory; Meyer places sacramental rituals within the frame of spiritual warfare, describing an anti-demonic, ritual practice from a sociological perspective. I argue that each urban church leader wrapped demons around specific, local, socio-religious or politico-religious conflicts. In analyzing a case study for each leader and location, I demonstrate the potential for diabolizing rhetoric and rituals to escalate quickly into violence. In moving toward new forms of animistic/enchanted history, this book identifies and critiques the modern, Western perspective problematizing our interpretation of late antique ritual. Ultimately, then, I argue for developing a ritual model that recognizes how belief in and experience of a pre-Cartesian, enchanted environment factored into concepts of ritual power and agency.Less

Cleomedes' Lectures on Astronomy: A Translation of The Heavens

Cleomedes

Lawrence Witmer (ed.)

At some time around 200 A.D., the Stoic philosopher and teacher Cleomedes delivered a set of lectures on elementary astronomy as part of a complete introduction to Stoicism for his students. The ... More

At some time around 200 A.D., the Stoic philosopher and teacher Cleomedes delivered a set of lectures on elementary astronomy as part of a complete introduction to Stoicism for his students. The result was The Heavens (Caelestia), the only work by a professional Stoic teacher to survive intact from the first two centuries A.D., and a rare example of the interaction between science and philosophy in late antiquity. This book contains an English translation of The Heavens, along with an introduction, notes, and technical diagrams.Less

Constantine and the Captive Christians of Persia: Martyrdom and Religious Identity in Late Antiquity

Kyle Smith

It is widely believed that the Emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity politicized religious allegiances, dividing the Christian Roman Empire from the Zoroastrian Sasanian Empire and leading ... More

It is widely believed that the Emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity politicized religious allegiances, dividing the Christian Roman Empire from the Zoroastrian Sasanian Empire and leading to the persecution of Christians in Persia. This account, however, is based on Greek ecclesiastical histories and Syriac martyrdom narratives that date to centuries after the fact. In this groundbreaking study, the author analyzes diverse Greek, Latin, and Syriac sources to show that there was not a single history of fourth-century Mesopotamia. By examining the conflicting hagiographical and historical evidence, the book presents an evocative and evolving portrait of the first Christian emperor, uncovering how Syriac Christians manipulated the image of their western Christian counterparts to fashion their own political and religious identities during this century of radical change.Less

Creationism and Its Critics in Antiquity

David Sedley

The world is configured in ways that seem systematically hospitable to life forms, especially the human race. Is this the outcome of divine planning or simply of the laws of physics? Ancient Greeks ... More

The world is configured in ways that seem systematically hospitable to life forms, especially the human race. Is this the outcome of divine planning or simply of the laws of physics? Ancient Greeks and Romans famously disagreed on whether the cosmos was the product of design or accident. This book examines this question and illuminates new historical perspectives on the pantheon of thinkers who laid the foundations of Western philosophy and science. Versions of what we call the “creationist” option were widely favored by the major thinkers of classical antiquity, including Plato, whose ideas on the subject prepared the ground for Aristotle's celebrated teleology. But Aristotle aligned himself with the anti-creationist lobby, whose most militant members—the atomists—sought to show how a world just like ours would form inevitably by sheer accident, given only the infinity of space and matter. This study explores seven major thinkers and philosophical movements enmeshed in the debate: Anaxagoras, Empedocles, Socrates, Plato, the atomists, Aristotle, and the Stoics.Less

A Critical History of Early Rome: From Prehistory to the First Punic War

Gary Forsythe

John Connelly (ed.)

During the period from Rome's Stone Age beginnings on the Tiber River to its conquest of the Italian peninsula in 264 B.C., the Romans in large measure developed the social, political, and military ... More

During the period from Rome's Stone Age beginnings on the Tiber River to its conquest of the Italian peninsula in 264 B.C., the Romans in large measure developed the social, political, and military structure that would be the foundation of their spectacular imperial success. This account draws from historical, archaeological, linguistic, epigraphic, religious, and legal evidence to trace Rome's early development within a multicultural environment of Latins, Sabines, Etruscans, Greeks, and Phoenicians. The book charts the development of the classical republican institutions that would eventually enable Rome to create its vast empire, and provides discussions of topics including Roman prehistory, religion, and language. The book offers a revisionist interpretation of Rome's early history through its innovative use of ancient sources. The history of this period is notoriously difficult to uncover because there are no extant written records, and because the later historiography that affords the only narrative accounts of Rome's early days is shaped by the issues, conflicts, and ways of thinking of its own time. This book provides an examination of those surviving ancient sources in light of their underlying biases, thereby reconstructing early Roman history upon a more solid evidentiary foundation.Less

Cultural Politics in Polybius's Histories

Craige Champion

William Joseph Sanders (ed.)

Polybius was a Greek statesman and political prisoner of Rome in the second century bce. His Histories provide the earliest continuous narrative of the rise of the Roman Empire. This study, informed ... More

Polybius was a Greek statesman and political prisoner of Rome in the second century bce. His Histories provide the earliest continuous narrative of the rise of the Roman Empire. This study, informed by recent work in cultural studies and on ethnicity, demonstrates that Polybius'ss work performs a literary and political balancing act of heretofore-unappreciated subtlety and interest. It shows how Polybius contrived to tailor his historiography for multiple audiences, comprising his fellow Greeks, whose freedom Rome had usurped in his own generation, and the Roman conquerors. The author focuses primarily on the ideological presuppositions and predispositions of Polybius'ss different audiences in order to interpret the apparent contradictions and incongruities in his text. In this way he develops a “politics of cultural indeterminacy” in which Polybius's collective representations of political and ethnic groups have different meanings for different audiences in different contexts. Situating these representations in the ideological, political, and historical contexts from which they arose, the book affords insights into a work whose subtlety and complexity have gone largely unrecognized.Less

Encountering the Sacred: The Debate on Christian Pilgrimage in Late Antiquity

Brouria Bitton-Ashkelony

This study sheds new light on one of the most spectacular changes to occur in late antiquity—the rise of pilgrimage all over the Christian world—by setting the phenomenon against the wide background ... More

This study sheds new light on one of the most spectacular changes to occur in late antiquity—the rise of pilgrimage all over the Christian world—by setting the phenomenon against the wide background of the political and theological debates of the time. Asking how the emerging notion of a sacred geography challenged the leading intellectuals and ecclesiastical authorities, the book reshapes our understanding of early Christian mentalities by unraveling the process by which a territory of grace became a territory of power. Examining ancient writers' responses to the rising practice of pilgrimage, the book offers a nuanced reading of their thinking on the merits and the demerits of pilgrimage, revealing theological and ecclesiastical motivations that have been overlooked, and questioning the long-held assumption of scholars that pilgrimage was only a popular, not an elite, religious practice. In addition to Greek and Latin sources, the book includes Syriac material, which allows her to build a rich picture of the emerging theology of landscape that took shape over the fourth to sixth centuries.Less

Everyday Writing in the Graeco-Roman East

Roger Bagnall

Most of the everyday writing from the ancient world—that is, informal writing not intended for a long life or wide public distribution—has perished. Reinterpreting the silences and blanks of the ... More

Most of the everyday writing from the ancient world—that is, informal writing not intended for a long life or wide public distribution—has perished. Reinterpreting the silences and blanks of the historical record, the author, a leading papyrologist, argues that ordinary people—from Britain to Egypt to Afghanistan—used writing in their daily lives far more extensively than has been recognized. Marshalling new and little-known evidence, including remarkable graffiti recently discovered in Smyrna, he presents an analysis of writing in different segments of society. His book offers a new picture of literacy in the ancient world in which Aramaic rivals Greek and Latin as a great international language, and in which many other local languages develop means of written expression alongside these metropolitan tongues.Less