Oxford Classical Research Articles

N. J. Sewell-Rutter: Guilt by Descent. Moral Inheritance and Decision Making in Greek Tragedy.

N. J. Sewell-Rutter: Guilt by Descent. Moral Inheritance and Decision Making in Greek Tragedy. Oxford: Oxford UP 2007. XIII, 202 S. (Oxford Classical Monographs.) 45 £.

The Fate of Humanism in Greek Tragedy

The Fate of Humanism in Greek Tragedy Richard Rader Guilt by Descent: Moral Inheritance and Decision Making in Greek Tragedy. Oxford Classical Monographs, by N. J. Sewell-Rutter, 202 pp. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007, $90.00. The ancient Greeks seem to us the paradigmatic fatalists, their literature grappling with the unequal relationship between gods and humans. Perhaps for this reason we call them superstitious. We no longer believe a Zeus or Apollo is pulling strings behind the scenes of the sensible world, but we are more Greek than perhaps we know. For fate is everywhere these days. 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina were both called acts of divine retribution. Popular television shows like Lost and Heroes insist that everything happens for a reason. The sales of astrological and New-Age books and paraphernalia are booming. The advertisements for psychics and clairvoyants are nearly inescapable. What could explain our fascination with the supernatural? Our modern, secular world is driven almost entirely by unregulated globalization, so the pervasiveness of the Fate industry, with its language of guidance and determinism, is surprising. This situation reflects a contradiction between official and unofficial belief, for we are ready to believe there is a larger purpose behind seemingly random events, that our futures, however shadowy, have a definite shape. This raises thorny questions: If forces beyond our control or comprehension are influencing our lives, what happens to choice? If our decisions are predetermined to [End Page 442] fit within a more meaningful order of existence, what space is left for human action? How are we to conceive of ethics in a world studiously indifferent to our choices? Few understood the importance of these questions better than the Greeks, whose literature dealt with a central theological concern: What is (a) god? And how does god affect, impinge upon, or even enable human freedom? Tragedy holds the preeminent position with regard to these questions, engaging and re-imagining the relationship between humans and gods familiar to Homer, and doing so for precise reasons. Tragedy both resonates with the thematic fixations of Homeric poetry (heroes, Übermenschen, aristocrats) and diverges significantly from it. Compare, by way of example, a scene from Book 1 of the Iliad with Aeschylus' Eumenides. Near the end of Book 1, after the Greeks have been ravaged for days by plague, Agamemnon and Achilles find themselves in serious conflict over the solution to their plight. Achilles, with the approval of the rest of the Greek army, suggests Agamemnon simply give back the girl Chryseis to her father, a proposal Agamemnon angrily rejects by threatening to take Achilles' girl Briseis in return. As Achilles in his anger poises to draw his sword and kill Agamemnon, Athena, prompted by Hera, arrives and prevents him from doing so. The gods' intervention in this episode, direct and unmistakable, suggests two things: First and foremost, gods play an active role in the course of the war, indeed even have personal stakes in it. Many of them have children involved, and others simply like the Greeks or Trojans for their own reasons. Second and more importantly, they intervene not only to influence the action, but also to forestall the consequences of decisions that are unforeseeable to the humans making them. (For all his justifiable rage, Achilles cannot foresee that killing Agamemnon is a disastrous move.) Human decisions and actions by themselves are short-sighted and dangerous. The gods are a necessary check on human impulse, a buffer between thought and action. Contrast this episode with the plight of Orestes in Aeschylus' Eumenides. After Orestes has "justifiably" killed his mother to avenge his father Agamemnon (citing the authority of the god Apollo), he is hounded by the pus-oozing, acid-breathing Furies, punishers of kin-bloodshed. When Apollo arrives to defend Orestes (the first divine intervention in the whole Oresteia), he cannot simply save him like Athena saves Achilles. He must risk submitting Orestes to the bloody but lawful authority of the Furies. Even he, a god, cannot prevent the consequences of Orestes' [End Page 443] actions. Unlike Homer then, Aeschylus abstracts direct divine intervention. Apollo is there for Orestes, but he is no longer flicking away spears on the battlefield like...

Accidence and Acronyms

This article describes the process of design and implementation of GALACTICA (`Greek And Latin Accidence Consolidation Training, Internet-Centred Assessment') in support of the University of Oxford's Classics Faculty language consolidation classes. The context and aims of the previous paper-based `assessment' system are considered (being unusual in a university setting) and their significance for the move to an electronic system are addressed: student motivation for revision of basic grammar was the prime aim, and this is retained and enhanced with the electronic system while valuable class time is freed up for language instruction. Technical issues relating to assessment in classical languages and in the Oxford setup are highlighted and their resolution outlined, while questions regarding potential problems (with cheating etc.) are also dealt with.

Animal sacrifice in ancient Greek religion, Judaism, and Christianity, 100 BC to AD 200. By Maria-Zoe Petropoulou. (Oxford Classical Monographs.) Pp. xii+336. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. £60. 978 0 19 921854 7

Animal sacrifice in ancient Greek religion, Judaism, and Christianity, 100 BC to AD 200. By Maria-Zoe Petropoulou. (Oxford Classical Monographs.) Pp. xii+336. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. £60. 978 0 19 921854 7 - Volume 60 Issue 2

Statius, "Silvae" 5 (Oxford Classical Monographs) by Bruce Gibson

414 PHOENIX on 4.251. Rosati evinces a greater interest than Barchiesi in possible etymological wordplay in the Metamorphoses (but cf. Barchiesi's note on 3.10-13, with its somewhat improbable noteon theetymology ofBoeotia), with numerousnotes that might elicitsome skepticism from readers less persuaded about the centrality of this trope to Ovid's purposes. He is also more prone to interrupt the commentary with paraphrasing headnotes, a feature that introduces a slight formal discrepancy with Barchiesi's commentary. Again, largely, one assumes, because of the intended scope of the commentary, there is less attention to verbal detail and there remains considerable scope for probing deeper. So, for instance, when the Sunwraps up his high-falutin'introduction ofhimselftoLeucothoe at 4.226 onemight ask iftheresonanceofmihi (crede) places isreally onlyelegiac,asRosati notes,because the phrase is attested in Propertius, rather than colloquial. Part of Ovid's art is his deftness at mixing lexical registers to impart characterization: here the all-seeing sun-god can do no betterafter his opening addressthantoblurtout "I likeyou,believeyoume!" There ismuch to applaud and littletoquibble about in this welcome contributionto the interpretation of the Metamorphoses. Exhortation too is limited to the hope that future volumeswill speedily findtheir way intoprint. University of Colorado Peter Knox Statius, Silvae 5. Edited with Introduction, Translation, and Commentary. By Bruce Gibson. Oxford:OxfordUniversityPress (Oxford ClassicalMonographs). 2006. Pp. Hii,492. The fifth book of the Silvae was almost certainly published after the author's death sometime in a.d. 96. There are five poems: a consolation toAbascantus, Domitian's ab epistulis, on thedeath ofhiswife Priscilla; praise forCrispinus on thebeginningofwhat promises to be a glorious career like his father's; Statius' lament for his own father; a short prayer to Somnus; and an unfinished lament for a child in Statius' household. Bruce Gibson's valuable commentary documents and illuminates many problems in the Silvae. He begins with a brief, standard review of Statius' vita (xvii-xviii). His general discussion starts from Statius' contradictory protestations of hasty writing and high literary ambitions (xviii-xxviii). There are many interesting comments on other Silvae, for example on Silvae 2.7, where he argues against the common interpretation that Statius writes hendecasyllables inLucan's honour because his hexameters are not worthy of Lucan and suggests rather that Statius is afraid his hexameters will be better than Lucan's (xxi). Gibson groups the discussion of Statius' six laments and consolations in the introduction (xxxi-1), presumably warned by F. Ahl's criticism ofH.-J. van Dam's commentary on Silvae 2 (Phoenix 40 [1986] 361), and focusesonwhether consolationscan or shouldbe effective. Gibson provideshis own text ofSilvae 5. It is well-judged, neithertimidly conservative likeA. Marastoni's Teubner (1961) norwilfullyradical likeD. R. ShackletonBailey's Loeb (2003). The discursive passages on textual issues are the core of the commentary and provide excitingproofof thevalue of textualcriticism.They could be used in any Latin literature class to show students how much texts can vary and why it is necessary to read the apparatus. He usefully summarizes translations of different readings and weighs the sense and style of the possibilities, treating other editors with much more courtesy than,for example,J.A. Willis, "The Silvae of Statius and theirEditors," Phoenix 20 (1966) 305-324. His commentson the applicabilityof parallelpassages are particularly BOOKREVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 415 helpful. Gibson is very sensitive to the rhetorical requirements of a poem and to Latin usage in Statius and ultimately bases his own text on what makes most sense. Although he occasionally mentions technical arguments such as what kind of scribal mistake ismost likely,theyare not as relevantfor theSilvae as they may be for textsattestedby older and better manuscripts. Gibson proposes a number of emendations of his own (5.1.66, 5.1.83,5.1.191,5.2.54,5.3.42,5.3.105,5.3.217,5.3.240,5.5.1,5.5.11,5.5.70,5.5.80, and 5.5.85). Very occasionallyhis discussion is inconclusive(5.1.92-93 and 5.3.99), but he is readierthanE. Courtney (OCT 1990) toprintsomething plausible ratherthanobelize. One reason Gibson's text ismore complete than Courtney's is that the format of the Oxford series requires...

Feeding the Democracy: The Athenian Grain Supply in the Fifth and Fourth Centuries B.C. (Oxford Classical Monographs) by Alfonso Moreno

Feeding the Democracy: The Athenian Grain Supply in the Fifth and Fourth Centuries B.C. (Oxford Classical Monographs) by Alfonso Moreno

Civic Obligation and Individual Liberty in Ancient Athens (Oxford Classical Monographs) by Peter Liddel

Civic Obligation and Individual Liberty in Ancient Athens (Oxford Classical Monographs) by Peter Liddel

Statius, Silvae 5. Edited with an introduction, translation, and commentary by Bruce Gibson.

Statius, Silvae 5. Edited with an introduction, translation, and commentary by Bruce Gibson. Oxford: Oxford UP 2006. LII, 492 S. 1 Abb. (Oxford Classical Monographs.).

Episcopal Elections 250–600: Hierarchy and Popular Will in Late Antiquity. By Peter Norton. Oxford Classical Monographs. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. xii + 275 pp. $99.00 cloth.

Episcopal Elections 250–600: Hierarchy and Popular Will in Late Antiquity. By Peter Norton. Oxford Classical Monographs. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. xii + 275 pp. $99.00 cloth. - Volume 77 Issue 4

Episcopal elections, 250–600. Hierarchy and popular will in late antiquity. By Peter Norton. (Oxford Classical Monographs.) Pp. xi+271. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. £55. 978 0 19 920747 3

Episcopal elections, 250–600. Hierarchy and popular will in late antiquity. By Peter Norton. (Oxford Classical Monographs.) Pp. xi+271. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. £55. 978 0 19 920747 3 - Volume 59 Issue 4

:Divine Qualities: Cult and Community in Republican Rome.(Oxford Classical Monographs.)

:Divine Qualities: Cult and Community in Republican Rome.<i>(Oxford Classical Monographs.)</i>

Propertius: Elegies Book IV (review)

Reviewed by: Propertius: Elegies Book IV Elaine Fantham Gregory Hutchinson. Propertius: Elegies Book IV. Cambridge Greek and Latin Authors. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Pp. xi, 258. $90.00 (hb.). ISBN 0-521-81957-1; $32.99 (pb.). ISBN 0-521-52561-6. Propertius’ last book offers elegy at its most vivid and varied, a feast for the reader’s emotions and imagination. For me it is the high point of Roman elegy, which Ovid can surpass in wit and metrical skill, but not in passion or power. So it was welcome news that Hutchinson’s commentary on book IV was due out in Cambridge University Press’ affordable paperback series, especially since Hutchinson was adding to his own considerable experience as a close reader and critic of Latin texts the fruit of his consultations with Stephen Heyworth, editor of the forthcoming Oxford Classical Text of Propertius. In recent years, teachers of Propertius were able to share with their students Camps’ commentaries on individual books (book 4 in 1965), then Richardson’s useful commentary covering all four books (1978; repr. 2006), and most recently the bold insights of George Goold’s Loeb Classical Library text and translation. But Propertius, whether from his abrupt dislocations of thought or later dislocations and distortions in the tradition, is a tough challenge to editors (Housman never brought himself to publish his own text), however stimulating for students with fewer scruples about Latinity. The poet’s self-irony and pathos, along with his instinct for dramatic characterization, reaches a peak in his representation of women virtuous (4.3 and 4.11), vicious (4.4 and 4.5), and recriminatory and tempestuous (4.7 and 4.8), and of comic figures like the transvestite Vertumnus and Hercules. Innocence of Latin usage can even help to engage students’ imaginations. But they do need help with syntax, and unfortunately Hutchinson has sacrificed more elementary notes, not just to previous guidance on Propertius’ Callimachean and Augustan literary models (on which Hutchinson is superb) or on artistic and cultural context, but to textual discussions which can only intimidate the new reader. This is probably why the Loeb Library asks editors to avoid obelizing, and Richardson sought to be “as conservative as is consistent with the production of readable poetry, keeping to a minimum obeloi and bracketed interpolations,” and “transposing only single couplets within a single poem” (21). What Hutchinson has given us is not a Green and Yellow student-oriented edition, but a commentary more fitted to Cambridge’s scholarly Orange series, like the admirable Ciris of his teacher, Oliver Lyne. Thus, Hutchinson’s introduction compresses to a minimum Propertius’ place in the history of elegy and his own poetic evolution, and concentrates on exploring the continuity or discontinuity, the contrasts and echoes, offered by successive poems. For the teacher this will be as stimulating as the extraordinary range of cross-references to both ancient poetry and secondary [End Page 563] discussions; but here too lack of space prevents Hutchinson from quoting parallel phrases or arguments, and many of his modern sources will only be available in the richest libraries. The space consumed by Hutchinson’s scrupulous doubts about points of texts has been stolen from more basic material. As early as 4.1.8, Hutchinson obelizes Tiberis nostris advena †bubus erat†, but his substitute bubus iit (the verb form is not found in Propertius) is no improvement. Or take 4.4: Page 38 (4.55–82) starts with an unseemly emendation (dic . . . pariamne? “shall I give birth”), prints three obeloi and excises 73–74, although the lines neatly contrast the city’s first anniversary with the primitive pastoral Parilia: “this began as the first birthday for the walls, annual feasting for the shepherds and sport in the city.” And Hutchin-son simply drops 4.17–18 without trying to find it another position in the elegy. Hutchinson rightly questions iniustae praemia sortis (Propertius sees Tarpeia’s fate as well deserved) and his proposal incestae . . . amoris fits perfectly. But could any scribe garble such an obvious idea? Instead I wish Hutchinson had discussed more fully how Propertius handles the unelegiac but patriotic theme of combat in 4.6 and 4.10...

Pindar and the Cult of Heroes by Bruno Currie

BOOK REVIEWS Pindarand theCult ofHeroes.By BRUNO CURRIE. Oxford Classical Monographs. Oxfordand New York:OxfordUniversityPress,2005. Pp. xv + 501. Cloth,$125.00.ISBN 0-19-927724-9. BrunoCurrie'sprimarygoal inthisbook is toinvestigatewhether "a literary motivationforthenumerousallusions to hero cultin Pindar 's odes [is] to be found in theprospectofheroic honours forthe addressee" (p. vii). The intended audience forthe volume includes bothPindarscholarsand specialistsinGreekreligion.The arguments, presentedas threeparts subdivided intofifteen chapters,are incremental and too detailed to summarize fullyhere; the conclusion in favorofheroichonors fortheaddressees oftheodes restson the cumulativeforceofthese arguments.Even ifone does not findthethesis convincing,thestudyprovides a freshand originalperspectiveon Pindar,and raises interesting questionsaboutheroiccultas well. In PartI (Chs. 1-5), "Some Themesin Hero Cult: Homer and Pindar ," C. first considers and compares perceptionsofdeath and mortalityin the Iliad,the Odysseyand Pindar's extantworks. Especially in theIliad,Homer is found to expressan "austere,minimalist"view ofdeath and the afterlife, not because thiswas the only view when thepoems were composed, but because morerobust and optimistic popular views, laterrecognizable in Pindar,weresuppressed in epic. Further, theboundaries betweenimmortalandmortalstatusare more permeable in Pindar (who recognizes a special status in the afterlife forAchilles, Diomedes and others)thanin theIliad, where mention ofheroiccultis avoided. The careerofthehero,so oftenfollowinga pattern inwhichtrialsand testsarerewardedwithimmortality and /or cult,can be viewed as a paradigm forthelaudandusin Pindar's odes. Chapter6 introducesa keythemein thebook, thedistinctionbetween "inclusive" and "exclusive" conceptsofimmortality. The latter, characteristic oftheIliad,makes renownin song (kleos)theonlyvehicle for(a clearlymetaphorical)immortality. The "inclusive" concept of immortality, which C. attributesto Pindar,recognizes two paths to immortality: the kleosof song, and thetime of cult.In order to argue thatPindar's concept ofimmortality is "inclusive," C. must first explain the many Pindaric gn6maithatseem to contradictthis view (e.g.,N. 11.15;I. 5.16 "mortalaims befitmortals")and remindersthat song is the only means of continued existenceafterdeath (e.g. N. 7.14-16; P. 1.92-4). The gn6maiare rhetorical gambits,C. argues, and "generalizations which permitcontradiction"as the thoughtof the ode develops. Furthermore, insistenceon human mortalitydoes not conflictwith "immortality"throughheroiccult,formost recipients ofculthave died. 202 BOOK REVIEWS In Part II, "Heroization in the FifthCenturyBC,"C.'s goal is to demonstratethatheroizationwas a more widespread practicethan has been recognized,in order to establish a 5th-century contextin whichPindar's clientsmightreasonablyexpecttobecome cultheroes. He identifiesthreecategoriesofneglectedheroes: thewar dead, athletes ,and personswhose cultscommencedwhile theywere stillalive. In the case ofthe war dead (Ch. 7), the only securely attestedcontemporarycultis thatof Plataia (Th. 3.58.4), although earlycults of theMarathondead and thePersianWar dead ofMegara areprobable. C. assimilates "institutionalized cults of thewar dead" (p. 95) to heroic cult,based on the scale of theirhonors, the sponsorship of the cityand deliberatearchaismsin the ritual.But as he recognizes,the war dead are not called "heroes" in extantGreek textsuntilthe Roman period. Furthermore, the collectivenature of most honors paid to the war dead sets them apart fromotherheroes. The evidence seems to pointnot to routineheroization,but to an ad hocpractice, more commonin some citiesthanothers,which graduallyexpanded over thecenturies. The heroizationofathletes(Ch. 8) is betterattestedand moredirectlyrelevantto C.'s project,forthe popularityof hero-athletesincreased dramaticallyduringthe 5thcentury.C. argues convincingly thattheheroizationofathleteshad to do directlywiththeirstatusas athletes,and was notprimarilydue to local politics or otherfactors. He makes a case fora quasi-culticatmospherearound certainathletes, but falls shortof demonstrating thatOlympic or othervictorswere routinelyheroized. One argument concerns the dedication of the victor'sstatuein a sanctuaryor the agora, which C. wishes to regard as tantamountto heroization.Although statues seem to play an importantrole in athletecults,thededication ofa statuein itselfis not diagnosticofheroiccultin thesame way a tomblocated in a sanctuaryor theagora is. C. nextestablishes(Ch. 9) thatthereis no a priori obstacleto hero cultforlivingpersons,by showing thatwhile thetermhir6susually refersto "a dead human investedwith special power," itcan also be applied to "a supernaturalbeing subordinate to the gods" (p. 161). Although thisis technically correct, C. underplays thesignificance of death as partoftheculthero's story.Most culturesattribute uncanny powers to thedead, powers theliving do notpossess. Of themen C. cites as living recipientsof cult,almost all received theirhonors in political contextsafterthePeloponnesian war (e.g., Lysandros,Dion ofSyracuse,DemetriosPoliorketes),by which timeitis reasonable to assume thatmanytraditional expectationsabout cultsand theirrelations to the cityhad been irrevocablytransformed. The slightlyearlier case of Hagnon (Th. 5.11.1) is controversial,leaving the cult of EuthymosofLokroias theonlyexample contemporarywithPindar. BOOK REVIEWS 203 C. also holds that popular adulation could, under certain...

Generalizing the standard product rule of probability theory and Bayes's Theorem

Abstract In this paper the usual product rule of probability theory is generalized by relaxing the assumption that elements of sets are equally likely to be drawn. The need for such a generalization has been noted by Jeffreys [1998. Theory of Probability, 3rd ed, reprinted in Oxford classics Series, Oxford University Press (1st ed.,1939), Oxford. pp. 24–25], among others, in his work on an axiom system for scientific learning from data utilizing Bayes's Theorem. It is shown that by allowing probabilities of elements to be drawn to be different, generalized forms of the product rule and Bayes's Theorem are obtained that reduce to the usual product rule and Bayes's Theorem under certain assumptions that may be satisfactory in many cases encountered in practice in which the principle of insufficient reason is inadequate. Also, in comparing alternative hypotheses, allowing the prior odds to be random rather than fixed provides a useful generalization of the standard posterior odds.

Strabons Geographika (review)

Reviewed by: Strabons Geographika, 1. Prolegomena, Buch I-IV: Text und Übersetzung, and: Strabons Geographika, 2. Buch V-VIII: Text und Übersetzung James Romm Stefan Radt (ed.). Strabons Geographika, 1. Prolegomena, Buch I-IV: Text und Übersetzung. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 2002. Pp. xxvi, 563. €141.00. ISBN 3-525-259506. Stefan Radt (ed.). Strabons Geographika, 2. Buch V-VIII: Text und Übersetzung. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 2003. Pp. 560. €156.00. ISBN 3-525-25951-4. Strabo's Geography is one of few remaining major classical works not yet published in a complete critical edition. The great length of his text and the complexity of its manuscript tradition have tended to wear out the lives of his editors: Wolfgang Aly, generally considered the most reliable of these, died before completing the first third of the project (after himself inheriting the posthumous materials of Benedict Niese), and Francesco Sbordone progressed only slightly further in the Rome edition before his death. The Budé version, begun in the 1960s by Germaine Aujac and François Lassère and now apparently halted after reaching book 12, has been deemed sorely deficient (see, e.g., the review by Dicks of the first volume, CR n.s. 21 [1971] 88–94). No Oxford Classical Text has ever existed nor is one planned, to my knowledge, while the Loeb edition begun by J. R. S. Sterrett and completed by Horace Leonard Jones lacks a critical apparatus. What is more, no complete commentary on the Geography has been produced since that of Casaubon in the seventeenth century. A group of scholars who first assembled at Groningen in 1982, led by Stefan Radt, set out to fill these gaps, and the first two of their projected ten-volume text, translation, and commentary have now appeared. To judge by these initial volumes, which contain the text of Geography books 1–8 with facing German translation, and by the sample section of commentary Radt published in a 1991 article in Mnemosyne, the project will undoubtedly succeed in giving us a definitive, reliable, comprehensive edition of Strabo. Radt and his team are proceeding with consummate care, both in their editorial choices and in the overall design and presentation of the series and its individual volumes. Many innovations have been made here to assist scholars grappling with the immensity of Strabo's work and the great variety of material it contains. Headings at the top of each page situate us both in the text (referenced both by book/chapter numbers and by "C" page numbers derived from Casaubon's 1620 edition) and in geographic space. Line numbers at the edge of the page are arranged in such a way that each new Casaubon page starts at line 1, making it possible, for the first time, for scholars to cite Strabo passages by a precise and uniform system (e.g., "Strabo 266C4" designates a single line of text). Cross-references to fragment collections of, say, Eratosthenes—of which there are a great number in book 1 in particular—are given in parentheses within both the Greek text and the facing translation, rather than in footnotes as in the Budé edition. The critical apparatus is extremely clear and complete, and judicious choices have been made from among the variant readings. In general Radt follows the theory of manuscript transmission put forward by Diller, but he also chooses, unlike his predecessors, to avoid grouping manuscripts together and assigning them common sigla on the basis of shared errors or omissions. All sigla used by Radt, that is, refer to individual, extant manuscripts—a sensible precaution against the dangers of creating phantom exemplars which then go on to influence editorial judgments. Another [End Page 204] sensible choice has relegated minor, inconsequential textual variants to an appendix at the back of each volume, where they do not distract the reader from the more important cruces. The exacting methodology employed by Radt and his team can be judged by their decision to publish the Epitome and Chrestomathy, short redactions of portions of Strabo's text, in the ninth volume of the series (tentatively scheduled to appear in 2010), and by the elegant arrangement that they have made...

Economy of the Sacred in Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor (review)

Reviewed by: Economy of the Sacred in Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor Thomas Corsten Beate Dignas . Economy of the Sacred in Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor. Oxford Classical Monographs. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. Pp. xii, 364. $85.00. ISBN 0-19-925408-7. This Oxford dissertation tries to tackle the complicated question of how sanctuaries were related to the cities with which they were associated; that is, whether or not sanctuaries were dependent on cities. Dependence almost always means, of course, dependence in financial matters, and hence the title of the book. To achieve this goal, Dignas has chosen to focus her study on Asia Minor, and from there she takes some well-known (and well-documented) sanctuaries as case studies without, however, [End Page 189] neglecting others of which we know less; most prominent is the sanctuary of Zeus at Labraunda near the city of Mylasa in Caria. Dignas relies mostly on the rich epigraphic material, but also on literary sources; all documents are given in the original with translation. Her main thesis is pronounced clearly in the preface (v–vii): she discovers a "triangular relationship of city, cult, and ruler," meaning that sanctuaries were independent from the cities which served as their hosts and that there was nothing of what we like to call a "civic religion." Despite the wealth of material and the intelligence of this sophisticated study, the difficulties inherent in the subject matter make it almost impossible to come to a secure conclusion; but this is what Dignas tries to achieve. Yet most of her evidence can also be interpreted in the opposite way. She maintains that differences between, e.g., civic and sacred funds, as well as tensions between civic and sacred institutions, mean that both sides were autonomous entities. To support her view, she quotes (23–24) among others an inscription from Kos (D. Obbink and R. Parker, Chiron 31 [2001] 253–54, no. 1 [not no. 4A on 238–39]), from which she rightly infers that the polis was responsible for the construction of sacred buildings unless it was short of money and the temple was not. Equally right is her conclusion that "polis and cult were perceived as two different agents," but this does not mean independence. More revealing is, I think, the practice of appointing priests, e.g., at Herakleia under Latmos (265–68): it is the polis that sells the priesthood; it is the polis that "decided to limit the duration of office" (268). The same holds true for Ephesos (e.g., 173–75, 189): Dignas concedes that the Greeks did not strictly distinguish "sacred and profane aspects of their civic life" and that the Ephesians sold sacred land, used sacred funds for paving a street (175), and decided who became priest of Ephesian Artemis (189). The question of whether the priest was strictly a civic magistrate or not is, I think, not relevant. In this, as in other cases, where the evidence seems to speak in favor of a sanctuary being dependent on the city, Dignas tries hard to explain this as a misinterpretation (see also 197–98 on the cult of Apollo). Of course, there were differences in the relationship between different cities and sanctuaries, and some sanctuaries might have been truly independent of any other power, but this was hardly a general rule. Even if one does not agree with its overall interpretation, this book is nevertheless a very valuable attempt to understand the system—or systems—of temple finance, taking a fresh look at the many difficult topics connected with this subject. Thomas Corsten Universität Heidelberg Copyright © 2006 Classical Association of the Atlantic States

Laying the Foundation for a New Work on the Pseudo-Virgilian Culex

In her paper Laying the Foundation for a New Work on the Pseudo-Virgilian Culex, Lisa St. Louis discusses work undertaken on a prolegomenon to a new edition of the pseudoVirgilian poem Culex. Fifty manuscripts are selected according to criteria such as ownership, geographical area or membership in a group defined by previous scholars. The catalogue of manuscripts is carefully structured in order to include all information needed to locate a given manuscript and trace its history. Manuscripts are collated in detail and their variant readings are entered into Adain software which is designed to determine the relationship between manuscripts. The results prove that some manuscripts belong to the Florilegium Gallicum or Iuvenalis Ludi Libellus groups while others have been copied from printed books. Readings from the manuscripts, incunabula, and other rare books form the basis for an apparatus criticus which is presented in Classical Text Editor software. Wendell Clausen's Oxford Classical Text serves as the starting point for textual criticism, but original conjectures and changes proposed by other scholars have also been considered. St. Louis argues for proper documentation of manuscripts by editors and demonstrates the benefits of software in the preparation and presentation of a scholarly edition. The results of her work are relevant to textual criticism and library science alike. Lisa St. Louis, Laying the Foundation for a New Work on the Pseudo-Virgilian Culex page 2 of 10 CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 8.1 (2006):

Propuesta para la elaboración de una concordancia lematizada: la "institutio oratoria" de Quintiliano

This paper presents a new method for the compilation of lemmatized concordances. The method is illustrated by reference to one specific concordance which is being currently produced by the authors of the paper: that of Quintiliane's Institutio Oratoria, one of the most interesting texts of Classical literature, and a major work in the history of literature and rhetorics. The paper also underlines the need to use the best reliable version of the text in lexicographical research. The concordance in question will include Greek-alphabet terms and diacritical signs of textual criticism. Attention is also drawn to the fact that the concordance will include every variant between the three most usual editions of Institutio Oratoria, that is, Oxford Classical Texts, Teubner, and Les Belles Lettres, a novelty in this kind of works.

Re-editing the Republic

Re-editing the Republic Malcolm Schofield S. R. Slings , ed. Platonis Respublica. Oxford Classical Texts. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2003. xxiv + 428 pp. Cloth, $45. S. R. Slings' Republic is the second volume to appear in the new OCT edition of Plato. Reviewing the first—the new volume I, containing the first two tetralogies—Slings rounded off with some general remarks for the "average user of OCTs," who "will want to know to what degree all this work has improved the text" (Mnemosyne 51 [1998] 101). If we apply the question to the fruits of his own tireless labours (the last of his seven general editorial principles is: editori non est fatiscendum), the answer is the same verdict as Slings passed on volume I: "The text is not all that different from Burnet's, and rightly so," for "he was a superb editor with a feeling for Platonic Greek that is unlikely to be ever surpassed" (ibid. 93). But did you know something Slings reports elsewhere (Mnem. 42 [1989] 192): that "when the volumes of Burnet's Platonis Opera first appeared, they were generally considered a provisional editio minor, soon to be superseded by more impressive tomes?" What is hugely improved is the apparatus criticus. There are two main reasons for this. First, Slings' text is based on a much more secure assessment of the textual tradition than was Burnet's, thanks not least to the comprehensive work of his former pupil Gerard Boter in The Textual Tradition of Plato's Republic (Leiden: Brill, 1989). Burnet gave pride of place to three primary witnesses: Parisinus 1807, ninth century (A); Marcianus 185, twelfth century (D); and Vindobonensis suppl. gr., dated by Slings to the period 1250-1325 (F). But he reported them selectively and sometimes inaccurately and never collated any of them himself. Moreover, while he was the first editor to recognise the true importance of the Vindobonensis, in Slings' opinion he accorded it more authority, particularly relative to the Parisinus, than it really carries. Finally, Burnet attached some weight to M, a manuscript in the library of the Malatestas at Cesena variously attributed to the twelfth, thirteenth, or fourteenth centuries (but considered fifteenth century by Slings and Boter) and collated for the Republic by Lewis Campbell. Boter's investigations have established that M carries no independent authority. Slings and Boter have reexamined all three of the primary medieval manuscripts both in photocopies and in situ, with what was evidently extreme care, and Slings says he has no doubt that the readings reported in the new OCT are a lot more reliable than in any previous edition. His general view of the [End Page 607] merits and demerits of A, D, and F—repeated here—was already set out in Appendix 2 to his major edition of the Clitophon (which precedes the Republic in the seventh tetralogy and shares its textual tradition); see Plato: Clitophon (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999) 340-44. Roughly speaking, A is the weightiest, D is of relatively minor importance, and F is "a typical representative of the cheap Plato omnibus as found in later antiquity," with "many uniquely true readings" but lots of errors and "untrustworthy variants in word order and particles" (ibid. 341). Second, as well as exploiting Plato papyri and translations into Coptic, Arabic, and Hebrew, Slings makes more generous use of the indirect tradition than do earlier editions by using quotations and allusions in subsequent ancient authors and scholia. He thanks a number of other Dutch scholars for their help in compiling this material and cites in particular Gerard Boter's index of testimonia in The Textual Tradition. Slings includes a list of those cited in his apparatus criticus as an appendix (it runs to seventeen pages). Moreover, interpretation of the information provided in the apparatus is aided by the clear explanation in the editor's pithy Latin preface of the rules and the orthographic practices he proposes to follow. In general, while Slings' apparatus is not consistently bulkier than Burnet's, it is often richer. Mostly this is thanks to better information about the textual tradition. But in line with the usual modern practice, Slings also gives the source of any Platonic quotation...

She seems to have composed her own life: thinking about Catherine Martin1

Catherine Martin was born Catherine Mackay, the daughter of a crofter family on the Isle of Skye in about 1847 and grew up in the South East of South Australia and the Western Districts of the neig...