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Full-Text Articles in Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity

Greek Religion And Epigraphic Corpora: What's Sacrae About Leges Sacrae?, Laura Gawlinski Dec 2020

Greek Religion And Epigraphic Corpora: What's Sacrae About Leges Sacrae?, Laura Gawlinski

Classical Studies: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Latin phrase leges sacrae and its various translations (sacred laws, lois
sacrées, heilige Gesetze) have been applied since at least the nineteenth cen-
tury to various collections of inscribed documents. It is a modern invention
born out of the German Wissenschaft ideology of systematic, scientific, com-
prehensive methods of inquiry. This rubric and the collecting of Greek inscrip-
tions under it have always been recognized as problematically subjective, and
in the last decade or so a flurry of scholarship has critiqued the corpora more
directly. Much of this analysis has focused on the leges half of leges sacrae:
whether …


Sensorial Intermedialities In Roman Letters: Cicero, Horace, And Ovid, Jonathan E. Mannering Sep 2019

Sensorial Intermedialities In Roman Letters: Cicero, Horace, And Ovid, Jonathan E. Mannering

Classical Studies: Faculty Publications and Other Works

In recent years, much progress has been made towards elucidating the function of ekphrasis in Roman epistolography, especially with relation to the writings of Seneca and Pliny. Following on from these precedents, this article mines the epistles of three prominent Roman letter-writers, Cicero, Horace, and Ovid, for their intermedial elements. The motifs of oral quotations, handwriting, and human tear stains, which interweave the sources analysed, are shown not only to straddle the borders between distinct media, but also to engage with multiple senses as a result of their multiple medialities. Oral quotations integrate speech into written texts and thus necessitate …


Trimalchio In The Windy City: The Next Concept Of Roman Dining, Mike Lippman, Laura Gawlinski Apr 2017

Trimalchio In The Windy City: The Next Concept Of Roman Dining, Mike Lippman, Laura Gawlinski

Classical Studies: Faculty Publications and Other Works

An exploration of Roman Dining and its origins in literature. Authors Mike Lippman and Laura Gawlinski discuss a Chicago chef's methods for recapturing these ancient dishes.


“Review Of R. Stroud, Corinth Volume Xviii. 6. The Sanctuary Of Demeter And Kore: The Inscriptions.”, Laura Gawlinski Jan 2014

“Review Of R. Stroud, Corinth Volume Xviii. 6. The Sanctuary Of Demeter And Kore: The Inscriptions.”, Laura Gawlinski

Classical Studies: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This is a book review of Ronald Stroud's "Corinth Volume XVIII.6. The Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore: The Inscriptions."


The Sacred Command Of The Lord My Brother The Emperor Should Have Come As Something Not To Neglect, Jacqueline Long Apr 2013

The Sacred Command Of The Lord My Brother The Emperor Should Have Come As Something Not To Neglect, Jacqueline Long

Classical Studies: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Late Roman stereotypes assigned women certain powers.1 Thus for example, when the elder but not senior emperor Theodosius faced a choice between defending the interests of Valentinian II, his ineffective colleague from the previous dynasty, or acceding to the aggression of Magnus Maximus, his countryman, an unimpeachably orthodox Catholic, a proven effective general, and as an emperor one whose imperium Theodosius had recognized,2 Valentinian’s Arian mother Justina could be understood to have swayed Theodosius decisively by offering him her daughter Galla in marriage.3 This scenario enabled hostile interpreters to trivialize Theodosius’s decision as irresponsible appetite and to belittle its execution …


Review Of D. Ogden, Drakōn: Dragon Myth And Serpent Cult In The Greek And Roman Worlds, Laura Gawlinski Jan 2013

Review Of D. Ogden, Drakōn: Dragon Myth And Serpent Cult In The Greek And Roman Worlds, Laura Gawlinski

Classical Studies: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Ogden’s latest book examines the serpents of myth and cult from Homer to hagiography. This is a wide-ranging investigation in which both the monster Typhon and the healing pareias snake of Asklepios find a place, as they and other drakontes are approached through literature, linguistics, and iconography. It is an ambitious project that sometimes falls short of that ambition: the separate threads don’t quite come together, and the nuances of important scholarly arguments are often glossed over in footnotes. It is more encyclopedic than interpretive, in Ogden’s words, a “descriptive handbook” (p. 1). As the first comprehensive work in English …


Roman Law And The Legal World Of The Romans, James G. Keenan Jan 2010

Roman Law And The Legal World Of The Romans, James G. Keenan

Classical Studies: Faculty Publications and Other Works

A review of Andrew. M Riggsby's book, Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans.


The Wolf And The Lion: Synesius’ Egyptian Sources, Jacqueline Long Nov 2004

The Wolf And The Lion: Synesius’ Egyptian Sources, Jacqueline Long

Classical Studies: Faculty Publications and Other Works

One of the few established facts of Synesius' early career is that he pursued the higher education available at Alexandria. The lifelong friendships he formed there suggest the importance this period always retained for him. Less attractively, perhaps, so does the intellectual smugness displayed in collegiate sniffs at rival Athens (Ep. 56[54].136) or in apt interpolations of the classics he read aloud to friends (Dion 62A-D ). It is no surprise that, as Cyrene's ambassador to the court of Arcadius, Synesius sought an intellectual approach to his city's practical advantage. He wooed one official, Paeonius, with the gift of a …


'Die Binnenwanderung’ In Byzantine Egypt, James G. Keenan Mar 2002

'Die Binnenwanderung’ In Byzantine Egypt, James G. Keenan

Classical Studies: Faculty Publications and Other Works

I first met John Oates in the fall semester 1966 at Yale. I was a second-year graduate student, he a junior faculty member just back from a year in England during which his projects included what was to become his famous article “A Rhodian Auction Sale of a Slave Girl” (JEA 55 [1969] 191–210). From the ancient history seminar that he conducted that semester came the ideas that would later be developed in the dissertation I wrote under Bradford Welles’ direction. Unless I am mistaken, and through no merit of my own, but sheer good fortune, I own the distinction …


Literary Evidence For Roman Arithmetic With Fractions, David W. Maher, John F. Makowski Oct 2001

Literary Evidence For Roman Arithmetic With Fractions, David W. Maher, John F. Makowski

Classical Studies: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Roman arithmetic is a perennially troubling subject for both classicists and mathematicians. Scholars universally comment on the difficulty posed by Roman alphabetical notation both in expressing simple figures and in doing written calculations. For example, Lloyd Motz and Jefferson Weaver with exasperation ask, "How ... can anyone do any arithmetic with DCCCLXXXVIII, the Roman equivalent of 888?," and Florian Cajori concludes that the Romans must have resorted to the abacus in order to multiply a number like 723 (DCCXXIII) by 364 (CCCLXIV).' Yet our sources, literary and inscriptional, indicate that the Romans were capable of highly sophisticated calculations, and, of …


Vaballathus And Zenobia (270-272 A.D.), Jacqueline Long Jul 1997

Vaballathus And Zenobia (270-272 A.D.), Jacqueline Long

Classical Studies: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Palmyra was a trading community near the margin of the Roman and Persian empires. In A.D. 270-272, under the leadership of Zenobia, the dowager of its ruling house, and in the name of her young son Vaballathus, Palmyrene forces took control of Roman Egypt, Arabia, and parts of Asia Minor. Although the Palmyrenes' actions were not (we believe) originally seditious in intent, Aurelian regarded the "Palmyrene Revolt" as a serious threat to his sovereignty. He campaigned personally against the Palmyrenes, and he ranked his victory over them along with his recovery of the "Gallic Empire." He reversed the largest extent …


Pastoralism In Roman Egypt, James G. Keenan Jan 1989

Pastoralism In Roman Egypt, James G. Keenan

Classical Studies: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The communications of the IX International Congress of Economic History were recently (1988) published in a volume entitled Pastoral Economies in Classical Antiquity.1 The volume's papers very much follow, or anticipate, Deborah Hobson's advice to papyrologists in her essay, "Towards a Broader Context for the Study of Greco-Roman Egypt," Echos du Monde Classique 32, n.s. 7 (1988) 353-63. They rely as far as they can on literary and archaeological evidence, but where this fails (and even where it doesn't), they turn to the riches of comparative history and ethnology. Works prominently cited with praise include A.M. Khazanov's brilliant study of …


Roman Criminal Law In A Berlin Papyrus Codex (Bgu Iv 1024–1027), James G. Keenan Jan 1989

Roman Criminal Law In A Berlin Papyrus Codex (Bgu Iv 1024–1027), James G. Keenan

Classical Studies: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Of the statuary that has survived from Egypt's ancient dynasties, a familiar pose, whose prototype dates back to the Old Kingdom, is that of the scribe, sitting cross-legged with a papyrus roll spread open between his knees. Through Egypt's Ptolemaic and into its Roman period, although the scribe's position and posture may have changed, his use of the papyrus roll remained as before. But, beginning in the second century of Roman rule in Egypt, a new book form, the codex, identical in general design to the modern book, began to be developed and its use began to spread. Papyrus continued …


Tacitus, Roman Wills And Political Freedom, James G. Keenan Jan 1987

Tacitus, Roman Wills And Political Freedom, James G. Keenan

Classical Studies: Faculty Publications and Other Works

In a well-known letter to his friend Rufinus (8.18), Pliny the Younger opens with, and then develops, a remark about the will of one Domitius Tullus. There seems to have been a popular belief (quod creditur vulgo), formulated as an aphorism, to the effect that "men's wills are a mirror of their characters" (testamenta hominum speculum esse morum). But Tullus, a man of low repute who had assembled his estate by shady practices and who had tempted the legacy hunters, turns out to have made a fine will, characterized by pietas toward his adopted daughter whom he named heir, by …


Ptolemaic Account (P. Teb. 131), James G. Keenan, Michael Toumazou Jan 1981

Ptolemaic Account (P. Teb. 131), James G. Keenan, Michael Toumazou

Classical Studies: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The papyrus is light yellow in color and well-preserved. The text of the front side of the papyrus is complete at top and bottom and on the left side. At its lower right it has suffered some losses, which presumably, though not with absolute certainty, correspond in proportion and extent to losses at the left of the reverse-side text. At 3.3 cm. from the left margin of the front page, which generally has horizontal fibers, ends the protocollon with its vertical fibers. Hence the present piece of papyrus was either cut from the beginning of a presumably used roll or …


The Case Of Flavia Christodote: Observations On Psi I 76, James G. Keenan Jan 1978

The Case Of Flavia Christodote: Observations On Psi I 76, James G. Keenan

Classical Studies: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Of the three periods into which the study of the Greek papyri from Egypt has been traditionally divided – Ptolemaic, Roman, Byzantine – it has become commonplace to note that the last named receives the least attention. An assortment of reasons has been offered to explain this lack of interest, including "un préjugé défavorable aux époques dites de décadence." But whatever the reason or reasons, and despite the truth of the commonplace, it is equally true that most of the Byzantine texts and archives have attracted at least some attention (much more rarely has the whole range of the Byzantine …


Oracula Mortis In The Pharsalia, John F. Makowski Jul 1977

Oracula Mortis In The Pharsalia, John F. Makowski

Classical Studies: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Although it departs from epic convention in many ways, most notably in the rejection of the deorum ministeria, the Pharsalia adheres to tradition in the matter of oracles and contains three visitations to a seat of prophecy. Appius goes to Delphi (5. 67-236), Sextus Pompeius to the Thessalian witch Erichtho (6. 413-830), and Cato to the temple of Jupiter Hammon (9. 511-86). The obvious similarities of the situations invite comparison, but no one has as yet attempted to analyze them as a unit.' Such a study, however, will be fruitful because the three episodes have more in common than first …


F.M. Ahl, Lucan: An Introduction, John F. Makowski Jul 1977

F.M. Ahl, Lucan: An Introduction, John F. Makowski

Classical Studies: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Frederick M. Ahl, well known to the scholar of Lucan through his recent articles on the Pharsalia, here undertakes to introduce the poet to a wider audience. He directs his work "to the Latinless reader as well as to the classicist." Both should welcome the effort, since even for the Latinist, Lucan's reputation has steadily declined from the time when Dante ranked him among the four great poets of antiquity. A book of an introductory nature has been long overdue, especially in the English speaking world where the last major study was Mark Morford's very fine The Poet Lucan.


Three Short Notes On Late Roman Documents From Egypt, James G. Keenan Jan 1977

Three Short Notes On Late Roman Documents From Egypt, James G. Keenan

Classical Studies: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The observations printed below were made in the course of research on social mobility in late Roman Egypt conducted under a Summer Faculty Fellowship for 1976 from Loyola University Chicago.


Two Notes On P. Merton Ii 100, James G. Keenan Jan 1975

Two Notes On P. Merton Ii 100, James G. Keenan

Classical Studies: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The papyrus now accessible as P. Merton II 100 was first edited by H.I. Bell as "A Requisitioning Order for Taxes in Kind," in Aegyptus, fasc.2 (1951) (Raccolta Vitelli), pp. 307-12, and subsequently reprinted as SB VI 9232. The document, written during the emirate of Jordanes (ca. A.D. 699-704), is dated 23 Phaophi of the thirteen indiction (21 October 699). Difficulties of decipherment are owed to the colors of the inks that were used (they fade into the color of papyrus itself), the frequent use of abbreviation, and the extreme cursiveness of the second hand (lines 5-8). Nevertheless, some improvements …


On Law And Society In Late Roman Egypt, James G. Keenan Jan 1975

On Law And Society In Late Roman Egypt, James G. Keenan

Classical Studies: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Until recently, the Later Roman Empire was commonly judged to have been an age of severely restricted social mobility. Many individuals were bound to remain for life in their places of origin; others were compelled to take up their fathers' occupations or to perform services incumbent upon them by heredity. The traditional view, drawn largely from the evidence of the great imperial law codes, received its first broad challenge from Professor A. H.M.Jones, who on several occasions argued that society under the late Empire was actually more fluid than generally believed, even more mobile than it had been under the …


The Names Flavius And Aurelius As Status Designations In Later Roman Egypt, James G. Keenan Jan 1974

The Names Flavius And Aurelius As Status Designations In Later Roman Egypt, James G. Keenan

Classical Studies: Faculty Publications and Other Works

An examination of the uses of the names Flavius and Aurelius.


Two Loan Repayments From Second-Century Tebtunis, James G. Keenan Jan 1972

Two Loan Repayments From Second-Century Tebtunis, James G. Keenan

Classical Studies: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The type of document commonly referred to as the repayment, or return of a loan has been recently discussed in the introduction to P. Yale 63. The editors there conclude (p. 198) that "written repayments of loans were not given for repayment itself, but to cover peculiar circumstances" (spaced by me), such as the decease of the original creditor or debtor, or occasions when repayment was made in a place different from that in which the loan was taken out. The two papyri presented below lend confirmation to this conclusion: No. 1 is the repayment in Tebtunis of a loan …


Four Papyri From Second-Century Tebtunis, James G. Keenan, John C. Shelton Jan 1971

Four Papyri From Second-Century Tebtunis, James G. Keenan, John C. Shelton

Classical Studies: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The texts presented here have until now been known to papyrologists only from short descriptions in the back of P. Teb. Vol. II. We print below full transcripts together with a commentary to take account of scholarship since the original publication in 1907. The texts have a common feature in their concern with weaving: nr. 1 is an apprenticeship to a weaver, the remainder are receipts for weavers' tax.