Bryn Mawr Classical Review

James, W. Chochola, A Latin Picture Dictionary for Everyone: Lingua Latina depicta. Mundelein, IL: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 2017. Pp. viii, 205. ISBN 9780865167490. $22.00 (pb.

Reviewed by Jeanne Marie Neumann, Davidson College (jeneumann@davidson.edu)

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I love a good dictionary. Admit it: you do too. And what is more fun than a Latin dictionary? Who has never curled up just to read Lewis & Short? With all due respect to the OLD, there is something about L-S: all those synonyms, all those indicators of time and usage ("rare but class; most freq. in Cic."; "class in prose and poetry; not in Hor."). While they can poke you with bits et dulce et utile, neither L-S or the OLD aims at defining all Latin words: they confine themselves to parameters of date. A Latin Picture Dictionary for Everyone refuses to confine itself to either date or audience. Latin through the ages can be found in these pages, from the ancient fish sauce liquamen to the 14th century rocheta to the contemporary computatrum.

A foreword and introduction precede chapters that introduce different categories of objects as well as different aspects of morphology and syntax. Exercises follow each chapter to help internalize the vocabulary and to further one's skills in Latin. The fifteen chapters (animals and numbers, colors, family, buildings, vehicles and transportation, home, furniture, pastimes, professions, the military, parts of the body, clothing, kinds of food and shopping, preparing food, the arts) follow a similar pattern: labelled line drawings illustrating the chapter's objects followed by a series of exercises, of varying difficulty. According to the foreword, 1200 words are introduced (although the claim that these 1200 words will give the reader 60% of a functional Latin vocabulary misleads and should be modified). Appendices end the book: Pronunciation of Classical Latin; Major parts of speech and their uses; How Latin words work: nouns, verbs, adjectives; Grammatical outline, indicating what grammatical points each chapter aims to drill. A short addendum offers additional Latin vocabulary and synonyms for some of the items in each chapter.

The vocabulary sources represent the range of oral Latin lexicography: Sigrides Albert and Caelestis Eichenseer, John Traupman, Josè Mir and Corrado Clavano, the Vatican, Terence Tunberg. The major source for vocabulary seems to be the late David Morgan's Lexicon Latinum, surely the best possible choice. Morgan was a first-rate linguist and lexicographer whose first principle was, where possible, to use an ancient word; where the ancient word did not exist, Morgan paid careful attention to the morphological principles of Latin and its borrowings from Greek.¹

We begin with numbers, taught through animals. Armadillos illustrate the number 3 (tres dasypodes), here not a kind of rabbit or hare (Pliny) but the family of Dasypodidae. Okay. But will I really ever need the word for armadillo? I'd like some dogs, horses, or plain old mice if I want to learn vocabulary in order to read Latin or impress my parents. When we return to animals in Chapter 13 (Kinds of food and shopping), we do get dormice (glires), but also antelope (dorcas) pictured next to the she-goat (capra). Is this for fun? It is fun, but also gives the impression that Romans ate antelope, as another part of the market displays things they did consume, such as glires and liquamen (pictured as a bottle with a fish label).

In the first chapter we find an exercise apparently accessible for those with little or no Latin. The first exercise gives the following exemplum: quot animalia efficiuntur, si duobus bubonibus adduntur quattuor zebrae? The answer is given as sex. A second exemplum uses exstant instead of efficiuntur, and also gives the answer, so you probably do not need to know Latin in order to figure out the numbers, and it is good practice to be exposed to a variety of syntax and to read aloud even without complete (any?) understanding. In a subsequent exercise, given an illustration of a serpent and the number quinque, the student needs to write out serpentes a tedious five times. My friend the armadillo shows up in another exercise in this chapter, where I need to know his habitat. Realizing my knowledge stopped at 'not in my backyard,' I went to Wikipedia, where I learned the armadillo lives in temperate and warm climates, which hits more than one of my options: in silva, in tropica silva, in campis patentibus and maybe in desertis. Okay. So I could use a bit more of a working knowledge of the armadillo, but I'm guessing so could a lot of people.

Some of the exercises do seem to hit all skill levels. In the chapter on Professions (Chapter 9 Quaestus), drawings of the tools of the trade for various professions make readers go back and search. This exercise is followed by two-word actions preceded by a blank for the name of the profession (e.g. _____________ vestimenta purgat). This exercise has the advantage of giving students useful, common verbs to use in talking about the professions. Chapter 4 (buildings, aedificia) has a great exercise that, by offering a few prepositions and adverbs, enables students to follow directions to a particular building. Some of the exercises, however, are too complicated for the novice, while others are too elementary for those with any facility with the language. Further, there seems to be no coherent distribution of skill levels in the exercises across the chapters.

The book's boundless vision of audience, while claiming to be appropriate for traditional and non-traditional students, at all levels, bemuses and frustrates the reader throughout. In Chapter 5 (vehicles and transportation) an exercise asks quomodo veharis? A neophyte looking up veharis would be lost without some knowledge of the subjunctive. A more advanced student (of classical Latin at least) would wonder at the odd use of the potential subjunctive instead of, say, malle with the infinitive. Beginners would be further confused since the other questions are indicative (e.g. quomodo vehitur a few pages on). In Chapter 8 (Pastimes) we find Quid fecisse cupivisses, a construction that makes sense only after you read the directions ("what you would have been eager to do if you lived in ancient Rome"), and only if you understand the subjunctive in conditions. Since this exercise is to be written in English, it seems to be aimed at beginning students, for whom the directions would have been opaque.

An excerpt from Augustine's confessions (on the effect of the games) closes the same chapter, with instructions to read aloud, look for derivatives and see how much sense can be made. This is a great idea, and the passage's vivid description of an eyewitness account is powerful. It is hard to imagine the same user following the instructions for the previous exercises (look up iacta alea est and ad metam on the internet and remark on the relevance to the games, answer in English what kind of fighter the reader would be and why), only then to be confronted with unadapted Augustine. This exercise is the sole one of its kind in the book. There are no other bits of extended prose, although the book does close with the opening 11 lines of the Aeneid, with the instruction not to translate but to memorize the lines. Memorization is an excellent tool, but made more complex by not having any idea what one is memorizing, thus rendering this exercise difficult for the beginner and puzzling for the intermediate/advanced student.

The drawings are both fun and at times confusing, especially if you do not know what you are looking at. Syngrapha (personal check), e.g., is written below a piece of paper that resembles a check only if you know what syngrapha means. Otherwise, it might be an envelope, postcard, etc. The introduction indicates that the words are printed on the drawings themselves, but this is not always the case. Lines that connect the words to their referent and the lines that make up the drawings can be confusing (the latter is thicker). In a mock-up of a clothing store (Chapter 12, vestimenta) the line seemingly connecting syngrapha and inauris is actually part of the table which holds them both. Picky? Yes. Too picky? Maybe, but putting an arrow at the end of each word-pointer would clarify all.

As it stands now a background in oral Latin seems necessary in order to use the book—some inexperienced instructors (and surely self-learners) will be confused. What seems to be needed here most of all is a good instructor's manual that will make the book more broadly useful. Such a manual would tell the reader exactly what is meant (is that woman in Chapter 9 with a briefcase in front of a government building, a femina civilis, meant to be a civil servant, a lawyer, a politician?). The manual might give the age and provenance of the vocabulary. Students are going to ask—especially about objects not from the ancient world. It would be useful to be able to say what is a modern coinage and what dates back, e.g., to the fourteenth century or the first century BCE. The manual might also provide guidance on how to use some of this vocabulary in class in ways that will facilitate students' becoming comfortable with Latin syntax and developing into good readers of Latin texts. A teacher's guide is, according to the introduction, forthcoming.

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Notes:

1.   The most updated version of this wonderful resource, curated by Patrick Owens, is now hosted by Paideia Institute and freely available: http://neolatinlexicon.org.

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Francisco L. Lisi, Michele Curnis (ed.), The Harmony of Conflict: The Aristotelian Foundation of Politics. Collegium politicum: Contributions to classical political thought, 8. Sankt Augustin: Academia Verlag, 2017. Pp. 252. ISBN 9783896657091. €34.50.

Reviewed by Mostafa Younesie, Philadelphia (younesie_7@yahoo.com)

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In this collection of essays, Aristotle's Politics is analyzed from various points of view, ranging from the transmission of the text and its reception to its methodology and principal subjects, including law, citizenship and the economy. According to Francisco Lisi and Michele Curnis, Aristotle uses theory and empirical observational to explore ways of harmonizing the conflicts inherent in every human community.

The book begins with a 6-page introduction by Lisi and Curnis; the contributions are arranged in six parts. (There is no list of contributors.) There is a bibliography and two indices: one Locorum and the other Rerum. Of thirteen essays in the book, eight are in Italian (without any English abstract), and the rest are in English.

The editors' introduction takes as its starting-point the idea that Aristotle's Politics is one of the most influential works in the history of Western political thought (9). For the first time in the western tradition, politics is understood as the harmonization of the underlying conflicts of interest that naturally exist in society—something hinted at in the title of the volume. Despite the importance of the Politics, its reception history is still far from clear. The editors review this topic, from the late fourteenth up to the twenty-first century. Two points deserve note. First, and notwithstanding many criticisms, the hypothesis of Werner Jaeger that the Aristotelian treatises are a mixture of writings from different periods of his intellectual development lumped together by topic, still holds sway (10-11). Secondly, although there is an impressive amount of serious scholarly work on the Politics, few studies systematically compare Plato and Aristotle.

Part I of the volume, on the "material transmission of the text", contains only one essay: "La rinascita della Politica in greco: codici, copisti, committenti nel XV secolo" by Michele Curnis. After an introduction on the state of the treatise between the ninth and tenth centuries, Curnis focuses on the fifteenth century, since in this period the treatise was copied, studied and translated in a considerable number of manuscripts due to requests by both famous intellectuals (among them Palla Strozzi, and Politianus) and men of power (among them Leonardo Bruni).

Part II consists of three chapters, dealing with aspects of the methodology in Aristotle's political investigations. In the first chapter, Lucio Bertelli writes about "forms of argumentation in the Politics" ("Forme di argomentazione nella Politica"). Bertelli thinks that the Politics is "scientific" since Aristotle investigates the "causes" of political phenomena. He considers the work to be the second part of a course of study whose first part is set out in the Ethics. As a scientific enterprise, politics is based on endoxa and their assessment—which makes it distinct from the method of diairesis employed by Plato.

Next, in a short chapter entitled "Aristotele e la storia nella Politica", Mauro Moggi addresses historical exempla in Aristotle. According to Moggi, although Aristotle is not a historian in the classical sense of the term, he has good knowledge of historical information and uses it to support his philosophical arguments. His most significant use of history can be seen in his study of tyranny.

In "Un confronto di Aristotele col Politico di Platone nel III libro della Politica", Paolo Accantino argues that Aristotle, in the third book of the Politics, launches a multi-level polemic against Plato's Politicus. For Accattino, the most important point in this polemic is the superiority of laws over absolute human power.

Part III, "Philosophy of Law", begins with Federica Pezzoli, "Mutare le leggi: alcune riflessioni a partire da Politica II 8, 1268b 25-1269a 27". It concerns basic questions about the changeability of the law in a polis. According to the writer, Aristotle in agreement with his teacher Plato is against both continual and small changes of law: the former decrease the strength of law and invite citizens to disobedience, and the latter are the beginning of constitutional transformation.

"Principles and Goals of the Constitutional Theory in Aristotle's Politics Book IV", by Eckhardt Schutrumpf, has three sections. The author begins by delineating the scope of Aristotle's inquiry into constitutions in Book 4, and writes that there is no fundamental contrast between "ideal" and "non-ideal" or empirical constitutions (96), because one single knowledge deals with all different classifications. Next, Schutrumpf addresses the number of constitutions and their differences in Book 4 (although the issue is not limited to this book). According to Schutrumpf, we see two criteria at work: "parts", and the "functions" that these parts have—so that "part" means the section that has a function in the polis. And finally, we have this practical question: Who should be in power? That is: Which constitutions should be established? It should be noted that this is a question that recurs in different books of Politics, in theoretical and practical forms, and gets different answers. In Book 4, the focus of the present study, the question is answered in terms of the quality and quantity of interactions among the inhabitants of the polis.

Part III ends with a paper by Barbara Gualiumi, "Forme di democrazia nella classificazione aristotelica (Pol. IV-VI)". According to Gualiumi Aristotle classifies different forms of democracy, on the basis of different criteria given in Books 4-6. For example, one form of democracy is based on freedom, another on consensus, and so on.

Part IV includes two papers. In "Il cittadino e la sua virtù nella Politica di Aristotele", Silvia Gastaldi outlines the virtue of citizenship in the framework of both family and public life. According to the author, the separation between ethical and political virtue equips Aristotle for making a distinction between family and polis virtues. For Aristotle, the two spheres are distinct—although at the same time they have something in common. They are separate because one of them is private and the other is political and, depending on the constitution, there are different citizens. At the same time, in both family and public life, the most relevant virtue is the ability to preserve and rule the members of the family (in the former case) or other citizens (in the latter).

Ronald Weed explores "Aristotle on the Function of the Political Mean", with reference to Politics 4-6. As distinct from the ethical mean (meson), which has reference to dispositions and actions, Weed considers the "political or regime mean", in two spheres. The first is in relation to the excesses of both democratic and oligarchic regimes (for according to Aristotle most regimes are either democratic or oligarchic). Regimes in the mean are oligarchic democracy and democratic oligarchy. The second is in relation to "cities": although there are different classes in the city, there is a basic and conflictual division between poor and rich that can split a city apart and make it two. As a result, the political mean involves an appropriately sized middle class (161-3).

Part V is on economics and includes two essays. In "L'oikonomia nel libro I della Politica", Giuliana Besso claims that, in opposition to the increasing significance of the market in Greek and particularly Athenian society, Aristotle clings to and emphasizes the concept of the oikos and downplays its counterpart, "chrematistics". Francesco Lisi, meanwhile, writes about "Money and Justice in Aristotle's Political Thought", a subject that Aristotle develops in Book 1 in regard to family assets, but has political importance and had a wide reception in the history of economic thought (181). Lisi starts with the problem of anachronistic approaches to Aristotle's conception of money, and engages critically with a number of scholars in clarifying the role of money in Aristotle's practical philosophy. After an outline of Politics 1.8-11, Lisi considers the issue of money in relation to justice and concludes that Aristotle does not give us a general analysis of trade, or an economic study in any strict sense, but is simply distinguishing—with a clear ethical-political aim—one of the substantial activities of the paterfamilias, namely the acquisition of the goods necessary for the family's welfare (191). Lisi goes on to explore the relation of money and justice in the fifth book of the Nicomachean Ethics, which seems to contradict the Politics. But according to Lisi, the explicit reference to reciprocal or commutative justice in the former treatise and in the second book of the latter, suggests that Aristotle probably had a parallel treatment of money in mind. Aristotle considers money in the context of reciprocal justice, which is the social expression of the natural human need to live in a society or polis. In such a situation, money appears as an essential element for the constitution of the society because it is the factor that acts as a universal, though conventional, measure or pattern and link between the needs of the buyer and the excess of the vendor.

Part VI, Reception of the Text, consists of one essay: "Aristotle's Politics on the Indices Librorum Prohibitorum of the Sixteenth Century". According to the author, María José Vega, "a general survey of all the Indices Librorum Prohibitorum and of the expurgatory catalogues published through the sixteenth century, in different places of Europe, enables us to confirm that the censorial policy of the Church paid careful attention to the annotations, scholia, marginal comments, indices and summaries that were added to the editions of the classical texts, particularly those of the Church Fathers" (205). After a short description of Fernando de Roa's commentary on the Politics, Vega focuses on the commentaries by Martin Borrhaus and Martinus Cellarius (in the Index Expurgatorius of Antwep 1571). She describes the history of the censorship and expurgation of Borrhaus's edition, analyzes the passages cut out by the censors, examines the treatment of Aristotle's text by the editor and annotator, and postulates possible reasons for the prohibition and elimination of some passages of the commentary.

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Giovanni Marginesu, Callia l'Ateniese. Metamorfosi di un'élite, 421-371 a.C. Historia Einzelschriften, Band 247. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2016. Pp. 198. ISBN 9783515115520. €52.00.

Reviewed by Gianfranco Mosconi, Università degli Studi della Tuscia (gmosconi@unitus.it)

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Sommario

[L'Autore della recensione si scusa per il ritardo nell'invio.]

Nell'oceano bibliografico sulla democrazia ateniese, spesso 'meritano' una biografia quei pochi personaggi di V sec. a.C. per cui Plutarco e/o numerosi riferimenti nei Comici o in Tucidide permettono una compiuta narrazione evenemenziale: così Pericle, soprattutto, è stato biografato più volte in pochissimi anni (da Claude Mossé nel 2005, Vincent Azoulay nel 2010, Loren J. Samons II nel 2016, Riccardo Vattuone nel 2017). Ma nell'ultimo ventennio sono apparse anche monografie su individui per i quali il materiale disponibile sembrerebbe precludere una trattazione biografica: ecco i volumi di Buck su Trasibulo e di Asmonti su Conone, come anche, a suo modo, quello di Wallace su Damone.¹ L'opera della Schmitt-Pantel sui caratteri comuni delle biografie degli "hommes illustres" nell'Atene di V sec. è quasi una 'introduzione' a tale filone.² Diversamente dagli studi prosopografici (Kirchner, Davies, ora Traill), in questi casi la ricostruzione biografica non è il solo obiettivo, benché importante: attraverso le vicende individuali viene riletta la 'grande storia', fra biografia, storia evenemenziale, storia sociale, storia delle mentalità. È un orientamento che la storiografia antichistica condivide con altri settori della ricerca storica, dove la biografia è ritornata in auge come strumento di analisi storica,³ soprattutto quando si occupa di un uomo politico.⁴ Non casualmente, i volumi sopracitati offrono un sottotitolo che mostra l'aspetto della 'grande storia' illuminato dalla vicenda biografica: svanisce la dicotomia fra bioi e historiai (Plut. Alex. 1, 2); viene smentito il lapidario giudizio di Eduard Meyer, secondo cui "eine eigentlich historische Tätigkeit ist sie [= la biografia] nicht".⁵

Il lavoro di Marginesu su Callia III (vissuto fra V e IV sec. a.C.) si colloca su questa linea; è anzi più ambizioso, perché Callia è davvero un "'minore', privo di un ruolo di primo piano nel flusso della storia evenemenziale" (p. 13). Come negli studi sopracitati, il sottotitolo mostra quale fenomeno storico sia illuminato attraverso la biografia: la metamorfosi dell'élite ateniese nell'età di trasformazione fra pace di Nicia e battaglia di Leuttra. "Per ragioni genealogiche, biografiche e culturali, Callia venne a trovarsi al centro di una classe dirigente che, da un canto, si lasciava alle spalle la democrazia dei demagoghi e dei rematori; dall'altro diveniva più sensibile alle esigenze individuali, al lusso, al piacere, all'introspezione. Essa guidò così una inversione dei valori e praticò l'evasione dai doveri civici" (p. 13). Tale "metamorfosi" viene appunto scrutata "attraverso la vita di Callia, […] per intuire come temi quali pace, finanza e imperialismo si rifrangano sulla superficie di una esistenza, spesso addirittura intervengano nello svolgimento di fatti privati" (p. 14): si realizza l'auspicio di Momigliano sulla biografia come "strumento della vita sociale" (nella "Introduzione" al suo celebre saggio sulla biografia greca).

L'"Introduzione" si occupa de "il quadro storico e le fonti" (p. 13-40). Dopo un quadro del "cinquantennio 421-371" (p. 14-23), segnato da moltissime novità (militari, politiche, sociali, economiche, ecc.: forse troppi temi in pochissime pagine; ma una robusta bibliografia supporta ogni accenno) e dopo una presentazione di Callia (p. 23-26), "vissuto fra il 455 e il 365 c., ma attivo dagli ultimi anni '20 sino alla vigilia della battaglia di Leuttra" (p. 23), sono illustrati gli elementi di interesse della sua biografia: la carriera "quasi plasmata sulle tappe dei grandi eventi"; l'appartenenza ad un genos con prerogative sacerdotali e importante ruolo economico; la grande attenzione dei contemporanei per i suoi comportamenti e la sua "ossessione per i rapporti familiari", in cui l'aspetto finanziario non è secondario. Infine vengono elencate le fonti riguardanti Callia, letterarie (p. 26-33) ed epigrafiche (p. 34-40), delineandone rapidamente i problemi esegetici e/o cronologici (in particolare per i Comici e per le iscrizioni): in tal caso, forse, invece di una trattazione necessariamente cursoria, sarebbe stata più comoda una antologia dei testi (si sente talora l'esigenza di una citazione diretta della fonte discussa: vd. p. 30 su Aesch. Socr. frr. 34 e 36 Dittmarr).

Per le epigrafi, la pertinenza di alcune a Callia resta ipotetica, e ciò indurrebbe a non utilizzarle in assenza di altre conferme esterne (la data di nascita di Callia si appoggia a varie ipotesi su IG I³ 52 = GHI n. 58: vd. p. 34-36; p. 35 costellata di "se"). Ma questa difficoltà è ineliminabile per fonti epigrafiche con lacune e integrazioni: Marginesu distingue sempre i dati certi da quelli ipotetici.

Con impostazione ben meditata, alle citate "ragioni genealogiche, biografiche e culturali" che rendono Callia 'centrale', corrispondono i tre capitoli: "Gli antenati" (pp. 41-66), "La vita" (pp. 67-119), "La reputazione" (pp. 120-148). Seguono le "Conclusioni" (pp. 149-156), tavole cronologiche e genealogiche (pp. 157-161), una ricca bibliografia (pp. 163-185), infine gli indici (pp. 189-198), delle fonti letterarie, delle fonti epigrafiche e un indice generale dei nomi propri e dei termini greci.

Il primo capitolo passa in rassegna i vari 'Callia' e 'Ipponico' che si succedono per tre generazioni fino al protagonista. Non per "mero interesse antiquario" (p. 41), ma perché la famiglia dei Cerici ebbe caratteri peculiari, molti dei quali caratterizzano poi Callia III. Dopo la trattazione cronologica (sintetica, visto il poco materiale giunto), sono esaminati questi elementi ricorrenti: il prestigio e la ricchezza; l'alternanza dei nomi 'Callia' e 'Ipponico' (forse eccessivo parlare di "ritualità papponimica", p. 27), avviata quando Callia I chiama suo figlio Ipponico, e non Fenippo come il padre, "quasi a voler dare una svolta" (osservazione interessante: p. 56); l'insistenza su hippos ricollegabile alla hippomania di Callia III; l'avidità attribuita a vari membri della famiglia; i molti soprannomi. Da quest'ultimo aspetto Marginesu ricostruisce il quadro convincente di una famiglia aristocratica che vanta contatti internazionali (Ammon), che vuole presentare la sua ricchezza come antica e lecita (Palaioploutoi), contro le calunnie di senso contrario (Chreokopidai, Lakkoploutoi). Per Marginesu (condivisibile) fu proprio in relazione al 'chiacchierato' Callia III che gli aneddoti sui Cerici furono rievocati "dagli oppositori di Callia" (p. 66).

Il II capitolo, quello biografico, procede "ricalcando le linee della storia evenemenziale" (p. 67); necessariamente, sono toccati solo alcuni momenti, addensandosi attorno ai testi disponibili (ma i riferimenti precisi ai loci sono nella "Introduzione"; occorre usare l'indice delle fonti). Viene rovesciata la tradizionale "convinzione che Callia fosse estraneo e disinteressato all'attività politica" (p. 73). Accanto al giovane fan dei sofisti (perciò, osserva Marginesu, dotato di una robusta formazione culturale, e quindi politica), emerge un individuo politicamente attivo, esperto in "dottrina amministrativa" (p. 77) e nella gestione delle risorse pubbliche. All'inizio dell'attività pubblica di Callia, Marginesu valorizza IG I³ 48, (422/3 a.C.) e IG I³ 52A (Marginesu la data al 422/1 a.C., identificandone il proponente con Callia), che viene abilmente collegata al ritratto di Callia nei Kolakes di Eupoli (p. 79). Cinquant'anni dopo, Callia III interviene durante la missione diplomatica a Sparta nel 371 a.C. (Xen. Hell. 6, 3, 4): emerge il suo panellenismo (appoggiato sul culto eleusino affidato ai Cerici) e un 'pacifismo' anticipatore del "programma eubuleo che mirava al ridimensionamento della democrazia e alla tutela delle classi agiate" (p. 113). In questo contesto ideologico, Marginesu valorizza l'ipotesi (fondata su vari elementi: la vicinanza topografica alla statua di Callia II; la dedica di un altare alla Pace connesso con onori per Callia II; una statua di Cefisodoto dedicata da Cecropia, figlia di Callia) che il committente di Eirene e Ploutos di Cefisodoto sia stato proprio l'ormai anziano Callia III: "si intuiscono dei contatti di Callia con il 'partito' della pace" di IV sec. (p. 117; apprezzabile la prudenza).

Sarebbe stato utile richiamare, in tale contesto, anche l'Anonimo di Giamblico (mai citato nel volume): questo testo, influenzato dalle riflessioni dei sofisti (vd. ad es. il rapporto fra forza, legge e giustizia: fr. 6; fra natura ed educazione: frr. 1-2; fra individuo e massa: fr. 6), è molto attento agli aspetti economico-finanziari (fr. 3, 4-6), al peso del denaro nella vita e nella psicologia individuale (fr. 4), è favorevole alla moderazione politica (fr. 7, 1-7 sull'eunomia), deplora i mali socio-economici della guerra (fr. 7, 8-11). Il testo è stato datato spesso al tardo V sec., ma recentemente si è proposta convincentemente (anche su elementi lessicali di peso) una datazione in pieno IV sec., proprio in connessione col 'partito della pace' ateniese.⁶ L'Anonimo di Giamblico riflette lo stesso atteggiamento attribuibile al Callia tratteggiato da Marginesu: che l'Anonimo di Giamblico sia proprio Callia III sarebbe solo una vaga ipotesi, ma certo il testo sembra almeno riflettere la medesima sensibilità (svilupperemo tale proposta in altra sede).

In questo capitolo, a volte, il desiderio di riempire i vuoti della documentazione (come fra 421 e 400 a.C.), conduce a rapide narrazioni di storia generale forse non necessarie (pp. 89-92); altre volte, l'esposizione si arricchisce di dettagli su altri personaggi genericamente citati insieme a Callia, ma si rischia una certa frammentarietà (pp. 98-101 sulle varie personalità coinvolte nei processi contro Andocide e contro Socrate).

Il capitolo III, infine, completa la trattazione biografica (fatta di pochi eventi sicuri) con quant'altro sappiamo su Callia: "Il resto è una storia della reputazione di un membro della élite ateniese, colta nel passaggio fra V e IV secolo" (p. 120). Emerge l'immagine di "un intellettuale ricco e stravagante" (pp. 121-122), attaccato dai Comici per lussi ed eccessi (pp. 122-127), ricordato per l'aspetto, il portamento, finanche per il vestiario, vistoso anche perché connesso al ruolo di daduco (pp. 137-144).

Se Callia è celebre nelle fonti per la dispersione del favoloso patrimonio (pp. 127-136), Marginesu sottrae questa notizia al dettaglio biografico, agganciandola alla storia socio-economica ateniese, sconvolta dai rivolgimenti dovuti alla guerra del Peloponneso, durante e dopo di essa (nel segno del rapporto fra biografia e storia sopra ricordato): "La miseria di Callia non sarebbe un fenomeno isolato" (p. 128), ma rientrerebbe nel generale impoverimento seguito alla guerra (Marginesu cita giustamente Thuc. 7, 27, circa la fuga di schiavi che dovette incidere sull'attività mineraria praticata dalla famiglia). Ancora più notevole l'ipotesi che l'impoverimento di Callia sia stato in parte 'apparente': cioè che la riduzione del patrimonio sia in realtà una trasformazione della ricchezza da phanera ad aphanes, contro l'accresciuta pressione fiscale (cfr. Aristoph. Ra. 1065-1066). Non ci sono notizie al riguardo, ma Marginesu utilizza abilmente varie testimonianze (Aristoph. Eccl. 810-813; Xen. Symp. 4, 45; 4, 2-4) che dipingono un Callia negligente nei suoi doveri fiscali, critico verso il carico fiscale, coinvolto in gruppi attivi in speculazioni fondate sulla ricchezza aphanes (And. Myst. 133-134).Tutto ciò è ricollegabile all'attenzione di Callia in tema di finanze evidenziata nel capitolo II.

In queste pagine (fra le più avvincenti), racconto biografico, 'grande storia', storia sociale ed economica, storia della mentalità, esegesi delle fonti, si fondono in un intreccio fecondo, rendendo questa biografia una efficace 'rievocazione' di un periodo di trasformazione che è merito dell'autore aver evidenziato.

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Notes:

1.   Luca Asmonti, Conon the Athenian. Warfare and Politics in the Aegean, 414-386 B.C. (Historia. Einzelschriften 235), Stuttgart 2015; Robert J. Buck, Thrasybulus and the Athenian Democracy: The Life of an Athenian Statesman, Historia. Einzelschriften 120, (Stuttgart 1998); Robert W. Wallace, Reconstructing Damon. Music, Wisdom Teaching, and Politics in Perikles' Athens, (Oxford; New York 2015).
2.   Pauline Schmitt-Pantel, Hommes illustres. Moeurs et politique à Athènes au Ve siècle, (Paris 2009).
3.   Vd. Jacques Le Goff, "Comment écrire une biographie historique aujourd'hui?", Le Débat, 54, 1989, p. 48–53: la biografia è indispensabile strumento di analisi delle strutture sociali e dei comportamenti collettivi. Cfr. V. Sgambati, "Le lusinghe della biografia", Studi Storici, 36, 1995, p. 397–413, sul dibattito circa la biografia come valido genere storiografico.
4.   Rémy Handourtzel, "Sur les trajectoires individuelles dans la vie politique", in Michel Trebitsch, Problemes & methodes de la biographie. Actes du Colloque, Sorbonne 3–4 mai 1985, (Paris 1985), p. 88–92.
5.   In Kleine Schriften, Halle–Saale 1910, p. 66. Sulla frase, cfr. le osservazioni nella "Introduzione" di Arnaldo Momigliano, The Development of Greek Biography, (Harvard University Press 1971).
6.   Per la datazione al IV sec. a.C. vd. Manuela Mari, "L'Anonimo di Giamblico e la riflessione greca sull'economia nel IV secolo a.C." in MediterrAnt 8, 2005, p. 119-144.

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Jacques Jouanna, Véronique Schiltz, Michel Zink (ed.), La Grèce dans les profondeurs de l'Asie. Actes du XXVIe colloque de la Villa Kérylos, 9 et 10 octobre 2015. Cahiers de la Villa Kérylos, 27. Paris: Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 2016. Pp. 435. €40.00.

Reviewed by Delphine Lauritzen, Venice (delphinelauritzen@gmail.com)

Version at BMCR home site

Sommaire
[Les auteurs et les titres des articles sont donnés à la fin du présent compte rendu.]

Cet ouvrage rassemble les Actes du 26e colloque de la Villa Kérylos¹ consacré au sujet de la rencontre du monde méditerranéen ancien avec l'Est, du Proche jusqu'à l'Extrême-Orient en passant par l'Asie centrale et l'Inde. Dans un champ d'étude en plein essor² cette publication se distingue par la cohérence de sa perspective : portée par le souci d'aller plus avant dans l'interprétation heuristique et rigoureuse des données, l'ambition commune aux auteurs est d'apprécier, chacun d'un point de vue particulier, les modalités de la diffusion, de la transformation et de la réception de l'hellénisme dans ces régions si éloignées de son centre traditionnel. Le dialogue interdisciplinaire est à la base de cette approche : la philologie, l'épigraphie, la papyrologie, l'archéologie et la numismatique sont convoquées pour explorer des domaines aussi divers que la linguistique, la littérature, la philosophie, l'histoire, l'histoire de l'art, l'astronomie, la médecine ou la botanique.

Plutôt qu'aux « profondeurs », il faudrait d'ailleurs se référer aux « hauteurs » de l'Asie pour rester fidèle à la représentation qu'avaient les Grecs de ces espaces lointains, comme le soulignent les éditeurs du volume Jacques Jouanna et Véronique Schiltz³ (p. 1 sq. ; 407-408 ; 412-413). La définition et l'extension géographique de ces territoires apparaissent comme incertaines et fluctuantes : où s'arrête l'Europe, où commence l'Asie et quelles caractéristiques sont attribuées à tels ou tels peuples ou civilisations, la question se trouve sans cesse posée au cours du volume, appelant des réponses nuancées qui prennent en compte toute la complexité des contextes. Dans son allocution d'accueil au colloque, Michel Zink⁴ soulignait que dans cette confrontation antique entre l'Ouest et l'Est se fait entendre la résonance des questions du monde moderne (p. III). Sur ce volume enfin plane l'ombre bienveillante de Paul Bernard,⁵ éminent spécialiste de l'Asie centrale, qui a donné là sa dernière contribution.

Les quatorze articles, tous rédigés en français, s'organisent selon deux lignes de force principales : reprenant l'ordre qui avait été adopté pour les présentations durant le colloque, les premiers se fondent sur l'écrit, les suivants sur la culture visuelle, cette division méthodologique n'excluant nullement les interactions réciproques ; l'autre point de référence est le pivot que constitue l'expédition d'Alexandre le Grand. (I) V. Schiltz commence par s'interroger sur le nom même d'Asie, qui reflète la conception que les Grecs pouvaient se faire de ce continent.⁶ Avec Hérodote, l'on s'aventure de plus en plus loin au fil de ces peuples au nom et aux mœurs étranges, Neures, Scythes, Sauromates, Boudins, Gélons, Thyssagètes, Iyrques, Argippéens, Issédons et jusqu'aux Arimaspes et Hyperboréens du mythe. Force est alors de restituer au « Père de l'Histoire » (Cic., Lois I, 1) le mérite d'avoir transmis une information qui, même déformée ou « mal entendue », se réfère à des réalités reconnaissables que viennent progressivement confirmer les découvertes de l'archéologie. (II) La thèse selon laquelle le grec ancien comporte des éléments qui ne s'expliquent pas par l'indo-européen est soumise à réévaluation par Ch. de Lamberterie à la lumière du changement de perspective dans le domaine de la linguistique historique, dû notamment à l'essor de la philologie des langues anatoliennes. Une illustration particulièrement intéressante du principe que l'origine étymologique des mots compte finalement moins que l'évolution qu'ils ont suivie se rencontre avec la dénomination de Pont-Euxin (Ἄξεινος πόντος) pour la Mer Noire. (III) J. Jouanna met en évidence l'importance du témoignage des médecins grecs ayant vécu auprès du Grand Roi dans la période antérieure aux conquêtes d'Alexandre : Démocédès de Crotone sous Darius ; Hippocrate de Cos qui refusa l'invitation d'Artaxerxès Ier tout en dressant paradoxalement un tableau idéalisé de l'Asie dans son traité Airs, eaux, lieux ; Apollonidès de Cos mêlé aux intrigues de la cour de ce dernier ; enfin Ctésias de Cnide qui, ayant sauvé Artaxerxès II à la bataille de Cunaxa, nous informe de l'intérieur sur les réalités de la Perse achéménide. (IV) La supériorité des sources chinoises sur les sources gréco-latines pour la connaissance de la période qui voit la fin de la domination grecque en Bactriane est soulignée par P. Bernard. Celles-là se fondent en effet sur un témoignage de première main, le rapport de la mission qu'effectua en 129 av. n. ère l'émissaire Zhang Qian, envoyé de l'empereur chinois Wudi auprès des Da Yuezhi, nomades ayant conquis les royaumes grecs d'Asie centrale. (V) Renversant la perspective, S. Amigues montre que des végétaux de l'Asie profonde sont attestés dans le Proche-Orient méditerranéen dès le IIe millénaire av. n. ère (poivre, noix muscade, clou de girofle) et que certains que l'on pensait « tard venus » ne le sont en fait pas du tout (abricot, pêche). À l'incertitude des textes sur le sujet suppléent ici les progrès scientifiques de l'archéobotanique. (VI) Pour D. Marcotte, le périple de Néarque peut être qualifié de fondateur, au-delà des apports scientifiques que sont la cartographie et l'ethnographie de l'Asie majeure, de la perception méditerranéenne de l'Océan Indien et de ses « sagesses barbares ». Au IIe s., Arrien donne ainsi de ce récit une interprétation en termes d'enjeux géopolitiques, ouvrant la porte à une « indianisation » (p. 151) de l'Asie. (VII) Ph. Hoffmann réexamine deux documents provenant du site exceptionnel d'Aï Khanoum en Bactriane orientale. D'un côté, un papyrus datable du IIIe s. av. n. ère ou plutôt son encre restée imprimée à même le sol dont le texte se fait l'expression d'interprétations platoniciennes s'écartant de la pensée originale et, de l'autre, une inscription présentant les maximes delphiques. L'échange entre philologue (Ph. Hoffmann) et archéologue (P. Bernard) concernant notamment les problèmes de datation liés à l'attribution à Cléarque de Soles a été heureusement retranscrit (p. 228-232).

Après la voix des textes, c'est aux images de proposer leur point de vue. (VIII) O. Picard retrace en cinq étapes la diffusion de la monnaie vers les régions à l'Est de la Méditerranée : a. Les Perses la découvrent au VIe s. av. n. ère, avec la victoire sur Crésus ; b. Dans les années 310 av. n. ère, l'établissement du royaume séleucide voit la généralisation de son usage ; c. Avec l'indépendance de la Bactriane et la conquête de l'Inde du Nord-Ouest vers 180 av. n. ère prend place une intense activité ; d. L'histoire des petits royaumes dits Indo-Grecs, Indo-Scythes et Indo-Parthes du Ier s. av. n. ère ne nous est connue que par la numismatique ; e. enfin, à partir du Ier s., l'empire kouchan reprend la tradition monétaire des rois de Bactriane pour asseoir son pouvoir naissant. (IX) À propos de la vaisselle d'argent qui pénètre au fin fond de l'Asie centrale et même au-delà, Fr. Baratte pose la question des circuits que ces objets de prestige empruntent, en particulier à travers la Perse sassanide, ainsi que des modèles dont se sont inspirés leurs artisans, les thèmes de prédilection (Dionysos, Héraklès, la chasse et les spectacles de l'amphithéâtre, des réminiscences littéraires d'Homère et d'Euripide) s'en détachant progressivement pour développer leurs caractéristiques propres. Les deux études suivantes s'intéressent à l'art du Gandhāra. (X) Prenant le cas de l'imagerie « dionysiaque » dans la région du Swat, au Nord-Ouest du Pakistan actuel, A. Filigenzi insiste sur la nécessité méthodologique d'interpréter les documents en contexte. L'association de scènes de la vie de Bouddha avec des personnages en train de se livrer aux plaisirs du vin, vraisemblablement des membres de l'aristocratie locale, montre ainsi que de tels comportements étaient socialement et culturellement appropriés. (XI) De son côté, H.-P. Francfort examine, sur un choix de palettes provenant de cette même région (des médaillons de pierre ornés de reliefs figuratifs dont la fonction fait toujours l'objet de discussions – l'auteur de l'article les interprète comme des palettes à fard), comment les motifs représentés (en particulier des êtres aquatiques, Dionysos, Aphrodite et Éros, d'autres mythes grecs), tout en tirant leur inspiration initiale de la toreutique hellénistique, ont été absorbés et intégrés à la culture locale. (XII) Toujours sur le versant indien, P.-S. Filliozat s'intéresse aux modalités de transformation du savoir grec par la culture sanscrite, à propos de la caractérisation des planètes dans le Yavanajātaka (« horoscopie grecque ») de Sphujidhvaja, montrant notamment que les fonctions qui leur sont attribuées à chacune correspondent aux quatre classes de la société indienne antique.

Le recueil se conclut par deux contributions qui repoussent les limites géographiques et chronologiques mais aussi conceptuelles du sujet, en interrogeant entre autres la notion d'exotisme. (XIII) Pour illustrer le changement de civilisation radical que l'Occident imposa au Japon à partir du milieu du XVIe s., fondé sur la doctrine qu'il fallait « helléniser les esprits avant de les christianiser » (p. 365), J.-N. Robert retrace la fortune que rencontrèrent les fables d'Ésope (Ysopet) en tant que substrat de l'hellénisme populaire à l'échelle de la mondialisation culturelle. (XIV) Enfin, J.-Y. Tilliette évalue à l'aune du « merveilleux » l'influence qu'a pu exercer la lettre pseudépigraphe d'Alexandre le Grand à son maître Aristote sur l'imaginaire médiéval à travers le Roman de toute chevalerie en vers français de Thomas de Kent (ca 1175), l'encyclopédie latine des Otia imperialia de Gervais de Tilbury (ca 1210) et le récit que le missionnaire franciscain Guillaume de Rubrouck fit de son voyage en Mongolie entre 1253 et 1255.

La qualité scientifique de l'ouvrage est rehaussée par le soin apporté à sa réalisation, qui tend à la perfection formelle dans tous ses aspects. Une riche illustration, avec des planches en couleurs insérées au fil du texte, ajoute encore au plaisir et à l'utilité de sa consultation. On ne saurait donc que recommander la lecture et la réflexion sur cette magnifique réalisation qui ouvre tout un horizon nouveau à la recherche sur l'inépuisable vitalité de l'hellénisme.

Sommaire

Allocution d'accueil, par Michel Zink, p. I
Véronique Schiltz, « L'Asie profonde d'Hérodote. Scythes, Issédons, Iyrques, Argippéens », p. 1
Charles de Lamberterie, « La Grèce et l'Orient : questions de lexique », p. 47
Jacques Jouanna, « Les médecins grecs et l'Asie », p. 79
Paul Bernard, « Un Chinois, des nomades et la fin de la Bactriane grecque (145-128 av. J.-C.) », p. 101
Suzanne Amigues, « Plantes et produits végétaux de l'Asie profonde dans le monde grec antique », p. 121
Didier Marcotte, « Le Périple de Néarque. Les enjeux scientifiques et géopolitiques d'un rapport de mission », p. 137
Philippe Hoffmann, « La philosophie grecque sur les bords de l'Oxus : un réexamen du papyrus d'Aï Khanoum », p. 165
Olivier Picard, « La pénétration de la monnaie grecque en Orient », p. 233
François Baratte, « De la Méditerranée à la Chine : Dionysos, Héraklès et les autres dans les profondeurs de l'Asie, au miroir de la vaisselle d'argent », p. 257
Anna Filigenzi, « Dionysos et son double dans l'art du Gandhāra : dieux méconnus d'Asie », p. 289
Henri-Paul Francfort, « Figures emblématiques de l'art grec sur les palettes du Gandhāra », p. 305
Pierre-Sylvain Filliozat, « La nature des planètes selon le Yavanajātaka "L'Horoscopie grecque de Sphujidhvaja et le Bṛhajjātaka "La Grande Horoscopieˮ de Varāha Mihira », p. 341
Jean-Noël Robert, « La constitution d'une tradition grecque au Japon du XVIIe au XIXe siècle », p. 361
Jean-Yves Tilliette, « Exotisme ou merveilleux ? La réception médiévale de la Lettre d'Alexandre à Aristote », p. 387
Bilan et conclusions, par Jacques Jouanna et Véronique Schiltz, p. 407

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Notes:

1.   Située à Beaulieu-sur-mer (Alpes-Maritimes), la villa a été léguée à l'Institut de France en 1928 (Villa Kérylos ; Colloques Kérylos).
2.   Outre les publications respectives des auteurs du présent ouvrage et parmi une bibliographie abondante, les travaux suivants peuvent être signalés ; sources : O. Coloru, Da Alessandro a Menandre. Il regno greco di Battriana, Pise/Rome 2009, 65-102 pour la recension des textes consacrés à l'Asie Centrale ; G. Rougemont, Inscriptions grecques d'Iran et d'Asie Centrale, Londres 2012 ; D. T. Potts, A Companion to the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Maiden, MA; Oxford; Carlton; Victoria 2012 ; études : J. Cribb, G. Herrmann (éd.), After Alexander. Central Asia before Islam, Londres 2007 ; F. Widemann, Les successeurs d'Alexandre en Asie Centrale et leur héritage culturel, Paris 2009 ; L. Martinez-Sève, « Les Grecs d'Extrême-Orient : communautés grecques d'Asie Centrale et d'Iran », Pallas 89 (2012) 367-391 DOI: 10.4000/pallas.975; également plusieurs articles pertinents dans des volumes de mélanges : J.-L. Huot, M. Yon, Y. Calvet (éd.), De l'Indus aux Balkans, Recueil à la mémoire de J. Deshayes, Paris 1985 ; D. Lauritzen, M. Tardieu (éd.), Le voyage des légendes. Hommages à Pierre Chuvin, Paris 2013.
3.   Tous deux membres de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.
4.   Secrétaire perpétuel de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Professeur au Collège de France, Président de la Fondation Théodore Reinach, élu le 14 décembre 2017 à l'Académie Française, fauteuil 37.
5.   Biographie et bibliographie dans Annuaire de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, sous la direction de J. Leclant, par N. Rousset et R. Cardinaud, t. I, 1996, p. 49-53, avec en particulier les comptes rendus des campagnes de fouilles du site d'Aï Khanoum.
6.   Sur la genèse de la notion d'Orient chez les Grecs, voir A. Tourraix, Le mirage grec. L'Orient du mythe et de l'épopée, Besançon, 2000 pufc.univ-fcomte.fr.

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Rush Rehm, Understanding Greek Tragic Theatre. Second edition (first edition published 1992). Understanding the ancient world. London; New York: Routledge, 2017. Pp. xi, 173. ISBN 9781138812628. $44.95 (pb). ISBN 9781138812611. hb.

Reviewed by Manuela Giordano, Università della Calabria (man.giordano@gmail.com)

Version at BMCR home site

Publisher's Preview

In a thriving time of general introductions on Greek tragedy, Rehm's Understanding Greek Tragic Theatre stands out as a non-conventional account of tragic theatre, making it lively reading for scholars and students alike.¹ In this volume, Rehm presents a coherent and fascinating reading of Athenian tragedy and theatre as part and parcel of a "performance culture", a working definition that Rehm had the merit to put to good use before, as he reminds his readers, it became a cliché on fifth-century Athens.² This new edition differs but slightly from the first: Rehm keeps the same structure but polishes the style, enriches the references and makes minor additions, except from new paragraphs on the chorus (pp. 65-69), on "prophecies, dreams, oaths and curses" (p. 74 f.), and on satyr play (p. 83 f.).

The book is divided into two main sections: Part I, The social and theatrical background, and Part II, Exemplary plays. The first part opens with "The performance culture of Athens", which frames tragic theatre in the wider context of Athenian culture, in which tragedy was "one kind of performance among many" (p. 3). Throughout different venues, Rehm maintains, the main events in ritual, political and familial spheres expressed the same dynamic between those who acted and those who watched the action: theatre thus mirrored the main socio-political practices of Athens, at the same time allowing the Athenians to reflect on those practices. In what follows, Rehm surveys the main public settings in Athens where the dynamic actors-spectators was paraded: the political arena (Assembly, Council), the law courts, religious events (most pointedly sacrifices and processions), and family life, weddings and funerals.

A digression on panhellenic festivals follows — whose coherence with the main argument could however be considered questionable. The rather long section on the performance of the Iliad and Odyssey at the Panathenaea seems similarly divergent. Rather than a reappraisal of Homeric recitations as performance, this part turns out to be a standard reaffirmation of the major role Homeric poems played as a genre, and their influence on tragedy in both form and content. On this account, no mention is made of the Cyclic poems, which were a main repository of tragic plots, as we know from the titles of lost tragedies and from the fact that Sophocles took inspiration for his entire production from the Cycle.³

Chapter 2, "The festival context", narrows the focus from the overall context of performance to the festive performance of the City Dionysia. Before tackling the festival per se, however, Rehm declares that the question of the origins of tragedy is "inexorably" raised by its very association with Dionysus. The conflation of "origin" and "context" is, however, hardly inescapable: such an argument confuses different levels of investigation, that of the festival's antecedents, a diachronic level, and that of its context, by definition a synchronic level, as Vernant noted long ago. Nearly half of the chapter, therefore, departs from the festival context of the City Dionysia to survey Dionysiac worship, maenadism, cross-dressing associated with Dionysiac festivals and the tormenting questions regarding Aristotle's testimony on tragic origins. A well-informed, lively review of the programme of the festivals concludes the chapter.

The third chapter, "Production as participation", deals with the different subjects and procedures involved in the production of tragedies, from the archon eponymos to the multifaceted function of the choregoi, the liturgists who sponsored the festival. The versatile role of the playwright is smartly outlined. Rehm starts from the interesting note that each of the three main tragedians initiated a family tradition — from Euphorion, Aeschylus' son, to the anonymous son, or nephew, of Euripides who posthumously directed the tetralogy including Bacchae— and proceeds to analyse the palette of functions that defined the playwright- didaskalos: teacher of the chorus, director, choreographer and music composer. There is a fine hypothetical reconstruction of the work involved in setting up a tetralogy with the same chorus and in the learning process that went on in the rehearsals, including a constant exchange of ideas. This leads Rehm to the challenging assertion that "the notion that the text and lyric metres that have survived were ever purely those of Aeschylus or Sophocles or Euripides seems extremely unlikely" (p. 28). The chorus would have undergone a whole series of shifts from play to play, contributing, as much as the actors, as illustrated by the different role played by the chorus in the Oresteia and the lost satyr play. A brilliant analysis of actors, audience, and judges concludes the survey.

Where did the tragic performances take place? Chapter 4 "The theatre of Dionysus" finely answers this question by investigating the spatial context of tragedy, beginning with the first venue for tragic performances, the agora, whose centrality for Athenian public life bespeaks of the importance of the dramatic events that took place there. Rehm tentatively explains the move from the agora to the Southern slope of the Acropolis by tragedy's increasing popularity, surmising that it may have coincided with organization of competitive performance — ca. 501 BCE in the reconstruction he offered in chapter 2. ⁴

Most appropriately, Rehm spells out the necessity of clearing from our imagination classic clichés about ancient theatres, and successfully integrates a reconstruction of the earliest theatre of Dionysus with a discussion of the most common (mis)conceptions. No pre-established template governed the theatre's shape, which was instead very flexible and adaptable — a space rather than a built-up area, we may add; no permanent backdrop wall supporting an elevated stage for the actors: "we are left, then, with a trapezoidal orchestra area, backed by a wooden façade with a central door, fronted by a row (prohedria) of stone seats and then wooden bleachers, with two side entrances into the orchestra between the seating area and the façade" (p. 38). Rehm understands the relative material poverty of fifth-century theatre by the richness of the "other" scene, the one wrought by the "the strongest of theatrical forces", the imagination of a well-trained audience; on the other hand, he emphasizes the outdoor, public venue of the theatre which enhanced the audience's involvement and the awareness of the collective and public nature of the event. This factor is fittingly opposed to the inward-oriented character of modern theatre: "bred as most of us are on a drama of interiors, with the world collapsing to the size of a living room, a television screen, a computer monitor, or a hand-held device, we easily forget that Greek theatre took place in the open air" (p. 43). This aspect is acutely linked to the use of masks, a polysemic device — or "convention", as he has it — that, among other things, reveals the voice as the main driving force of ancient theatre and as an apt and open canvas for the spectator's imagination.

In the last theoretical chapter, "Conventions of production", Rehm takes pains to make clear that theatrical conventions are culturally dependent: what seems artificial or "conventional" to an external observer, for a participant in that culture is normal and appropriate. Consistently with this not self-evident premise, Rehm reframes most conventions of tragedy in a novel perspective, and reviews the basic constituent parts of tragedy, from tragic acting to deus ex machina. A major section is dedicated to the chorus, where Rehm engages in the debate on the identity and function of the chorus, whose function he interprets as a multi-faceted and open vehicle of theatrical material to be shaped by the playwright. The case of satyr drama as a convention whose purpose is to bring tragic competitions to a close seems less successful, not only because comedy followed the tetralogy, but also because viewing satyr drama as such reduces its queer and baffling Dionysian dimension to an ancillary function. Moreover, what little has survived of satyr dramas hardly allows us to make any generalization.⁵

Part II, Exemplary plays, analyses in detail six tragedies: Aeschylus' Oresteia trilogy (chapter 6), Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus (chapter 7), Euripides' Suppliant Women (chapter 8) and Euripides' Ion (chapter 9). The survey and reappraisal of these plays is certainly interesting and worth the reading; many suggestions and new approaches emerge from their careful scrutiny, as in the emphasis on the audience's point of view. The case of the spectators' split vision in the prologue of the Eumenides is a clear instance, where the audience sees both the suppliant Orestes surrounded by the scary chorus of sleeping Furies in the orchestra, and the Pythia delivering her tranquil prologue, unaware of their presence. Attention is commendably drawn to the historical context of the plays' performance, as in the interpretation of Ion, who became a potential victim of the empire that he somehow fathered as well as a hopeful symbol for the same empire.

Partial disagreements and shortcomings do not diminish the riches on offer in this book, which has the merit of developing consistently along basic interpretive guidelines: the tandem forces of performers' spoken word as the true protagonist of the scene, and the imagination through which the audience constructs the scene for themselves; the agency of living, socially-engaged people involved in the production of tragedies, from the performers to the audience; the exhortation to the readers to distance themselves from modern, etic, assumptions about theatre and a re-orientation toward the different, emic perspective of fifth-century ancient Greeks, which ultimately proves a nice lesson in method.

In conclusion, Rehm offers a fresh and engaged look at the dynamics of Athenian tragic theatre, whereby tragedies are considered 'occasions' within a social context, rather than isolated aesthetic products and Rehm's hope that "the reader … catches some sense of the excitement of engaging Greek tragedy on its own terms" (p. viii) may prove rather well-founded.

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Notes:

1.   For a brief overview of recent publications see L. Swift, BMCR 2017.07.45.
2.   For a socio-political approach on Greek tragedy see J.-P. Vernant, P. Vidal-Naquet, Tragedy and Myth in Ancient Greece, Brighton 1981 (ed. pr. Paris 1972), a groundbreaking study; also the essays in the unsurpassed introduction P. E. Easterling (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy, Cambridge 1997, particularly P. Cartledge, 'Deep Plays': Theatre as Process in Greek Civic Life, 3–35; P. Vidal-Naquet, Le miroir brisé. Tragédie athénienne et politique, Paris 2002. On performance culture S. Goldhill and R. Osborne (eds.), Performance Culture and Athenian Democracy, Cambridge 1999.
3.   Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists, 7. 277a = Radt test. 136. For the importance and performance of the Epic Cycle in Athens see L. Sbardella, Cucitori di canti. Studi sulla tradizione epico-rapsodica greca e i suoi itinerari nel VI secolo a.C, Rome 2012.
4.   On the ikria and their crash in 499 BCE, a disaster our sources connect to the necessity of finding a new space — eventually the theatre of Dionysus, see Athenian Agora III, nos. 524–528; on the space in the agora as a theatron see M. Giordano, Out of Athens. Ritual Performances, Spaces, and the Emergence of Tragedy, in G. Colesanti, M. Giordano (eds.), Submerged Literature in Ancient Greek Culture. An Introduction, Berlin and Boston 2014, on which see F. J. González García BMCR 2017.11.05. See also E. Csapo, "The Earliest Phase of 'Comic' Choral Entertainments in Athens. The Dionysian Pompe and the 'Birth' of Comedy", in S. Chronopoulos and C. Orth (eds.), Fragmente einer Geschichte der griechischen Komödie, Heidel¬berg 2015, 66–108, at 82, 99–101 with note 143, who provides a thorough the sources and points out that "there was indeed what might have been called a 'theatron' in the Greek sense, but not a 'theatre' in ours", 100.
5.   On satyr play see recently M. Di Marco Satyrikà. Studi sul drama satiresco , Lecce 2013 and R . Palmisciano "Dramatic Actions from Archaic Iconographic Sources: the Domain of the Satyrikon" in G. Colesanti, M. Giordano (eds.), Submerged Literature in Ancient Greek Culture. An Introduction, Berlin and Boston 2014, 107-127.

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