Insularity and Imperial Politics: Hadrian on the Greek Islands

The earliest evidence of synagogue institutions consists of two inscriptions and one papyrus text from mid- to late 3rd-century bce Egypt mentioning the term proseuchē, one of seventeen Greek, Latin, and Hebrew terms used in antiquity that are translated into English as “synagogue.” (It should be noted, however, that some scholars would argue that the term proseuchē—at this time—referred to Jewish temple institutions rather than synagogues.) In the 2nd and 1st century bce, we find an increase in the number of inscriptions and papyri referring to synagogues as well as a greater geographic spread of the remains of synagogues. During this time we also find the first mention of these institutions in literary texts. The earliest architectural remains identified by a majority of scholars as synagogue buildings date from the 2nd or 1st century bce. By the 1st century ce, in addition to the continued and increasing presence of architectural and inscriptional evidence, we find frequent mention of synagogues in literary texts, both Jewish and non-Jewish: Philo, Josephus, the New Testament, and Greco-Roman texts. Geographically, evidence from this time period come from most parts of the Mediterranean world, making a circle with Italy in the west, Hungary and the northern shores of the Black Sea in the north, Syria in the east, and Egypt and Libya in the south. Intriguingly, there are few archaeological remains dating from the 2nd century in the land of Israel (only one edifice, if we follow the dating proposed by the excavators). From the 3rd century onward, and particularly in the 4th and 5th centuries, there is a dramatic increase in synagogue construction. In addition, most of these late antique buildings are, in contrast to earlier synagogues, richly decorated.

Building technology encompasses all human activities involved in the production of buildings, from the alteration of natural resources for the production of building materials to their processing, transport, and assembly. The Greeks made significant contributions to the history of building technology. The Romans perfected several of their innovations, such as techniques for lifting heavy loads, which survived with little change until the Industrial Revolution. This bibliographic article surveys the construction of Greek architecture, along with its economic and social implications. Specifically, it focuses on the construction of monuments, which for the study of Greek construction technologies are paradigmatic for their innovative building methods and the considerable resources they required. This bibliography’s chronological scope thus covers the full range of development of Greek monumental architecture, from approximately the 8th century bce through the Hellenistic period. Our main sources on Greek building technology and methods include the material remains from ancient buildings, or the impressions they left in the ground; the detailed financial accounts that the Greeks kept for major building projects, some of which are known from inscriptions dating from the 5th century onward; the Latin and Greek works of writers such as Vitruvius, Pliny, and Theophrastus, which include valuable information on natural resources, materials, and construction methods; and ancient (especially Roman) illustrations of working craftsmen or machines involved in the building process. Except in the Greek islands, where walls of unworked stones were always common, the first monumental Greek temples of the 8th to mid-7th centuries bce were made predominantly of perishable materials, not much different from ordinary houses. The remains of their mud brick walls, timber posts, and thatch or clay roofs are rarely preserved and difficult to detect archaeologically. The shift to permanent materials began in the first half of the 7th century bce, when temples appeared with roofs of terracotta tiles and walls of stone ashlars. While mud brick walls and thatch or clay roofs continued to be used for houses, terracotta roofing systems and cut-stone masonry soon replaced perishable materials in the construction of monumental architecture. The northern Peloponnese (at Olympia and in the Corinthia) first developed terracotta roof tiles, which soon spread across the Greek world with regional variations. In the early temples at Corinth and Isthmia, terracotta tile roofs were associated with ashlar walls from the outset. Within the first half of the 7th century bce, ashlar masonry also appeared in Ionia, in the first Temple of Hera at Samos. Roof tiles, however, diffused quicker than cut-stone construction, and mud brick was still used for temple walls throughout the Archaic period, and occasionally beyond. Contingent to the development of cut-stone construction were significant advances in transport and lifting methods, which led to the adoption of the crane in the late 6th century bce. The Classical and Hellenistic periods saw further advances in building technology. The loading capacity of lifting machines increased steadily to subsequently reach hundreds of tons in the Roman period. Methods for connecting blocks with metal clamps and dowels were also developed and perfected over time. Until the late Classical period, roof frames usually consisted of post-and-lintel structures. While roof trusses may have been experimented with in Sicily as early as the Archaic period, they seem to have appeared in other Greek areas (especially eastern Greece and the Aegean Islands) no earlier than the Hellenistic period. The references collected in this bibliography are organized in sections that address specific aspects of Greek building technology. Each section reviews a selection of studies on a specific topic and, when available, includes both general introductions intended for students and more specialized works intended for researchers. Not all important studies can be listed here, but readers will find them in the bibliographies of the studies that are included. The materials are organized as follows: General Overviews; Reference Works, Bibliographies; Scholarly Journals; Conference Publications; Literary and Epigraphic Sources; Architectural Design and Construction; Greek Engineering and Technology; Ancient Mechanics and Machines; Architects and Builders; the Economics of Construction; Materials, with an emphasis on stone; the process of Stone Construction, including all major stages from quarrying to the final setting and finishing of blocks; Roofing Systems in Terracotta and Marble; Roof Structures and Ceilings; Near Eastern influences on Greek Building Methods in the Larger Geographical Context and External Influences; Soil Subsidence and Foundations: Ancient Approaches and Archaeological Analysis; and Seismic Analysis, comprising works that examine the earthquake response of ancient Greek buildings. These last works were developed by engineers through a process of numerical analysis and tests on scaled replicas of ancient building components. Only marginally considered by archaeologists and architectural historians, this area of research has produced important results for an understanding of ancient Greek structures and building methods.

The bouleuterion housed the boule or council of a Greek polis in the form of a roofed meeting space. Most, if not all, cities had one; the remains of more than fifty buildings are extant. Although there were also bouleuteria in large sanctuaries and federal capitals, the major examples are urban. Bouleuteria were almost always located near a city’s agora. Over time their architects designed increasingly unobstructed interior spaces. Construction of dedicated bouleuteria began in the late archaic period; earlier councils may have met in porticoes or other buildings. Councils were generally composed of 100–500 bouletai and required a capacious meeting place; the bouleuterion became one of a city’s largest secular buildings. In the 5th and 4th centuries bce, the usual form was a hypostyle hall with symmetrically spaced interior columns, level floors, and seating on benches, as at Argos and Athens. Sloping stone seating was introduced early in the Hellenistic era and became standard; both rectilinear and curvilinear versions are known, the latter much more common. Secondary meeting spaces for committees of prytaneis or probouloi were sometimes adjacent. From c. 250 bce the design of bouleuteria became increasingly ambitious. After adoption of the wooden roofing truss, interior supports could be more widely spaced, as at Priene and Miletus, and eventually eliminated. Often the product of Hellenistic and Roman euergetism, bouleuteria were constructed by private citizens and rulers; sculptures were often dedicated within their precincts. Rare architectural sculpture was limited to motifs symbolizing the council’s role as a defense against a city’s enemies. A majority of known bouleuteria are in Asia Minor, where Greek cities long retained their civic identity under Rome; membership in the council came to signify high status, in some places becoming hereditary. Many bouleuteria were built between the 2nd century bce and 2nd century ce, often incorporated, as at Ephesus and Aphrodisias, into large urban complexes. As multivalent roofed halls, bouleuteria provided useful settings for civic ceremonies and were often used for cultural activities including oratory and spectacle. Later examples became more like odeia or roofed theaters, with vast open interiors, a raised stage, and a two-storey scaenae frons that was separated from the cavea by parodoi and populated by sculptures of benefactors, deities, and emperors. When epigraphical evidence is lacking, identification of a later building as an odeion or bouleuterion can be uncertain; while some roofed halls may have served both functions, location on or near the agora points at least to political use. In Asia Minor some bouleuteria continued into the late antique period; the building at Nysa may have survived until the 10th or 11th century ce.

Founded and ruled by the Arsacid royal family, the Parthian empire (c. 250 bce–227 ce) was the native Iranian empire that filled the power vacuum in the Middle East in the midst of Seleucid decline. Arsacid interaction with the Roman empire began in the mid-90s bce, eventually established the Euphrates river as a shared border, and was peaceful in nature till 54 bce. In that year, the first of four cycles of Parthian-Roman wars began. Since the Romans carried out the initial large-scale mobilization of troops that introduced most of these wars, it is appropriate to associate these four cycles with the various Romans who coordinated the Roman military efforts: (a) Crassus to Antony (54–30 bce); (b) Nero (57–63 ce); (c) Trajan (114–117 ce); and (d) Lucius Verus to Macrinus (161–217 ce). The fundamental causes for these conflicts were Roman imperialism, which was well ingrained by the 1st century bce, and Parthian imperialism, which accelerated in the 2nd century bce, probably accompanied by the Arsacids’ attempts to present themselves as successors to the Achaemenid dynasty. These traditions led the Romans and Parthians to expand their spheres of power such that they came to meet in Armenia and Mesopotamia, over which regions they fought at different points for the three-century period of their empires’ coexistence. Even so, Rome and Parthia enjoyed lengthy periods of peace. Conflict was neither inevitable nor constant. In many cases (particularly in the late 1st century bce and 1st century ce), Romans and Parthians alike preferred peace and succeeded in maintaining it; but they presented diplomatic negotiations and limited military actions in ways that proclaimed hostility and martial victory (real and imagined). In this way, however, the persistent image of conflict conditioned the Roman people, especially, to accept and even expect such war. This aggressive anti-Parthian rhetoric, for example, enabled Emperor Trajan to break with years of peace and invade Mesopotamia (114–117 ce). In this way, the image of Parthian-Roman war was made a reality.

Paleogeographic and historical aspects of the ancient polis functioning on the example of the study of the «Orient» section of the Olbian necropolis

A thorough investigation on Gandharan toilet-trays, taking into consideration archaeological, social and religious data along with iconographic, stylistic and technical issues, is still to be done. The following notes are mainly aimed at suggesting a new perspective in the chronology of these fascinating finds, which, according to an apparently unshakable assumption, have been and are still considered as a bridge linking the Hellenistic (i.e. Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek) period and the threshold of the Kushan epoch. Toilet-trays are commonly thought of as a pre-Gandharan (and pre-Buddhist) chapter in the art of the North-West of the Indian Subcontinent or a preparatory as well as experimental stage (2nd and 1st centuries BCE) of Gandharan sculpture in its proper sense (from the 1st century CE onwards). G. Erdosy’s reconsideration of the archaeological data yielded by J. Marshall’s excavations at Sirkap, and the chronological shift deriving from it, indicate that the picture sketched above might not be the right one: since a major percent of Sirkap toilet-trays is very likely to be dated into the 1st or even the early 2nd century CE, we are compelled to re-evaluate their relationship with Gandharan art.

THE BOOK OF ESTHER: A PERSIAN STORY IN GREEK STYLE

The present study argues that C. Cornelius Cethegus, the follower of Catiline in the conspiracy of 63 BCE,1 participated in the revolt of Lepidus and the Sertorian War by joining the rebel camps.This can be inferred by combining the evidence of Sal.Cat.52.33 and Cic.Sul.70: while the former acknowledges that Cethegus fought against his fatherland on two occasions, the latter attests to how he attempted to slay Q. Metellus Pius while the commander was leading the military operations against Sertorius in Hispania in the '70s.Most of the information that has reached us on Cornelius Cethegus derives from sources on the Catiline conspiracy and details the role he played within the plot.2Cethegus belonged to the Cornelii Cethegi, a prominent Roman family that had given four consuls to the Republic between the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE but was in political decline by the 1st century BCE.3 Modern scholars agree that Cethegus entered the Senate in the '60s, probably after holding the quaestorship,4 and became one of the main leaders of the conspiracy that attempted to overthrow the res publica in 63.1 All dates are BCE unless otherwise specified.2 On Cethegus' involvement in the Conspiracy, see 32.2, 43.

The term “messianism” is derived from the Hebrew word for anointed. The primary anointed figure in ancient Israel was the king, but the High Priest and some prophets were also anointed, and the term “anointed one” could be extended to heavenly, angelic figures. In the Hebrew Bible, “the Lord’s anointed” is the reigning king, but messianism has a future connotation. Native kingship lapsed in Judah after the Babylonian conquest in 586 bce, and messianism was the hope that it would be restored. There is little if any evidence of messianic expectation in the 5th, 4th, 3rd, or even 2nd centuries bce. It was revived in the 1st century bce in opposition to the Hasmoneans (the descendants of the Maccabees), who assumed the kingship although they were not of the Davidic line. The royal messiah was envisioned as a warrior who would drive out the gentiles and restore Israel to an ideal state. In the Dead Sea Scrolls he is accompanied by a priestly messiah who will preside over the cult. Jesus of Nazareth is depicted as a prophetic figure rather than as a warrior, but after his execution his followers believed that he would return as the Son of Man predicted in the Book of Daniel—a warrior, judge, and heavenly messiah. Jewish messianism became dormant again after the revolts of 66–70 and 132–136 ce.

From the Roman conquest to the end of Constantine's reign, the finds in Macedon allow one to examine mainly two categories of large-scale art: sculpture and mosaic floors. The surviving monuments are numerous, whereas wall-paintings are not, but they differ in their chronological duration and, up to a point, in their function. The types and imagery of the funerary monuments of the late Hellenistic and early imperial period show a continuation of Hellenistic tradition. In the imperial period, sculpture flourished in Macedonia. It is easier to trace elements of Romanisation in monuments coming from the Roman colonies. The types of the portrait statues are not new, with the exception of the togati. Of the numerous private portrait statues, honorary and funerary, and of the busts, few examples retain the torso and the head together. The idealistic statues largely reproduce known types of the classical and Hellenistic period. Keywords: early imperial period; funerary monuments; Hellenistic period; Macedon's art; mosaic floors; private portrait statues; Roman period; wall-paintings

This article presents new archaeological observations and multidisciplinary research from Dor, Israel to establish a more reliable relative sea level for the Carmel Coast and Southern Levant between the Middle Bronze Age and the Roman period (ca. 3500–1800 y BP). Our record indicates a period of low relative sea level, around -2.5 m below present, from the Middle Bronze Age to the Hellenistic period (ca. 3500–2200 y BP). This was followed by a rapid rise to present levels, starting in the Hellenistic period and concluding during the Roman period (ca. 2200–1800 y BP). These Roman levels agree with other relative sea-level indications from Israel and other tectonically stable areas in the Mediterranean. Several relative sea-level reconstruction models carried out in the current study provide different predictions due to their parameters and do not model the changes observed from field data which points to a non-isostatic origin for the changes. Long-term low stable Iron Age relative sea level can be seen in Dor, where Iron Age harbor structures remain around the same elevation between ca. 3100–2700 y BP. A similar pattern occurs at Atlit, the Iron Age harbor to the north used continuously from ca. 2900 y BP to the beginning of the Hellenistic period (ca. 2200 y BP). An examination of historical and archaeological sources reveals decline and occasional disappearance of Hellenistic sites along the coast of Israel at ca. 2200 y BP (2nd century BCE), as in the case of Yavneh Yam, Ashdod Yam, Straton’s Tower, and tel Taninim. In Akko-Ptolemais, the large harbor installations built in the Hellenistic period were never replaced by a substantial Roman harbor. The conclusions of this research are thus relevant for the sea-level research community and for the historical analyses of the Israeli and South Levantine coastline.

The I Ching, also known as the Book of Changes, is an ancient Chinese divination text, and it is one of the oldest pieces of Chinese literature.8 The text has been used for well over two millennia as a cultural reference, and has inspired ideas in religion, psychoanalysis, literature, and art. Indeed, the text has had a profound influence on western culture, but it originated as a divination manual in the Western Zhou Period (1000–750 BCE) of Ancient China. Then during the Warring States Period (475–221 BCE) and early Imperial Period, the I Ching was transformed into a cosmological text with a series of philosophical commentaries known as the Ten Wings. After becoming part of the Five Classics in the 2nd century BCE, the I Ching was the subject of scholarly commentary, and the basis for divination practice for centuries across the Far East, and eventually took on an influential role in western understanding of eastern thought. Various modern scholars suggest dates for the original text ranging between the 10th and 4th centuries BCE.

P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus (236/5-183 BC) is best known for his extensive role in Roman expansion throughout the Mediterranean in the late 3rd and early 2nd Centuries BC. His contribution to the Second Punic War, most famously his defeat of Hannibal at the Battle of Zama in 202, and to the Roman-Seleucid War with Antiochus III has naturally resulted in ancient and modern fascination with his military campaigns, strategies, and achievements. Similarly, the development of the ‘Scipionic Legend’ and his reception within Greek and Latin literary traditions has received comprehensive analysis. Yet questions remain to be asked about Scipio’s image and identity, and how they were promoted and received by both Scipio and contemporary audiences in Rome and the Hellenistic world. Existing treatments of his career, such as those of Liddell-Hart (1927), Haywood (1933), Scullard (1970), and Gabriel (2008), have approached him almost exclusively as a military and political figure. In this thesis, however, Scipio will be examined as a figure shaped by Rome’s and his own immersion in the culture of the Hellenistic world during the 3rd and 2nd Centuries BC. It will be argued that the honours and presentation techniques associated with Scipio are by and large products of his own age and that there has been too much emphasis on parallels with figures such as Julius Caesar and on the consequent theory that Scipio’s honours are the product of hindsight. At each stage of Scipio’s public career, he used a combination of Roman and Hellenistic promotional techniques to great effect, engaging with leadership ideals and methods from both cultures to appeal to varying audiences. From his early roles in Rome and Spain, he presented himself in terms of Roman virtues, embodying filial pietas in battle and display, while exploring Hellenistic conceptions of the gods through his personal relationships with Jupiter and Neptune. In Sicily and Africa at the end of the Second Punic War, he further engaged with Greek culture in his manner and dress and established a diplomatic relationship with the Numidian prince, Masinissa, and later with Philip V and Antiochus, that transcended Roman convention. On his travels through Greece and Asia Minor during the war with Antiochus in 190-189, he presented himself as a magnanimous benefactor to local communities and leaders, who responded with honours suitable for a Hellenistic king. His immersion in foreign contexts certainly enhanced opportunities for exploration of Hellenistic technique, but it was equally present in his presentation at Rome. His triumphal procession, his erection of the ‘Arch of Scipio’, and his cultivation of a popular image seem to have drawn on precedents within both Rome and the Hellenistic world. Rome, as part of a broader Mediterranean cultural koine, engaged with and was receptive to Hellenistic culture to a much greater extent than is often acknowledged, and his contemporaries responded to his Hellenistic display with honours and veneration appropriate for a Hellenistic leader, benefactor, or saviour figure. Ultimately, this exploration of Scipio Africanus through a Hellenistic and cultural lens sheds light on the development of Roman elite identity and its engagement with Hellenistic culture during the 3rd and 2nd Centuries BC.

One of the most notable features of ancient Sagunto (Valencia) is its toponymic duality, especially remarkable in coin legends from the 130s BCE onwards, which is an exceptional fact for Hispania Citerior, in both qualitative and quantitative terms. Both toponyms, Arse and Saguntum, are not simultaneously attested in other sources: they are virtually absent in Republican epigraphy and literature only mentions the second one, in diverse variants. This paper analyses the data relative to this double toponymy in order to historically contextualize this phenomenon, linking it with the Latinization of the city and its explicit movements towards Rome during the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE, a process that we propose to articulate in four main milestones, according to the preserved documents. Besides, this paper offers an explanation to the prevalence of the toponym Saguntum (of local origin and possibly referred to the port) regarding Arse (also local and referred to the city), independent from the elaboration of the foundational myth that links the Iberian settlement with the Ionian island of Zacynthos, since it is very likely that this legend was not created until the 1st century BCE

The article focuses on the search for the necropolis of Absyrtus (Apsaros), the son of King Aietes of Colchis, who, according to the myth of the Argonauts, was treacherously killed. The search is located within the Gonio-Apsaros archaeological and architectural reserve, situated on the banks of the Chorokhi River on Georgia’s Black Sea coast. Based on the study of museum exhibits, aerial photographs, and writings by authors from various historical periods, and using simulation modeling, a hypothetical model of Absyrtus necropolis has been developed. This model brings together the following structures into one architectural ensemble: the Mausoleum of Absyrtus, the Temple of Artemis, a theater, and a hippodrome. None of these structures have been discovered to date. History of construction/reconstruction of the hippodrome and theater treated as a single functional system is considered across several working hypotheses, distributed chronologically as follows: during the Roman period (1st century BCE 2nd century CE); from the 8th to 1st centuries BCE; in the 13th century BCE in connection with the concept of Absyrtus necropolis and/or Circe’s mystical space (“Circus Campus”); or even prior to the 13th century BCE. The proposed model is intended for archaeologists, as well as specialists in the history of sports, arts, religion, politics, onomastics, cartography, science management, cognitive studies, and international relations, along with politicians and business figures.