Innholdsfortegnelse for AH 42 i Ancient History Magazine

Going to the theatre is now, for most, a rare event, if people go at all. Yet, for the ancients, theatre was one of, if not the, primary forms of entertainment, and in its early stages (pardon the pun) the theatre had a central civic importance. It is perhaps appropriate to equate going to the theatre in the ancient world with the prominence of streaming services in the modern world. When one thinks of theatre in the ancient world, ancient Athens probably comes to mind. Athenian play wrights dominate the literary record and the Theatre of Dionysus can still be seen today. However, ancient theatre was by no means confined to Athens, but spread across the Mediterranean throughout a great period of time. Given its importance to Greco-Roman societies, the…

To preserve Egyptian papyri, the climate must be dry, and the site must not be subject to the annual flooding of the Nile. Among the sites that fit the bill are the Hellenistic towns around Lake Fayyum, to the south-west of modern Cairo, and Oxyrhynchus, a bit further to the south. GRENFELL AND HUNT Research started in late 1896. Two British scholars, Bernard Grenfell (1870-1926) and Arthur Hunt (1871-1934), chose the site with the explicit aim of securing anclient texts. Since their colleagues focused on the great monuments of Egypt, they explained, peripheral areas remained ignored and were open to plundering. Thus, papyri might come on the market without documented provenance. Oxyrhynchus was a great site to look for manuscripts: it had not been looted and was sufficient of a…

THEME: A day at the theatre THEME REPUBLICAN ROMAN THEATRE Between the third and second centuries BC, Rome experienced a complex historical phase. Clashes with Carthage, expansion towards the north and east, and the conquest of southern Italy, an area colonized by the Greeks, brought about numerous changes, from the adoption of the Greek theatrical tradition to being the head of a territorial empire fraught with complications. The socio-political context of Plautus' plays After conquering a large part of the Italian peninsula through the reduction of Sicily to a province (241 BC), and after defeating the ancient eastern powers of Macedonia and its allies (200-197 BC), the Aetolians (189 BC), and Syria (192-189 BC), the Roman state extended its dominion as far as Asia Minor, thus succeeding in subjugating, in various forms,…

THEME: A day at the theatre THEME THE ACOUSTICS OF THE GREEK THEATRE MASKS Masks play almost no part in modern theatrical entertainment, and even productions of classical plays are seldom masked performances. Indeed, the theatre director Peter Reynolds recalls that in rehearsals for a masked performance of Oedipus in 1996, many of the actors had a strong aversion to masks, including the lead actor Alan Howard. In an interview after the play's run the actress Judi Dench was reported as saying that she wished she had been part of the production “until she remembered the masks and felt profoundly relieved that she wasn't”. Over the years, the modern aversion to masked performance has created a significant barrier between the historian and their understanding of the ancient theatre performances. This barrier is…

Trogus Pompeius tells us that … wild partridges, when newly caught, or when beaten by the others, are trodden promiscuously by the tame ones,” Pliny the Elder wrote in his Historia Naturalis in the first century AD among the many thousands of ancient facts he left us. Intriguingly, this indicates that partridges were domesticated before or during Pliny's time. Enamoured by partridges Partridges also appear on Roman mosaics and thus may have been kept as ancient pets, sources of amusement, or as the centrepiece of a feast. Aside from Pliny's recounting of Trogus Pompeius' wisdom, we do have some indication of deeper relationships with partridges. During the middle of the second century AD, Cornelius Fronto- senator, orator, and tutor to the imperial household scrawled a letter to AufidiusVictorinus, his sonin-law:…

Ingredients Preparation Clean the tulip bulbs: remove the brown skin and cut off the bottom. Cut each bulb in half. Take out the small (bitter) core and discard. Separate the different layers of the halved bulbs. Rinse the pieces well with water. Cook the pieces for 30 seconds in gently boiling water and then rinse immediately with cold water to prevent them from cooking any more. Add the dates with the thyme and oregano to a mortar or small food processor and grind to a paste. Next, add honey, vinegar, defrutum (or the sweet wine), oil, and garum and stir until smooth. Place the flower bulbs in a bowl and pour the sauce over them. Mix together.…

BOOK REVIEWS ISBN: 978-1398113091 Amberley Publishing (2022) - £16.99 www.amberley-books.com There is certainly a lot of choice in books on the most well-known Roman monument in Britain. This new book is written by Dr Andrew Tibbs, the man behind the @RomanScotland account on Twitter. Here he offers “a short guide for exploring Hadrian's Wall - what there is to see and where it can be seen” (p. 7). The short book is squarely aimed at “visitors to the Wall, for day trippers and casual explorers, and those interested in finding out more about the monument, and the other Roman fortifications in this part of northern England” (p. 7). Brevity means making sacrifices. This book is not an in-depth archaeological or historical text and it explicitly states so. The 'Short Overview' is,…

A SHORT INTRODUCTION TO ANCIENT GREEK THEATRE By Graham Ley University of Chicago Press, 2007 ISBN: 978-0226477619 Greek theatre is a very broad subject with a great many facets, from architecture to literature and language. In this Short Introduction, Ley provides a comprehensive overview of the theatre culture of ancient Greece. Where other introductions might cover the theatrical space and the activities within, this book explores peripheral (but no less important) subjects, such as the writers and the difficulties of translating plays. AN INTRODUCTION TO GREEK TRAGEDY By Ruth Scodel Cambridge University Press, 2010 ISBN: 978-0521705608 Tragedy is the most well-known genre of ancient Greek theatre. The tales of Orestes, Oedipus, and many others have captured people's imagination for millennia. In An Introduction to Greek Tragedy, Ruth Scodel explores the…

Hello, Professor Cartledge. First off, can you define myth? And can we start with Alexander's birth? Did Olympias believe she had an affair with Zeus that produced Alexander? A myth is a traditional (originally oral) tale with partial reference to something of broad social-cultural significance usually involving gods or other supernatural agencies. As for Alexander's birth, we, of course, are reliant on others to relay what may have been Olympias' own view of the matter, whether publicly or privately expressed. It seems that she was the kind of person to believe in the literal truth of what others might consider at most metaphorical. I can well believe that she told Alexander privately that his real father was not Philip but Zeus. (A similar sort of tale found its way into…

Theatre appears to have been introduced to Britain relatively soon after the Roman invasion under Claudius (AD 43). Tacitus mentions that a theatre had been built in the Roman colony of Camulodunum, the first provincial capital of Britain, which in AD 60/61 “rang with shrieks” in an omen of the forthcoming revolt of Boudica. The theatre was likely built in the AD 50s, potentially less than a decade after the Romans had gained a foothold in southern England. By the second century AD theatres had been constructed in a number of Roman towns, suggesting that there was a demand for live enH tertainment within the province, although perhaps less so than in other areas of the Empire. Theatre shows would have provided a leisuretime alternative to the more brutal sports…

The only descriptions that we have of ancient mask types come from Julius Pollux, a Greek scholar in the third century AD, who was born in Naucratis in Egypt but who lived and worked in Athens. He wrote a text called the Onomasticon, in which he describes the repertoire of comic masks (forty-four in total). Here is a selection of the most common masks and the characters they represent.…

SPECIAL A ROMAN VIP TOURS SIGHTS ON THE NILE By AD 18, Germanicus Julius Caesar (b. 24 May 16 BC) was Rome's most popular commander and the darling of the Roman people. The adopted son of his uncle, the emperor Tiberius Caesar, Germanicus had led campaigns against Arminius of the Cherusci with some success and had since been granted the high honour of a triumph. Tiberius then dispatched him to Syria as his consul general (praepositus Orienti) to oversee affairs in the eastern provinces and root out malpractice, which was endemic in local administrations. Tour of duty En route, Germanicus sojourned at Nicopolis to view the battle site of Actium where, in 31 BC, Augustus (his adoptive grandfather) had fought Marcus Antonius (his grandfather on his mother's side). He stopped at…

The sea enables the exchange of goods, people, and ideas over long distances. Without sea trade, the modern world is inconceivable. However, international trade must have originated somewhere, sometime. The Lebanese port of Byblos, modern Jbeil just north of Beirut, appears to have played a crucial role. Cedars and ships The fact that sea trade started in Byblos is largely due to the ways its inhabitants parlayed the high demand for cedar wood - a product that can only be transported by sea - into a durable historical prominence. Merchants from Byblos were present when the first pharaohs ruled in ancient Egypt between 3250 and 3000 BC. These pharaohs ordered the construction of monumental temples and tombs, which required huge wooden planks and beams. However, the trees from which these…

The discovery of eighty skeletons during excavations in the city of York, England in 2004-2005 caused a sensation at the time. Forty-eight of them had been decapitated from behind. The question archaeologists then asked was: who were they? Now visitors to the Corinium Museum can see the grisly remains and decide for themselves. York Archaeological Trust (YAT) uncovered the inhumation burials at Driffield Terrace on a site located across the Ouse River from the legionary fortress of Eboracum, which was part of a large cemetery on the outskirts of a civil settlement. The remains shared some striking similarities. They were all male and all under 45 years old. Several of the victims had suffered perimortem decapitation. Their skulls were buried with their bodies - some placed on the chest, some…

THEME: A day at the theatre THEME THE CITY DIONYSIA IN ATHENS Picture yourself on the south slope of the Acropolis in ancient Athens. Far below you out towards the horizon is the bustling port, the Piraeus. It's late March; ships can sail in and out again. Seated on a wooden bench, set on the hillside, you're eagerly awaiting this year's plays. You're not alone. The audience often thousand, made up of local Athenians and visitors to the city, are anticipating the performances together. This is more than a drama festival though; it's also a religious occasion, a celebration of Dionysus, god of theatre and wine. A theatre festival for a god The Great Dionysia, or City Dionysia, was at once a drama competition and a religious festival. At the centre of…

The Athenians appear to have been unusually enamoured of the theatre when compared to other, contemporary Greek cultures. The Theatre of Dionysus, still visible on the slopes of the Athenian Acropolis, is emblematic of this cultural fascination. Early Athenian drama Athenian dramatic performances, thought to have been first introduced during the reign of the tyrant Peisistratus, may not have always taken place on the slopes of the Acropolis. There was a space with-in the Athenian agora called the orchestra, the 'dancing floor', although where exactly this space was is unknown. Xenophon, in his work The Cavalry Commander, says that choruses would dance for the Twelve Gods (3.2). As there was an Altar of the Twelve Gods in the Athenian agora, built during the reign of Peisistratus' sons (see Thucydides 6.54),…

THEME: A day at the theatre THEME COURTESANS, ACTRESSES, AND EMPRESSES A law describing the festivities to accompany the entry of a new consul into office at Constantinople, promulgated in AD 537, perfectly illustrates the contradiction inherent to theatrical performance in the Christian Roman empire: the clash between the popularity of the events and the perception that they encouraged immoral behaviour. In this case, the law lists a series of processions involving public performances. The fifth of these would be in the theatre of the pornai where there would be performances of tragedy, comedy, and dancing, all spectacles that are pleasing to the eyeand to the ear. In classical Greek the meaning of pornai is 'prostitutes', but by the sixth century AD the meaning of the word had been extended to include…

Quite a variety of flower bulbs were eaten or used in antiquity, even poisonous tubers. The menu or medicine cabinet included arum, lily (both poisonous!), grape hyacinth, and tassel hyacinth. Potent panacea The most loved flower was sea squill. Ancient authors mainly wrote about its role as an aphrodisiac and praised its medical properties. They were considered very helpful for many conditions. Among other things, drinks and infusions were made from the juice of the bulbs. For example, sea squill was used to flavour wine or vinegar for medical purposes. Both Hippocrates (460-370 BC) and Pliny the Elder (AD 23-79) described the properties of sea squill. Consuming bulbs as an aphrodisiac was also a widespread practice. Ancient authors such as Ovid (43 BC-AD 17) and Varro (116-27 BC) wrote about…

The mundanity of music is, in one way, unfortunate for historians. As music was something the Romans took for granted, they seldom bothered to describe it, simply assuming that everyone knew when it was played, how, and with what instruments. Famous fiddlers We can reconstruct something of the life of a professional musician from a parody by one Roman writer. He records how his subject received musical instruction as a youth, and how he later studied under one Terpnus, the greatest lyre player of his day. He made his debut performance in Naples, where he continued singing even when the stage was shaken by an earth tremor. In public music contests he would put his name into an urn from which the contestants were selected by lot. He never dared…

ISBN: 978-1350186477 Bloomsbury (2020) - £28.99 www.bloomsbury.com Modern society is all too aware of the potential that the arts have for exploring contemporary identities and politics. Comedians have always been pointing to the contradictions in people's worldviews, or highlighting hypocrisy where it rears its head. It seems that there are more comedy satire shows on television than there ever have been. Similarly, drama allows viewers to explore other people's experiences and reflect upon their own identities. The same has long been recognized in the words of ancient Greek drama, from Aristophanes' scathing depictions of Cleon to Euripides' exploration of the fate of women in war in his work The Trojan Women at the height of the Peloponnesian War, after the Athenians had decided to utterly destroy Melos, executing the men and…