A Companion to Ancient History E-Book
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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Serie: Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World
- Sprache: Englisch
This Companion provides a comprehensive introduction to key topics in the study of ancient history.
- Examines the forms of evidence, problems, approaches, and major themes in the study of ancient history
- Comprises more than 40 essays, written by leading international scholars
- Moves beyond the primary focus on Greece and Rome with coverage of the various cultures within the ancient Mediterranean
- Draws on the latest research in the field
- Provides an essential resource for any student of ancient history
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Seitenzahl: 1672
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012
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Table of Contents
Cover
BLACKWELL COMPANIONS TO THE ANCIENT WORLD
Title page
Copyright page
Dedication
Figures
Maps
Notes on Contributors
Preface
Abbreviations, Reference Works
Abbreviations and Glossary, Ancient Authors
Timeline
CHAPTER ONE: Personal Perspectives
Why I Study Ancient History, and Why I Suppose it Matters
Why Ancient History?
A Roman Historian Reflects
A View from Japan
The Relevance of Ancient History: an Australian Perspective sidere mens eadem mutato?
PART I: Evidence
CHAPTER TWO: Historiography
1 The Writing of History in Antiquity
2 The Debate over the Nature of History
3 Change and “Unhistorical Thinking”
4 The Present and the Past
5 Conclusion
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER THREE: Epigraphical Cultures of the Classical Mediterranean: Greek, Latin, and Beyond
1 Introduction
2 The Alphabet and Greek Public Epigraphy
3 The Diffusion of Latin Epigraphy
4 Greek, Latin, and Regional Epigraphy
5 Conclusion
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER FOUR: Papyrology
1 Material, Methods, and Approaches
2 The Impact of the Papyri
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER FIVE: Numismatics
1 Introduction
2 Greek Numismatics
3 Roman Numismatics
4 Roman Provincial Numismatics
5 The Future
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER SIX: Archaeology and Ancient History
1 From the Renaissance to the Nineteenth Century
2 The Twentieth Century
3 Future Directions
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER SEVEN: Oratory
1 Introduction
2 Oratory and the Courts
3 Oratory and Politics
4 Writing and Reading Speeches
5 Conclusion
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER EIGHT: Ancient History Through Ancient Literature
1 Introduction
2 Transmission
3 Lost in Translation?
4 The Meaning of the Text
5 Interpretative Pluralism and Literary “Resistance”
6 Literature and Historicism
FURTHER READING
PART II: Problems and Approaches
CHAPTER NINE: Ancient History Today
1 Public Perceptions
2 Boundaries of the Subject
3 Some Pioneers
4 Changing Directions
5 Structural Factors
6 Problems and Opportunities
CHAPTER TEN: Political History
1 The Changing Character of Political History
2 Historicizing Historiography
3 From Historical Positivism to Political Culture
4 A Tralatician Historiography
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER ELEVEN: Economic and Social History
1 Introduction
2 Social Science, History, and Classical Studies
3 Evidence and Interpretation
4 Concepts and Terminology
5 Models and Theories
6 Structures and Events
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER TWELVE: Ethnicity and Culture
1 Background to the Study of Ancient Identities
2 Identity in the Greek World
3 Identity in the Roman World
4 Closing Remarks
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Population and Demography
1 The Challenge of Demography
2 Death and Disease
3 Reproduction and Fertility Control
4 Marriage, Families, and Households
5 Population Number
6 Distribution and Mobility
7 Outlook
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Writing Women into History
1 Why a History of Women?
2 Retrieving Women From Male-Authored Texts
3 Female-Authored Texts
4 Letters and Documents
5 Geographical Range
6 Basic Achievements and a Question for the Future
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Interpreting Myth
1 History Without Myth
2 Myth as History
3 Myth and History
4 The Myth of Athenian Autochthony
5 The Foundation of Syracuse
6 From Aristotle to Barthes
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Environmental History
1 Introduction
2 Physical Geography
3 The Mediterranean Climate
4 The Natural Environment
5 Health and Disease
FURTHER READING
PART III: People and Places
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: The Near East
1 Introduction
2 Near Eastern Society and History
3 The Empire of Akkad (2350–2150 BC) and the Third Dynasty of Ur (2112–2004 BC)
4 The Near Eastern Kingdoms in the Second Millennium BC
5 The Neo-Assyrian, Neo-Elamite, and Neo-Babylonian Empires (1180–539 BC)
6 The Persian Empire (559–330 BC)
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: Egypt under the Pharaohs
1 Setting the Scene
2 The Old Kingdom (c.2700–2150 BC)
3 The Middle Kingdom (c.2050–1650 BC)
4 The New Kingdom (c.1550–1050 BC)
5 The Late Period (664–330 BC)
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER NINETEEN: The Jews
1 A Question of Perspective
2 The Jews from Cyrus to Muhammad: a Very Brief Political History
3 The Jews from Ezra to the Talmud: a Cultural and Religious History
4 Jews and Non-Jews: Jewish and Non-Jewish Perspectives
5 Begging to Differ: the Mechanics of Ethnic Survival
6 Conclusion
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER TWENTY: The Greeks
1 Being Greek
2 Greeks and Foreigners
3 Greeks and the Greek World
4 Our Greeks
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: Asia Minor
1 This Side of the River Halys
2 Hellenism and the Development of the Cities
3 Civic Life and Civic Identity under the Roman Empire
4 The Triumph of the Anatolian Village
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: Rome
1 Introduction: Inhabiting Rome
2 The Evidence
3 Building a City
4 Social Relations
5 Capital of the World
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: Italy Beyond Rome
1 Approaching Italy
2 Sources and Perspectives
3 Urbanization and Settlement
4 Social and Political Organization
5 Italian Economies
6 The Arrival of Rome
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: North Africa
1 Introduction
2 Connections Across the Sea
3 Connections Across the Sand
4 Inland Connectivity
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: The Iberian Peninsula in the Roman Period
1 The Cultural Background
2 The Beginnings of an Empire
3 The Spanish Ulcer?
4 Cultural Change
5 Mineral Wealth
6 Agricultural Wealth
7 Political Contributions
8 Cultural Contributions
9 The Collapse
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: The “Celts”
1 Were There Ancient Celts?
2 When and Where Were the “Celts”?
3 Economy and Social Structure
4 Warfare
5 Feasting
6 Religion
7 Who Were the Ancient “Celts”?
FURTHER READING
PART IV: Encountering the Divine
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: Religion
1 The Problem of Ancient Religion
2 Between Heaven and Earth: a World Full of Gods
3 Religion and the State
4 Religion and “Belief”
5 The Variety of Ancient Religion
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT: The Emergence of Christianity
1 Introduction
2 Jesus of Nazareth
3 Paul of Tarsos
4 The Status of Converts (Who Were the “Christianoi”?)
5 Polemic and Persecution
6 Discerning the Message: Authority, Discourse, and Text
7 Asceticism
8 The Age of Diocletian and Constantine
9 Conclusions
FURTHER READING
PART V: Living and Dying
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: The Family
1 Meeting the Family
2 Demosthenes and Cicero
3 What Does “Family” Mean?
4 Mum, Dad, and the Kids
5 Families from Egypt
6 Marriage
7 Children
8 Death, Divorce, and Inheritance
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER THIRTY: Food
1 Introduction
2 The Main Foods in the Diet
3 Meals and Social Occasions
4 Change and Development
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE: Eros: Love and Sexuality
1 Vocabularies
2 Homosexual Eros
3 Adulterers, Prostitutes, Escorts, Entertainers
4 Religion
5 Conclusion
BIBLIOGRAPHIC ESSAY
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO: Housing
1 Evidence and Approaches
2 Housing in the Greek World
3 Housing in the Roman World
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: Entertainment
1 Introduction
2 Sport in Archaic Greece
3 The Civic Role of Entertainment
4 Rome and Greece
5 Imperial Entertainments
6 From the Ancient World to the Modern
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR: Education
1 Education: Ancient and Modern
2 Where?
3 Who?
4 What?
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE: Medicine
1 Accidents of Survival
2 Individuals and Groups
3 Medicine as Literature
4 Culture Contact
5 Women
6 Ancient Patients
7 Efficacy
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX: Death
1 Dying Well
2 Funerals
3 Tombs
4 The Afterlife
FURTHER READING
PART VI: Economy
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN: The Mediterranean and the History of Antiquity
1 Introduction
2 Defining the Mediterranean
3 The Evolution of the Mediterranean as an Idea in Antiquity
4 Rome and the Mediterranean
5 Conclusion
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT: Ancient Economies
1 The Subsistence Mode
2 Command Mode
3 Market Mode
4 Envoi
FURTHER READING
AFTERWORD (2012)
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE: Labor: Free and Unfree
1 Opening Pandora’s Box
2 Peasant and Slave Economies
3 Aristocratic Retinues and Urban Bazaars
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER FORTY: The Countryside
1 Introduction
2 Evidence and Approaches
3 Ecology and Risk
4 The Corrupting Sea
5 Towns and Hinterlands
6 People in the Landscape
7 Late Republican Italy
8 Summary
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE: Finance and Resources: Public, Private, and Personal
1 Public Goods
2 The Discipline of Public Economy
3 Public Economy and Historians
4 Ancient Public Economies Through Time
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO: Ancient Technology
1 Hidden Technology
2 Specialization
3 Technical Development
4 Technical Stagnation
5 Mass Production
6 Epilogue
FURTHER READING
PART VII: Politics and Power
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE: Structures
1 Introduction
2 Political Structures and Institutional Power
3 The Social Stratum: Micro- and Macro-Structures
4 Structuring Space – Spatial Structures
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR: Citizenship
1 The Theory of Citizenship
2 The Origin of the Concept
3 The Classical and Hellenistic Greek World
4 The World of Rome
5 A New Concept of Citizenship
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE: Law
1 The Greeks
2 The Romans
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX: Warfare
1 War and History
2 Memory and Militarism
3 Patterns of Violence
4 Conclusion
FURTHER READING
PART VIII: Repercussions
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN: The Impact of Antiquity
1 Introduction
2 Antiquity Displayed
3 Knowledge of Antiquity: the Buildings and the City of Rome
4 Knowledge of Ancient History: the Texts
5 Knowledge of Ancient Learning
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT: Ancient History and National Identity
1 Creating a National Past
2 Past and Future Glory
3 Contested Symbols: Macedon and Greece
FURTHER READING
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE: Hollywood’s Ancient World
1 History of the Genre
2 Defining the Genre
3 Engaging with History
4 Sound and Vision
FURTHER READING
Bibliography
Index
BLACKWELL COMPANIONS TO THE ANCIENT WORLD
This series provides sophisticated and authoritative overviews of periods of ancient history, genres of classical literature, and the most important themes in ancient culture. Each volume comprises approximately twenty-five and forty concise essays written by individual scholars within their area of specialization. The essays are written in a clear, provocative, and lively manner, designed for an international audience of scholars, students, and general readers.
This paperback edition first published 2013
© 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Edition history: (hardback, 2009)
Blackwell Publishing was acquired by John Wiley & Sons in February 2007. Blackwell’s publishing program has been merged with Wiley’s global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business to form Wiley-Blackwell.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A companion to ancient history / edited by Andrew Erskine.
p. cm. – (Blackwell companions to the ancient world)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4051-3150-6 (hardcover : alk. paper) 978-1-1184-5136-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. History, Ancient. I. Erskine, Andrew.
D57.C66 2009
930–dc22
2008046753
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Cover image: A Capriccio View of Rome by Giovanni Paolo Panini (1692–1765). © Christie’s Images/Corbis
Cover design by Workhaus
In Memory ofPeter DerowandGeorge Forrest
Figures
3.1 Celtic calendar from Coligny, France
4.1 Writing tablet from Vindolanda
5.1 Bronze coin of Tyre in Phoenicia
5.2 Silver tetradrachm of Artaxerxes III
13.1 Graph: life expectancy
13.2 Graph: Roman males with living relatives
19.1 Sepphoris mosaic
21.1 Fortifications at Alinda in Karia
21.2 Plan of the urban center of Aizanoi
21.3 The temple of Zeus at Aizanoi
22.1 Plan of imperial Rome
22.2 The Colosseum
23.1 The peoples of Italy
24.1 A bronze coin issued by the Numidian king Syphax
24.2 A “chieftain stele” from the Kabylie
26.1 Ludovisi Gaul group
28.1 Debris from the Roman destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem (AD 70)
32.1 Axonometric reconstruction of a single-entrance courtyard house: a pastas house from Olynthos
32.2 Generalized plan of a Pompeian atrium house
32.3 House from Ostia: plan
36.1 Sarcophagus with the death of Meleager
36.2 Relief from Amiternum showing a funeral procession
39.1 Products manufactured in the bazaar
48.1 Mosaic from Foro Italico
48.2 Gold casket from royal tombs at Vergina
49.1 Poster advertising Quo Vadis
49.2 Poster advertising Cleopatra
Maps
1 Greece and the Aegean
2 Egypt and the Near East
3 The Roman empire in the time of Augustus
4 Asia Minor
5 North Africa
Notes on Contributors
Peter Fibiger Bang is an Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen. His interests range from the comparative history of the Roman empire to ancient economic history and the reception of classical antiquity in European culture. Publications include The Roman Bazaar (2008).
Hans Beck is John MacNaughton Professor of Classics at McGill University in Montreal. He has published widely on both the Roman republic and the history of Greek federalism. Books include Polis und Koinon (1997) and, on the republican nobility, Karriere und Hierarchie (2005). He is also co-editor of Brill’s New Jacoby.
Gideon Bohak is an Associate Professor at Tel Aviv University, working on Jewish literature and culture in the Greco-Roman world, on ethnic stereotypes in ancient literature, and on Jewish magic. His most recent book is Ancient Jewish Magic: A History (2008).
Alan K. Bowman is Camden Professor of Ancient History and Fellow of Brasenose College Oxford. His main research interests are the social and economic history of the Roman empire, Papyrology, and Greco-Roman Egypt. Publications include Egypt after the Pharoahs (19902), Life and Letters on the Roman Frontier (20032).
Maria Brosius is Reader in Ancient History at the University of Newcastle. She is the author of The Persians: an introduction (2006) and editor of Ancient Archives and Archival Traditions (2003).
Christer Bruun is Professor in the Department of Classics, University of Toronto. Among his research interests are Roman topography, and the government and social history of Rome and Ostia. His publications include The Water Supply of Ancient Rome (1991) and as editor The Roman Middle Republic (2000).
John Curran is Senior Lecturer in Ancient History at The Queen’s University of Belfast. He is the author of Pagan City and Christian Capital: Rome in the Fourth Century (2000), as well as of articles on the Christianization of Rome, the relationship between the Jews and Rome, and the testimony of Flavius Josephus.
James Davidson is Reader in Ancient History at the University of Warwick. He works on ancient Greek cultural and social history. He is the author of Courtesans and Fishcakes (1997), and The Greeks and Greek Love (2007), and contributes to the London Review of Books and the Times Literary Supplement.
John Davies FBA was Rathbone Professor of Ancient History and Classical Archaeology at Liverpool University. His books include Athenian Propertied Families 600–300 BC (1971), Wealth and the power of wealth in classical Athens (1981), Democracy and classical Greece (19932). His recent work has concentrated on the Hellenistic period and economic history.
Peter Derow was Hody Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History, Wadham College. His research focused on Hellenistic history and epigraphy and Roman republican history – with a particular interest in Polybius. In addition to many articles he was (with R. S. Bagnall) the author of The Hellenistic Period: Historical Sources in Translation (2004).
Carol Dougherty is Professor of Classical Studies at Wellesley College. Her research interests focus on Greek literary and cultural history. She is the author most recently of The Raft of Odysseus and a volume on Prometheus. She is currently working on representations of the city in classical Athens.
Stephen Dyson is Park Professor of Classics at the State University of New York, Buffalo. His books include Community and Society in Roman Italy (1992), The Roman Countryside (2003), and In Pursuit of Ancient Pasts (2006).
Andrew Erskine is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Edinburgh. A specialist in Hellenistic history, he is the author of Troy between Greece and Rome: Local Tradition and Imperial Power (2001) and The Hellenistic Stoa: Political Thought and Action (1990).
Andy Fear is Lecturer in Classics at the University of Manchester. His research interests are in Roman and Visigothic Spain, early Christianity and theories of Universal History. He is the author of Rome and Baetica: Urbanization in Southern Spain c.50 BC–AD 150 (1996).
Andrea Giardina is a Professor at the Istituto Italiano di Scienza Umane. His principal research interests are the social, administrative and political history of the Roman world and the fortunes of antiquity in the contemporary world. Recent publications include Cassiodoro politico (2006) and (with A. Vauchez) Rome, l’idée et le mythe. Du Moyen Âge à nos jours (2000).
Mary Harlow is Senior Lecturer in Roman History at the University of Birmingham. Her research interests include Roman life course, family history in classical and late antique periods, and dress and identity.
Thomas Harrison is Rathbone Professor of Ancient History and Classical Archaeology at the University of Liverpool. His publications include Divinity and History: The Religion of Herodotus (2000); The Emptiness of Asia: Aeschylus’ Persians and the History of the Fifth Century (2000).
Edward Herring is Head of the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the National University of Ireland, Galway. His principal research interest concerns the relations between the Greek, Roman, and native populations of South Italy. Publications include Explaining Change in the Matt-Painted Pottery of Southern Italy (1998).
R. Bruce Hitchner is Professor and Chair of the Department of Classics, Tufts University, and Chair of the Dayton Peace Accords Project. He was formerly editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Archaeology.
Mark Humphries is Professor of Ancient History at Swansea University. He has published various books and articles on ancient religions and late antiquity, most recently Early Christianity (2006). He is one of the general editors of the series Translated Texts for Historians (Liverpool University Press).
Helen King is Professor of the History of Classical Medicine at the University of Reading. Her publications on the history of medicine, especially gynaecology, cover both the ancient world and its reception, most recently Midwifery, Obstetrics and the Rise of Gynaecology: Users of a sixteenth-century compendium (2007).
Jason König is Senior Lecturer in Greek and Classical Studies at the University of St. Andrews. His research interests focus broadly on the Greek literature and culture of the Roman empire. His publications include Athletics and Literature in the Roman Empire (2005).
Andrew Lintott is now retired, after teaching first Classics, then Ancient History, successively at King’s College, London, Aberdeen University, and Worcester College, Oxford. His many publications include Violence in Republican Rome, Judicial Reform and Land Reform in the Roman Republic, and most recently Cicero as Evidence: a Historian’s Companion.
Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones lectures in Ancient History in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of Aphrodite’s Tortoise: the veiled woman of ancient Greece. His interests include ancient dress and gender, Achaemenid Persia, Ptolemaic Egypt, ancient court societies, and the reception of antiquity in popular culture.
Kathryn Lomas is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. She is the author of Rome and the Western Greeks and Roman Italy, 338 BC–AD 200, and has published numerous articles on Roman Italy, urbanism and colonization in the Greek and Roman world, and on ethnic and cultural identity.
John Marincola is Leon Golden Professor of Classics at Florida State University. He is the author of Authority and Tradition in Ancient Historiography (1997), Greek Historians (2001), and (with M. A. Flower) Herodotus: Histories IX (2002). He is currently at work on a book on Hellenistic historiography.
Rosamond McKitterick is Professor of Medieval History and Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. Her principal research interests are in the politics, religion and culture of Europe in the eighth and ninth centuries. Recent publications include Charlemagne: the formation of a European identity (2008) and Perceptions of the past in the early middle ages (2006).
Neil McLynn is Fellow in Later Roman History, Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He previously taught in the Faculty of Law, Keio University, Japan. His research interests revolve mostly around the intricacies of religious politics in late antiquity. His publications include Ambrose of Milan: Church and Court in an Imperial Capital (1994).
Andrew Meadows is Deputy Director of the American Numismatic Society in New York. He has edited the Royal Numismatic Society’s Coin Hoards, and three volumes in the Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum series, and is currently completing a study of the monetary history of Karia in the Hellenistic period.
Elizabeth A. Meyer is Associate Professor of History at the University of Virginia. Her interests include the social and cultural history of ancient Greece and Rome, epigraphy, Roman Law, and ancient legal culture. She is the author of Legitimacy and Law: Tabulae in Roman Belief and Practice (2004) and the forthcoming Metics and the Athenian Phialai-Inscriptions.
Paul Millett is Senior Lecturer in the Classical Faculty, Cambridge University, and Fellow in Classics at Downing College. His recent publications include articles on the trial of Socrates and Aristotle on slavery, and a book, Theophrastus and His World.
Neville Morley is Professor of Ancient Economic History and Historical Theory at the University of Bristol. His books include Theories, Models and Concepts in Ancient History (2004), Trade in Classical Antiquity (2007) and Antiquity and Modernity (2008).
Robert Morstein-Marx is Professor of Classics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research currently focuses on the ideological and communicative dimensions of late republican politics. Publications include Mass Oratory and Political Power in the Late Roman Republic (2004), and (as co-editor) A Companion to the Roman Republic (2007).
Lisa Nevett is Associate Professor of Greek Archaeology at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on using the material remains of Greek and Roman domestic life as a source for social history. Her publications include House and Society in the Ancient Greek World (1999).
J. A. North taught Ancient History at UCL, 1963 to 2003. He was Head of the History Department in the 1990s, and is now Emeritus Professor. His research has mostly concerned the religious history of the Romans and of their empire, including Religions of Rome, with Mary Beard and Simon Price.
David Noy is the author of Foreigners at Rome (2000), several volumes of Jewish inscriptions, and a number of papers on Roman death and burial practices. He is currently working on a study of Roman deathbeds. He teaches Classics for Lampeter and the Open University.
Josiah Ober holds the Constantine Mitsotakis Chair in the School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford University. His books include Fortress Attica (1985), Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens (1989), The Athenian Revolution (1996), Political Dissent in Democratic Athens (1998), Athenian Legacies (2005) and Democracy and Knowledge (2008).
Tim Parkin is Professor of Ancient History, University of Manchester. His research focuses on the ancient family and the life course. Publications include Demography and Roman Society (1992) and Old Age in the Roman World (2003).
David Potter is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Greek and Latin at the University of Michigan. His recent books include The Roman Empire at Bay (2004), Emperors of Rome (2007) and Ancient Rome: a new history (2009).
Josephine Crawley Quinn is Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History at Worcester College, Oxford. Her current research is on imperialism, trade and culture in Hellenistic North Africa.
John Ray is Herbert Thompson Professor of Egyptology in the University of Cambridge. His research centers on the demotic texts from Hellenistic Egypt, and on the history of the Egyptian language.
Louis Rawlings is a Lecturer in Ancient History at Cardiff University. His research interests include Italian, Greek, Punic, and Gallic warfare. He is the author of The Ancient Greeks at War (2007), and is co-editor (with H. Bowden) of Herakles and Hercules: Exploring a Graeco-Roman Divinity (2005).
Amy Richlin is Professor of Classics at the University of California, Los Angeles. She works on the history of sexuality, Roman humor, women’s history, and feminist theory. Her most recent books are Rome and the Mysterious Orient (2005) and Marcus Aurelius in Love (2007).
Tracey Rihll is a Senior Lecturer in Ancient History at Swansea University. She has been studying ancient science and technology for about twenty years. Her publications include Greek Science (1999) and The Catapult: a history (2007).
Gregory Rowe is Associate Professor in the Department of Greek and Roman Studies at the University of Victoria, Canada. He is the author of Princes and Political Cultures: The New Tiberian Senatorial Decrees (2002).
Robert Sallares (University of Manchester) is the author of The Ecology of the Ancient Greek World (1991), Malaria and Rome: a History of Malaria in Ancient Italy (2002) and numerous articles in the fields of ancient history, medical history and biomolecular archaeology.
Walter Scheidel is Dickason Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Classics at Stanford University. His research focuses on ancient social and economic history, premodern historical demography, and comparative and transdisciplinary world history. His publications include Measuring Sex, Age and Death in the Roman empire (1996) and Death on the Nile: Disease and the Demography of Roman Egypt (2001).
Catherine Steel is Professor of Classics at the University of Glasgow. Her research interests include late republican history and Cicero’s writings, particularly his speeches. Recent publications include Reading Cicero: genre and performance in late Republican Rome (2005) and Roman Oratory (2006).
Peter Thonemann is Forrest-Derow Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History at Wadham College, Oxford. He is currently writing a book on the historical geography of the Maeander valley.
Kathryn Welch is a Senior Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Sydney. She researches in Roman History with a special interest in the transition from republic to empire. She is currently completing a monograph entitled Magnus Pius: Sextus Pompeius and the Transformation of the Roman Republic.
Tim Whitmarsh is E. P. Warren Praelector in Classics, Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He works primarily on Greek literature of the Roman period, particularly in relation to literary and cultural theory. His books include Greek literature and the Roman empire (2001), Ancient Greek literature (2004).
John Wilkins is Professor of Greek Culture at the University of Exeter. Books on food include Food in Antiquity (ed. with D. Harvey and M. Dobson, 1995) and Food in the Ancient World (with Shaun Hill, 2006). He is currently editing Galen’s nutritional treatise, On the Powers of Foods.
Robert Witcher is Lecturer in Classical Archaeology at Durham University, UK. His research uses archaeological field survey to explore the socio-economic organization of ancient Italy. Ongoing collaborative research includes the British School at Rome’s Tiber valley project and a study of Hadrian’s Wall and its landscape.
Constanze Witt is a Lecturer in archaeology in the Department of Classics at the University of Texas at Austin. Her current research interests lie in the art and archaeology of Iron Age Europe, in Hellenistic urbanization and in anthropological theory.
Preface
When Al Bertrand asked me to edit this Companion to Ancient History, I hesitated. It seemed rather a large task. Now that I have finished it, I realize that I was naive – it was a far larger task than I had initially imagined. One of the things that has made it manageable has been the enthusiasm and goodwill of the contributors, and to them all I am especially grateful.
Sadly, one of the contributors to this volume, Peter Derow, died not long after completing his piece on what Ancient History meant to him. Peter was not only my doctoral supervisor but a good friend. This volume is dedicated to his memory and that of his own tutor, George Forrest, both of whom through their teaching of Ancient History inspired many, a number of whom are contributors to this book.
This Companion may have been a substantial undertaking, but it has been fun to do, and I have learnt a lot from reading through all the contributions. It aims to provide a series of accessible introductions to key topics in the study of Ancient History: forms of evidence, problems and approaches, and major themes in current research. Rather than offering definitive overviews, however, these are intended to reflect the vitality and excitement of scholarship at the front line. The potential subject matter is vast, so a certain selectivity has been necessary. While the focus is on the history of Greece and Rome, I have also been concerned that these are not viewed in isolation but are seen in the broader context.
Staff at Blackwell have all been enormously helpful, in particular Al Bertrand, whose great contribution to Classics in general is evident from Blackwell’s growing list of Classics and Ancient History books. Kyle Hall kindly translated the section by Andrea Giardina which appears in Chapter One. My own chapter is well away from my usual territory, and I must thank Robert Anderson for generously taking a look at it with the eyes of a historian of the nineteenth century. This book has moved round the Celtic fringe, begun at the National University of Ireland Galway and completed at the University of Edinburgh; I am grateful to colleagues at both institutions for their help.
Most of all I am indebted to my wife Michelle, not only for all her support and encouragement, but also for her knack of asking the right question.
Andrew Erskine, Edinburgh
Note on paperback edition: A number of errors are corrected in this paperback edition, many thanks to the careful reading of Yan Shaoxiang of Capital Normal University Beijing. Otherwise the text is little changed apart from supplements to John Davies’ chapter on ancient economies and to Christer Bruun’s chapter on Rome.
Abbreviations, Reference Works
For fuller information on papyrological publications, see Oates et al. 2001 (http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/papyrus/texts/clist.html).
Abbreviations and Glossary, Ancient Authors
Acts
Acts of the Apostles
Ael.
Aelian, Latin writer, c. AD 165/70–230/35
NA
De natura animalium
(
On the nature of animals
)
Aesch.
Aeschylus, Athenian tragedian, first half fifth century BC
Ag.
Agamemnon
Pers
Persae
(
The Persians
)
Aeschin.
Aeschines, Athenian orator, fourth century BC
Alexis
Alexis, comic playwright, fourth–third century BC, fragments in
PCG
Amm. Marc.
Ammianus Marcellinus, Latin historian, c. AD 330–395
Anth. Pal
.
Anthologia Palatina
(
Palatine Anthology
)
App.
Appian, Greek historian, second century AD
BC
Bella civilia
(
Civil Wars
)
Hisp.
Spanish Wars
(
Iberike
)
Mith
.
Mithridatic Wars
Apul.
Apuleius of Madaura, Latin prose writer, second century AD
Met.
Metamorphoses
, or
The Golden Ass
Arist.
Aristotle, Greek philosopher, 384–322 BC
Eth. Nic.
Nicomachean Ethics
Mete
Meteorologica
Pol
.
Politics
Rhet.
Rhetoric
[Arist.]
Ath. Pol
.
Athenaion politeia
(
Constitution of the Athenians
), for which see Rhodes 1981
Oec
.
Oeconomica
Aristoph.
Aristophanes, Athenian comic playwright, fifth century BC
Ach.
Acharnenses
(
Acharnians
)
Av.
Aves
(
Birds
)
Eq.
Equites
(
Knights
)
Pax
Pax
(
Peace)
Plut.
Plutus
(
Wealth
)
Ran.
Ranae
(
Frogs
)
Vesp.
Vespae
(
Wasps
)
Arr.
Arrian, Greek historian, c. AD 86–160
Anab
.
Anabasis
Tact
.
Tactica
Athen.
Athenaeus, c. AD 200,
The Deipnosophists
, learned conversation at dinner
August.
Augustine of Hippo, bishop and writer, AD 354–430
De civ. D
De civitate Dei
(
City of God
)
Conf.
Confessions
Ep.
Epistulae
(
Letters
)
Caes.
Julius Caesar (C. Iulius Caesar), 100–44 BC
BAf
Bellum Africum
BC
Bellum Civile
BG
Bellum Gallicum
Cato
Cato the Elder, M. Porcius Cato, Roman politician and writer, 234–149 BC
Agric
.
De agricultura
(
On Agriculture
)
Celsus
Med.
A. Cornelius Celsus, first century AD,
De medicina
Cic.
M. Tullius Cicero, Roman politician and writer, 106–43 BC
Ad Brut.
Epistulae ad Brutum
(
Letters to Brutus
)
Arch
.
Pro Archia
Att.
Epistulae ad Atticum
(
Letters to Atticus
)
Balb
Pro Balbo
Cat.
In Catilinam
Clu
.
Pro Cluentio
Deiot.
Pro rege Deiotaro
Div
.
De divinatione
(
On Divination
)
Dom.
De domo sua
Fam
.
Epistulae ad familiares
(
Letters to Friends
)
Leg
.
De legibus
(
On Laws
)
Nat. D.
De natura deorum
(
On the Nature of the Gods
)
Off
.
De officiis
(
On Duties
)
Q. Fr
.
Epistulae ad Quintum Fratrem
(
Letters to his brother Quintus
)
Tusc.
Tusculan Disputations
1 Clement
First Letter of Clement to the Corinthians, in Loeb Classical Library,
Apostolic Fathers
, vol. 1
Columella
Columella, first century AD,
De re rustica
, an agricultural manual
Cod. Iust.
Codex Iustinianus
Cod. Theod.
Codex Theodosianus
or
Theodosian Code
(edition: T. Mommsen and P. Meyer, 1905; translation: C. Pharr, 1952)
1 Cor.
The First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians, New Testament
Dem.
Demosthenes, Athenian orator, 384–322 BC
Deut.
Deuteronomy, Old Testament
Dig.
Digesta
, legal text, 6th C. AD (edition: T. Mommsen [1905]; translation: A. Watson)
Dio
Cassius Dio, Greek historian of Rome, c.164 to after AD 229
Dio Chrys.
Dio Chrysostom, Greek orator and philosopher, mid-first century to early second century AD
Diod.
Diodorus Siculus (Diodoros of Sicily), author of a world history, first century BC
D.L.
Diogenes Laertius, probably early third century AD,
Lives of the Philosophers
D.H.
Ant. Rom
.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, first century BC,
Roman Antiquities
Eur.
Euripides, Athenian tragedian, c.480s to 407/406 BC
Euseb.
Eusebius of Caesarea, bishop and scholar, c. AD 260–339
Chron.
Chronica
Dem. Evang.
Demonstratio Evangelica
HE.
Historia ecclesiastica
Praep. Evang
Praeparatio evangelica
(
Preparation for the Gospel
)
VC
Vita Constantini
(
Life of Constantine
)
Eutrop.
Eutropius, historian, 4th C. AD,
Breviarum ab urbe condita
Flor.
L. Annaeus Florus, Latin historian, second century AD,
Epitome of Seven Hundred Years’ Worth of Wars
Frontin.
Sex. Iulius Frontinus, first century AD
Aq.
De aquaeductibus urbis Romae
(
On Aqueducts
)
Fronto
Aur
.
M. Cornelius Fronto, orator, second century AD
, Letters to Marcus Aurelius
Gai.
Inst.
Gaius,
Institutiones
Gal.
Galen, Greek medical writer, second century AD
Prog.
On Prognosis
Comp. Med. Loc.
De compositione medicamentorum secundum locos
Galat.
The Letter of Paul to the Galatians, New Testament
Gell.
Aulus Gellius, Roman miscellanist, second century AD,
Noctes Atticae
(
Attic Nights
)
Hdt.
Herodotus of Halicarnassus, Greek historian, fifth century BC
Herodian
Herodian, Greek historian, third century AD,
History of the empire from the time of Marcus
Hes.
Hesiod, Greek poet, probably c.700 BC
Theog
.
Theogony
Works
Works and Days
Hesych.
Hesychius of Alexandria, author of lexicon, c.fifth century AD
Hom.
Homer
Il
.
Iliad
Od
.
Odyssey
Hor.
Horace, Latin poet, 65–8 BC
Isoc.
Isocrates, Athenian orator, 436–338 BC
Phil
.
Philippus
Panath
.
Panathenaicus
Paneg.
Panegyricus
Jos.
Josephus, Jewish historian, first century AD
AJ
Antiquitates Judaicae
BJ
Bellum Judaicum
(
The Jewish War
)
Just.
Justin,
Epitome
, of the
Historiae Philippicae
of Pompeius Trogus
Juv.
Juvenal, probably early second century AD,
Satires
Lactant.
De mort.
Lactantius,
Christian writer, c.240 to c. AD 320,
De mortibus persecutorum
(
On the Deaths of the Persecutors
)
Lib.
Or.
Libanius, Greek rhetorician, fourth century AD,
Orations
Livy
Livy, probably 59 BC to AD 17; history of Rome cited as “Livy”
Per.
Periochae
Lucan
Lucan, Latin poet, AD 39–65,
De bello civili
Lucian
Lucian of Samosata, Greek writer, second century AD
Dom.
de Domo
(
The Hall
)
Hist. conscr.
Quomodo historia conscribenda sit
(
How to Write History
)
Luct.
De luctu
Peregr.
De morte Peregrini
Lucil.
Lucilius, Roman satirist, second century BC, fragments edited by F. Marx, 1904–5, for translation
ROL
3
Lucr.
Lucretius, Epicurean Latin poet, first century BC,
De rerum natura
(
On the Nature of Things
)
Lysias
Lysias, Attic orator, mid-fifth century to c.380 BC
Macc.
Maccabees
Macrob.
Sat
.
Macrobius, late empire,
Saturnalia
Mart.
Martial, Latin poet, first century AD
Menander
Menander, Athenian playwright, late 4th to early third century BC
Nep.
Cornelius Nepos, Latin biographer, first century BC, author of
De viris illustribus
(
On Famous Men
)
Origen,
Origen, Christian writer, c. AD 185–254
C. Cels.
Contra Celsum
(
Against Celsus)
Comm. Matt.
Commentary on Matthew
Ovid
Met
.
Ovid, Latin poet, 43 BC to AD 17,
Metamorphoses
Paus.
Pausanias, Greek traveler and writer, second century AD,
Description of Greece
Petron.
Sat.
Petronius, Roman prose writer, first century AD,
Satyricon
Philet.
Philetaerus, comic playwright, fourth century BC, fragments in
PCG
Philo
Philo, Jewish writer, early first century AD
In Flacc
.
In Flaccum
Philostr.
Philostratus, Greek sophist and writer, third century AD
Her.
Heroikos
(
Heroic Discourse
)
VS
Vitae Sophistarum
(
Lives of the Sophists
)
Phot.
Photius, bishop and scholar, ninth century AD
Bib
.
Bibliotheca
Lex.
Lexicon
Pind.
Pindar, Boiotian poet, late sixth to mid-fifth century BC
Ol
Olympian Odes
Pl.
Plato, Athenian philosopher, c.429–347 BC
Grg.
Gorgias
Phdr.
Phaedrus
Prt.
Protogoras
Rep
.
Republic
Symp.
Symposium
Tht.
Theaetetus
Plaut.
Plautus, Latin comic playwright, late third to early second century BC
Cist.
Cistellaria
Rud.
Rudens
(
The Rope
)
Pliny,
HN
Pliny the Elder, AD 23/24–79,
Naturalis historia
(
Natural History
)
Pliny,
Ep.
Pliny the Younger, Roman politician, c.61 to c. AD 112,
Letters
Plut.
Plutarch, Greek biographer and philosopher, mid-first to second century AD
Ages.
Agesilaus
Alc
.
Alcibiades
Alex.
Alexander
Ant.
Antony
Caes
.
Caesar
Cam.
Camillus
Cato mai
Cato maior
(
Cato the Elder
)
Cic.
Cicero
Crass.
Crassus
Dem.
Demosthenes
Lyc.
Lycurgus
Marc.
Marcellus
Mar
.
Marius
Mor
.
Moralia
Pel.
Pelopidas
Pyrrh
.
Pyrrhus
Sert.
Sertorius
Sol
.
Solon
TG
Tiberius Gracchus
Them.
Themistocles
Polyb.
Polybius, Greek historian, c.200 to c.118 BC
Procop.
Procopius, Greek historian, sixth century AD
Aed.
De aedificiis
(
On Buildings
)
Prop.
Propertius, Latin poet, first century BC
Romans
Letter of Paul to the Romans
Quint.
Quintilian, Roman rhetorician, first century AD
Inst.
Institutio oratoria
(
Orator’s Education
)
Sall.
Sallust, C. Sallustius Crispus, probably 86–35 BC, Latin historian
Iug.
Bellum Iugurthinum
(
The Jugurthine War)
Cat
.
Bellum Catilinae
Sen.
Seneca the Elder, Latin rhetorical writer, c.50 BC to c. AD 40
Con.
Controversiae
Sen.
Seneca the Younger, Roman politician, philosopher and tragedian, first century AD
Ep.
Letters
Serv.
Aen
.
Servius, fourth century AD, commentary on Vergil’s
Aeneid
SHA
Scriptores Historiae Augustae, anonymous collection of imperial biographies, fourth or fifth century AD
Tyr. Trig.
Tyranni Triginta
Sil.
Pun
.
Silius Italicus, c. AD 26–102, Latin poet,
Punica
Socrates
HE.
Socrates Scholasticus,
Historia Ecclesiastica
Soph
Sophocles, Athenian tragedian, 490s to 406 BC
Aj.
Ajax
Ant.
Antigone
Trach
Trachiniae
Soz.
HE.
Sozomen,
Historia Ecclesiastica
Strabo
Strabo, c.64 BC to after AD 20,
Geography
Suet.
Suetonius, Latin biographer, c.70 to c. AD 130
Aug
.
Divus Augustus
Calig.
Gaius Caligula
Claud.
Divus Claudius
Tib
.
Tiberius
Vesp.
Divus Vespasianus
Tac.
Tacitus, Latin historian, c.56 to after c. AD 118
Agr.
Agricola
Ann.
Annals
Hist.
Histories
Theocr.
Id
.
Theocritus, Greek poet, third century BC,
Idylls
Theod.
HE
Theodoret
, bishop, c. AD 393–466,
Historia Ecclesiastica
Theophr.
Theophrastus, Greek philosopher, late 370s to early 280s BC
Hist. pl.
Historia plantarum
1 Thessalonians
First Letter of Paul to the Thessalonians, New Testament
Thuc.
Thucydides, Athenian historian, fifth century BC
Titus
Letter of Paul to Titus, New Testament
Val. Max.
Valerius Maximus, Latin writer, first century AD
Varro,
RR
M. Terentius Varro, Roman scholar, first century BC,
De re rustica
, an agricultural manual
Veg.
Flavius Vegetius Renatus, Latin military, probably late fourth century AD,
De re militari
Vell. Pat.
Velleius Paterculus, early imperial,
Historiae Romanae
Verg.
Vergil or Virgil, Latin poet, 70–19 BC
Aen.
Aeneid
Ecl.
Eclogues
Georg.
Georgics
Vitr.
Vitruvius, late first century BC,
De architectura
Xen.
Xenophon, Athenian writer, c.430 to mid-fourth century BC
Anab
.
Anabasis
Cyr.
Cyropaedia
Hell
.
Hellenica
LP
Lakedaimonion Politeia
(
Constitution of the Lacedaimonians
)
Mem
.
Memorabilia
Oik
Oikonomikos
or
Oeconomicus
(
On the Management of the Household)
Symp.
Symposium
[Xen.]
Ath. Pol.
Athenaion Politeia
or
Constitution of Athens
, included among the works of Xenophon; author often referred to as the “Old Oligarch”
Timeline
This is intended as a very selective guide to put the material in the following chapters in some form of chronological context. Dates are often approximate, particularly those before the sixth century BC. Not all Roman emperors are included, especially after the third century AD.
BC
2700–2150
Old Kingdom, Egypt; building of Great Pyramid
c.2500
Stonehenge built
2350–2150
The empire of Akkad, Mesopotamia
2112–2004
The Third Dynasty of Ur, Mesopotamia
2050–1650
Middle Kingdom, Egypt
1650–1200
Hittite empire
1550–1050
New Kingdom, Egypt
1450
Collapse of Minoan civilization on Crete
1200
Destruction of the Mycenaean palaces
1100–700
Phoenician colonization across the Mediterranean
814
Traditional date for foundation of Carthage (archaeological evidence later)
c.800
Introduction of the alphabet to Greece
776
Traditional date for the foundation of the Olympic Games
753
Traditional date for the foundation of Rome
750–580
Greek colonization in the Mediterranean and Black Sea
745–727
Emergence of Assyrian empire under Tiglath-pileser III
c.700
Homer’s
Iliad
and
Odyssey
700–500
Etruscan ascendancy in Italy
612
Fall of Nineveh to Babylonians and Medes, ending the Assyrian empire
604–562
Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylon
c.600
Invention of coinage in Asia Minor
594
Solon’s legislation in Athens
550–530
Rise of Persian empire under Cyrus
525
Egypt becomes part of Persian empire
c.546–10
Peisistratid tyranny in Athens
509
First year of the Roman republic after the expulsion of the kings
508
Reforms of Kleisthenes at Athens
499
Ionian revolt begins
494
First plebeian secession at Rome; beginning of the tribunate
490
First Persian War; Battle of Marathon
480–79
Second Persian War; battles of Thermopylae, Artemisium and Salamis (480); battles of Plataea and Mykale (479)
480
Carthaginians invade Sicily; defeated by Gelon of Syracuse at Himera
478
Foundation of Delian League and beginning of the Athenian empire
472
Aeschylus’s
Persians
performed; 5th century sees first performance of the plays of Athenian tragedians Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides
462
Democratic reforms of Ephialtes in Athens
451–49
Decemvirate and publication of the Twelve Tables at Rome, followed by secession of the Plebs in Rome
440s/430s
Perikles leading politician in Athens
447
Building of Parthenon begins in Athens
431–04
The Peloponnesian War (431–421 Archidamian War; 415–413 Athenian expedition to Sicily; Ionian War), ending with fall of Athens
399
Death of Socrates
390 (or 387)
Gauls (Celts) capture Rome
371
Battle of Leuktra: Thebans defeat Spartans
367
Consulship at Rome opened to plebeians
359–336
Rise of Macedon under Philip II
341–338
Rome’s conquest of Latium
336–323
Reign of Alexander and Macedonian conquest of Persian empire; battles of Granicus (334), Issos (333), Gaugamela (331)
331
Foundation of Alexandria in Egypt
326–304
Rome fights Second Samnite War
323–270s
Wars of the Successors and the establishment of the Hellenistic Kingdoms
298–290
Rome fights Third Samnite War
287
End of “Conflict of Orders” at Rome
280–275
Pyrrhus comes to the aid of Tarentum against Rome; campaigns in Italy and Sicily.
280–279
Gauls (Celts) invade Macedon and Greece
c.270
Romans complete conquest of Italian peninsula
264–241
First Punic War, at the end of which Sicily becomes the first Roman province
240–237
Carthage’s Mercenaries War, following defeat in First Punic War
218–202
Second Punic War
216
Battle of Cannae: Hannibal defeats the Romans
200–168
Rome’s Wars in the East against Macedon and Seleukids
168
Battle of Pydna brings an end to kingdom of Macedon
c.166–164
Maccabean Revolt against Antiochos IV in Judaea
146
Rome sacks Carthage and Corinth; creation of provinces of Africa and Macedon
133
Tribunate of Tiberius Gracchus; death of Attalos III of Pergamon; beginnings of Roman province of Asia
123–122
Tribunate of Gaius Gracchus
107–100
C. Marius consul six times; wins victories against Jugurtha and the Cimbri and Teutones
91–87
Social War between Rome and its allies; Roman citizenship given to all Italians
82–81
Sulla dictator in Rome (becomes consul in 80, retires in 79)
73–71
Slave revolt of Spartacus in Italy
67–62
Pompey campaigns against pirates, defeats Mithridates and reorganizes the East
63
Consulship of Cicero; conspiracy of Catiline
58–50
Caesar conquers Gaul
55 and 54
Caesar’s expeditions to Britain
49
Caesar crosses Rubicon and civil war begins
47–44
Dictatorship of Caesar
44–31
Intermittent Roman civil wars following assassination of Caesar
43
Murder of Cicero
31
Battle of Actium; Octavian defeats Antony and Cleopatra
27
Octavian takes the name Augustus
19
Death of Vergil
16 BC–AD 6
Danube provinces added to Roman empire
AD
9
Arminius wipes out three Roman legions under Varus in the Teutoburg Forest in Germany
14
Death of Augustus
14–69
Julio-Claudian dynasty
14–37
Tiberius emperor
30
Death of Christ
37–41
Gaius Caligula emperor, murdered
41–54
Claudius emperor, rumored to have been murdered
43
Claudius’s invasion of Britain
54–68
Nero emperor
60–61
Revolt of Boudicca in Britain
64
The Great Fire of Rome; Nero’s persecution of Christians
66–70
Revolt in Judaea
69
Year of the four emperors following fall of Nero
69–96
Flavian dynasty
69–79
Vespasian emperor
79–81
Titus emperor
79
Eruption of Mt Vesuvius and burial of Pompeii and Herculaneum
80
Inauguration of the Colosseum
81–96
Domitian emperor, murdered, followed briefly by Nerva
98–117
Trajan emperor; campaigns against Dacians and Parthians
117–138
Hadrian emperor
122–126
Building of Hadrian’s Wall
132–135
Bar Kokhba revolt in Judaea
138–161
Antoninus Pius emperor
161–180
Marcus Aurelius emperor (until 169 with Lucius Verus)
162–166
Roman campaigns against Parthia
166–168
German tribes invade across the Danube
180–192
Commodus emperor, murdered
193–194
Civil war
193–211
Septimius Severus emperor (from 198 with Caracalla)
211–17
Caracalla emperor, murdered, followed briefly by Macrinus
212
Antonine Constitution gives Roman citizenship to all free men and women in the Roman empire
218–222
Elagabalus emperor, murdered
222–235
Alexander Severus emperor, murdered
224–40
Ardashir (Artaxerxes) I establishes Sassanian empire in East
235–84
“Third-Century Crisis”
240–72
Shapur (Sapor) I, Sassanian ruler
284–305
Diocletian and (from 293) the Tetrarchy
303–311
Diocletian and Galerius’s Persecution of the Christians
306–337
Constantine emperor
312
Battle of Milvian Bridge: Constantine defeats Maxentius
325
Council of Nicaea (Christian)
330
Dedication of new city of Constantinople (first planned in 324)
363
Death of the emperor Julian while campaigning against Sassanians
374–397
Ambrose Bishop of Milan
378
Battle of Adrianople: Valens dies in battle against the Goths
379–395
Theodosius I emperor
410
Sack of Rome by Alaric and the Goths; Britain abandoned
429
Vandals invade Africa
430
Death of Augustine
438
Theodosian code
450s–470s
End of the Roman empire in the West
474–491
Zeno emperor
493–526
Ostrogothic king Theodoric rules Italy
491–518
Anastasius emperor
527–65
Justinian emperor
1 Greece and the Aegean
2 Egypt and the Near East
3 The Roman Empire in the time of Augustus
CHAPTER ONE
Personal Perspectives
The worlds of Ancient Greece and Rome may be long ago, but ancient history itself is an ongoing process, discovering, interpreting and reinterpreting the past. In the study of ancient history the present is never far away. The chapters in this Companion show ancient historians and their colleagues at work, but by way of introduction I have asked several scholars to reflect on their experience of ancient history and what it means for them.
Why I Study Ancient History, and Why I Suppose it Matters
Josiah Ober, Professor of Classics and Political Science, Stanford University
I have always been fascinated by politics – not parties or elections, but the play of power, legitimacy, and justice. Politics, in this extended sense, is at once a practical issue, an interpretative problem, and a moral concern: understanding any given political system or regime requires describing how it actually works, explaining why it works that way, and offering defensible reasons for why it ought to be otherwise (if in fact it ought). When I was young, I found I had a simple intuitive sense of how power worked in small groups, and discovered that it was possible to make some sense of social behavior by a rough-and-ready calculus of costs, benefits, and ideological legitimacy. Yet I lacked anything like a satisfactory vocabulary for parsing my intuitions about interpersonal politics. I could not begin to answer the descriptive, analytical, and normative questions that I might have asked had I been able to frame them in the first place.
When I arrived at university, more or less by accident, in 1971 I sought out courses that I imagined might help to me to make sense of my intuitions: sociology, anthropology, and so on. But only history held my dilettante’s attention. The ancient world – and especially the world of the classical Greek poleis – seemed to offer the raw materials for understanding politics. Not surprisingly, reading Thucydides was a revelation. I realized, as have so many others, that Thucydides’ narrative of the events of the Peloponnesian war was the product of a profoundly powerful intelligence working at the descriptive and analytical sides of the power and legitimacy equation. Thucydides showed me that it was possible to conjoin the study of internal (intra-polis
