Showing papers in "Greek Roman and Byzantine Studies in 1993"

Authorial Collaboration? Aristophanes’ Knights and Eupolis

Abstract: Keith Sidwell I N A RECENT ARTICLE in this journal, 1 Stephen Halliwell used evidence from Old Comedy to suggest that "authorial collaboration" occurred in the comic theatre of the fifth century. The purpose of this paper is to cast doubt on his findings. I shall suggest that "authorial collaboration,» along with accusations of plagiarism and other evidence linking the comic poets to one another, is part of an elaborate series of jokes generated by one underlying characteristic: the tendency of poets to attack each other by making comedy out of each other's comedy ('paracomedy'). This practice will, I argue, explain the well-known relationship between Aristophanes' Knights and his contemporary Eupolis, with which we shall begin.

A Reversal of a Tax Policy in Roman Egypt

Abstract: Etude d'une breve note relevee dans un rouleau de papyrus, qui revele un renversement sans precedent de la politique de perception des taxes, a l'epoque de Trajan, en Egypte romaine : a la responsabilite collective, consistant en une taxe unique payee par une communaute, on passe a la responsabilite individuelle, c'est-a-dire a une taxe destinee a acquitter les impayes des personnes insolvables absentes (la fuite etant a l'epoque le seul moyen d'echapper aux taxes), et payable par les personnes solvables restees dans la communaute

Points of View: The Theodosian Obelisk Base in Context

Abstract: Linda Safran THE OBELISK with its sculpted base in the former Hippodrome of Constantinorle (PLATES 1-3) is well known as a rare datable work 0 Late Antique art. 1 A sixth-century source puts the raising of the obelisk in the year 390,2 and Greek and Latin epigrams on the plinth (the lower part of the base) credit Theodosius I and the urban prefect Proclus with this feat.3 The inscriptions lack punctuation and their precise translation is difficult, but the sense is clear enough. The Latin (PLATES 2, 4) may be rendered as:

The Decree of Ilion in Honor of a King Antiochus

Abstract: Le decret de la cite hellenistique d'Ilion (Asie Mineure) a ete publie en l'honneur du roi Antiochos, fils du roi Seleucos. Le roi n'etant pas clairement identifie, l'A. tente de determiner s'il s'agit d'Antiochos Ier ou d'Antiochos III (Antiochos II n'etant pas le fils d'un Seleucos). Dans ce but, il essaie, dans un premier temps, d'interpreter aussi clairement que possible la partie du texte concernant les circonstances du decret. Puis, il examine les propositions de datation du document a l'un ou l'autre de ces rois

The Ancient Tradition on Antiphon Reconsidered

Abstract: O NE OF THE STRONGEST ARGUMENTS for the existence in the late fifth century of a sophist Antiphon, author of I1Epi uA1l8dac; and other philosophical works, distinct from the politician and logographer Antiphon of Rhamnus, is a small but significant body of ancient 'separatist' evidence. In a recent discussion of the ancient tradition on 'Antiphon', Michael Gagarin seeks to explain away the separatist tendencies of the tradition and argues for the identity of the aforementioned Antiphons.1 I propose to re-examine Gagarin's treatment of the evidence2 -explicit and implicit-in order to demonstrate that the separatist case is stronger than Gagarin and others have supposed. 3 In addition, I shall argue that the 'unitarian' aspects

The Greek and Latin Literary Texts from Hermopolis

Abstract: mopolis was n o less vigorous than in contemporary O x y rhynchus, another major nome capital in Middle Egypt' In the present article we try to provide an exhaustive list of Greek literary papyri found at ~ e r m o ~ o l i s t o make a more rigorous c o m ~ a r i s o n between the two towns ~oss ib le O u r conclusion is I that Maehler's contention can be neither suppor ted n o r reiected T h e main reason is that the evidence from Oxyrhynchus differs from that from Hermopolis not only quaAtitatively, but also qualitatively Let us explain this point first During the excavations of the Egypt Exploration Fund at Oxyrhynchus B P Grenfell and A S H u n t recovered the more than a thousand literary papyri that have been ublished so far in P Oxy Still more await publication A P ter the British abandoned the site, the Societh Italiana per la Ricerca dei Papiri Greci e Latini in Egitto moved in and recovered the several hundred more literary papyri that have been published so far in PSI Thanks to these two serial publications, it is relatively easy to get an overview of the literaiy texts from 0xyrhynch;s and t o make comparisons with the documentary texts from the same site Literary texts make up about a third of all papyri from Oxyrhynchus published so far T h e ongoing publication of documentary texts may change the ratio eventually to, say, one sixth Tha t would still be an impressive figure T h e material

Palmyra and the Roman East

Abstract: Byron Nakamura Z ENOBIA'S PALMYRENE EMPIRE, which dominated the Roman East between the winter of 270 and the summer of 272,1 provides a unique example of a local dynast marshaling support from various eastern communities upon Rome's failure to provide adequate leadership or security for its provinces. In assessing the Palmyrene ascendancy, historians have proposed a variety of other factors. More often than not, Palmyra's brief rise is interpreted as indicative of some cultural, ethnic, political, or social ideology allied with or in opposition to Rome's central authority.2 Two recent works dealing with Palmyra repeat the conventional view. 3 Stoneman, for example, depicts Zenobia's conflict as an indigenous rebellion against Roman oppression, giving too much credence to the Historia Augusta's picture of the Palmyrene queen as a Syrian Dido or

An extended narrative pattern in the Odyssey

Abstract: C OMMENTATORS have suggested many possible structures and component patterns around which the plot of the Odyssey might be organized. 1 One resource of the composing oral poet is the theme,2 with the various forms of manipulation to which it is subject: expansion, ring-composition, multiforms of the same theme, etc. I here analyze an instance of what some commentators call composition by theme. 3 I argue, however, that to view the Odyssey in terms of many separate themes, as Lord and others have done, can cause misundcr-

The Form and Content of Thucydides’ Pentecontaetia (1.89-117)

Abstract: K THE PENTECONT AETIA is both easy and difficult.1 The narrative runs rapidly, with little of Thucydides' customary density and grammatical strain, yet its principles of arrangement and selection have remained obscure. Discussion has centered on two major difficulties: chronology and omissions. A. W. Gomme noted that the Pentecontaetia seems to share the very faults for which Thucydides criticized Hellanicus: it is both 1Ot<; xPOVOt<; OUK aKpt~£<; and ~paxu­ chronologically imprecise and brief.2 Explanations vary: to take two extremes, Russell Meiggs suggested that the excursus was

Mummius’ Dedications at Olympia and Pausanias’ Attitude to the Romans

Abstract: For Charles L. Babcock P AUSANIAS' 'EAAa<>o<; IT£ptTWf\\O\"l<; is among the sources that have been studied in an attempt to assess the relations between Greeks and Romans in the second century A.D., but the results have led to opposing points of view: Pausanias has been variously convicted of antiand pro-Roman sentiments.1 Recently Christian Habicht has re-evaluated Pausanias' statements in a more balanced response to the problem, with particular attention to the historical events that marked relations between Greeks and Romans. 2 One of the most significant events in Greco-Roman history occurred during the year 146 B.C., when Mummius defeated the Achaean Confederacy and sacked and levelled Corinth. Pausanias' narrative of this event and his treatment of the Roman consul and general L. Mummius, who arguably was a strong candidate for harsh criticism and partisanship, provides a good case in point for the author's attitude towards the Romans. For Mummius, a protagonist in this watershed event, is the only Roman before the

The Distribution of Population in Attica

Abstract: Vincent]. Rosivach THIS PAPER discusses the distribution of the citizen population of Attica between the urban agglomeration and the countryside in the fourth century. A common view is that the population of Clcisthenic Athens was predominantly rural, but that over time there was a substantial migration from the rural demes to the urban agglomeration, including the Piraeus, especially following the devastation of the countryside during the Peloponnesian War. This view is found in demographic literature at least as far back as Beloch's Bevolkerung (1886),1 but it is still perhaps best known, at least to Englishspeaking scholars, from Gomme's Population of Athens, published in 1933. 2 Gomme estimated that only about 1/7 or 1/6 of Athens' citizen population lived in the urban agglomeration at the time of Cleisthenes, but that 1/3 lived there by 431, a figure that rose to nearly a half by the last third of the fourth century. Although a significant body of ancient evidence was eventually developed to support this view, it is worth noting that its early supporters-notably Beloch and Meyer3-to a large extent based their arguments not on the ancient evidence 4 but on an

Janus Lascaris' visit to Mount Athos in 1491

Abstract: Graham Speake THE IMAGE Of ATIIONITE LIBRARIES staffed by ignorant, impoverished monks, who had no use for their contents and were only too happy to sell them off for a few pounds to rapacious collectors, is a popular one. We see it as early as the twelfth century when Eustathius, archbishop of Salonica, in his work on the reform of monastic life admonishes such a monk: \"You illiterate fellow, why ever do you wish to reduce the library to the level of your own character? Just because you have no trace of culture, must you empty the library of the books that transmit it?\"l We see it as late as the 1840s when Robert Curzon is quite shameless in reporting the bargains he struck and the enthusiasm with which some of the monks unloaded their treasures.2 How accurate an image is this? Is it fair to either the monks or the collectors? These are some of the questions that interest me when I examine the case of the collector Janus Lascaris. Lascaris was one of the most respected of all the Greek exiles who found themselves in Italy following the fall of the empire to the Ottomans. Born in 1445 at Rhyndacus in northwest Asia Minor to a distinguished and ancient Byzantine family, he was taken at an early age via the Peloponnese and Crete to Venice where he became a protege of Cardinal Bessarion. Under Bessarion's guidance the young Lascaris got a good grounding in Latin as well as Greek and mingled with many other Greek refugees and Italian humanists. After Bessarion's death in 1472 he found employment at the court of Lorenzo de' Medici in Florence where he taught Greek; and it was as Lorenzo's agent that he was dispatched on two journeys, in 1490 and 1491, to collect Greek manuscripts in the east and to negotiate their purchase with Sultan Bayezid II.

The manuscripts of Xenophon's `Symposium'

Abstract: John Cirignano K SCHOLARSHIP has produced a clearer picture of the relationships among manuscripts of certain opuscula of Xenophon. 1 These shorter works have been shown to belong to two distinct families: one headed by Vaticanus gr. 1335 (A), the other by a lost hyparchetype, Cl>. In this paper I examine and interrelate manuscripts containing Xenophon's Symposium, a work found only in the manuscripts of the second family. The twenty-three manuscripts described here contain a total of twenty-five Symp. texts, seven of which are incomplete. 2 Three of the four groups of the family of Symp.