Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics

WORKING PAPERS BY DATE - 2006

DECEMBER
120603	Coinage as ‘Code’ in Ptolemaic Egypt
	JG Manning, Stanford University
	Abstract - In this paper I survey the use of money in Ptolemaic Egypt with a particular focus on the introduction of coinage by the Ptolemies. I draw connections between monetization of the economy with other institutional reforms, especially as they concern the legal reforms of Ptolemy II. The paper will appear in a volume on money edited by William Harris. (This is revision 1.3 replacing 040602 entry.)
120602	Aristotle's Metaphysics M3: realism and the philosophy of QUA
	Reviel Netz, Stanford University
	Abstract - The article provides a new translation and interpretation of Aristotle’s Metaphysics M3, arguing that Aristotle uses there the QUA as a perspective of intellectual action: an operator on actions rather than a filter on objects. Instead of Aristotle’s mathematics being a science of “Objects QUA mathematical”, we should consider it as a science whose manner of action is “QUA mathematical”. A discussion follows as to Aristotle’s view that his QUA account salvages a realist reading of mathematics without invoking special mathematical objects. This view depends on the deceptively compelling assumption that a statement which is true QUA X is also true simpliciter. If this assumption is false – as I believe the experience of modern science suggests – then Aristotle was wrong and we must indeed either deny the reality of mathematics, or invoke special mathematical objects.
120601	Imperial state formation in Rome and China: From the Great Convergence to the First Great Divergence
	Walter Scheidel, Stanford University
	Revised October 2007. See 100706 entry.
NOVEMBER
110604	New ways of studying incomes in the Roman economy
	Walter Scheidel, Stanford University
	Abstract - This paper very briefly considers three ways of expanding the study of Roman income levels beyond the limits of empirical data on costs and wages, by considering the determinants of real incomes, the use of proxy data for real incomes, and the potential of cross-cultural comparison.
110603	What is the De Fisco Barcinonensi About?
	Damian Fernandez, Princeton University
	Abstract: The letter De fisco Barcinonensi is one of the few documents that we have on Visigothic taxation. In this paper, the evidence to determine the precise nature of the document is reviewed. It is suggested that the letter deals with the adaeratio (exchange rate between tributes in kind and tributes in coin), which can be explained both by a strict reading of the document and the political context in which this letter was issued. Consequently, the role of bishops in the process of tax collection is circumscribed to their function as representatives of the local communities and their elites.
	This paper has been published in L'Antiquité Tardive, vol. 14 (2006), pp. 217.24.
110602	Performance, Text, and the History of Criticism
	Andrew Ford, Princeton University
	Abstract: I argue that the study of ancient criticism is unduly narrow unless it combines an awareness of the materiality of culture—of the forms in which literary texts were produced, circulated, stored up, and accessed—with an appreciation for how strongly performance traditions could shape the reception and valuation of such texts. To illustrate, I analyze the 25th chapter of Aristotle’s Poetics to show that the theory behind “Problems and Solutions” was less significant culturally than the many-formed game of using poets in ethical debate. Also included is a brief overview of work since Vol. 1 of the Cambridge History of Literary Criticism (edited by George Kennedy in 1989) that fruitfully confronts the idea of the work of art as text with the reality of the work of art as performance.
110601	Die Katharsis im sokratischen Platonismus (Katharsis in Socratic Platonism)
	Christian Wildberg, Princeton University
	Abstract - In this paper, written in German, I am exploring the concept of purification (katharsis) in early Platonic dialogues. The evidence suggests that this variant of katharsis, which possesses a marked cognitive dimension, might well have Socratic roots. More importantly, however, its serves as a useful backdrop for an understanding of Aristotle's enigmatic conception of dramatic katharsis as broached in the Poetics. Modern discussions of the latter have so far largely ignored the Socratic-Platonic precursor, with which Aristotle was undoubtedly familiar.
SEPTEMBER
090607	Simplicius und das Zitat Zur Überlieferung des Anführungszeichens
	Christian Wildberg, Princeton University
	Abstract - This paper was published in a somewhat inaccessible Festschrift for Dieter Harlfinger. Taking the lead from an obscure passage in Simplicius, which can only be understood if the quotation marks in the medieval manuscripts are taken into account, the paper surveys the usage of quotation marks in the medieval in extant papyri and some manuscripts. The evidence suggests that quotation marks and other signs of interpunctuation were widely used in late antiquity, and that it is a mistake of editors of texts written in late antiquity to ignore such marks if and when they appear in the manuscript tradition. The paper observes in passing that the famous "Sentence of Anaximander" is not marked as a direct quotation is the extant Simplicius-manuscripts.
090606	Herodotus and the Poets
	Andrew Ford, Princeton University
	Abstract: This is an attempt to describe Herodotus’ relation to Greek poets, both as historical sources and as “cultural capital.” It is a brief discussion (1500 words) written for a general audience; but it may be of interest as raising a matter not often considered outside of the excellent and long study by Ph.-E. Legrand in Vol. 1 of the Budé Hérodote (pp. 147 ff.).
090605	THE GENRE OF GENRES: Paeans and Paian in Early Greek Poetry
	Andrew Ford, Princeton University
	No longer available as a working paper. This is now published in the journal Poetica 38/3-4 (2006) pp. 277-296.
090604	From “Socratic logoi” to “dialogues”: Dialogue in Fourth-century Genre Theory
	Andrew Ford, Princeton University
	Abstract: This paper argues that we can only have a just appreciation of the rise and early development of philosophic dialogue in Greece by bracketing the immense influence that the Platonic version of the form has exerted and turning instead to tracing how “Socratic logoi” came to be recognized as a new prose genre in fourth-century Athens. A consideration of the early terms used to name the form suggests that dialogue should not be derived from fifth-century mime or drama but should be understood in the context of the burgeoning rhetorical literature of the period; in particular, dialogue will be shown to be one of many innovative kinds of fictional speech-texts that were proclaiming new and special powers for written prose.
090603	Tiberiana 3: Odysseus at Rome - a Problem
	Edward Champlin, Princeton University
	Abstract: This is one of five parerga preparatory to a book to be entitled Tiberius on Capri, which will explore the interrelationship between culture and empire, between Tiberius’ intellectual passions (including astrology, gastronomy, medicine, mythology, and literature) and his role as princeps. These five papers do not so much develop an argument as explore significant themes which will be examined and deployed in the book in different contexts. “Odysseus at Rome” is an appendix to the previous paper on Tiberius’ obsession with the Greek hero. It draws attention to some startling evidence for Odysseus’ unpopularity in the Roman world.
090602	Tiberiana 2: Tales of Brave Ulysses
	Edward Champlin, Princeton University
	Abstract: This is one of five parerga preparatory to a book to be entitled Tiberius on Capri, which will explore the interrelationship between culture and empire, between Tiberius’ intellectual passions (including astrology, gastronomy, medicine, mythology, and literature) and his role as princeps. These five papers do not so much develop an argument as explore significant themes which will be examined and deployed in the book in different contexts. Tiberius was intensely interested in the deeds and character of the hero Odysseus, to the extent that sometimes he seems almost to have been channeling him. “Tales of Brave Ulysses” considers the evidence for this obsession and suggests something of the fresh insight into the emperor’s character which it evokes.
090601	Tiberiana 1: Tiberian Neologisms
	Edward Champlin, Princeton University
	Abstract: This is one of five parerga preparatory to a book to be entitled Tiberius on Capri, which will explore the interrelationship between culture and empire, between Tiberius’ intellectual passions (including astrology, gastronomy, medicine, mythology, and literature) and his role as princeps. These five papers do not so much develop an argument as explore significant themes which will be examined and deployed in the book in different contexts. “Tiberian Neologisms” examines several words that seem to have been invented or given new meanings during his reign, often by Tiberius himself.
JULY
070604	Natural Capacities and Democracy as a Good-in-Itself
	Josiah Ober, Stanford University
	Abstract - A paper on moral and political philosophy, arguing on Aristotelian grounds, that democracy is not only an instrumental good, but a good-in-itself for humans, because the exercise of constitutive natural capacities is and end, necessary for true happiness (understood as eudaimonia), and democracy (understood as association in decision) is a constitutive natural human capacity of humans. Forthcoming, winter 2006 in Philosophical Studies.
070603	From epistemic diversity to common knowledge: Rational rituals and publicity in democratic Athens.
	Josiah Ober, Stanford University
	Abstract - Effective organization of knowledge allows democracies to meet Darwinian challenges, and thus avoid elimination by more hierarchical rivals. Institutional processes capable of aggregating diverse knowledge and coordinating action promote the flourishing of democratic communities in competitive environments. Institutions that increase the credibility of commitments and build common knowledge are key aspects of democratic coordination. “Rational rituals,” through which credible commitments and common knowledge are effectively publicized, were prevalent in democratic Athens. Analysis of parts of Lycurgus’ speech Against Leocrates reveals some key features of the how rational rituals worked to build common knowledge in Athens. This paper, adapted from a book-in-progess, is fortthcoming in the journal Episteme.
070602	Socrates and democratic Athens: The story of the trial in its historical and legal contexts.
	Josiah Ober, Stanford University
	Abstract - Socrates was both a loyal citizen (by his own lights) and a critic of the democratic community’s way of doing things. This led to a crisis in 339 B.C. In order to understand Socrates’ and the Athenian community’s actions (as reported by Plato and Xenophon) it is necessary to understand the historical and legal contexts, the democratic state’s commitment to the notion that citizens are resonsible for the effects of their actions, and Socrates’ reasons for preferring to live in Athens rather than in states that might (by his lights) have had substantively better legal systems. Written for the Cambridge Companion to Socrates.
070601	A Prehistory of Hatred
	Brent D. Shaw, Princeton University
	Abstract - A critical reconsideration of a recent foray into the vexatious problem of the origins of race and racism.
	This is now published in "Journal of World History" vol. 16 (2005), pp. 227-32.
JUNE
060602	Carmina: Odes and Carmen Saeculare forthcoming in S. Harrison (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Horace, Cambridge 2007
	Alessandro Barchiesi, Stanford University
	Abstract: This is obviously a generalizing piece, not a research paper, but Horace is frequently taught at college level, so I offer it as an anticipation of the new Companion, and as an attempt to summarize some of the most recurring problems about Horace and the genre of Roman Lyric (if indeed there was a genre).
060601	Growing up fatherless in antiquity: the demographic background
	Walter Scheidel, Stanford University
	Abstract - In ancient societies, many individuals lost their fathers while they were still minors or unmarried. Building on Richard Saller’s seminal work, this paper examines the demographic dimension of this phenomenon. This paper is designed to provide demographic context for a forthcoming collection of essays on growing up fatherless in antiquity.
	This paper has now been published in "Growing Up Fatherless in Antiquity" S Hübner and D. Ratzan (eds.), Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2009, pp. 31-40.
MAY
050605	An Early Ptolemaic Land Survey in Demotic: P. Cair. II 31073
	Andrew Monson, Stanford University
	Revised. See 010705, January 2007, version 2.
050604	The Ptolemaic economy, institutions, economic integration, and the limits of centralized political power
	JG Manning, Stanford University
	Abstract - In this paper I discuss the relationship between the Ptolemaic state and economic development. My approach is informed by New Institutional Economics (NIE) and also by insights offered by Economic Sociology. I argue that the incentive structures that the Ptolemies established probably did not allow sustainable, or aggregate, economic growth despite important new fiscal institutions, some capital investment in new agricultural areas, and the possibility of new technology. I begin with a discussion of institutions and the Ptolemaic state, and move on to discuss, briefly, developments and the structure of the economy, before ending with an examination of the land tenure regime and how it relates to performance. (This revised paper replaces Version 1.0 posted in April 2005.)
050603	Sex and empire: a Darwinian perspective
	Walter Scheidel, Stanford University
	Abstract - This paper draws on evolutionary psychology to elucidate ultimate causation in imperial state formation and predatory exploitation in antiquity and beyond. Differential access to the means of reproduction is shown to have been a key feature of early imperial systems. (NB: This revised paper replaces Version 1.0 posted in November 2005.)
	This paper has now been published in "The Dynamics of Ancient Empires: State Power From Assyria to Byzantium" I. Morris and W. Scheidel (eds.), Oxford University Press: New York, 2009, pp. 255-324.
050602	Royal Land in Ptolemaic Egypt: A Demographic Model
	Andrew Monson, Stanford University
	Revised. See 010704, January 2007, version 2.
050601	Saving the Appearances: The Phenomenology of Epiphany in Atomist Theology
	Jacob L. Mackey, Princeton University
	Abstract: In this paper I propose an approach to Epicurean theology that avoids the stalemate of "realist" and "idealist" interpretations. I argue that Epicurean theology is more phenomenological than metaphysical, its purpose less to ground and justify dogmatic commitment to whatever form of existence the gods may enjoy than to account for a prevalent aspect of ancient religious experience, epiphany, and to assimilate that experience to Epicurean philosophical therapeia. In the process I reconstruct and reassess the equally epiphanic theology of Democritus that forms a source for Epicurus' theological thought. His theology has also been unprofitably construed by modern scholars as a reductive dismissal of the gods as mere psychological effects or manifest fictions. Instead, Democritus was at least as accommodating of the phenomena of religious experience as Epicurus: his own theology is likewise founded on epiphany and he too attempts a therapeutic analysis of its attendant effects.
APRIL
040604	Population and demography
	Walter Scheidel, Stanford University
	Abstract - This paper provides a general overview of Greco-Roman population history.
040603	The divergent evolution of coinage in eastern and western Eurasia
	Walter Scheidel, Stanford University
	Abstract - This paper offers a concise comparative assessment of some key features of the "Aegean" and "Chinese" models of coinage.
040602	Coinage as ‘Code’ in Ptolemaic Egypt
	JG Manning, Stanford University
	This paper has been revised. Please see the 120603 entry.
040601	Comparative history as comparative advantage: China’s potential contribution to the study of ancient Mediterranean history
	Walter Scheidel, Stanford University
	Abstract - This paper argues that Chinese historians of the Greco-Roman world can and should make a significant contribution to this field by promoting the comparative analysis of ancient civilizations in eastern and western Eurasia.
MARCH
030603	Texts, contexts, subtexts and interpretative frameworks. Beyond the parochial and toward (dynamic) modeling of the Ptolemaic state and the Ptolemaic economy
	JG Manning, Stanford University
	Abstract - My concern in this paper is the historical interpretation of the Greek and demotic documentary papyri of the Ptolemaic period, the role of Archaeology in the context of Ptolemaic economic history, and the application of social science theory towards an understanding of Ptolemaic Egypt.
030602	Watching the Great Sea of Beauty: Thinking the Ancient Greek Mediterranean
	Constanze Güthenke, Princeton University
	Abstract: This is a contribution to be published in a volume entitled Mediterranean Studies, edited by Roberto Dainotto and Eric Zakim for the Modern Language Association (MLA), as part of a new MLA series on Transnational Literatures. The editors had asked their contributors to respond to their introduction in which they encourage new ways of conceptualizing cultural contact, and to suggest new approaches to reading and writing the Mediterranean, creating a new epistemology of place, especially with a view to literature. Contributions span all geographic areas of the Mediterranean. While I was initially asked to look at modern travelers with a view to Greek antiquity and ancient travelers, the paper gradually turned into an essay on how to integrate some recent work on the ancient Mediterranean within the editors’ agenda.
030601	On not forgetting the “Literatur” in “Literatur und Religion”: Representing the Mythic and the Divine in Roman Historiography
	Denis Feeney, Princeton University
	Abstract: Against recent attempts to argue that generic distinctions between history and other forms are not particularly relevant to analysis of how the divine is represented, this paper argues that generic distinctions are important from Herodotus on. History has its own distinctive discursive practices, however inventively historians work on the margins with other genres such as epic and tragedy.
	This paper has now been published in A. Bierl, R. Lämmle and K. Wesselmann (eds.), Literatur und Religion: Wege zu einer mythisch-rituellen Poetik bei den Griechen Vol 2 (Berlin, 2007), pp. 173-202.
FEBRUARY
020603	Bad Boys: Circumcellions and Fictive Violence
	Brent D. Shaw, Princeton University
	Abstract - The circumcellions were roving bands of violent men and women found in late Roman Africa. The problem is that far more of them have been produced by literary fictions, ancient and modern, than once existed. The fictions have their own intriguing history, but they are otherwise useless for those who are interested in the banality of what actually happened.
	This paper has been published in H. A. Drake et al. eds., Violence in Late Antiquity: Perceptions and Practices, Aldershot, Ashgate, 2006, pp. 179-96.
020602	Real income growth in Roman Italy
	Walter Scheidel, Stanford University
	Revised February 2007. See 020701 entry.
020601	Republics between hegemony and empire: How ancient city-states built empires and the USA doesn’t (anymore)
	Walter Scheidel, Stanford University
	Abstract - This paper discusses the concepts ‘empire’ and ‘hegemony’, provides a new model of the institutional structure of ancient ‘citizen-city-state empires’, and argues that the contemporary USA cannot be defined as an ‘empire’.
JANUARY
010603	Going with the Grain: Athenian State Formation and the Question of Subsistence in the 5th and 4th Centuries BCE
	Ulrike Krotscheck, Stanford University
	Abstract: In this paper, I address the role of Athenian grain trade policy as a driving factor of the city’s growing power in the 5th and 4th centuries. Recent explanations of increasing Athenian hegemony and dominance over other poleis during this time period have focused on the role of warfare. I present an equally important, yet often-overlooked factor: food supply. Athens was dependent on grain imports throughout the Classical Period. Through examination of the ancient sources, I demonstrate that the increasing need to secure subsistence goods for Athens significantly propelled its ambition for power, causing a fundamental shift from a non- interventionist government policy to one of heavy intervention between the 5th and the 4th centuries BCE. This shift corresponded to an increasing complexity within the mechanisms of the city’s politics. It helped propel Athenian state formation and affected the dynamic of power and politics in the ancient Mediterranean world.
010602	Sabinus the Muleteer
	Brent D. Shaw, Princeton University
	Abstract - A brief piece about possible sources and historical background of a bit of ‘Vergilian’ poetry. If you like mules and Vergil, then this one is for you.
	This is now published in Classical Quarterly vol. 57 (2007), pp. 132-38.
010601	The Fabric of Continuity
	Constanze Güthenke, Princeton University
	Abstract: Review article of M. Alexiou. After Antiquity. Greek Language, Myth, and Metaphor (2002) and J.C.B. Petropolus, Eroticism in Ancient and Medieval Greek Poetry (2003), two recent books dealing with issues of continuity and methods of studying cultural transmission in post- classical Greek texts; forthcoming in Classical and Modern Languages.
	This paper has been published in Classical and Modern Literature, 26/2 (2006): 203-217.

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