This study attempts to bridge the now classic gap between fixed form and functioning context which continues to limit our understanding of the Homeric phrase. The first part of the study uses the presence of Homeric phrases in other Greek poetry, especially the notoriously "Homeric" Theognis 237-254, to help identify potentially significant phrases. The second part considers the epithets of Hector, in an attempt to re-examine Parry's notion of traditional fixed epithets and their importance for understanding the Iliad and the Odyssey. The author offers original interpretations...

Copying engaged Roman sculptors throughout the centuries-long practice of their craft. Ancient Sculptural Copies in Miniature investigates a little-acknowledged product of the copyist workshop, the statuette copy. Following a general discussion of the history and function of the miniature, the text devotes separate chapters to several famous statuary types that serve as paradigms of the copyist's art. These in-depth studies determine the techniques, formal values, and meanings of the miniature while providing methodological models for the understanding of any copy. Their results...

The author collects and analyzes the enormous epigraphic and archaeological evidence for the cult of Silvanus, the Roman god of agriculture and forests. Silvanus is an important focus of investigation because his private and popular character sets him apart from other deities of the state pantheon. The Cult of Silvanus traces the origin, spread, development and final suppression of the cult. Silvanus' nature as a Roman god and his identification with indigenous deities in the provinces are carefully examined. The evidence for temples, priests, collegia and sacred groves is...

Kings and Colonists deals with Macedonian imperialism in the 4th-2nd centuries BCE, the time of King Philip II and Alexander the Great, and of the dynasties of Alexander's successors, with special emphasis on western Asia. The first part of the book examines the origins of Macedonian imperialism in Philip II's state-building activity, and discusses how the Macedonian rulers used propaganda to justify themselves to their Macedonian and Greek supporters, and how they interacted with the autonomous Greek cities. The second part examines different levels of the personnel of imperial...

In the first and second centuries A.D., Roman soldiers were forbidden legitimate marriage during service: nevertheless, many soldiers formed de facto marriages. This book examines the legal, social, and cultural aspects of the marriage prohibition and soldiers' families. The first section covers the marriage prohibition in Roman literary and legal sources. The second section treats social and legal aspects of the soldiers' families, including a survey of epitaphs, the legal impact of the ban on families, and alternatives to family formation. The final section examines the marriage ban...

The Spread of Christianity in the First Four Centuries: Essays in Explanation attempts to show how contemporary historical scholarship, or rather a selection of its exponents, views the perennial question why a new religion, indeed a new kind of religion, succeeded in subverting the other religions of the Roman Empire in the first three centuries and in the generations immediately following the 'conversion' of the usurper Constantine in 312.

Like coinage, bullion, financial instruments and a variety of commodities played an important role in Rome's monetary system. This book examines how the availability of such assets affected the demand for coinage and the development of the late Republican economy.

This volume, which was awarded Honorable Mention and a Silver Medal from the Premio Romanistico Internationazionale Gerard Boulvert, investigates the socio-economic role of elite villas in Roman Central Italy drawing on both documentary sources and material evidence. Through the composite picture emerging from the juxtaposition of literary texts and archaeological evidence, the book traces elite ideological attitudes and economic behavior, caught between what was morally acceptable and the desire to invest capital intelligently. The analysis of the biases affecting the application of modern...