The period AD 300-600 saw huge changes. The Graeco-Roman city-state was first transformed then eclipsed. Much of the Roman Empire broke up and was reconfigured. New barbarian kingdoms emerged in the Roman West. Above all, religious culture moved from polytheistic to monotheistic. Here, twenty papers by international scholars explore how group identities were established against this shifting background. Separate sections treat the Latin-speaking West, the Greek East, and the age of Justinian. Themes include religious conversion, Roman law in the barbarian West, problems of Jewish identity, and what in Late Antiquity it meant to be Roman.

Ethnicity and Culture in Late Antiquity

History

Mitchell, Stephen

Greatex, Geoffrey

Ancient Civilizations

Classical Press of Wales

Much of ancient history can only be written thanks to evidence supplied by Plutarch. His historical methods and qualities were for long subjected to little systematic analysis. However, in recent decades an authoritative and profoundly influential set of studies has appeared in the field, the work of Christopher Pelling. This book contains eighteen of Pelling's most important papers, revised by the author. Together, they form an essential work of reference for serious students of Greece and Rome.

Plutarch and History

Pelling, Christopher

Aphrodite's Tortoise: The Veiled Woman of Ancient Greece

Llewellyn-Jones, Lloyd

Sport and Festival in the Ancient Greek World

First launched at the time of the Athens Olympics, Sport and Festival in the Ancient Greek World has become a classic study in its field. The 15 illustrated chapters of this collection not only explore many aspects of the ancient Olympics and the rich programme of competitive festivals in democratic Athens but also the broader religious, social and political contexts in which sport and festival flourished in ancient Greece. The book shows how the values of sport pervaded Greek society and helped to create fundamental practices of ancient Greek democracy.

Pritchard, David

Phillips, David

Aristomenes was the legendary hero of the Messenian wars who led resistence against Sparta and yet, despite a full account of his heroic deeds by Pausanias, is now almost forgotten. This detailed study, which is based on a close reading of Pausanias and other sources, seeks to reinstate Aristomenes to his rightful place in ancient legend as well as reaffirm the importance of his story for Messenian history. After a discussion of Pausanias' sources and his use of them, Daniel Ogden looks at what type of hero Aristomenes was, finding him to have had a comic and sometimes ludicrous side. Aristomenes' heroic regalia, such as his magical shield, his frequent visits to the underworld, and the relation of his story to others from Messenia are also discussed in detail in this study which demonstrates the ways in which history, myth and literature fuse. Extensive Greek extracts are presented in the notes while the main body of the text presents English translations.

Aristomenes of Messene: Legends of Sparta's Nemesis

Ogden, Professor of Ancient History Daniel

In 2001 a conference on Athenian Law and Life was held at Glasgow University to mark the retirment of Professor Douglas M MacDowell. These seventeen papers, from that conference, reflect MacDowell's interests in the development of Athenian law, Attic oratory and Greek comedy. Placing Athenian law and rhetoric in their social and historical context throughout, contributors examine: oral law in archaic Greece, Athenian contracts and law of procedure in Attic inscriptions; political rhetoric, Antiphon and the Mysteries; Aristophanes and the Athenian assembly, ritual patterns in Aristophanes and new papyri of Menander.

Law, Rhetoric and Comedy in Classical Athens: Essays in Honour of Douglas M MacDowell

Literature & Fiction

Cairns, Douglas

Knox, R. A.

Dramas & Plays

In 2002 the Fourth International Sparta Seminar was held at Glasgow University; sixteen of the papers from that seminar are published here in this well-presented and authoritative study. Their emphasis is on the institutions of Sparta, the role of cult in other areas of life, the women of Sparta, Spartan politics and the construction of the Spartan image or `mirage'. Specific subjects include the motif of snatching in Spartan culture, suicide, the Hyakinthia festivals, female property ownership, the death of women, Thucydides' descripton of the massacre of 2,000 helots, Xenophon and modern perceptions of Sparta.

Spartan Society

Figueira, Professor Thomas J

The philosophers of Late Antiquity have sometimes appeared to be estranged from society. 'We must flee everything physical' is one of the most prominent ideas taken by Augustine from Platonic literature. This collection of new studies by leading writers on Late Antiquity treats both the principles of metaphysics and the practical engagement of philosophers. It points to a more substantive and complex involvement in worldly affairs than conventional handbooks admit.

Philosopher and Society in Late Antiquity: Essays in Honour of Peter Brown

Politics & Social Sciences

Smith Sir, Translator Andrew

Philosophy

Plato's Crito examines a single moral decision, whether Socrates ought to escape from his death-cell. Stokes's book discusses Socrates' arguments against Crito's offer of escape. It construes Socrates' questions as genuine questions, which clarify and undermine Critos positions. Stokes's approach avoids the "documentary fallacy"; it shows how Plato catered for both the novice and the experienced reader of his published works. This book offers a fresh account of Socrates' whole strategy. It demonstrates both the shakiness of Socrates' persuasion of the un-philosophical Crito to engage in dialectic, and the coherence of his substantive confutation. Plato's reasoning emerges from Stokes's study with more credit than many have given it. Michael Stokes is Emeritus Professor of Greek at Durham University. He has also taught at Balliol (Oxford) and at Edinburgh, Cornell and Newcastle Universities. His previous writings include One and Many in Presocratic Philosophy, Plato's Socratic Conversations: Drama and Dialectic in Three Dialogues and Plato's Apology.

Dialectic in Action: An Examination of Plato's Crito

Stokes, M. C.

Stokes, Michael C.

History & Criticism

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