The Iguvine Tables (Tabulae Iguvinae) are among the most invaluable documents of Italic linguistics and religion. Seven bronze tablets discovered in 1444 in the Umbrian town of Gubbio (ancient Iguvium), they record the rites and sacral laws of a priestly brotherhood, the Fratres Atiedii, with a degree of detail unparalleled elsewhere in ancient Italy. Taking an interdisciplinary approach that combines philological and linguistic, as well as ritual analysis, Michael Weiss not only addresses the many interpretive cruces that have puzzled scholars for a century and a half, but also constructs a coherent theory of the entire ritual performance described on Tables III and IV. In addition, Weiss sheds light on many questions of Roman ritual practice and places the Iguvine Tables in their broader Italic and Indo-European contexts.

In Aspects of Ancient Institutions and Geography colleagues and students honor Richard J.A. Talbert for his numerous contributions and influence on the fields of ancient history, political and social science, as well as cartography and geography. This collection of original and useful examinations is focused around the core theme of Talbert's work - how ancient individuals and groups organized their world, through their institutions and geography. The first half of the book considers institutional history in chapters on such diverse topics as the Roman Senate, Roman provincial politics and administration, healing springs, gladiators, and soldiers. Chapters on the geography of Thucydides and Alexander III, imperial geography, tracking letters and using sundials round out the second half of the book.

This book is devoted to the analysis of borders of the Aramaean polities and territories during the 10th-8th centuries B.C.E. Specialists dealing with various types of documents (Neo-Assyrian, Aramaic, Phoenician, Neo-Hittite and Hebrew texts), invited by Jan Dusek and Jana Mynarova, addressed the topic of the borders of the Aramaean territories in the context of the history of three geographical areas during the first three centuries of the 1st millennium B.C.E.: northern Mesopotamia and the Assyrian space, northern Levant, and southern Levant. The book is particularly relevant to those interested in the history and historical geography of the Levant during the Iron Age. "Studies directly relevant to ancient Israel and others demonstrating historical geography's limitations make an instructive volume." -Alan Millard, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 44.5 (2020)

Through new readings and interpretation of Cypriot inscriptions - written in Cypriot-syllabic Greek, Eteocypriot, Phoenician, and alphabetic Greek - Kyprion Politeia, the Political and Administrative Systems of the Classical Cypriot City-Kingdoms is the first book which reconstructs in detail the political and administrative systems of the Classical city-kingdoms of Cyprus. The book investigates the bodies of government beyond the Cypriot kings and the roles played by magistrates and officials in local governments, it analyses accounts of the headquarters of the main administrative and economic activities - such as palace archives, and tax collection hubs -, and demonstrates that these systems were similar in all the city-kingdoms.

This volume covers the publication year 1982, with occasional additions from previous year which were missed in earlier volumes and from studies after 1982 but pertaining to material from 1982.

The Syriac treatise published in the present volume is in many respects a unique text. Though it has been preserved anonymously, there remains little doubt that it belongs to Porphyry of Tyre. Accordingly, it enlarges our knowledge of the views of the most famous disciple of Plotinus. The text is an important witness to Platonist discussions on First Principles and on Plato's concept of Prime Matter in the Timaeus. It contains extensive quotations from Atticus, Severus, and Boethus. This text thus provides us with new textual witnesses to these philosophers, whose legacy remains very poorly attested and little known. Additionally, the treatise is a rare example of a Platonist work preserved in the Syriac language. The Syriac reception of Plato and Platonic teachings has left rather sparse textual traces, and the question of what precisely Syriac Christians knew about Plato and his philosophy remains a debated issue. The treatise provides evidence for the close acquaintance of Syriac scholars with Platonic cosmology and with philosophical commentaries on Plato's Timaeus.

From Homer to Aristotle, understanding anger and harnessing its power was at the core of Hellenic civilization. Homer created the framework for philosophical inquiries into anger, one that persisted until it was overturned by Stoicism and Christianity. Plato saw anger as the guardian of justice and Aristotle conceived of it as bound to friendship. Yet both showed that anger can become a guardian of injustice and a defender of our psychological abnormalities. Plato claimed that reason is a tertiary factor in controlling anger and Aristotle argued that non-cognitive powers can issue commands for anger's arousal - findings that shed light as to why cognitive therapeutic approaches often prove to be ineffective. Both proposed nurturing the "thumos," the receptacle of anger and the seat of self-esteem. Aristotle's view of public anger as an early warning sign of social dissolution continues to be relevant to this day. In this carefully argued study, Kostas Kalimtzis examines the theories of anger in the context of the ancient world with an eye to their implications for the modern predicament.

This study, by author Allen Wright, offers an entertaining, informative, and fresh interpretation of the Bible's first books, Genesis through Kings II.

Part One compares two of the Bible's most familiar tales--Noah and the flood and David versus Goliath--with a much earlier ancient Mesopotamian text originally written in cuneiform long before the biblical writers sat down to their work.

Part Two analyzes each book of Genesis through Kings II coupled with the historical backdrop of the times. Learning how the biblical writers set about their business can help you stir up healthy and entertaining discussions among believers and nonbelievers alike; learn about ancient times and the conditions under which the first books of the Bible were written; And discover the true intention of the Bible, as well as its original intended audience.

The Book recounts how the early writers of the Bible went about saving their own civilization against overwhelming odds. See the Bible through a new lens, and return to modern life with a more enlightened understanding of the Bible's first books with The Book: Why the First Books of the Bible Were Written and Who They Were Written For.

The importance of Bessarion's contribution to the history of Byzantine and Renaissance philosophy and culture during the 15th century is beyond dispute. However, an adequate appreciation of his contribution still remains a desideratum of scholarly research. One serious impediment to scholarly progress is the fact that the critical edition of his main philosophical work "In Calumniatorem Platonis" is incomplete and that this work has not been translated in its entirety into any modern language yet. Same can be stated about several minor but equally important treatises on literary, theological and philosophical subjects. This makes editing, translating and interpreting his literary, religious and philosophical works a scholarly priority. Papers assembled in this volume highlight a number of philological, philosophical and historical aspects that are crucial to our understanding of Bessarion's role in the history of European civilization and to setting the directions of future research in this field.

The awe with which Plato regarded the character of 'the great' Parmenides has extended to the dialogue which he calls by his name. None of the writings of Plato have been more copiously illustrated, both in ancient and modern times, and in none of them have the interpreters been more at variance with one another. Nor is this surprising. For the Parmenides is more fragmentary and isolated than any other dialogue, and the design of the writer is not expressly stated. The date is uncertain; the relation to the other writings of Plato is also uncertain; the connexion between the two parts is at first sight extremely obscure; and in the latter of the two we are left in doubt as to whether Plato is speaking his own sentiments by the lips of Parmenides, and overthrowing him out of his own mouth, or whether he is propounding consequences which would have been admitted by Zeno and Parmenides themselves. The contradictions which follow from the hypotheses of the one and many have been regarded by some as transcendental mysteries; by others as a mere illustration, taken at random, of a new method. They seem to have been inspired by a sort of dialectical frenzy, such as may be supposed to have prevailed in the Megarian School (compare Cratylus, etc.). The criticism on his own doctrine of Ideas has also been considered, not as a real criticism, but as an exuberance of the metaphysical imagination which enabled Plato to go beyond himself.

The missing piece in so many histories of Mesopotamian technical disciplines is the client, who often goes unnoticed by present-day scholars seeking to reconstruct ancient disciplines in the Near East over millennia. The contributions to this volume investigate how Mesopotamian medical specialists interacted with their patients and, in doing so, forged their social and professional identities. The chapters in this book explore rituals for success at court, the social classes who made use of such rituals, and depictions of technical specialists on seal impressions and in later Greco-Roman iconography. Several essays focus on Egalkura: rituals of entering the court, meant to invoke a favorable impression from the sovereign. These include detailed surveys and comparative studies of the genre and its roots in the emergent astrological paradigm of the late first millennium BC. The different media and modalities of interaction between technical specialists and their clients are also a central theme explored in detailed studies of the sickbed scene in the iconography of Mesopotamian cylinder seals and the transmission of specialized pharmaceutical knowledge from the Mesopotamian to the Greco-Roman world. Offering an encyclopedic survey of ritual clients attested in the cuneiform textual record, this volume outlines both the Mesopotamian and the Greco-Roman social contexts in which these rituals were used. It will be of interest to students of the history of medicine, as well as to students and scholars of ancient Mesopotamia. In addition to the editor, the contributors include Netanel Anor, Siam Bhayro, Strahil V. Panayotov, Maddalena Rumor, Marvin Schreiber, JoAnn Scurlock, and Ulrike Steinert.

The extent of Roman influence on English common law, long a keenly debated topic, was subjected to careful scrutiny during the establishment of modern English legal historiography in the late 1800s. Scrutton's revisionist essay, a path-breaking work that won Cambridge University's prestigious Yorke Prize, evaluates and mostly discredits the work of his predecessors, most notably Finlason, Coote and Seebohm. In its place he offers a history from the Saxon period to his day guided by a close reading of sources. Scrutton believed that Roman law was a minor influence until it was introduced to Oxford by Vacarius. It became considerable after that watershed event, an argument he advances through a close reading of Glanville and a book-by-book demonstration of Azo's influence on Bracton. Reprint of the sole edition. " Scrutton] has written what we believe to be the best essay on this subject.... It will be a useful guide to the authorities for any who are investigating the history of our law, while the author's own opinions are for the most part sound and sober, and are clearly and modestly stated." Law Quarterly Review 2 (1886) 96 Thomas Edward Scrutton 1856-1934] was an English jurist and writer. After a career in commercial law he became a judge of the King's Bench Division and of the Court of Appeal. He wrote the still standard The Contract of Affreightment as Expressed in Charterparties and Bills of Lading (1886) and an important treatise on English copyright law, The Law of Copyright (1883). CONTENTS INTRODUCTION PART I. ROMAN INFLUENCES OF ENGLISH LAW BEFORE THE COMING OF VACARIUS CHAPTER I. The Sources of the Roman Law CHAPTER II. The Claims of the Roman Law CHAPTER III. Roman Law in the Early Land Law Mr Seebohm's Manorial Theory CHAPTER IV. Roman Law in the Early Family Law CHAPTER V. Roman Law in Early Procedure CHAPTER VI. Roman Law in the Early Constitution Part I. Shires and Hundreds Part II. Towns and Gilds CHAPTER VII. Roman Law and the Norman Conquest CHAPTER VIII. Summary PART II. ROMAN INFLUENCES IN ENGLISH LAW AFTER THE COMING OF VACARIUS CHAPTER I. The Introduction of the Roman Law CHAPTER II. Roman Law in Glanvil CHAPTER III. Roman Law in Bracton Bracton's First Book: on Persons Bracton's Second Book: on Property Bracton's Third Book: on Contracts and Actions Criminal Law Remainder of Bracton Results CHAPTER IV. Roman Law in Britton and Fleta CHAPTER V. Roman Law from Fleta to Coke. CHAPTER VI. Roman Law in Coke CHAPTER VII. Authority of Bracton since Coke CHAPTER VIII. Roman Law; its authority in Hale and Blackstone CHAPTER IX. Roman Law in Blackstone CHAPTER X. Summary of Roman Law in Text-writers CHAPTER XI. Roman Law in the Chancery CHAPTER XII. Roman Law in the Ecclesiastical Courts CHAPTER XIII. Roman Law in the Admiralty CHAPTER XIV. Roman Law in the Law Merchant CHAPTER XV. Roman Law in the Common Law Conclusion Index

In several of the dialogues of Plato, doubts have arisen among his interpreters as to which of the various subjects discussed in them is the main thesis. The speakers have the freedom of conversation; no severe rules of art restrict them, and sometimes we are inclined to think, with one of the dramatis personae in the Theaetetus, that the digressions have the greater interest. Yet in the most irregular of the dialogues there is also a certain natural growth or unity; the beginning is not forgotten at the end, and numerous allusions and references are interspersed, which form the loose connecting links of the whole. We must not neglect this unity, but neither must we attempt to confine the Platonic dialogue on the Procrustean bed of a single idea. (Compare Introduction to the Phaedrus.) Two tendencies seem to have beset the interpreters of Plato in this matter. First, they have endeavoured to hang the dia-logues upon one another by the slightest threads; and have thus been led to opposite and contradictory assertions respec-ting their order and sequence. The mantle of Schleiermacher has descended upon his successors, who have applied his method with the most various results.