Roman Rule Research Articles

ROME AND THE LEVANT - (P.) Cimadomo The Southern Levant during the First Centuries of Roman Rule (64 bce–135 ce). Interweaving Local Cultures. Pp. viii + 216, ills, maps. Oxford and Philadelphia: Oxbow Books, 2019. Cased, £50. ISBN: 978-1-78925-238-5.

ROME AND THE LEVANT - (P.) Cimadomo The Southern Levant during the First Centuries of Roman Rule (64 <scp>bce</scp>–135 <scp>ce</scp>). Interweaving Local Cultures. Pp. viii + 216, ills, maps. Oxford and Philadelphia: Oxbow Books, 2019. Cased, £50. ISBN: 978-1-78925-238-5.

On Triads, Teleology, and Tensions in Antiquities 18–20

Josephus liked to organize material in three-part structures, which imparted a sense of completion by indicating to readers that an end had been reached. This study focuses on Books 18–20 of Josephus’s Antiquities, which are organized as such a triad: Book 18 opens Roman rule in Judea and adumbrates the final clash and catastrophe, Book 19 creates some suspense by detailing two possible interruptions that could have changed the course of history but in the end came to nothing, and so Book 20 resumes the story from the end of Book 18 and takes it down to the destruction of Jerusalem. Moreover, all three books, together, form a unit in a larger triad: the story told, in the second half of Antiquities, of Judea’s move from sovereignty under the Hasmoneans (Books 12–14), to nominal sovereignty under Herod (Books 15–17), to subjugation to Rome (Books 18–20). This focus on political history is, however, contradicted in various ways, both by Josephus’s development from a Judean into a Jew of the Diaspora, who focused more on religion than on state, and by various sources used by Josephus, that pulled in other directions.

Being Christian in Vandal Africa: The Politics of Orthodoxy in the Post-Imperial West by Robin Whelan

Reviewed by: Being Christian in Vandal Africa: The Politics of Orthodoxy in the Post-Imperial West by Robin Whelan Erika T. Hermanowicz Robin Whelan. Being Christian in Vandal Africa: The Politics of Orthodoxy in the Post-Imperial West. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2018. xvi + 301 pp. Augustine died in 430 while the Vandals were besieging Hippo. This coincidence, as well as the fact that of all extant Vandal-era texts, Victor of Vita’s History has exercised great influence over modern readers, crystalized the idea that the break between Roman and Vandal rule in North Africa was sharp and brutal. Recent English-language studies on Vandal Africa, however, including work by J. P. Conant, A. H. Merrills, and R. Miles, have challenged that assumption, and Robin Whelan’s superb contribution to the conversation rewards the reader with a vision of Vandalic Christian Africa that is more déjà vu than departure. Despite a hegemonic shift in Africa and the new court’s affirmation of Homoian Christianity (called Arian by its enemies) over Nicene Christianity (Catholic as self-styled by the Nicenes), the bishops proceeded in ways remarkably similar to predecessors living under Roman rule. Whelan removes the Nicene and Homoian churches from their overdetermined (and strictly rhetorical) dependence on Vandal kings and ethnic identity: Homoian bishops were not obliging extensions of the court, nor were they necessarily of Vandal or “barbarian” origin, just as Nicene bishops were not exclusively identifiable as Roman. Once Whelan extricates churches from false ethnic and royal entanglements, he concludes that the ferocious competition between them was born from commonality, not difference. The most famous Nicene bishops from the Vandal era, Quodvultdeus, bishop of Carthage, and Fulgentius of Ruspe, fretted that believers could not easily tell the two churches apart. Nicene and Homoian churches competed for and claimed the same honors: who had the greater number of bishops; who was more faithful to the legacy of Cyprian; who understood scripture better; [End Page 235] who had received legal recognition from the rulings of emperors and kings. In order to distinguish themselves, these ecclesiastical doppelgängers pushed the other rhetorically into suspect realms of heresy and crime: the Homoians accused the Nicenes of being pagans, and the Nicenes claimed that to the unwary, the Homoian church might resemble the bride of Christ, but she was in fact a soul-devouring whore. These examples suffice to give an idea of the barbs traded, but they also offer reassurance that in terms of the rhetoric deployed, North Africa had not changed much since Roman days. Whelan’s deft handling of episcopal rhetoric is one of many strengths in this well-written and persuasive book. Many of the literary sources he engages are not well known, even to students of Roman Africa, and their (re)introduction to the world is alone worth the price of admission. But Whelan’s work goes far beyond that, exploring (and in many cases, debunking) assumptions regarding the lives and loyalties of elites in post-Roman Africa. Examples: Vandal military uniforms were the court dress, not a declaration of ethnic identity. There is plenty of evidence, despite the courts’ official antipathy toward Nicene Christianity, that Nicene Christians worked at court, and that, exceptions notwithstanding, Vandal kings not only made concessions to the Nicene bishops, but also were fully aware that Nicene Christians occupied important posts and were uninterested in calling them out. Political efficiency superseded religious preferences. Among political elites who had ties to the court, a conscious effort was made to subsume the theological and legal labeling of doctrinal preferences (Homoousian or Homoian, heretic or orthodox) under more general, and generous, terms, such as “pious,” and “a good Christian.” More broadly, people everywhere gave their loyalty to revered martyrs more readily than to specific doctrines. The martyrs were for everyone. Whelan’s point is that the new regime had strong religious preferences, but did not let them get in the way of political expediency and practical existence. Still, Africa was different. The book’s epilogue compares Vandal Africa to Burgundian Gaul, Ostrogothic Italy, and Visigothic Spain. The effort by the Vandal ruling house to unify its territory under one doctrinal allegiance was more...

Prilog proučavanju teritorijalnog uređenja i razgraničenja peregrinih zajednica Deremista i Dokleata

The paper presents data on peregrini's communities (civitates peregrinae) Deremistas and Doclea in the south of Illyricum. Their citizens had the status of the locals and mostly the status of peregrinus, i.e. non-Roman. One of the priorities of the implemented Roman rule on this territory was the organization of the local citizens. It meant the formation of communities, setting borders among territories and splitting taxes. These civitates stopped being independent tribes since the implementation of the Roman rule and were turned into Roman administrative units. The Roman government categorized the locals according to administrative and legal regulations, which represented the first step in their integration. The epigraph statues (Kosijerevo, Riječani) represent precious testimonies on setting borders among the territories, the status, and, frequently, integral inner structure of the community. The epigraph materials show that the research on territorial structure of peregrini's communities divides civitates, according to their inner territorial structure, into smaller units: pagi, vici, castella. Castella can be found as the terriorial unit near Deremistas and Doclea (Riječani, Plana). The epigraph statues and oral sources shed light to a certain extent on these findings in the south of the province of Dalmatia.

Ancient Biography: Identity through Lives by ed. by Francis Cairns and Trevor Luke

Reviewed by: Ancient Biography: Identity through Lives by ed. by Francis Cairns and Trevor Luke Øivind Andersen (bio) Ancient Biography: Identity through Lives Francis Cairns and Trevor Luke, editors Papers of the Langford Latin Seminar 17, ARCA Classical and Medieval Texts, Papers and Monographs 55, Francis Cairns, 2018, xiv + 310 pp. ISBN 9780995461215, $75.00 hardcover. The volume's title might lead potential readers to expect the book to provide a general introduction to or overview of biographical literature from classical antiquity, especially the genre of Lives, the Greek bios and the Latin vita. For that, however, [End Page 464] non-classicists (and classicists as well) should turn to Tomas Hägg's magisterial The Art of Biography in Antiquity (Cambridge UP, 2012), to which the editors of this volume duly refer in the very first sentence of their preface. Under the umbrella of the book's title, the editors offer a rich collection of widely different contributions on various topics and with varying focus. They may all, however, lay claim to dealing somehow with the broader issue of "biographical writing and identity," or "the use of lives in the literary construction of both group and individual identities" (vii, viii), which is the stated overall theme of the volume. The book originates in the 2015 Langford International Colloquium at Florida State University, Narrating Lives: Biography and Identity in Antiquity. The original papers have been revised and expanded, and the collection has been fortified with further contributions from invited scholars. The thirteen papers range all over antiquity from Pindar and the Lives of the Greek poets to the Alexander Romance and late Platonists. They are neatly distributed across the book's four sections: "Biography and Cultural Identity," "Biography and Power," "Biography, Identity and Religion," and—in a shift from thematic to chronological criteria—"Greek Lives under Roman Rule." It is not always obvious why a paper is placed in the section where we find it, naturally enough perhaps given the shared focus on identity. I will make brief mention of each contribution, highlighting some. Right at the outset, Flore Kimmel-Clauzet, in "Pindar, 'Lover of Athens': Dithyramb fr. 76 and the Biographical Tradition," discusses in an exemplary manner how the Theban poet's famous praise of Athens—"O gleaming and violet-crowned and celebrated in song, / Bulwark of Greece, glorious Athens, divine city"—places Pindar in the middle between the two rival cities: Thebes, his birthplace, and Athens, which, so the story goes, paid the fine imposed on him by the Thebans and more or less appropriated the poet by honoring him in other ways as well. Both the several ancient Lives of Pindar and the biographical tradition apart from the lives embellish and negotiate this conflict in various ways, thus forging Pindar's poetic identity. One could, I presume, also say "political" identity. Kimmel-Clauzet already made her mark with her 2013 book (in French) of the lives and especially the deaths of Greek poets. The following paper, by Rex Stem, may be seen as an offshoot of his 2012 book on The Political Biographies of Cornelius Nepos. In his contribution to this volume, he demonstrates convincingly how the Roman biographer Nepos in his Lives of the Foreign Generals counteracts Roman cultural bias by displaying exemplary non-Romans. David Rohrbacher, whose The Play of Allusion in the Historia Augusta appeared in 2016, comes to grips with ethnographic and religious aspects of the late Roman biographical collection Historia Augusta. He makes the case for the work's allusive and playful character when it comes to ethnography and religion. We note that this "bizarre and untrustworthy" work is "not really a biographical collection at all" (53, 56). The section "Biography and Power" opens with an attempt by Marcaline Boyd to vindicate the second-century CE military writer Polyaenus's version of the Greek tyrant Polycrates's rise to power against the account of the much older Herodotus. [End Page 465] Alexander Skufca illuminates how Nepos in his chapters on the lives of the tyrants Dion and Timoleon explicitly and implicitly evaluates tyranny, and shows how Timoleon is able to learn by (bad) example and do better than his somewhat older colleague. The...

On One Byzantine Rhetorical Gambit to Disavow Diplomatic Precedent (Const. Porph. Dai. 13.145–194 &amp; Liud. Relatio. 55)

Introduction. The article aims to compare two texts concerning byzantine diplomatic practices of the mid 10th century. The first one is described in the 13th chapter of the treatise “De Administrando Imperio”, in which its author Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus gave some pieces of advice to his son Romanus II Porphyrogenitus how to line up rhetorical manipulation during the negotiations with ambassadors of different ‘barbarian’ nations. The second one is the description of conversation, which took place on September 17, 968 between emperor Otto I the Great’s ambassador bishop Liudprand of Cremona and patrician Christopher. It is described in Liudprand’s “Relatio de Legatione Constantinopolitana”. Methods. The classical comparative method is used to examine the veracity of two independent texts of different character describing the similar diplomatic trick. The author compares a program-ideological and simultaneously a propaedeutic treatises with a semiofficial report of a foreign senior ambassador. Analysis. In the 13th chapter of the treatise “De Administrando Imperio” its author Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus advised his son Roman II in negotiations with the ambassadors of the “barbarian” nations not to except the precedent of giving in marriage the granddaughter of the Byzantine emperor Romanus I Lecapenus Maria-Irina to Bulgarian ruler Peter, since Romanus I Lecapenus was a man of poor education and incompetent in the ancient sacred customs of the Roman Empire. In “Relatio de Legatione Constantinopolitana” by bishop Liudprand of Cremona during the confiscation of “purple clothes”, which he had bought, he referred to the fact that during his last visit to Constantinople, emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus had allowed him to take out even more expensive clothes without any obstacles. Contrary to this example, he received a reply from patrician Christopher, that emperor Constantine was a weak man and cherished the friendship of barbarians and foreigners with gifts, and ruling emperor Nikephoros II Phokas was a strong and warlike man, he didn’t allow such liberties for foreigners. In both cases, the same counter-argument was used to disavow precedent – a criticism of the bygone emperor in comparison with the current sovereign. This suggests that it was a common rhetorical device for Byzantine diplomats. These two cases allow to clarify the sophisticated ideology of “Tradition” and its “Split” as a corner-stone political idea of Eastern Roman Empire. Results. As a result of comparing the texts “De Administrando Imperio” (952–959) and “Relatio de Legatione Constantinopolitano” (969) it becomes clear that Byzantine politicians in the mid 10th century used for disavowing diplomatic precedents the criticism of their own emperor, who agreed to some concessions in the past. His personality was declared inappropriate to the high standards of a Roman ruler in comparison with the current emperor. Such rhetoric was surprising for the peoples who considered a series of their rulers as a genealogical aggregate of relatives responsible for their predecessors as for themselves. Byzantine politicians calmly recognized imperfections of their bygone emperors, what allowed them to ignore the strongest diplomatic argument of the early Middle Ages – a historical precedent.

Echoes of Empire: Roman Imperialism in Avienus's Descriptio orbis terrae

This article examines the imperial message behind Avienus's Descriptio orbis terrae, a geographical poem that revolves around the Roman relationship with the natural environment and Rome's suitability for imperial rule. Avienus constructs his poem against traditional Vergilian ideas on the relationship between agricultural toil and civilization, espoused particularly in the Georgics. I focus on one particular aspect of Avienus's literary technique, the agency that he ascribes to lands and rivers and how he uses this technique to establish relationships between individual regions and their inhabitants in order to support one of the poem's major themes: the beneficial and righteous imperial rule of Rome. I first analyze the agency of landmasses and water courses in the Descriptio and juxtapose Avienus's use of this literary technique by earlier and contemporary Latin literature, and then I examine the relationships between this active natural environment and their human inhabitants in key regions (Italy, Egypt, Germania, Parthia, and India), to show how, in Avienus's vision, Roman rule brings prosperity and civilization to the world.

JEWS IN EUROPE AND THE BEGINNING OF ARAB-JEWISH CONFLICTS

This article discusses the development of Judaism in European and the history of the Arab-Jewish conflict. Researchers in this case uses qualitative methods by collecting library data. The historical approach is an alternative research in tracing the traces of Jews in Europe and the beginning of the Arab-Jewish conflict. The author comes to the conclusion that a change of power, conquest, war has brought the Jewish nation to the pain of continuing suffering. Get discriminatory treatment to be the lowest class and intolerance treatment from the authorities who control the area where they settled. The unfair treatment they received from the authorities until 70 AD when the Jews under Roman rule broke out but ended in failure and caused damage to their own diei. The Temple of Solomon which was the center of their religious worship in Jerusalem was destroyed. These conditions caused the Jewish people to scatter to the outside world which became known as The Great Diaspora.

Isaiah 40.3 and the Synoptic Gospels’ Parody of the Roman Road System

This article proposes that the Synoptic Gospels’ pronouncements of Isa 40.3 (Matt 4.3; Mark 1.2–3; Luke 3.4–6) invite a comparison with the Roman road system and its extensive broadcast of Roman imperial ideology. Heralding the sovereignty of a coming king on newly constructed roads through difficult terrain, Matthew, Mark and Luke portray the coming of the kingdom of God in terms analogous to the laying of Roman roads followed by the enforcement of Roman rule throughout the Roman Empire. If Isa 40.3 heralded the arrival of the true God through the ministry of Jesus, as the Synoptic Gospels proclaim, then Rome's pretentions were by implication counterfeit. The engineering feats of raising ravines, levelling heights, smoothing terrain and making straight highways denoted Roman expansion, conquest and the standardisation of Roman imperial ideology. In contradistinction, the Synoptic Gospels’ citations of Isa 40.3 presage the triumph of God, while simultaneously parodying Roman imperial ideology.

Kasna antika: dekadencija ili „demokratizacija“ kulture?

In our age “without the emperor”, fascination with empires and with the emperor mystique continues. Take for witness Tolkien and his Return of the King, the third sequel of The Lord of the Rings, or the television serial Game of Thrones. In the background, of course, is the lingering memory of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, “a revolution which is still felt by all nations of the world”, to quote Edward Gibbon. It comes as a surprise that in this dramatic moment of its history, in times marked by political, economic and spiritual crisis that shook the very foundations of the Empire during the 3rd century, historians and art historians have recognized the revival of plebeian culture (arte plebea, kleinbürgerliche Kultur). It was the Italian historian Santo Mazzarino, talking at the XI International Congress of the Historical Sciences in Stockholm in 1960, who introduced a new paradigm: the “democratization of culture”. In the light of the historical process in the late Roman Empire, when growing autocracy, bureaucracy, militarization and social tensions leave no doubt as to the real political character of the government, the new paradigm opened up fresh approaches to the phenomenon of decadence and decline of the Roman world. As such, it stands against traditional scenario of the “triumph of barbarism and Christianity”, which was made responsible for the fall of the Roman Empire and the eclipse of the classical civilization of ancient Greece and Rome. It is not by accident that the new paradigm appeared around the middle of the 20th century, at the time when European society itself underwent a kind of “democratization of culture”, faced with the phenomenon of mass culture and the need to find new ways of evaluating popular art. Today, more than anything else, the notion of “democratization of culture” in late Roman Empire forces us to acknowledge a disturbing correspondence between autocratic and populist forms of government. It may come as a shock to learn that the very emperors who went down in Roman history as villains and culprits (such as Caligula, Nero or Commodus), were sometimes considered the most “democratic” among Roman rulers. Do we need to feel certain unease at this historical parallel?

MITHRIDATES SAVAŞLARI’NDA MAGNOPOLİS’İN YERİ VE ÖNEMİ

The city later known as Magnopolis was captured by Mithridates Eupator VI (133-63 BC) and then named Eupatoria to honour him. However, according to Appian, the citizens of the city later accepted Roman rule and for this reason was ruined by the very same founder. Strabo claims that the founding of the city was still unfinished, when Mithridates Eupator VI destroyed it. In any case, Pompeius started redeveloping the city and completed its foundation. At the same time, Pompeius changed the city’s name to Magnopolis after himself, referring to the title “Magnus” which Sulla had conferred on him. Also, Pompeius included the settlements around the city in its borders, so that as a result of this policy the population of the city increased considerably. In addition to all these events, the location of the city was so important that it contributed to its rise during those times. Additionally, due to its strategic position and its location on the trade route between Bithynia and Armenia, the city witnessed formerly unparalleled development in terms of economic growth and population expansion. This paper reports on a study of Magnopolis, referring to its important geopolitical-geostrategic position and the trade routes of the region.

Another Path to the Joint-Stock Company

Common wisdom views the 17th century English and Dutch East India companies as key institutional innovations based on the commenda commercial contracts. We mobilize historical, legal and economic literatures to characterize an alternative path to the joint-stock company in Southern Europe. A medieval institution, the pariage, gave birth to large-scale business organizations similar to joint-stock companies as early as the 14th century in Genoa and in Toulouse. Pariage originated in the Roman rule of equal inheritance that led to the division of assets into theoretical shares. When the asset includes a business activity, pariage as an institution becomes closer to a modern joint-stock company. We show that, at the eve of the industrial revolution, these companies display a higher level of institutional modernity than East India-type companies. These observations have implications for the debate regarding the links between institutions and economic development.

Der politische Lukas. Zur kulturellen Interaktion des lukanischen Doppelwerks mit dem Imperium Romanum

Abstract The conventional image of the Rome-friendly, politically apologetic Luke is increasingly questioned today. In order to be able to recognize a political attitude of Luke within the narratives of Luke-Acts, an evaluation of different textual complexes is necessary. The article first elaborates on Rome-critical features of the Lukan Birth narrative against the backdrop of the conception of the aurea aetas supporting the early Roman Principate, before considering the implications of the idea of Christ’s reign for the evaluation of imperial rule. It also addresses the dark sides of Roman rule in Luke and then discusses the political ambivalence in the tax question in Luke 20,20–26. The sword episodes in the Passion narrative do not allow any violent resistance. The Roman governors as representatives of Rome in the provinces appear in Luke as factors of uncertainty for the first Christians, while the hope for a good living with the Roman military rests on the centurions. The real political challenge, however, is the ethos of the Christian communities itself. The synopsis of the texts gives a differentiated picture of the attitude Luke takes towards the Roman Empire.

Ceremony, charters and social memory: property transfer ritual in early medieval Catalonia

ABSTRACTWork on the use of documents in the Middle Ages has now accepted that written record-keeping in Europe did not collapse with Roman rule, to be replaced only by orality and memory, but continued throughout the period, albeit to greater or lesser extents from place to place. Nonetheless, much remains unclear about how documents were actually used and understood following the Roman collapse, and how far that reflected continuity with the past. Using the numerous early medieval charters from modern Catalonia, this article argues that, instead of registration in public archives as under Rome, documents here were validated by social consensus about their contents, created by repeated recitation of the texts. This could even be used to create new documents. The article argues that this was an innovative replacement of older institutions of record intended to enable continuing document use, but that it blurs categories both of literacy and orality and of continuity and change; continuity of the land charter was here maintained despite the discontinuity and irrelevance of many other practices. Both documents and their users were agents in these processes, in ways that can instruct us about institutional survival and replacement in times of social change.

Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem: The Monumental Street from the Siloam Pool to the Temple Mount

For over a century and a half, excavations in Jerusalem have been uncovering segments of the city’s Early Roman period network of streets, particularly the street that wended its way from the southernmost gate of the city, alongside the Siloam Pool and towards the Temple Mount. The importance of this street is evident from its dimensions as well as from the quality of its construction, which undoubtedly required an expansive workforce that included skilled labourers and craftsmen. Based on archaeological and historical data, the creation of the street has variously been attributed to some time in the Herodian period, to the reign of Herod and to the days of Herod Agrippa II. Here, based on numismatic evidence, we propose a more precise timeframe. We suggest that the street was constructed in the 1st century CE, in the middle of the first period of direct Roman rule, specifically during Pontius Pilate’s tenure as governor of the newly named province of Judea. We bolster this claim with a discussion of Pilate’s mandate and goals as provincial governor.

“How Great Is Peace”: Tannaitic Thinking on Shalom and the Pax Romana

AbstractTannaitic compositions include midrashim that focus on shalom (peace) and its significance. Since the word shalom appears in numerous contexts in the Tanak, the sages were able to develop various ideas, depending on their preferences, from an array of biblical verses. Despite having been composed under Roman rule, these shalom midrashim make no mention of Rome. Thus, scholars who have studied these sources have given scant attention to this broader framework. However, peace played a crucial role in Roman imperial ideology, where Rome is presented bringing peace to the empire. In this article, I analyze these midrashim and other Tannaitic passages and examine their relationship with Roman notions of peace. I show that this material conveys a latent dialogue with the ideology related to pax Romana and how the Roman conceptualization of peace appears to have influenced rabbinic approaches to shalom.

How ‘Democratic’ Was the PaulineEkklēsia? An Assessment with Special Reference to the Christ Groups of Roman Corinth

Several recent studies have argued for the importance of democratic practices and ideology for a proper understanding of the issues and debates reflected in Paul's Corinthian correspondence. This new perspective stands in tension with older scholarship which emphasised the role of patronage in the structure and dynamics of the house churches that made up theekklēsiaof Christ-believers at Corinth. This essay draws upon new research into the political sociology of Greek cities in the early Empire, which highlights evidence of the continuing vitality of democratic assemblies (ekklēsiai) in the first and second centuries, despite the limitations imposed upon local autonomy by Roman rule. Special attention is devoted to the epigraphic evidence of first-century Corinth, whose political institutions and social relations were those of a Roman colony. The essay seeks to ascertain whether the politics of the Christ groups mimicked those of the city in which they were located or represented an alternative.

EPINIKIA: Celebrating Roman Victory in the Eastern Provinces of the Empire*

Across the eastern Mediterranean only a limited number of inscriptions, coins and papyri attest the term ἐπιν(ε)ίκια bestowed on local festivities. My paper studies for the first time the genesis and evolution of a particular title that could be presented as a sign of loyalty and friendship towards Roman rule. Through an analysis of mostly direct evidence, I aim to provide the perspective of certain local communities which, while subjected to Rome, remarkably strove to celebrate its victories. This bottom-up approach also seeks to show the importance of reciprocity in the constant diplomatic exchange between emperors, administrators and eastern provincials.

Mastic Production in Medieval Chios: Economic Flows and Transitions in an Insular Setting

ABSTRACT The Aegean island of Chios provides a special case of insularity during the Middle Ages, aspects of which are reflected in the production of a highly-valued product, mastic resin, which was sought after across the Mediterranean world for use in medicine, fragrances and flavourings. Produced only on the island, high-quality mastic became an iconic Chian product that highlighted the island’s uniqueness and significantly contributed to its economy. This article presents a diachronic view of mastic production in and circulation from Chios during the periods of Roman, Byzantine and Genoese rule. The widespread demand for its luxury commodity meant that the island was always active in the wider maritime networks in this period. The lens of mastic production makes these connections visible in textual, archaeological and architectural evidence that highlights the role local products played in the ways islands, like Chios, navigated the economic and political transitions of the medieval Mediterranean world.

Two Punic inscriptions from Roman Tripolitania

AbstractThis article provides the edition and commentary of two Punic inscriptions of Roman imperial date from inland areas of Tripolitania. One is the first edition of a Punic funerary text written in Latin script from Bani Walid in the Werfalla district. The other is a discussion offering an alternative interpretation of two architectural blocks bearing a fragmentary dedication that were recovered from the vicinity of the mausoleum of Gasr Doga in the Tarhuna district. Both texts shed new light on aspects of the cultural dynamics of Libyco-Punic culture under Roman rule.