Frammenti di declamazioni perdute Filostrato, Vitae sophistarum 2.4.569

This study aims at pointing to the cultural dimensions of lexicography, both by revealing the cultural content of lexicographic works and the authors’ cultural horizons and by searching for a precise cultural motivation for compiling dictionaries. One such particular exercise is applied to Teodor Corbea’s Latin–Romanian Dictionary, elaborated between 1691–1702. Our study focuses on the encyclopædic character of this work and its relations with the Greco-Roman culture. It also analyses the Latin–Romanian similarities and the way the Romance character of the Romanian language is reflected.

Grave Matters: Mediating Corporeal Objects and Subjects through Mortuary Practices

Rice, beans and pulses at Vadnagar: An early historical site with a Buddhist monastery in Gujarat, western India

The study of early Christianity overlaps with closely related fields of study such as New Testament canonical literature, Historical Jesus studies, and early Christian history (or church history/patristics). This survey will concentrate on the broader conceptualization of the formation of the religio-historical phenomenon named Christianity, the religio-historical contexts that formed the matrix for the emergence of Christianity, Christianity as the taxonomizer for a number of cultural practices or as a subset of the broader Greco-Roman Mediterranean culture including its cultural production, and the history of scholarship on early Christianity. Broadly speaking, early Christianity as a historical phenomenon is framed by two “events,” namely, at the one end, the career of Jesus of Nazareth and the subsequent formation of Jesus- or Christ-groups in the 1st century ce, and at the other end, in the 4th century ce, the Constantinian revolution which signaled the Christianization of the Roman Empire (or which goes by the shorthand of “Nicaea”—after the Council called in 325 ce). These are not hard and fast boundaries as there are good reasons to include subsequent developments beyond the Council of Chalcedon, into the 6th century ce, in the purview. Beyond that, the study of early Christianity also encompasses the newly emerged field of “Christian origins,” by which is specifically referred to the interdisciplinary, non-theological theorizing of the origins of Christianity. All in all, this bibliographic overview assumes, in line with new directions in scholarship on early Christianity, that the study of early Christianity is best approached from the perspective of the newly defined study field of early Christian studies. The difference between early Christian studies and disciplines such as early church history and patristics is constituted by the fact that early Christian studies is informed by theories of history and of religion and is practiced as a kind of cultural studies.

This article centers, first, on the Roman reception of earlier Greek literature, which is considered less a simple “receiving” of foreign influence and rather an active “taking” and act of appropriation, and, second, on the effects that this process had on Imperial Greek Literature. Thus, it deals with the question whether Greek literature—at least in part—during the Imperial Period can be considered an autonomous, cosmopolitan, and many-centered phenomenon in its own right and impetus, with its independent production centers that constructed and defined their particular identity. Or, alternatively, whether in the Imperial Age up to the second century CE we encounter a dominating perspective in literary texts, which contributed to strengthen and redefine the Roman viewpoint and the center’s identity from the periphery. The Greek texts which are discussed in this essay invite the interpretation that the Post-Augustan Age, despite its locally diverse and multi-ethnical setup, monopolized a perspective, which encouraged the Greek elite to join the Imperial project, thus resulting in a Greco-Roman literature that appears to be beyond comparison.

Greek traditions of writing about food and the symposium had a long and rich afterlife in the first to fifth centuries CE, in both Greco-Roman and early Christian culture. This book provides an account of the history of the table-talk tradition, derived from Plato's Symposium and other classical texts, focusing among other writers on Plutarch, Athenaeus, Methodius and Macrobius. It also deals with the representation of transgressive, degraded, eccentric types of eating and drinking in Greco-Roman and early Christian prose narrative texts, focusing especially on the Letters of Alciphron, the Greek and Roman novels, especially Apuleius, the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles and the early saints' lives. It argues that writing about consumption and conversation continued to matter: these works communicated distinctive ideas about how to talk and how to think, distinctive models of the relationship between past and present, distinctive and often destabilising visions of identity and holiness.

Greco-Roman Culture and the Galilee of Jesus, a book-length investigation of this topic, challenges the conventional scholarly view that first-century Galilee was thoroughly Hellenised. Examining architecture, inscriptions, coins and art from Alexander the Great's conquest until the early fourth century CE, Chancey argues that the extent of Greco-Roman culture in the time of Jesus has often been greatly exaggerated. Antipas's reign in the early first century was indeed a time of transition, but the more dramatic shifts in Galilee's cultural climate happened in the second century, after the arrival of a large Roman garrison. Much of Galilee's Hellenisation should thus be understood within the context of its Romanisation. Any attempt to understand the Galilean setting of Jesus must recognise the significance of the region's historical development as well as how Galilee fits into the larger context of the Roman East.

The origins of Uyghur medicine: Debates and perspectives

This paper aims to define the dietary profile of the population of early medieval Rome (fifth–eleventh centuries CE) by carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis. This period was characterized by deep changes in the city’s economic, demographic, and social patterns, probably affecting its inhabitants’ nutritional habits. Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis of bone collagen was used to detect the nutritional profile of 110 humans from six communities inhabiting the city center of Rome and one from the ancient city of Gabii. Thirteen faunal remains were also analyzed to define the ecological baseline of the medieval communities. The isotopic results are consistent with a diet mainly based on the exploitation of C3 plant resources and terrestrial fauna, while the consumption of aquatic resources was detected only among the San Pancrazio population. Animal protein intake proved to be similar both among and within the communities, supporting a qualitatively homogenous dietary landscape in medieval Rome. The comparison with isotopic data from the Imperial Age allowed us to detect a diachronic nutritional transition in ancient Rome, in which the collapse of the Empire, and in particular the crisis of economic power and the trade system, represented a tipping point for its population’s nutritional habits.

The sea coast of south-western Asia Minor experienced some of the most substantial transformations in Antiquity, caused by the shifting sea level and progradation of the deltas of the Maeander and the Kaystros. It left former the maritime cities of Miletos, Priene, Herakleia/Latmos, and Ephesos 10 kilometres or more inland. This paper concentrates on the responses to the changing environment of the cities of the Latmian Gulf area, Miletos and Priene in particular. The traditional view holds that the progradation of the delta of the Maeander resulted in the silting of the harbours of Miletos and in making life there unbearable, which precipitated the decline of the city in the Roman age. The concept of the decline of Miletos in the Imperial age is not congruous with ancient evidence. Monumental architecture and the epigraphic output speak to the early Imperial age as the period of the greatest prosperity in the history of Miletos. The same age brought a decline in the economy, architecture, and inscribing in Priene. The success of Miletos was partly caused by its long-term responses to the progradation of the delta of the Maeander. Dredging kept its harbours accessible by ship, unlike upstream cities of Priene and Herakleia/Latmos. Lagoons filled by sea and fresh water produced abundant fish. In the Hellenistic age, Miletos fought wars with its neighbours for the land created by the Maeander and for the control of sailing on the river. In the early first century CE successful lobbying brought the imperial decision granting Miletos the alluvial land and exclusive fishing rights. Most of this land was occupied by large estates whose owners had sufficient resources and know-how to build and maintain a complex system of channels and dykes removing excessive water from the reclaimed land. The new land exceeded the arable land of the old chora in quality, if not in size, feeding the increased population of Miletos. Only when this system collapsed did the floodplain of the Maeander turn into its natural state of steppe in the summer and swamps in winter.

Rome was not built in one day. The eternal city was founded in 753 BCE and only few remains dating from the Archaic period survive. The Republican era (from 509 BCE, when the last king was overthrown, to 31 BCE, when Octavian/Augustus became the sole ruler of an empire that extended over three continents) as well as the imperial age, which lasted until Late Antiquity, were characterized by a constant renewal of architectural forms and building techniques, as a consequence of political and social developments. The expansion of the city was never the object of urban planning as we know it today. The cityscape was constantly remodeled thanks to a series of building programs conceived for political reasons and often originating from devastating fires. Unlike Pompeii, Rome is not a dead city and many ancient buildings were reused after Late Antiquity; therefore, countless contributions on its architecture originate not only from excavations but also from architectural surveys and “digs” in the archives. Indeed, the eternal city is a historical palimpsest, with the remains of three thousand years of art and architecture, pagan and Christian, profoundly intermingled in its urban fabric, and not many people have the knowledge, insight, and experience to make sense of such a very demanding research environment. Despite the publication of many books on Roman architecture and building techniques, not a single work has been devoted to the architecture of the city of Rome exclusively. (An exception is Storia dell’Architettura Italiana: Architettura romana; I grandi monumenti di Roma [Hesberg and Zanker 2009, cited under Collections of Papers], which, however, is a collection of essays.) To offer a broader picture, most books deal with the city of Rome along with Roman Italy and the provinces of the empire. Whenever Rome is the only topic, its architecture is never examined from origins through empire and only a specific period or building is taken into consideration. In general, scholarship on Roman architecture has focused on building typologies, materials, construction techniques, issues of design, and urbanism. Ancient literary sources are almost fundamental (this is another important difference between Rome and other cities, such as Ostia or Pompeii) because the historical, political, and social context of Rome’s architecture is unique: suffice it to mention all the monuments—arches, porticoes, temples—related to the triumphal procession, which was held in Rome exclusively, or were built after a successful military campaign with the spoils of war. Yet, a widespread assumption is that Rome is easy to investigate and understand. In reality, the substantial lack of scientific monographs on the majority of ancient Rome’s architectural monuments is explained by the painstaking work and the long time necessary for such studies. The works listed and annotated in this article deal with Rome’s architecture from the Archaic period to Late Antiquity, when Rome became a Christian city, and with the area included into the city walls of the late 3rd century CE. This article is not meant to be a digest of buildings but, rather, it gives a selection of the most important works of architecture published in the last few decades, and not exclusively in English. Although the study of Rome’s architecture is necessarily intertwined with archaeological excavations, this is not a bibliography of the latest archaeological campaigns and not because digs, stratigraphies, and material culture do not matter: more simply, the present article deals with Rome’s architecture exclusively.

V. S. Naipaul stands as the most lionized literary mediator between First and Third-World experience and is ordinarily viewed as possessing a unique authority on the subject of cross-cultural relations in the post-colonial era. In contesting this orthodox reading of his work, Nixon argues that Naipaul is more than simply an unduly influential writer. He has become a regressive Western institution, articulating a set of values that perpetuates political interests and representational modes that have their origin in the high imperial age. Nixon uses Naipaul’s travel writing to probe the core theoretical issues raised by cross-cultural representation along metropolitan-periphery lines. In successive chapters he explores the relation between multi-cultural identity and the rhetorical conventions of exile; the imperial undertow in travel writing as a genre; the tensions between ethnographic and autobiographical modes of authority; and the magnetic pull of the Conradian tradition in figuring the third World. In the penultimate chapter, Nixon analyses the importance of the discourse of primitivism as a means of abrogating Third World experiences of historical change and, in particular, of minimalizing the role of indigenous resistance. Finally, with reference to economic theories of dependency, he critiques the vision, popularized by Naipaul, of the post-colonial world as divided between mimic and parasitic Third World nations on the one hand and, on the other, the benignly creative societies of the West.

V. S. Naipaul stands as the most lionized literary mediator between First and Third-World experience and is ordinarily viewed as possessing a unique authority on the subject of cross-cultural relations in the post-colonial era. In contesting this orthodox reading of his work, Nixon argues that Naipaul is more than simply an unduly influential writer. He has become a regressive Western institution, articulating a set of values that perpetuates political interests and representational modes that have their origin in the high imperial age. Nixon uses Naipaul's travel writing to probe the core theoretical issues raised by cross-cultural representation along metropolitan-periphery lines. In successive chapters he explores the relation between multi-cultural identity and the rhetorical conventions of exile; the imperial undertow in travel writing as a genre; the tensions between ethnographic and autobiographical modes of authority; and the magnetic pull of the Conradian tradition in figuring the third World. In the penultimate chapter, Nixon analyses the importance of the discourse of primitivism as a means of abrogating Third World experiences of historical change and, in particular, of minimalizing the role of indigenous resistance. Finally, with reference to economic theories of dependency, he critiques the vision, popularized by Naipaul, of the post-colonial world as divided between mimic and parasitic Third World nations on the one hand and, on the other, the benignly creative societies of the West.

Saul Lieberman has shown that various aspects of Greco-Roman culture were pervasive not only among more Hellenized Jews of the first centuries CE, but that even “the Rabbis of Palestine were familiar with the fashionable style of the civilized world of that time. Many of them were highly educated in Greek literature. … They spoke to the people in their language and in their style.” An integral part of this culture involved the study of rhetoric, a staple of higher education throughout the Roman Empire.

1 Clement is a letter attributed to Clement of Rome (fl. second half of the 1st century ce). It is from a single hand, comprising sixty-five chapters, written from a body of Christ followers in Rome to those in Corinth. It is a long and often rambling writing whose chief aim does not appear until chapters 39–44. Clement, on behalf of the Roman community, advises his audience to restore harmony to the Corinthian church through the reappointment of leaders some have deposed. Parts of the early church treated it as canonical. In Codex Alexandrinus it appears, together with 2 Clement, directly after the Book of Revelation, and in a Syriac manuscript both writings appear before the Apocalypse. Clement of Alexandria quoted the letter as a canonical text. It nowhere states it is from Clement but there are three warrants for accepting the attribution: in the 2nd century Dionysius of Corinth cited him as its author; the Shepherd of Hermas, a document many argue to be contemporary with the writing, identifies a Clement who has the responsibility of sending writings to other cities (Vision 2.4.3), arguably a direct allusion to 1 Clement; the possibility of association as a freed person with the aristocratic family of Titus Flavius Clement and his wife Flavia Domitilla, the latter of whom Eusebius of Caesarea records as persecuted by Domitian for Christian belief. Its chief importance is that it is the earliest preserved Christian letter outside the New Testament. As a text that is contemporary with, if not earlier than, several canonical writings, it offers a snapshot of emergent Christianity in Rome and Corinth. Since its discovery it has played a central role in debates concerning the earliest conceptions of leadership in the ancient church and it is here where most attention has been directed. Scholarly study has also centered on its uses of rhetorical conventions, philosophical traditions, liturgical formulae, and lengthy Old Testament quotations, as well as possible echoes of New Testament texts.