Erudite and urbane, a scion of the Peripatos, Demetrius of Phalerum dominated Athenian political life for a decade (317-307 B.C.E.) with Macedonian support. Viewed by some as the embodiment of the longed-for 'philosopher-king', Demetrius has been seen a test case for the interplay of philosophical training and political praxis in antiquity. This book, through a close re-examination of the fragmentary and diffuse testimonia for Demetrius' decade, argues that such a view misunderstands his legislative, constitutional and financial reforms, which should rather be seen within the context of...

Over the past two hundred plus years, scholarship has admired Roman law for being the first autonomous legal science in history. This biased view has obscured the fact that, traditionally, law was closely connected to religion and remained so well into the Empire. Building on a variety of sources - epigraphic, legal, literary, and numismatic - this book discloses how law and religion shared the same patrons (magistrates and priests) and a common goal (to deal with life's uncertainties), and how, from the third century B.C., they underwent a process of rationalization. Today, Roman law and...

Providing a comprehensive examination of the capacity of ancient ships and seafarers to cope with seasonally changing sea conditions, this book draws on a wide range of ancient literary sources while also taking account of modern weather records, hydrological data, and recent archaeological discoveries. Taking a fresh look at the various ways in which seasonality affected maritime transport across the sea-lanes of the ancient world, this book offers new perspectives on the nature of seaborne trade, naval warfare and piratical operations. The result is a volume that questions many long-held...

In Taxing Freedom Rachel Zelnick-Abramovitz examines manumission inscriptions from Hellenistic and Roman Thessaly, which record payments made to the poleis by manumitted slaves. In this original study the author explores the purpose of and the motivation behind these payments, apparently exacted as a federal impost, and places them in a wider historical and economic context. Based on a close examination of the epigraphic and literary evidence, Taxing Freedom offers important insights into the nature and extent of slavery and manumission in Hellenistic and Roman Thessaly, the...

Water and Roman Urbanism: Towns, Waterscapes, Land Transformation and Experience in Roman Britain offers a new perspective for investigating Roman settlement and how urban spaces were created and experienced by focusing on the relationship between settlement and water and the meanings attributed to these places. Rather than a descriptive approach to the urban fabric it emphasises social context and cultural meaning through interpretative frameworks of analysis. Central are the cultural and experiential implications of water forming part of towns, rather than economic and practical...

The Roman Empire may be properly described as a consortium of cities (and not as set of proto national states). From the late Republic and into the Principate, the Roman elite managed the empire through insititutional and personal ties to the communities of the Empire. Especially in the Latin West the emperors encouraged the adoption of the Latin language and urban amenities, and were generous in the award of citizenship. This process, and 'Romanization' is a reasonable label, was facilitated by civic patronage. The literary evidence provides a basis for understanding this transformation from...

Through intensive surveys of three fortifications in late Roman Greece, Frey reveals the untapped potential of spolia in demonstrating the critical role played by non-elites in bringing about the architectural and social changes that mark the end of classical antiquity. As his analysis demonstrates, when studied less as displaced objects to be classified by type and more as evidence for the construction process itself, spolia offer a unique opportunity to examine the ways in which common builders met the challenge of using pre-existing building materials to meet their...

Eumenes of Cardia: A Greek Among Macedonians (2nd edition) updates the original work in light of a decade of scholarly activity and presents much new analysis influenced by this continuing scholarship. Eumenes of Cardia was a royal secretary who, in the years following the death of Alexander the Great became a major contender for power. Despite the fact that he had been chiefly an administrator rather than one of Alexander's elite military commanders, and that he was a Greek from the city of Cardia, as opposed to a native Macedonian, Eumenes came close to securing control of the Asian...

Processes of Cultural Change and Integration in the Roman World is a collection of studies on the interaction between Rome and the peoples that became part of its Empire between c. 300 BC and AD 300. The book focuses on the mechanisms by which interaction between Rome and its subjects occurred, e.g. the settlements of colonies by the Romans, army service, economic and cultural interaction. In many cases Rome exploited the economic resources of the conquered territories without allowing the local inhabitants any legal autonomy. However, they usually maintained a great deal of cultural...

In The Policy of Darius and Xerxes towards Thrace and Macedonia Miroslav Vasilev analyses in detail the policy of the Persian kings towards their European possessions in the years 514-465 BC. The book examines the status of Macedonian rulers under the Persian kings, as well as the status of the Thracian territories conquered as a result of the campaigns of Darius and Megabazus. In addition, the author localizes many tribes, rivers, lakes, mountains, and other geographical features of primary importance in defining the territorial span of the European lands conquered by the Persians....