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"In this book, twelve eminent scholars of classical antiquity and ancient and medieval Judaism and Christianity explore the nature and place of forgiveness in the pre-modern Western world. They discuss whether the concept of forgiveness, as it is often understood today, was absent, or at all events more restricted in scope than has been commonly supposed, and what related ideas (such as clemency or reconciliation) may have taken the place of forgiveness. An introductory chapter reviews the conceptual territory of forgiveness and illuminates the potential breadth of the idea, enumerating the important questions a theory of the subject should explore. The following chapters examine forgiveness in the contexts of classical Greece and Rome; the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, and Moses Maimonides; and the New Testament, the Church Fathers, and Thomas Aquinas"--

"Greece and Rome were quintessentially urban societies. Ancient culture, politics and society arose and developed in the context of the polis and the civitas. In modern scholarship, the ancient city has been the subject of intense debates due to the strong association in Western thought between urbanism, capitalism and modernity. In this book, Arjan Zuiderhoek provides a survey of the main issues at stake in these debates, as well as a sketch of the chief characteristics of Greek and Roman cities. He argues that the ancient Greco-Roman city was indeed a highly specific form of urbanism, but that this does not imply that the ancient city was somehow 'superior' or 'inferior' to forms of urbanism in other societies, just (interestingly) different. The book is aimed primarily at students of ancient history and general readers, but also at scholars working on urbanism in other periods and places"--

A review essay on a book by Elena Isayev, Ancient Umbria (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000). References.

Ancient Oaxaca. Richard E. Blanton. Gary M. Feinman. Stephen A. Kowalewski. and Linda M. Nicholas. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. 153 pp.

Tyrants and tyranny are more than the antithesis of democracy and the mark of political failure: they are a dynamic response to social and political pressures. This book examines the autocratic rulers and dynasties of classical Greece and Rome and the changing concepts of tyranny in political thought and culture. It brings together historians, political theorists and philosophers, all offering new perspectives on the autocratic governments of the ancient world. The volume is divided into four parts. Part I looks at the ways in which the term 'tyranny' was used and understood, and the kinds of

TheEncyclopaedia Iranicais Truly a Monumental Undertaking, Containing thousands of carefully selected items of information covering most aspects of Iranian civilization past and present. As the first seven volumes demonstrate, it is an indispensable reference work that belongs in the libraries of all universities and in the homes of everyone interested in Iran, whether for professional or personal reasons. In connection with ancient or pre-Islamic Iranian religions, theEIrrepresents the most important scholarly contribution since James Hastings edited the thirteen-volumeEncyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics(Edinburgh, 1908-1926, reprint New York, 1955, Edinburgh, 1994). In fact, both may be used as complementary research guides, for the rich descriptions of rituals in theEncyclopaedia of Religion and Ethicsare not repeated in theEIrwhereas the former lacks the up-to-date information on persons, places, events, ideas, theoretical standpoints, and bibliography so fully articulated in the latter.

New York Times best-selling author Leland Gregory is one of Andrews McMeel Publishing's most successful noncartoon humorists. Silly, shocking, weird, hilariously funny--and outrageously true--the short anecdotes inside his anthologies of human stupidity are culled from print, online, and broadcast media from all over the world. Inside Stupid Ancient History, Gregory chronicles Greek philosophers, Roman conquerors, and historic mythconceptions, including: -- To fight off Roman ships in 300 BC, Carthaginians catapulted live snakes at them. -- The Athenian lawmaker Draco died of suffocation when gifts of cloaks were showered upon him by grateful citizens at an Aegina theater in 620 BC. -- In ancient Rome, long before the advent of the Christian Bible, Roman men swore to "tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" by placing their right hand on their testicles. It is from this ritual that we derived the term "testimony." -- Of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus burned to the ground in 356 BC. The arsonist was executed; and to make sure his wish for everlasting fame wouldn't come true, it was ordered that his name be stricken from all records and never mentioned again. But people will talk. Despite all efforts, his name leaked, and Herostratus is remembered as one of the most notorious firebugs in history.

Since in ancient times, in all human cultures, children transfered from biological parents to parents that want them to create family, for political alliances, for inheritance, for a future marriage, or to care for elderly parents. The practice of adoption was fairly common in different places and periods. Adoption is mention on Bible and Quran. Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and Babylonians had adoption systems.

Introducing students to current controversies over the nature of the ancient economy, this volume brings together twelve influential studies by leading experts in the field. In 1973, Moses Finley unveiled a comprehensive model of the economic underpinnings of classical civilisation. Since then, supporters and critics have turned the study of the ancient economy into what has been called 'an academic battleground'. In recent years, however, a growing number of scholars have aimed to move the debate beyond partisan controversies. This volume takes stock of these developments. Embracing a wide range of interdisciplinary perspectives derived from ecology, economics and cultural studies and drawing on literary, documentary and archaeological evidence, the contributions address crucial issues from agricultural production, the uses of money and the creation of markets to the scale of long-distance trade and economic growth in the Greek and Roman periods. In a general introduction and separate headnotes for each chapter, the editors provide a concise survey of recent debates, seeking to situate the different contributions in the broader context of contemporary scholarship. This is the first collection of its kind. It is designed to acquaint beginners as well as more advanced students with a variety of thematic and methodological approaches to the study of economic processes in the ancient world. All terms in foreign or ancient languages have been translated into English or explained in a comprehensive glossary. An up-to-date bibliographical essay covering pertinent scholarship in English offers guidance for further reading and the preparation of term papers