Pamphilus the Librarian and the Institutional Legacy of Origen's Library in Caesarea

Pamphilus of Caesarea Maritima (who died around 310) managed the Caesarean library that was rooted in the book collection of Origen. Pamphilus’ significant library rivaled other collections of Late Antiquity, causing several modern scholars (cf. Carriker, Grafton, Williams, and Vleeschauwer) to investigate the nature and contents of his book collection. This article, however, will initially focus upon the roles and responsibilities of Pamphilus as a librarian, rather than upon the nature and contents of his library. Although scholarly accounts of the history of librarianship have not properly recognized Pamphilus’ dedicated librarianship, he and his Caesarean successors fulfilled seven roles that have persisted in librarianship. With this initial examination in hand, the essay will secondarily draw some conclusions regarding the sustained institutional legacy of Origen (beyond his literary, philological, exegetical, and theological legacies). Viewed through this institutional legacy, Pamphilus, Eusebius, Constantine, and Jerome appear in a new light.

An Intrasite Analysis of Agricultural Economy at Early Islamic Caesarea Maritima, Israel

The archaeological site of Caesarea Maritima in modern-day Israel was an important coastal town in the Early Islamic period (c. 636–1100 CE). In this article, I analyze 15 samples of carbonized wood and non-wood macrobotanical remains recovered from two residential neighborhoods to investigate the production and consumption of agricultural plant products. The identified crop and wood taxa are typical for the Mediterranean coast. Wild seeds point to crop cultivation in the vicinity of the site. Plant remains were collected from discrete contexts and are interpreted with associated features and artifacts, revealing cereal processing debris across a series of rooms in a former warehouse. Such a socioeconomic shift in this building, from a storage area to a crop processing space, is detectable by combining this intrasite analysis with the diachronic research previously conducted at the site.

Barbarians on the Coins of Trajan Decius (249–251)

During Trajan Decius’s reign (249–251) in a number of provincial mints – Alexandria, Caesarea Maritima, Magnesia ad Sipylum and Nicomedia – coins were issued featuring the theme of the barbarian (an enemy or a captive) in reverse iconography. In this article, I discuss these coins, considering them in the context of the iconographic tradition and the activity of the particular mints during Decius’s reign, and also in relation to the ideology of victory and the dynastic ideology. They are interesting especially because the theme of the barbarian was not utilised in the parallel imperial coinage. Nevertheless, its presence in provincial coinage is also of a marginal nature. Moreover, the end of Decius’s reign also coincided with a time-related hiatus in the use of the theme in provincial coinage.