Innholdsfortegnelse for AH 41 i Ancient History Magazine

The pharaoh Akhenaten (r. ca. 1352 - 1335 BC) is best known for introducing a new god, the Aten, at the expense of Egypt's traditional pantheon. The many changes of his reign, known as the Amarna Revolution, such as his monumental building projects and alternative art style, were conceived and completed with the Aten in mind. The relief shown here depicts Akhenaten, his wife Nefertiti, and several of their daughters worshipping the Aten, the 'Dazzling Sun Disc', whose rays reach down towards the royal family and the offerings beside them. © World History Archive / Alamy…

Ancient Egypt possibly has the longest history of any civilisation, ancient or no. Egyptian society showed remarkable resilience, remaining relatively constant even when under external control, such as the status of the pharaohs, the near-continuous worship of a single relatively unchanged pantheon, and even their art style. Of course, there were moments of great disruption in their history, the various Intermediate Periods attest to the political instability of Egyptian society, but no single reign was more transformative of Egypt than that of Akhenaten. Born Amenhotep, and initially ruling as Amenhotep IV, he did more to change the fundamental structure of Egyptian society than any ruler before or after him. Indeed, his transformation of Egyptian society was so reviled that his successors attempted to remove any memory of his rule. Luckily,…

THE ROMAN EMPIRE: AD 162 500 AD 1 AD 500 BC 1000 BC SPECIAL Writing in the build-up to the emperor Lucius Verus’ Parthian War in AD 162, the rhetor and advocatus Polyaenus prepared eight books of stratagems, his Strategemata, each book published separately. He planned 900 stratagems to cover all of Greek history from mythology onwards; book eight covers Roman history and the latest anecdote (8.62) comes from the reign of Nero. It is in book four, however, that Polyaenus covers the Macedonians, and he notes in the preface that their history in particular would be of interest to his imperial readers since “I, a Macedonian who has inherited the ability to conquer the Persians in war, want to do my part at the present critical time.” The Roman…

Akhetaten, ANCIENT EGYPT: ca. 1353 – 1322 BC 1000 BC 1500 BC 2000 BC 2500 BC THEME: The reign of Akhenaten Akhenaten ruled after his father, Amenhotep III (or Amenhotep the Magnificent), considered by many as one of the most successful pharaohs due to his expansive and stable empire. During his reign, the cult of Amun and its priests amassed more land, wealth, and influence, seating themselves at Karnak, a temple complex larger than the Vatican. It is with Amenhotep III that whispers of challenging this powerful priesthood began. He is evidenced to have aligned himself with Aten, a sun god/disc with no human form or myths. Pharaonic inscriptions included ‘Aten’, and statues of Amenhotep III were made from quartzite, special due to its glowing, golden luminance when positioned to…

ANCIENT EGYPT: ca. 1341 – 1300 BC 1000 BC 1500 BC 2000 BC 2500 BC THEME: The reign of Akhenaten Even if there is a battle, a law, or a treaty, conflicts rarely come to a sudden end. Akhenaten’s conflict with the great temples was no exception. Some scholars see signs that late in his reign, the sculptures on his monuments were becoming less radical. Whether this is true or not, Akhenaten’s religious and artistic reforms were gradually undone by at least three following pharaohs over a period of at least 20 years. Akhenaten and his circle gradually lost power, until Rameses, a man who had not been close to any of Akhenaten’s family, became pharaoh. Translatio imperii It is difficult to trace the events after Akhenaten’s death because he…

THE ROMAN EMPIRE: ca. AD 23 – 100 AD 500 AD 1 500 BC 1000 BC ANCIENT COOKING There were many varieties of pears in antiquity and many ways to use them. Pliny the Elder (AD 23/24–79) records 41 varieties, each with its own name, character, and flavour. Pears could be named after the Roman who introduced their variety to Rome, or by the region they came from, their colour, odour, shape, or the season of their harvest. The ‘Tiberian’ was named after Emperor Tiberius, because he liked them so much. The ‘Falernian’ pear was named after the much-appreciated ‘Falernum’ wine, because of its very juicy character. The Romans had many ways to eat pears, making both savoury and sweet dishes, but nothing that I found beats “garum of pear”.…

BOOK REVIEWS By Josiah Osgood ISBN: 978-0691212364 Princeton University Press (2022) - £12.99 www.press.princeton.edu The Catiline Conspiracy of 63 BC was, for Rome, another scary road bump that could’ve turned out quite badly but didn’t – miraculously. For Cicero, who became consul that same year, it was the biggest moment of his life, and according to him, he put the ‘miracle’ in miraculous. In truth, the real miracle of shutting down Catiline’s conspiracy was the woman who betrayed the confidence of her conspiring lover. She was then followed by a small string of other informers – including an unlikely delegation of Gauls – who allowed Cicero and the Senate to take control and squash the conspiracy. In the latest addition to Princeton University Press’s “How to…” series of “Ancient Wisdom…

BOOK REVIEWS Edited by Corien Wiersma & Maria P. Tsouli ISBN: 978-9464260625 Sidestone Press (2022) - €50.00 www.sidestone.com Most, if not all, students of ancient history will be familiar with the region of Laconia, the centre of the hegemonic power of Sparta in the Iron Age, and the seat of power of the mythical king Menelaus of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. Given the nature of the evidence, with Sparta occupying a special place within the ancient consciousness, the subject of a great many sources, it is no surprise that there is an ever-growing body of literature devoted to the subject. Yet, the same cannot be said for prehistoric Laconia. Archaeologically, Laconia has no known site comparable to the significant Bronze Age Greek centres of Mycenae, Pylos, Orchomenus, and Gla. The…

The Amarna Period, ANCIENT EGYPT: ca. 1353 – 1322 BC 1000 BC 1500 BC 2000 BC 2500 BC THEME: The reign of Akhenaten On November 24, 1922, Egyptian excavators working with Howard Carter completed clearance of the sixteen-step staircase that led to the entrance of the tomb that the British archaeologist and his patron the Fifth Earl of Carnarvon had long sought. An assortment of broken artefacts found among the rubble that filled the staircase led Carter to the depressing admission that the “balance of evidence so far would seem to indicate a cache rather than a tomb … we inclined more and more to the opinion that we were about to find a miscellaneous collection of objects of the Eighteenth Dynasty kings, brought from Tell el Amarna by Tutankh-Amen…

THE ROMAN EMPIRE: ca. AD 375 – 420 500 AD 1 AD 500 BC 1000 BC SPECIAL Orosius’ Historiae is generally held to be most useful for its sections devoted to chronicling events near-contemporary to the life of its author, with less attention being paid to the portions devoted to earlier Roman history. Conversely, other scholars have sought to resuscitate Orosius’ text by examining its lasting influence on medieval historical writing and its clever textual interplay with familiar classics of Roman historiography (such as Livy and Tacitus). What appears to be generally ignored is a third approach to the text beyond its literary creativity (which is real) and its factual reliability (which is also real). Orosius provides a fascinating window into the profound problem posed by Rome’s proud historical tradition…

La Turbie, THE ROMAN EMPIRE: ca. 14 – 5 BC 500 AD 1 AD 500 BC 1000 BC SPECIAL Without a doubt, the Via Iulia Augusta along the southern French coast is one of the most legendary Roman roads. It took Rome 80 years of guerrilla warfare to open a land route through the area for the Roman army. G. Sextius Calvinus finally defeated the Ligures, the Vocontii, and the Salluvii in Gallia Narbonensis in 124 BC. He founded Aquae Sextiae, later Aixen-Provence, on the site of the Celtic-Ligurian capital (oppidum) and so ensured free passage. However, the construction of the Roman road, especially between Nice and Fréjus, only took place after the final subjugation of the Ligurian tribes by Emperor Augustus in 14 BC. Since 20 BC he had…

EGYPT’S GOLDEN COUPLE: WHEN AKHENATEN AND NEFERTITI WERE GODS ON EARTH By John Darnell and Colleen DarnellSt. Martin’s Press, 2022ISBN: 978-1803991917 The attempted erasure of Akhenaten and Nefertiti from history has left archaeologists and historians little with which to reconstruct their reign. Since their discovery, the couple have been subject to widely different (and contradictory) biographies. In Egypt’s Golden Couple, John and Colleen Darnell seek to undo previous mistakes, returning to the art and the inscriptions, and understand the iconic Egyptian rulers. THE CITY OF AKHENATEN AND NEFERTITI: AMARNA AND ITS PEOPLE By Barry KempThames & Hudson, 2012ISBN: 978-0500051733 All that remains of the city of Akhetaten today are its ruins. In this book, Barry Kemp brings these sand-strewn stones to life, reconstructing the palaces, temples, and houses…