Volume 104, Issue 1

Riasssunto Nell’ottavo libro delle Storie, gli Ateniesi danno una celebre definizione di Hellenikón che fornisce molti spunti di riflessione. Di fronte al timore degli Spartani di un loro possibile tradimento a favore dei Persiani, essi rispondono che non farebbero mai una cosa simile perché i Greci hanno lo stesso sangue, parlano la stessa lingua e venerano gli stessi dèi. Siamo di fronte ad una delle più antiche ed efficaci definizioni di comunità dal punto di vista identitario che presenta però al contempo alcune tracce di ambiguità. Erodoto fornisce, infatti, un quadro molto problematico del mondo greco del V secolo in cui spesso le città appaiono interessate maggiormente alla difesa dei loro interessi, piuttosto che al sostegno degli alleati. Lo scopo di questo contributo è comprendere fino a che punto per Erodoto, che visse almeno in parte la violenza fratricida della Guerra del Peloponneso, esistesse la ‘Grecità’ e quanto questa idea fosse rilevante in un periodo di così grave divisione per il mondo ellenico.

Résumé La présente étude aborde la notion de « changement » dans le cadre de la cité grecque de l’époque classique, mais du côté opposé, celui de la continuité historique. Pour ce faire, elle examine les mots et expressions désignant le passé ancestral d’un peuple : elle étudie les significations du terme patrios et des termes apparentés dans la littérature grecque des V e et IV e siècles (Hérodote, Thucydide, Xénophon, Aristophane, Aristote, orateurs attiques), présente le cadre politique dans lequel les générations qui vivent à l’époque classique font appel à leurs ancêtres et recherche, enfin, les éléments qui construisent l’identité de la cité classique. D’abord, il en ressort que les notions d’« ancestral » et de « traditionnel » sont floues et que leur connotation dépend des individus qui en font usage, ainsi que du moment historique dans lequel vivent les intéressés. Ensuite, il apparaît qu’elles sont le moyen qui permet aux Anciens d’exprimer leur réaction – positive ou négative – face aux transformations multiples que subissent les sociétés classiques.

Zusammenfassung An keiner Stelle in seinen Schriften diskutiert Aristoteles das athenische Liturgiesystem, sondern setzt bei seinen wenigen Informationen dazu dessen Kenntnis voraus. An seiner Kritik der athenischen Liturgien im 4. Jahrhundert als ungerechter Belastung der Reichen läßt er allerdings keinen Zweifel. Welches sind die Gründe für seine Ablehnung, und wie sollten die Liturgien Aristoteles zufolge besser organisiert sein? Wir vergleichen Aristoteles’ Aussagen und Bewertung des Liturgiesystems mit Informationen aus externen Quellen und kommen zu dem Schluß, daß viele seiner Vorstellungen in der Verfassung des Demetrios von Phaleron verwirklicht worden sind. Unsere Diskussion beleuchtet die Entwicklung von der privat finanzierten Liturgie zum öffentlichen Amt sowie die problematische Frage, wie in einer Demokratie die nötigen Eigenmittel zur Erledigung der Aufgaben generiert werden konnten, die zuvor von Liturgen ausgeführt wurden, eine Entwicklung, die zu den von Euergeten finanzierten Amtsliturgien in der hellenistischen Zeit führte.

This paper investigates the Athenian gymnasiarchy, an office that remains badly understood. Originally a festival liturgy, the gymnasiarchy was transformed into a magistracy at the end of the fourth century BC. This paper first examines the reasons for the shift and argues that it was connected to broader political currents in late Classical Athens. Secondly, it sheds new light on the nature of the office in the Hellenistic period. Whereas earlier scholars assumed that the Athenian gymnasiarch was a minor official under the kosmetes , epigraphic and literary sources reveal that he was a fully-fledged gymnasium director, just as in other poleis .

The politeia established in Athens in 317 after a covenant between Cassander and Demetrius of Phalerum was variously described by ancient authors as a tyranny, an oligarchy, and a democracy. Even among modern scholars there is no agreement about its definition. A close study of the architecture of the so-called regime of Demetrius and a comparison with the almost contemporary constitution of Cyrene, imposed on the African town by Ptolemaeus I, lead us to characterize it as a mixed constitution, which balanced elements from the three principal types of political organisation. This experiment had a strong impact on the Hellenistic and Roman political traditions, as testified by Cicero, who recalled Demetrius as the last great Athenian lawgiver and inventor of the blended constitution.

The main function of Hellenistic queenship is increasingly understood as contributing to the definition of the basileus . The early Ptolemies produced the most peculiar version of the ‘sister queen’, known throughout the Near East as an ideological construct, but taken literally in Egypt from the time of Ptolemy II Philadelphos (285/282–246) and Arsinoe II Philadelphos (278/275–270), the ‘Sibling-Lovers’. The most famous example of a ‘virgin queen’ is Berenike, the daughter of Ptolemy III Euergetes and Berenike II, best known from the Kanopos Decree, which regulated her posthumous cult (238). Often understood as a merely honorary title for some or potentially all princesses in Alexandria, the basilissa title of unmarried girls has found little scholarly attention so far. Altogether, there are surprisingly few royal daughters for whom we have clear evidence: besides the aforesaid Berenike, her sister Arsinoe III (died 204) and previously Berenike (later known as Phernophoros, died 246), the daughter of the Philadelphoi. Claims that Arsinoe II or her sister Philotera had enjoyed the same status at the court of Ptolemy I Soter (323–282) cannot be substantiated, so that their basilissa titles should be explained by marriage with a king. The phenomenon of virgin queenship was thus of limited duration. It is best interpreted as a ramification of an emphatically endogamous royal dynasty: Ptolemy II and Ptolemy III pledged their most distinguished daughter to the future successor even before he had been chosen from among his brothers.

The fragmentary inscription on the ludi saeculares contains mention of two senatus consulta of year 17 BCE. This paper gives new arguments for identifying the five known consulars heading the drafting commission of the senatus consultum of 17 February: M. Iunius Silanus (cos. 25), Cn. Cornelius Lentulus (cos. 18), L. Marcius Censorinus (cos. 39), C. Asinius Pollio (cos. 40) and L. Vinicius (cos. suff. 33). This list challenges the accepted notion that senators named as members of the drafting commissions of senatus consulta (and other official documents) were always arranged according to their seniority (i.e., who had held a given office earliest). Such an open new approach could question or even significantly alter the chronology of Roman magistracies that has been accepted on the basis of seniority hierarchy so far.

Scholars who study Roman prodigies and expiations have mostly ignored Cassius Dio’s imperial prodigy lists. This paper argues that these lists should be considered valid. If we accept them, we have a wealth of evidence for the continuation of prodigy reports and expiations in the early Roman Empire.

Descriptions of the administration of imperial domains in Africa Proconsularis share much common ground in their interpretations. The literature features a widespread emphasis on the special role of the governments of Trajan and Hadrian in reorganising the imperial domains in this province – and especially in the Bagradas Valley, which has furnished us with exceptional epigraphic material in the form of agrarian inscriptions. While the 2nd-century administrative operations of imperial domains are fairly well understood – mainly due to this category of inscriptions – the 1st century remains something of a mystery. Researchers have dated the beginning of fundamental changes to how domain administration was organised to the times of the Flavians, after the great confiscations of Nero. However, a re-interpretation of a procuratorial title from CIL VIII 14727 = ILPBardo 229 and a broader analysis of the epigraphic material shed new light on the beginnings of the administration of imperial domains in Africa Proconsularis , and especially in the grain-growing region of Byzacium; there, perhaps even in the mid-1st century, there was an imperial administration and a domain district (diocese) modelled after another grain province of Egypt.

Resumen En el año 2022 se celebra el 1900 aniversario de la visita del emperador Adriano a Hispania. La bibliografía científica ya ha estudiado este acontecimiento, aclarando muchos de los sucesos, la identidad de algunos de los personajes que pudieron venir con el Príncipe y las actuaciones de éste en la península Ibérica. En algunos casos, los testimonios conocidos no permiten una datación que los sitúe durante la presencia imperial en el territorio. Quedan también algunas incógnitas, como el verdadero recorrido de su viaje. Este trabajo tiene un doble objetivo: hacer un estado de la cuestión sobre la visita e identificar los preparativos que se hicieron en Hispania ante el anuncio de un viaje de Adriano. Las iniciativas parecen haber afectado a las tres provincias, que se habrían preparado para la estancia o incluso para el posible paso de la comitiva por sus territorios, aunque en muchos casos esto no llegara a ocurrir.

The fate of the Serapeum and especially of its library is still a hotly-debated topic. The present paper aims to provide a consistent reading of the extant source evidence. Christian authors, such as Tertullian, Epiphanius of Salamis, and John Chrysostom, acknowledge that the Septuagint bible translation was moved from the original royal library to the Serapeum by the end of the second century A.D. This could be because the Serapeum had become Alexandria’s main library after the temple was rebuilt following a fire in 181 A.D. Writing in the early fifth century, Orosius is our most important witness that the Christian mob destroyed not only the temple building, but also the library and that this library was the successor of the original Ptolemaic library. There are several other possible allusions to the destruction of the library, for example, in sermons delivered by John Chrysostom in the 390s. This article also argues that Ammianus Marcellinus, Aphthonius, and Epiphanius of Salamis were aware of the destruction of the library when they wrote their descriptions of the Serapeum probably not before 391. Taken together, these sources illuminate the ways in which events of such magnitude broke very quickly in various parts of the Roman empire. Nevertheless, some authors, especially the pagan ones, were hesitant to refer to the destruction other than in allusive and muted ways, probably because of the heated religious atmosphere in the immediate aftermath.