The Specialist in Athenian Written Rhetoric During the Classical Period: A Reconsideration of Technical Rhetoric and Rhetorical Iconography

2021 ◽  
pp. 004728162110385
Author(s):  
Richard Leo Enos
Keyword(s):  
Technical Writing ◽  
Archaic Period ◽  
Artistic Expression ◽  
Classical Rhetoric ◽  
Classical Period ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Ancient Athens ◽  
Literate Practices ◽  
Craft Skills

This essay argues that technical rhetoric in ancient Athens is neither well nor fully understood in its present historical characterization but rather is best realized as occupying a position on a spectrum of literate skills ranging from an art to a craft. The dismissive views of technical writing advanced by Plato and Aristotle should be reconsidered and specialized literate practices be recognized as an important feature of rhetoric in Athens’ classical period. A review of discursive and material (archaeological) evidence reveals that technical writing was evolving into a craft-skill in Athens as early as the archaic period and, by the classical period, would be regarded as a respected “rhetorical” profession of artistic expression. This essay urges readers to reconsider the restrictive characterization of rhetoric advanced by some historians of rhetoric and include the specialist craft-skills of writing as a manifestation of technical rhetoric that both illustrates, and more accurately represents, the range of classical rhetoric in ancient Athens.

Religious Architecture in Latium and Etruria, c. 900-500 BC

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte R. Potts
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Archaic Period ◽  
Comprehensive Treatment ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Detailed History ◽  
Religious Buildings ◽  
Religious Architecture ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of

Religious Architecture in Latium and Etruria, c. 900-500 BC presents the first comprehensive treatment of cult buildings in western central Italy from the Iron Age to the Archaic Period. By analysing the archaeological evidence for the form of early religious buildings and their role in ancient communities, it reconstructs a detailed history of early Latial and Etruscan religious architecture that brings together the buildings and the people who used them. The first part of the study examines the processes by which religious buildings changed from huts and shrines to monumental temples, and explores apparent differences between these processes in Latium and Etruria. The second part analyses the broader architectural, religious, and topographical contexts of the first Etrusco-Italic temples alongside possible rationales for their introduction. The result is a new and extensive account of when, where, and why monumental cult buildings became features of early central Italic society.

Alcaeus and Antimenidas: Reassessing the Evidence for Greek Mercenaries in the Neo-Babylonian Army

Klio ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 98 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Fantalkin ◽  
Ephraim Lytle
Keyword(s):  
Archaic Period ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Near Eastern

SummaryThe alleged testimony of Alcaeus about the mercenary service of his brother Antimenidas in the Neo-Babylonian army has long served as the inspiration for a range of theories concerning the possible employment of Greek mercenaries in Near Eastern armies and their assumed role in the transfer of eastern influences to Greece during the Archaic period. A careful reassessment of Alcaeus’ fragments and Strabo’s testimony as well as the historical and archaeological evidence at hand suggests that there is little reason to believe that Antimenidas served Nebuchadnezzar II as a mercenary, and the evidence is certainly insufficient to conclude that Greek mercenaries were routinely employed in the Neo-Babylonian army.

1. Introduction: Rome—A Historical Sketch

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Paul J. du Plessis
Keyword(s):  
Eighth Century ◽  
Archaic Period ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Roman Law ◽  
Classical Period ◽  
Private Law ◽  
Roman Society ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Sketch

This chapter provides a historical sketch of Rome. It has been written to provide a contextual basis for the study of Roman private law. The history of Rome is traditionally divided into three main periods based on the dominant constitutional structure in Roman society during these three periods. These are the Monarchy (eighth century bc–510 bc), Republic (509–27 bc), and Empire (27 bc–ad 565). Scholars of Roman law tend to refine this division even further. Thus, to the scholar of Roman law, the period from the founding of Rome in the eighth century bc–c. 250 bc is regarded as the ‘archaic’ period of Roman law. The period thereafter, from c. 250 bc–27 bc, is generally described as the ‘pre-classical period’ of Roman law.For scholars of Roman law, the ‘classical’ period, c. first three centuries AD, and the Justinianic period, c. sixth century AD, are the most important, owing to the compilation of ‘classical’ Roman law by order the Byzantine Emperor, Justinian, in the sixth century.

Writing the History of Slavery: Between Comparatism and Global History

2017 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-40
Author(s):  
Paulin Ismard
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Process ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Classical Period ◽  
Global Approach ◽  
Global History ◽  
Ancient Athens ◽  
Observation Methods ◽  
History Of ◽  
Slavery Studies

Should we consider, along with the great specialist Patrick Manning, that “the field of slavery studies has become a model of comparatism in social and economic history”? This depends on what we mean by the term “comparatism,” which has come to denote approaches as different in their methods as they are varied, and even contradictory, in their goals. Since the end of the 1990s, the global history of slavery has highlighted the epistemological naivety of a certain comparatist tradition that understands slavery from the perspective of its institutions, and not as a dynamic process resulting from specific historical conditions. It is nevertheless important to identity the limits of such a “global” approach when it claims to be the only method capable of defining slavery throughout history. After reviewing the theoretical challenges that traverse the contemporary historiography of slavery, this article seeks to show what a “morphological” comparatist approach, using redefined scales of observation, methods, and goals, can contribute to the study of one particular society: Athens during the Classical period. By looking at a specific organization of servile labor common to numerous slave societies, in which a slave tied to the running of a piece of land, a workshop, or a commercial store made regular payments to his master, it is possible to reinterrogate some fundamental aspects of the institution of slavery in ancient Athens.

scholarly journals Wandering wives or foreign fillies? The women of archaic Greek colonisation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Harriet Kerr
Keyword(s):  
Geographical Area ◽  
Western Mediterranean ◽  
Archaic Period ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
Magna Graecia ◽  
Different Types ◽  
New City ◽  
Geographical Scope

<p>Greek colonisation in the archaic period encompassed an enormous geographical area. But for all its prevalence, the textual evidence is limited in both quantity and quality and the archaeological evidence goes only some way towards helping decipher social change and ethnicity. These issues become even more apparent when considering the position of women in the new city foundations. Did Greek colonists take their own wives with them to their new homes? Were Greek women sent out at a later date once the colony had become established? Did Greek colonists intermarry with indigenous women on arrival? Or did something else happen, including a mix of these options? The weight of scholarly opinion currently falls in favour of intermarriage, though frequently little evidence is proffered to support this view. This thesis focuses on this hypothesis and examines the evidence (or lack thereof) to support this conclusion.  Chapter One examines the problems associated with archaic Greek colonisation generally, particularly those issues connected with the ‘language of colonisation’. The study of Greek colonisation has been complicated by imprecise and ambiguous terminology, which frequently draws comparison with more modern (although altogether different) instances of the phenomenon. A major repercussion of this is the tendency to overlook both women and any indigenous peoples. The opening chapter also examines the various reasons behind the foundation of colonies, as well as the different types of settlements, so that an assessment can be made as to whether Greek women might have been more likely to accompany colonising expeditions in some instances over others. Chapter Two looks at the concept of intermarriage more closely and assesses Greek attitudes towards foreign women. It also evaluates the evidence typically called upon by scholars to argue for and against intermarriage in Greek colonisation. Chapter Three assesses the evidence for the presence of women in ten different colonies. Presented roughly in chronological order, these colonies were selected for their geographical scope, covering different regions from the Western Mediterranean, Magna Graecia, North Africa, and the Black Sea. This discussion explores both the literary and archaeological evidence (where possible) for each of these colonies and assesses the potential for intermarriage. This thesis demonstrates that broad conclusions about intermarriage as a widespread practice are unsustainable and concludes that colonisation in the archaic period cannot be considered a uniform phenomenon.</p>

Monetary Circulation in Ancient Tokharistan

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
EDVARD RTVELADZE
Keyword(s):  
Classical Period ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Monetary Relations ◽  
Monetary Circulation

This chapter examines the archaeological evidence concerning the monetary circulation in ancient Tokharistan. The findings describe the highly complex and uninterrupted development of monetary relations in Tokharistan in the Classical period, during which the coin assemblage changed. This era included periods of advance and decline, with the periods of decline occurring after the fall of the great ancient kingdoms of the Graeco-Bactrians and the Kushans.

Taking the "Nestor's Cup Inscription" Seriously: Erotic Magic and Conditional Curses in the Earliest Inscribed Hexameters

1996 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher A. Faraone
Keyword(s):  
Archaic Period ◽  
Classical Period ◽  
Second Line ◽  
Very Old ◽  
Performative Language ◽  
Opening Line

This essay argues that the Nestor's Cup Inscription is not a joke, but rather a magical spell designed to work as an aphrodisiac. It is divided into two parts, the first dealing with the hexametrical couplet (lines 2 and 3 of the inscription) and the second with the opening line. In the first section the author argues that the hexameters comprise a bonafide magical incantation, pointing out that: (1) the two hexameters take the semantic form of a conditional curse well known from oaths and proprietary inscriptions of the archaic period and from the earliest extant magical texts; (2) hexametrical verse was commonly used as early as the classical period-and probably much earlier-in magical incantations; (3) prosaic words in the inscription (such as potêrion) that do not appear elsewhere in literary hexameters, but are used in the Greek magical tradition, may in fact be terms of a quasi-technical nature that survive from a very old, but poorly documented, tradition of metrical incantations; and (4) the deictic pronoun in the second line of the inscription (το̃δε) signals the use of performative language common in magical spells. The second section of the paper turns to the opening line of the inscription, arguing that instead of introducing some sophisticated intertextual joke, this line can be best understood as a label or rubric of the sort frequently used to signify authorship or ownership in archaic inscriptions and other early texts to "seal" a writer's name to his œuvre. In later magical texts such rubrics boast a legendary author of a particular incantation or ritual. The author concludes that this inscription records an erotic spell traditionally spoken over a cup without any recourse to writing, and that its appearance on the cup from Pithecusae resulted from a random and ultimately unsuccessful experiment to transfer and transform an oral incantation into a written one in an age of incipient literacy.

scholarly journals La astucia en la conceptualización platónica de σοφία

Nova Tellus ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-99
Author(s):  
Trinidad Silva Irarrázaval
Keyword(s):  
Distinctive Feature ◽  
Archaic Period ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Instrumental Value ◽  
Greek Tradition ◽  
The Subject

Considering the importance of cunning in the characterization of σοφία in the Ancient Greek tradition, from the literature of the archaic period to the Socratic circle, it is striking that in Plato there is no such thing as a cunning σοφός. Apart from the Lesser Hippias, which offers an ambiguous assessment of Odysseus πολυτροπία, the σοφός is almost never defined by its intelligence —this is not a distinctive feature of the σοφός or φιλόσοφος— but rather by the knowledge of certain things. The lack of treatment has led to most interpreters to neglect the subject. In order to remedy this situation, in this article I offer an interpretation that diagnoses the absence of an attribute such as cunning in the conceptualization of σοφία in Plato, but not as the result of simple condemnation or censorship as argued, for example, by Detienne and Vernant 1978 and suggested by Montiglio 2011. In this paper I propose that Plato would manifest a lack of interest regarding these attributes. From the analysis of the Platonic corpus I seek to demonstrate that, although attributes of intelligence are considered advantageous and desirable qualities, the have only instrumental value with respect to the attainment of truth and good.

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