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Books > History > World history > BCE to 500 CE
The Mixtec peoples were among the major original developers of
Mesoamerican civilization. Centuries before the Spanish Conquest,
they formed literate urban states and maintained a uniquely
innovative technology and a flourishing economy. Today, thousands
of Mixtecs still live in Oaxaca, in present-day southern Mexico,
and thousands more have migrated to locations throughout Mexico,
the United States, and Canada. In this comprehensive survey, Ronald
Spores and Andrew K. Balkansky--both preeminent scholars of Mixtec
civilization--synthesize a wealth of archaeological, historical,
and ethnographic data to trace the emergence and evolution of
Mixtec civilization from the time of earliest human occupation to
the present.
The Mixtec region has been the focus of much recent archaeological
and ethnohistorical activity. In this volume, Spores and Balkansky
incorporate the latest available research to show that the Mixtecs,
along with their neighbors the Valley and Sierra Zapotec,
constitute one of the world's most impressive civilizations,
antecedent to--and equivalent to--those of the better-known Maya
and Aztec. Employing what they refer to as a "convergent
methodology," the authors combine techniques and results of
archaeology, ethnohistory, linguistics, biological anthropology,
ethnology, and participant observation to offer abundant new
insights on the Mixtecs' multiple transformations over three
millennia.
Despite their removal from England's National Curriculum in 1988,
and claims of elitism, Latin and Greek are increasingly re-entering
the 'mainstream' educational arena. Since 2012, there have been
more students in state-maintained schools in England studying
classical subjects than in independent schools, and the number of
schools offering Classics continues to rise in the state-maintained
sector. The teaching and learning of Latin and Greek is not,
however, confined to the classroom: community-based learning for
adults and children is facilitated in newly established regional
Classics hubs in evenings and at weekends, in universities as part
of outreach, and even in parks and in prisons. This book
investigates the motivations of teachers and learners behind the
rise of Classics in the classroom and in communities, and explores
ways in which knowledge of classical languages is considered
valuable for diverse learners in the 21st century. The role of
classical languages within the English educational policy landscape
is examined, as new possibilities exist for introducing Latin and
Greek into school curricula. The state of Classics education
internationally is also investigated, with case studies presenting
the status quo in policy and practice from Australasia, North
America, the rest of Europe and worldwide. The priorities for the
future of Classics education in these diverse locations are
compared and contrasted by the editors, who conjecture what
strategies are conducive to success.
Private property in Rome effectively measures the suitability of
each individual to serve in the army and to compete in the
political arena. What happens then, when a Roman citizen is
deprived of his property? Financial penalties played a crucial role
in either discouraging or effectively punishing wrongdoers. This
book offers the first coherent discussion of confiscations and
fines in the Roman Republic by exploring the political, social, and
economic impact of these punishments on private wealth.
How to Do Things with History is a collection of essays that
explores current and future approaches to the study of ancient
Greek cultural history. Rather than focus directly on methodology,
the essays in this volume demonstrate how some of the most
productive and significant methodologies for studying ancient
Greece can be employed to illuminate a range of different kinds of
subject matter. These essays, which bring together the work of some
of the most talented scholars in the field, are based upon papers
delivered at a conference held at Cambridge University in September
of 2014 in honor of Paul Cartledge's retirement from the post of A.
G. Leventis Professor of Ancient Greek Culture. For the better part
of four decades, Paul Cartledge has spearheaded intellectual
developments in the field of Greek culture in both scholarly and
public contexts. His work has combined insightful historical
accounts of particular places, periods, and thinkers with a
willingness to explore comparative approaches and a keen focus on
methodology. Cartledge has throughout his career emphasized the
analysis of practice - the study not, for instance, of the history
of thought but of thinking in action and through action. The
assembled essays trace the broad horizons charted by Cartledge's
work: from studies of political thinking to accounts of legal and
cultural practices to politically astute approaches to
historiography. The contributors to this volume all take the
parameters and contours of Cartledge's work, which has profoundly
influenced an entire generation of scholars, as starting points for
their own historical and historiographical explorations. Those
parameters and contours provide a common thread that runs through
and connects all of the essays while also offering sufficient
freedom for individual contributors to demonstrate an array of rich
and varied approaches to the study of the past.
In From Document to History: Epigraphic Insights into the
Greco-Roman World, editors Carlos Norena and Nikolaos Papazarkadas
gather together an exciting set of original studies on Greek and
Roman epigraphy, first presented at the Second North American
Congress of Greek and Latin Epigraphy (Berkeley 2016). Chapters
range chronologically from the sixth century BCE to the fifth
century CE, and geographically from Egypt and Asia Minor to the
west European continent and British isles. Key themes include Greek
and Roman epigraphies of time, space, and public display, with
texts featuring individuals and social groups ranging from Roman
emperors, imperial elites, and artists to gladiators, immigrants,
laborers, and slaves. Several papers highlight the new technologies
that are transforming our understanding of ancient inscriptions,
and a number of major new texts are published here for the first
time.
The study presents a critical analysis of the political relations
between Rome and Near Eastern kingdoms and principalities during
the age of civil war from the death of Julius Caesar in 44 to Mark
Antony's defeat at Actium in 31 BC. By examining each bilateral
relationship separately, it argues that those relations were marked
by a large degree of continuity with earlier periods. Circumstances
connected to the civil war had only a limited impact on the
interstate conduct of the period despite the effects that the
strife had on Rome's domestic politics and the res publica. The
ever-present rival Parthia and its external policies were more
influential in steering the relations between Rome and Near Eastern
powers.
Amyrtaeus, only pharaoh of the Twenty-eighth Dynasty, shook off the
shackles of Persian rule in 404 BCE; a little over seventy years
later, Ptolemy son of Lagus started the 'Greek millennium' (J.G.
Manning's phrase) in Egypt living long enough to leave a powerful
kingdom to his youngest son, Ptolemy II, in 282. In this book,
expert studies document the transformation of Egypt through the
dynamic fourth century, and the inauguration of the Ptolemaic
state. Ptolemy built up his position as ruler subtly and steadily.
Continuity and change marked the Egyptian-Greek encounter. The
calendar, the economy and coinage, the temples, all took on new
directions. In the great new city of Alexandria, the settlers'
burial customs had their own story to tell.
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