Archaic Greek trade: three conjectures

1979 ◽  
Vol 99 ◽  
pp. 152-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. M. Cook

Not much attention is given to the diolkos across the Isthmus of Corinth, nor is much known about it. There are a dozen or so explicit or probable references to it in ancient literature, one relevant inscription and some remains of its track. The remains, principally at the west and close to the modern canal, are from a paved roadway with two parallel channels about 1·50 m apart, evidently to hold the wheels of some sort of carrier; and associated pottery and inscribed letters suggest that it was constructed in the late seventh or early sixth century B.C. The written references tell us that the eastern end of the diolkos was at Schoinos, that it was said to be 40 stades long, that warships were transported across the Isthmus in 412, 220, 217, 102 and 30 B.C., that the diolkos was in use in the early period of the Roman Empire, and that some ships were too big for it: there is, though, no precise statement of the commercial use of the diolkos.Yet transport of warships is not likely to have been the normal use of the diolkos: ancient historical writers were more interested in war than commerce, and warships cannot have needed transporting very frequently.

2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-116
Author(s):  
SIMON CORCORAN

Abstract This paper, reflecting Fergus Millar's work on linguistic and cultural diversity in the Roman empire, surveys the evolving relationship of Latin and Greek as languages for Roman law. Normative texts remained predominantly Latin until the completion of Justinian's codification (534), even though that was a genuinely bilingual product. However, following the already existing pattern in the Greek east, a vast corpus of Greek materials was then quickly created to teach the codification in the official law schools. Designed to aid engagement with the source-texts, these ended up superseding them. Roman legal Greek, a mixture of Latin terminology plus standardized Greek vocabulary, became stabilized. After 534, new legislation was most often in Greek, necessitating parallel Latin materials to help Latin-speaking students, although sixth-century collections of Novels (‘new laws’) were still bilingual. In practice, however, in most of Justinian's empire, a lawyer (such as Dioscorus of Aphrodito) could function with limited Latin. Soon Roman law would bifurcate into two monolingual traditions, Greek in the east, Latin in the west.


1984 ◽  
Vol 74 ◽  
pp. 181-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Roueché

This article has been engendered by yet another important discovery made during the current excavations at Aphrodisias in Caria, of a unique series of acclamatory texts in honour of a local benefactor, Albinus. The texts were inscribed, probably in the first half of the sixth century, on the twenty columns of the west portico of the Agora, nineteen of which survive. They provide relatively little information either about Albinus or about the history of Aphrodisias; but they are of outstanding interest as the fullest series of inscribed acclamations which has yet been identified anywhere. The purpose of this article is to consider the status and function of acclamations in late Roman society, and their relationship to earlier practice, in order to assess the full significance of the texts presented here.


1992 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 240-249
Author(s):  
Rowan A. Greer

Responding to the complicated conditions produced by both the Constantinian Revolution and the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West, Augustine concerned himself not so much with “earthly transitions” as with the only transition that he believed had final significance: the transition of Christ from death to life.


Nowa Medycyna ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Lluch

The origins of Western Medicine can be found through the Greeks and the Romans, originally with Mythological figures represented by the god Asclepius, and later by Greek doctors such as Hippocrates and Galen. Roman medicine was highly influenced by the Greek medical tradition, relying more on naturalistic observations rather than on spiritual rituals. The writings of Galen survived more than other medical scriptures in antiquity. His theories dominated and influenced Western medical science for more than 1,300 years. This acceptance led to the spread of Greek medical theories throughout the Roman Empire, and thus a large portion of the West. Most of the actual medical terms are of Greek origin, as they were the founders of rational medicine in the golden age of Greek civilization. The Hippocrates were the first to describe diseases based on observation, and the names given by them to many conditions are still used today. On the other hand, most anatomical terms are in Latin (Nomina Anatomica), explained by the printed descriptions and illustrations of human dissections published in 1543 in the seminal work “De humani corporis fabrica” (“The Fabric of the Human Body”) by Andreas Vesalius.


1897 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 485-549
Author(s):  
M. Gaster

More marvellous and more remarkable than the real conquests of Alexander are the stories circulated about him, and the legends which have clustered round his name and his exploits. The history of Alexander has, from a very early period, been embellished with legends and tales. They spread from nation to nation during the whole of the ancient times, and all through the Middle Ages. Many scholars have followed up the course of this dissemination of the fabulous history of Alexander. It would, therefore, be idle repetition of work admirably done by men like Zacher, Wesselofsky, Budge, and others, should I attempt it here. All interested in the legend of Alexander are familiar with those works, where also the fullest bibliographical information is to be found. I am concerned here with what may have appeared to some of these students as the bye-paths of the legend, and which, to my mind, has not received that attention which is due to it, from more than one point of view. Hitherto the histories of Alexander were divided into two categories; the first were those writings which pretended to give a true historical description of his life and adventures, to the exclusion of fabulous matter; the other included all those fabulous histories in which the true elements were smothered under a great mass of legendary matter, the chief representative of this class being the work ascribed to a certain Callisthenes. The study of the legend centred in the study of the vicissitudes to which this work of (Pseudo-) Callisthenes had been exposed, in the course of its dissemination from the East, probably from its native country, Egypt, to the countries of the West.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Mubaidi Sulaeman

Many researchers believe that the philosophical Sufism tradition in Islam only emerged in the sixth century Hijriah. Is that right? If it is explored in more depth, it will soon be found that this is not quite right because long before that, in the Islamic tradition there were already some thoughts of Sufism that tended to lead to philosophical Sufism. Among the philosophical ideas of Sufism that were born in this early period were mahabbah, Ilahiyyah, fana', ittihad, and Hulul. Therefore, in this paper the author tries to describe the initial philosophical Sufism thought  contained in the thoughts of three Sufi figures, namely Rabi'ah al-'Adawiyyah, alBustami, and al-Hallaj. By presenting the philosophical Sufism thought that exists in their works, this article shows that the philosophical Sufism tradition in Islam has emerged long before the sixth century Hijriah, as is often believed by many circles.


2017 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Kotłowska

Slavs in Theophylact Simocatta’s „Universal History” – a Byzantine axiological perspectiveThe Universal History of Theophylact Simocatta constitutes a very important source for the history of the Later Roman Empire, especially within the context of appearance of the Avars and the Slavs in the Balkans. This article confirms the high reliability and great value of Theophylact’ s narrative concerning the Slavs in the last two decades of the sixth century. In the second part, some new remarks have been given, which argue for the authenticity of the famous episode about Slavs “living at the end of the Western Ocean” (6.2). Moreover, the author is firmly convinced that the so-called Western Ocean should be identified with the Baltic Sea. Słowianie w Historii powszechnej Teofilakta Simokatty – bizantyńska perspektywa aksjologiczna Historia powszechna Teofilakta Simokatty stanowi bardzo istotne źródło do dziejów późnego Cesarstwa Rzymskiego, m.in. w kontekście pojawienia się Awarów i Słowian na Bałkanach. Przedłożony artykuł potwierdza wysoką wiarygodność i faktograficzne znaczenie narracji Teofilakta odnośnie do Słowiańszczyzny ostatnich dwóch dziesięcioleci VI wieku. Druga część artykułu zawiera nową argumentację na rzecz autentyczności słynnego epizodu o Słowianach „mieszkających przy krańcu zachodniego Oceanu”. Autorka jest przekonana, że tzw. „zachodni Ocean” należy utożsamić z Morzem Bałtyckim.


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