Ancient prophecy was not confined to Israel, yet the phenomenon of prophetic poetry as it developed there was unique. The impact of this poetry on civilization is incalculable, though its origins and motives largely remain mysterious. This book shows that this poetry is inseparable from the empires which determined the history of the ancient Near East and the fate of Israel and Judah from the late-8th century to the end of the 6th century BC - first Assyria, then Babylonia, and finally Persia. Each empire had its own characters and motives, and stimulated a distinct wave of prophecy, led in turn by Isaiah Ben Amos, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and the second Isaiah. The book is an historical interpretation and an anthology of prophetic poetry which uses recent research on imperialism and creativity to produce a radically new interpretation of the biblical prophets. More than three dozen outstanding poems and fragments in new translation from the Hebrew Bible are arranged in a running narrative, from the late-8th century BC until the late-6th century BC.

This volume brings together scholars working on the multifaceted and changing dimensions of citizenship in the ancient Mediterranean, from the second millennium BCE to the first millennium CE, adopting a multidisciplinary and comparative perspective. The chapters in this volume cover numerous periods and regions - from the Ancient Near East, through the Greek and Hellenistic worlds and pre-Roman North Africa, to the Roman empire and its continuations, and with excursuses to modernity. The contributors to this volume adopt various contemporary theories, demonstrating the manifold meanings and ways of defining the concept and practices of citizenship and belonging in ancient societies and, in turn, of non-citizenship and non-belonging. Whether citizenship was defined by territorial belonging or blood descent; by privileged or exclusive access to resources or participation in communal decision-making; by a sense of group belonging - such identifications were also open to discursive redefinitions and manipulation. Citizenship and belonging, as well as non-citizenship and non-belonging, had many shades and degrees; citizenship could be bought or faked, or even deprived. By casting light on different areas of the Mediterranean over the course of antiquity, this volume seeks to explore this multi-layered notion of citizenship and contribute to an on-going and relevant discourse. Citizenship in Antiquity offers a wide-ranging, comprehensive collection suitable for students and scholars of citizenship, politics, and society in the ancient Mediterranean world, as well as those working on citizenship throughout history interested in taking a comparative approach.

'Accessible, informative, enjoyable' - All About History _____________________ Spend 24 hours with the ancient Athenians. See the city through their eyes as it teeters on the edge of the fateful war that would end its golden age. Athens, 416 BC. A tenuous peace holds. The city-state's political and military might are feared throughout the ancient world; it pushes the boundaries of social, literary and philosophical experimentation in an era when it has a greater concentration of geniuses per capita than at any other time in human history. Yet even geniuses go to the bathroom, argue with their spouse and enjoy a drink with friends. During the course of a day we meet 24 Athenians from all strata of society - from the slave-girl to the councilman, the vase painter to the naval commander, the housewife to the hoplite - and get to know what the real Athens was like by spending an hour in their company. We encounter a different one of these characters every chapter, with each chapter forming an hour in the life of the ancient city. We also get to spy on the daily doings of notable Athenians through the eyes of regular people as the city hovers on the brink of the fateful war that will destroy its golden age.

Explores all equipment made or used to contain the embalmed internal organs of the kings of ancient Egypt. The book traces the mythological development of the various forms of container, and catalogues all known canopic items belonging to the kings of Egypt from the 4th to 26th Dynasties.

This book provides a new approach to the study of the History of Roman Law. It collects the first results of the European Research Council Project, Scriptores iuris Romani - dedicated to a new collection of the texts of Roman jurisprudence, highlighting important methodological issues, together with innovative reconstructions of the profiles of some ancient jurists and works. Jurists were great protagonists of the history of Rome, both as producers and interpreters of law, since the Republican Age and as collaborators of the principes during the Empire. Nevertheless, their role has been underestimated by modern historians and legal experts for reasons connected to the developments of Modern Law in England and in Continental Europe. This book aims to address this imbalance. It presents an advanced paradigm in considering the most important aspects of Roman law: the Justinian Digesta, and other juridical late antique anthologies. The work offers an historiographic model which overturns current perspectives and makes way for a different path for legal and historical studies. Unlike existing literature, the focus is not on the Justinian Codification, but on the individualities of ancient Roman Jurists. As such, it presents the actual legal thought of its experts and authors: the ancient iuris prudentes. The book will be of interest to researchers and academics in Classics, Ancient History, History of Law, and contemporary legal studies.

Domitian, Emperor of Rome AD 81-96, has traditionally been portrayed as a tyrant, and his later years on the throne as a "reign of terror"; his death bringing a restoration of liberty and inaugurating the glorious rule of the "five good emperors". It is less well known that he was an able, meticulous administrator, a reformer of the economy, with a building programme designed to ensure that Rome not only was the capital of the world but looked like it as well. Brian Jones's biography of the emperor, aims to provide a balanced interpretation of the life of Domitian. In taking into account recent scholarship and new epigraphic and archaeological discoveries, "The Emperor Domitian" proposes that Domitian was a ruthless but efficient autocrat with a sound foreign policy, and rejects the traditional view that dismisses him as a vicious tyrant. His harshness was felt by a comparatively minute, but highly vocal section of the population, who included those who wrote the history of his reign. Brian Jones argues that his relationship with the court rather than with the senate is central to understanding his policies.

An invigorating journey through Britain's prehistoric landscape, and an insight into the lives of its inhabitants. 'Highly compelling' Spectator, Books of the Year 'An evocative foray into the prehistoric past' BBC Countryfile Magazine 'Vividly relating what life was like in pre-Roman Britain' Choice Magazine 'Makes life in Britain BC often sound rather more appealing than the frenetic and anxious 21st century!' Daily Mail In Scenes from Prehistoric Life, the distinguished archaeologist Francis Pryor paints a vivid picture of British and Irish prehistory, from the Old Stone Age (about one million years ago) to the arrival of the Romans in AD 43, in a sequence of fifteen profiles of ancient landscapes. Whether writing about the early human family who trod the estuarine muds of Happisburgh in Norfolk c.900,000 BC, the craftsmen who built a wooden trackway in the Somerset Levels early in the fourth millennium BC, or the Iron Age denizens of Britain's first towns, Pryor uses excavations and surveys to uncover the daily routines of our ancient ancestors. By revealing how our prehistoric forebears coped with both simple practical problems and more existential challenges, Francis Pryor offers remarkable insights into the long and unrecorded centuries of our early history, and a convincing, well-attested and movingly human portrait of prehistoric life as it was really lived.

This volume offers a broad introduction to one of the most exciting chapters of Late Antiquity, through direct testimony from one of the last representatives of Roman Antiquity, Ausonius of Bordeaux, and his radical Christian protege, the populist bishop and experimental poet, Paulinus of Nola. The first comprehensive volume in English dedicated to these works in over a century, this book also offers representative selections from Paulinus' vast poetic output, from the publicly performed poems that mark his contribution to the emerging cult of the saints to his experimental Christianization of a wide range of Classical genres. Preceded by a substantial introduction discussing the modern significance of these works and their original contexts, the translation is accompanied by running notes for ease of reference and an interpretive commentary rich with illustrative parallels. Taken together, the correspondence with Ausonius and the selections from Paulinus epitomize the personal, political, and spiritual conflicts of their age, offering a lively and concentrated introduction to the life and thought of these two underappreciated contemporaries of Jerome and Augustine. Accompanied by new and provocative interpretations with detailed but concise historical and biographical guidance, this accessible and stylish translation will appeal to scholars and students of Classics, Late Antiquity, religious studies, social history, and world literature.

Offers an interdisciplinary collection of papers on various aspects of ancient Greek philosophy.

Examines unit cohesion in ancient armies using both military and social approaches.

Shows how and why history has been made from loss around the world, challenging the oft-received view that history is written by the 'victors', showing readers how diverse the writing of history can be. All students of history have to study historiography, and this volume offers a new lens through which to investigate that historiography as well as forming part of the cannon that students will study in these courses. There are lots of historiography books out there, but few that engage properly with the idea of history written from loss, from exile, from imprisonment as History From Loss does.

These essays, by experts in the field from five countries, examine Plutarch's interpretative and artistic reshaping of his historical sources in representative lives. Diverse essays treat literary elements such as the parallelism which renders a pair of lives a unit or the themes which unify the lives. Others consider the selecting, combining, simplifying, and enlarging employed in composition. The construction of a Plutarchian life, the essays demonstrate, required careful selection and creative reworking of the historical material available.

eBook available with sample pages: 020307663X

While much has been written of the importance of Agrippa in Augustus' rise to power as the first emperor of Rome, Maecenas remains a shadowy figure despite being a vital part in the success of Augustus. After the assassination of Julius Caesar, Maecenas was a vital negotiator between Octavian and Mark Antony in the years leading up to the battle of Actium, and a wise political advisor to Augustus during the early years of the new regime. This is the first biography of Maecenas in English and gives due credit to the stature of Maecenas both as a confidant of the emperor and as patron of the poets Virgil, Horace and Propertius. The book devotes a chapter to each poet's relationship with Maecenas and the Augustan regime: the chapter on Virgil, while considering his relationship to Maecenas and Augustus, argues that the origins of his choice of Aeneas may lie in Etruria rather than elsewhere, while the chapter on Horace assesses one of the closest documented relationships of Roman history. The chapter on Propertius wrestles with the disparate views of scholars on the question of his relationship with the Augustan regime and argues that, at heart, he remains an Umbrian/Etruscan rather than a Roman. A crucial feature of the book is the provision of 161 texts from ancient Roman and Greek authors which mention Maecenas. Based on sustainable evidence this study of the importance of Maecenas takes scholarship in new and important directions.

This book focuses on the development of Platonic philosophy at the hands of Roman writers between the first century BCE and the early fifth century CE. It discusses the interpretation of Plato's Timaeus by Cicero, Apuleius, Calcidius, and Augustine, and examines how these authors created new contexts and settings for the intellectual heritage they received and thereby contributed to the construction of the complex and multifaceted genre of Roman Platonism. It takes advantage of the authors' treatment of Plato's Timaeus as a continuous point of reference to illustrate the individuality and originality of each writer in his engagement with this Greek philosophical text; each chooses a specific vocabulary, methodology, and literary setting for his appropriation of Timaean doctrine. The authors' contributions to the dialogue's history of transmission are shown to have enriched and prolonged the enduring significance of Plato's cosmology.

A Story of YHWH investigates the ancient Israelite expression of their deity, and tracks why variation occurred in that expression, from the early Iron Age to the Persian period. Through this text, readers will gain a better appreciation for the complexities and contexts in the development of YHWH, from its earliest origins to the Persian period. Two interpretive frameworks-cultural translation and subversive reception-are offered for filtering through the textual data and contexts. Comparative study with ancient Near Eastern deities and select biblical texts lead readers through early YHWHism, YHWH's original outsider status, and the eventual impact of urbanization on the expression. Perceived and real pressures then challenge urbanite YHWHism and invite new directions for forming a unique expression of divinity in the ancient world. This book is intended for those interested in the study of ancient divinity broadly as well as those who study ancient Israel and the Hebrew Bible. The work provides generalists with a better appreciation for the particular challenges in working in the ancient Near East and with the bible specifically, while it provides specialists with a broad theory that can be continually tested. For both, the study provides two reading lenses to work through similar questions and an accounting of why the many contextually driven and varied constructions of YHWH may have occurred.

The topic of children in the Bible has long been under-represented, but this has recently changed with the development of childhood studies in broader fields, and the work of several dedicated scholars. While many reading methods are employed in this emerging field, comparative work with children in the ancient world has been an important tool to understand the function of children in biblical texts. Children in the Bible and the Ancient World broadly introduces children in the ancient world, and specifically children in the Bible. It brings together an international group of experts who help readers understand how children are constructed in biblical literature across three broad areas: children in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East, children in Christian writings and the Greco-Roman world, and children and materiality. The diverse essays cover topics such as: vows in Ugarit and the Hebrew Bible, obstetric knowledge, infant abandonment, the role of marriage, Greek abandonment texts, ritual entry for children into Christian communities, education, sexual abuse, and the role of archeological figurines in children's lives. The volume also includes expertise in biological anthropology to study the skeletal remains of ancient children, as well as how ancient texts illuminate Mary's female maturity. The volume is written in an accessible style suitable for non-specialists, and it is equipped with a helpful resource bibliography that organizes select secondary sources from these essays into meaningful categories for further study. Children in the Bible and the Ancient World is a helpful introduction to any who study children and childhood in the ancient world. In addition, the volume will be of interest to experts who are engaged in historical approaches to biblical studies, while appreciating how the ancient world continues to illuminate select topics in biblical texts.

Commissioned to mark the 75th anniversary of the start of work in the royal burial ground by the 5th Earl of Carnavon and Howard Carter, this book presents an up-to-date review of the developments in excavation, mapping and research in the Valley of the Kings.

As it is today, the property market was a key and dynamic economic sector in Ancient Rome. Its study demands a deep understanding of Roman society, of the normative frameworks and the notions of wealth, value, identity and status that shaped individual and collective mentalities. This book takes a multisided insight into real estate as the subject of short- and long-term economic investments, of speculative businesses ventures, of power abuses and inequalities, of social aspirations, but also of essential housing needs. The volume discusses thoroughly relevant and new literary, legal, epigraphic, papyrological and archaeological evidence, and incorporates comparative historical perspectives and methodologies, including economic theory and current, critical sociological debates about the functioning of modern real estate markets and issues linked to its commodification and regulation. In pursuing this line of enquiry, the contributions that make up the book investigate the impact of ideas such as profit, risk, security and trust in transfers, management and use of residential houses, commercial buildings and productive estates in urban and rural contexts. The work further evaluates the legal responses to and the public enforcement strategies concerning such activities, the high mobility of fortunes and unstable property-rights that resulted from one-off but also structural, political, financial, economic and institutional crises that marked the history of the Roman Republic and Principate. This book aims to demonstrate the relevance of the study of pre-modern real estate markets today, and will be of significant interest to readers of economic history as well as Roman law, Roman archaeology, the history of urbanism and social history.

The religious life within and around the Roman Empire, and the context into which Christianity emerged and where it spread, provides a topic of the widest interest. Yet this context was not that of a completely pagan world, for Judaism was already firmly established and continued as a vigorous contender in the field throughout the first four centuries after the death of Christ - a fact not always well recognized. Historically, Christianity's relationship with Judaism continued to be intimate but ambivalent long after their separation. This has distorted scholarly perceptions right down to our own day, when the religious history of the period still tends to be written from a Christianizing perspective. The suggestion of this book is that we can and should reassess, from a more neutral position, how the competition between these three religions influenced the development of each of them. "The Jews Among Pagans and Christians" offers a model of this complex area by drawing on a variety of types of material and method. This book should be of interest to students and lecturers of classics, ancient history, Jewish studies, theology and religious studies.

The population of ancient Rome at its peak exceeded that of any previous western city, or any that came after it until the Industrial Revolution. The requirements for its running--to keep inhabitants fed and provided with water, drainage and entertainment, to enable the people to move about freely and in relative safety, to facilitate a reasonable harmony with their neighbours--meant that a pragmatic system of administrative law was needed. This book describes the legal aspects of urbanism, of the functioning of Rome as a city. O. F. Robinson begins by introducing the purely physical aspect of Rome--its population and boundaries. An overview of town planning is followed by an in-depth treatment of building controls, public works, streets and traffic. The Tiber, the main river in Rome, was central to life in the City. Its bridges and sewers, its employment as a transport system, its relationship to the water supply, and its other uses are discussed in detail. This provides the background for an analysis of public health and safety. Additionally, the book focuses on services such as food distribution, entertainment such as the theatre and gladiatorial games, and the forces of law and order. Ancient Rome: City Planning and Administration is a comprehensive survey of the running of a great city without modern technology. It will be of considerable interest to Roman lawyers, historians and archaeologists, as well as those concerned with current local government.

One of the most visited places in the world, Rome attracts millions of tourists each year to walk its storied streets and see famous sites like the Colosseum, St. Peter's Basilica, and the Trevi Fountain. Yet this ancient city's allure is due as much to its rich, unbroken history as to its extraordinary array of landmarks. Countless incarnations and eras merge in the Roman cityscape. With a history spanning nearly three millennia, no other place can quite match the resilience and reinventions of the aptly nicknamed Eternal City. In this unique and visually engaging book, Jessica Maier considers Rome through the eyes of mapmakers and artists who have managed to capture something of its essence over the centuries. Viewing the city as not one but ten "Romes," she explores how the varying maps and art reflect each era's key themes. Ranging from modest to magnificent, the images comprise singular aesthetic monuments like paintings and grand prints as well as more popular and practical items like mass-produced tourist plans, archaeological surveys, and digitizations. The most iconic and important images of the city appear alongside relatively obscure, unassuming items that have just as much to teach us about Rome's past. Through 140 full-color images and thoughtful overviews of each era, Maier provides an accessible, comprehensive look at Rome's many overlapping layers of history in this landmark volume. The first book ever published in English to tell Rome's rich story through its maps, The Eternal City beautifully captures the past, present, and future of one of the most famous and enduring places on the planet.

E.D. Francis held that the ancient world was a unity in which concerns of the day were reflected in literary works and the language of pictorial and sculptural representations. His theories, which challenge contemporary views of Attic civilization and its artistic and literary productions, were presented as the prestigious Waynflete lectures at Oxford in 1983 and are published here for the first time. IMAGE AND IDEA IN FIFTH CENTURY GREECE constitutes the first book-length application of the controversial dating of fifth century Greek art pioneered by Francis and Michael Vickers. If Francis' arguments are correct, the pan-Hellenic construction of temples, erection of dedicatory statues, and the general joie de vivre to be found in the artifacts of the late archaic period can be seen as physical manifestations of Greek victory over the Persians in 480 and 479. Embodying some of the principal arguments for the importance of Persian influence on Greek art and civilization, IMAGE AND IDEA has important implications for our understanding of Attic culture.

Ethos, Logos, and Perspective represents the first comprehensive study of late Byzantine court rhetorical praise as a general phenomenon surfacing in many types of rhetorical epideictic compositions dating from the fourteenth and the fifteenth centuries: panegyrics, encomia, city descriptions, encomiastic verses, or letters. The aim of this book is to reconstruct the two perspectives, idealism and pragmatism, that shaped authorial choices in matters of rhetorical style and composition. This study uncovers a little-known period in the history of Byzantine rhetoric. Proceeding from a nuanced understanding of the ancient concepts of ethos and logos, it analyzes the rhetoric of Byzantine praise in a modern theoretical framework. Unlike other previous studies of Byzantine rhetoric, the present research traces the structures and meanings that ultimately influenced the political attitudes and values circulating in the last century of Byzantine history. Another feature of this book is that it offers translations and discussions of important passages from the late Byzantine rhetoric, a corpus of texts that only recently has started to receive attention. This book is addressed to both a specialized audience who is interested in a new approach to Byzantine literary culture as well as to students who readers will become acquainted with and how various praise techniques and themes permeated other aspects of Byzantine literary culture like moral and spiritual advice. In addition, readers will also find informative approaches on the main authors and genres of late Byzantine rhetoric.

With well over a million copies sold, Sun Tzu's The Art of War is a true masterpiece, a series of brilliant aphorisms that illuminate the planning and conduct of war. Now this classic work is available in an elegant illustrated edition, featuring seventy-five color and black-and-white images. From perceptive descriptions of the nine varieties of terrain, to advice on how to gage an enemy's weaknesses and strengths, to suggestions on the employment of secret agents, here is timeless advice on combat and military strategy. Sun Tzu's writings are unsurpassed in depth of understanding, shedding light not only on battlefield maneuvers, but also on the relevant economic, political, and psychological factors that can shape the outcome of warfare. Equally important, the precepts outlined by Sun Tzu over two thousand years ago can be applied with great success outside the theater of war. Indeed, it is read avidly by corporate executives worldwide and has been touted in the movie Wall Street and the television series The Sopranos as the ultimate guide to strategy. Finally, this edition offers the definitive translation of Sun Tzu's text, by former U.S. Marine Brigadier General Samuel Griffith, who was also an authority of Mao Tse-Tung. Remarkable for its clear organization, lucid prose, and the acuity of its intellectual and moral insights, The Art of War is the definitive study of combat. It is an essential book for military history buffs, and an ideal gift for anyone who is interested in tactics and strategy, whether on the battlefield or in the boardroom.