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"Revolution itself commanded men's lives in those days."Valentin Kataev, The Grass of OblivionThe Grass of Oblivion, a novel by Valentin Kataev, is a tribute to the Russian writers who were forced to choose their path during the revolution and the civil war. The theme may seem outdated, but the approach to the theme and its literary treatment are amazingly original and modern. In all of Soviet literature it would be difficult to find tragic images comparable to the two poets in this narrative (Bunin and Maiakovskii) who are compelled, finally and irrevocably, either to accept or reject the role offered to them by the new social order. Yet these images are outlined with such grace and elegance, and so tempered with irony, that an ambivalence, an almost diabolic duality is etched into the characters and events. Even the character of the narrator appears split, further complicating the multileveled narrative structure of the novel in which reality is so densely interwoven with fantasy that a third, synthesizing plane of meaning emerges.

Title vignette. ; [With his Zwölf römische Militär-diplome. Wien, 1843. 29 cm.] ; Mode of access: Internet.

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.

Die in den Jahren 1974 bis 1989 von HAVA und SALI HIDRI freigelegte dreischiffige Anlage befindet sich etwa 6 km südöstlich der Hauptstadt der Provinz Epirus Nova und weist im Grundriss große Ähnlichkeiten zu Basiliken in Epirus Vetus, d. h. Dodona, Paramythia und Nikopolis (heute alle in Westgriechenland) auf. Mit ihrer Länge von 65 und der Breite von 28 m ist sie die derzeit größte ergrabene Kirche in Albanien. Die Grundrissgestaltung (etwa der Trikonchos) und bauliche Ausführung (Säulen, Kapitelle und Schrankenplatten) legen eine Entstehung in der Regierungszeit Justinian I. (527–565) nahe. Besondere Bedeutung erhält der Bau auch durch ein im südwestlichen Nebenraum oberhalb einer Grabkammer verlegtes Mosaik. Sein hervorragender Erhaltungszustand und die exzellente Ausführung machen es durchaus den Mosaiken im Kaiserpalast von Konstantinopel vergleichbar. Es zeigt zwei Hirsche links und rechts eines Kantharos mit Weinstock sowie in bukolischer Idylle zwei einander zugewandte Personen, deren Deutung durch die sehr spezielle Bildgestaltung äußerst schwierig ist. In mittelbyzantinischer Zeit erfolgte starke Zerstörung durch Brand, weshalb die Kirche vielleicht mit der bei der byzantinischen Chronistin Anna Komnena im Zusammenhang mit dem Normanneneinfall des Jahres 1081 erwähnten des Hl. Michael in Verbindung gebracht werden kann. Keramische und numismatische Funde dokumentieren ihr Weiterleben noch darüber hinaus bis ins 14. Jahrhundert. Damit stellt das vorgelegte Werk ein erstklassiges Monument des in der internationalen Fachwelt wenig bekannten frühen Christentums in Albanien im Kontext der Archäologie und ihrer Nachbardisziplinen (Geschichte, Kunstgeschichte, Byzantinistik etc.) dar.

Résumé Les dieux des autres ne sont pas simplement d'autres dieux. En accord avec cette conviction, Hérodote met la divinité oraculaire libyenne Ammon de Siwa en relation avec les dieux royaux Amon de Thèbes et Zeus de Dodone. Cet article part du texte d'Hérodote pour étudier, d'une part, la diffusion et le succès religieux autant que politique de Zeus Ammon dans les traditions grecque et macédonienne des Ve et IVe siècles av. J.-C., puis pour les comparer, d'autre part, avec la signification nouvelle que le dieu acquit à l'époque d'Alexandre et de ses successeurs en Égypte, les Ptolémées. ; Abstract The gods of the others are not simply other gods. In compliance with this belief, Herodotus puts the Libyan oracular divinity Ammon of Siwah in relation with the royal gods Amun of Thebes and Zeus of Dodona. This paper starts from Herodotus' text to study, on one hand, the spread of religious and political success of Zeus Ammon in the V and IV centuries' Greek and Macedonian tradition, before to compare them, on a second hand, with the new significance that the god acquired at the time of Alexander and his successors in Egypt, the Ptolemies. ; Peer reviewed

Introduction / Emily Mackil and Nikolaos Papazarkadas -- No introduction needed : Sara Bavousett Aleshire / Ronald S. Stroud -- Greek religion and epigraphic corpora : what's Sacrae about Leges sacrae? / Laura Gawlinski -- Two studies on the epigraphy of Greek sacrificial butchery / Jan-Mathieu Carbon -- IG I3 250, the Eleusinian cults and Zeus Herkeios / Kazuhiro Takeuchi -- Notes on the decree on the sacred Orgas (IG II3 1.292) / Angelos P. Matthaiou -- On the conveyance of the sacred objects for the Eleusinian mysteries : an archaising Athenian assembly decree of the third century AD / Stephen Lambert -- An inventory list and a votive relief from the Sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia found in Oropos / Yannis Kalliontzis -- A prosopography of Athenian cult personnel during the Principate : preliminary considerations / Francesco Camia -- Victorious athletes of ancient Messene : old and new epigraphic evidence / Andronike Makres -- Divine utterances : answers on the new oracular tablets from Dodona / Elena Martín González -- Dedications from the dead? The strange case of Hermes Chthonios / Maria Mili and Jenny Wallensten -- Koan good judgemanship : working for the gods in IG XII.4.1 132 / Adele C. Scafuro -- The Chian sacred law of Parparia revisited / Georgia E. Malouchou -- The self-definition of Alexander the Great / F.S. Naiden -- Tantalus and hemorrhage : an inscribed Hematite gem and its tradition / Michael Zellmann-Rohrer.

In 2009, the Republic of Moldova created an alternative to the communist leadership. In 2013, the Alliance for European Integration was replaced by the Alliance for Pro-European Governance, which secured two issues: the signing of the Association Agreement between the Republic of Moldova and the European Union, and the interests of local oligarchs. After the parliamentary elections in 2014, as an alternative to the increasingly powerful Igor Dodon's Party of Socialists, another coalition, the Political Alliance for European Moldova was created and 'sealed' by embezzling $ 1 billion from Moldovan banks (12.5% of GDP). The coalition formed in January 2015, was replaced by the re-launched Alliance for European Integration, and then by another coalition without a definite name in January 2016. This extremely expanded political activity is a backdrop for the façade of democracy and the subsequent parliamentary elections scheduled for 2018. The pro-European coalitions in the Republic of Moldova discredited themselves in front of the society as strongly as their predecessors (the communists), causing a state of general disintegration. ; W 2009 roku stworzono w Republice Mołdawii alternatywę dla komunistycznego przywództwa. W 2013 roku, w miejsce "Sojuszu na rzecz Integracji Europejskiej" powołano "Koalicję na rzecz Rządów Proeuropejskich", co zabezpieczyło dwie kwestie: podpisanie umowy stowarzyszeniowej między Republiką Mołdawii a Unią Europejską oraz interesy lokalnych oligarchów. Po wyborach parlamentarnych w 2014 roku alternatywą dla rosnącej w siłę Partii Socjalistów Igora Dodona stała się kolejna z koalicji "Sojusz polityczny na rzecz Europejskiej Mołdawii", "przypieczętowana" defraudacją 1 mld USD z mołdawskich banków (12,5% PKB). Powołana w styczniu 2015 roku koalicja już w lipcu tego samego roku została zastąpiona przez ponownie zainicjowany do życia "Sojusz na rzecz Integracji Europejskiej", a w styczniu 2016 roku przez kolejną z koalicji, bez bliżej określonej nazwy. Ta niezwykle rozbudowana działalność polityczna jest tłem dla fasadowej demokracji i kolejnych wyborów parlamentarnych zaplanowanych w 2018 roku. Koalicje proeuropejskie w Republice Mołdawii skompromitowały się przed społeczeństwem równie mocno jak poprzednicy (komuniści), wywołując stan ogólnej dezintegracji.

This paper re-examines Hyperides' speech In Defence of Euxenippus as evidence for the role of divination in fourth-century BCE Athens. The oration recounts an occasion of oracular divination through incubation at Amphiaraos' sanctuary in Oropos, whereby the Athenian Assembly ordered individuals to undergo incubation to resolve an issue concerning land ownership. This paper argues that Hyperides' speech not only furnishes crucial evidence which broadens our understanding of divination beyond the famous oracle at Delphi, it also provides us with a valuable case study for the process of oracular consultation. The paper analyses the different stages of this process, including the selection of incubants, the nature of the dream received and the aftermath of incubation, demonstrating how the dream could be contested. It thereby sheds new light on the complexities of oracular transmission and interpretation, both of which are open to contestation as a result of the multiplicity of religious authority. Some time in the late 330s or early 320s BCE, a dispute arose over ownership of a hill near Oropos, a territory near the border of Boeotia and Attica.1 Oropos had recently been restored to Athenian control, most likely by Alexander in 335, and the Athenian Assembly had subsequently divided the five hills surrounding Oropos into lots and allocated them to the ten Athenian tribes in groups of two, as a speech by the orator Hyperides recounts (Hyp. 4.16).2 A dispute arose, however, about one particular hill, appointed to the tribes Hippothoönthis and Acamantis: it was claimed this land actually belonged to the god Amphiaraos, whose sanctuary stood in Oropos, and that the hill was thus unlawfully allocated to the two tribes. In order to resolve this conflict the Assembly of Athens decided to send a group of men to Amphiaraos' sanctuary to undergo incubation and ask the god himself for his opinion on the matter. A question of land ownership therefore became, as this article will show, one of competing oracular interpretations. The orator Hyperides recounts these events in his speech In Defence of Euxenippus (Hyp. 4) written for Euxenippus Ethelokratous of Lamptrai, who was one of the incubants in the affair. The speech is unusual and exceptional: it is the only oration preserved from classical Athens which discusses an instance of oracular divination by way of a dream.3 Moreover, this oracular enquiry does not present the god with a therapeutic request, as is customary at Amphiaraos' Oropian sanctuary in the fourth century, but rather submits to the god a question of public decision-making. Divination in the ancient Greek world constituted an assemblage of techniques and methods used to seek the counsel of the gods. The most prestigious form of divination in the classical period was oracular, which itself existed in various forms, whether functioning through dreams—as in the case of Oropos—or prophets.4 The affair of Euxenippus raises a number of intriguing questions regarding the role of oracles in public decision-making, which forces us to rethink the usual picture of oracular divination, built up as it is largely from sources concerning the more famous oracle of Apollo at Delphi. Why did the Athenians decide to consult the oracle here with a question of land allocation? How did oracular consultation through incubation, usually employed for individual, therapeutic consultations, work with regards to a collective, public issue which involved two of the city's tribes? And, most significantly, what does this rare source for the process of oracular consultation tell us about how authority was negotiated in this public decision-making process, in which a divine dream undergoes human transmission and multiple interpretations, in order to become a decision-making tool in a matter of land allocation? This paper offers a re-examination of Hyperides' speech In Defence of Euxenippus, which intends to both deconstruct the oracular case at its heart and contextualise the speech as a source for the role of divination in the public life of classical Athens. Of course, the exceptionality of the case means we cannot automatically or unquestioningly regard it as representative of general oracular practice. Furthermore, the use of the speech as a source is made complex by the rhetorical nature of Hyperides' oration: his narrative evidently shapes and constructs events in such a way as to best substantiate his argument of defence in Euxenippus' impeachment trial. Nonetheless, if we proceed with caution and awareness of both the case's singularity and of the rhetorical nature of the depiction found in Hyperides' speech, the affair of Euxenippus can illuminate certain aspects of the divinatory process which remain largely hidden in other sources. Hyperides' speech affords us a valuable rare glimpse into the process of how divine signs were employed by presenting the different stages involved: from the type of issue which requires oracular advice to the decision to consult the oracle, from the functioning of the divinatory consultation itself to the subsequent interpretation of the sign and the final resolution of the problem. Yet this process and its results have not received the attention they deserve: general studies of divination largely ignore Euxenippus' case.5 The few scholars who have examined it, meanwhile, limit themselves primarily to the question of purpose: they merely weigh up the political, economic or religious considerations which affected why the Athenians here decided to consult the oracle, but they do not go far beyond this reason for the consultation.6 In contrast, this paper sets out to explore the important ignored issues of the functioning of the oracle and its consequences, investigating how divination is here actually used for conflict resolution. As divination provided the ancient Greeks with the most direct means of accessing indications of the will of their gods, the role of oracles in Athenian life has long been an object of study and has functioned as a cornerstone of the wider debate on the role of religion in Athenian democracy. Scholarship on 'official' oracular divination, the consultation of oracles by officials or city states, in matters concerning public, political or military affairs, has focused largely on Apollo's oracle at Delphi, for which we have the most evidence, both literary and epigraphic.7 Recently, the publication of the lead inscriptions from the oracle at Dodona has opened up the debate somewhat beyond Delphi.8 Yet the nature of the Dodonian oracular questions, sustaining and sustained by a growing scholarly interest in the role of the individual in religion, has been very much geared towards recognising the importance of divination in private everyday life.9 With regards to divination in public discourse, in the political and legal decision-making of Athens, Delphi still rules the roost. Scholars have concentrated on the question of the function of official consultations: from early-twentieth-century attitudes which derided oracular divination as charlatanism or mere formalities, theories have evidently moved on to focus on the role of divination in its social setting, or as a lens through which to view the mentalities of cultures which make use of such practices.10 Public divination has come to be seen as a regulatory device, used to gain consensus in situations where this is lacking, or—taking it more seriously—as a way of dealing with contingency and risk.11 This paper aims to throw new light on the subject of Greek public divination by examining a source—and oracle—neglected in this regard, proposing an alternative way of interpreting the function of oracular consultations. Who eventually makes the decision regarding the disputed land in Oropos, and how do they do so? This study sets out to answer this question by paying attention to the different actors involved in the decision-making process, their assigned roles, and their authority. After a short introduction to the speech itself, the analysis will deconstruct the different stages of the oracular consultation. It will commence, first, with the Assembly's decision to consult the oracle, paying particular attention to the selection and identity of the incubants. Second, it will move on to Oropos and the incubation rite itself, scrutinising the way in which the nature of the dream is experienced and articulated by the dreamer. As Hyperides' account of the events leading up to the court case are rather confused, it will be necessary here to attempt to reconstruct the details of the speech's narrative, in particular to clarify the content of the dream and its relationship to the subsequent trial. The third section of this paper will put Euxenippus' dream in a wider context by surveying comparable evidence for oneiromancy in the Greek world. The final section will examine the aftermath of the consultation, which constitutes the stage of the oracle's interpretation. It will demonstrate how contested this interpretation of the dream was, as expressed through the discussion of the Assembly upon Euxenippus' return, the decree proposal which a man called Polyeuctus made regarding the dream, and Polyeuctus' subsequent prosecution of the dreamer Euxenippus. This analysis will therefore provide an investigation into the different agents invested with authority in this decision-making process—the god, the demos, and various individuals—as well as the challenges made to different holders of authority throughout the whole process.