Showing papers in "Greek Roman and Byzantine Studies in 1991"

On Seeing and Depicting the Theatre in Classical Athens

Abstract: O OF THE MORE MARKED DEVELOPMENTS in the study of classical drama in the last two decades has been the increasing consciousness that the plays were written for performance. Scholars as a result have become much more concerned with assessing the surviving plays in terms of the impact they can be thought to have made when performed on stage. A theatrical performance is of course a complex interaction of text, mise en scene, and audience. Any attempt to reconstruct this coalition must be seriously hampered by the irretrievable loss of a number of the key elements that went to make it up, but the possibilities for useful investigation are not yet exhausted. This contribution does not aim to carry things very far, although I hope that it will have something to say, inter alia, on the way that we should handle some of the evidence.1

Linguistic Colonialism in Aeschylus’ Aetnaeae

Abstract: N EW DIRECTIONS in Shakespearean scholarship have complicated our understanding of the relationship between the plays of Shakespeare and important historical events of the seventeenth century, such as colonization of the New World, and the results are dramatic. Interpretations of The Tempest, for example, which once focused on Prospero as the consummate artist (a stand-in perhaps for the bard) in final celebration of the power and glory of great Ii terature and the English empire, have now taken a darker, more sinister turn: Prospero, master of the theater, becomes a problematic force of imperialism; Ariel nearly disappears from sight as Caliban, the 'noble savage', representing the indigenous populations sacrificed for the sake of imperial expansion, usurps the critical spotlight. Many of these 'new historical' readings of The Tempest find an ambivalent attitude toward colonization embedded in the play, connecting it to the critical role that language plays in the establishment of empire. In support of this view, Stephen Greenblatt, for example, describes Queen Isabella's puzzled reaction to the first modern European grammar:

The Beginnings of the Roman Census in Egypt

Abstract: p\:. PROVINCIAL CENSUS in Egypt, conducted at fourteen-year intervals from at least A.D. 33134 to 2571258, has been known since the beginning of this century, and published declarations represent every census during that span. The earliest and latest years are the least well documented, but sufficient evidence demonstrates that census declarations were submitted for the years 33/34, 47/48, 61/62, and all years at fourteen-year intervals thereafter through at least 2571258. 1 Nor are any surviving declarations attributable to any year outside the fourteen-year cycle later than 33134. The scarcity and ambiguity of earlier direct evidence, however, has generated an extensive controversy during the past six decades about the dates at which the Roman government instituted the census in Egypt and at which the census began to be conducted on the fourteenyear cycle. With the discovery of new evidence, it is now possible to show definitively that although there were census declarations before 19, the fourteen-year cycle cannot have begun before that year and may even be later. On the other hand, some evidence suggests-without quite demonstrating-an earlier seven-year cycle dating back as far as 11110 B.C.

Diogenes of Babylon: The Stoic Sage in the City of Fools

Abstract: D IOGENES OF BABYLON, fifth scholarch of the Stoa and flourishing in the first half of the second century B.C. , has not been accorded the attention his philosophical and historical importance merits. 1 He receives only passing notice in the standard histories of Stoicism, despite abundant evidence that he effected a far-reaching revision of Stoic doctrine in such fields as linguistics,2 music education,3 philosophical psycho 1ogy,4 rhetoric,5 ethics,6 and political philosophy.7 Accidents of

The Alexandrian Riots of 356 and Geroge of Cappadocia

Abstract: I N LATE JUNE 346, Gregory of Cappadocia died in Alexandria after a long illness. As the imperial appointee to the atriarchate of Alexandria, Gregory had persecuted the followers of Bishop Athanasius and had generously rewarded his fellow Arians within the city during the six years of his tenure on the throne of St Mark. Gregory was not, however, a successful promoter of the Arian cause in Alexandria. Indeed, the growth and viability of the Arian community there was largely the work of Gregory's countryman, Philagrius, a veteran prae/ectus Aegypti, who effectively employed all the powers of patronage and coercion in the hands of the imperial administration.! By mid-October 346, Athanasius returned from exile to a thunderous welcome at Alexandria (Hist. Aceph. 1.1). Gregory Nazianzus (Or. 21.29) says that Athanasius' restoration was greeted with \"universal cheers, the pouring forth of unguents, nightlong festivities, the whole city gleaming with light, and both public and private feasting.» This return ushered in the socalled 'Golden Decade' of Athanasius' episcopate, during which he vigorously lobbied for support among eastern bishops, launched a missionary initiative to the southern kingdom of Axum, and undertook a major program of church building in Alexandria.2 But after the assassination of Athanasius' imperial

Agamemnon’s Iliad

Abstract: Robert J. Rabel 1\\:. FAMOUS SPEECH on the nature of delusion (&'tTl) in the lives of men and gods (Il. 19.78-144) tells with parable and paradigm how Hera publicly frustrated Zeus, deluded by a personified Au, in accomplishing his purposes, and he claims that these events on Olympus provide a meaningful precedent for his quarrel with Achilles. This speech has attracted voluminous commentary, especially since E. R. Dodds discerned within it the profound and sincere meditation of 'Homeric man' on the theme of moral responsibility and human freedom. 1 More recently, in a spirited critique of the character of Agamemnon, Oliver Taplin has dismissed the speech as a case of \"obvious special pleading,\" carried out by a man who, despite his every advantage, behaves badly and is characterized by the poet in a consistently negative light. 2 Yet judgments of Agamemnon's character, whether based upon the construction of the poem, the observations of other characters, or the remarks of the narrator, ought to take into account the perspective of the king, who in his last major speech in the poem is permitted a vigorous personal self-defense. 3 In this paper I argue that Agamemnon's words in the assembly of Book 19 reflect the humiliation that he suffered at Achilles'

Apollodorus of Cyzicus and his Delian Garden

Abstract: Gary Reger E IN TIlE nlIRD CENTURY B.C. the citizens of Paros voted honors for a certain 'A1tOAAOOWPoC; 'A1toAAwvlo'U K 'U~ l1cTlVOC;. They dispatched ambassadors to his hometown to ask that\" the honors given to him by the demos of the Parians be announced in the boule and the demos, that he be crowned in the Dionysia in the theater and the honors announced, and to ask for a place in the agora where they might erect the statue (Ti)v dxova)\" of Apollodorus. The Cyzicenes gladly acceded to the the requests, praising the Parians and Apollodorus for his

Caecilius Capella : Persecutor of Christians, Defender of Byzantium

Abstract: L'A. retrace la carriere du Caecilius Capella cite par Tertullien (Ad Scapulam 3,4-5). Les chretiens de Byzance, dont nous avons ici la premiere mention non legendaire (193), ont pu reconnaitre en lui un proconsul d'Afrique persecuteur de leurs freres

Tradition, Genre, and Character Portrayal: Cyropaedia 8.7 and Anabasis 1.9

Abstract: C YRUS THE GREAT, according to Xenophon, died peacefully at home after a long, illustrious life (529 B.C.). Over a century later (401), his namesake and distant relative, Cyrus the Younger, died violently in battle while still a young man, as he attempted to overthrow his brother Artaxerxes II. Their deaths, in Cyr. 8.7 and An. 1.9 respectively, occasion Xenophon's extended tributes to each. He adopts for these accounts narrative techniques that, on the surface, appear very different: at the conclusion of the Cyropaedia, Cyrus the Great, immediately before his death, summarizes his accomplishments in direct speech; when Cyrus the Younger dies, early in the Anabasis, Xenophon interrupts his third-person account of the battle at Cunaxa to summarize his virtues. Apart from some notice of verbal and thematic parallels, there has been no extensive comparison of these passages. 1 A closer examination reveals that, despite their differences in purpose, they also share common rhetorical strategies and a complex intertextual relationship that merit exploration. Sustained allusions-both to a popular tradition and to a genre -constitute a vital part of Xenophon's compositional method here. 2 Specifically, allusions to Solon's well-known discussion of

Isaeus 9 and Astyphilus’ Last Expedition

Abstract: 1 The following works will be cited by author's name: A. R. W. HARRISON, The Law of Athens: The Family and Property (Oxford 1968);]. K. DAVIES, Athenian Propertied Families 600-300 B.C. (Oxford 1971); W. WYSE, The Speeches of Isaeus (Cambridge 1904); A. P. BURNETT and C. N. EDMONSON, \"The Chabrias Monument in the Athenian Agora,\" Hesperia 30 (1961) 74-91; T. T. B. RYDER, Koine Eirene (London 1965); S. HORNBLOWER, Mausolus (Oxford 1982). 2 Since Cleon and his son were respectively the first cousin and first cousin once removed of Astyphilus on the paternal side, either would normally have enjoyed legal precedence over the speaker in the order of succession to the