Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Barry Cunliffe was Professor of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford from 1972 to 2007. Europe between the Oceans is the most recent book in his prolific publishing career, which includes not only academic work but also mainstream books educating the general public about Europe's past. Although, as an archaeologist, Cunliffe is concerned with human achievements and culture, Europe between the Oceans has a theme familiar to scholars of the ancient world: Geography determines culture.

The idea that culture develops in great part from the environment around it can be found in Herodotus, Pliny, Plutarch, and most other ancient authors who described and offered explanations for the variety of human practices and beliefs, a connection that Cunliffe demonstrates through numerous classical quotations in his first chapter. We classicists and historians primarily concern ourselves with written evidence, though we often utilize other fields to test our theories and supplement what can be a frustrating dearth of information. Cunliffe takes us far back into Europe's past before human settlements might properly be called civilized. From this beginning he steers us through ten millennia, looking at how geographic features aided or hindered interactions between groups of people principally through trade and competition for land and resources.

As the title suggests, Cunliffe looks at how the oceans around Europe have aided and limited European development. Chapter two of Europe between the Oceans lays out what Cunliffe will consider to be Europe for the purposes of this book, and frankly his definition is standard. The chapter and the book, though, are not solely focused on oceans as the primary geographical condition that drives development. Bodies of fresh water, be they lakes or rivers, also play a vibrant role in his discussion, since these are areas where humans settle and via which they trade.

Of course humans need more than water; they must have food, and so chapter three goes back much further than our title suggests to explain how diverse Europe is in terms of animal and plant life as well as agricultural potential. Cunliffe's careful descriptions of changes in climate and environment are very clear, with a good presentation of the evidence. This clarity continues throughout the text, though archaeological and geographical data seem the focus over written evidence, an unsurprising fact, given Cunliffe's expertise.

Almost every chapter is written in a clear format that both laypersons and scholars can understand. Introductions give a brief overview of what each chapter will cover; the bulk of the chapter that follows then contains geographical and sometimes political or cultural sections that look at developments with multiple examples of evidence. Whenever there are conflicting or competing theories for the observed realities, Cunliffe lays these out clearly, though he often does not give specific citations for whose theories these are and he usually argues for one of the theories through application of additional evidence. All but one of the chapters then ends with a brief summary highlighting the most important facts he has discussed.

Chapters four through six do not use written evidence, even though written evidence is extant for the period covered in chapter six. Of course, as an archaeologist, Cunliffe is aware of the latest scientific studies and evidence, and he lays these out in a logical fashion while explaining these techniques for the readers. A point of special interest is the use of DNA evidence to challenge or validate theories about the movements of people through the centuries. Cunliffe briefly describes the limits of DNA evidence in chapter four, then utilizes it throughout without returning to address these limits. The common threads found through both DNA evidence and artifacts is that by and large men moved more than women across Europe, coming primarily to trade, Cunliffe speculates, and then intermarrying with the local populations in the earliest millennia of European history, only exchanging women during periods of relative wealth and stability. I think the evidence is suggestive, if not persuasive.

Similarly Cunliffe sees far fewer external influences on Europe than cultural differences developing sui generis, an argument he supports through the use of artifacts and DNA evidence. He demonstrates that even those areas of Europe in greatest contact with Africa and Asia are more selective in their adaptation of religious practices, technological methods, and social forms than we would expect if there were massive migrations or large-scale colonization. There is no counter-suggestion that Europe exported its cultures into the rest of the world, but then the focus here is on the development of Europe, not its impact on the world. Trade and competition for resources are the factors driving most of the minor movements of people that Cunliffe sees in pre-historical Europe.

Beginning with the seventh chapter and the third millennium BC, written evidence becomes increasingly important, but Cunliffe never ignores the geographical, archaeological and DNA evidence employed for pre-history. This approach offers good supplemental evidence since we know that all written sources contain biases as do the artifacts and the interpretation of them, as well as geographical and other scientific evidence. Nothing is truly objective, so when Cunliffe can offer such a range of information it supports his own arguments for why certain practices or events occur. There was not much that one would strongly disagree with in this book, though readers could come up with several questions they would want more information about and different interpretations of a few of the written sources he uses.

When we leave pre-history firmly behind and become entrenched in the historical periods of Greece, Rome, and the early Medieval world, I noticed that Cunliffe's opinions on differing theories and interpretations sharply dropped, as did the amount of non-textual evidence. He never completely leaves out the artifacts, geographical considerations and DNA, but the largest percentage of the material in these chapters is dedicated to a narrative similar to what we find in good textbooks. I think this is a fine approach, since the target audience of this book is so broad, and Cunliffe, like all of us, has his areas of expertise and interest. What I did find lacking was a discussion of how advances in technology may have decreased the role of geography on cultural development and what may have replaced it.

The text is peppered with a multitude of photographs, illustrations, and maps. The photographs are gorgeous, adding a great deal to the discussion. The illustrations also add to the information of each section. The maps are of varying quality, some lacking keys and others poorly keyed; this seems true more for the historical chapters than for those dealing with prehistory, but perhaps this reflects my areas of expertise. Some of the archaeological diagrams also lack good keys, making them almost impossible to understand without some basic training in the conventions for marking things in such drawings. Oddly, this book lacks a proper bibliography and instead offers a "Further Reading" list; likewise, except for the occasional internal citation, there is very little information about where each fact and theory Cunliffe uses comes from. After dozens of publications it might be argued that Cunliffe need not document everything, but one is surprised to see so few citations. Fuller bibliographical indications would aid readers who found a particular piece of information intriguing and wondered where they could learn more.

Overall Europe between the Oceans is a beautiful book that covers a lot of information in a readable fashion for both scholars and laypersons. Cunliffe argues the idea of geography driving destiny very well while allowing for and highlighting how human decisions determine cultural differences and similarities.

Table of Contents

The laudable mission of the Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy series is to "expand the range, variety, and quality of texts in the history of philosophy" available in English. In some cases--Cicero, Sextus Empiricus--that mission is accomplished by presenting new translations of less well-known texts and authors; in others--as in Roger Crisp's edition of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics--the series strives to publish translations that pay attention to recent scholarship and that offer fresh and readable texts.

Plato's Symposium is, in the context of that mission, a challenge. Far from lesser-known, it is among Plato's most read works, and it is surely more popular outside of philosophy courses than any other Platonic text. And unlike some ancient works, which have been taken up by relatively few recent translators, there are by my count seven English-language editions of the Symposium that have been published in the last twenty years.¹

Publishing a new translation of such a text necessarily presents a range of difficulties. (The same must of course apply to reviewing such a publication. I will clearly not have the luxury, for example, of comparing Howatson's translations of particular passages with a representative sample of other translations, even recent ones.)

Certain questions, then, need asking: does the world need another translation of this text right now? Who is the audience for such a publication? Does this translation offer a clearer access to Plato than others? Or a richer scholarly context? In my estimation, the answers to most of the above are: perhaps, and probably the intended student audience will benefit from this edition, as it contains an informative introduction by Frisbee C. C. Sheffield and an excellent set of notes and glossaries.

The translation itself, however, does not capture enough of Plato's style, and in the interest of bold interpretation occludes certain themes and connections between the various speeches. If I were to assign this to students, it would only be in combination with another, more lyrical translation of this wonderful text.

Sheffield's Introduction does a nice job of explaining the backgrounds of most characters--though more details appear in the Glossary of Names. She also helps the reader understand the significance--within the text and within the historical setting--of both eros and of symposia. She then offers a brief account of each speech, showing how the early speeches relate to each other as well as how each raises aspects of problems confronted in Socrates' speech.

Sheffield then offers a more detailed analysis of Socrates' speech, the speech in which Socrates relates the conversation that he may have once had with a woman named Diotima. Sheffield's account draws on her compelling recent book, Plato's Symposium: The Ethics of Desire.² A few features of the analysis in this present volume warrant brief discussion. In addition to a thorough, thoughtful discussion of Socrates' intellectualism or "psychological eudaimonism," Sheffield offers an interesting reading of the final stage in the famous "ascent" passage, according to which the "true virtue" that the successful lover gives birth to at 212a is identical with the activity of contemplation of the form of beauty. This interpretation has the benefit of explaining Diotima's claim that the life of contemplation is a life "which most of all a human being should live, in the contemplation of beauty itself" (211d, in Howatson's translation). If some further product were the true goal, this focus on contemplation might sound off-key.

On the other hand, F. C. White has recently made a strong case for seeing the mention of giving birth to true virtue as an indication that the successful lover must do more than merely contemplate the form of beauty,³ and to the extent that that account is compelling, it would have been nice to see Sheffield address it more directly.

One other interesting feature of the Introduction is the time that Sheffield spends on Gregory Vlastos' famous claim that the successful lover described by Diotima cannot love actual, whole persons as a result of that lover's focus on the ascent to the form of beauty. Now that is certainly a fascinating worry, but it surprises me that of all the possible critical discussions of the Symposium, that one should feature so prominently, and should do so in the absence of some of the many fascinating responses, as for example the one found in Martha Nussbaum's account of the dialogue.⁴

Following the Introduction is a brief Chronology, a regrettably brief bibliography ("Further reading"), a Translator's Note, and the text of the dialogue. The book ends with a very thorough glossary of Greek terms as well as a glossary of names. These last are quite useful, and would clearly benefit both undergraduate and postgraduate readers. There are some small oddities (in such a thorough glossary, why leave out a word like ἀλήθεα? why abandon the Stephanus pagination in the Glossary of Names? transliterated Greek is no easier to read than real Greek, and it looks quite odd--what good does it do anyone?), but on the whole the glossaries serve the reader well. The text ends with a brief index of subjects.

The translation itself is clear and intelligible, and has a helpful if almost frightening number of footnotes (227 notes for the dialogue's 51 Stephanus pages). Some notes offer the transliterated Greek word, while others contain extensive historical or philosophical information for the reader, as with note 15, which details the typical seating arrangements at symposia.

In some cases, however, something seems to have gone wrong. Page 9 contains eleven notes, ten of which inform the reader of the Greek words that correspond to words in the translation. That seems like a lot, but I could forgive simple excess. That same page, however, which presents the translation of 178b-179b, contains three uses of forms of the word καλός. The first occurrence, translated as "good" (at 178c6) is noted, but the other two are not, which is especially problematic because they are each translated differently--"honourable" at 178d2 and "noble" at 178d4. Those are all fine translations (though I admit to being partial to using "beautiful" as often as possible), but in the context of this many notes on translation, I object to the silence concerning the uses here of such an important word. To put it another way, page 9 either needs far fewer notes, or at least a few more.

My purpose here is not to quibble over the particulars of the translation, but I do want to mention three more areas. First of all, Howatson's choice of "right" and "wrong" as translations of καλός and αἰσχρός in Pausanias' speech strikes me as ill-conceived. As Howatson herself acknowledges, those who question that translation "have a strong case" (p. 12 n. 55). More worrisome to me, though, is the fact that this translation masks the continuity between various speeches. Part of the movement of the dialogue involves the various characters' attempts to develop and respond to each others' claims about ideas like love and beauty. When Agathon, for example, asserts that Love is "supreme in beauty" (195a7), readers without Greek would have a hard time recognizing that as the same term at work in Pausanias' speech. When the translation covers up these lexical parallels, readers lose out.

The second section that concerns me is Agathon's speech (194e-197e). It's a lovely, silly speech, and first-time readers need to be able to see that. It's also a speech that employs some painfully bad logic of course, and Howatson does a nice job of offering a clear and readable text, which helps highlight the fallacies. Agathon's bad reasoning loses its force, however, if it doesn't sound all too pretty. Here are some lines from Howatson's translation of the final moment (197d1-6):

It is Love who takes from us our sense of estrangement and fills us with a sense of kinship; who causes us to associate with one another as on this occasion, and at festivals, dances and sacrifices is the guiding spirit. He imparts gentleness, he banishes harshness; he is lavish with goodwill, sparing of ill-will; he is gracious and kindly; viewed with admiration by the wise and with wonder by the gods . . .

After the speech concludes, Socrates' jokes that Agathon has "stunned every listener with the beauty of his language" (198b4-5). Readers of Howatson's translation would, I dare say, be surprised by that assertion. Her translation is lucid, and it is true to the content. But the style is almost the entire point of Agathon's speech, especially in that closing bit. Nehamas and Woodruff come closer, and to me suggest some of what Howatson omits:

Love fills us with togetherness and drains all of our divisiveness away. Love calls gatherings like these together. In feasts, in dances, and in ceremonies, he gives the lead. Love moves us to mildness, removes from us wildness. He is giver of kindness, never of meanness. Gracious, kindly--let wise men see and gods admire!

Obviously, the fact that Howatson fails to capture Agathon's lyricism does not by itself entail that her translation fails. It does, however, point to one of the key difficulties with this text and with this particular translation. The Symposium is a beautiful book, not just a book about beauty. Howatson acknowledges this challenge in her Note (xxxiv), but it's not always clear that she compromises in the right places.

I also want to mention Howatson's version of the ascent passage. Overall, it's a very good translation, in many ways better than other recent versions. To have Diotima say that beauty itself is not "like a discourse or a branch of knowledge" (211a7), for example, makes nice, concise sense of a difficult bit of Greek (οὐδέ τις λόγος οὐδέ τις ἐπιστήμη). (Nehamas and Woodruff offer "one idea or one kind of knowledge," which to me just adds unnecessary confusion.) When Howatson gets to the word μονοειδές at 211b1, however, she offers "single in substance," which both raises a number of distracting connotations and fails to square with the glossary in this very volume, where the much more mild-mannered "single in form" appears.

Finally, Howatson has Alcibiades tell his listeners that his method will be to make "comparisons" (215a4-5). That is a fine translation of εἰκόνες, but again Howatson hides fruitful parallels from readers. Earlier, Diotima had described the successful lover as birthing no images (212a3-4); later, Alcibiades describes Socrates' discourse as full of "images of virtue" (222a4). The choice of "comparisons" at 215a works against readers like myself, who wish to examine the various attitudes towards things like images in Plato's texts.

These points are relatively minor, and do not of course make the translation overly problematic or unreadable. They do, however, remind of the difficulty and challenge posed by a text like the Symposium. Although I view this volume--and especially its notes and glossaries--as a useful addition and aid for students and scholars, I'm afraid that I can do so only in spite of the translation.

1.  Alexander Nehamas and Paul Woodruff (Hackett, 1989); R. E. Allen (Yale, 1991); Avi Sharon (Focus, 1997); Christopher Rowe (Aris and Phillips, 1998); Robin Waterfield (Oxford, 1998); Seth Bernardete (Chicago, 2001); Christopher Gill (Penguin, 2003).
2.  Oxford, 2006.
3.  "Virtue in Plato's Symposium," in The Classical Quarterly (2004) 54.2, 366-378.
4.  The Fragility of Goodness, Updated Edition (Cambridge, 2001). pp. 165-199.

[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review.]

This remarkable volume of collected essays originates in a conference held at the University of Reading in April 2007. The book offers a good overview of the current state of reception studies (particularly in the UK), of its purposes and methodologies. The volume is a welcome addition to the growing number of studies examining the reception of the classics in contemporary culture, especially because it examines areas rarely explored until now (such as, for example, videogames, Internet newsgroups, radio or children's books), thus witnessing the continued presence of the classical world--distilled, diluted, selected, and re-crafted in a number of different ways--in our contemporary culture and everyday life.

Classics for All is divided into four sections that explore a variety of either representations of the classical world or translations and adaptations of classical works. The first section (Chapter 1 to 3), focuses on TV documentaries, radio, comics and children books; the second (Chapter 4 to 6) examines videogames, classical antiquity in the press and information media; the third (Chapter 7 to 9) analyses genre films and Internet newsgroups; the final section (Chapter 10 to 12) explores 'fantasies' of the classical world in genre films and TV series. The book is completed by a (perhaps too selective) index that condenses a geographical, a thematic, and a name index.¹ The introduction, written by the editors of the volume, Dunstan Lowe and Kim Shahabudin, outlines the development of classical reception (ix-x), discusses the current state, aims, and methodologies of this relatively recent branch of classical studies, and takes the opportunity to reply to objections often moved to the discipline (xi-xii). The book well illustrates two main methodological tenets of classical reception,² since it offers insights into our contemporary society; at the same time, several essays help to re-focus investigation on ancient texts and to ask new (and different) questions of ancient texts--as the editors point out: "Our modern concerns shed light on areas neglected by previous generations" (ix). It is also particularly concerned with the (anti-elitist) educational potential of classical reception, which has the ability to attract the interest of younger generations. In other words, videogames, the Internet, radio and TV series may be a starting point for non classicists, and contemporary re-workings of classical themes may help classicists to gain a fresh look at ancient materials.

In the first chapter, Bettany Hughes, author of several successful documentaries on the ancient world, offers a lively account of the challenges she encountered as a classicist attempting to bring classical antiquity on TV.

In Chapter 2, Helen Lovatt examines how the myth of Jason and Medea is 'adapted' in books for children and young people. Her study highlights the deep differences between different adaptations of the story; the comparisons between earlier adaptations (such as that by Nathaniel Hawthorne) and contemporary re-tellings are particularly enlightening with regard to unchanging attitudes towards violence and gender relationships in modern societies.

In the following chapter, Amanda Wrigley brings to the readers' attention some examples of translations of classical works for the radio. Wrigley explores the multiple political implications of the poet Louis MacNeice's translations and adaptations for the radio of Aristophanes and other classical authors during WWII and in the post-war period. The chapter is especially fascinating as it presents us with the issue of the written word coming alive and stimulating the imagination of listeners; it also highlights the ability of classical texts to capture the interest of the masses (as the BBC Listener Research Reports quoted and commented upon by Wrigley show).

Dunstan Lowe is the author of Chapter 4, which offers an introduction to the use of the classical world in videogames. Lowe examines various types of games, showing how classical history is used in games based on strategic empire building, but classical myth in games based on an individual character's exploits. Lowe's study points out how "every manifestation of the classical tradition in mass culture in some way reduces antiquity to a simplified code of signs" (74), an aspect that emerges also in other contributions to this volume.

In Chapter 5, Joanna Paul examines how American media have used Pompeii in news comments on natural disaster (such as Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans) and the 9/11 events. Paul succeeds in analysing and unravelling the cultural layering present in such uses of the ancient world; she highlights how Pompeii's image today recalls, in contemporary mass culture, two different images--that of catastrophic destruction, and that of 'sinful' place. Because of the established connection made in American thought between the USA and Rome, Pompeii along with the multiple meanings it conveys, strongly resonates with American contemporary culture.

Chapter 6 deals with the appropriation of videogames by communities of players interested in the classical world. The authors present and evaluate their own experience in re-crafting a popular videogame set in ancient Rome by making it as historically accurate as possible. The way they have proceeded and the principles that have inspired their work present several elements of interest for readers interested in the educational potential of videogames in teaching classics.

Susanne Turner's analysis of 300, a low budget film representing the Spartans at the battle of Thermopylae, which gained an unexpected success in early 2007, uncovers the cultural layering that underpins the director's choices in his portrayal of Sparta. Turner's exemplary analysis compares the ancient Greek male nude statues to the representation of the Spartans' bodies in the film, highlighting the ideological differences between the two.

In Chapter 8, Gideon Nisbet examines how a stylised and diluted idea of Rome, resulting from a series of stereotyped representations of Rome rooted in Victorian readings and, even more, in gladiator movies of the 1950s and 1960s , is used in hardcore and softcore porn films.

In their piece, Kate Fisher and Rebecca Langlands focus on Internet chat discussions of the explicit content of the famous frescoes in the so called brothel of Pompeii. Classicists have the opportunity to be confronted with the reactions of the public to material popularly perceived as not needing translation. Among the many interesting aspects of this paper--including the variety of reactions and the struggle in so many visitors, to deny the harsh reality of exploitation that took place in the brothel--is the attention paid to the different public spaces in which visitors experience, consume, and comment on the frescoes (i.e. the ancient location and the Internet).

The final section opens with Kim Shahabudin's analysis of the 'pepla', the epic films drawing on classical mythology produced between the 1950s and 1960s in Italy. Shahabudin's re-evaluation of these films shows how they are potentially rich texts, re-fashioning ancient materials to serve contemporary concerns.

Amanda Potter's article examines how two American TV series, Charmed and Xena: Warrior Princess, both specifically aimed at young adults (and, especially the former, at young women), represent the Furies and what viewers--whether classicists or not--make of such representations.The attention paid to viewers' reactions in the paper is especially interesting.

Paula James' article is an exciting exploration of the resonances between Buffy the Vampire Slayer, an American series created by screenwriter Joss Whedon, and the Aeneid. This is far from a futile exercise in 'comparative literature'; the paper highlights analogies between the use of narrative structures in the series and in the ancient epic, between themes, character construction, and even re-workings of myths, and reveals substantial connexions between the construction of Buffy and of Aeneas as heroes.

One of the most interesting aspects that emerge from reading such diverse articles is that in the reception of the classical world accretion and selection are simultaneously at work: interpretations accumulate in time, but only some may end up being selected by contemporary users.³

As already noted above, the variety of topics and approaches is one of the winning points of the book, even if the presence of Internet-focused studies is limited to Fisher's and Langlands' article and to some mentions of videogames played online. Re-craftings of the classical world on the Internet are indeed a potentially rich field of study: from Google Earth's offering reconstructions of ancient Rome online, to websites devoted to classical mythology and religions, to the presence of the ancient world in Second Life.⁴ It is to be hoped that future works will focus also on such issues.

Like all ground-breaking studies, this too raises some questions and sometimes perplexities: for example, at some points (particularly in Nisbet's and Ghita's and Andrikopoulos' chapters) it is not always quite clear if (and how) authors assume common (or universal) reactions in viewers (or players). Also, the analyses of the work of contemporary TV writers could have taken into account the fact that they do not work in isolation, and that, at times, the development of a series may be influenced, to an extent not easily measurable, by fan responses and even by academic evaluations. Finally, apart from some relevant considerations in Wrigley's and Shahabudin's work, the book lacks any sustained attention to socio-economic issues of access to cultural resources; it would probably have been worth reminding readers that the percentage of the global population with access to the Internet, or to videogames, and thus to new media re-workings of the classical world, is still very low.

On the whole, the book is true to its title (Classics for All), as it is one of those happy cases in which a text succeeds in being worth the attention of the academic community, of readers interested in approaching the classical world, and of students interested in classics.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Images vii

Preface viii

Introduction ix

Part I: Ancient Worlds, Modern Audiences

Part II: Re-Purposing Antiquity

Part III: Classica Erotica

Part IV: Fantasising the Classics

Bibliography 262

Contributors 282

Index 285

1.   Not all ethnic or geographical names are included in the index: for example, Mossynoeci is in the text p. 123, but not in the index. On the whole, the editorial work is very good; I could find only a couple of typos: n. 29 p. 75 ('Gita' for 'Ghita'); and p. 142 (',.' for '.').
2.   Cf. Lorna Hardwick, Reception Studies. Greece and Rome New Surveys in the Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, 4-10.
3.   For example, Ridley Scott's Gladiator, mentioned in several articles, heavily draws on Anthony Mann's The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964), a point that adds to the panorama of re-craftings and cultural layering so carefully outlined in this volume.
4.   On 3D ancient Rome in Google Earth see Version at BMCR home site
Alan Shapiro (trans.), Euripides: Trojan Women. Greek Tragedy in New Translations. New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. Pp. 113. ISBN 9780195179101. $12.95 (pb).
Reviewed by Maxine Lewis, University of Sydney

The new translation of Euripides' Trojan Women by Alan Shapiro, with Introduction and Notes by Peter Burian, aims to provides a poetic version of the text. The volume includes an Introduction set out in useful sections (pp.3-25) with a note on the translation by Shapiro (pp.27-8), the translation itself (pp.30-78), detailed notes to the text (pp.79-103), a glossary of names and places (pp.105-11) and a list of further readings (p.113). Although this reviewer has some minor criticisms, overall the publication is an important contribution to the field. Trojan Women has been translated very recently, in 2005 by Diskin Clay,¹ and in 1999 by David Kovacs.² Both of those editions contain good translations, ample bibliography and scholarly notes - Clay's work in particular goes into some depth. However, neither work provides a consistently poetic translation, and this volume fills that gap.

As such, this edition will be useful for students of drama in general and Attic tragedy in particular, as it conveys the power of Euripides' images. It will also benefit a second, equally important group of readers: would-be producers of an ancient play that has been frequently performed for modern audiences. Shapiro's poetic translation works not just as a rendering of Greek, but as a good, at times gripping, English-language script. By translating Euripides' text into blank verse, Shapiro makes his version performable. He creates a variety of rhythms within his lines that simulates the effect created by Euripides' numerous ancient metres. Burian's Introduction complements the performative aspect of Shapiro's work. In the long section, What's Hecuba to Us?, Burian presents a sequential analysis of the play that focuses on staging, movement and gesture. This brings the play to life for all readers, but will be particularly thought-provoking for those of a theatrical bent.

Burian's introduction will be of use to students, though they should also consult Clay's comprehensive Introduction for information on historical and technical matters. Burian aptly begins with a section on Context, focusing on Athenian politics. He writes clearly but still provides a nuanced discussion of important issues. This will assist the reader who is new to the questions of whether Athenian imperialism penetrated tragedy, and how much tragedy provided a site for cultural resistance. Burian provides footnotes that direct the reader to relevant scholarship on controversial issues. These will allow the interested student to pursue important matters, such as the possible connection between this play and the destruction of Melos, which Burian discusses in fn.9.

After making a strong case that Trojan Women to some degree reflects Euripides' cultural and political context, Burian moves onto the thorny issue of whether Trojan Women was part of a trilogy. Burian explains how the fragmentary plays Alexander and Palamedes fit with Trojan Women to provide "an interconnected set of Trojan tragedies" (p.7). He gives his own interpretation of possible links between the plays but also directs readers to the fragments (n.14) and selected relevant scholarship (n.15). On the Alexander in particular, Burian gives a clear explanation of the state of the material evidence, and a reconstruction of the play which will benefit students.

Burian's final and longest section, What's Hecuba to Us?, tries to unpick the significance of movement and gesture in a sequential reading of the play, to counter Aristotle's argument in the Poetics that tragedy can be read rather than seen. Burian's point is valid, but this part of the Introduction is at times overly descriptive. The contextualisation of tragedy in terms of Aristotle's reception of the genre does work well, giving the reader a useful example of ancient reception. Burian's analysis of Hecuba's behaviour, and how movement is intrinsic to the script and adds to her pathos, also provides the reader with important insights into her character. However, other sections, such those as on Cassandra, Andromache and Talthybius, provide description without much analytical depth. In this part of the essay Burian seems somewhat hampered by a decision to restrict himself to the action inside the text, where connecting the action with outside context might have enriched his essay. One example is his examination of Cassandra's role in the play on p.16. Burian's treatment is fairly descriptive, and he does not discuss the contemporary political significance of Cassandra's anti-war argument. This omission is unfortunate, as in his section on Context (p.3-7), he made the case that Trojan Women reflected contemporary political concerns. When examining Cassandra's speech Burian could have supported his earlier case, while providing students new to the text with a useful handle on a speech that would have been incendiary in its original performance context. However, despite the omission of some important material, overall the Introduction as it stands provides a good overview of some significant issues arising from the drama.

Shapiro's note On the Translation follows, in which he says that he worked from Shirley Barlow's prose version. At this point Shapiro could have aided the student by pointing out and explaining the discrepancy between the numbering of his own lines and the line numbers of the Greek, given at the top of each page in brackets. Despite working from a translation, Shapiro's version is notable for its closeness to the Greek at many points, and Burian's notes further tie the English to the original text. On occasion, Shapiro's closeness to the original extends as far as replicating wordplays while maintaining rhythm, an important and noteworthy achievement. For instance, Hecuba's description of Odysseus as a man who

at Shapiro's lines 314-7 transforms Euripides' concise line 288 into even more compact English, so that the heroine almost spits the monosyllables out. Another example of excellent translating on a word-for-word level can be found in Shapiro's lines 1149-50. Here the Greek etymological play on Aphrodite's name in Euripides' line 990 τοὔνομ' ὀρθῶς ἀφροσύνης ἄρχει θεᾶς seamlessly becomes Hecuba's scathing

Beyond the power of individual lines, certain longer sections of Shapiro's translation stand out for capturing the essence of Euripides' original in genuinely poetic form. When she comes onstage, Hecuba gives a powerful lament at Shapiro's lines 109-171. Shapiro recreates Euripides' complex nautical imagery, as Hecuba both talks about the actual boats that brought the war to Troy and envisions herself as a ship buffeted on the waves. Shapiro's repeated imperatives as Hecuba tells herself to "lift," "look," "bear" and "sail", capture the insistent strength of Hecuba's directives to herself in the original, ἐπάειρε (99), ἄνσχου (101) and πλεῖ (102). As the Greek passage continues Euripides creates a dual meaning through τοίχους (118), sides of a ship here used to used to represent Hecuba's own flanks. Euripides' powerful metaphor of woman as ship reinforces Hecuba's passivity and helplessness. In her commentary, Barlow discusses the complexity of the language in these lines and says "the metaphor...is almost impossible to render in English adequately".³ Shapiro uses a creative image of Hecuba's heaving sides as a "spine-keel" at lines 135-6. This unusual English wordplay captures the dual meaning inherent in the Greek, making explicit the latent nautical wordplay in the original. Shapiro's success in expressing the Greek metaphor is evidence of his skill as a poet. Further, if I am reading Shapiro's blank verse as he intended, then here he makes excellent use of punctuation for poetic effect, to create a rhythm that reflects the content of the lines and the speaker's character. The off-beat pauses in Hecuba's lines 119-20

create a breathless rhythm similar to that of the original's anapestic beat.

Other noteworthy passages in Shapiro's translation are: the duet between Hecuba and Andromache, which uses split lines and raises the tension to fever-pitch, Andromache's lament for Astyanax, and the Chorus' apostrophe to Ganymede. These are particularly high points in a good translation.

Occasionally Shapiro is free with Barlow's reading of the Greek in her dual language edition. Generally his alterations allow the translation to work as a script. One example of this is when he changes the subject of the verb ἔπαθεν from Ajax to the Greeks, in his line 81 of the Prologue (line 71 in the Greek). This creates a good flow in the dialogue, and does not compromise the sense of the original. I question an alteration from the Greek in one place though, where it seems to me to significantly alter the substance of the text. At Shapiro's lines 462-3, Cassandra makes the politically charged case, that wars in general ought be avoided but at least a war at home can be fought nobly. This is line 400 in Diggle's edition, φεύγειν μὲν οὖν χρὴ πόλεμον ὅστις εὖ φρονεῖ. Shapiro translates this as

The insertion of "choice" into the English translation here alters the meaning of Cassandra's argument.

Generally Burian's notes are helpful. Where applicable, he gives references to literary and mythological precedents to explain references made by the characters. These will be particularly useful for students new to study of the classical world. Throughout the notes, Burian points out recurring echoes and motifs that unify the play, such as the concept of what "just one woman" can or cannot accomplish, which applies to both Andromache and Helen in very different ways.

The best aspect of Burian's notes is the careful elucidation of ancient Greek throughout. This may well whet the appetites of those students coming to the text without knowledge of the language, another important achievement of this translation. The notes suggest a profitable collaboration between Burian and Shapiro in the writing of this translation, though unfortunately the process is not addressed in the Introduction. At Shapiro line 1031 the translator puns on Helen with "She's Hell". Burian explains that this is inspired by the Greek text with its ἑλεῖ from αἱρέω, and gives further examples of literary punning on Helen's name. Similarly, notes on Cassandra point out a peculiarity of the Greek, that Euripides describes Cassandra's prophetic "madness" in Dionysian terms (p.83, p.86). This conflation of Dionysian madness with Apolline prophecy is almost impossible to express in English, so Burian's notes are crucial for the student to fully understand how Euripides characterises Cassandra.

The glossary provides important information for students. Burian concisely describes ancient geography and documents many relevant stories from Greek mythology. One minor mistake may lead to confusion for students, though; in the entry for Achilles Burian has Achilles' "killing by Hector" rather than "killing of".

In general, the volume has been well proofed. Exceptions: Palamedes on p.10 should be italicised, being the play not the character; in the Introduction n.27 refers to the sentence prior to the one that the superscript number is appended to; in the notes Shapiro's lines 262-92 have incorrect corresponding Greek line numbers; and in the glossary entry for Chronos, "Zeus,." has a superfluous full-stop.

Certain information could have been added to this good volume to make it an even better edition. The Introduction could have included deeper consideration of the gendered aspects of Trojan Women. Information on women in Athenian social contexts, or women in myth, or women in tragedy, would have been useful both for students and prospective producers of the play. Basic information on Greek metrics should have been supplied, as Burian names particular metres and analyses their dramatic effects. A more in-depth and transparent account of how the translation process involved Barlow's translation and possibly collaboration between Shapiro and Burian, would have made this version more scholarly. Lastly the suggested Further Reading list (p.113) is very brief, containing only six items. As Kovacs and Clay have both recently published editions including substantial bibliography, Burian and Shapiro's brevity is perhaps understandable. However these two recent editions are not given in Burian and Shapiro's list as resources.

Generally though, the volume as it stands undoubtedly achieves its primary aim. It produces that all-too-rare thing: a poetic translation of poetry.

1.   Diskin Clay (ed.), Euripides The Trojan Women. Newburyport MA, Focus Classical Library, 2005.
2.   David Kovacs (ed.), Euripides: Trojan Women, Iphigenia among the Taurians, Ion. Loeb Classical Library 10. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.
3.   Shirley Barlow (ed.), Euripides: Trojan Women Warminster, Wiltshire, Aris and Phillips Ltd., 1986. p.163.

This interesting book brings together eleven remarkable papers published between 1978 and 1997 by the lately deceased Rolf Rilinger (1942-2003). Now, a few years after his demise, these articles have been collected in this book--under the significant keywords of ordo und dignitas, two essential concepts in Rilinger's reconstruction of the Roman political system¹--and opportunely republished by Tassilo Schmitt and Aloys Winterling as an homage to Rilinger's memory. In my opinion this compilation offers an excellent way to review the core of the author's work and at the same time his main interests, essentially law and ancient history conceived within the frame of social change. In their brief introduction the editors outline Rilinger's methodological approach, which followed and developed ideas expressed by Alfred Heuss, Joschen Bleicken, and Christian Meier. The core of the book is divided into two parts: the first includes five papers focusing on the Roman Republic (11-150); the second (153-374) joins together six articles related to the Early and the Late Empire.

The first essay (11-76), Die Ausbildung von Amtswechsel und Amtsfristen als Problem zwischen Machtbesitz und Machtgebrauch in der Mittleren Republik (342 bis 217 v. Chr) deals with the cursus honorum in the context of relations of power. Rilinger starts from Bleicken's warning that conventional views of governance in Rome do not do justice to their complexity. This fact is particularly evident in the case of the political behaviour of the Roman aristocracy because of the indissoluble link between social pre-eminence and the exercise of power. Furthermore, the key concepts of dignitas and auctoritas and their influence on the Roman constitution must be understood in the context of Roman expansion. In this way Rilinger takes into account how the expansion of Rome affected the term limits the offices of the cursus honorum and demonstrates at the same time the historicity of the limits on re-election (342 BC) as well as of the abolition of some limitations on re-election for the consulship (217 BC), known mainly from the literary sources.

The second paper (Loca intercessionis und Legalismus in der späten Republik 77-94) studies the rogatio Caecilia de Cn. Pompeio ex Asia revocando (G. Rotondi, Leges Publicae Populi Romani, Milano 1922 383) referred to by Plutarch (Cat. min. 26-29). This episode has Pompey as an indirect protagonist, through Q. Caecilius Mettelus. Essentially, Metellus moved that Pompey, who was still in Asia, be summoned with his army, in theory to bring order out of the existing anarchy, but actually in the hope that Pompey and he himself gain power. The assembly was about to vote in favour of Metellus' proposition, but Cato prevented him from reading and then from reciting its text.² Rilinger conducts an exhaustive study of this conflict, which involves both the Senate and the tribunus and reaches a more complex explanation of the role of the latter in the Roman constitution than the quite idealized role assigned by Polybius (VI. 16.5). This episode has traditionally been a problem for understanding the scope of the intercessio and why it was not possible to invoke it in that case. Rilinger examines especially the explanations advanced by Joschen Bleicken and Christian Meier and concludes that the intercessio was not legally regulated in detail at the end of the Republic, perhaps giving priority to what Rilinger calls Verhaltennormen.

As I have stated above, the notions of ordo and dignitas are key starting points for understand Rilinger's approach, and the third article provides a succinct and clear definition of their implications (Ordo und dignitas als soziale Kategorien der römischen Republik 95-104). In this nearly programmatic contribution the author outlines the difficulties that have sprung from the translation of these terms. According to him, these terms implied the central concepts of Leistung and Rankdenken and there was a close link between them. Rilinger starts from what he calls a truism: since the 19th century scholarship has been highly indebted to the Greek translations of ordo as taxis or tagma and Senate as boule or even gerousiawhich led to conceiving the content of ordo in a way quite far from what the Romans saw in it.³ Ordo in the common meaning was used during the Republic to designate a closed group constructed according to specific criteria and gathered in a register or album based on that membership, and in the later Republic particular cases (publicans, apparitores. . .) were included under the same term, also characterized partially as closed groups. But the evolution of ordo during the Principate led to the inclusion of a list of slaves secundum ordinem et dignitatem. The author points out this particular case (D. 7.1.15.1-2, Ulp. XVIII ad Sab.). Dignitas, on the other hand, is the main term used to express social rank, but there are also terms such as status, qualitas, gradus and many others. Since dignitas does not imply rank directly in itself, but only with reference to the rest of the system, this concept becomes a key for understanding the complexity of rank in Roman society and in the Roman constitution. After a precise analysis, Rilinger concludes that both notions are expressions of the Republic as a political and social system and that their crisis means also the crisis of that regime. One clear example of this assertion is that after Sulla's reform the Senate did not reflect the actual social reality, and that is why Pompey or Cato the Younger played roles in the society that were not equivalent to their rank within the Senate.

The fourth paper (Domus und res publica. Die politisch-soziales Bedeutung des aristokratischen Hauses in der späten römischen Republik 91-122) deals with a subject more related to constitutional consequences than one might initially think. Rilinger demonstrates that in the later Republic the political system had lost its capacity to integrate the principal patrons of the domus, as evident in the progressive separation between familia and domus, a fact that can easily be noticed through studying the architectural development of the latter. Here the author resorts, among others, to the study by R. P. Saller ("Familia, Domus, and the Roman conception of the Family", in Phoenix 38 (1984) 336ff.) and argues that the role of the paterfamilias was directly related to the house conceived as a social unity. An especially significant case is that mentioned by Cicero in Ad Familiares (6.10.2; 6.12.2; 6.13.3): Julius Caesar after his victory in the civil war established in his own house the typisch höfischer Komunikationformen (90) and that fact doubtless had some influence for the Principate and its political conception of the emperor and his family.

The last essay devoted to the Roman republic is Die Interpretation des Niedergangs der römischen Republik durch Revolution und Krise ohne Alternative (123-150). Rilinger starts from the classical book by Sir Roland Syme The Roman Revolution (Oxford 1939) and analyzes its significance for the use of concepts like crisis and revolution as standards for interpreting Roman history. As the author points out, to use these categories to judge the Roman background is at least as old as Montesquieu. In fact, Rilinger reminds us that Mommsen himself had employed those anachronistic comparisons and that makes the valuable approaches of Heuss and Meier easier to understand. The author addresses both Heuss's and Meier's interpretations of crisis and revolution, and underlines some characteristics of the change of regime, such as the transformation of the princeps from the patron and chief of the army to a military monarch. This explanation takes into account meanings of the clientela or the urban plebs that have been not fully understood.

Moderne und zeitgenössische Vorstellungen von der Gesellschaftsordnung der römischen Kaiserzeit (153-179), constitutes the sixth essay of this compilation and the first dedicated to the imperial age. Tackling the subject of social stratification, Rilinger rightly starts from the fundamental work of Geza Alföldy (Römische Sozialgeschichte, Wiesbaden 1975) since it is a key work for the study of Roman society. At the same time he clarifies some matters about Alfödy's famous Sozialpyramide (301). In scholarship it is easy to discover an imprecise use of Alfödy's terminology even among the most important exponents, especially terminology related to sociology or political science. The author rightly states that this phenomenon happens even in Mommsen, who had recourse to terms such as Kapitalismus, Proletariat or, astonishingly, to Junkertum (cf. 153 n. 5). In his analysis of Alföldy's contribution Rilinger insists on ideas that he had dealt with in the preceding articles, such as the structural analogy (176) between auctoritas and dignitas of the magistrates and the emperor with the correlative value of these concepts as applied to the paterfamilias and the patronus. To sum up, Rilinger completes the 'Sozialpyramide' proposed by Alföldy with a structural analysis that emphasizes the relationship between the political institutions and the familia and that at the same time makes possible a deeper comprehension of social change.

Zum Kaiserzeitlichen Leistungs-und Rangdenken in Staat und Kirche (181-222) starts with a quotation of John Chrysostom (ad Mathaeum 1.8) which describes heavenly society according to the model of earthly society. In the context of celestial and earthly hierarchy, the author also interprets, among other patristic sources, a significant text by Pseudo-Dionysius,⁴ which stresses hierarchic dependence and at the same time opens the door to an upward mobility and presupposes a particular Christian interpretation of the ordo-dignitas scheme that emphasizes the concepts of virtue, self-perfection, and promotion conceived as ascent to God.

Zeugenbeweis und Sozialstruktur in der römischen Kaiserzeit (223-232) is an article on proof and the right of the judge to decide whether testimony is reliable or not according to the social standards of a given moment. Rilinger shows how the rules for evaluating the declarations of the testimonies were more flexible than the rigid contraposition that humiliores / honestiores present, for example, in the Pauli Sententiae or the Codex Theodosianus.

Seneca und Nero (253-280) is a keen overview of the reasons that motivated the use of the image of Nero as an artist emperor in order to legitimize political power in the early Principate. This approach is quite critical of the traditional view, which constitutes almost a commonplace, that the use of the artist emperor image was a consequence of Nero's insanity. Seneca's role in this process of underlining the virtues of the prince is, as the author shows, particularly remarkable. Although during the early Principate the Leistungsethik of the Roman aristocracy was still invoked, it was in reality only a trace of the past. In the late Republic, for example, we can see in the case of Q. Caecilius Metellus (cf. Plin. Nat. Hist. VII 139-140) that auctoritas and rank in theory derived from dynamic virtues (255), but in the new regime the emperor played an ambiguous role that subverted the functionality of these concepts: on one hand he himself was integrated into the senatorial order, but on the other he dominated that order and his person is endowed with remarkable virtues. At the same time, as a result of the Marcus Antonius episode, Hellenistic monarchy was not the most suitable option to define the new model, and consequently the imperial rulers had to look for other sources of legitimacy. This situation leads the emperor to act through indirect means, i.e. by enforcing his economic and juristic position and by reserving military glory only for himself. Little by little, the ideological use by official propaganda of certain moral virtues (such as clementia, iustitia, and liberalitas) offers a way of legitimizing the regime. Rilinger explains how Seneca, not by chance an homo novus, played a remarkable role in this process.

Das politische Denken der Römer: vom Prinzipat zum Dominat (281-353) is a sharp didactic text about political theory that was originally integrated into a general handbook.⁵ The author starts from the Augustan age and underlines how the monarchic forms were inserted into the old constitution. Then he divides the rest of the Principate into two periods: Prinzipat und Tyrannis and Der beste Princeps. In the first section, which covers the Julio-Claudian dynasty, the author studies the problem of the legitimacy of the new regime, based in theory on the pre-eminence of the Senate and at the same time on the succession, a concept that originally belonged to private law. Rilinger stresses the political thought of Seneca and also of Petronius and Persius in this context. In the second section, the author underlines the part played by the Lex de imperio Vespasiani in the consolidation of the dynastic component of the new system and points out the political implications of authors such as Suetonius, Pliny the Younger, and Tacitus. The last section is devoted to the late Empire, and Rilinger, after evaluating the most important aspects of Diocletian?s and Constantine's reforms, comments on the political implications of authors like Eusebius of Caesarea, Julian, Symmacus and Ammianus Marcellinus. A general overview of the political thought during the Empire (in which the author insist on its lack of theoretical discussion as a principal characteristic) and about the nature of the imperial regime closes the article.

Die Interpretation des späten Imperium Romanum als Zwangsstaat (355-374) closes the selection. The term Zwangsstaat is widely used by historians, jurists, or philologists to allude to the late Empire. The author investigates in this paper its origin and points out the authors who have created and used the notion as a framework to study this period. It is significant that the origin of this concept in the field of Ancient History starts from the work of a medievalist, H. Aubin.⁶ According to this conception, power was concentrated among fewer people, the population became poorer and in the long term they became attached to the glebe. Commerce was clearly affected by this process, so that the economy functioned in general terms of exchange rather than with money. This conception, of late Antiquity is ideological in many respects, and has influenced social, cultural and economic analysis.

The best way of concluding this review is to thank the editors for the accurate gathering of this collection, which clearly displays the richness and the originality of Rilinger's approach to social change in Roman history. It remains to add only that the book is carefully edited and that it offers a source index and also an index of names and topics. The pagination includes both the numbers of the old contributions and that of the present book.

1.   Rilinger characterizes (95) them as "die zentralen Begriffe des römischen Leistungs- und Rangdenkens".
2.   About Metellus Nepos cf. T. R. S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic, Chicago 1952 (reprint 1984) II 174. About this episode (also dealt with by Cicero Pro Sex 62 and by Dio Cassius, 37.4.43.3) vid. e. g. Ch. Meier, Res publica amissa, Frankfurt 1980, 270 ff., discussed by the author, and T. Duff, Plutarch's Lives. Exploring Virtue and Vice, Oxford 1999, 152 ff.
3.   cf. e.g. H. Mason, Greek Terms for Roman Institutions, Toronto 1974.
4.   Rilinger (262 ff.) quotes from G. Heil's edition (Stuttgart 1986 1-28).
5.   I. Fetscher and H. Münkler (edd.) Pipers Handbuch der politischen Ideen I, Munich 1988, 521-593.
6.   H. Aubin, "Mass und Bedeutung der römisch-germanischen Kulturzusammenhänge im Rheinland", in P. E. Hübiger (ed.), Kulturbruch oder Kulturkontinuität im Übergang von der Antike zum Mittelalter, 1921, 47 ff.

[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review.]

This volume of collected essays on Hellenism continues the series founded in 1984, and directed since then by Biagio Virgilio (Pisa). It comprises twenty essays on different aspects of Hellenism, with no apparent thematic, chronological or geographical order. Overall, these studies are a highly valuable collective effort, which contribute significantly to the current state of research, either by analysing new evidence, or by redefining and challenging the existing consolidated scholarly views on this part of Mediterranean history. The series Studi Ellenistici has proven to be an extremely useful tool for all students of ancient history, and the director should be thanked for his work. For reasons of space, in this review, I will comment on a limited number of contributions.

The introductory essay by Emilio Gabba examines the reception of Greek Classical culture by the upper classes of the ancient world, starting from the Hellenistic and Roman periods, and continuing up to the admiration and emulation of Greek culture as the locus of an imagined spiritual originality in Neo-classical Europe. After considering modern types of philhellenism (e.g. the European sympathy for Greece's struggle for liberation from the Turks) Gabba underlines how from the middle of the nineteenth century the progression of knowledge of the Near East helped scholars to shift from the worship of the Greek miracle to a more balanced, even anti-classical, consideration of the Greek cultural horizon.

Pierre Briant's first essay could be briefly summarised as 'the Rostovtzeff delusion'. The scholar highlights the contradictions and shortcomings in Rostovtzeff's teleological vision of the Achaemenid state as a pre-Hellenistic reality, and criticises some passages where the Russian scholar minimised the rupture between the Achaemenid and the Hellenistic kingdoms, and exaggerated a stereotyped model of longue durée. Briant shows that Rostovtzeff neglected most documentary evidence available about the Persian domination, such as the Elephantine papyri from Egypt. Although Rostovtzeff shows himself to be aware of these documents and interested in them, he does not take account of them in his larger historical picture of Achaemenid-Hellenistic continuity.

The stimulating essay by Manuela Mari on the ruler cult in Macedonia argues that divine honours were attributed to at least two Antigonid kings, Antigonus Gonatas or Doson, worshipped in the area of Oreskeia in the Strymon valley (and perhaps in Amphipolis, too) and Philip V in Amphipolis, in Berge, and in a city of Chalkidike. Probably, such an initiative followed the concession of privileges or marked the special relationship between the ruler and a city (the epithet ktistes is significant and should be taken in a flexible and figurative sense). It must be noted, however, that this type of interaction between king and cities was limited to the area outside the 'Old Kingdom' of Macedon, in other words, to the free poleis that had been annexed by Philip II (e.g. Pydna, Kassandreia, Amphipolis, Philippoi and Philippopolis, Maroneia and Thasos). The author concludes that the interaction between local and state cults was never established in Macedonia in a standardized way. Differently from other areas of Greece and Asia Minor, in Macedonia only a few cities, and apparently none of the 'Old Kingdom', felt the need to approach the kings to solicit their benefactions through the offer of divine honours. If it is true that Philip was the only king who consciously tried to introduce a divine representation of himself, his attempt was a failure.

Biagio Virgilio contributes to this series with a learned essay on the portrayal of Hellenistic kingship in Polybius. Through the investigation of different passages, the author shows that Polybius' negative portrayal of Hellenistic monarchies is both exaggerated and instrumental to his justification of the rise of Rome. Polybius places a great emphasis on the political constitution of a state as a substantial reason for its success or failure, thus it seems natural and even inevitable that the Roman constitution prevails over the declining institutional framework of the Hellenistic kingdoms. Polybius' analysis of the failure of these kingdoms points to different causes: the moral degradation of individual rulers (e.g. Ptolemy IV Philopator, caricaturised as a drunkard, or Antiochus Epiphanes, the 'madman') is made worse by the intrigues of Hellenistic courts and the superpower of courtiers, constantly plotting against the kings, and by the financial problems of the kings who often begged for loans of cash from the haute bourgeoisie. Polybius' view is that the chaos and arbitrary quality inherent to the Hellenistic monarchies would never be possible in Rome. The other ideological focus of Polybius is the 'ideal democracy' of the Achaean League, which remains however suspended in a nostalgic and patriotic limbo. Polybius thus explains the rise of Rome in terms of technical superiority: stronger army and more efficient institutions, but no better culture. Culture remains firmly anchored to the side of the losers.

Lucio Troiani provides a new comparative analysis of 1 and 2 Maccabees. Through an attentive examination of the differences in background, readership, language and style, and a careful consideration of the different emphasis that each book places on different parts of the same story (the Maccabean revolt against 'Hellenism') he shows that the purpose, origin and date of composition of the two works are radically different. 1 Maccabees is a local history, written by an inhabitant of Judea, of the deeds of the Maccabean brothers Judas, Jonathan and Simon, that looks at circa forty years and stops with the rise of John Hyrcanus I. The historical and cultural background of this work remains a mystery. However, it seems clear that its main concern is to show how the Maccabean heroes defended the national religious and legal tradition against a policy of forced assimilation and homogenization. This policy brought a revival of Palestinian cults which culminated in the construction of a bomos, an altar, in the temple of Jerusalem (the litholatric cults were typical of the Caananite tribes, the historical enemies of the Jews). In 1 Maccabees, thus, the enemy of Judas is not Greek culture, but rather globalisation. 2 Maccabees is a more sophisticated and stratified work. It is a collection of documents with an edifying purpose, apparently aiming to recall the Diaspora Jews to the celebration of the traditional cult of Jerusalem (as is clear from the two introductory letters from the Jews of Jerusalem to the Jews of Egypt of 143 and 124 BCE). Many of the problems emphasised by the book, e.g. the laws of purity (amixia) and the sabbath, were burning issues of discussion among the Jews of the Diaspora cities. For Troiani, the slogan 'adopt Greek customs', which the author of 2 Maccabees attributes to the reform of Antiochus IV, is probably a political catchword that circulated among the Jews who lived in the Greek poleis. In substance, while 1 Maccabees looks at the effects of the reform within Judaea, the dossier contained in 2 Maccabees shows the repercussions and consequences that the reform at Jerusalem and the Maccabean movement had for the Diaspora. The differences between these two perspectives do not imply that one is better or more reliable than the other.

The perceptive essay by John Ma surveys the paradigmatic modern approaches to various aspects of Hellenism. He starts by contesting two binary models. The first is the alleged Hellenistic fusion between cultures, versus a colonial paradigm of radically separate cultures, with Greek culture of the ethno-élite being completely detached from the local cultures of the dominated groups. The second is the juxtaposition of a supposed decline versus a continued vitality of the polis. The author suggests that we should hold both paradigms in our field of vision, and wonders whether all these categorisations are a modern problem, rather than an ancient one. Hellenistic Egypt, for example, is a land of paradoxes. The images of the Ptolemaic rulers, often mixing Greek style portraits with Egyptian motifs, give us the impression of 'seeing double', and documents such as the Rosetta stone, produced by Egyptian priestly élites on the model of the Greek honorific decree, seem 'strange' to both Classicists and Egyptologists. Moreover, the gradual 'Egyptianisation' of the Ptolemaic rulers seems to take place precisely when the Egyptian native population is shaken by rebellions, and loses for good any power of real interaction with the Macedonian rulers. Other paradoxes may be seen at the local level in Karia, Lykia, and Hasmonean Judaea, where cultural and military resistance to a Hellenistic kingdom leads to the creation of an imperialist and expansionist power, a Hellenistic kingdom such as that which the pious Jews rebelled against. The author raises the question whether all these paradoxes are inherent to the object studied, or may have been superimposed by the interpreters. He concludes that paradoxes (or, one might say with Finley, 'models') should emerge from the ancient documents through an exercise of induction. In other words, only a comparison and analysis of the documents can provide conceptual models that, in turn, need to be constantly questioned.

The essay by Gianluca Casa is a useful survey of a specific oath formula (exomosia) in Hellenistic papyri. This contribution shows the heavy dependence of Hellenistic legal terms on Egyptian, or even on Near Eastern institutions, and raises the interesting question of the contribution of Persian institutions and bureaucratic terminology to the Ptolemaic state. Domitilla Campanile looks at the introduction of the Roman conventus in the provinces and argues that this took place around 129-126 BCE, when Manius Aquillius reorganised the new province of Asia. Campanile then turns to look at the role of the city élites in the exchange of favours with the Roman government, down to the imperial period, and finds that a major turning point was the request in 29 BCE on the part of the Asian legates to build a temple to Octavian and dea Roma in Pergamum and Nicomedia. This gesture profoundly affected the life of the assemblies in the cities of Asia, allowing them to strenghten their ties with the centre of power and to insert the local élites into the imperial administration. Finally, the most original contribution is that of Omar Coloru, who sketches a fascinating picture of the reminiscences of the Graeco-Bactrian kings in Mediaeval and Modern literature, from Boccaccio and Chaucer to Kavafis, down to the science-fiction novels of the American writer H.P. Lovecraft.

Overall, this collection of essays represents a vital contribution to the scholarly research on Hellenism. It is presented in a learned, yet accessible manner, and is enriched by an open-minded, international and interdisciplinary approach. The huge size of the work (553 pages) is perhaps behind the editor's choice of having neither indexes nor general bibliography. Nonetheless, this is a very welcome contribution to Hellenistic Studies, and a necessary reference work for all students of ancient history.

Table of Contents

Emilio Gabba, "Il mondo culturale del Mediterraneo antico e l'idea del classico", 9

Christian Habicht, "Judicial Control of the Legislature in Greek States", 17

Bruno Helly, "Encore le blé thessalien. Trois décrets de Larisa (IG IX 2, 506) accordant aux Athéniens licence d'exportation et réduction des droits de douane sur leurs achats de blé", 25

Federicomaria Muccioli, "Stratocle di Diomeia e la redazione trezenia del 'decreto di Temistocle'", 109

Pierre Briant, "Michael Rostovtzeff et le passage du monde achéménide au monde hellénistique", 137

Pierre Briant, "Retour sur Alexandre et les katarraktes du Tigre: l'histoire d'un dossier (suite et fin)", 155

Manuela Mari, "The Ruler Cult in Macedonia", 219

Pierre-Louis Gatier, "Héraclée-sur-mer et la géographie historique de la côte syrienne", 269

Raymond Descat, "Isabelle Pernin, Notes sur la chronologie et l'histoire des baux de Mylasa", 285

Biagio Virgilio, "Polibio, il mondo ellenistico e Roma", 315

Lucio Troiani, "Note storiografiche sopra I e II Maccabei", 347

John Ma, "Paradigms and Paradoxes in the Hellenistic World", 371

Roberto Mazzucchi, "Mileto e la sympoliteia con Miunte", 387

Andrea Primo, "Seleuco e Mitridate Ktistes in un episodio del giovane Demetrio Poliorcete", 409

Gianluca Casa, "Giuro di no. Note a PSI com. VI 11", 427

Francis X. Ryan, "Breadth and Depth in the Account of the Dedications to Athana Lindia", 455

Roberto Sciandra, "Il 'Re dei Re' e il 'Satrapo dei Satrapi': note sulla successione tra Mitridate II e Gotarze I a Babilonia (ca. 94-80 a.e.v.)", 471

Domitilla Campanile, "Vita da provinciali: Asia e Bitinia in età romana", 489

Patrick Robiano, "Caspérius Élien, ou Claude Élien? Ou comment Philostrate écrit l'histoire", 503

Omar Coloru, "Reminiscenze dei re greco-battriani nella letteratura medievale europea e nella science-fiction americana", 519

Ce livre de petit format a ses origines dans un colloque international intitulé "Greek priests from Homer to Julian" qui a eu lieu entre le 25 et le 28 août 2003 au Center for Hellenic Studies, à Washington DC. Il s'agit d'un ensemble de douze contributions autour du thème général des "prêtres grecs" (les auteurs et les titres sont présentés à la fin de ce compte rendu). Une liste bibliographique des oeuvres citées et un index complètent le volume. Les contributions sont réparties en cinq sections thématiques (I: Prêtres et rituel, II: Variations sur des prêtrises, III: Représentation visuelle, IV: Concepts et leur transformation, V: Manteis--vraiment des prêtres?). Cependant, cette catégorisation est un peu fictive puisque, vu l'origine de cet ensemble d'études, divers aspects des essais qui constituent la matière de ce volume se trouvent constamment en dialogue.

Ce volume poursuit, en s'y intégrant bien, un récent courant de réflexion dans la recherche sur la religion ancienne, datant déjà d'une vingtaine d'années (voir par exemple la version en français J. Scheid, "Le prêtre", dans L'homme romain, (éd. A. Giardina), 1989, pp. 73-109 d'une étude originalement en italien dans L'uomo romano(A. Giardina éd.) 1989--version anglaise dans The Romans (éd. A. Giardina), 1993, 55-84; voir aussi D. Porte, Les donneurs du sacré: le prêtre à Rome, 1989, et voir surtout M. Beard, J. North, Pagan priests; religion and power in the ancient world, 1990). Dans le cadre de cette tendance, le caractère supposé uniforme des fonctions cultuelles et rituelles des "prêtres" dans le monde ancien se trouve systématiquement remis en question; cela nous oblige à modifier sensiblement notre conception des fonctionnaires religieux dans l'antiquité, de varier les réponses à la question fondamentale de savoir ce qu'est "un prêtre" et de nuancer de manière considérable les questions concernant les tenants institutionnels du pouvoir religieux dans les sociétés anciennes. L'originalité du volume de B. Dignas et K. Trampedach, par rapport à la recherche déjà citée, est qu'il se concentre sur le milieu grec (au moins en ce qui concerne la langue de la documentation écrite): les diverses contributions tentent d'isoler divers aspects de la thématique autour des prêtres dans ce milieu et ainsi de donner une forme plus concrète à notre conception du "prêtre grec".

En guise d'introduction, la contribution d'A. Henrichs expose méthodiquement un secret qui n'en est plus un: notre compréhension de la figure du prêtre dans l'Antiquité est autant tributaire de la disponibilité et de la nature des sources que de l'idée du "prêtre" que se font chaque fois les chercheurs. Avant d'essayer de répondre à la question principale qui ouvre la discussion ("qu'est-ce qu'un prêtre grec?"), il faudrait évaluer nos sources et garder à l'esprit que le reflet du prêtre qu'on perçoit dans les sources risque autant d'est autant une construction littéraire qu'une projection de notre propre conception de ce qu'est un prêtre dans les divers milieux et les divers contextes. D'où les difficultés méthodologiques et conceptuelles auxquelles nous sommes confrontés; d'où aussi le grand intérêt de la recherche sur les fonctionaires cultuels. Les divergences qui apparaissent dans l'image des magistrats religieux, à travers des études sur le vocabulaire, le rituel, les témoignages épigraphiques et les témoignages visuels, ne font qu'accentuer le bésoin d'évaluer nos sources, d'opérer les clivages nécessaires dans la documentation pour une perception plus claire des aspects des fonctions religieuses dans des contextes précis. En essayant d'éviter l'usage du terme "prêtre" (un "faux ami" finalement...), la recherche menée dans ce volume se concentre sur l'illustration, à travers des études des cas contextualisés, de la fonction des fonctionnaires religieux en tant qu'intermediaires entre la sphère divine et la sphère humaine.

Les différents degrés de participation dans le rituel sont examinés dans les contributions de Henrichs et de Chaniotis, le premier mettant l'accent sur le vocabulaire varié qui est utilisé pour désigner les fonctionnaires religieux et sur leur rapport surtout avec le rituel du sacrifice, le deuxième soulignant l'importance de l'expertise religieuse comme facteur qui permettrait d'opérer des distinctions. Henrichs souligne que, pour une meilleure comprehénsion des fonctionaires religieux dans leur contexte, il faut chaque fois respecter le caractère varié du vocabulaire grec. Chaniotis fait aussi allusion au rapport entre experts religieux et gravure de règlements religieux; ce rapport est important dans la mesure où la gravure des règlements et la gestion de l'épigraphie sont une affaire liée aux autorités officielles de la cité. Cela constitue un aspect important du rapport des experts religieux au pouvoir.

J. Bremmer en examinant, à travers le temps, le personnel cultuel de l'Artemision d'Ephèse, tente de dégager les caractéristiques plus générales de "la" prêtrise grecque: flexibilité, manipulation fréquente de la part du pouvoir, non spécialisation du point de vue de l'accomplissement de l'acte sacrificiel, ce dernier requérant peu de formation. S. Guettel Cole, à travers l'étude du personnel cultuel dans le culte de Déméter, traite le thème de la prêtrise désignée dans les sources épigraphiques par l'expression "selon les coutumes ancestrales". Les prêtresses de Déméter (car il s'agit d'un milieu surtout féminin) sont surtout considérées en tant que magistrats civiques. "La" cité offre le cadre pour la survie des lignées de prêtres qui, à leur tour, jouent un rôle actif dans la constitution des archives, essentielles pour l'image de continuité de la cité. Comme l'étude de Chaniotis, celle de Cole fait allusion au rôle des prêtres comme agents actifs dans l'enregistrement sur pierre des "épiphanies" divines. Pour les prêtresses, on dispose maintenant du livre de J. Breton Connelly, "The portait of a priestess; women and ritual in ancient Greece" (Princeton 2007), avec une emphase sur les documents visuels.

B. Dignas, se basant surtout sur la documentation épigraphique, se demande jusqu'à quel point les prêtres de Sarapis en pays grec peuvent être considérés comme des "prêtres grecs". En échappant justement au clivage banal entre public et privé qu'elle trouve inadéquat, elle examine principalement le contexte délien, à cause de la richesse du matériel. Une remarque intéressante est celle qui souligne que le rituel exigeant des cultes égyptiens aurait impliqué un nombre considérable de personnes dans des fonctions de type sacerdotal. À ce propos, l'examen parallèle d'un autre type de documentation aurait peut-être permis d'approfondir, au sein de cette étude, les questions posées au matériel épigraphique: il s'agit de la série des reliefs funéraires attiques représentant des femmes arborant l'habit d'Isis (voir E. Walters on Attic grave reliefs that represent women in the dress of Isis). On a affaire soit à des initiées soit à des "prêtresses", mais il serait intéressant d'examiner comment cette documentation illustre la question de savoir ce qu'est un prêtre ou une prêtresse grecque. L'étude de Dignas, pleine de remarques pertinentes, aurait sans doute bénéficié aussi des observations subtiles et de la terminologie pour la recherche sur les "cultes égyptiens" hors d'Égypte proposée par M. Malaise (2005), "Pour une terminologie et une analyse de cultes isiaques" -- terminologie qui a déjà fait ses preuves.

Ensuite, U. Götter examine la question de l'autorité du souverain en tant que prêtre et de la nature de l'autorité des prêtres. Le contexte choisi est celui de l'Asie Mineure où ont cours nombre de stéréotypes sur les monarchies "orientales". À travers des études de cas qui mettent en valeur la spécificité des circonstances historiques et les particularités locales, Götter attaque et déconstruit ces idées stereotypées qui prônent que dans le territoire de l'Asie Mineure le pouvoir séculaire et le pouvoir religieux étaient généralement identiques. C'est seulement dans certains cas limités que l'autorité religieuse et le pouvoir seculaire étaient inextricablement liés, mais ce cas constituait plutôt l'exception que la règle. Dans l'étude de R. von den Hoff, l'emphase est mise sur la documentation iconographique; les représentations des prêtres (sous forme de statues, reliefs ou images peintes) sont examinées dans la perspective de la mise en forme visuelle du prestige social. La situation n'est aucunement statique. En choisissant comme contexte la cité d'Athènes entre l'époque archaïque et la fin de la période hellénistique, von den Hoff discerne des mutations liée à l'évolution historique plus générale, à la montée, à la transformation des élites et aussi à la concurrence entre les membres des diverses élites. L'espace participe de ce jeu de transformation. L'Acropole émerge comme un lieu particulièrement important de l'interaction entre autorités civiques, familles de notables et familles en dehors du cercle des élites, à travers la dédicace de statues de prêtres ou de magistrats religieux de moindre importance.

L'étude de M. Haake touche également le domaine des figurations en se concentrant sur l'image du prêtre qui se présente simultanément comme philosophe. Haake voit un paradoxe fondamental dans cette association et dans son étude essaie de le déconstuire. Il utilise les inscriptions pour accéder au vécu des communautés et examiner l'espace commun entre conceptions et pratiques privées et conceptions et pratiques publiques. Il conclut que, dans la réalité, il n'y avait pas de conflit entre ces deux identités puisque toutes les deux étaient liées aux aspirations des élites patriotiques des cités grecques où la combinaison des identités multiples était une habitude. Le paradoxe n'était qu'apparent (et peut-être construit par Haake lui-même: l'étude de J. Ma, "Paradigms and Paradoxes", Studi Ellenistici 20 est confrontée au même problème).

L'étude de M. Baumbach s'attache aussi aux représentations: il prend comme problème central la représentation des prêtres dans le roman grec et notamment dans les Éthiopiques d'Héliodore. Baumbach démontre que l'image du prêtre égyptien Calasiris met en question la notion "traditionelle" du prêtre grec. Selon l'inteprétation de Baumbach, le roman des Éthiopiques participe à la concurrence générale, perceptible dans la littérature de cette période, dont le but est de diffuser le modèle le plus convaincant, celui de l'homme divin (theios aner) qui néglige les différences entre les cultures et les cultes pour proposer un modèle universel de prêtre-philosophe. Les Éthiopiques montrent ainsi leur caractère de "roman engagé" du point de vue religieux et culturel. L'article de Baumbach est naturellement en dialogue avec celui de Haake.

Flower examine la fonction et la représentation de la figure du devin dans le monde antique. L'étude de cas de la famille des Iamidai offre un contexte intéressant. Cependant, plutôt que d'essayer de rétablir l'histoire d'une famille de devins, Flower s'efforce de rétablir l'auto-représentation à la fois des Iamides en tant que famille et des membres individuels de cette famille. Il démontre que les manipulations et les stratégies de la part des individus forment un sujet beaucoup plus intéressant que le rétablissement de l'histoire d'une famille de devins. Enfin, K. Trampedach s'occupe de la figure du devin et de son rapport avec le pouvoir politique. À la question de savoir si le personnage du devin avait une véritable autorité politique, Trampendach répond par la négative, en basant sa réponse sur les poèmes homériques. Il conclut que les devins grecs n'étaient pas caractérisés par l'exclusion et l'ascétisme; ils étaient plutôt proches de la catégorie des prêtres officiels (civiques).

L'epilogue par Dignas et Trampedach dégage deux questions importantes: la première est celle des différenciations entre les divers tenants institutionnels du pouvoir religieux; la deuxième est celle de la spécificité grecque. Deux conclusions concernent, d'une part, le caractère déterminant de la nature des sources pour la construction du profil des prêtres grecs et, d'autre part, le besoin absolu d'une approche interdisciplinaire.

Cependant, vu l'ampleur chronologique, géographique et conceptuelle de ce volume, il existe une question sous-jacente à la majorité des contributions mais qui n'est, de manière curieuse, véritablement affrontée ni dans l'introduction ni dans la conclusion -- à savoir: comment la recherche sur les tenants institutionnels du pouvoir religieux en milieu hellénophone s'inscrit-elle dans la recherche sur l'évolution historique du concept d'hellénisme? Il est évident que les divergences entre les conceptions du "prêtre" à travers les sources, à travers les régions, à travers les époques ne sont pas tributaires simplement de la nature des sources et de la géographie mais aussi de mutations au sein du concept de ce qui est "grec". En effet, il me semble que le caractère "grec" dans ce volume est pris parfois un peu trop comme allant de soi alors que, justement, dans le processus de la construction de ce caractère, il y a potentiellement un certain nombre de questions fascinantes à poser. À ce propos, les points soulignés dans diverses contributions au volume de D. Konstan et S.Said (éd.), (2006), "Greeks on Greekness; viewing the Greek past under the Roman empire", sont précieux. Le terme "grec" recouvre des réalités complexes et très variées, et la recherche sur les prêtres grecs est donc aussi (et doit être), une recherche sur l'identité et l'altérité. En tout cas, le fait d'avoir privilegié dans le volume de Dignas et Trampedach la thématique des "prêtres" confère à ce sujet un nouveau dynamisme, d'où son caractère vraiment fascinant. Ce volume, à travers des études, méthodiquement subtiles et conceptuellement riches, réussit à rendre clair qu'il n'existe pas de réponse simple à la question de savoir ce qu'est un prêtre grec.

Table des matières:

Preface

Abbreviations

Introduction: What is a Greek Priest? Albert Henrichs

Epilogue, Beate Dignas and Kai Trampedach

Bibliography

Index

Une notule: la référence bibliographique de la page 14: Gordon 2001, 320 n'est pas incluse dans la liste bibliographique des oeuvres citées, l'ensemble du volume sinon est trés soigné.

Full Text

This volume perhaps slightly belies its title. A reader seeking a full-length discussion of the world of Dio Chrysostom centred on the writer himself will be disappointed, as in-depth discussion of Dio is to be found in only one of its nine chapters. The author also concedes that much of Bithynia has a sparse archaeological record and that his monograph will centre on three towns: Nicomedia, Nicaea, and Prusa. The chronological span of the book is also surprising: it begins before Rome's acquisition of Bithynia (ch. 2 "Before the Romans") and extends to late antiquity (ch. 8 "The Bithynian Cities under the Later Empire").

However, if we are not offered a monograph focussed on Dio and his times, we are given much by way of compensation. The book provides an excellent introduction to the study of municipal life and politics in the Roman World. Bekker-Nielsen provides a series of chapters which introduce the nature of the politics found in the Roman East and the nature of the sources which provide our insights into this small, but intense world. The starting point in this discussion is that of rivalry within and between cities and the potential power of "informal" politics. The stage is well set, but it is surprising that no reference is made, even in passing, to the work of Dio's near contemporary Plutarch, the Precepts of Statecraft, which deals precisely with municipal Imperial politics in the Greek East of the Empire.

Chapter Five is a discussion of the political institutions of both Bithynia itself and how these local arrangements were integrated into the running of the empire as a whole. Here Bekker-Nielsen is inclined to be more sceptical than many about the role played by the Provincial Council in this regard, arguing that the view for heavy engagement by the Council in these matters is based mainly on argumenta ex silentio. Chapter Six deals with the "Political Class" of the province. Here Bekker-Nielsen argues that the assumption made by many other writers that the ruling class in Bithynian cities in the early Imperial period had a high-element of Italo-Roman immigrants, whom he curiously styles kulaks, in its composition is unlikely and that we should rather see continuity from the past combined with a parochial indifference to the possibilities of having an Imperial career. This seems a highly plausible position. A description of the various levels of politics, local (municipal), regional (provincial), and Imperial (empire-wide) is given and usefully illustrated by specific individuals whose careers have survived for us recorded on epigraphy.

Dio's life and local career is covered by a discussion of his "municipal" orations, for which a chronology (differing a little from that given by C.P. Jones in his Roman World of Dio Chrysostom, Cambridge, Ma., 1978) is provided in an appendix, though without a presentation of arguments as to how this chronology was constructed. It is a shame that some analysis of Dio's Orations on Kingship is not given, as the views of a provincial intellectual on what constituted an ideal ruler would have fitted well with the discussion of the relations of local and imperial politics found in chapter five. It is argued that Dio's conversion to a philosopher's life may have been a rationalisation of the cold reality that he would never be able to attain wealth on the scale of the Imperial elite at Rome. We are told that "it would not be unlike Dion to transform the tale of his failure at Rome into a narrative of divine inspiration at Delphi". This statement, and others similar to it, assume that the reader is already familiar with Dio's works and perhaps a little more by way of a character sketch at the beginning of this chapter would have been helpful to orientate readers without this prior depth of knowledge. Dio is seen, to some degree, as a supporter of the common man, but much of this argument is based on the hostility of other aristocrats to him and his aloofness from the machinery of civic politics on his retrun from exile. However, both these factors could be explained by tensions internal to the aristocracy of Prusa and the weakness of Dio's political powerbase after his return from exile rather than any democratic sympathies on his part. Surprisingly little is made of Oration 46 and the social tensions it reveals in the social fabric of Prusa, and a more detailed discussion of the possible reasons for the trouble which led to the temporary suspension of Prusa's assembly would have been valuable. Dio's quarrels and his relations with Roman officials, notably the Younger Pliny, and officialdom are dealt with ably. Enoch Powell once remarked that "all political careers end in failure" and Bekker-Nielsen believes this to be true of Dio, constructing an intriguing argument that Dio's Euboean oration is in fact Dio's political testament to the world.

In a substantial chapter on the late empire, Bekker-Nielsen argues that practical considerations rather than political rivalry led Nicaea, disastrously as events proved, to support Pescennius Niger rather than Septimius Severus in the Roman Civil War at the end of the second century AD. The arguments adduced are a valuable contribution to the history of the period; nevertheless, given the intense rivalry between the two cities, it is hard to see Nicaea being overly reluctant to take the opposite side to that supported by its hated rival in any quarrel. The chronological sequence of the chapter is a little curious with the discussion of crisis of the third century following the account of Bithynia in the late third and fourth centuries. Given the prominence of Nicomedia as an imperial capital in this later period it is equally surprising that the crisis period is covered in greater depth.

The book ends with a discussion of theories of how to interpret political life in the Empire. Bekker-Nielsen is harsh on Paul Veyne, but his criticisms of Veyne's model of politics on the grounds that it is undermined by social mobility within the Roman aristocracy is not overly convincing. There is also an odd assertion that neither wealth per se nor association with "celebrities" played an important role within the battle for status. Neither of these seems correct. Bekker-Nielsen asserts that aristocratic (and one assumes by extension, Imperial) friendships with gladiators and the like were not entered into for the status they conveyed, but fails to provide an alternative reason for this behaviour which is surely necessary. However, his notion, developing the approach of Honneth (Kampf um Anerkennung, Frankfurt, 1992) that Roman municipal politics was centred around a "struggle for recognition" is a convincing and valuable addition to be debate in this area.

In sum, this book delivers both more and less than the reader of its title may imagine. However, it is a valuable contribution to the debate over the nature of provincial political life in the Roman Empire and would make an excellent starting point for courses on this subject.