Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons^™

Gibbon's Guides: The Scholarly Reception Of Ammianus Marcellinus And Procopius Of Caesarea After The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire, Sarah J. Murtaugh

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis explores the influence of Edward Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire on modern scholarship about two ancient Roman historians, Ammianus Marcellinus and Procopius of Caesarea. It reveals that Gibbon's way of thinking about these historians, whom he referred to as his "guides," continues to shape scholarly discourse about them.

Sagp Newsletter 2012/13.1 East Philol, Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Eusebius Of Caesarea’S Oration In Praise Of Constantine As The Political Philosophy Of The Christian Empire, Benjamin David Brandon

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Eusebius of Caesarea delivered a panegyric in the thirtieth year of Constantine’s reign, 335 AD, celebrating the piety and faith of the emperor. This panegyric, the Oratio de Laudibus Constantini, or Oration in Praise of Constantine, provides a political theology for the divine sanction of the Christian monarch by linking the emperor’s rule to the rule of God. Much of the Oratio is an account of the pious deeds and divine victories of Constantine’s reign, suggesting that the emperor had in fact achieved the ideal of a Christian monarch. Through the Logos (Word or Reason) of God, the …

Le Zarathoustra De Nietzsche Et Le Style Parodique. A Propos De L’Hyperanthropos De Lucien Et Du Surhomme De Nietzsche, Babette Babich

Babette Babich

Abstract Nietzsche’s Übermensch is derived from Lucian of Samosata’s term hyperanthropos. I argue that Zarathustra’s teaching of the overman acquires new resonances in the context of that terminological origination in Lucian’s Kataplous — literally: sailing into port — referring to the journey of the soul into the afterlife, as escorted by Hermes and ferried by Charon along with myriads of others facing the same fate. The Kataplous he tyrannos, a title usually rendered as the Downward Journey (or The Tyrant), is a Menippean satire telling the tale of the “overman” supposed superior to others of “lesser” station in this-worldly life …

Greek Bronze: Holding A Mirror To Life, Expanded Reprint From The Irish Philosophical Yearbook 2006: In Memoriam John J. Cleary 1949-2009, Babette Babich

Babette Babich

To explore the ethical and political role of life-sized bronzes in ancient Greece, as Pliny and others report between 3,000 and 73,000 such statues in a city like Rhodes, this article asks what these bronzes looked like. Using the resources of hermeneutic phenomenological reflection, as well as a review of the nature of bronze and casting techniques, it is argued that the ancient Greeks encountered such statues as images of themselves in agonistic tension in dynamic and political fashion. The Greek saw, and at the same time felt himself regarded by, the statue not as he believed the statue divine …

Polis, The Journal For Ancient Greek Political Thought, Kyriakos N. Demetriou

Kyriakos N. Demetriou

A short history of "Polis", this year (2012) celebrating its 35th anniversary. First appeared in 1977.

Cassius Dio's Agrippa-Maecenas Debate: An Operational Code Analysis, Eric Adler

Classics Faculty Publications

This article discusses Cassius Dio's political thought in his Agrippa-Maecenas debate (52.2-40) through the use of a form of content analysis developed by political scientists called "operational code analysis." It offers a description of operational code analysis, which demonstrates the value of this method to the debate. It then presents an examination of Dio's operational code, from which one can glean his philosophical and instrumental views on politics. It argues, inter alia, that the Agrippa address is based on the same epistemological foundations as the Maecenean corollary. Further, the article stresses that the Agrippa oration remains consistent with views Dio …

Sagp Ssips 2012 Program, Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Sagp Ssips 2012 Abstracts, Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Changing Public Policy And The Evolution Of Roman Civil And Criminal Law On Gambling, Suzanne B. Faris

UNLV Gaming Law Journal

In Ancient Rome, gambling, at least in the form of dice games, was generally considered a vice, yet the only known criminal statutes prohibiting it were only sporadically and selectively enforced. Otherwise, aside from a legal prohibition on the enforceability of gambling debts and some limited private rights of action, the Roman state as a whole displayed what can only be described as a “laissez faire” policy toward all forms of gambling. What we would now call “sports betting” was exempted from the statutory prohibition altogether. This remained the case well into the Christian period, when a general crackdown might …

Democracy In Transition Flyer (Springer), Kyriakos N. Demetriou

Kyriakos N. Demetriou

Democracy in Transition is an edited volume that aims to investiage and analyse from different perpsectives political apathy and declining political participation in Europe.

Moral Revision In Latin Ethnography: A Reassessment Of Tacitus’ Germania And Caesar’S Bellum Gallicum, Joseph D. Davis

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

ABSTRACT

The preponderance of interest in the Roman frontier and its peripheral non-Roman cultures has manifested itself in all aspects of the discipline of Classical Studies: from material archaeology to the social historian’s inquiry into the voiceless minorities in antiquity. Consequently, scholarship pertaining to the ethnography of those who inhabited the frontier has been made intrinsically more important. Nevertheless, outdated modes of inquiry and overly positivistic interpretations have dictated their study and, in some cases, stripped texts of their underlying significance. Tacitus’ Germania is one such text.

Within the ethnographic tradition, the Germania exists as a series of puzzling singularities: …

My Best Movies, Kyriakos N. Demetriou

Kyriakos N. Demetriou

Please find a list of my best movies -- I am going to keep it updated, of course!

Whitlow, Ruth, 1886-1962 (Sc 2556), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2556. Notebook of Ruth Whitlow, kept while she was a student at Vanderbilt Training School, containing translations of the Roman poet Virgil.

'Predicting' The Future Of Library Opac: Assistive Technologies For Everyone, Danielle Lee-Muma

Danielle K.L. Lee-Muma

Word prediction, unlike the broader area of predictive text which can include T9 language for cellphones without full keyboards, is intended to make typing easier in augmentative and alternative communication for individuals with cognitive and physical impediments (Garay-Vitoria and Abascal 2006, pg 188). While word prediction is intended for AAC, it has potential to alleviate or eliminate the disconnection between library patrons and the Library of Congress Subject Headings used by librarians in cataloguing. Library users often use keywords instead of subject headings because they do not understand the use and syntax of the Library of Congress Subject Headings. By …

Review Of Studies In The Reception Of Plato (Ashgate, 2011), Kyriakos N. Demetriou

Kyriakos N. Demetriou

Book review in the International Journal of the Platonic Tradition 6 (2012) 247-9, by Jay Bregman

Forgiveness In Ancient Rome: A Review Of Contemporary Forgiveness Clementia Caesaris And Senecas De Clementia, James Sedlak

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the question of modern forgiveness in the lives of ancient Romans. Specifically, did their understanding of clementia reflect contemporary forgiveness? In the first chapter, I analyze five views on forgiveness and offer my own account. In the second chapter, I explore clementia in the life of Julius Caesar during the Roman Republic. In the third chapter, I analyze Lucius Annaeus Seneca’s philosophy on clementia in Imperial Rome. I created my own account of forgiveness to provide a basis for investigating and comparing clementia Caesaris and Seneca’s De clementia. I chose Caesar and Seneca because they are two …

Gender Dynamics In Classical Athens, William Breitweiser

Honors Theses

To the modern reader, ancient Greece may seem like a highly male dominated culture. The writings that come from this period suggest that men had authority over the women in their lives and that women were subordinate to the men in their lives. However, there were many ways that women could gain a substantial amount of power in ancient Greece. In my thesis, I look particularly at the city of Athens during the classical period and discuss how strict gender inequality was implemented. The first section of my analysis deals with how young men and women were brought up in …

Women And War: Power Play From Lysistrata To The Present, Shuyang Cynthia Luo

Honors Scholar Theses

"Women and War: Power Play from Lysistrata to the Present" is a three-fold project intent on analyzing the role of women in war and comedy. The intentions are: demonstrating how Aristophanes’ famed comedy, Lysistrata, was a subversive text for its time, as it presented a challenge to men’s authority that otherwise remained unchallenged, creating a modernized retelling of Lysistrata, which she holds would still be a subversive text, because men still have nearly absolute authority in war, and finally, analyzing the comedic nature of Lysistrata in a modern text; namely, why women’s choices constitute a comedy, and the comedic potential …

A Spectacle Of Great Beauty: The Changing Faces Of Hagia Sophia, Victoria M. Villano

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

All Roads Lead Through Rome: Imperial Armatures On The Triumphal Route, Machal E. Gradoz

Classical Mediterranean and Middle East Honors Projects

The cityscape of ancient Rome was filled with opulent buildings that created armatures— fluid, connective thoroughfares throughout the city. These armatures came together to form narrative pathways. The triumphal route, the memorialized, celebratory course of victorious generals, is one such narrative pathway. Among other strategies to legitimize his sole rule, Augustus constructed a self-promoting armature along the triumphal route, thereby linking him with the triumph. This paper examines how the construction of the Augustan armature along the triumphal route promoted Augustus and how the Flavians responded to it in advertising their own legitimacy in the wake of a civil war. …

Dismemberment And Devotion: Anatomical Votive Dedication In Italian Popular Religion, Lindsay R. Morehouse

Classical Mediterranean and Middle East Honors Projects

Anatomical votives are religious offerings that are made to look like body parts and are dedicated in exchange for healing. In many cases, they are dedicated to intermediary figures as a way to bridge the worlds of human and divine. There is evidence that Anatomical votives have been offered in Italy from the middle of the first millennia BCE to the present. This paper examines Etruscan, Greco-Roman, and Christian cults in order to explore continuity and change in this practice over time within Italy.

Alexandria And The Construction Of Urban Experience, Sara L. Bacon

Scripps Senior Theses

Early Ptolemaic Alexandria provides a unique perspective on cultural interactions during the Hellenistic Period. With this idea in mind, I have tracked the cultural affiliation of the city from its foundation through the early years of the Ptolemaic dynasty. In order to do this, both literary and archaeological evidence, including various foundation myths for the city, the poetry of Theocritus and Herodas, papyrological evidence as well as the city plan and archaeological remains of the Serapeum, were analyzed. Using this evidence, this thesis attempts to describe the cultural state of the ancient city and the surrounding area in its early …

'Horae' In Roman Funerary Inscriptions, Simeon D. Ehrlich

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

References to hours on Roman tombstones, long assumed to be a means of displaying affection for children, are shown to be the basis for horoscopes of the afterlife. Statistical analysis argues for the accuracy of the figures of hours recorded. Close study of the inscriptions demonstrates that all references, whether to points in time or durations are records of times of death. Such inscriptions were set up from the first-sixth centuries CE and were most prevalent in Rome, Italy, and North Africa. Among both pagans and Christians these times allow for the casting of horoscopes of the afterlife. The individual …

Making Room For Matter, David Ebrey

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Socrates rejects material causes in the Phaedo, in sharp contrast to Aristotle, who gives them a fundamental role in his account of the natural world. Why do they disagree about this? It is sometimes suggested that Socrates rejects material causation because he requires causes to be rational or to be teleological. You might think, then, that Aristotle can have material causes because he does not have any such requirement. In this paper I argue for a different explanation. Plato and Aristotle ultimately disagree about material causation because of a difference in their causal frameworks: Socrates thinks that each change has …

Plato The Poet, Francis James Flanagan

Honors Bachelor of Arts

Plato’s dialogue genre contains within it literary elements not normally associated with a philosophical work. In the creation of his dialogue, Plato combined the literary aspects of drama—specifically setting and characterization—and rhetoric with the Socratic Method to create a genre that was new to philosophy. An examination of the usage of these elements in a Platonic dialogue, specifically Symposium, in comparison to Xenophon’s Symposium reveals the unique nature of Plato’s dialogue.

"Noble Sweat": Paideia In The Gymnasium And The Torture Chamber Of 4 Maccabees, Desirae Zingarelli-Sweet

Desirae Zingarelli-Sweet

No abstract provided.

The Republic’S Reluctant Rulers, Christopher Buckels

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

I attempt to resolve three closely related problems concerning philosophers’ rule over Kallipolis in Plato's Republic. First and foremost, it seems that the rulers should willingly take up ruling, since it is just to rule and the rulers are just people. So why does Plato emphasize that they must be compelled to rule? Second, since just acts are beneficial, how does ruling, qua just act, benefit philosophers? Third, since Plato has been accused of jumping unfairly between just actions and just souls, what exactly is the connection between the two? I submit that these questions are intricately related, so that …

Roman Mater The Etruscan Influence On The Role Of Roman Women, Elizabeth Davis

Honors Bachelor of Arts

Comparing the common grave monuments for women of Athenian society which were primarily stele and kore, to the grave monuments for Etruscan women, which were family tomb paintings and sarcophagi, will expose the large differences between the two societies’ views on women. Looking into the Roman culture, specifically the monuments and laws created by Augustus during the early Empire, will reveal the Etruscan influence on Roman society concerning women.

[Review Of] The Ghosts Of Cannae: Hannibal And The Darkest Hour Of The Roman Republic By Robert L. O'Connell, Jonathan P. Roth

Faculty Publications, History

No abstract provided.