The Gathering Storm

2020 ◽  
pp. 125-137
Author(s):  
Duane W. Roller
Keyword(s):  
Roman Republic ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
Joint Operation ◽  
Southern Asia ◽  
The Mediterranean

In 95 BC, a new king came to the throne of Armenia, southeast of Pontos. Tigranes II and Mithridates VI quickly became allies, with the former marrying the latter’s daughter. In a joint operation, both kings attacked Cappadocia, in southern Asia Minor on the Mediterranean. But the Romans, in the person of L. Cornelius Sulla, already had a presence in the region, and this led to the first clash between Pontos and the Roman Republic. Yet Mithridates was commemorated in Greece on the island of Delos, where a Mithridateion was built in his honor. But the Romans became ever more concerned about the king and sent a Roman commission to investigate his actions, which ordered the king to act with more restraint. He was totally offended, and events slipped toward war between Rome and Pontos.

Empire of the Black Sea

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duane W. Roller
Keyword(s):  
Roman Republic ◽  
Black Sea ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
Northern Asia ◽  
Black Sea Region ◽  
Mediterranean World ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Almost All

Existing from the early third century BC to 63 BC, the Mithridatic kingdom of Pontos was one of the most powerful entities in the Mediterranean world. Under a series of vigorous kings and queens, it expanded from a fortress in the mountainous territory of northern Asia Minor to rule almost all the Black Sea perimeter. This is the first study in English of this kingdom in its entirety, from its origins under King Mithridates I around 280 BC until its last and greatest king, the erudite and cultured Mithridates VI the Great, fell victim to the expanding ambitions of the Roman Republic in 63 BC. Through a series of astute marriage alliances (one of which produced the ancestors of Cleopatra of Egypt), political acumen, and military ability, the Pontic rulers (most of whom were named Mithridates) dominated the culture and politics of the Black Sea region for over two hundred years. This book is a thorough exploration of the internal dynamics of the kingdom as well as its relations with the rest of the Mediterranean world, especially the ever-expanding Roman Republic.

“We do not grant that their synagogues shall stand, but want them to be converted in form to churches”

2020 ◽  
pp. 276-314
Author(s):  
Ross Shepard Kraemer
Keyword(s):  
Fifth Century ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Anti Jewish ◽  
Material Evidence ◽  
Jewish Writers

Evidence for Jews in the Mediterranean diaspora wanes by the fifth century. Few laws pertain to Jews between Theodosios II’s death and the ascension of Justinian seventy-five years later. Material evidence for Jews is sparse. Only non-Jewish writers offer possible evidence. John Malalas recounts synagogue attacks by the “Greens” charioteers’ association. Justinian’s harsh critic, Prokopios of Caesarea, notes Justinian’s various anti-Jewish acts. Justinian’s famed legal Code confirms his intensification of his predecessors’ programs against all non-Nicene persons, including Jews and Samaritans. His famous Novella 146 authorized use of the Septuagint, but banned the Deuterosis—sometimes thought, perhaps wrongly, to be the Mishnah. John of Ephesos claims that (after a devastating outbreak of plague) Justinian sent him to convert the remaining dissidents and traditionalists of Asia Minor, where he also transformed a few synagogues into churches. John Malalas chronicles Samaritan revolts also recounted by Prokopios, as well as Jewish victims of earthquakes.

Ex amicis divi Augusti: P. Vedius Pollio

Palamedes ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 93-140
Author(s):  
Piotr Berdowski
Keyword(s):  
Roman Republic ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Political Career ◽  
Black Legend

The present article attempts a comprehensive overview of the career of P. Vedius Pollio, an equestrian and a close associate of Augustus at a time of the constitutional transformation of the Roman Republic. The issues under discussion include Pollio’s political career in the years immediately following the battle of Actium, not least the mission to Asia Minor that Augustus entrusted him with, as well as his business activities, which are better known to us after Pollio’s withdrawal from politics. Much space is devoted to his relationship with the princeps and the birth of the so-called black legend of Pollio, which disparaged him as a cruel and psychopathic.

Legio VII and the Garrison of Augustan Galatia

1976 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 298-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Asia Minor ◽  
Southern Asia ◽  
Roman Province

When Augustus inherited the kingdom of Amyntas in or about 25 B.C. and created the Roman province of Galatia, he also inherited a substantial military problem. Despite Amynatas' efforts in a decade of warfare the tribes of the Isaurian and Pisidian Taurus, above all the Homonadenses, were still not finally conquered and posed a serious threat both to lacal security and to the routes of communication across southern Asia Minor.

2. Inventing the saints

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Yarrow
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Death Of Jesus ◽  
Diverse Communities ◽  
The Mediterranean

Sainthood took on its most familiar forms from the death of Jesus c.33 ce to the decades following the Council of Chalcedon in 451 ce. The early Christian church was an urban diaspora spread around the Mediterranean littoral, Hispania, Gaul, Asia Minor, North Africa, and Palestine. But who among these diverse communities were saints? ‘Inventing the saints’ describes the earliest saints as apostles who were ‘sanctified’ through their common associations with Jesus Christ. It outlines persecution, early Christian martyrdom, Donatism, asceticism, monasticism, and eremeticism, and introduces St Paul and St Antony. By the end of the 5th century the martyr, the ascetic, and the confessor had become the most important forms of Christian sainthood.

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