This volume includes "Divide and Edit: A Brief History of Book Divisions" by Carolyn Higbie; "Aristotle's Hamartia Reconsidered" by Ho Kim; "Callimachus and his Allusive Virgins" by Andrew Faulkner; "Theokritos' Idyll 16: The Kharites and Civic Poetry" by Jose Gonzalez; "Boxing and Sacrifice in Epic: Apollonius, Vergil, and Valerius" by Matthew Leigh; "The Rhodian Loss of Caunus and Stratonicea in the 160s" by Sviatoslav Dmitriev; "Trina tempestas (Carmina Einsidlensia 2.33)" by Radoslaw Pietka; "The Vanishing Gardens of Priapus" by James Uden; "Trimalchio and Fortunata as Zeus and Hera" by Maria Ypsilanti; "Ps.-Dionysius on Epideictic Rhetoric: Seven Chapters, or One Complete Treatise?" by Martin Korenjak; "The Grammarian C. Iulius Romanus and the Fabula Togata" by Jarrett T. Welsh; "Quintus of Smyrna and the Second Sophistic" by Silvio Bar; and "The Conversion of A. D. Nock in the Context of His Life, Scholarship, and Religious View" by Simon Price.

The Birth of the Athenian Community elucidates the social and political development of Athens in the sixth century, when, as a result of reforms by Solon and Cleisthenes (at the beginning and end of the sixth century, respectively), Athens turned into the most advanced and famous city, or polis, of the entire ancient Greek civilization. Undermining the current dominant approach, which seeks to explain ancient Athens in modern terms, dividing all Athenians into citizens and non-citizens, this book rationalizes the development of Athens, and other Greek poleis, as a gradually rising complexity, rather than a linear progression. The multidimensional social fabric of Athens was comprised of three major groups: the kinship community of the astoi, whose privileged status was due to their origins; the legal community of the politai, who enjoyed legal and social equality in the polis; and the political community of the demotai, or adult males with political rights. These communities only partially overlapped. Their evolving relationship determined the course of Athenian history, including Cleisthenes' establishment of demokratia, which was originally, and for a long time, a kinship democracy, since it only belonged to qualified male astoi.

This is the first monograph in English about Demades, an influential Athenian politician from the fourth century B.C. An orator whose fame outlived him for hundreds of years, he was an acquaintance and collaborator of many political and military leaders of classical Greece, including the Macedonian king Philip II, his son and successor Alexander III (the Great), and the orator Demosthenes. An overwhelming portion of the available evidence on Demades dates to at least three centuries after his death and, often, much later. Contextualizing the sources within their historical and cultural framework, The Orator Demades delineates how later rhetorical practices and social norms transformed his image to better reflect the educational needs and political realities of the Roman imperial and Byzantine periods. The evolving image of Demades illustrates the role that rhetoric, as the basis of education and edification under the Roman and Byzantine Empires, played in creating an alternate, inauthentic vision of the classical past that continues to dominate modern scholarship and popular culture. As a result, the book raises a general question about the problematic foundations of our knowledge of classical Greece.

City Government in Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor examines the social and administrative transformation of Greek society within the early Roman empire, assessing the extent to which the numerous changes in Greek cities during the imperial period ought to be attributed to Roman influence. The topic is crucial to our understanding of the foundations of Roman imperial power because Greek speakers comprised the empire's second largest population group and played a vital role in its administration, culture, and social life.
This book elucidates the transformation of Greek society in this period from a local point of view, mostly through the study of local sources such as inscriptions and coins. By providing information on public activities, education, family connections, and individual careers, it shows the extent of and geographical variation in Greek provincial reaction to the changes accompanying the establishment of Roman rule. In general, new local administrative and social developments during the period were most heavily influenced by traditional pre-Roman practices, while innovations were few and of limited importance.
Concentrating on the province of Asia, one of the most urbanized Greek-speaking provinces of Rome, this work demonstrates that Greek local administration remained diverse under the Romans, while at the same time local Greek nobility gradually merged with the Roman ruling class into one imperial elite. This conclusion interprets the interference of Roman authorities in local administration as a form of interaction between different segments of the imperial elite, rejecting the old explanation of such interference as a display of Roman control over subjects.

The Birth of the Athenian Community elucidates the social and political development of Athens in the sixth century, when, as a result of reforms by Solon and Cleisthenes (at the beginning and end of the sixth century, respectively), Athens turned into the most advanced and famous city, or polis, of the entire ancient Greek civilization. Undermining the current dominant approach, which seeks to explain ancient Athens in modern terms, dividing all Athenians into citizens and non-citizens, this book rationalizes the development of Athens, and other Greek poleis, as a gradually rising complexity, rather than a linear progression. The multidimensional social fabric of Athens was comprised of three major groups: the kinship community of the astoi, whose privileged status was due to their origins; the legal community of the politai, who enjoyed legal and social equality in the polis; and the political community of the demotai, or adult males with political rights. These communities only partially overlapped. Their evolving relationship determined the course of Athenian history, including Cleisthenes' establishment of demokratia, which was originally, and for a long time, a kinship democracy, since it only belonged to qualified male astoi.

The Greek Slogan of Freedom and Early Roman Politics in Greece elucidates the main steps and ways in which the slogan of freedom emerged and developed into the fundamental principle of Greek diplomacy and politics, long before the Romans appropriated and used this slogan to establish their domination over the Mediterranean.
Originally employed by the Spartans and Athenians, who used it to subvert each other's military alliances before and during the Peloponnesian war, the slogan of freedom helped to maintain political and military balance among the major Greek powers during the classical period, putting a check on their aspirations. After Philip II and Alexander III (the Great) established Macedonian rule over Greece, and in the subsequent Hellenistic period, the slogan of freedom not only continued to be an important tool for undermining rival military alliances and vindicating aggressions on behalf of those whose freedom was allegedly violated or endangered, but also served to determine the status of individual Greek communities.
Once Rome became involved in Greek affairs, she made the slogan of freedom part of her policy in Greece. The Romans' claim of protecting Greek freedom was their only justification for interfering in Greek affairs. Individual Greek cities preserved their status, including freedom, by pledging loyalty and good faith to Rome. This network of mutual obligations and responsibilities evolved into a system of political control over the Greeks, which came to be known as the Roman Peace (pax Romana). This book argues, therefore, that the Roman Mediterranean empire was built not only on military might, but also on diplomacy, including a skillful Roman adaptation to local political practices and vocabulary.