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Books > Humanities > History > World history > BCE to 500 CE
An Anthology on the Roman World: Republic to Empire provides
students with a collection of carefully selected, multidisciplinary
readings that illuminate the unique history of the Romans. The
anthology is organized into four chapters. Chapter 1 focuses on
society and government. The readings encourage students to consider
how the shape of a city influences its society, the significance of
Roman baths, features of Roman government that have permeated the
West, and more. Chapter 2 focuses on Roman women, with articles
about Livia, the wife of Augustus; graffiti from Pompeii created by
women; and the place of the woman in the Roman family structure. In
Chapter 3, students examine the structure and roles within Roman
families. The readings cover symbols of gender and status in the
Roman household, marriage and sexuality, and the role of healthcare
providers in the Roman household, including woman doctors and
midwives. The final section discusses early Roman religion and the
introduction and growth of Christianity in the first couple of
centuries after its founding. An Anthology on the Roman World is an
ideal supplementary resource for courses in world history,
especially those with concentration on Roman history.
Guatemala emerged from the clash between Spanish invaders and Maya
cultures that began five centuries ago. The conquest of these "rich
and strange lands," as Hernan Cortes called them, and their "many
different peoples" was brutal and prolonged. ""Strange Lands and
Different Peoples"" examines the myriad ramifications of Spanish
intrusion, especially Maya resistance to it and the changes that
took place in native life because of it.
The studies assembled here, focusing on the first century of
colonial rule (1524-1624), discuss issues of conquest and
resistance, settlement and colonization, labor and tribute, and
Maya survival in the wake of Spanish invasion. The authors
reappraise the complex relationship between Spaniards and Indians,
which was marked from the outset by mutual feelings of resentment
and mistrust. While acknowledging the pivotal role of native
agency, the authors also document the excesses of Spanish
exploitation and the devastating impact of epidemic disease.
Drawing on research findings in Spanish and Guatemalan archives,
they offer fresh insight into the Kaqchikel Maya uprising of 1524,
showing that despite strategic resistance, colonization imposed a
burden on the indigenous population more onerous than previously
thought.
Guatemala remains a deeply divided and unjust society, a country
whose current condition can be understood only in light of the
colonial experiences that forged it. Affording readers a critical
perspective on how Guatemala came to be, ""Strange Lands and
Different Peoples" "shows the events of the past to have enduring
contemporary relevance.
Feasting and commensality formed the backbone of social life in the
polis, the most characteristic and enduring form of political
organization in the ancient Greek world. Exploring a wide array of
commensal practices, Feasting and Polis Institutions reveals how
feasts defined the religious and political institutions of the
Greek citizen-state. Taking the reader from the Early Iron Age to
the Imperial Period, this volume launches an essential inquiry into
Greek power relations. Focusing on the myriad of patronage roles at
the feast and making use of a wide variety of methodologies and
primary sources, including archaeology, epigraphy and literature,
Feasting and Polis Institutions argues that in ancient Greece
political interaction could never be complete until it was
consummated in a festive context.
With an in-depth exploration of rule by a single man and how this
was seen as heroic activity, the title challenges orthodox views of
ruling in the ancient world and breaks down traditional ideas about
the relationship between so-called hereditary rule and tyranny. It
looks at how a common heroic ideology among rulers was based upon
excellence, or arete, and also surveys dynastic ruling, where rule
was in some sense shared within the family or clan. Heroic Rulers
examines reasons why both personal and clan-based rule was
particularly unstable and its core tension with the competitive
nature of Greek society, so that the question of who had the most
arete was an issue of debate both from within the ruling family and
from other heroic aspirants. Probing into ancient perspectives on
the legitimacy and legality of rule, the title also explores the
relationship between ruling and law. Law, personified as 'king'
(nomos basileus), came to be seen as the ultimate source of
sovereignty especially as expressed through the constitutional
machinery of the city, and became an important balance and
constraint for personal rule. Finally, Heroic Rulers demonstrates
that monarchy, which is generally thought to have disappeared
before the end of the archaic period, remained a valid political
option from the Early Iron Age through to the Hellenistic period.
This volume provides a detailed, lemmatic, literary commentary on
Demosthenes' speech Against Androtion. It is the first study of its
kind since the nineteenth century, filling a significant gap in
modern scholarship. The Greek text of the speech is accompanied by
a facing English translation, making the work more accessible to a
wide scholarly audience. It also includes an extensive introduction
covering key historical, socio-political, and legal issues. The
speech was delivered in a graphe paranomon (a public prosecution
for introducing an illegal decree) which was brought against
Androtion, a well-established Athenian public speaker and
intellectual. Demosthenes composed Against Androtion for Diodoros,
the supporting speaker in this trial and an active political figure
in the mid-fourth century. In her commentary, Ifigeneia Giannadaki
illuminates the legal, socio-political, and historical aspects of
the speech, including views on male prostitution and the
relationship between sex and politics, complex aspects of Athenian
law and procedure, and Athenian politics in the aftermath of the
Social War. Giannadaki balances the analysis of important
historical and legal issues with a special emphasis on elucidating
Demosthenes' rhetorical strategy and argumentation.
This book surveys current archaeological and historical thinking
about the dimly understood characteristics of daily life in Great
Britain during the fifth and sixth centuries. Arthurian legends are
immensely popular and well known despite the lack of reliable
documentation about this time period in Britain. As a result,
historians depend upon archaeologists to accurately describe life
during these two centuries of turmoil when Britons suffered
displacement by Germanic immigrants. Daily Life in Arthurian
Britain examines cultural change in Britain through the fifth and
sixth centuries-anachronistically known as The Dark Ages-with a
focus on the fate of Romano-British culture, demographic change in
the northern and western border lands, and the impact of the
Germanic immigrants later known as the Anglo-Saxons. The book
coalesces many threads of current knowledge and opinion from
leading historians and archaeologists, describing household
composition, rural and urban organization, food production,
architecture, fashion, trades and occupations, social classes,
education, political organization, warfare, and religion in
Arthurian times. The few available documentary sources are analyzed
for the cultural and historical value of their information.
Presents maps and illustrations of Britain during the relevant time
periods Includes a bibliography of major print and quality internet
resources accessible to the public Provides an index of key
concepts, sites, historic persons, events, and materials Contains
an appendix on the nature of archaeological evidence
The History of Ancient Israel: A Guide for the Perplexed provides
the student with the perfect guide to why and how the history of
this most contested region has been studies, and why it continues
to be studied today. Philip R. Davies, one of the leading scholars
of Ancient Israel in recent years, begins by examining the
relevance of the study of Ancient Israel, giving an overview of the
sources and issues facing historians in approaching the material.
Davies then continues by looking at the various theories and
hypotheses that scholars have advanced throughout the 20th century,
showing how different approaches are presented and in some cases
how they are both underpinned and undermined by a range of
ideological perspectives. Davies also explains the rise and fall of
Biblical Archaeology, the 'maximalist/minimalist' debate. After
this helpful survey of past methodologies Davies introduces readers
to the current trends in biblical scholarship in the present day,
covering areas such as cultural memory, the impact of literary and
social scientific theory, and the notion of 'invented history'.
Finally, Davies considers the big question: how the various sources
of knowledge can be combined to write a modern history that
combines and accounts for all the data available, in a meaningful
way. This new guide will be a must for students of the Hebrew
Bible/Old Testament.
This groundbreaking book attempts a fully contextualized reading of
the poetry written by Pindar for Hieron of Syracuse in the 470s BC.
It argues that the victory odes and other occasional songs composed
by Pindar for the Sicilian tyrant were part of an extensive
cultural program that included athletic competition, coinage,
architecture, sanctuary dedication, city foundation, and much more.
In the tumultuous years following the Persian invasion of Greece in
480, elite Greek leaders and their cities struggled to capitalize
on the Greek victory and to define themselves as free peoples who
triumphed over the threat of Persian monarchy. Pindar's victory
odes are an important contribution to Hieron's goal of panhellenic
pre-eminence, redescribing contemporary tyranny as an instantiation
of golden-age kingship and consonant with best Greek tradition. In
a delicate process of cultural legitimation, the poet's praise
deploys athletic victories as a signs of more general preeminence.
Three initial chapters set the stage by presenting the history and
culture of Syracuse under the Deinomenid tyrants, exploring issues
of performance and patronage, and juxtaposing Hieron to rival Greek
leaders on the mainland. Subsequent chapters examine in turn all
Pindar's preserved poetry for Hieron and members of his court, and
contextualizes this poetry by comparing it to the songs written for
Hieron by Pindar's poetic contemporary, Bacchylides. These odes
develop a specifically "tyrannical " mythology in which a hero from
the past enjoys unusual closeness with the gods, only to bring ruin
on him or herself by failing to manage this closeness
appropriately. Such negative exemplars counterbalance Hieron's good
fortune and present the dangers against which he must (and does)
protect himself by regal virtue. The readings that emerge are
marked by exceptional integration of literary interpretation with
the political/historical context.
Athenian comedy is firmly entrenched in the classical canon, but
imperial authors debated, dissected and redirected comic texts,
plots and language of Aristophanes, Menander, and their rivals in
ways that reflect the non-Athenocentric, pan-Mediterranean
performance culture of the imperial era. Although the reception of
tragedy beyond its own contemporary era has been studied, the
legacy of Athenian comedy in the Roman world is less well
understood. This volume offers the first expansive treatment of the
reception of Athenian comedy in the Roman Empire. These engaged and
engaging studies examine the lasting impact of classical Athenian
comic drama. Demonstrating a variety of methodologies and scholarly
perspectives, sources discussed include papyri, mosaics, stage
history, epigraphy and a broad range of literature such as dramatic
works in Latin and Greek, including verse satire, essays, and
epistolary fiction.
It is now recognized that emotions have a history. In this book,
eleven scholars examine a variety of emotions in ancient China and
classical Greece, in their historical and social context. A general
introduction presents the major issues in the analysis of emotions
across cultures and over time in a given tradition. Subsequent
chapters consider how specific emotions evolve and change. For
example, whereas for early Chinese thinkers, worry was a moral
defect, it was later celebrated as a sign that one took
responsibility for things. In ancient Greece, hope did not always
focus on a positive outcome, and in this respect differed from what
we call "hope." Daring not to do, or "undaring," was itself an
emotional value in early China. While Aristotle regarded the
inability to feel anger as servile, the Roman Stoic Seneca rejected
anger entirely. Hatred and revenge were encouraged at one moment in
China and repressed at another. Ancient Greek responses to tragedy
do not map directly onto modern emotional registers, and yet are
similar to classical Chinese and Indian descriptions. There are
differences in the very way emotions are conceived. This book will
speak to anyone interested in the many ways that human beings feel.
The goal of this inscription-based study is to shed new light on
Hellenistic and Roman Delphi by placing inscribed honours at the
front and centre of the investigation. This book provides, for the
first time, a comprehensive and coherent discussion of the Delphic
gift-giving system, its regional interactions, and its honorific
network. It employs both conventional and new scientific methods,
including an analysis of quantitative trends in the epigraphic
records and a Social Network Analysis (SNA) approach. The volume
also addresses a broad spectrum of epigraphic topics and discusses
current research questions as well as future perspectives.
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