Showing papers in "Greek Roman and Byzantine Studies in 1980"

Plato and the method of Hippocrates.

Abstract: from Meno. 12 There are explicit references to the Stoics at 2.22 and .39, with discussion of their view, and, for example, in the section on Plato (14.15-29) a form of the Stoic theory of different types of mixture has been interpolated. See L. Edelstein, RE Supp!. 6 (1953) s.v. \"Hippokrates\" 1323. 13 I have worked out a tentative solution, which I hope to publish in due time.

Masada: A Consideration of the Literary Evidence

Abstract: F A.D. 6 to 66 the citadel of Masada, a formidable natural stronghold used already in the days of the Hasmoneans, quartered a Roman garrison. At the outbreak of the Jewish revolt about midsummer 66, Menahem the Galilean seized the fort at the eastern edge of the Judean desert. After his murder in Jerusalem at the hands of Jewish rivals, its control fell to Eleazar ben Yair, a relation of Menahem and leader of the Sicarii. In 73 the praetorian legate Flavius Silva, in command of the tenth legion, besieged the position. After the defenders' improvised wooden wall had been breached, Eleazar, so the story goes, during the night of 14 Xanthicus through compelling rhetoric induced 960 men, women, and children to commit suicide rather than surrender to the Romans. 1 To some scholars, the Sicarii have appeared heroic freedom fighters who in their single-minded devotion to liberty and God died Kedoshim Gemurin (completely holy). Their suicide accordingly has been compared to that of Saul and justified by the principle of Hillul Hashem, their depredations of the countryside and massacre of fellow Jews explained away by the zealous precedent of Phineas in the Torah. 2 To others they have appeared fanatical idealists who attempted through blatant terrorism to force their ideas on their fellow Judeans and so contributed to the destruction of the Jewish state. 3 Whether the Sicarii were in fact heroes and whether their suicide was a moral act are subjective questions, the answers to which, depending upon modern preconceptions, have been and will be divergent. Here, therefore, I shall focus on other questions and problems more properly historica1.4

Alexander the Lyncestian: The Disloyal Opposition

Abstract: S THE LIFE of Alexander the Lyncestian has never received individual treatment,l his character has been taken for granted and the curious nature of his career largely ignored. Why did the Lyncestian Alexander, one of the sons of Aeropus, survive nearly six years of his royal Macedonian namesake's reign, instead of dying with his brothers when Alexander son of Philip took the throne? Any answer to this question must come from an examination of the Lyncestian's background and career. No source states that the son of Aeropus was a member of the Lyncestian royal house, but this is generally assumed. 2 We do know that he was Lyncestian (Diod. 17.32.1,80.2; Curt. 7.1.5,8.8.6) and that his father was called Aeropus (Arr. 1.7.6, 17.8).3 He had two

The Race and Procession of the Athenian Oscophoroi

Abstract: T HE ATHENIAN STATE conducted each year both a race and a procession, each of them involving youths called oscopharai.! Students of Attic religion have disagreed sharply over the relationship between these two events, on which the evidence is contradictory. In this paper I wish to argue that one piece of evidence has been overlooked in this debate which may show the way to the correct answer. Until recently it has been supposed that both the race and the procession were part of the festival known as the Oscophoria, which was celebrated early in the month of Pyanepsion (Oct. I NOV.).2 Felix Jacoby, however, in his study of the Atthidographers, argued vehemently against this reconstruction. 3 According to Jacoby, the procession alone was part of the Oscophoria; the race took place during the festival of Skira, on the twelfth of Skiraphorion (June! July). Jacoby's interpretation has been followed by H. W. Parke in his recent book on Athenian festivals. 4 Jacoby says thatS \"an independent argument against the infor-

Polybius on the Rôle of the Senate in the Crisis of 264 B.C.

Abstract: T HE ROMAN DECISION to intervene militarily in northeastern Sicily in 264 B.C. represented the first occasion on which the Roman Republic chose to project its power and influence beyond the Italian peninsula. The decision-to provide support to the Mamertine rulers of the strategic town of Messanaled directly to the First Punic War, and proved to be the decisive step in the transformation of Rome from a purely Italian state into a world power. Almost all aspects of the decision and its background have been the subject of intense scholarly debate. 1 Amid all the controversy, however, one question has been considered closed: the mechanism by which the Roman decision to help the Mamertines was made. The crucial text is Polybius 1.11.1-3, our only detailed description. It is the current scholarly interpretation of this passage that I wish to re-examine.

Plutarch, Alexander, and the Discovery of Naphtha

Abstract: P OPENS his Life of Alexander with a justly celebrated statement of the aims of the biographer. In contrast to the historian, the biographer is concerned solely with those incidents that reveal the virtues or vices of his subject. We should therefore be surprised to encounter an extended passage in the Life that is not motivated by a desire to illuminate Alexander's character. Yet in ch.35 Plutarch makes a lengthy digression on the nature of naphtha, occasioned by its discovery by Alexander's men when they reached Babylon. At first sight this description appears to be just the sort of thing that Plutarch would regard as outside the limits of biography. But it can be shown that for Plutarch the nature of this substance helps to illuminate, to a degree not previously appreciated, the character of Alexander. Specifically, the volatile and flammable nature of naphtha is remarkably like the nature of Alexander as portrayed by Plutarch. This is not, I think, to be regarded as exclusively metaphorical; rather Plutarch is showing us that he conceives of character (at least partly) in material and physiological terms. Nor should this be particularly surprising. The attempt to find a correlation between character and physical features is a persistent element in Greek medicine and thought, l and Plutarch himself lived at a time when the study of the 'science' of physiognomy was beginning to flourish. 2 The most influential of the ancient physiognomical writers, the sophist Polemo of Laodicea,3 was a younger

The Trier Ivory Reconsidered

Abstract: Dans Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 33, 1979, 113-133, K Holum et G Vikan ont relie cet ivoire de Treves a la translation de la main droite de saint Etienne a Constantinople, en 421 Mais cette translation est presque surement une legende| l'ivoire, posterieur de quelques siecles, ne se refere sans doute pas a un evenement historique precis

Achaia, Greece, and Laconica

Abstract: I N READING J. Rouge's now basic edition! of the Expositio Totius Mundi et Gentium, the much later Latin translation of a lost Greek work which he dates to A.D. 359/60, one is struck by the manner III which the author describes Central Greece and the Peloponnese. Rouge prints the Descriptio Totius Mundi, a shorter and later version, below the Expositio on the same pages, so that one sees at a glance the reasons for corrections in many cases. Retaining two older emendations in line 14, we reproduce the rest of his text of Expositio §52, with a change of punctuation in line 8.2

Hippolytus and the Dating of Oedipus Tyrannus

Abstract: I 1896 Tadeusz Zielinski in his essay on the Trachiniae suggested that Euripides' Hippolytus of 428 B.C. provides a terminus ante quem for Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus. 1 He supported this claim by citing four parallel passages from each play and stating (but without showing how he reached his conclusion) that Euripides is the imitator. Despite the potential significance of Zielinski's suggestion, no subsequent attempt to date the Sophoclean masterpiece has investigated this idea. Although critics have dated the playas early as 456/5 (Bruhn) and as late as 411 (Perotta), the growing tendency in this century has been to place the Tyrannus in the first half of the 420's. The most frequently suggested terminus post quem is 430, the date of the outbreak of the Athenian plague, taken by many, though not all, as Sophocles' source for the Theban plague described in the opening scene. For the lower terminus many have cited line 27 of Aristophanes' Acharnians (425 B.C.), where Dicaeopolis' cry Jj 7ToAtc 7ToAtc is interpreted as an echo of Oedipus' identical cry in line 629 of his play. Since Zielinski's claim would advance the lower terminus by three years, it is worthwhile to examine his evidence and determine whether he is correct. For if it can be demonstrated that Euripides is indeed alluding to Sophocles, and if it is agreed that the literary Theban plague is modeled after the historical Athenian one, then we can state with a certain degree of security that Sophocles' tragedy was first produced in 429. 2

The Barberini Manuscript of Georgius Syncellus ( Vat. Barb. Gr. 227)

Abstract: La Chronique de Georgius Syncellus (ca. 800), allant de la Creation a la premiere annee de Diocletien. L'A. se propose de montrer que le manuscrit Vat. Barb. Gr. 227, decouvert par J. T. Milik recemment, est en fait une copie directe du Paris 1711, faite au XVII siecle.