This book contains a collection of papers related to the history and historiography of Warfare, Politics and Power in the Ancient Mediterranean world. The contributions, written by 19 recognized experts from a variety of methodological and evidentiary perspectives, show how ancient peoples considered war and conflict at the heart of social, political and economic activity. Though focusing on a single theme – war – the papers are firmly based in the context of the wider social and literary issues of Ancient Mediterranean scholarship and as such, consider war and conflict as part of a complex matrix of culture in which historical actors articulate their relationships with society and historical authors articulate their relationships with history. The result is a rich understanding of Ancient World history and history-writing. The volume is presented in honour of Waldemar Heckel, a foremost scholar of Alexander the Great and Ancient Warfare.

The papers in this volume were presented at an international conference organised in Athens (May 11-14, 2004) and focus on the study of the Panathenaic Games, a Panhellenic athletic event that lasted for nearly a millennium. An international assembly of archaeologists, art historians, ancient historians, epigraphists and classical scholars contributed to the discussion of the origins and the historical development of the Panathenaic Games in general and of individual contests in particular. The role of royal and other patrons in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, as well as the form and meaning of victory dedications and other monuments generated by the games were also examined, making this a truly interdisciplinary study into this fascinating event. Two papers are in Greek.

Archaeological investigations were carried out in 2006–9 on the north bank of the River Thames at Riverbank House, City of London, just upstream of the modern London Bridge and its medieval predecessor, in the heart of the medieval port. An extensive watching brief had taken place on the site in the early 1980s (the Swan Lane car park), but these new excavations were in undisturbed areas around the perimeter. A 2nd-century AD revetment and part of the late Roman riverside wall were recorded, while a sequence of timber revetments, some dated by dendrochronology, witness the growth of the medieval port from the 12th to the 15th centuries. Fragmentary building remains relate to medieval and post-medieval tenements, and pipes from a 16th- or 17th-century ship’s pump were found reused as a drain. Characteristically, foreshore deposits and reclamation dumps infilling the medieval waterfronts produced many well-preserved finds, particularly leather and metal objects. The latter include tools, domestic items, cloth seals and a number of religious and secular badges. A rare and unusual find was a devotional openwork panel relating to the life and death of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, who was executed on 23 March 1322 by Edward II. Remains of plants used in dyeing support the documented importance of the local cloth-finishing industry.

Excavations near the Roman forum on Londinium’s eastern hill (modern Cornhill) have revealed archaeological evidence from the earliest period of London’s history. There was intensive domestic occupation on the site from c. AD 50–5, which was interrupted by the Boudican fire of AD 60/61. The north-east corner of a temporary fort of c. AD 63–85 was found immediately to the east, at Plantation Place, and reconstruction of the plan of this fort indicates that 20 Fenchurch Streetsite would have lain within it. Scant evidence for this was recovered but finds include lorica segmentata armour fittings and a possible spear butt. Possibly fort-related features include clay-and-timber buildings, a large timber-lined water tank and a metalworking workshop. After the fort was demolished, the later 1st-century AD occupation of the site was again domestic in character, with a succession of short-lived clay-and-timber buildings constructed across the area.During the 2nd century AD the pattern of activity changed, with longer lasting masonry buildings replacing the clay-and-timber constructions. The final Roman structure on the site was a 3rd-century masonry cellar.The finds recovered have a heavily domestic bias, with household and personal items, including a large group of dress accessories. A comprehensive collection of pottery, with a wealth of early Roman material, includes mid 1st-century AD wares.

PROFESSOR E. KERR BORTHWICK (1925–2008) studied Classics at Aberdeen University and at Christ’s College Cambridge before being appointed Lecturer, first at the University of Leeds and then, in 1955, at Edinburgh University, where he remained for the rest of his career. He headed the Greek Department at Edinburgh from 1980 until his retirement in 1989 and was appointed to a Personal Chair in Greek in 1983. Ancient music and Greek drama were the main focuses of E.K. Borthwick’s academic output, and he had a particular flair for pinpointing, elucidating, and solving textual difficulties. But his interests ranged much further, as the works collected in this volume demonstrate; and his papers intrigue and entertain where a less lively pen might have made the points at issue seem dry and abstruse. Taken together, his articles constitute a stellar example of what a classicist with professional training as a philologist, an enquiring mind, an exact eye for detail, and the ability to communicate enthusiasm, can achieve in a life’s work.The volume opens with Professor Borthwick’s inaugural lecture on Homer, ‘Odyssean Elements in the Iliad’ (Edinburgh, 1983). The editor, Dr. Calum Maciver, has then arranged Borthwick’s 63 scholarly articles, published between 1959 and 2003, thematically under six headings: Ancient Music, The Pyrrhic Dance, Drama, Zoologica, Ancient Sport, Miscellanea. The volume includes a consolidated bibliography of all works cited, a general index, an index of Greek words, and an index locorum. A selection of the titles under each of the headings indicates the range and variety of Kerr Borthwick’s scholarship:Ancient Music: Κατάληψις – a Neglected Technical Term in Greek MusicNotes on the Plutarch De Musica and the Cheiron of Pherecrates‘Music While You Work’ in Philodemus De Musica,The Pyrrhic Dance: Trojan Leap and Pyrrhic Dance in Euripides’ AndromacheThe Dances of Philocleon and the Sons of Carcinus in Aristophanes’ WaspsP. Oxy. 2738: Athena and the Pyrrhic Dance;Drama: Two Scenes of Combat in EuripidesA Phyllobolia in Aristophanes’ Clouds?Euripides Erotodidaskalos? A Note on Aristophanes Frogs 957Zoologica: A Grasshopper’s Diet – Notes on an Epigram of Meleager and a Fragment of EubulusLimed Reeds in Theocritus, Aristophanes, and PropertiusSeeing Weasels: The Superstitious Background of the Empusa Scene in the FrogsStarting a Hare: A Note on Machon, Fr. 15Bee Imagery in PlutarchBees and Drones in Aristophanes, Aelian and EuripidesAncient Sport: The Gymnasium of Bromius – a Note on Dionysius Chalcus, Fr. 3Death of a Fighting CockThe Cynic and the StatueMiscellanea: Notes on “The Superstitious Man” of TheophrastusDio Chrysostom on the Mob at AlexandriaThe Scene on the Panagjurischte Amphora: A New SolutionA Note on Some Unusual Greek Words for EyesAristophanes and Agathon: A Contrast in Hair StylesA ‘Not Too Severe’ Epigram of GaetulicusSocrates, Socratics, and the Word Βλεπεδαίμων

British excavations at the important archaeological site of Qasr Ibrim have yielded numerous written sources composed in Greek, Coptic, Old Nubian, and Arabic. However, only a small number of them have been published so far, among them some sixty Old Nubian texts, both literary and documents. They were edited between 1988 and 1991 by Gerald Michael Browne. After twenty years of stagnation in this field, Ruffini took up the task initiated by Browne and produced the edition of further sixty-two Old Nubian texts, this time only documents. Texts included in this volume supplement Ruffini’s 2012 monograph (Medieval Nubia. A Social and Economic History) and provide illustrattion for his recosntruciotn of social and economic life of the Middle Nile Valley in the 12th–14th century. The edition of each document is supplied with a photograph as well as extensive linguistic and historical commentary and the volume is accompanied by a set of well organised indices.

This report publishes the 1937–8 excavations in Colliton Park, Dorchester, Dorset, which revealed one of the best preserved late Roman town houses so far discovered in Roman Britain. Extensively decorated with mosaics, the building has recently been re-displayed in a new cover building by Dorset County Council. In addition to the town house and its mosaics, the report publishes the surrounding buildings in the north-west quarter of the town, also mostly of late Roman date, and associated occupation along with an extensive collection of artefacts, including outstanding finds of coins, glass, iron and Kimmeridge shale.

This volume presents the proceedings of a conference hosted by the American School of Classical Studies, Athens and the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Athens in 2004. There are additional contributions from Patricia Butz, Robin Osborne, Katherine Schwab, Justin St. P. Walsh, Hilda Westervelt and Lorenz Winkler-Horacek. The contents are divided into four sections I. Structure and Ornament; II. Technique and Agency; III. Myth and Narrative and IV. Diffusion and Influence. Highlights include Robin Osbornes discussion of What you can do with a chariot but can't do with a satyr on a Greek temple; Ralf von den Hoffs consideration of the Athenian treasury at Delphi; and Katherine Schwabs presentation of New evidence for Parthenon east metope 14. The papers not only cover a great variety of issues in architectural sculpture but also present a range of case studies from all over the Greek world. The result is an important collection of current research.

What are the reasons behind the contamination of oriental cults in Roman Britain? What circumstances led to this spiritual upheaval, the results of which contributed to the triumph of Christianity? This problem, which is fundamental to the history of religions and for the identification of the origins of Western civilization, is at the centre of this classic study by E. Harris and J.R. Harris. It is a work of immense value for its methodological rigour and the subtlety with which it is able to reconstruct the articulations and the organic unity of a singularly complex and elusive phenomenon.

Athenian Potters and Painters III presents a rich mass of new material on Greek vases, including finds from excavations at the Kerameikos in Athens and Despotiko in the Cyclades. Some contributions focus on painters or workshops – Paseas, the Robinson Group, and the structure of the figured pottery industry in Athens; others on vase forms – plates, phialai, cups, and the change in shapes at the end of the sixth century BC. Context, trade, kalos inscriptions, reception, the fabrication of inscribed painters’ names to create a fictitious biography, and the reconstruction of the contents of an Etruscan tomb are also explored. The iconography and iconology of various types of figured scenes on Attic pottery serve as the subject of a wide range of papers – chariots, dogs, baskets, heads, departures, an Amazonomachy, Menelaus and Helen, red-figure komasts, symposia, and scenes of pursuit. Among the special vases presented are a black spotlight stamnos and a column krater by the Suessula Painter. Athenian Potters and Painters III, the proceedings of an international conference held at the College of William and Mary in Virginia in 2012, will, like the previous two volumes, become a standard reference work in the study of Greek pottery.

Textiles were a hugely important Roman industry yet, because of their perishable nature, only fragments remain. These twenty-two essays provide a detailed study of surviving fragments from across the Roman world, from the dry sands of Egypt to the Atlantic coast and the northern frontiers and beyond. The result is a comprehensive reconstruction of both everyday and exotic Roman clothing with information about the influences of fashion and of Roman weaving techniques. Written by friends and colleagues, the contributions are offered as a tribute to John Peter Wild whose own studies of Roman textiles have been the inspiration of so much recent work.

Jenny March’s acclaimed Dictionary of Classical Mythology, first published in 1998 but long out of print, has been extensively revised and expanded including a completely new set of beautiful line-drawing illustrations for this Oxbow edition. It is a comprehensive A – Z guide to Greek and Roman mythology. All major myths, legends and fables are here, including gods and goddesses, heroes and villains, dangerous women, legendary creatures and monsters. Characters such as Achilles and Odysseus have extensive entries, as do epic journeys and heroic quests, like that of Jason and the Argonauts to win the Golden Fleece, all alongside a plethora of information on the creation of the cosmos, the many metamorphoses of gods and humans, and the Trojan War, plus more minor figures – nymphs, seers, kings, rivers, to name but a few.In this superbly authoritative work the myths are brilliantly retold, along with any major variants, and with extensive translations from ancient authors that give life to the narratives and a sense of the vibrant cultures that shaped the development of classical myth. The 172 illustrations give visual immediacy to the words, by showing how ancient artists perceived their gods and heroes. The impact of myths on ancient art is also explored, as is and their influence in the post-classical arts, emphasising the ongoing inspiration afforded by the ancient myths.Also included are two maps of the ancient world, a list of the ancient sources and their chronology, the more important genealogies, and an index of recurrent mythical motifs.Praise for the first edition:“… the Dictionary of Classical Mythology is exemplary, indeed the best I have consulted … clearly and engagingly written …it not only gives reliable answers but also encourages reading on.” Simon Goldhill, Times Literary Supplement“a prodigious, authoritative gazetteer, each entry both typographically and stylistically readable, and if you know more than is contained in these pages then you have no need of it.” Nicholas Lezard, Guardian Book of the Week“Greek myths pervade our own art and literature almost as much as they influenced that of classical times, and this will be an invaluable guide.” The Good Book Guide“… a modern encyclopaedia of myth and legend which is user-friendly in layout, presentation and style … vivid and readable.” Paula James, The Classical Review“These stories are frequently the spark that ignites a wider interest in the classical world, and March provides a wealth of inflammatory material.” Charles Paterson, JACT Review“This dictionary will still be valuable all through the next century.” Sir Hugh Lloyd-Jones“… vivid, detailed where it matters, yet concise, accurate, no padding, always to the point – it’s a joy to read.” Herwig Maehler

In this pioneering study, first published in German as Pyrsos Hymnon. Festliche Gegenwart und mythisch-rituelle Tradition als Voraussetzung einer Pindarinterpretation (Isthmie 4, Pythie 5, Olympie 1 und 3) (1990), Eveline Krummen examines the related problems of the unity (or intelligibility and cohesion) and the ‘occasionality’ (the heuristic importance of the original performance situation) of Pindaric epinicia. She uses various approaches - including narratology, archaeology, and art history, as well as philology - to recover information about original performance occasions and original audience expectations, and thus to come to a clearer understanding of the structure and strategies of this sometimes baffing poetry. Throughout the book she focuses primarily on the interactions between myths and cult festivals, and on Pindar’s skill in integrating and innovating upon traditional material. An introductory chapter discusses ‘occasionality’ and surveys scholarly views of the unity of Pindaric victory odes in general. The four main chapters deal in turn with each of the Odes selected as ‘case-studies’. These all contain a passage referring to a cult festival. In Isthmian 4 and Pythian 5 the reference is explicit, and to a festival currently being celebrated: in Olympian 1 reference is made to a festival celebrated earlier at the place of victory, and in Olympian 3 the reference is again arguably to a festival still in progress. Krummen delineates the historical settings of the cults and their related festivals, and each chapter ends with a consideration of how the cult passage fits into the poem as a whole. Brief appendixes list Pindaric allusions to festivals and cults are listed, and give sketch maps of the topography of Thebes and of Cyrene. A bibliography and indexes are included. Study of the cult passages naturally includes study of their related myths. Adopting the approach of modern researchers in religious history, Krummen details the basic patterns, the ‘programmes of actions’ underlying Pindar’s mythical and ritual narratives, patterns fixed in the cultures of the communities concerned. On this basis she shows, for example, that Pindar’s treatment of the myth of Pelops in Olympian 1 goes beyond mere rationalisation; rather he alters its role within the audience’s cultural expectations, in a way that makes his revision not only convincing but also profoundly acceptable. Modern approaches to Greek lyric narrative enable Krummen to clarify sequences of events in Pindar’s foundation myth of Cyrene in Pythian 5, and archaeology guides her to the true role of his topographical allusions within his narrative. Comparison with rituals in other parts of Greece helps to explicate the text in both Olympian 3 and Isthmian 4, and Weinrich’s theory of metaphor, in combination with archaeology, enables Krummen to identify the ‘new-built crownings of altars’ in Isthmian 4 and to reveal their full significance. Finally Krummen’s view of the original occasions and the myths of these odes makes full use of surviving works of art. Throughout, the Greek text is kept firmly in sight: for instance, her meticulous discussion of text, grammar, and tense provides a sound basis for a convincing identification of the Antenorids in Pythian 5 and for the reconstruction of their role in the Carnea in Cyrene. Finally, Krummen reveals how in all four odes the cult passages contribute at literal, figurative, and associative levels to the praise of the patron. In that sense Krummen brings us closer to grasping the unity of these poems. Cult, Myth, and Occasion in Pindar’s Victory Odes has already proved influential in its original German form. J.G. Howie’s English translation will make it widely accessible to students and scholars throughout the English-speaking world. The author. Eveline Krummen has pursued the study of Classical Philology at the Universities of Bern, Zürich, Cambridge, and Tübingen, and she taught as an adjunct at the Universities of Bern and Zürich, occasionally standing in for Professor Most at the University of Heidelberg. At Zürich she was licensed in 1987 with a dissertation later published (1990) as Pyrsos Hymnon. Festliche Gegenwart und mythisch-rituelle Tradition als Voraussetzung einer Pindarinterpretation (Isthmie 4, Pythie 5, Olympie 1 und 3). She was habilitated at Zürich in 1997, with a two-part thesis: a monograph on the early Greek lyric in its cultural context; and a text and commentary of Jacoby;s FGrHist Teil IV fasc. 2 on ancient historical writings. In 1999 she was appointed to her present position as Professor of Classical Philology at the University of Graz, Austria. Her research interests are in early Greek literature, Greek historiography, and Greek religion, and she has contributed in these fields to a number of periodicals, collected papers, and encyclopaedias. The Translator. J. Gordon Howie studied at the Universities of Glasgow and Oxford (Balliol College), and taught in the Department of Greek (later Classics) at the University of Edinburgh, where he was Senior Lecturer in Classics and is currently an Honorary Research Fellow. He is a Member of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting. In addition to his own scholarly articles on early Greek literature, now collected in Exemplum and Myth, Criticism and Creation (2012), his translation of Detlev Fehling’s Die Quellenangaben bei Herodot, on which he worked closely with the author to produce a definitive version, Herotodus and his ‘Sources’ (1989), is widely known and appreciated. He has also collaborated with Douglas Cairns on the translations in that scholar’s Bacchylides. Five epinician Odes (2010).

The late Hellenistic period, spanning the 2nd and early 1st centuries BC, was a time of great tumult and violence thanks to nearly incessant warefare. At the same time the period saw the greatest expansion of 'Hellenistic' Greek culture, including ceramics. Papers in this volume explore problems of ceramic chronology (often based on evidence dependent on the violent nature of the period), survey trends in both production and consumption of Hellenistic ceramics particularly in Asia Minor and the Pontic region, and assess the impact of Hellenistic ceramic culture across much of the eastern Mediterranean and into the Black Sea.

Good preservation in the western part of 10 Gresham Street has led to an unusually complete picture of the archaeological sequence.The discovery here of the largest group of Romano-British round houses yet excavated in London, clustered round a rectangular building, is of considerable significance for the Iron Age–Roman transition. Moreover, the site’s main north–south road seems to have been key to determining the layout of this whole area while evidence pointing to sporadic fires in the 2nd century AD casts new light on the idea of a single, catastrophic event. Significant finds include a double gold finger ring of the 1st century AD, while close study of face pots and tazze leads to a rethinking of their possible ritual functions.Abandoned from the late 4th/early 5th century AD until the 10th century, by the 12th century the site boasted at least four masonry buildings. The remains of several rare and expensive glass display vessels found in a 13th-century refuse pit indicate the presence of an extremely affluent household. Later, two taverns stood on the site or very close by, and significant numbers of vessels for storing and serving ale and wine were recovered. Considerable truncation of post-medieval structures and deposits, however, means that only the deepest cellars and cesspits survived from that period.

The unremarkable arable landscape around Mount Pleasant today belies the importance of the area in the past; at the highest point of the Lincolnshire Wolds and at the head of three radial valleys, this was a highly significant locality in earlier times. The discovery of surface finds by archaeologists working ahead of a prospective gas pipeline in 1992-3 augmented a collection of finds metal-detected during the 1980s. The large number of Iron Age coins and contemporary miniatures indicative of votive material suggested the location of a shrine. At the instigation of the County Archaeologist supported by Lincolnshire County Council, Steven Willis began a programme of evaluation trenching at Mount Pleasant in 1998 in a research exercise designed to better understand the site and to assemble information to assist the longer term management of the extensive, though fragile, remains there. The work on site included student training in fieldwork methods, assisted by the vital contribution of volunteers from the local community.Ten trenches were excavated, each revealing remains confirming the significance of the site to the early populations of the Wolds. A number of Neolithic palisade features were recorded representing land division and enclosure features, evidently part of a ceremonial landscape associated with barrows. The discovery of a stratified Early Bronze Age axe-head, Middle and Late Iron Age finds, including pottery, brooches, quernstones and coins were a testament to its continued occupation.Whilst the more striking finds point to votive activity, evidence for economic and cultural activity and prolific pottery finds from the Early Roman era, suggest a settled community was established by this period. The enclosure systems and tracks revealed by geophysical survey on either side of the B1225, which runs through the site, suggested that the modern road must overly a Roman predecessor. Stone founded buildings and site morphology exposed by excavation confirmed this and showed the site to have been a nodal point in the landscape, a crossroads embedded in the topography. A continuing religious focus at the site is demonstrated by the presence of an inscribed lead tablet of the Late Roman period with a list of named Roman citizens, presumably two households of this site or locality.Studies of faunal and environmental samples provide an insight into diet, crop production, local ecology and land use. Together with the specialist analysis of the artefactual evidence, this volume reveals a complex picture of the life and times of the site until occupation came to a rather abrupt end in the first half of the fourth century in an apparently widespread re-organization of settlement in the region. There was no post-Roman occupation; until the recent discoveries, all evidence of the rich archaeology of the site was in danger of remaining in obscurity. Further investigative work on the Wolds however is now recognized as a research priority.