Volume 105, Issue 1

Scholars have long highlighted the importance of water for rituals in Greek sanctuaries, but little is known about when and how it was used in practice. Considering the importance attributed to water in rituals at Greek sanctuaries, this article aims to explore water as a purificatory agent for humans and things and as an offering, pure or water mixed with wine, to the gods in the form of libations. Throughout the paper we argue that these activities were located on a spectrum from mundane to religious and can be viewed within a “spatio-temporal” framework where they functioned as visual cues in order to structure activities. To achieve this, we closely and critically examine the empirical material, epigraphic and literary, supported by archaeological and iconographic evidence.

This article explores how the narrow passageway along the southern shores of Lake Kopais evolved into a sacred landscape that provided space for the building of a political community among the inhabitants of ‘two Boiotias’. The Kopais corridor was a highway for the movement of people and ideas since the Late Bronze Age. Its high frequency of cult sites offered ample opportunity for the nourishing of sentiments of togetherness. The first section of this article surveys the key determinants in the relations between the two major cities on either end of the corridor, Orchomenos and Thebes, prior to the creation of their first federal union. This lays the groundwork for the second step of the analysis, when the article examines the local environment of the Kopais corridor. Revisiting its cult sites, the discussion delves into the experience of local place – each one distinct and with its own sacred aura, but lined up along a path and linked with other places. In conclusion, the findings are put in the wider context of storied environments and sacred landscapes in the Archaic Age. It will be argued that the union of the Boiotians was subject to the dynamics of sacred landscape making in the Kopais corridor, a dynamic that allowed the ethnos to relate to a space critical to its origins.

Zusammenfassung Die Hekatompedoninschriften (IG I 3 4) gehören in verschiedener Hinsicht zu den wichtigsten Zeugnissen der spätarchaisch-frühklassischen Geschichte Athens. Der Artikel konzentriert sich auf ihre Bedeutung für die Topographie und die Baugeschichte der Akropolis, vor allem für den Tempel der Athena Polias und für die möglichen Vorgängerbauten des Parthenon. Er arbeitet die Aussagen heraus, die aus dem fragmentarischen Text selbst vor allem aus sprachlichen Gründen erschlossen werden können, und ermittelt auf diese Weise einen eigenständigen Befund. Dieser lässt sich dann mit anderen Befunden der Archäologie und Baugeschichte konfrontieren, ohne dass er von vornherein durch bestimmte Deutungen und Hypothesen von dieser Seite her (mit)bestimmt ist.

My research applies the categories of labour specialisation and professionalism to the Athenian bank with a view to demonstrating that banking was a full-time occupation requiring a complex set of skills and that bankers could be considered professionals rather than simple workers. This paper is divided into three sections. In the first, I scrutinise all the sources regarding the banks’ activities and the bankers’ clients to show that the trapezai were constantly frequented by traders, members of the wealthy upper class and most likely individuals belonging to the social middle class. This first section reveals how the banks’ clients exerted a high and constant demand for the services offered by the Athenian bankers. The second section explores the set of skills required to run a bank or even simply to work as a bank employee and aims at demonstrating how important it was that banks were efficiently organised through a precise division of labour. Such a division clearly shows that banking was a highly specialised activity. In the third section I identify the features that qualify bankers as professionals, namely social prestige, the passing down of knowledge and skills to individuals other than the bankers’ sons, and the creation of a wide network of international contacts. The analysis conducted on Athenian bankers to determine whether or not they constitute professionals is reinforced with several parallels to bankers active in other prosperous poleis, such as Delos.

The article offers a new perspective on the organization of Diodorus Siculus’ process of writing the Bibliotheke Historike . By analyzing passage 1.4.6 and fragment 40.8 in terms of both the vocabulary used and their function within the narrative, the article argues for the interpretation that Diodorus created an extended draft of his work (hypothesis) before dividing it into individual books. This interpretation is further strengthened by the analysis of the compositional features of the Bibliotheke . The analysis of the distribution of material between the books suggests that Diodorus in general had a very good idea about the amount of space he needed for different periods. At the same time, the presence of the unfulfilled declarations concerning the missing material suggests that the division has been made before the work has been brought to completion. Proposed interpretation is also congruent with what we know about the ancient authors’ writing process. The article argues that the final division into books, taking place after the unauthorized publication of some books referred to in 40.8, constituted a defining point for the Bibliotheke as we know it. Such a perspective opens various possibilities, e.g. that after making the final division, Diodorus was no longer constrained to work in chronological order. It also opens a possibility that the Bibliotheke was not as close to being finished as it is usually assumed.

The creation of the Roman Peace involved technical and quantitative developments in a particular type of political rule that produced the appropriate imperial subjects. It also involved concepts of what that pax was to be and how it was to function. These ideas, in turn, demanded new kinds of subjectivity that conflicted with the strong concepts of freedom enjoyed by the citizens of a city-state. The following essay attempts to investigate the development of the intertwining strands of subservience and peace in the middle Republic and their fruition in the transition to the Principate. The core concern is one raised by Momigliano: How did this sea change in political identity affect the mentality of the new subjects of empire?

Resumen El presente artículo considera la inscripción rupestre dedicada a Nemedus Augustus en la cueva de La Griega (Pedraza, Segovia) con el objetivo de aportar algunas reflexiones sobre la interpretación de las divinidades con epíteto Augustus/a, su relación con el culto imperial y su presencia en el ámbito rural hispano. Se consideran otros testimonios epigráficos del uso del epíteto Augustus/Augusta en divinidades indígenas en la Península Ibérica, entendiendo que fue un mecanismo para su incorporación al panteón romano.

Zusammenfassung Der Tod des Ptolemaios von Mauretanien im frühen 1. Jahrhundert n. Chr. erscheint auch heute noch rätselhaft. In dieser Untersuchung soll daher neues Licht auf ein vieldiskutiertes Thema geworfen werden. Dabei wird insbesondere eine Passage in Suetons Schrift über den römischen Kaiser Caligula in den Blick genommen, der für den Tod des Ptolomaios verantwortlich gewesen sein soll. Dort wird berichtet, dass Caligula den mauretanischen König habe ermorden lassen, da dieser in einer purpurnen abolla in Rom erschienen sein und somit den Kaiser öffentlich brüskiert haben soll. In der Analyse der schriftlichen Quellen wird deutlich, dass es sich bei der abolla um eine typische Tracht hellenistisch geprägter Herrscher handelte, die von der römischen Gesellschaft als fremd konnotiert wurde. Die prestigeträchtige Farbe des Purpurs stellte eine zusätzliche Komponente einer traditionellen monarchischen Selbstdarstellung dar, die von Ptolemaios als König von Mauretanien auch so zu erwarten gewesen sein muss. Doch zeigt es sich, dass das Auftreten des Ptolemaios von Caligula vor dem Hintergrund der Spannungen der Gaetulicus-Lepidus-Verschwörung und der selbst gewählten Herrschaftskonzeption des princeps  – einer expressiven Repräsentation des eigenen Ranges – missverstanden wurde. Dies führte schließlich zur drastischen Reaktion des Kaisers.

Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag untersucht den historischen Kontext der von Seneca verfassten Schriften Apokolokyntosis und De clementia und seinen Niederschlag in den Texten. Beide Werke wurden in einer Phase politischer Unsicherheit und hoher Spannungen verfasst. Es wird die These vertreten, dass diese angespannte Situation sich in den Texten spiegelt. Der Verfasser sah Nero offenbar bereits unmittelbar nach seiner Thronbesteigung kritisch und versuchte ihn nicht nur in De clementia , sondern auch in der Apokolokyntosis auf den Senat und seine Ideale zu verpflichten sowie eindringlich zu warnen. Gleichzeitig war Seneca offenbar darum bemüht, vor seinen senatorischen Standesgenossen seine Nähe zum princeps zu rechtfertigen.

Resumen En el presente trabajo se estudia la figura del emperador Juan (423–425), un soberano considerado como un usurpador por las fuentes de la época así como por la mayor parte de la bibliografía que se ha ocupado de su persona. Se analiza su posible carrera anterior a su nombramiento como augusto de Occidente, las circunstancias de su ascenso al trono, las principales claves de su gobierno, su derrota a manos de Bizancio y su ejecución. Para ello, se realiza una lectura crítica de la documentación conservada (narraciones de carácter histórico, textos legislativos, inscripciones y monedas, entre otras categorías documentales). Asimismo, las principales obras historiográficas que han tratado acerca de Juan son examinadas también con un espíritu crítico a la luz de la información que nos proporcionan dichas fuentes, por lo que algunas de sus afirmaciones son matizadas cuando no directamente rechazadas. La conclusión de este estudio es que Juan fue un emperador que llegó al poder de manera legítima; su destronamiento a manos de Teodosio II fue el resultado de la tendencia cada vez mayor hacia una política de sucesión dinástica (pese a que esta no tenía una base legal); tan solo tras su muerte, Juan fue considerado un usurpador por parte de las fuentes pro teodosianas, una consideración que se ha transmitido a la historiografía posterior.