Volume 95, Issue 2

This paper proposes to analyse different features of the well-known Greco-Roman myth of Charon, the ferryman, who transported souls from this life to the underworld. The popularity of the boatman in ancient times can be demonstrated in the literary sources which evocate his figure through 12 centuries (from the 6 th century BC to the 6 th century AD). The research is focused on the analyses of written sources (Greek and Latin authors and some epigraphic evidence) supplemented by figural representations, in order to penetrate the collective mentality of the society, to understand the imaginary world of the ordinary people and the relationship between myth, superstition and ritual acts. The works of 55 ancient authors were sorted in six chronological and cultural sequences aiming to follow the changes which took place in the approach of the topic through the centuries: 1. Pre-classical and classical authors (6 th -5th century BC); 2. Hellenistic authors; 3. Authors from the 1 st century BC; 4. Authors from the 1 st century AD. 5. Authors from the 2 nd century AD; 6. Late Roman authors 4 th -6 th centuries AD.

The article discusses the development of ethnic and political identities, and the related traditions concerning the past, in Archaic and Classical Elis and Pisa. It shows that the earliest signs of Pisatan identity can be traced to the sixth century BC, and that the Eleans of the valley of Peneios on the one hand, and the people dwelling in the valley of Alpheios (i.e. the Pisatans) and the so-called Triphylia farther south on the other, nourished distinct traditions about their heroic past, which reflect distinct ethnic identities. Instead of assuming that the Pisatans as a group was intentionally constructed and its ‚history‘ invented during the political disturbances of the fourth century BC, we must accept that the Eleans and the Pisatans had since an early period developed and mutually re-negotiated the traditions confirming their identities and promoting their interests in the changing historical conditions.

Differences in the Persian-War tradition have often been noted, but there remains a general assumption that those differences were limited to self-interested quibbling within a commonly accepted narrative of the war. In this paper I argue that divergences in the Persian-War tradition went much deeper. In the decades immediately after the war’s end, the various city-states were producing commemorations of the Persian War that in some instances could hardly be said to recall the same event. I focus on a single case in point: the commemorative narrative publicized by the Plataeans in their temple to Athena Areia. Whereas the Athenians (and others) represented the war as a glorious struggle against an alien invader, the Plataeans, despite their close alliance with Athens, chose to cast it as a disturbing civil war between Greeks. These conflicting stories about the Persian War emerged because of substantial differences in all three of the factors that tend to influence memory production: the real experiences of a given past event, the preexisting social memories onto which those experiences must be grafted, and of course the evolving present needs in whose service the past is always recalled and occasionally reshaped. Most Greek states had much less in common than Athens and Plataea, and similarly deep fissures can be seen elsewhere. Ultimately, this study suggests that the Persian-War tradition was, from the beginning, far more fractured and chaotic than is currently assumed.

This study departs from the recent re-assessment of Pericles’ Citizenship Law: it made descent from two citizen parents a necessary requirement for citizenship, without allowing for any deadlines or exemptions. Behind this background, at first all traces of potential exceptions that might have been formulated in the law are considered - and rejected. However, special regulations would still have been necessary, if one posits that the assembly of the people had been used to convey either citizenship to individuals or epigamia to foreign poleis prior to the mid-5 th century BC. In fact, two examples of early naturalization in Athens have been adduced in scholarly literature: those of Menon of Pharsalus and Polygnotus of Thasus. While these cases are in conflict with the aforementioned interpretation of Pericles’ Citizenship Law, they do not stand up to closer inspection. Likewise, the existence of any positive right to legitimate intermarriage beyond the boundaries of the polis community cannot be ascertained for that early period. It will rather be shown that the assembly bothered to convey citizenship or epigamia only as a result of the radically narrow definition of citizenship by Pericles. Zusammenfassung Ausgegangen wird von der jüngst gewonnenen Einsicht, dass das Gesetz des Perikles, welches Athener Bürgerrecht an die beidseitige bürgerliche Abstammung knüpfte, keinerlei Fristen oder Exemptionen kannte. Hieran anknüpfend werden zunächst mögliche Spuren für eventuell doch im Gesetzestext formulierte Ausnahmen verfolgt - und verworfen. Dennoch müsste man eine gewisse Notwendigkeit für Sonderregelungen postulieren, sofern man von der Verleihung individuellen Bürgerrechts oder auch der Epigamie an fremde Poleis durch die Volksversammlung vor der Mitte des 5. Jh.s v. Chr. ausgehen sollte. Die beiden in der Literatur angeführten Beispiele früherer Naturalisierungen in Athen (Menon von Pharsalos, Polygnotos von Thasos), die mit der hier vertretenen Interpretation des Perikleischen Gesetzes konfligieren, halten einer Prüfung jedenfalls nicht stand. Ebenso wenig lässt sich ein positives Recht zur legitimen Polis übergreifenden Heirat in der Frühzeit nachweisen. Vielmehr muss die erstmalige Vergabe von Bürgerrecht und Epigamie durch die Ekklesie als Folge des von Perikles eingebrachten radikal engen Bürgerrechtsgesetzes begriffen werden.

The number of the Five Thousand, established during the so-called oligarchic revolution in 411, could result from the procedure approved in 487/6 under the archonship of Telesinos (κλήρωσις ἐκ προκρίτων). The selection of the Five Thousand could be similar to the πρόκρισις of the candidates for the offices in the early fifth century. This could prove the hypothesis of de Ste. Croix: for him the Five Thousand had only the power to hold the offices and the teti were not excluded from the ekklesia. The patrioi nomoi of Cleisthenes, which, according to the Clitophon’s rider, had to be examined in order to modify the constitution, could have included the selection of five thousand candidates for the offices. Thus, the issue of the patrios politeia would not be mere propaganda, but could also imply actual provisions. The Five Thousand were not an oligarchy but a moderate democracy. Riassunto Il numero di Cinquemila, stabilito durante la così detta rivoluzione oligarchica nel 411, potrebbe derivare dalla procedura approvata nel 487/6 sotto l’arcontato di Telesino (κλή-ρωσις ἐκ προκρίτων). La selezione dei Cinquemila potrebbe avere delle analogie con la πρόκρισις dei candidati all’inizio del V secolo. Questo potrebbe essere un argomento a favore della tesi di de Ste. Croix, secondo il quale i Cinquemila avrebbero avuto solo la possibilità di rivestire le cariche, senza escludere i teti dall’assemblea. I patrioi nomoi di Clistene, che secondo l’emendamento di Clitofonte dovevano essere esaminati per riscrivere la costituzione, potrebbero includere proprio la selezione di cinquemila candidati alle cariche. Così, il riferimento alla patrios politeia non sarebbe mera propaganda, ma potrebbe implicare anche scelte effettive. I Cinquemila non sarebbero un’oligarchia ma una democrazia moderata.

During the first decades of the first century BC, the political situation in Rome was deeply affected by the rivalry between C. Marius and L. Cornelius Sulla. This increasingly bitter rivalry extended to a traditionally important realm of Republican aristocratic self-fashioning, namely the medium of victory and/or honorific monuments displayed in public. This paper offers a detailed account of the effective self-advertising by monuments and above all the systematic destruction of those of his rival Marius, by which Sulla in particular radically changed and redefined the established rules of cultivating and perpetuating the collective memory. Zusammenfassung In den ersten Dekaden des 1. vorchristlichen Jahrhunderts war die politische Situation in Rom durch die Rivalität zwischen Gaius Marius und Lucius Cornelius Sulla geprägt. Dabei wurde die scharfe Konkurrenz zwischen ihnen auch auf den für die republikanischen Aristokraten traditionell wichtigen Bereich der Selbstdarstellung im Medium der Sieges- und Ehrendenkmäler im öffentlichen Raum ausgeweitet. Der Beitrag zeichnet im einzelnen nach, wie zumal Sulla durch eine effektvolle monumentale Selbstinszenierung und vor allem durch die systematische Zerstörung der Denkmäler seines Rivalen Marius die überkommenen Regeln für die Weiterführung des kollektiven Gedächtnisses überhaupt umgeschrieben hat.

Two astronomical diaries, dating to the year 216 of the Seleucid Era (=95 bc), refer to the Crown Prince ti-ig-ra-nu, i.e. the Armenian king Tigran ‚the Great‘ (95-ca. 55 bc). A fresh reading of the texts allows us to resolve some passages and propose a historical commentary of the events related to Greater Armenia, from the death of Artawazd I to the beginning of Tigran’s reign after his staying in Lower Mesopotamia as a royal hostage.

Cleopatra VII was amica et socia populi Romani. Yet, because of her association with Mark Antony, on whom the Roman Senate imposed a damnatio memoriae after his death, she was declared a hostis populi Romani. How were memory and oblivion of Cleopatra constructed after her death? How did people commemorate Cleopatra in her kingdom and in Rome? Probably, a damnatio memoriae was pronounced against the defeated queen. An inscription from Egypt and the coinage of Syrian-Phoenician poleis point to two different forms of damnatio memoriae, one by erasing the queen’s titles, and another by concealing her name. Likewise, Roman official documents, such as the imperial coinage and the Res Gestae Divi Augusti, omit to mention Cleopatra. By contrast, many of the poleis formerly subject to Cleopatra avoided commemorating Octavian’s victory of Actium.

This paper provides a social network analysis of the business communities in Pompeii and Puteoli, viewed through the lens of the archives of Caecilius Iucundus and the Sulpicii. This approach reveals how entrepreneurs tried to create trust and select reliable witnesses in two very different trading worlds. I argue first that the presence of an ‚international‘ business community in Puteoli necessitated the careful selection of witnesses among colleagues in trade, who were acquainted with someone’s reputation and trustworthiness. In Pompeii on the other hand, the local level of exchange allowed bankers and businessmen to operate in a face-to-face community, where experience in trade was not considered to be a vital criterion to be selected as a witness.