Athens and Tenos in the Early Hellenistic Age

1992 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 365-383 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Reger

Some recent work on the history of Athens and Tenos in the third century B.c. has brought to light new evidence and new interpretations of old evidence for this notoriously shadowy period of Greek history. Reflection on this material has suggested to me solutions to a few minor puzzles (Sections IA, IB, III), a contribution to a long-standing problem in the history of Athens in the early third century (Section IB), and a new explanation for the entry of Rhodos into the war with Antiokhos (Section II).

1959 ◽  
Vol 49 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 61-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Homer A. Thompson

The excavations that have been conducted since 1931 by the American School of Classical Studies in the Athenian Agora have illumined virtually all phases in the development of the civic centre from its modest beginnings in the time of Solon to its dramatic end in the third century of our era. The exploration has also made it possible to trace the history of habitation in the area from Neolithic times down to the present day. One of the periods for which the excavations have yielded especially abundant documentation is late antiquity, more specifically the centuries from the third through the sixth. The new evidence has led to the correction of various misapprehensions that had arisen because of the paucity of evidence previously available for the study of this period. The results are the more interesting because our detailed knowledge of what happened in the Agora now helps in understanding contemporary developments in the city as a whole. Athens in fact has become a useful ‘case history’ for the study of the actual way in which ancient civilization went to pieces in one of the best known and most characteristic communities of the ancient world.


Ramus ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 152-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaś Elsner

The 20 poems collected together as thelithikaof Posidippus, the first surviving poems on a papyrus roll only published in 2001 and dating from the third century BCE, offer a range of spectacular new evidence for a series of issues in Hellenistic history, art and literature. The standard view is that Posidippus was probably author of all the epigrams in the roll known as P. Mil. Vogl. VIII 309, although this has been contested and by no means need certainly be the case. For my purposes here, I do assume that the interconnected poetics of the poems in thelithikado imply a single poet who is quite likely to be Posidippus, since poem 15—independently anthologised in antiquity and known through a manuscript tradition—was attributed to Posidippus in the twelfth century by the Byzantine poet and grammarian John Tzetzes. Historically speaking, the fact that so many of these poems focus on gems from the east gives remarkable insight into the interchange between Hellenistic and Achaemenid cultures: specifically, they signal the prestige of treasures from the east in the Hellenistic courts. In the history of collections, they represent a very early example of exoticism in elite collecting, of the accumulation of valuables in what we may assume was a royal and non-sacredSchatzkammer, of the need for an aesthetic response (in this case through short poems) to ‘label’ and valorise the precious items in the collection. In the history of ancientWissenschaft, the poems’ use of late Classical gem-lore (exemplified in texts like theOn Stonesof Theophrastus) offers a vivid instance of the ways theoretical knowledge circulated at least in elite contexts around the royal circle.


1909 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 264-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. W. Tarn

No apology should be needed for treating afresh these much-discussed battles, if only because the last two years have produced new and important evidence from Delos; though in fact the literary allusions, scanty as they are, have hardly even yet been sufficiently elucidated. I hope in this paper to fix the dates of Andros and Cos by the Delian archon-list, and to consider what that means in terms of B.C. In a subsequent paper, to be published in the next number of this Journal, I hope, by working out the history of the ship which Antigonus Gonatas dedicated to Apollo, to confirm the date assigned to Cos in this paper. If these two dates could really be fixed, they would be invaluable for our understanding of Aegean history in the middle of the third century.


2020 ◽  
pp. 45-62
Author(s):  
José Antonio Molina Gómez ◽  
Héctor Uroz Rodríguez ◽  
José Ángel Munera Martínez

En el presente artículo los autores estudian las tradiciones hagiográficas sobre los mártires del siglo III Vicente y Leto, quienes murieron en Libisosa (Lezuza, Albacete). El estudio se centra en la relación entre tradiciones martirológicas, la evidencia arqueológica y las tradiciones locales. Escritores modernos como Higuera y Requena podrían haber usado fuentes antiguas para (re)escribir la historia de Vicente y Leto. De acuerdo con la tradición local ambos fueron ejecutados en un lugar llamado hoy en día Vallejo de los Santos, en las inmediaciones de Lezuza, donde habría sido levantado un templo para rendirles culto. In the following article, the authors study the hagiographic tradition of the Third Century Christian Martyrs Vicente and Leto, both of which died in Libisosa (Lezuza, Albacete). Said study shall focus upon the link between the matyrological tradition, archaeological evidence and local traditions. Modern writers such as Higuera or Requena may well have employed these ancient sources while (re)writing the history of Vicente and Leto. According to local tradition, both were executed in a place now called Vallejo de los Santos, in the outskirts of Lezuza, where a temple would have been built for their worship.


The author considers the content of the “Milan Papyrus” with the epigrams of Posidippus of Pella, the first edition of which was published in 2003, with reference to the history of the Nabataean Arabs. The mention of the Nabataean king in the work is the very first in narrative sources, which allows to reconsider some traditional points of view on the life of the Nabataeans in the early Hellenistic period before their transition to a settled life. It should be noted that referring to the early period of the history of the Nabataeans, researchers inevitably encounter a problem that is associated with a lack of narrative sources. The data available today do not fully restore the course of historical events, especially during the period when the Nabataean tribes led a nomadic lifestyle. To a certain extent, the fragmentariness of the written sources is compensated by the data of archeology, epigraphy and numismatics, however, the early Hellenistic period of the history of the Nabataeans, unfortunately, is still not adequately covered by the sources. Meanwhile, it was at that time when the Nabataeans experienced a gradual transition from a nomadic way of life to a sedentary one, as well as the most important historical processes that determined the path of their further existence under statehood were being held. Nevertheless, the range of sources is gradually expanding, which allows researchers to set new tasks and look for ways to solve them. Thus, as a result of the research, the author concludes that the data of the “Milan Papyrus” suggest that the royal Nabataean dynasty has deeper roots than was commonly believed, and from the middle of the third century BC at the head was the king, under whose command was the cavalry corps. This conclusion changes the generally accepted idea of the socio-political development of the Nabataean society in the early stages of its history.


Heritage ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 1097-1116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luigi Capozzoli ◽  
Sabrina Mutino ◽  
Maria Grazia Liseno ◽  
Gregory De Martino

This paper describes the results obtained using an archaeogeophysical-based approach for discovering new Roman structures belonging to the ancient settlement of Forentum, currently identifiable by a well-preserved sanctuary from the third century BC. The investigated area has been affected by invasive anthropic activities that have partially damaged the Roman structures. Extensive geophysical measurements, including detailed ground-penetrating radar investigations supported by magnetometric data, have allowed for the identification of an impressive complex of structures composed of various buildings. Magnetometric and electromagnetic anomalies suggest the existence of an “urban” dimension close to the Gravetta Sanctuary, totally unearthed and unknown until now, organized into regular patterns in a similar way to the most famous site in the vicinity of Bantia, or the famous Apulian archaeological sites of Ordona and Arpi.


1970 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. V. Sumner

It is generally recognized that Rome of the early Republic offers a good example of the correlation between military and political organization. The ordering of the Roman citizenry in centuries, classes and age-groups was in origin and essence a military system. The Comitia Centuriata was the exercitus urbanus—the army on parade in the Field of Mars.But by the third century B.C. the Roman army and the centuriate assembly were manifestly two different systems, even if vestiges of their interconnection lingered on. The process whereby this differentiation had come about is, unfortunately, not so clear. The traditional accounts of early Roman history generally failed to devote much attention to questions of that order. Yet the effort to tackle and, if possible, solve this complex of problems can hardly be evaded. The answers given, or assumed, by modern historians are bound to determine how the whole history of early Rome is interpreted and represented.


1935 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 77-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick H. Wilson

The building with which this study is concerned occupies the eastern half of Region ii, 2, just inside the city gate at Ostia. Two specific statements have been made concerning it, that it commenced as magazzini or horrea in the republican era, and that it was converted into baths in the late third century A.D.; these were the suggestions of the excavators, and have never yet been questioned. They are points of considerable importance, because this building would thus be the only example of republican horrea yet discovered in Ostia, and the conversion of horrea into baths or shops, which the theory implies, would be important for the economic history of Ostia, whether the reason for the change was the concentration of horrea elsewhere or merely the decline of the city. The second statement, too, would point to building activity in Ostia at a time when no other big building was being put up. This paper is an attempt to prove that at no time was the building used as horrea, and that the conversion to baths is to be placed not in the third, but in the late first, or very early second century A.D. Five main periods will be distinguished, of which the appended table gives a summary.


1930 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 96-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. T. Salmon

One of the most recent writers on the early history of Rome has shown that the framework of the traditional story is perhaps to be trusted, even though there are many details, inconsistent and self-contradictory, which are obviously to be rejected. In view of this fact, it might be worth while to reconsider the Coriolanus story, the prevailing opinion concerning which is that vouchsafed by Mommsen many years ago: ‘die Erzählung ist ein spät, in die Annalen eingefügtes, darum in alien Stücken denselben ungleichartiges und widersprechendes Einschiebsel.’ The reasons for arriving at such an opinion are sufficiently obvious to warrant their receiving but the barest recital. First, it is incredible that the Volsci would either choose a renegade Roman to be their general, or, even if they did, allow him at the last minute to rob them of the fruits of victory. Secondly, inconsistencies in the version of the story which we possess induce us to suspect its historicity; for example, Dionysius of Syracuse is made to send corn to the starving Romans'—yet Dionysius lived some hundred years later; a youthful Coriolanus is represented as having considerable influence in the senate—yet in those early days the senate was essentially a gathering of venerable men; the Roman populace learns immediately the gist of Coriolanus' remarks in the senate—yet senate meetings were held in secret; Volsci are allowed to attend the ‘ludi’ and to meet at the Spring of Ferentina—yet in the fifth century none but Latini could do this; the Roman Marcius is given an honorific cognomen, Coriolanus, because of his behaviour at the capture of Corioli—yet such cognomina were not granted until the third century or even later and even then only to the general and not to the subordinate; the plebs is represented as wielding great power in the assembly1—yet we know that in the fifth century it did nothing of the kind.


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