Showing papers in "Classical World in 1993"

The Roman Eastern Frontier and the Persian Wars AD 226-363 : A Documentary History

Abstract: The crisis of the third century saw Rome not only embroiled in contests of succeeding short-lived Emperors, but assailed by an increasing variety of hostile peoples from outside its frontiers. Owing to the complex racial interplay of this period, the sources for its history have to be compiled from a wide variety of sources. The least adequate are those in Latin, the imperial lives of the Historia Augusta . These have to be supplemented by the Greek chronicles of Zosimus and John Malalas of Antioch, as well as the Armenian history of Moses of Chorene, the Arabic History of the Arabs of Al-Tabari , as well as inscriptions in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Syrian and other languages. This volume collects these diverse sources for the first time in English translation, and will be a uniquely valuable resource for scholars working on a period of Roman history that is attracting increasing attention.

Lies and fiction in the ancient world

Abstract: Where the boundary lies between falsehood and fiction, between an actual untruth and an admitted invention, has set off many debates in intellectual circles. In classical studies, this issue has gained prominence through the upsurge of interest in the ancient novel and through recent work on the rhetorical character of ancient historiography. This pathfinding collection of essays charts the borderland between falsehood and fiction in the ancient world, especially by considering how far "lying" was distinguished from "fiction" at different periods and in different genres. The areas covered are early Greek poetry (E. L. Bowie), Plato (Christopher Gill), Greek and Roman historiography (J. L. Moles and T. P. Wiseman), and the Greek and Roman novel (J. R. Morgan and Andrew Laird). Michael Wood and D. C. Feeney discuss the literary critical questions involved and draw connections with contemporary debate. All Greek and Latin passages are translated into English, and the collection is designed to be accessible to students of literature and history generally, as well as to classicists.

Hoplites: The Classical Greek Battle Experience

Abstract: This study of ancient Greek warfare concentrates on the experiences of the soldiers who did the fighting, not on their generals, nor on logistics, tactics or strategy. The essays comprising \"Hoplites\" aim to explore the pragmatic concerns of Greek infantry. Three essays discuss the problems of wearing bronze arms and armour in battle conditions. Why was the spear alone the favoured weapon of attack? How did infantry maintain the great weight of the three-foot Hoplite shield? In Part 2, scholars address the actual mechanics of phalanx advance and retreat, the atmospherics and role of battle music, and the place and activity of the Hoplite general. The book concludes by covering fortification in Greek battle and the peculiar absence of artillery siege-craft.

The Greek Alexander romance

Abstract: Mystery surrounds the parentage of Alexander, the prince born to Queen Olympias. Is his father Philip, King of Macedonia, or Nectanebo, the mysterious sorcerer who seduced the queen by trickery? One thing is certain: the boy is destined to conquer the known world. He grows up to fulfil this prophecy, building a mighty empire that spans from Greece and Italy to Africa and Asia. Begun soon after the real Alexander's death and expanded in the centuries that followed, "The Greek Alexander Myth" depicts the life and adventures of one of history's greatest heroes - taming the horse Bucephalus, meeting the Amazons and his quest to defeat the King of Persia. Including such elements of fantasy as Alexander's ascent to heaven borne by eagles, this literary masterpiece brilliantly evokes a lost age of heroism.

Love of Glory and the Common Good: Aspects of the Political Thought of Thucydides

Abstract: More clearly than any previous work on the subject, Michael Palmer's Love of Glory and the Common Good defines the relationship between Periclean democracy and the decline in Athenian political life that followed the death of Pericles. The author elaborates upon the views of Thucydides, who saw the subsequent tyrannical rule of Alcibiades and the accompanying disintegration of Athenian political life as a logical consequence of the defects in the speeches and deeds that Pericles used to inspire the Athenian people. With careful attention to details in the order and structure of Thucydides' narrative, Palmer shows this historian as a political thinker of the first rank who deserves the same careful study accorded to Plato and Aristotle.

Aristotle and the later tradition

Abstract: George B. Kerferd, Mario Mignucci, Malcolm Schofield, Michael Woods, John Ackrill, Anthony Kenny, Jacques Brunschwig, A. A. Long, Hilary Armstrong, Pamela Huby, Jonathan Barnes, Anne Sheppard, Ilsetraut Hadot, Henry Blumenthal, Howard Robinson, and Richard Sorabji.

Games of Venus : An Anthology of Greek and Roman Erotic Verse from Sappho to Ovid

Abstract: GREECE: Archilochus Alkman Mimnermos Sappho Ibycus Anacreon Theognis Hipponax Pindar Bacchylides Miscellaneous Lyric and Inscriptions Hermesianax Asclepiades Callimachus Theocritus Herodas Machon The Grenfell Papyrus from Marisa Anonymous Song Anonymous Epigrams Meleager ROME: Catullus Virgil Horace Tibullus Sulpicia Propertius Ovid