Suchergebnisse

Introduction : ancient law and ancient society / Dennis P. Kehoe and Thomas J.J. McGinn -- Collective sanctions in classical Athens / Adriaan Lanni -- An economic perspective on marriage alliances in Ancient Greece / Michael Leese -- Assumption f risk in Athenian law / David D. Phillips -- Rivers, rights, and "Romanization" / Cythia J. Bannon -- Justice in Aelian's miscellaneous history / Lauren Caldwell -- Agency, Roman law, and Roman social values / Dennis P. Kehoe -- Cui Bono? The true beneficiaries of Roman private law / Thomas A. J. McGinn -- Libertas and "mixed marriages" in late antiquity : Law, Labor, and Politics in Justinianic reform legislationm / Charles Pazdermik -- Afterword / Clifford Ando

'Ancient features' of Ethiopic in Aksumite inscriptions and ancient MSS must be discussed with consideration of the philological aspects implied, and their distribution may hint at the coexistence of parallel scribal traditions during Aksumite and early Post-Aksumite periods; from the 14th cent. onwards 'ancient features' tend to become much more sporadic and one traditional standard prevails; ancient MSS which did not observe the prevalent standard may have been systematically substituted; 'lost traditions' may survive in few scanty relics.

This book is a comprehensive treatment of the ancient prophetic phenomenon as it comes to us through biblical, Near Eastern, and Greek sources. Once a distinctly biblical concept, prophecy is today acknowledged as yet another form of divination and a phenomenon that can be found all over the ancient Eastern Mediterranean. Even Greek oracle, traditionally discussed separately from biblical and Mesopotamian prophecy, is essentially part of the same picture. The book gives an up-to-date presentation of textual sources, whether cuneiform tablets from Mesopotamia, the Hebrew Bible, Greek inscriptions, or ancient historians, the number of which has increased substantially in recent times. In addition, the book includes comparative essays on topics such as prophetic ecstasy; temples as venues of prophetic performances; prophets and political rulers; and the prophets' gender which can be either male, female, or non-gendered. The book argues for a common category of ancient Eastern Mediterranean prophecy, even though the fragmentary and secondary nature of the sources allows only a restricted view to it. The ways prophetic divination manifests itself in ancient sources depend not only on the socio-religious position of the prophets but also on the genre and purpose of the sources. The book shows that, even though the view of the ancient prophetic landscape is restricted by the fragmentary and secondary nature of the sources, it is possible to reconstruct essential features of prophetic divination.

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 individual who were called tyrants. Part II focuses on the genesis of tyranny and the social and political circumstances in which tyrants arose. The chapters in Part III examine the presentation of tyrants by themselves and in literature and history. Part IV discusses the achievements of episodic tyranny within the non-autocratic regimes of Sparta and Rome and of autocratic regimes in Persia and the western Mediterranean world. Written by a wide range of leading experts in their field, Ancient Tyranny offers a new and comparative study of tyranny within Greek, Roman and Persian society.

Members and leaders of the Kurdish speaking Yezidi diaspora in Phoenix, Arizona—and transnationally—are in dialogue with members of the Indian diaspora about their common historical connections. "Are Yezidis from ancient India, or are Indians from ancient Mesopotamia?" Both of these claims and hypotheses situate Yezidis on the outside of a historical Muslim world, and have material effects. They add validity to non-Muslim traditions, by imagining a historical cultural root structure between India and Mesopotamia. They also help both Hindu nationalists and Yezidis to displace historical Muslim culture and dominance to somewhere else while reinforcing tropes of Islam synonymous with the "war on terror." By de-historicising Islam and its presence in the Middle East and in India, Hindu and Yezidi community leaders co-imagine a pan-polytheism with roots in ancient Persian (Kurdish) Yezidi culture and language. The symbols that can be recognized today that span both traditions— the peacock, the peacock statue (sanjak), and the use of fire in places of worship—give testament to that imagined past. The contradictions of that historical narrative point to the limits of this historical work in the two communities, and find limits in modern identity articulations of Yezidi identity and Hindu identity alike. Material effects of the historical narrative include Indian imagery on the wall of Lalish, online circulating images and articles equating Yezidis to Hindus, and common activism, fundraising, and humanitarianism between Yezidi and Hindu communities in Phoenix, India, and in the Middle East.

Frontmatter -- Preface -- Contents -- Abbreviations -- PART ONE Introduction -- 1 Levels of Greek and Roman Literacy -- 2 The Functions of Literacy in the Graeco-Roman World -- PART TWO The Literacy and Illiteracy of the Greeks -- 3 The Spread of Literacy in Archaic Times -- 4 The Classical Growth of Literacy and Its Limits -- 5 The Hellenistic State and Elementary Education -- PART THREE Literacy and Illiteracy in the Roman World -- 6 Archaic Italy and the Middle Republic -- 7 The Late Republic and the High Empire, 100 B.C.-250 A.D. -- 8 Literacy in Late Antiquity -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index

This volume presents essays on Ancient ethics from Homer to Plotinus with a focus on the significance of Ancient ethical thinking for contemporary ethics. Adapting Kant's words, we might describe philosophers today as holding that meta-ethics without normative ethics is empty; normative ethics without meta-ethics is blind. One fascinating feature of Ancient ethics is its close connection between content and method, between normative ethics and meta-ethics. In connecting ethical, epistemological, and cosmological issues, Ancient ethical theories strive for an integrated understanding of normativity. The project of this volume is to capture some of the colours of the bright spectrum of ancient ethics. The goal of bundling them together is, ultimately, to shed better light on the issues of contemporary ethics. Topics: Classical Chinese Ethics, Indian Ethics, Homeric Ethics, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Hellenistic philosophy, Plotinus, Ancient and Modern Moral Psychology, Hybrid Theories of Normativity, The Unity of the Virtues, The Art of Life and Morality (Lebenskunst und Moral). Contributors: J. Annas, M. Anagnostopoulos, R. Aprressyan, Th. C. Brickhouse / N. D. Smith, J. Bussanich, C. Collobert, S. Delcomminette, W. Detel, D. Frede, L. Gerson, Ch. Halbig, J. Hardy, O. Höffe, B. Inwood, M.-Th. Liske, L. Pfister, M. McPherran, J. Piering, G. Rudebusch, D. Russell, G. Santas, Ch. Shields, M. Sim, C. C. Taylor.

Intro -- Contents -- Vorwort -- Ten Years LDAS: Summary of Activities and Results -- Contributors -- ANCIENT NEAR EAST -- Manuel Molina: Who watches the watchers? New evidence on the role of foremen in the Ur III administration -- Daniel E. Fleming: Writing as Administrative Option: The Diviner of the Gods at Late Bronze Age Emar -- Melanie Groß: "The total of the crown prince's revenues" -Record-keeping in the Neo-Assyrian palaces -- ANCIENT GREECE -- Julia Lougovaya: Tamiai in Early Greece -- Véronique Chankowski: Greek Sanctuaries as Administrative Laboratories: Bookkeeping Experience on Delos, from Wood Tablets to Marble Steles -- Cristina Carusi: The Evolving Format of Building Accounts in Classical Athens -- David Lewis: Misthos, Apophora, or Something Else? A Fresh Look at SEG XXXV 134 -- GRAECO-ROMAN EGYPT -- Willy Clarysse: Headers for lists and accounts in ancient documents and in modern editions -- Katelijn Vandorpe and Nick Vaneerdewegh: Surveying the land in Ptolemaic Egypt. The information flow from village to nome level -- Sandra L. Lippert and Maren Schentuleit: Agreements and accounts. On-going research on economic activities of the templeof Soknopaiou Nesos according to the Demotic Texts -- Andrea Jördens: Buchführung und Rechnungswesen in der Gutsverwaltung -- Patrick Sänger: Registrierung und Beurkundung von νόμοι im Grapheion von Tebtynis -- Nicola Reggiani: Identifying People in Official Reports: The Administrative Practice in Roman Egypt -- Thomas Kruse: Fiskalische Buchführung in Theadelpheia -- Uri Yiftach: Kollêma: Cross Referencing in Roman Egypt -- ROME AND THE EMPIRE -- Ornella Salati: Format and Features of Military Account-Books: the Case of PSI II 119 recto + ChLA IV 264 -- Éva Jakab: Öffentliche Abrechnungen: Cicero in Kilikien -- Miklós Könczöla: Accounting and Bookkeeping: The Literary Sources.

"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"--