Pub Date : 2017-10-01DOI: 10.1525/CA.2017.36.2.183
Benjamin Harnett
The adoption of the codex for literature in the Roman world was one of the most significant developments in the history of the book, yet remains poorly understood. Physical evidence seems to contradict literary evidence from Martial9s epigrams. Near-total adoption of the codex for early Christian works, even as the book roll dominated non-Christian book forms in the first centuries of our era, has led to endless speculation about possible ideological motives for adoption. What has been unquestioned is the importance of Christian scribes in the surge of adoption from 300 C.E. onward. This article reexamines the foundation of many theories, the timeline for non-Christian adoption sketched by Roberts and Skeat in their study, The Birth of the Codex, and reevaluates it through the lens of “diffusion of innovations theory” in order to reconcile the evidence and elevate practical considerations once and for all over ideological motives.
{"title":"The Diffusion of the Codex","authors":"Benjamin Harnett","doi":"10.1525/CA.2017.36.2.183","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/CA.2017.36.2.183","url":null,"abstract":"The adoption of the codex for literature in the Roman world was one of the most significant developments in the history of the book, yet remains poorly understood. Physical evidence seems to contradict literary evidence from Martial9s epigrams. Near-total adoption of the codex for early Christian works, even as the book roll dominated non-Christian book forms in the first centuries of our era, has led to endless speculation about possible ideological motives for adoption. What has been unquestioned is the importance of Christian scribes in the surge of adoption from 300 C.E. onward. This article reexamines the foundation of many theories, the timeline for non-Christian adoption sketched by Roberts and Skeat in their study, The Birth of the Codex, and reevaluates it through the lens of “diffusion of innovations theory” in order to reconcile the evidence and elevate practical considerations once and for all over ideological motives.","PeriodicalId":45164,"journal":{"name":"CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY","volume":"36 1","pages":"183-235"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2017-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1525/CA.2017.36.2.183","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45677893","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-04-01DOI: 10.1525/CA.2017.36.1.104
C. Skelton
The Ancient Greek dialect of Pamphylia shows extensive influence from the nearby Anatolian languages. Evidence from the linguistics of Greek and Anatolian, sociolinguistics, and the historical and archaeological record suggest that this influence is due to Anatolian speakers learning Greek as a second language as adults in such large numbers that aspects of their L2 Greek became fixed as a part of the main Pamphylian dialect. For this linguistic development to occur and persist, Pamphylia must initially have been settled by a small number of Greeks, and remained isolated from the broader Greek-speaking community while prevailing cultural attitudes favored a combined Greek-Anatolian culture.
{"title":"Greek-Anatolian Language Contact and the Settlement of Pamphylia","authors":"C. Skelton","doi":"10.1525/CA.2017.36.1.104","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/CA.2017.36.1.104","url":null,"abstract":"The Ancient Greek dialect of Pamphylia shows extensive influence from the nearby Anatolian languages. Evidence from the linguistics of Greek and Anatolian, sociolinguistics, and the historical and archaeological record suggest that this influence is due to Anatolian speakers learning Greek as a second language as adults in such large numbers that aspects of their L2 Greek became fixed as a part of the main Pamphylian dialect. For this linguistic development to occur and persist, Pamphylia must initially have been settled by a small number of Greeks, and remained isolated from the broader Greek-speaking community while prevailing cultural attitudes favored a combined Greek-Anatolian culture.","PeriodicalId":45164,"journal":{"name":"CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY","volume":"36 1","pages":"104-129"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2017-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1525/CA.2017.36.1.104","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44778694","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Although Strabo provides lengthy accounts of Troy and Rome in the Geography , the role of these cities in his geographical thinking has received little attention from scholars. This article argues that for Strabo, Rome and Troy serve as exemplars of the progression of human civilization from Homeric prehistory to the Augustan present. They are paradigmatic “rising” and “fallen” cities, through which the lifecycles of all cities in the oikoumenē can be understood. Moreover, in his treatment of the fall of Troy and the rise of Rome, Strabo departs from his Augustan-era contemporaries by illustrating the historical interactions of each city with its respective region, rather than Rome’s purported Trojan origins. In describing Rome’s expansion into Latium (Book Five) and the post-Trojan War history of the Troad (Book Thirteen), Strabo emphasizes the mutability of urban landscapes through the destruction of existing cities and the creation of new ones – two processes in which Rome has played a significant role, and which continue to shape human settlement across the oikoumenē .
{"title":"Death and Birth in the Urban Landscape: Strabo on Troy and Rome","authors":"Laura Pfuntner","doi":"10.1525/ca.2017.36.1.33","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/ca.2017.36.1.33","url":null,"abstract":"Although Strabo provides lengthy accounts of Troy and Rome in the Geography , the role of these cities in his geographical thinking has received little attention from scholars. This article argues that for Strabo, Rome and Troy serve as exemplars of the progression of human civilization from Homeric prehistory to the Augustan present. They are paradigmatic “rising” and “fallen” cities, through which the lifecycles of all cities in the oikoumenē can be understood. Moreover, in his treatment of the fall of Troy and the rise of Rome, Strabo departs from his Augustan-era contemporaries by illustrating the historical interactions of each city with its respective region, rather than Rome’s purported Trojan origins. In describing Rome’s expansion into Latium (Book Five) and the post-Trojan War history of the Troad (Book Thirteen), Strabo emphasizes the mutability of urban landscapes through the destruction of existing cities and the creation of new ones – two processes in which Rome has played a significant role, and which continue to shape human settlement across the oikoumenē .","PeriodicalId":45164,"journal":{"name":"CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY","volume":"36 1","pages":"33-51"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2017-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1525/ca.2017.36.1.33","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43149987","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Existing attempts to understand the relationship between violence and stability within Classical Athens are undermined by their failure to compare democracies with oligarchies. The exclusionary policies of oligarchies created a fragile political equilibrium that required considerable regulation if oligarchic regimes were to survive. By contrast, the inclusiveness of democracies largely defused the danger that disputes would lead to regime collapse. Citizens of democracies faced fewer incentives to police their behavior, resulting in higher levels of public disorder and violence; this violence, however, was at the same time less likely to escalate into deadly force and stasis . The distinctive cultures of democracies and oligarchies were determined in part by considerations of basic political order.
{"title":"Stability and violence in classical Greek democracies and oligarchies","authors":"Matthew Simonton","doi":"10.1525/CA.2017.36.1.52","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/CA.2017.36.1.52","url":null,"abstract":"Existing attempts to understand the relationship between violence and stability within Classical Athens are undermined by their failure to compare democracies with oligarchies. The exclusionary policies of oligarchies created a fragile political equilibrium that required considerable regulation if oligarchic regimes were to survive. By contrast, the inclusiveness of democracies largely defused the danger that disputes would lead to regime collapse. Citizens of democracies faced fewer incentives to police their behavior, resulting in higher levels of public disorder and violence; this violence, however, was at the same time less likely to escalate into deadly force and stasis . The distinctive cultures of democracies and oligarchies were determined in part by considerations of basic political order.","PeriodicalId":45164,"journal":{"name":"CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY","volume":"36 1","pages":"52-103"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2017-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1525/CA.2017.36.1.52","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44254568","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article analyzes the descriptions of both choral and individualized dance in Odyssey 8, focusing on the unique and disruptive qualities of the virtuosic paired performance of the Phaeacian princes Halius and Laodamas. I explore how this dance is particularly emblematic of Phaeacian culture, and show how the description of dance and movement operates as a means by which Odysseus and Alcinous competitively negotiate their relative positions of status and authority within the poem. I further argue that the Homeric poet uses dance to foreground generic exploration and expansion in a manner consistent with recent understandings of the Odyssey ’s flexible and improvisatory poetics.
{"title":"The Fantastic Phaeacians: Dance and Disruption in the Odyssey","authors":"Sarah Olsen","doi":"10.1525/CA.2017.36.1.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/CA.2017.36.1.1","url":null,"abstract":"This article analyzes the descriptions of both choral and individualized dance in Odyssey 8, focusing on the unique and disruptive qualities of the virtuosic paired performance of the Phaeacian princes Halius and Laodamas. I explore how this dance is particularly emblematic of Phaeacian culture, and show how the description of dance and movement operates as a means by which Odysseus and Alcinous competitively negotiate their relative positions of status and authority within the poem. I further argue that the Homeric poet uses dance to foreground generic exploration and expansion in a manner consistent with recent understandings of the Odyssey ’s flexible and improvisatory poetics.","PeriodicalId":45164,"journal":{"name":"CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY","volume":"36 1","pages":"1-32"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2017-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1525/CA.2017.36.1.1","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67118289","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-04-01DOI: 10.1525/CA.2017.36.1.130
S. Trépanier
καὶ πῶς τις ἀνάξeι αὐτοὺς eἰς φῶς, ὥσπeρἐξ Ἅιδου λέγονται δή τινeς eἰς θeοὺς ἀνeλθeῖν;Plato Republic 521c This study reconstructs Empedocles’ eschatology and cosmology, arguing that they presuppose one another. Part one surveys body and soul in Empedocles and argues that the transmigrating daimon is a long-lived compound made of the elements air and fire. Part two shows that Empedocles situates our current life in Hades, then considers the testimonies concerning different cosmic levels in Empedocles and compares them with the afterlife schemes in Pindar’s Second Olympian Ode and Plato’s Phaedo myth. Part three offers a new edition of section d lines 5–10 of the Strasbourg papyrus of Empedocles that reinforces the connection between transmigration and different cosmic locations for souls. Part four reconstructs Empedocles’ cosmology, identifies three different levels or habitats of soul, and, more tentatively, suggests that Empedoclean “long-lived gods” are best understood as stars.
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Pub Date : 2016-10-01DOI: 10.1525/CA.2016.35.2.189
S. Estrin
Focusing on a single funerary monument of the late archaic period, this paper shows how such a monument could be used by a bereaved individual to externalize and communalize the cognitive, perceptual, and emotional effects of loss. Through a close examination of the monument’s sculpted relief and inscribed epigram, I identify a structural framework underlying both that is built around a disjunction between perception and cognition embedded in the self-identified function of the monument as a mnema or memory-object. Through the analysis of other epigrams and literary passages, this disjunctive framework is shown to be derived, in turn, from broader conceptualizations in archaic Greece about how both mental images, including memories, and works of art allowed continued visual, but not cognitive-affective, access to the deceased. From this perspective, the monument’s relief opens up to us the experience of the bereaved individual who is only able to connect with the deceased through a remembered mental image.
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Pub Date : 2016-10-01DOI: 10.1525/CA.2016.35.2.279
A. Seider
This article considers Catullus’ reaction to his brother’s death and argues that the poet, having found the masculine vocabulary of grief inadequate, turns to the more expansive emotions and prolonged dedication offered by mythological examples of feminine mourning. I begin by showing how Catullus complicates his graveside speech to his brother in poem 101 by invoking poems 65, 68a, and 68b. In these compositions, Catullus likens himself to figures such as Procne and Laodamia, and their feminine modes of grief become associated with the poet. While these women’s grief brings them to a dreadful end, in my second reading of poem 101 I show how Catullus incorporates their emotional intensity and devoted attention into a masculine performance of mourning. Connecting his voyage to his brother’s grave with Odysseus’ journey, Catullus valorizes his single-minded remembrance of his sibling, even as he acknowledges that he will never overcome the distance between them.
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Pub Date : 2016-10-01DOI: 10.1525/CA.2016.35.2.215
Jared Hudson
This article analyzes the prominent role played by a particular vehicle, the matronly carriage ( carpentum ), in the construction of Roman gender. Its focus is on the conveyance’s two most significant appearances in literary representation. First, I examine the various accounts of the vehicle’s best-known and most dramatic tableau, Tullia’s use of a carpentum to drive over her dead father king Servius Tullius’ body, arguing that the conveyance functions to articulate the cultural anxiety surrounding the passage from daughter to wife. I suggest that the story of Tullia’s carpentum , as a quasi-mythic exemplum of “feminine transportation,” looms as a dangerous threat in need of accommodation. Next, I examine the story of the Roman matrons’ demonstration in favor of the repeal of the lex Oppia , which had prohibited, among other things, their right to ride in carpenta . I argue that the accounts of Livy and others seek to offer a solution to the challenge posed by the physically protesting women by redefining their vehicular mobility as state-authorized, and as directly tied to their reproductive function. Thus, while Latin literature often articulates urban traffic as a familiarly frustrating system of obstacles, my analysis uncovers a contrasting Roman discourse, one that identifies traffic with the fertility of the city and its ability to reproduce Roman citizens.
{"title":"Carpento certe: Conveying Gender in Roman Transportation","authors":"Jared Hudson","doi":"10.1525/CA.2016.35.2.215","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/CA.2016.35.2.215","url":null,"abstract":"This article analyzes the prominent role played by a particular vehicle, the matronly carriage ( carpentum ), in the construction of Roman gender. Its focus is on the conveyance’s two most significant appearances in literary representation. First, I examine the various accounts of the vehicle’s best-known and most dramatic tableau, Tullia’s use of a carpentum to drive over her dead father king Servius Tullius’ body, arguing that the conveyance functions to articulate the cultural anxiety surrounding the passage from daughter to wife. I suggest that the story of Tullia’s carpentum , as a quasi-mythic exemplum of “feminine transportation,” looms as a dangerous threat in need of accommodation. Next, I examine the story of the Roman matrons’ demonstration in favor of the repeal of the lex Oppia , which had prohibited, among other things, their right to ride in carpenta . I argue that the accounts of Livy and others seek to offer a solution to the challenge posed by the physically protesting women by redefining their vehicular mobility as state-authorized, and as directly tied to their reproductive function. Thus, while Latin literature often articulates urban traffic as a familiarly frustrating system of obstacles, my analysis uncovers a contrasting Roman discourse, one that identifies traffic with the fertility of the city and its ability to reproduce Roman citizens.","PeriodicalId":45164,"journal":{"name":"CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY","volume":"35 1","pages":"215-246"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2016-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67118190","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2016-10-01DOI: 10.1525/CA.2016.35.2.147
C. Connors, Cindy Clendenon
This interdisciplinary article argues that ancient Greek and Roman representations of Okeanos, Tartaros, and the underworld demonstrate an observational awareness of the hollow underground spaces that characterize the geomorphology of karst terrains in the Mediterranean world. We review the scientific facts that underlie Greek and Roman accounts of karstic terrain in observation-based discourse and in myths, and we demonstrate that the Greek words barathron (pit), limnē (lake), koilos (hollow), and dinē (whirling current) are used with precision in observational accounts of karst terrain. Ancient accounts of the dynamic limnē and barathrum systems characteristic of much karst terrain offer a complex matrix of observation-based and belief-based discourse: at the edge of the barathrum, the imaginative or spiritual realm of the underworld has a material plausibility and the closely observed material world has a plausible potential to connect to a world we cannot see.
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