Volume 96, Issue 2

The present article contains observations on the invasion of Lycia by the Hittite king Tudhaliya IV as described in the Yalburt inscription. The author questions the commonly found identification of the land of vitis /Wiyanwanda with the city of Oinoanda on account of the problems raised by the reading of the sign vitis as well as of archaeological and strategical observations. With the aid of Lycian and Greek inscriptions the author argues that the original Wiyanawanda/Oinoanda was located further south than the city commonly known as Oinoanda situated above İncealiler. These insights lead to a reassessment of the Hittite-Luwian sources concerning the conquest of Lycia.

The term ‚consumption‘ includes the use of material and non-material goods. For some decades it has been successfully employed by several scientific disciplines to examine causal relationships between the various life styles and the respective historical circumstances. This paper applies the term to the way texts, prestige-goods and social rules are used in different situations. As case studies serve the ‚oriental‘ texts included in the „Iliad“, the Lydian goods as they are differently estimated by Sappho and Xenophanes, and the way how Theognis interprets social rules. Starting from the principle of the ‚relativity of the best‘, as it can be detected in the Homeric epics, various types of consumption are discerned to give way for circumscribing the leeway open for creating individual lifestyles.

Pausanias saw in the Athenian Stoa at Delphi an inscription, different from the one still visible on the Stoa’s stylobate, which he rightly connected with Phormio’s victories in the Corinthian Gulf in 429 BC (10, 11, 6). The not exact correspondence between its contents reported by Pausanias and some details of the narrative in Thucydides enables us to reconstruct with a greater precision the movements of Phormio after the two battles. On the other hand, the quite unnoticed exact correspondence between the Spartan allies listed in the inscription as reported by Pausanias and the catalogue of Spartan naval allies in Thuc. 2, 9, 3, as well as the absence from these lists of Anactorion, although her ships had joined the Peloponnesian fleet at least in the earliest phases of that campaign, give grounds for the suggestion that Thucydides’ catalogue mirrors the make-up of the Peloponnesian fleet that actually fought in 429 and that just the inscription seen by Pausanias may have been (one of) his source(s). Riassunto Pausania vide nel portico degli Ateniesi a Delfi un’iscrizione, diversa da quella tuttora visibile sullo stilobate del portico, che egli giustamente mise in rapporto con le vittorie di Formione nel golfo di Corinto nel 429 a. C. (10, 11, 6). La non perfetta corrispondenza fra il suo contenuto, così com’è riportato dal periegeta, e alcuni dettagli del resoconto di Tucidide consentono di ricostruire con maggiore precisione i movimenti di Formione all’indomani delle due battaglie. Nel contempo, l’esatta corrispondenza, passata finora del tutto inosservata, fra l’elenco degli alleati di Sparta ricordati nell’iscrizione e il catalogo degli alleati navali di Sparta che leggiamo in Thuc. 2, 9, 3, insieme all’assenza da queste due liste della città di Anactorio, che pure aveva fornito navi alla flotta peloponnesiaca almeno nelle prime fasi di quella campagna, legittimano l’ipotesi che il catalogo di Tucidide rispecchi la composizione della flotta peloponnesiaca che fu realmente impegnata nei combattimenti del 429 e che proprio l’iscrizione vista da Pausania potrebbe essere stata una delle sue fonti.

This article aims to explain what the word pyrokausis means, which is only found in the text of the military diagramma of Philip V concerning the recruitment on the Macedonian kingdom. The purpose is to show that, contrary to the prevalent opinion, the oikos/oikia – the basic recruitment unit in the Macedonian kingdom (one oikos/oikia provides one soldier) – is not equivalent with the concept pyrokausis . Based on the information that are provided by the text of that inscription, and other sources which are listed and referred to the internal organization of the Macedonian army, the article concludes that the pyrokausis is another name for lochos , the basic military unit in the formation.

The main aim of this paper is the analysis of the legal and epigraphic evidence for lease contracts in land tenure, with particular reference to the second and third centuries AD. Against the monolithic interpretation of the locatio conductio as the prototype of colonatus and emphyteusis contracts – with its assumption of continuity and sequential development – this paper gives evidence of the simultaneity of different letting and hiring contracts in agrarian contexts. By focusing on the agents involved in the legal transactions, we can distinguish different conditions pro qualitate personarum et rerum which characterized various locatio conductio contracts in the agrarian domain in terms of different onera and iura . Land tenure contracts have generally been analysed from the perspective of private law; taking due account of public ownership in demesne, however, will necessitate a different approach to the definition of some of the ‚public law‘ aspects of land tenure contracts.

Literary sources of the quaestorship are scarce about the origin and moreover, confused about the analogy of the activities what the quaestors performed during the Republic. Most scholars have shown this perception and they are not able to find out the ties of the functions identified. In this paper we study theses possible relationship and the news about the tasks relating to the crimes inquiry, to the aerarium and to the activity close to the magistrates, along the Republic.

A wrong administration of the pecunia communis had serious patrimonial consequences for the local magistrates in charge of it. This liability was demanded independently from the subjective intention or the diligent behavior of the magistrates. When they finish their management, they should hand in an account report and face an eventual popular action if it weren’t satisfactory. In this paper, the sort of liability, that these magistrates had, and also its proximity to the tutor’s one in regard with his pupil’s heritage, that in the private law area was required, are analyzed. Resumen La gestión inadecuada de la llamada pecunia communis tenía importantes consecuencias patrimoniales para los magistrados locales encargados de la misma. Esta responsabilidad era exigible con independencia del ánimo y de la diligencia de su conducta. Cuando finalizaban su gestión debían rendir cuentas de la misma y afrontar una eventual acción popular cuando ésta no había sido satisfactoria. En este trabajo se analiza el tipo de responsabilidad que estos magistrados tenían y su cercanía con la que, en el ámbito del derecho privado, se exigía al tutor en relación con el patrimonio de su pupilo.

2 Maccabees abridges the text on which it is based, the lost History of Jason of Cyrene, to a single scroll. This process of abbreviation is guided by the religious-didactic intention of describing the dramatic events from the persecution of the Jewish religion up to Jewish self-assertion under Judas Maccabaeus in the light of the prophecy of the Old Testament: that having punished his people for their waywardness God will turn to them again once they have returned to the religion of their fathers. In order to achieve this narrative, 2 Maccabees abandons the quest for historical precision in several crucial points. With this result in mind, the present article refutes recent attempts to take the narrative of the events in 2 Maccabees at face value.

Late in 72 BCE, Spartacus’ stunning series of victories over the consuls L. Gellius Publicola and Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Clodianus and then the proconsul C. Cassius Longinus (cos. 73) triggered a dearth of candidates for the consular and praetorian elections for 71. This deadlock was broken only when M. Licinius Crassus announced that he would run for praetor, declaring he was prepared to accept the command against Spartacus. Immediately following his election, Crassus began preparing, probably receiving a grant of delegated praetorium imperium to bridge the interval between election and assumption of office. Having raised no less than six legions, personally advancing the funds required, he also took command of the two consular legions in the field. By means of this enormous army as well as his relentless efforts and strict discipline, he managed to put an end to this protracted and inglorious war in the span of six months. At some point in the summer or early autumn of 71, the equestrian proconsul Cn. Pompeius Magnus, back from Spain, decided he would settle for nothing less than another public triumph and the consulship itself. In order to secure these top prizes, he brazenly refused to disband his army, instead using it as leverage, just as he had already done in 81 and 77. Crassus, for his part, felt he could not fall behind, and entered into an unlikely if formidable alliance with his political rival. As both men ran on a strong popularis platform, the Senate now found itself between hammer and anvil. Consequently, the Conscript Fathers had little choice but to grant Pompeius as well as Crassus the required dispensations from the Cornelian Law. Although they subsequently honoured their popular commitments as consuls, that neither Pompeius nor Crassus chose to disband their armies until sometime late in their tenure suggests that their entente was anything but cordial. Interestingly, it was Crassus who defused this dangerous stalemate by making the decisive first move towards formal reconciliation, albeit in the face of massive public pressure. Paradoxically, the defining features of Sulla’s new constitutional arrangement were buried by two of his foremost associates as they first trampled two critical Cornelian laws in order to seize a joint consulship and next passed legislation restoring the powers of the tribunes of the plebs and altering the balance of power in the court juries.

This article aims to reconstruct the representation of Theoderic in the lost „Gothic History“ of Cassiodorus. Scholars generally agree that much of the Getica of Jordanes was derived from Cassiodorus’ „History“, though it does not contain any of the eulogies of Theoderic and the Goths, which surely abounded in Cassiodorus’ work. Jordanes’ account of Theoderic king of Italy is investigated here in parallel with other documents, in particular Cassiodorus’ „Chronicle“, and some paragraphs of the Anonymus Valesianus II that may have derived from Cassiodorus. A careful study based in Quellenforschung brings to light a possible sketch of Cassiodorus’ original portrayal of Theoderic and the Ostrogothic Kingdom.