Joke and Wordplay

The Peutinger map and the Antonine itinerary represent two of the most important documents on travelling in the Roman world. With a focus on the three provinces Pannonia, Dacia and Moesia, Florin-Gheorghe Fodorean analyzes and compares the distances registered in these documents of ancient geography. By including data from other ancient sources – the Itinerarium Burdigalense, the Notitia Dignitatum, and the Cosmographia of the Anonymous from Ravenna – and by applying a new combination of methods, the author provides new insights into the Peutinger map and the Antonine itinerary. Fodorean discusses some important ancient literary sources, uses the data provided by milestones and compares the distances between the settlements recorded in the two documents. This new methodological approach leads him to the conclusion that the compilers of these most important documents of ancient geography used different sources.

I begin with a warm welcome for Evangelos Alexiou's Greek Rhetoric of the 4th Century bc, a ‘revised and slightly abbreviated’ version of the modern Greek edition published in 2016 (ix). Though the volume's title points to a primary focus on the fourth century, sufficient attention is given to the late fifth and early third centuries to provide context. As ‘rhetoric’ in the title indicates, the book's scope is not limited to oratory: Chapter 1 outlines the development of a rhetorical culture; Chapter 2 introduces theoretical debates about rhetoric (Plato, Isocrates, Alcidamas); and Chapter 3 deals with rhetorical handbooks (Anaximenes, Aristotle, and the theoretical precepts embedded in Isocrates). Oratory comes to the fore in Chapter 4, which introduces the ‘canon’ of ten Attic orators: in keeping with the fourth-century focus, Antiphon, Andocides, and Lysias receive no more than sporadic attention; conversely, extra-canonical fourth-century orators (Apollodorus, the author of Against Neaera, Hegesippus, and Demades) receive limited coverage. The remaining chapters deal with the seven major canonical orators: Isocrates, Demosthenes, Aeschines, Isaeus, Lycurgus, Hyperides, and Dinarchus. Each chapter follows the same basic pattern: life, work, speeches, style, transmission of text and reception. Isocrates and Demosthenes have additional sections on research trends and on, respectively, Isocratean ideology and issues of authenticity in the Demosthenic corpus. In the case of Isaeus, there is a brief discussion of contract oratory; Lycurgus is introduced as ‘the relentless prosecutor’. Generous extracts from primary sources are provided, in Greek and in English translation; small-type sections signal a level of detail that some readers may wish to pass over. The footnotes provide extensive references to older as well as more recent scholarship. The thirty-page bibliography is organized by chapter (a helpful arrangement in a book of this kind, despite the resulting repetition); the footnotes supply some additional references. Bibliographical supplements to the original edition have been supplied ‘only in isolated cases’ (ix). In short, this volume is a thorough, well-conceived, and organized synthesis that will be recognized, without doubt, as a landmark contribution. There are, inevitably, potential points of contention. The volume's subtitle, ‘the elixir of democracy and individuality’, ties rhetoric more closely to democracy and to Athens than is warranted: the precarious balancing act which acknowledges that rhetoric ‘has never been divorced from human activity’ while insisting that ‘its vital political space was the democracy of city-states’ (ix–x) seems to me untenable. Alexiou acknowledges that ‘the gift of speaking well, natural eloquence, was considered a virtue already by Homer's era’ (ix), and that ‘the natural gift of speaking well was considered a virtue’ (1). But the repeated insistence on natural eloquence is perplexing. Phoenix, in the embassy scene in Iliad 9, makes it clear that his remit included the teaching of eloquence (Il. 9.442, διδασκέμεναι): Alexiou only quotes the following line, which he mistakenly assigns to Book 10. (The only other typo that I noticed was ‘Aritsotle’ [97]. I, too, have a tendency to mistype the Stagirite's name, though my own automatic transposition is, alas, embarrassingly scatological.) Alexiou provides examples of later Greek assessments of fourth-century orators, including (for example) Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Hermogenes, and the author of On Sublimity (the reluctance to commit to the ‘pseudo’ prefix is my, not Alexiou's, reservation). He observes cryptically that ‘we are aware of Didymus’ commentary’ (245); but the extensive late ancient scholia, which contain material from Menander's Demosthenic commentaries, disappointingly evoke no sign of awareness.

Reviewed by: Handbook of Classical Rhetoric in the Hellenistic Period, 330 B.C.-A.D. 400 Terry L. Papillon Stanley E. Porter, ed. Handbook of Classical Rhetoric in the Hellenistic Period, 330 B.C.-A.D. 400. Leiden, New York, and Cologne: E. J. Brill, 1997. xvi 1 901 pp. Cloth, Gld. 430, US $253. This massive collection of essays by various authorities will serve as a good basic introduction to the nature and history of classical rhetoric, even for those working outside the Hellenistic period. Its intentions are several: to provide (1) “a comprehensive and wide-ranging introduction to classical rhetoric as it was practiced in the Hellenistic period,” (2) “a thorough introduction to the standard categories of thought, terminology, and theoretical writing on the subject, along with its history and development,” (3) “an assessment of the use of classical rhetorical categories in a representative selection of literary genres and a number of specific writers of the Hellenistic period,” (4) “relevant examples of each term defined and analyzed,” and (5) “areas warranting further research” (xiii–xiv). It has four intended audiences: scholars working with the New Testament, and with Hellenistic classical, and patristic authors. It succeeds in attaining the five stated goals, and will be useful for the four stated audiences. This is especially true for the first audience, New Testament scholars. It will serve a fifth audience well too: it would be a useful book for graduate students, both in classical and in New Testament studies, since it offers clear presentations of issues and future work, points well to other bibliography, and is so broad in scope as to be a concise literary history of classical and biblical literatures. The book is broken into three larger parts. Part I, “Rhetoric Defined,” includes six chapters of introduction to and overview of the five parts of rhetoric. Kennedy’s two chapters (“Historical Survey of Rhetoric” and “The Genres of Rhetoric”) display his typically clear, magisterial, and thorough presentation of the background material. The next four chapters, on the five parts of rhetoric, serve as preparation for the rest of the book. They are of mixed quality. Wuellner’s chapter on arrangement (3), placed before the chapter on invention, is overly difficult, idiosyncratic, and less helpful than it could be, especially when it follows on Kennedy’s clear and controlled prose. Heath’s chapter on invention (4) is a stimulating change of pace. Rather than offering just a straight discussion of the history of invention (though the discussion of its history is thorough), he works through all aspects of the topic with an actual case before him, the response of Antenor during the Trojan War to the Greek request for the return of Helen. He discusses almost every aspect of invention, with thorough reference to the ancient theorists, as he grapples with the actual situation. This provides a good sense of what an orator would actually go through in the composition process. Rowe’s chapter on style (5) follows the four virtues with an emphasis on examples of ornamentation. He begins with the assertion that “at least three reasons account for its [the four virtues’] influence” (121): it provides a “rich nomenclature,” it offers precepts that “apply to any verbal expression,” [End Page 308] not only that used to persuade, and it provides “criteria for judging style that are sufficiently flexible to allow for changing tastes and requirements.” Part II, “Rhetoric in Practice,” treats various genres in ten chapters: the epistle (J. T. Reed), philosophical prose (D. M. Schenkeveld), historical prose (S. Rebenich), poetry and rhetoric (R. Webb), biography (R. A. Burridge), oratory and declamation (D. H. Berry and M. Heath), homily and panegyrical sermon (F. Siegert), the rhetoric of romance (R. F. Hock), apocalyptic and prophetic literature (J. M. Knight), and drama and rhetoric (R. Scodel). These serve as a useful, if uninspiring, survey of several genres in the Hellenistic period, with appropriate reference to important classical antecedents and post-Hellenistic developments. These essays are, in essence, a brief survey of classical and biblical literature. They are thorough and give the appropriate background information with abundant bibliography for further study. Their most useful function is to provide a backdrop for...

The Dialogue on the Life of St. John Chrysostom (written c. 407/8) has long puzzled modern readers on account of its choice of the dialogue form and its bewildering organization. Its attribution to Palladius of Helenopolis (c. 363-430) has often been contested, too. This article proposes that the dialogue form was chosen to convey the spirit of advocacy that lies at the heart of this composition, and then demonstrates that various compositional decisions can be explained by principles of judicial rhetoric and late antique stasis (issue) theory, particularly those of Hermogenes of Tarsus (c. 160-230) whose rhetorical handbook had become important by the fourth and fifth centuries in rhetorical training. These elements suggest that the author of the Dialogue was well trained in judicial rhetoric and that he composed this work primarily to make a case for John's restoration to the diptychs as bishop, rather than as a biographical or historical record as previously assumed. The influence of stasis theory in this composition also confirms the continued importance of judicial rhetoric in the late empire and bolsters the case for the authorship of Palladius, who had been commissioned by John to investigate charges raised against Antoninus of Ephesus and by Innocent of Rome to petition Arcadius for John's restoration.

The location of the ancient district of Bauli has always had a central role within the archaeological research in the so-called Campi Flegrei, in the Gulf of Naples. Ancient literary sources mentioned this place in relation to the well-known phenomenon of "villa society" that characterized the Gulf of Naples, especially the Baiae-Misenum peninsula. Cicero, Pliny the Elder and Varro mentioned Bauli as the place of the orator Q. Hortensius Hortalus' maritime villa, which was particularly famous for its many fishponds. Other literary sources have contributed to reinforce the thesis, strongly defended by Amedeo Maiuri, that ancient Bauli was located at the place of modern Bacoli, where many remains of fishponds and other ancient buildings are considered to have been part of Hortensius' villa in Bauli. Few eminent scholars - such as Karl J. Beloch - contrasted this theory, proposing a different interpretation of the ancient texts that has led to locate Bauli near the Lucrino Lake, E of Baiae. The goal of this paper is to present new data from GIS spatial analysis that can contribute to evaluate both theories and to answer the question about the location of Bauli. The viewshed analysis tested Cicero's passage stating that from Hortensius' villa in Bauli it would have been possible to see his villa in Pompeii if the distance was shorter. The viewshed rasters calculated for three observation points corresponding to Maiuri's and Beloch's location of Bauli provide new important data for the solution of this topographical question. By relating spatial analysis to the information reported by the ancient sources, together with the archaeological traces, it is possible to confirm the hypothesis that Bauli was located between Baiae and Misenum, in the modern town of Bacoli.

This thesis examines the role anecdotes, apophthegmata, and exempla play in the historiography of the Macedonian king Philip II in the Roman world - from the first century BCE to the fourth century CE. Most of the material examined comes from moral treatises, collections of tales and sayings, and military works by Greek and Latin authors such as Plutarch, Valerius Maximus, Aelian, Polyaenus, Frontinus, and Stobaeus (supplemented with pertinent material from other authors). This approach will show that while many of the tales surely originate from the earlier Greek world and Hellenistic times, the use and manipulation of the majority of them and the presentation of Philip are the product of a world living under Roman political and cultural domination. This thesis is divided into six chapters. Chapter one defines and discusses anecdotal material in the ancient world. Chapter two examines two emblematic ancient authors (Plutarch and Valerius Maximus) as case studies to demonstrate in detail the type of analysis required by all the authors of this study. Following this, the thesis then divides the material of our authors into four main areas of interest, particularly concerning Philip as a king and statesman. Therefore, chapter three examines Philip and justice. Chapter four looks at Philip and tales of criticism and self-control. Chapter five studies Philip and tales of friendship and politics. The final chapter examines material mostly of a military nature (though not exclusively), and concerns Philip as a warrior and general. All these studies show in the end that the tales of Philip II speak to a wider perspective than their internal details would at first suggest. Instead they are an important part of the Roman world’s evolving dialogue on politics, power, war and society. This thesis argues that one notable role of this material was to present Philip didactically as a largely positive exemplar during the Roman Empire, particularly in terms of monarchy, statesmanship and generalship. Though negative tales also do exist, these seem to have their roots in the more hostile traditions that followed closely the works of authors such as Demosthenes and Theopompus and are less popular. All these tales allowed for an engagement with Philip’s legacy on a broad social spectrum. However, this connection occurred particularly within elite circles. Here the dissemination of Philippic tales through rhetorical handbooks, education, speeches, collections of sayings and tales, panegyric, and military handbooks gave rise to a wealth of flexible and recognizable images of Philip as a model and paradigm for a class of Roman and Greek politicians and intellectuals who faced the realities of autocratic government. However, Philip’s tales were also heavy in social and civic symbolism and values which could be applied to any and all individuals. Therefore, the themes, virtues and morals of Philip’s diverse reception provided an image and exemplar which easily traversed age and social class. In conclusion, this thesis emphasises a practice by which Philip and his image were appropriated and manipulated to become important touchstones for social, civic, and governmental values during the constant political and cultural evolutions taking place in the Roman world as it moved from republic to entrenched empire.

Frankness is not a quality one naturally associates with Themistius, that most sinuous of the fourth century's official spokesmen, but the opening of his first speech (‘On the Love of Mankind’) is disarmingly frank. Invited to address Constantius II at Ancyra in the spring of 342, the young orator had an unusually difficult brief: violent riots in Constantinople had recently seen Hermogenes (a senior general) killed by a mob, relations with Constans (emperor in the west) were tense and war with Persia was rumbling away on the eastern frontier. The situation surely called for cliché — the familiar refuge of the panegyrist in a tight spot — but Themistius responded with a rather daring candour. Not for him some faltering introduction of the various themes set out in the rhetorical handbooks. Instead, he opened by offering his listeners an expert's guide to the tropes of conventional panegyric: those familiar descriptions of magnificent armies, glittering imperial adornment and the emperor's physical vigour (Or. 1.2a–b) to which his courtly audience must have been almost numb. With these curtly dismissed as so much hackwork, he delivered a boldly original oration: a philosophical treatment of the emperor's inner virtue. It is quite a performance. One can see why so many and such different emperors found themselves in need of Themistius’ eloquence.

Panegyrics and descriptions of cities were based on the rules found in rhetorical handbooks, the best known example being the late 3rd century AD treatise How to Praise a City by Menander the Rhetor. Encomia and ekphraseis of cities were written either as independent texts, usually orations given on some special occasion, or as descriptions of urban landscapes embedded in various types of literary works. Visual representations of cities were very widespread on mosaic pavements in churches of the Middle East. The motif of an enclosed fortress, from which densely packed rooves of houses with the dome of a church in their midst projected, which constituted the typical iconographical convention for depicting cities in Byzantine visual culture from the 8th century on, remained in use up to the end of the empire in the mid-15th century. The flourishing of literary descriptions is not paralleled by a similar effort in visualizing urban landscapes in late Byzantine art. .

Konigsberg and Prussia in Life and Works of Jan Kochanowski Researchers interested in Jan Kochanowski have paid little attention to the impact of German Humanism – as represented in Konigsberg – on both the writing and the life of the poet. The aim of this article is: first, to present literary sources testifying to the poet’s stay in the capital of the Duchy of Prussia and his contacts with Prince Albert von Hohenzollern and humanists from the Albertina University; and second, to discuss Kochanowski’s view of Prussia (both Royal Prussia and the Duchy of Prussia) in his poems, and the possible influences of Georg Sabinus upon the Polish poet’s works. So far the connections of the Polish poet with Konigsberg University (Albertina) and the court of the Prussian prince (actually duke) Albert Hohenzollern have been researched in the majority by Stanislaw Kot, to whom we owe the publication of Kochanowski’s letter to the prince and his reply, and Janusz Mallek, who has verified Kot’s intuitional remarks using sources from the Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preusischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin, but only from an historian’s biographical perspective. Kochanowski went to Konigsberg for the first time in summer or autumn 1551 and stayed until the following spring. He returned for a second visit in spring 1555 and remained at least until mid-1556. The Polish poet’s second stay in the Prussian capital, especially, has been well documented thanks to Kochanowski’s autographed letter written to Prince Albert on April the 6th, 1556, and the prince’s reply dated April the 15th. Moreover, important information is recorded in the Prussian court’s expenditure accounts (Ausgabe-Bucher) from 1555 and 1556. These documents give explicit evidence of the Polish poet’s links with the ducal court. They also give implicit proof of his relations with humanists from the university (Georg Sabinus, the first rector of the Albertina) and the court. Of all Kochanowski’s works, the most important source for his feelings towards Prussia is his Proporzec albo Hold pruski. He celebrates there the homage paid in 1569 to Sigismund Augustus by Albert Frederic (1553–1618), the son of Prince Albert, whom Kochanowski introduces as the very model of a good monarch: a virtuous, faithful and wise prince (v. 25–36). Whereas it is Royal Prussia itself that is praised by the poet in his Satyr albo dziki mąz (v. 85-90). Less known is the fact that Kochanowski’s poetry was influenced not only by Italian but also by German humanists: by the authors of handbooks of poetics and rhetoric such as Philipp Melanchthon or Joachim Camerarius, and especially by the poetry and theoretical treatises (e.g. Fabularum Ovidii interpretatio) of Georg Sabinus (1508–1560). The paper’s author concludes that the period (in total two years) which the young poet spent in the Duchy of Prussia was important for at least three reasons: the experiences gained at the court of Prince Albert definitely helped the poet in his further career as a courtier of Sigismund Augustus; ducal patronage helped Kochanowski in at least one trip to Italy; and the ducal library and acquaintance with Georg Sabinus obviously influenced the poetry (especially Latin poetry) of Jan of Czarnolas.

Greek colonists drew by lot equal First Lots (protoi kleroi) that constituted a minimum holding and a discrete category (inalienable and kept whole). No ancient source reports or even imagines an alternative, illustrating a ubiquitous mindset and conventions spreading through Small-World dynamics. Egalitarianism and equality are not synonyms: material differentiation became apparent quickly, expressing the tension between elite and egalitarian vectors. A new land was supposedly “empty” (eremos chora), ready for a superimposed egalitarian parcellation. Inscribed foundation decrees (always prescriptive) express such conventions. Aside from the nucleus, "whoever wished" (provided they were Greeks) could join, thus contributing to the spread of conventions. Distributive lotteries imply a self-aware, defined, exclusive community. The chapter discusses parallelism and interdependence between inheritance and colonization. It further discusses nomima and the integrative role of lotteries in absorbing new citizens or resolving a civil conflict. The second part discusses ancient literary sources, “First Lots” (protoi kleroi), equality, and egalitarianism. Three endnotes provide detailed discussions: (1) The cui bono argument and the ancient sources; (2) isomoiria; (3) women and the kleros.

Reviewed by: The Crimes of Elagabalus: The Life and Legacy of Rome’s Decadent Boy Emperor by Martijn Icks Charmaine Gorrie Martijn Icks. The Crimes of Elagabalus: The Life and Legacy of Rome’s Decadent Boy Emperor. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2012. Pp. 304. CDN $33.44. ISBN 9780674064379. Although not as well known as Caligula or Nero, Elagabalus ranks among the more notorious Roman emperors. He is portrayed in the ancient sources as a cruel, cross-dressing, sexually depraved religious fanatic who transgressed Roman sexual and religious taboos, going so far as to marry a Vestal Virgin. With such press, it is not surprising that Elagabalus has enjoyed an interesting legacy in both ancient and more modern times. In The Crimes of Elagabalus: The Life and Legacy of Rome’s Decadent Boy Emperor, it is Martijn Icks intent to examine both how this emperor has been constructed as one of Rome’s bad emperors in ancient literature and how he has been perceived [End Page 269] and reinvented in later times (5). The book is divided into two parts: the first reconstructs and interprets events during Elagabalus’ reign and the second describes and examines how the emperor has been perceived and reinvented through the ages. One of the problems with the study of a figure such as Elagabalus is to sort fact from fiction. In the first three chapters, Icks tries to determine “what happened” during the years ad 218–222. Recognizing the limitations and biases of the ancient literary sources writing about this period, and the tendency of modern scholarship to rely on these sources in their analysis, Icks argues that by including material culture such as coins, statues, papyri, inscriptions, and archaeological remains a more balanced account can be achieved. Using these resources, Icks examines how Elagabalus came to the throne, how much power he actually had, and what the regime hoped to accomplish. The emperor’s young age (he came to the throne when he was barely 14) necessitated that others were probably in charge. The emperor’s family from Emesa, which had played an important role in placing Elagabalus on the throne, had substantial control of affairs, but Icks also suggests that there was support and influence from a pro-Severan faction in Rome that included senators and equestrians. These men would have benefited politically from having the “heir” of Caracalla as emperor. Although Elagabalus is heavily criticized by the ancient sources for the way that he governed, Icks comes to the conclusion that in terms of political and economic reforms the reign was uneventful and the administration of the empire went on without disruption. He argues, in fact, that compared to the upheaval that was to come Elagabalus’ reign can be considered one of the most tranquil and peaceful periods of the third century (88). In this section, Icks also questions the view that Elagabalus’ reign represented a clash between the Syrian “East” and the Roman “West.” He points out that the emperor came from the local elite at Emesa, who had been Roman citizens for two centuries, and had spent some of his childhood in Caracalla’s court. He would therefore not have been a total stranger to Roman culture, nor would those who advised him. At the beginning of the reign, during the years ad 218–220, Icks shows that in order to shore up support the regime presented the emperor in a highly traditional manner. Taking the official name Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, he was portrayed through coinage, inscriptions, and portraiture as the legitimate heir descended from Caracalla and the Antonines. Blessed by the gods, he would re-establish the dynasty and a period of peace and prosperity. Icks argues that Elagablus veered from Roman ways only at the end of ad 220 when the religious reforms were implemented and the emperor was voted “sacerdos amplissimus dei invicti Solis Elagabali” by the senate. The god Elagabal was now promoted to chief deity at the expense of the traditional Roman pantheon, but the intent was never to establish a monotheistic religion, as others have suggested. Icks suggests that the elevation of Elagabal may have been at the instigation of the emperor himself, who...

The aim of this article is to attempt to locate and reconstruct the extent of the engineering work undertaken during the reigns of Emperors Diocletian (285–305 AD) and Constantius II (337–361 AD) at the seaport of Seleucia Pieria, Syria. Accordingly, the article also aims to determine the state of the port infrastructure and the utility of the port of Seleucia in the fourth century AD. The article analyses various ancient and Byzantine sources, with key texts by the rhetor Libanius, mainly Speech XI (“In the Praise of Antioch”) and Speech XX (“To Emperor Theodosius. On Reconciliation”), as well as selected letters by Libanius and rhetorical exercises. The article also discusses various hypotheses and theories of contemporary authors, thus providing an overview of the state of knowledge to date and identifying research perspectives.

This paper presents the results of a study of Anglo‐Saxon style pottery in the northern Netherlands and north‐western Germany, involving macroscopic and microscopic analysis of fabrics and finish. Both regions show similar developments in form and decoration in the pottery of the fourth and fifth centuries ad, the late Roman and Migration period, resulting in the typical decoration and shapes that are known as the Anglo‐Saxon style. In the northern Netherlands, this style is traditionally associated with Anglo‐Saxon immigrants. It has, however, been suggested that this style was, rather, part of an indigenous development in areas in the northern Netherlands where occupation was continuous, though influenced by stylistic developments in north‐western Germany. That hypothesis is supported by the analysis of fabrics and finish presented here. The characteristic of fabrics and surface treatment indicate technological continuity. The use of local clay sources for Anglo‐Saxon style pottery and for contemporary regional types indicates that most of the Anglo‐Saxon style pottery in the northern Netherlands was not brought by Anglo‐Saxon immigrants or as imports, but must have been made locally. That applies to settlements with continuous habitation, as well as settlements in the coastal area that were not inhabited during the fourth century ad.

Reviewed by: Roman North Africa: Environment, Society and Medical Contribution by L. Cilliers Jessica Wright Cilliers, L. 2019. Roman North Africa: Environment, Society and Medical Contribution. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. Pp. 256. ISBN 978-94-6298-990-0. €95.00. This is the first book-length work in English to take late-antique Roman North African medical authors as its focus, but it represents a rising interest in the social context and popularization of learned medicine in Late Antiquity. The extraction and clear presentation of information about and from late-antique medical works is welcome indeed. In this book, Cilliers accomplishes three central tasks: she synthesizes the limited knowledge we have about late-antique medical writers in Roman North Africa, she situates these writers against the backdrop of ancient and late-antique medicine, Roman North Africa, and the rise of Christianity, and she makes the fairly obscure medical texts of Late Antiquity accessible to a wider audience of scholars and students. Following a series of introductory chapters, Cilliers offers individual discussions of key late-antique medical authors closely associated with North Africa: Vindicianus (mid-/late fourth century ce), Theodorus Priscianus (late-fourth and early-fifth centuries ce), Caelius Aurelianus (fourth or fifth century ce), Cassius Felix (fifth century ce), and Muscio (fifth or sixth century ce). The information available for each of these authors is sparse, and Cilliers is careful not to speculate further than is justified by the existing evidence. The final third of the book moves on to consider the role of Christianity in the preservation and transformation of learned medicine in late-antique Roman North Africa, focusing especially upon the fourth-/fifth-century bishop Augustine of Hippo. The first chapter, 'History, environment, population and cultural life' (pp. 15–56), is the longest in the book. It offers a cultural history of North Africa from Punic settlement in c. 800 bce to Islamic settlement in the seventh century ce. Cilliers organizes this survey around key themes: important cities; olive and wheat production, as well as red-slip pottery; people groups (Berbers, Ethiopians, Phoenicians, Greeks, Vandals); languages; and intellectual life. This chapter is an impressively deft account of a broad range of scholarship on North African cultural history in Antiquity. It is marred in parts by its presentation from a Romanocentric perspective, as reflected in the absence of 'Romans' from the list of people groups accounted for. The Romans are not the object of study, but the lens. This results in some infelicities that seem out of step with Cilliers' own agenda. While Cilliers does point out to the reader that 'a negative view of the Berbers' has, in recent decades, been 'repudiated as Eurocentric' (p. 43), this very perspective manifests itself in the text through valorization of Roman imperialism, as on p. 23: [End Page 258] 'The revival under Byzantine rule … had the benefit that the high level of civilisation of the previous centuries was maintained, with the result that the Arabs' inheritance was not that left by the Vandals and Berbers, but that of cultured people who could still read and write and remembered what the Romans had taught them.' Chapters Two through Four provide background information on ancient medicine in its social context. Chapter Two, 'Health facilities in the cities of Roman North Africa' (pp. 57–78), offers a useful guide to aqueducts in the Roman Empire in general, and in Roman North in particular, to the public baths, and to sewers; it also includes a discussion of hospitals, including military hospitals. Chapter Three, 'Greek, Roman and Christian views on the causes of infectious epidemic diseases' (pp. 79–96), offers a brief account of the development of learned medicine and rationalistic explanations of disease, a discussion of ancient views on contagion, and a brief account of epidemics known from literary sources. As Cilliers emphasizes, bacteriology is a modern discovery, and the closest that ancient sources come to theorizing contagion is in theories of pollution or transmission through airbourne 'seeds'. Chapter Four, 'The knowledge and competence of physicians in the late Roman Empire' (pp. 97–116), gives an account of state regulation of the medical profession (drawing on information from late-antique legal digests) and surveys what...

In an age when size really did matter, the length of the long pike (sarissa) employed by armies of the Hellenistic Age (c. 350-168 BC) was consistently altered by successive armies trying to gain an advantage over their opponents. These alterations are well attested in the ancient sources — albeit in an ancient Greek unit of measure. But how big were these pikes in terms of modern units of measure? This has been a topic of scholarly debate for some time. This article engages with these debates, and the evidence and theories that these arguments are based upon. A critical review of this evidence not only allows the changing length of thesarissato be calculated in a modern unit of measure, but also examines descriptions in the ancient sources that suggest the forerunner to the Hellenistic pike phalanx was created a generation before the rise of Macedon as a military power in the mid fourth century BC. This, in turn, allows for the configuration of one of the weapons that changed the face of warfare in the ancient world to be much better understood.