| DECEMBER |
|
| 120701 |
Footrace, Dance, and Desire: The χορός of
Danaids in Pindar’s Pythian 9 |
|
Micah Y. Myers, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - This paper offers a new
interpretation of Pindar’s Pythian 9.112-16,
which relates the story of Danaos marrying off his
forty-eight daughters. Previously, these lines have
been understood as describing a footrace by the
daughter’s suitors to determine which suitor would
marry which daughter. By reanalyzing Pindar’s diction I
suggest that this passage also depicts Danaos’
daughters in the marked terms of choral performance.
This interpretation not only matches the representation
of the Danaids as a performing chorus in Phyrnicus’
Danaids and Aeschylus’ Suppliants, but it
also further illuminates the way desire permeates and
organizes this particular Pindaric ode. |
|
This paper replaces version 1 (080702) originally
posted in August 2007. |
|
|
This paper has been published as follows: Myers, M.
(2007) “Footrace, Dance, and Desire: The χορός of
Danaids in Pindar’s Pythian 9.” SIFC 5.2:
230-47. |
|
|
| NOVEMBER |
|
| 110703 |
Counting Romans |
|
Saskia Hin, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract: This article focuses on the debate
about the size of the population of Roman Italy. I
point at logical inconsistencies related to the
dominant view that the Republican census tallies are
meant to report all adult males. I argue instead that
the figures stemming from the Republican census may
represent adult men sui iuris and suggest that
those of the Augustan censuses include all citizens
sui iuris regardless of age and sex. This
implies a population size under Augustus which falls
between those suggested by ‘high counters’ and ‘low
counters’. Since the share of free citizens enumerated
as sui iuris was further affected by various
historical phenomena a range of intermediate scenarios
or ‘middle counts’ is perceivable. However, such
factors as affect the multiplier all pull in the same
downward direction. Therefore, it is likely that the
number of people inhabiting Roman Italy in Augustan
times was closer to that suggested by the ‘low count’
than to that implied by the ‘high count’. |
|
|
| 110702 |
From the ‘Great Convergence’ to the ‘First Great
Divergence’: Roman and Qin-Han state formation and its
aftermath |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - This paper provides a synoptic
outline of convergent trends in state formation in
western and eastern Eurasia from the early first
millennium BCE to the mid-first millennium CE and
considers the problem of subsequent divergence. |
|
This paper replaces version 2.0 (100705) originally
posted in October 2007; and version 1 (120601)
originally posted in December 2006. |
|
This paper has now been published in "Rome and
China: Comparative Perspectives on Ancient World
Empires" W. Scheidel (ed.), Oxford University Press:
New York, 2009, pp. 11-23. |
|
|
| 110701 |
When did Livy write Books 1, 3, 28, and
59? |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - This paper argues that several of
Livy’s statements were prompted by events at or close
to the time of writing and can therefore be used to
shed light on the chronology of his work. |
|
This paper has now been published in Classical
Quarterly Vol 59 (2009), pp. 653-658. |
|
|
| OCTOBER |
| 100707 |
When did Livy write Books 1, 3, 28, and
59? |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
|
Revised November 2007. See entry 110701. |
|
|
| 100706 |
The ‘First Great Divergence’: Trajectories of
post-ancient state formation in eastern and western
Eurasia |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - This paper identifies divergent
trends in state formation after the disintegration of
the Roman and Han empires and considers their causes
and long-term consequences. |
|
|
| 100705 |
From the ‘Great Convergence’ to the ‘First Great
Divergence’: Roman and Qin-Han state formation and its
aftermath |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
|
|
This paper (version 2.0) replaces version 1
(120601) originally posted in December 2006. It has
since been revised. See 110702 entry. |
|
|
| 100704 |
Family matters: Economy, culture and biology:
fertility and its constraints in Roman Italy |
|
Saskia Hin, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract: This article approaches the
phenomenon of fertility in Roman Italy from a range of
perspectives. Building on anthropological and economic
theory, sociology and human evolutionary ecology
various processes that affect fertility patterns by
influencing human behaviour are set out. The insights
provided by these disciplines offer valuable tools for
our understanding of fertility in the ancient world,
and enable assessment of the likelihood of historical
demographic scenarios proffered. On their basis, I
argue that there is little force in the argument that
attributes a perceived demographic decline during the
Late Roman Republic to a drop in fertility levels
amongst the mass of the Roman population. |
|
|
| 100703 |
Communal Agriculture in the Ptolemaic and Roman
Fayyum |
|
Andrew Monson, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - The article presents the model
that rising demand for land drives the process of
privatization. It likens ancient developments in
Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt to similar trends towards
privatization in nineteenth-century Egypt. Given the
difficulty imposed by the ancient evidence for tracing
changes over time, it concentrates on observable
regional variations that conform to the model.
Differences in population density seem to correlate
with differences in agrarian institutions. There are
especially good data for tenure on public land in Roman
Egypt, so this period is treated in more detail. In the
more sparsely populated Fayyum, communal peasant
institutions remained important for the cultivation of
public land just as they were in the Ptolemaic period.
In the Nile Valley, by contrast, private landowners
encroached on public land by having it registered into
their names and treating it more like private
property. |
|
This paper has now been published in "Communal
Agriculture in the Ptolemaic and Roman Fayyum" S.L.
Lippert and M. Schentuleit (eds.), Graeco-Roman Fayum:
Texts and Archaeology. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2008,
pp. 173-86. |
|
|
| 100702 |
Army and Egyptian temple building under the
Ptolemies |
|
Christelle Fischer-Bovet, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract: This paper examines building
dedications to Egyptian gods that reveal the interplay
between the military and state financing of Egyptian
temples. I propose a new model of financing Egyptian
temple building with the army as a source of private
and local funding. I argue that officers or soldiers
stationed in garrisons and soldier-priests were used as
supervisors of temple construction for the king and
even financed part of it to complement royal and temple
funds. Three main conclusions emerge. First, the rather
late date of our evidence confirms that temple building
was increasingly sponsored by private and semiprivate
funding and suggests that the army’s functions were
becoming more diverse. Second, Egyptians were
integrated in the army and soldiers were integrated
into the local elite. Third, the formation of a local
elite made of Greek and Egyptian soldiers acting for
the local gods challenges the idea of professional and
ethnic divisions. |
|
|
| 100701 |
Counting the Greeks in Egypt: Immigration in the
first century of Ptolemaic rule |
|
Christelle Fischer-Bovet, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract: This paper presents the data and
the methods available to estimate the number of Greeks
immigrating and settling in Ptolemaic Egypt. I shall
argue that the evaluations generally proposed (10% of
Greeks) are too high and the flow of immigration
implicitly expected too regular. The new calculations
demonstrate that we should rather consider 5% of Greeks
in Egypt. I use four independent methods to evaluate
the number of Greeks based on an estimation of the
number of: (1) Greek soldiers fighting at Raphia (217
BC); (2) Macedonian soldiers settled in Egypt; (3)
cavalry men granted with land; (4) adult Greek males
living in the Fayyum. The first three methods focus on
soldiers while the fourth one provides us with a
mathematical model for evaluating both Greek military
and civilian settlers. These demographic revisions
refine our analysis of the socio-economic and cultural
interactions between the different groups of
population. |
|
|
| SEPTEMBER |
|
| 090705 |
Cult and Belief in Punic and Roman
Africa |
|
Brent D. Shaw, Princeton University |
 |
Abstract: This is a second attempt at a
synthesis of the main problems for the forthcoming
Cambridge History of Ancient Religions. The problems
are complex and still threaten to overwhelm. This
version remains a cri de coeur: any helpful comments
and criticisms are encouraged. |
|
This paper replaces version 1 (010701) originally
posted in January 2007. |
|
|
| 090704 |
The original meaning of “democracy”: Capacity to
do things, not majority rule. |
|
Josiah Ober, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - That the original meaning of
democracy is “capacity to do things” not “majority
rule” emerges from a study of the fifth and fourth
century B.C. Greek vocabulary for regime-types. Special
attention is given to –kratos root and
–arche root terms. Paper delivered at the
American Political Science Association meetings,
Philadelphia, 2006. |
|
|
| 090703 |
What the Ancient Greeks Can Tell Us About
Democracy |
|
Josiah Ober, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - The question of what the ancient
Greeks can tell us about democracy can be answered by
reference to three fields that have traditionally been
pursued with little reference to one another: ancient
history, classical political theory, and political
science. These fields have been coming into more
fruitful contact over the last 20 years, as evidenced
by a spate of interdisciplinary work. Historians,
political theorists, and political scientists
interested in classical Greek democracy are
increasingly capable of leveraging results across
disciplinary lines. As a result, the classical Greek
experience has more to tell us about the origins and
definition of democracy, and about the relationship
between participatory democracy and formal
institutions, rhetoric, civic identity, political
values, political criticism, war, economy, culture, and
religion. |
|
Forthcoming in Annual Reviews in Political
Science 2007 |
|
|
| 090702 |
Athenian Military Performance in the Archidamian
War: Thucydides on Democracy and Knowledge |
|
Josiah Ober, Stanford University |
| > |
Abstract - Athenian military success in the
Archidamian war is attributed by the Corinthians in
book 1 of Thucydides to an inherent national character.
Although the Athenians do manifest the characteristics
of agility, speed, and common-good seeking that the
Corinthians attribute to the Athenians, the source of
Athenian exceptionalism is better sought in the
development of democratic institutions and associated
patterns of behavior. Athens did well in military
operations because of its superior management of useful
knowledge. Likewise, breakdown in knowledge management
is a key reason for Athenian military failures in the
latter part of the war. |
|
This has been replaced by paper 080901. To appear
in a volume on "Democracy and Greek Warfare," edited by
David Pritchard |
|
|
| 090701 |
Pharaonic Egypt and the Ara Pacis in Augustan
Rome |
|
Jennifer Trimble, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - This paper explores processes of
cultural appropriation, and specifically Augustan
visual receptions of pharaonic Egypt. As a test case, I
consider the possibility of Egyptianizing precedents
for the Ara Pacis, including the architecture of Middle
and New Kingdom jubilee chapels. This requires looking
at the Augustan interventions into the traditional
temple complexes of Egypt, the transmission of imperial
ideas about pharaonic Egypt to Rome, their uses there,
and the role of pharaonic appropriations within a
broader landscape of Aegyptiaca in Rome. |
|
|
| AUGUST |
|
| 080702 |
Footrace, Dance, and Desire: The χορός of
Danaids in Pindar’s Pythian 9 |
|
Micah Y. Myers, Stanford University |
|
Revised December 2007. See entry 120701. |
|
|
| 080701 |
Rule and Revenue in Egypt and Rome: Political
Stability and Fiscal Institutions |
|
Andrew Monson, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - This paper investigates what
determines fiscal institutions and the burden of
taxation using a case study from ancient history. It
evaluates Levi’s model of taxation in the Roman
Republic, according to which rulers’ high discount
rates in periods of political instability encourage
them to adopt a more predatory fiscal regime. The
evidence for fiscal reform in the transition from the
Republic to the Principate seems to support her
hypothesis but remains a matter of debate among
historians. Egypt’s transition from a Hellenistic
kingdom to a Roman province under the Principate
provides an analogous case for which there are better
data. The Egyptian evidence shows a correlation between
rulers’ discount rates and fiscal regimes that is
consistent with Levi’s hypothesis. |
|
This paper has now been published in "Rule and
Revenue in Egypt and Rome: Political Stability and
Fiscal Institutions." Special Issue: New Political
Economy in History. Historical Social Research 32/4
(2007), pp. 252-74. |
|
|
| JULY |
|
| 070706 |
Roman population size: the logic of the
debate |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - This paper provides a critical
assessment of the current state of the debate about the
number of Roman citizens and the size of the population
of Roman Italy. Rather than trying to make a case for a
particular reading of the evidence, it aims to
highlight the strengths and weaknesses of rival
approaches and examine the validity of existing
arguments and critiques. After a brief survey of the
evidence and the principal positions of modern
scholarship, it focuses on a number of salient issues
such as urbanization, military service, labor markets,
political stability, living standards, and carrying
capacity, and considers the significance of field
surveys and comparative demographic evidence. |
|
This paper replaces version 1 (050705) originally
posted in May 2007. |
|
This paper has now been published in "People, Land,
and Politics: Demographic Developments and the
Transformation of Roman Italy, 300 BC - AD 14" L. de
Ligt and S. J. Northwood (eds.), Brill: Leiden, 2008,
pp. 17-70. |
|
|
| 070705 |
Narratives of Roman Syria: a historiography of
Syria as a province of Rome |
|
Lidewijde de Jong, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract: In this paper I examine the
scholarship of Roman Syria and the history of research
on this province. The scholarly narrative of Roman
Syria revolves around strong Greek influence and little
impact of Roman rule, which has resulted in studying
Syria as a unique and distinct entity, separated from
Rome. In light of new archaeological finds and a
re-evaluation of older evidence, I argue that these
assumptions of deep hellenization and shallow Roman
impact need to be abandoned. Using models coming out of
research in other provinces of the Roman empire and
anthropological studies of colonialism and material
culture, I propose a set of different narratives about
Roman Syria. This paper is the first chapter of my
dissertation: Becoming a Roman province: An analysis
of funerary practices in Roman Syria in the context of
empire. |
|
|
| 070704 |
Tiberiana 4: Tiberius the Wise |
|
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. This paper examines the extraordinary but
scattered evidence for a contemporary perception of
Tiberius as the wise and pious old monarch of
folklore. |
|
This paper has now been published in
Historia vol. 57 (2008), pp. 408-425. |
|
|
| 070703 |
Dux reget examen (Epistle 1.19.23):
Horace’s Archilochean Signature |
|
Joshua Katz, Princeton University |
 |
Abstract - This paper compares Horace the
Honeybee to his iambic predecessor Archilochus the
Wasp. In particular, I argue that a hitherto
unrecognized way in which Horace promotes himself as
the Italicus Archilochus is through his
“signature” [qui sibi fidet, /] dux reget
examen (Epistle 1.19.23) ‘[Who trusts
himself] will rule the swarm as leader’ — an innovative
Latin calque on the Greek name Arkhí-lokhos,
literally “Rule-swarm.” |
|
This paper has now been published in Materiali e
Discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici 59
(2007), pp. 207-13. |
|
|
| 070702 |
The Origin of the Greek Pluperfect |
|
Joshua Katz, Princeton University |
 |
Abstract - The origin of the pluperfect is
the biggest remaining hole in our understanding of the
Ancient Greek verbal system. This paper provides a
novel unitary account of all four morphological types —
alphathematic, athematic, thematic, and the anomalous
Homeric form 3sg. ēídē ‘knew’ — beginning
with a “Jasanoff-type” reconstruction in
Proto-Indo-European, an “imperfect of the
perfect.” |
|
This paper has now been published in Die
Sprache 46 (2006, publ. 2008), pp. 1-37. |
|
|
| 070701 |
The Epic Adventures of an Unknown
Particle |
|
Joshua Katz, Princeton University |
 |
Abstract - This paper, a mini-"Autour
de ‘ταρ épique’," is above all a
contribution to the study of Homeric formulas and
compositional technique. I give an overview and expand
our understanding of the under-appreciated Homeric
particle tar, whose Cuneiform Luvian cognate
Calvert Watkins discovered over a decade ago and whose
essential Greek-ness M. L. West accepts in his Teubner
edition of the Iliad; demonstrate on linguistic
and stylistic grounds that tar is part of the
conjunction autár but not of the semantically
similar near-look-alike atár; and explain why
this unstressed and almost unknown monosyllable is of
unexpectedly wide interest, being not just a bit of
Homeric and Indo-European linguistic trivia, but an
important rhetorical device in the description of
ancient Greek ritual. |
|
This paper has been published in Greek and Latin
from an Indo-European Perspective, ed. Coulter
George, Matthew McCullaugh, Benedicte Nielsen, Antonia
Ruppel, & Olga Tribulato (Cambridge, Cambridge
Philological Society, 2007), pp. 65-79. |
|
|
| JUNE |
|
| 060702 |
A Dove and a Nightingale: Mahābhārata
3.130.18-3.131.32 and Hesiod, Works and Days
202-13 |
|
A. T. Zanker, Princeton University |
|
Abstract - The Hesiodic Fable of The Hawk
and the Nightingale remains a scholarly problem,
but perhaps light can be shed on it by stepping outside
the Greek tradition and comparing it with a story from
the Indic Mahābhārata that involves not merely
a hawk and a dove, but also a king who protects the
latter. |
|
This paper has now been published in
Philologus 1531 (2009), pp. 10-25. |
|
|
| 060701 |
Epigraphy and demography: birth, marriage,
family, and death |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - In recent years, the adoption of
key concepts and models of modern population studies
has greatly advanced our understanding of the
demography of the Greco-Roman world. Epigraphic
evidence has made a vital contribution to this
development: statistical analysis of tens of thousands
of tombstone inscriptions has generated new insights
into mortality regimes, marriage practices, and family
structures in various parts of the ancient
Mediterranean. In conjunction with papyrological
material, these data permit us to identify regional
differences and facilitate long-term comparisons with
more recent historical populations. After a brief
survey of the principal sources of demographic
information about the classical world, this paper
focuses on the use of inscriptions in the study of
population size, mortality, fertility, nuptiality, sex
ratios, family formation, and household
organization. |
|
|
| MAY |
|
| 050705 |
Roman population size: the logic of the
debate |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
|
Revised July 2007. See entry 070706. |
|
|
| 050704 |
The Roman slave supply |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - This survey of the scale and
sources of the Roman slave supply will be published in
Keith Bradley and Paul Cartledge (eds.), The
Cambridge world history of slavery, 1: The ancient
Mediterranean world. |
|
|
| 050703 |
Literary Quarrels |
|
Susan Stephens, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - Scholars have long noted Platonic
elements or allusions in Callimachus' poems,
particularly in the Aetia prologue and the 13th
Iambus that center on poetic composition. Following up
on their work, Benjamin Acosta-Hughes and Susan
Stephens, in a recent panel at the APA, and in papers
that are about to appear in Callimachea II. Atti
della seconda giornata di studi su Callimaco (Rome:
Herder), have argued not for occasional allusions, but
for a much more extensive influence from the
Phaedo and Phaedrus in the Aetia prologue
(Acosta-Hughes) and the Protagoras, Ion,
and Phaedrus in the Iambi (Stephens).
These papers are part of a preliminary study to
reformulate Callimachus' aesthetic theory. Included
herein is Benjamin Acosta-Hughes' "The Cicala's Song:
Plato in the Aetia." |
|
|
| 050702 |
Remapping the Mediterranean: The Argo adventure
Apollonius and Callimachus |
|
Susan Stephens, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - This paper was written for
Culture in Pieces, a Festschrift in honor of
Peter Parsons. Callimachus and Apollonius were poets
writing in Alexandria, a newly established Greek city
on the north east coast of Africa that lacked defining
narratives of space, indigenous gods and heroes, or
founding families. I argue that both poets turned to
the legend of the Argonauts to link Libya and Egypt
with Greece as a strategy in crafting a legitimating
myth for the Ptolemaic occupation of Egypt. The textual
argument focuses on the gift of a clod of Libyan earth
to one of the Argonauts in Pindar’s Pythian 4
and at end of the Argonautica, and the Argonaut
fragments at the beginning of Callimachus’
Aetia. |
|
|
| 050701 |
Read on Arrival |
|
Richard P. Martin, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract: The poetics of traveling poets are
analyzed with the help of evidence from Greece (6thc
BCE to 6th c CE), West Africa, and Ireland. A detailed
explication of Aristophanes Birds 904-957 is used to
explore further the tropes used by bards and rules of
interaction with poeti vaganti. The Lives
of Homer tradition is shown to match up with
descriptions of cognate poetic performances (Greek and
other) in this regard. |
|
This paper has now been published in The
Wandering Poets of Ancient Greece, R. Hunter and I.
Rutherford (eds.). Cambridge, 2009. |
|
|
| APRIL |
|
| 040701 |
Golden Verses: Voice and Authority in the
Tablets |
|
Richard P. Martin, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract: This paper attempts to read the
gold “Orphic” tablets found in tombs from Thessaly to
Sicily against the background of Homeric epic. It
introduces the notion of “speech type-scene” and draws
conclusions, from the deployment of formulae and
pragmatic situations, about the “voice” one is supposed
to hear behind the tablet texts. It was originally
delivered as a paper at the Ohio State University
conference Ritual Texts for the Afterlife (April
2006), organized by Fritz Graf and Sarah
Iles-Johnston. |
|
|
| MARCH |
|
| 030702 |
Religion in the Ancient Novel |
|
Froma I. Zeitlin, Princeton University |
 |
Abstract - This chapter of the forthcoming
Cambridge Companion to the Ancient Novel, ed.
Tim Whitmarsh, (2007) surveys the pervasive presence of
religion and the sacred in the extant Greek and Roman
novels and addresses the much discussed issues of its
roles and functions, with an emphasis on the challenges
the topic poses to the interpretation of the genre's
core erotic ideology. It also explores instances of the
fictional imagination at work in absorbing, modifying,
and creatively refining a few selected religious
elements. |
|
This paper has now been published as "Religion" in
Tim Whitmarsh, ed. Companion to the Greek and Roman
Novel, Cambridge Univerity Press, 2008. pp
91-108. |
|
|
| 030701 |
A Narrator of Wisdom. Characterization through
gnomai in Achilles Tatius. |
|
Koen De Temmerman, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract: This paper contributes to the
study of characterization in Achilles Tatius by
offering an analysis of the many gnomai or “wisdom
sayings” in this ancient Greek novel. After having
illustrated the importance of gnomai in literary
characterization with some examples from the text, I
argue that a close reading of the gnomai in Clitophon’s
narrator text and character text raises questions about
Clitophon’s reliability as a narrator. Whereas
Clitophon uses gnomai to portray himself as an expert
in erotic affairs before his narratee in Sidon, the
gnomai used by the protagonist and other characters
within the story suggest that, as a character in his
own story, Clitophon does not assume the authoritative
position that he claims to have in this field. |
|
|
| FEBRUARY |
|
| 020702 |
Towards Open Access in Ancient Studies: The
Princeton-Stanford Working Papers in Classics |
|
Josiah Ober, Stanford University |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
|
Brent D. Shaw, Princeton University |
|
Donna Sanclemente, Princeton University |
 |
Abstract - An investigation of the present
impact and future prospects of open access electronic
publication of scholarly research on working papers
sites, based on the authors’ collective experience with
developing and maintaining a WP site for Classics and
Classical Archaeology. |
|
This paper has now been published in
Hesperia vol. 76 (2007), pp. 229-242. |
|
|
| 020701 |
A model of real income growth in Roman
Italy |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - This paper presents a new model
of the main exogenous and endogenous determinants of
real income growth in Italy in the last two centuries
BC. I argue that war-related demographic attrition,
emigration and the urban graveyard effect converged in
constraining the growth of the freeborn population
despite increased access to material resources that
would otherwise have been conducive to demographic
growth and concomitant depression of real incomes; that
massive redistribution of financial resources from
Roman elites and provincial subjects to large elements
of the Italian commoner population in the terminal
phase of the Republican period raised average household
wealth and improved average well-being; and that
despite serious uncertainties about the demographic and
occupational distribution of such benefits, the
evidence is consistent with the notion of rising real
incomes in sub-elite strata of the Italian population.
I conclude my presentation with a dynamic model of
growth and decline in real income in Roman Italy
followed by a brief look at comparable historical
scenarios in early modern Europe. I hope to make it
probable that due to a historically specific
configuration of circumstances created by the
mechanisms of Roman Republican politics and
imperialism, the Italian heartland of the emerging
empire witnessed temporary but ultimately unsustainable
improvements in income and consumption levels well
beyond elite circles. |
|
This revised paper replaces Version 1.0 posted in
February 2006. |
|
This paper has been published in Historia 56 (2007)
332-346. |
|
|
| JANUARY |
|
| 010705 |
An Early Ptolemaic Land Survey in Demotic: P.
Cair. II 31073 |
|
Andrew Monson, Stanford University |
|
Abstract - This paper provides a preliminary
edition of an early Ptolemaic land survey from the
southern Fayyum and related accounts. Although
photographs and a brief description were included in
the Cairo catalogue of Demotic papyri in 1908, it has
never been edited or fully discussed. The text
furnishes valuable data about land tenure, agriculture,
and taxation, especially on royal land. This version is
meant to provide a basis for further discussion until
the edition is complete. Version 2.0 includes revisions
to the dating, overview, and some readings in the text,
superceding the earlier version. This version replaces
050606. |
|
This paper has now been published in A. Monson
(2012). Agriculture and Taxation in Early Ptolemaic
Egypt: Demotic Land Surveys and Accounts. PTA 46. Bonn:
Habelt Verlag. |
|
|
| 010704 |
Royal Land in Ptolemaic Egypt: A Demographic
Model |
|
Andrew Monson, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - Studies of Ptolemaic agrarian
history have focused on the nature of state ownership.
Recent work has emphasized the regional differences
between the Fayyum, where royal land was prevalent, and
Upper Egypt, where private land rights were already
established. This study proposes a demographic model
that regards communal rights on royal land as an
adaptation to risk and links privatization with
population pressure. These correlations and their
reflection in Demotic and Greek land survey data raise
doubts about the common view that patterns of tenure on
royal land in the Fayyum can be attributed to more
intensive state control over this region than the Nile
Valley. Version 2.0 is substantially revised and
replaces the earlier version 050602. |
|
This paper has now been published in "Royal Land in
Ptolemaic Egypt: A Demographic Model." Journal of
the Economic and Social History of the Orient 50/4
(2007), pp. 363-97. |
|
|
| 010703 |
Rereading the Death of Turnus: Ritual, Time and
Poetics in the Aeneid |
|
Kellam Conover, Princeton University |
 |
Abstract: The death of Turnus, which is
depicted in terms evocative of sacrificial rite,
evinces a close interconnection between ritual and
poetics in Vergil’s Aeneid. By reincorporating
Juturna into the economy of sacrificial imagery at the
epic’s close, I argue that Turnus’ sacrificial death
should be seen as a metapoetic act. Indeed, as
suggested by an examination of how time operates in the
epic and especially in its final scenes, time in the
poem is structured like time in ritual practice. The
Aeneid thus engages the reader in a process of
ritually renewing the past. |
|
|
| 010702 |
Shock and Awe: The Performance Dimension of
Galen’s Anatomy Demonstrations |
|
Maud W. Gleason, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract: Galen’s anatomical demonstrations
on living animals constitute a justly famous chapter in
the history of scientific method. This essay, however,
examines them as a social phenomenon. Galen’s
demonstrations were competitive. Their visual,
cognitive and emotional impact (often expressed by
compounds of ѳαῦμα and ἔκπληξις) reduced onlookers
to gaping amazement. This impact enhanced the logical
force of Galen’s arguments, compelling competitors to
acknowlege his intellectual and technical preeminence.
Thus, on the interpersonal level, Galen’s
demonstrations functioned coercively. On the
philosophical level, Galen was using a rhetoric
traditional to Greek science, a way of arguing that
involved a unitary view of nature and an emphasis on
homology between animals and man. But he was also using
a rhetoric of power and status differentiation
articulated via the body. As played out in the flesh,
public vivisection resonated with other cultural
practices of the Roman empire: wonder-working
competitions, judicial trials, and ampitheater
entertainment. |
| This paper has now been published as "Galen's
Anatomical Performances" in C. Gill, T. Whitmarsh, J.
Wilkins, eds. Galen and the World of Knowledge
(Cambridge University Press, 2010). |
|
|
| 010701 |
Cult and Belief in Punic and Roman
Africa |
|
Brent D. Shaw, Princeton University |
|
Revised September 2007. See entry 090705. |
|
|