Hellenistic and Roman Military Epitaphs on Stone and on Papyrus

Author(s):  
Silvia Barbantani

Chapter 10 studies Hellenistic and Roman military epitaphs and addresses a number of interconnected issues: the unpopularity of epitaphs for individual soldiers in the Greek Anthology (only a dozen of such epigrams are present, leaving side fictitious pieces for literary or historical figures); the near absence of inscribed epitaphs in literary sources, despite the fact that they are often of good literary quality; and the question of their authorship: there is no evidence that any epigrammatist known from the Greek Anthology also acted as a professional writer of military epitaphs, as Simonides did. Epitaphs for common soldiers were usually commissioned to professional poets, most of whom now remain anonymous; in some cases the deceased, especially when he presents himself as a veteran belonging to the local elite, may have had his say on the contents and form of his future epitaph.

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-102
Author(s):  
Mark Letteney ◽  
Matthew D. C. Larsen

This article identifies a military prison (carcer castrensis) in the Roman legionary fortress at Lambaesis (Tazoult, Algeria) and contextualizes the space among North African carceral practices evidenced in epigraphic, papyrological, and literary sources of the first through fourth centuries CE. The identification is made on the basis of architectural comparanda and previously unnoticed inscriptional evidence which demonstrate that the space under the Sanctuary of the Standards in the principia was both built as a prison and used that way in antiquity. The broader discussion highlights the ubiquity of carceral spaces and practices in the ancient and late ancient Mediterranean, and elucidates some of the underlying practices and ideologies of ancient incarceration.


Antichthon ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 51 ◽  
pp. 124-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Armstrong

AbstractA tension exists within the literary sources for early Rome, between the supposedly static nature of military authority, embodied by the grant ofimperiumwhich was allegedly shared both by archaicregesand republican magistrates, and the evidence for change within Rome’s military hierarchy, with the early republican army being commanded by a succession of different magistrates including the archaicpraetores, the so-called ‘consular tribunes,’ and the finally the consuls and praetors of the mid-fourth centuryBC. The differences between the magistracies and the motivations driving the evolution of the system have caused confusion for both ancient and modern writers alike, with the usual debate being focused on the number of officials involved under each system and Rome’s expanding military and bureaucratic needs. The present study will argue that, far more than just varying in number, when viewed against the wider backdrop of Roman society during the period, the sources hint that the archaicpraetoresand consular tribunes might have exercised slightly different types of military authority – possibly distinguished by the designationsimperiumandpotestas– which were unified under the office of the consulship of 367BC.1The changes in Rome’s military hierarchy during the fifth and fourth centuriesBCmay therefore not only indicate an expansion of Rome’s military command, as is usually argued, but also an evolution of military authority within Rome associated with the movement of power from thecomitia curiatato thecomitia centuriata.


1991 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Carey

The banker Pasion, father of the notorious fourth-century litigant and politician Apollodoros, some of whose speeches have survived under the name of Demosthenes, was originally a slave; freed by his owners, he made a substantial fortune from banking and subsequently received Athenian citizenship for his generous gifts to the city. At [Dem.] 59.2 we are given a paraphrase of the decree which enfranchised him: 'Aθηναον εἶναι Πασωνα κα κγνους τοὺς κενου ‘[the Athenian people voted] that Pasion and his descendants should be Athenian’. In common with inscriptions recording grants of citizenship, and unlike Roman military diplomata, the decree appears to have ignored Pasion's wife Archippe. The silence of the decrees of enfranchisement is echoed in the literary sources, with the result that we have no explicit testimony to the legal status of the wife of an alien who was granted Athenian citizenship. M. J. Osborne assumes that the status of the wife was in no way affected by the grant; she remained an alien. D. Whitehead has argued that in such cases the wife's status was indeterminate; in the event of the death of her first husband she might find herself married either to an Athenian citizen or to an alien, whereupon her status would be defined according to that of her husband. This article will argue that Archippe's status was unaffected by Pasion's receipt of citizenship, that is, that she remained a metic. I shall then proceed to consider the question of the implications of the difference in status of Pasion and Archippe subsequent to his enfranchisement for the legal basis of the relationship between them, and finally draw a tentative conclusion about the date of Pasion's receipt of citizenship.


1995 ◽  
Vol 90 ◽  
pp. 269-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nigel Spencer

Many previous studies of early Lesbos have tended to emphasize the famous historical figures—Alkaios, Sappho, and Pittakos—and the events surrounding them that are known from literary sources; there has been much less discussion of archaeology, and this has led to a one-dimensional picture. The sources have tended to encourage an emphasis on features of the island's archaic history which are traditionally thought of as ‘Greek’, and the true context of early civilization in the island, which had strong links to Anatolia and the east, has largely been ignored. This paper corrects the imbalance, acknowledging more fully the eastern links in the island's culture from the Bronze Age to the Archaic period and indicating that during this period Lesbos was as much an extension of Anatolia as a ‘Greek’ island.


Author(s):  
Alistair Fox

This book investigates the coming-of-age genre as a significant phenomenon in New Zealand’s national cinema, tracing its development from the 1970s to the present day. A preliminary chapter identifies the characteristics of the coming-of-age film as a genre, tracing its evolution and the influence of the French New Wave and European Art Cinema, and speculating on the role of the genre in the output of national cinemas. Through case studies of fifteen significant films, including The God Boy, Sleeping Dogs, The Scarecrow, Vigil, Mauri, An Angel at My Table, Heavenly Creatures, Once Were Warriors, Rain, Whale Rider, In My Father’s Den, 50 Ways of Saying Fabulous, Boy, Mahana, and Hunt for the Wilderpeople, subsequent chapters examine thematic preoccupations of filmmakers such as the impact of repressive belief systems and social codes, the experience of cultural dislocation, the expression of a Māori perspective through an indigenous “Fourth Cinema,” bicultural relationships, and issues of sexual identity, arguing that these films provide a unique insight into the cultural formation of New Zealanders. Given that the majority of films are adaptations of literary sources, the book also explores the dialogue each film conducts with the nation’s literature, showing how the time frame of each film is updated in a way that allows these films to be considered as a register of important cultural shifts that have occurred as New Zealanders have sought to discover their emerging national identity.


2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
YAEL DARR

This article describes a crucial and fundamental stage in the transformation of Hebrew children's literature, during the late 1930s and 1940s, from a single channel of expression to a multi-layered polyphony of models and voices. It claims that for the first time in the history of Hebrew children's literature there took place a doctrinal confrontation between two groups of taste-makers. The article outlines the pedagogical and ideological designs of traditionalist Zionist educators, and suggests how these were challenged by a group of prominent writers of adult poetry, members of the Modernist movement. These writers, it is argued, advocated autonomous literary creation, and insisted on a high level of literary quality. Their intervention not only dramatically changed the repertoire of Hebrew children's literature, but also the rules of literary discourse. The article suggests that, through the Modernists’ polemical efforts, Hebrew children's literature was able to free itself from its position as an apparatus controlled by the political-educational system and to become a dynamic and multi-layered field.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-99
Author(s):  
Eleonora Sasso

This paper takes as its starting point the conceptual metaphor ‘life is a journey’ as defined by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) in order to advance a new reading of William Michael Rossetti's Democratic Sonnets (1907). These political verses may be defined as cognitive-semantic poems, which attest to the centrality of travel in the creation of literary and artistic meaning. Rossetti's Democratic Sonnets is not only a political manifesto against tyranny and oppression, promoting the struggle for liberalism and democracy as embodied by historical figures such as Napoleon, Mazzini, Cavour, and Garibaldi; but it also reproduces Rossetti's real and imagined journeys throughout Europe in the late nineteenth century. This essay examines these references in light of the issues they raise, especially the poet as a traveller and the journey metaphor in poetry. But its central purpose is to re-read Democratic Sonnets as a cognitive map of Rossetti's mental picture of France and Italy. A cognitive map, first theorised by Edward Tolman in the 1940s, is a very personal representation of the environment that we all experience, serving to navigate unfamiliar territory, give direction, and recall information. In terms of cognitive linguistics, Rossetti is a figure whose path is determined by French and Italian landmarks (Paris, the island of St. Helena, the Alps, the Venice Lagoon, Mount Vesuvius, and so forth), which function as reference points for orientation and are tied to the historical events of the Italian Risorgimento. Through his sonnets, Rossetti attempts to build into his work the kind of poetic revolution and sense of history which may only be achieved through encounters with other cultures.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 48-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Chobotko ◽  
L. Raychuk ◽  
I. McDonald

The aim of the article was to defi ne the role of the radioactive environment contamination in the formation of ecosystem services strategy. Methods. Monographic, systemic and structural, factor analysis, abstract and logical research methods have been used. The data from the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine, materials of scientifi c researches, international materials and reports and other literary sources on the issues investigated have been used as an information base. Results. Retrospective analysis of sources and state of radioactive eco- systems contamination was conducted and the priority steps in developing the concept of ecosystem services in conditions of radiation contamination were found. Conclusions. The current socio-ecological paradigm of the transition from environmental use to environmental management should be refl ected in the relevant envi- ronmental management mechanisms. Currently, when assessing the state of ecosystem services in Ukraine and worldwide one must take into account the changes in food demand of residents of radioactively contaminated areas, the exploitation of radioactively safe ecosystems growth, their overload and degradation. All of this re- quires an inventory of ecosystem services by type, region, consumers, etc. and the formation of a state register of ecosystem services with a clear assignment of area of responsibility for appropriate natural ecosystems. This will help to make the economic evaluation of different ecosystem services and mechanisms of charges for ecosystem services.


2020 ◽  
Vol 62 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 7-21
Author(s):  
M. Dudáš ◽  
P. Eliáš jun. ◽  
D. R. Letz ◽  
Z. Bártová ◽  
V. Kolarčik

The distribution of Sonchus palustris in Slovakia was studied using herbarium specimens and literary sources. The herbarium studies, supplemented with targeted field search in the years 2015–2018, revealed 61 new localities and confirmed many other older locations. The species has been recorded in 19 phytogeographical districts and sub-districts of Slovakia. Most of the records are concentrated in the Podunajská nížina lowland in SW Slovakia and in the Ipel'sko-rimavská brázda region in southern Slovakia. Our results showed that the species is relatively common in different types of wetlands and its re-evaluation in the recent version of the Slovak red list is not needed. Chromosome number data for two new populations in eastern Slovakia (both 2n = 18) were counted. The distribution map is given.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-36
Author(s):  
D. A. Dirin ◽  
Paul Fryer

The paper is devoted to ethno-cultural landscapes of the Republic of Tuva. Ethnocultural landscapes (ECLs) are specific socio-environmental systems that developed as a result of the interaction of ethnic groups with their natural and social environments and are in a constant process of transformation. An attempt is made to identify the mechanisms of the formation, functioning and dynamics of ethnocultural landscapes in the specific conditions of the intracontinental cross-border mountain region, as well as to establish the main factors-catalysts of their modern changes. For the first time an attempt is made to delimit and map the ethnocultural landscapes of Tuva. For this, literary sources, statistical data and thematic maps of different times are analyzed using geoinformation methods. The results of 2014-2018 field studies are also used, during which interviews with representatives of different ethno-territorial, gender, age and social groups were taken. It is revealed that the key factors of Tuva’s ethnocultural landscape genesis are the natural isolation of its territory; the features of its landscape structure; the role of government; population migrations from other regions and the cultural diffusion provoked by them. 13 ethnocultural landscapes are identified at the regional level. Their modern transformation is determined by the shift of climatic cycles, aridisation, globalisation of sociocultural processes, changes in economic specialisation and ethnopsychological stereotypes.


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