Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Monique Dixsaut, Plato-Nietzsche: Philosophy the Other Way. Translated by Kenneth Quandt. London; Washington, DC: Academica Press, 2018. Pp. xii, 316. ISBN 9781680530483. $89.95.

Reviewed by Merrick Anderson, Princeton University (merricka@princeton.edu)

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[The Table of Contents is listed below.]

In 1950 Walter Kaufmann, who did much to rehabilitate the serious study of Nietzsche, remarked upon the importance of Plato's works and his depiction of Socrates for the self-proclaimed Antichrist: "Nietzsche's attitude towards Socrates is a focal point of his thought and reflects his views of reason and morality as well as the image of man he envisaged."¹ Since the publication of Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist, a number of studies have been devoted to various aspects of the complicated philosophical relationship between Plato and Nietzsche.² Few, however, have been as ambitious and bold as Monique Dixsaut's recent monograph, Plato-Nietzsche: Philosophy the Other Way.

No stranger to either Plato or Nietzsche, Dixsaut has previously authored or edited an impressive ten volumes on Plato and one on Nietzsche. Originally published in 2015 under the French title, Platon-Nietzsche. L'autre manière de philosopher, her most recent book has been translated into English by Kenneth Quandt. In it, Dixsaut argues that despite the historical gulf separating them, Plato and Nietzsche share a way of thinking that distinguishes them from other figures in the history of philosophy. As she puts it, her guiding hypothesis is "that there is a profound kinship, some kind of consanguinity between the two of them" (p. xi). Both thinkers, she claims, deny that there is "such a thing as philosophy itself or in general" (p. xi). Neither conceive of their own project as a search for answers to determinate questions, but they both engage in similar modes of thinking. By focusing on "the meanderings of a way of thinking that eludes as soon as one confines it in a doctrinal framework," Dixsaut offers an interpretation of Plato and Nietzsche that undermines their purported adherence to the theses for which each of them is most famous (p. xii). One notable consequence of this interpretation is that Plato and Nietzsche disagree on less than is commonly thought.

This interpretation unfolds in a piecemeal fashion. Over the course of eight chapters and five additional sections, Dixsaut adopts a method of what she calls rigorous counterpoint—"the superimposition of two melodic lines that tolerate dissonance"—to exhibit Plato and Nietzsche's intellectual kinship (p. xii). Each chapter is relatively self-contained and tackles a different topic or theme, such as the nature of thinking, the opposition between being and becoming, and the ethical virtues. Because the central claim of the book depends on the cumulative effect of all the chapters, each should be evaluated on its own merits.

The quality of the chapters varies considerably: some advance novel and plausible interpretations, others are entirely unconvincing. Among the more interesting and successful are the fourth and final chapters, dedicated to a discussion of methods versus systems and tragedy respectively, only the latter of which I shall comment on here. Nietzsche and Plato both disagree with Aristotle's famous analysis of tragedy, the closing chapter argues, and this disagreement stems from a shared understanding of the insidious power that drama and music have to strengthen certain emotional responses. Dixsaut demonstrates diligent research and a subtle eye for nuanced considerations in this chapter. To make her case, she draws on early, hand-written notes made by Nietzsche, which explicitly mention and criticize Aristotle's Poetics. In addition, she shows her classical training by deftly citing from ancient poets in order to illustrate the claims made by Plato in Book X of his Republic. The closing sections of the book transition to a discussion of the purpose of Nietzsche's tragic philosophy, which, though speculative, is nonetheless provocative and plausible. No other chapter does a better job at demonstrating the philosophical kinship between these two philosophers.

Before turning to the less successful chapters, I want to briefly mention two isolated discussions that are, in my opinion, the best parts of the book. The first is a small section (p. 87-93) that hones in on the Greek term 'dunamis' and highlights its prominence in Plato's corpus: "The term dunamis will be found throughout Plato's work, it runs through it like a main thread, though it is rarely noticed." (p. 88). Dixsaut is correct to note that this term has been relatively neglected by scholars, and she goes on to raise and succinctly state a serious puzzle about Platonic metaphysics: If powers essentially do things, and are therefore part of the world of becoming and change, why does Plato imply that being is nothing other than a power in his later dialogues, such as the Phaedrus (270c-d) and Sophist (247d-e)? No concrete answer is given to the question, but the author deserves praise for raising it so forcefully. The second is the insightful discussion treating the relationship between Nietzsche's philological training and his philosophical—and particularly genealogical—aptitude (p. 146-53 and 161-7). Though this topic has received a fair bit of attention in French and German literature, it is often overlooked by English-speaking scholars.³ Dixsaut's remarks are very stimulating, and North-American readers should be glad that her work has been made accessible through Quandt's translation.

Unfortunately, many of the other chapters fail to demonstrate any "profound kinship" between the two thinkers. The chapters on truth and ethics are particularly disappointing, though I will only discuss the latter here. In making her case, Dixsaut draws a crucial distinction between (what she calls) true and false Platonic virtues (p. 232). It is not totally clear how this distinction is supposed to operate, but the idea seems to be that thought lies at the basis of all the true virtues, while the false virtues are grounded in correct opinion or good habits. I have some reservations about how this distinction is drawn, but a far more pressing issue is that, as far as I can see, only Plato's account of the false virtues is substantially similar to any of Nietzsche's treatment of the virtues. Because Dixsaut assumes that both true and false Platonic virtues are genuine virtues—albeit two different species of virtue (p. 239)—this does not seem to phase her; but in my view, this assumption is false. Consequently, many the similarities that she purports to find between Plato and Nietzsche seem to me illusory.⁴ In truth, the two philosophers subscribed to profoundly different ethical ideals. Plato holds that there are a relatively small number of real ethical virtues, which he believes that every maximally good agent must possess. Nietzsche was viscerally repulsed by this possibility, since he privileged the creation of new values and thought that previous philosophers who posited a singular ideal for all stunted the growth of newer virtues and ways of life. It is for this reason that he castigates Plato's legacy of dogmatism in the Preface to Beyond Good and Evil and later states that his philosopher would reject dogmatism and the notion of a shared or common good.⁵

The way Dixsaut presents her evidence also gives rise to serious worries. In general (though not always), quotations from primary texts are offered without a discussion of their argumentative context or even an explicit indication of the work they come from. At one point she appears to cite a text from Nietzsche's unpublished manuscripts, the contents of which are often thought to be of significantly less interpretive weight than those of the published works, just before quoting a section of The Gay Science. Yet rather than alerting the reader to this switch, Dixsaut actively blurs the lines between the two texts by introducing the second quotation "But Nietzsche concludes…" (p. 231). A similar practice is employed in the sections on Plato. Quotations from one dialogue are introduced as support for Plato's position in another dialogue without so much as alerting the reader to the fact that the evidence adduced comes from a different philosophical work addressing a different set of questions. For those who care about the context in which a claim is made, this methodological practice will have the general effect of destabilizing some of the author's arguments.

A number of additional infelicities mar the work, although many are surely due to oversights in translation or editing and not the responsibility of the author herself. References to Plato's Greek are often inexact; occasionally they are entirely absent.⁶ On its own, this is not a serious problem but it is exacerbated by the fact that I was unable to find any information about the Greek editions used, which makes it difficult to evaluate certain claims or to check certain translations. The book also contains a number of surprising typographical errors, sometimes even in the chapter titles, other times in close proximity to one another.⁷

One topic almost entirely unaddressed is the relationship between Plato and Socrates, conceived of either as the character in the dialogues or as a historical figure. It would seem that Dixsaut's own view is that Plato's Socrates is a character in a philosophical text and does not represent any historical figure.⁸ Be this as it may, at various points in his career, Nietzsche thought that he could distinguish between the historical Socrates and Plato, and he had very different attitudes towards each of them. Indeed, as the quote from Kaufmann that begins this review suggests, certain parts of Nietzsche's work imply that he had more in common with Socrates than with Plato.⁹ Any full reckoning of Nietzsche's kinship with Plato must grapple with the question of how Nietzsche himself conceived of Socrates and his place in Plato's philosophy. It is a significant failing of the present book that the author does not do this. This failure, coupled with the unsatisfactory argumentation in some crucial chapters, leaves the central claim of the book in jeopardy. More needs to be done to establish the profound kinship between Plato and Nietzsche, if, indeed, such a kinship exists in the first place.

Table of Contents

Preface to the American edition, p. ix
Preface, p. xi
Preamble: How to Dialogue with the Dead, p.1
Unavoidable Supplement: Heidegger and Nietzsche's Reversal of Platonism, p. 21
Chapter One: What the Two of them Call Thinking, p. 33
Enlightening Consequence: On Reading and Writing, p. 61
Chapter Two: Being and Power, p. 77
Chapter Three: Two Cases of "Experimental" Thinking, p. 99
Chapter Four: Methods Versus System, p. 125
Chapter Five: Interpreting, p. 161
Chapter Six: Truths and Truth, p. 185
Interlude: Two Parodies, p. 211
Chapter Seven: From a Noble Ethics to an Aristocratic Politics, p. 225
An Affecting Annex: On the Future of Our Educational Institutions, p. 261
Chapter Eight: The Shift of the Tragic, or from a Philosophical Tragedy to a Tragic Philosophy, p. 271
Bibliography, p. 301
Index of Passages Cited, p. 305
Index of Authors Cited, p. 313
List of Abbreviations, p. 315

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Notes:

1.   Kaufmann, Walter. Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist (3rd ed). Princeton University Press, 1974: 391.
2.   Most notably, the excellent studies produced by Alexander Nehamas. Nietzsche: Life as Literature. Harvard University Press, 1985 and The Art of Living: Socrates Reflections from Plato to Foucault. University of California Press, 2000.
3.   Benne, Christian. Nietzsche und die historisch-kritische Philologie. Walter de Gruyter, 2005.
4.   Consider the following claim made by Dixsaut: "'Virtue' has for Nietzsche the same axiologically neutral sense it has for Plato…Virtues are therefore not good as such, they can pursue evils goals and they can have harmful consequences" (p. 232). That this cannot be true is indicated by the fact that, across a large number of dialogues, Plato is consistent in maintaining that the genuine virtues are responsible only for good effects. Indeed, in some dialogues, Socrates even treats the uncontestable goodness of these virtues as an Archimedean point for his own investigations (eg., Rep. 335b-e and 348d-e).
5.   BGE 43.
6.   For example, the section "From free men to free spirits" begins: "In the Theaetetus Socrates faces off 'all those who were educated the way one educates slaves' with a man 'whose education was carried out in true freedom and leisure, whom you rightly call a philosopher,' as he says to the mathematician Theodorus" (p. 102). There is no indication, either in the text or in the footnotes, about the source of these citations. (For the interested reader, the text is Theaet.175d-e).
7.   For example, a passage of Plato's Phaedrus is translated as follows: "Then, if it is simple, investigate its power: on what things doe it have a natural power of acting? by what things can its nature be acted upon? If, in the other hand, it has many forms, we must list them all…" (p. 89, my emphasis).
8.   Dixsaut does not say this in so many words, but a number of passages suggest that this is her view. Consider: "The so-called protagonists of [Plato's] dialogues, those who lead the discussion, are dead, imaginary or anonymous, sometimes two or three of these, and are thrown out of any historical localization" (p. 6).
9.   On this topic, one should consult the excellent discussion in the fifth chapter of Nehamas, 2000: 128-56.

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Konstantina Aktypi, The Mycenaean Cemetery at Agios Vasileios, Chalandritsa, in Achaea. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2017. Pp. xii, 296. ISBN 9781784916978. £42.00​.

Reviewed by Christina Aamodt, Thessaloniki (caamont@gmail.com)

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Table of Contents

The region of Achaea in the northwestern part of the Peloponnese in Greece has emerged as a particularly interesting area during the Late Bronze Age, the result of consistent excavation and research conducted over the past 30 years. The region was, until a few years ago, considered a part of the "periphery" of the Mycenaean world, in other words, as belonging to the fringe of the sphere of influence exercised by major administrative centers. The archaeological evidence, however, reveals that Achaea's role in the development of a distinctive local culture, the so-called "Western Mainland koine", was a dynamic one even from the beginning of the Mycenaean period.¹ The culture that emerged in the area, encompassing also the Ionian islands, displays strong local cultural traits and reflects a cohesive cultural identity that survived the collapse of the Mycenaean palaces at the end of Late Helladic IIIB period.

This publication concerns the examination of the material uncovered at the Mycenaean chamber tomb cemetery of Agios Vasileios at Chalandritsa. Excavations at the site began in 1928 but were disrupted by World War II and were resumed only much later, in 1989. From 1989 until 2001, the excavations revealed 29 chamber tombs in addition to the original four uncovered by Kyparissis from 1928 to 1930; it is possible that further research may uncover still more tombs. The site has been repeatedly looted, but enough material was retrieved to show that it was characteristic of the local culture. The aim of the publication is to present the material found in the cemetery and hence enrich our knowledge of culture and society in Mycenaean Achaea.

Chalandritsa is situated on the southwestern foot of Mt. Panachaikon in the region of Pharai, close to the plain. The site lies on the intersection of the coastal plain and the mountainous hinterland. The area is rich in archaeological sites from the Middle Bronze Age to Roman times. The cemetery of Agios Vasileios at Chalandritsa covers an area of 1.3 hectares, with the chamber tombs cut into the soft limestone and arranged in at least three rows, indicating that it must have been quite extensive. From the examination of the finds, which consist mostly of pottery, it is concluded that the cemetery was in use from Late Helladic IIIA1 to Late Helladic IIIC late; Late Helladic IIIB is, however, not well represented.

The book consists of nine main chapters, some of them further divided in sub-chapters (22 in total), in addition to a preface, an epilogue and an extensive bibliography, and complemented by maps, sections of the tombs and drawings of the pottery. Moreover, it is very well illustrated with color photographs. The publication is supplemented by the contribution of two more authors, Olivia A. Jones and Vivian Staikou, who examined the human remains and the small finds of stone and shell, respectively. Overall, the book provides a very good presentation of the excavations and it is well edited with no obvious spelling mistakes.

First, Chapter A presents a catalogue of the ancient sites located in the area under examination—the region of Chalandritsa-Katarraktis—then describes the topography of the area, with some general remarks on the geographical features of the Mycenaean sites of western and eastern Achaia that also characterize the location of the site at Stavros, the settlement associated with the cemetery of Agios Vasileios. A brief description of the settlement and the cemetery follows, as well as a brief account of the history of the excavations at the site of Agios Vasileios from 1928 to 2001. Finally, a short reference to the history of Chalandritsa from the Medieval period up to the present day is provided.

Chapter B comprises a catalogue of the tombs and their finds from the excavations conducted in 1961 by Efthimios Mastrokostas, with some fragmentary material collected before that date from the general area of Chalandritsa. The latter was registered in the catalogue of the Ephorate without any further information regarding their exact provenance or context.

Chapter C presents the tombs (Tombs 1, 2, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20) discovered during the 1989 excavation season along with their finds, mostly ceramic vessels dating from Late Helladic IIIA1 to Late Helladic IIIC.

Chapters D and E concern the excavations conducted in 1991 (Tomb 24), 1993 (Tombs 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 21, 22, 23, 26, 27, 28, 29, 36 and 37), 1994 (Tombs 30 or 31 and 39), 1995 (Tombs 40), 1999–2000 (tomb not numbered) and 2001 (Tombs 43, 44 and 45) and provide a description of the tombs and their finds, again mostly ceramic vessels dating from Late Helladic IIIA1 to Late Helladic IIIC.

In Chapter F, Staikou examines the small finds, primarily of stone and some of shell, which were collected from the surface area of the cemetery, as well as from disturbed contexts of the entrances (dromoi) and chambers of the tombs. The lithic assemblage consists of blades, cores and flakes dating mostly to the Bronze Age, as well as a small number of ground stone tools. The chert used for the chipped stone tools has a local provenance and is similar to that collected from the Mycenaean settlement of Stavros.

The examination of the osteological material from the cemetery, generally well preserved, constituted the doctoral thesis of Jones, and therefore only a part of it is examined by her here in Chapter G (Tombs 1, 16, 17, 19, 20, 24, 26, 40, 43 and 44). Mycenaean burials in chamber tombs usually comprise multiple interments, secondary treatment of the skeletal remains and re-use of the tomb; as a consequence, bone assemblages are commingled and fragmented, and thus the examination of the material can be challenging. The study included in this publication, given its preliminary character, focused only on providing the Minimum Number of Individuals (MNI), sex estimation (where possible), and age of the human remains, concluding with an attempt to reconstruct the burial process. The evidence from the funerary record of the cemetery of Agios Vasileios is overall in accordance with the general pattern of the Mycenaean burial process, from the interment itself to post-mortem treatment. The demographic analysis indicates that infants and children are under-represented, as can be observed in most Mycenaean cemeteries (due, however, to a number of reasons, not all of them associated with deliberate choices on the part of Mycenaean communities). Finally, the ratio between female and male burials is almost equal in the cemetery, an observation that is in conflict with previous research suggesting that male burials predominated in the Late Bronze Age. Lawrence Angel was the first to remark on a disparity between male and female burials during the Mycenaean period, with male burial prevailing,² later corroborated by William Cavanagh and Christopher Mee.³ The debate is on-going, with some evidence pointing to a male predominance and other to equal representation.⁴ Future research will hopefully clarify the matter.

Chapter H provides a detailed account of the pottery and finds uncovered in the tombs and their dromoi, organized by chronological period. The pottery assemblage features most of the typical and well-known Mycenaean shapes, such as the stirrup jar, the piriform jar, the jug with cut-away neck, the alabastron, the amphoriskos, the four-handled amphora and the duck vase, of which the last two are very popular shapes in Achaea. Some of the vessels belong to the so-called "Achaean style" that displays the characteristics of a dynamic local pottery production found at other sites of western Achaea.

The book is a detailed and coherent presentation of the tombs, the skeletal remains and the finds excavated at the cemetery of Agios Vasileios, the largest uncovered so far in the region of Pharai. The value of the publication lies on the fact that it enriches our knowledge concerning the archaeology of the region—particularly of western Achaea to which Chalandritsa belonged—not only geographically but also culturally.⁵ The authors attempt to reconstruct the practices and ideologies of the particular community as reflected in the treatment of the dead and in the choice of the material culture accompanying them. As such, it is an important addition to the effort to synthesize and reconstruct the culture of Mycenaean Achaea. The last decades have brought to light an abundance of new data that highlight the significance of this region. Far from being isolated, Achaea was an important part of the Mycenaean world with a distinctive culture and a dynamic presence in the trade networks with the Ionian islands and Italy to the west and the eastern Peloponnese and Central Greece to the east. In LH IIIC the area of western Achaea emerged as the center of the western mainland koine and the local character of its culture becomes even more prominent. The site of Chalandritsa in the northwestern part of the Peloponnese reflects these processes and the affinity with western Achaea. The pottery assemblage from the tombs indicates its close relation particularly with the area of Elis and the Ionian islands, while its central location at the passage towards the Peloponnesian hinterland facilitated the exchange with this area as well. Chalandritsa, therefore, emerges as a significant site in the area. The excavation of its settlement at the site of Stavros will undoubtedly corroborate its significance and will clarify the nature of its involvement on the trade routes between hinterland and coastland.

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Notes:

1.   For the examination of the culture termed as such, see for example Moschos, I. 2009. "Evidence of social re-organization and reconstruction in Late Helladic IIIC Achaea and modes of contacts and exchange via the Ionian and Adriatic Sea". In E. Borgna and P. Cassola Guida (eds.) Dall'Egeo all'Adriatico. Organizzazioni sociali, modi di scambio e interazione in età postpalaziale (XII-XI sec. a.C.). From the Aegean to the Adriatic. Social Organizations, Modes of Exchange and Interaction in the Post-palatial Times (12^th to 11^th c. B.C.) Seminario internazionale, 1-2 Dicembre 2006/International workshop, 1-2 December 2006, CISM Piazza Galibaldi 18, Udine, Roma: Quasar, pp. 345-414, with further references.
2.   Bisel, S. C. and J. L. Angel. 1985. "Health and Nutrition in Mycenaean Greece: a study in human skeletal remains". In Wilkie, N. C. and W. D. E. Coulson (eds.) Contributions to Aegean Archaeology. Studies in honor of William A. McDonald. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, pp. 197-210.
3.   Cavanagh, W. G. and C. Mee. 1998. A Private Place: Death in Prehistoric Greece. Jonsered: Paul Astroms Forlag, especially pp. 127–128.
4.   See for example Schepartz, L. A., S. Miller-Antonio and J. M. A. Murphy. 2009. "Differential health among the Mycenaeans of Messenia: status, sex, and dental health at Pylos". In Schepartz, L. A., S. C. Fox and C. Bourbou (eds.) New Directions in the Skeletal Biology of Greece. Hesperia Supplement 43, pp. 155-174, especially p. 165.
5.   For a discussion of the cultural differences and influences between western and eastern Achaea see Petropoulos, M. 2016. "Achaia: Eastern and Western". In Papadopoulou-Chrysikopoulou, E., V. Chrysikopoulos and G. Christakopoulou (eds.) Achaios. Studies presented to Professor Thanasis I. Papadopoulos. Oxford: Archaeopress, pp. 219-231. ​

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Geoffrey E. R. Lloyd, Jingyi Jenny Zhao (ed.), Ancient Greece and China Compared. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. Pp. xv, 430. ISBN 9781107086661. £90.00. Contributors: In collaboration with Qiaosheng Dong

Reviewed by Frédéric Le Blay, Université de Nantes (frederic.le-blay@univ-nantes.fr)

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Depuis quelques années, se développent fortement les études comparatives entre les anciennes civilisations de l'Europe et celles de l'Asie. Cette approche est illustrée par des travaux embrassant une large perspective ¹ ou portant sur des corpus, notamment philosophiques,² ou des thématiques historiques ³ plus précis. La voie avait été ouverte par le grand spécialiste de la Chine, Joseph Needham, biochimiste de formation, auteur d'une monumentale encyclopédie des sciences et des savoirs dans la Chine ancienne ⁴ suivie de plusieurs ouvrages interrogeant les différences et les liens entre la science occidentale et la science chinoise.

Geoffrey E. R. Lloyd, dont les travaux font autorité auprès des spécialistes de la philosophie et des sciences de l'Antiquité, a repris le flambeau, en s'inscrivant dans les pas de Needham, auquel il rend volontiers hommage. Ce tournant significatif dans son activité de recherche repose sur l'étude de la langue chinoise, qu'il mène depuis de nombreuses années. En 2002, il avait ainsi publié avec Nathan Sivin une série d'études sous le titre The Way and the Word : Science and Medicine in Early China and Greece reposant les bases de cette approche comparatiste. ⁵ Ce travail fut suivi par plusieurs publications importantes qu'il convient de mentionner pour établir le contexte du présent ouvrage ⁶. On comprend que, même si cette approche comparatiste peut apparaître neuve pour la plupart des spécialistes de l'Antiquité classique, les méthodes et les objets sont déjà bien rôdés pour Lloyd et ses collaborateurs les plus proches.

L'introduction et les deux premières contributions (G. E. R. Lloyd, N. Sivin, W. Scheidel) offrent une série de considérations méthodologiques précieuses, qui reposent le cadre général. Le néophyte gagnera à les lire avec la plus grande attention, d'autant plus que, comme le précise Walter Scheidel, il n'existe pas de manuel ou de méthode bien établie pour se livrer à la comparaison historique (p. 43). Il est rappelé que cette approche s'insère dans le cadre plus global de l'Histoire Comparée (Comparative History) ou de l'Histoire Globale (Global History), telle qu'elle a pu être définie notamment par P. K. Crossley. ⁷ L'histoire de la philosophie n'échappe pas à cette nouvelle lecture, comme trois des chapitres de l'ouvrage le rappellent : R. Wardy, « On the Very Idea of (Philosophical ?) Translation », p. 59-80 ; R. A. H. King, « Freedom in Parts of the Zhuangzi and Epictetus », p. 83-109 ; Jingyi Jenny Zhao, « Shame and Moral Education in Aristotle and Xunzi », p. 110-132. La chronologie de cette comparaison est également bien posée : on envisage la période allant jusqu'au IIIe siècle après J.-C. et les motifs de cette restriction temporelle sont exprimés en termes clairs : "That cut-off point is, to some extent, an arbitrary one, but it means that in both cases we are studying civilisations not yet fundamentally affected by the major transformations brought about on the one hand by the Christianisation of the Roman Empire, and on the other by the emergence of Buddhism as a dominant influence in China" (p. 2). Il était en effet essentiel de définir sur des bases pertinentes ce que l'on entend par période ancienne d'un côté comme de l'autre de la comparaison, la notion d'Antiquité étant propre à l'historiographie du monde occidental. Avoir ainsi retenu comme borne deux « révolutions » spirituelles et religieuses destinées à affecter profondément les sociétés qui les ont accueillies est un choix que chacun pourra certes discuter mais dont l'incidence historique n'est pas contestable. Il était important de pouvoir définir un cadre temporel commun car la question qui ne manque pas de se poser dès lors que l'on compare est celle des éventuelles influences réciproques qui peuvent s'opérer du fait des contacts (commerciaux, militaires, etc.) entre deux parties du monde. Même si de tels échanges ne sont pas avérés, la question doit pourvoir être posée, ce qui suppose une contemporanéité des deux versants de la comparaison. Dans le cas contraire, il reste possible de tracer des transferts culturels, qui peuvent s'effectuer avec un décalage temporel, mais il s'agit alors d'une autre question. Il est également rappelé (p. 36) que la comparaison peut avoir deux perspectives : "Just as we can compare something in two places at the same time, we can also compare a thing in the same place at different times. In that sense all history is comparative, but that does not mean all historians want to draw explicit comparisons." Cette partie méthodologique aide aussi à comprendre pourquoi et comment les travaux comparant Occident et Orient ont pu connaître un tel épanouissement : un graphique illustre en effet l'inflation significative des publications entre 1980 et 2010 (p. 49). W. Scheidel propose ainsi une hypothèse mettant en regard l'état des études classiques et l'état des études est-orientales, les premières pouvant servir de référent aux secondes :

'Classics' has produced around one million publications since 1900 and is relatively well represented in academia as a legacy function of its privileged position in the age of global European hegemony. Several thousand scholars attend the annual meetings of the North American Classics association; over 500 Greco-Roman historians hold faculty positions at Anglophone universities. Whatever the corresponding numbers for early China studies (in the West), they are bound to be much smaller. In some ways, early China scholars operate in a context that is reminiscent of Classics a century or more ago —with fundamental texts being edited for the first time, much of the existing sources unavailable in translation, and archaeology rapidly expanding the body of knowledge. All this may concentrate minds on the more essential tasks at hand. But this is merely a conjecture: I would greatly welcome feedback from China scholars on their field's incentives and disincentives to inter-cultural collaborative research. Scholars of the Greco-Roman world, it must be said, in any case lack any pragmatic excuses for their failure to instigate more comparative work. (p. 48)

Je tiens à dire que je partage entièrement l'affirmation finale.

Les études qui suivent ces trois « prologues » témoignent toutes d'une grande prudence méthodologique en évitant les rapprochements hasardeux et les analogies forcées. Elles se livrent à l'exercice de la comparaison tout en posant les limites de celui-ci. Je citerai à titre d'exemple les remarques préliminaires de Michael Puett : "As G. E. R. Lloyd has argued, one of the common mistakes in comparative analyses involves pulling materials from different genres in two or more cultures and then presenting these as examples of contrasting mentalities. This danger is particularly evident with the material at hand. Stories from, for example, Greek tragedy are placed in contrast to statements in Chinese political theory concerning the importance of rulers following the moral dictates of Heaven. The contrast says a great deal about the different genres, but very little about the larger comparative questions at hand." (p. 161)

L'ouvrage est organisé en cinq parties, dont je traduis ainsi les intitulés : Enjeux méthodologiques et perspectives ; Philosophie et Religion ; Art et Littérature ; Mathématiques et Sciences de la vie ; Agriculture, Urbanisme et Institutions. Il cherche ainsi à couvrir un prisme large. Ce souhait se heurte naturellement à des difficultés que tout éditeur cherchant à embrasser un champ très ouvert a déjà connues. Ainsi la dernière partie regroupe deux études relevant de questionnements fort éloignés : l'une remonte à la Préhistoire et s'interroge sur le régime alimentaire des populations dans sa dimension sociale tandis que la seconde interroge les pratiques institutionnelles de compilation et de collection de la mémoire écrite et du savoir. Je pourrais somme toute exprimer les mêmes réserves sur chacune des parties de ce recueil. Mais, à moins de s'abstenir de tout groupement thématique, cet écueil paraît difficile à éviter et ne nuit en rien à la cohérence d'ensemble du recueil. On en vient à se demander si, pour de telles entreprises, il ne serait pas plus satisfaisant de s'abstenir de la tentation du plan, pourtant si forte dans notre culture académique, pour ne présenter qu'une collection d'essais dont le lecteur saura reconnaître l'unité. Ici, la dimension comparatiste fournit à elle seule la cohérence à l'ensemble.

L'index final, bien qu'il regroupe des entités de nature différente (notions, noms propres, œuvres, lieux, etc.) est bienvenu. On constate en le parcourant qu'il a été établi à partir des propositions de chaque contributeur et que la plupart des entrées ne renvoient qu'à une seule étude mais certaines notions transversales permettent de balayer plusieurs contributions. Bienvenu également le choix de ne pas présenter une bibliographie d'ensemble, qui aurait été foisonnante et indigeste, mais de réserver ce référencement à chaque texte du recueil.

L'ouvrage est d'une grande qualité formelle. Comme je l'ai dit, il peut se lire dans une perspective méthodologique, comme une introduction aux enjeux du comparatisme historique. L'autre intérêt non négligeable est le plaisir de la découverte que cette approche offre toujours au lecteur : celui-ci étant en général spécialiste de l'un des deux versants culturels de la comparaison, rarement des deux à la fois, il trouvera nécessairement dans ces essais matière à élargir sa réflexion et à relire différemment les sources et la documentation qui lui sont familières. La démarche suivie est également une belle illustration de l'intérêt que les études classiques peuvent présenter à l'heure des approches globales.

Authors and titles

G. E. R. Lloyd, "Introduction: Methods, Problems and Prospects" p. 1-29
Part I: Methodological Issues and Goals
N. Sivin, "Why some comparisons Make More Difference than Others" p. 33-39
W. Scheidel, "Comparing Comparisons" p. 40-58
R. Wardy, "On the Very Idea of (Philosophical?) Translation p. 59-80

Part II: Philosophy and Religion
R. A. H. King, "Freedom in Parts of the Zhuangzi and Epictetus" p. 83-109
J. J. Zhao, "Shame and Moral Education in Aristotle and Xunzi" p. 110-130
L. Raphals, "Human and Animal in Early China and Greece" p. 131-159
M. Puett, "Genealogies of Gods, Ghosts and Humans: The Capriciousness of the Divine in Early Greece and Early China" p. 160-185

Part III: Art and Literature
J. Tanner, "Visual Art and Historical Representation in Ancient Greece and China" p. 187-233
Y. Zhou, "Helen and Chinese Femmes Fatales" p. 234-255

Part IV: Mathematics and Life Sciences
R. Netz, "Divisions, Big and Small: Comparing Archimedes and Liu Hui" p. 259-289
K. Chemla, "Abstraction as a Value in the Historiography of Mathematics in Ancient Greece and China: A Historical Approach to Comparative History of Mathematics" p. 290-325
V. Lo & E. Re'em, "Recipes for Love in the Ancient World" p. 326-352

Part V: Agriculture, Planning and Institutions
X. Liu, E. Margaritis & M. Jones, "From the Harvest to the Meal in Prehistoric China and Greece: A Comparative Approach to the Social Context of Food" p. 355-372
M. Nylan, "On Libraries and Manuscript Culture in Western Han Chang'an and Alexandria" p. 373-409
M. Loewe, Afterword p. 410-419

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Notes:

1.   Wiebke Denecke, Classical World Literatures: Sino-Japanese and Greco-Roman Comparisons. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. BMCR 2014.08.50.
2.   Haixia W. Lan, Aristotle and Confucius on Rhetoric and Truth: The Form and the Way. London; New York: Routledge, 2017. BMCR 2017.11.62.
3.   En matière d'histoire politique, l'historien Walter Scheidel illustre parfaitement cette perspective comparatiste : Rome and China. Comparative Perspectives on Ancient World Empires, New York: Oxford University Press, 2009; (ed.), State Power in Ancient China and Rome. Oxford Studies in early empires., New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. BMCR 2015.09.24.
4.   Science and Civilisation in China, 10 tomes, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960-1965.
5.   New Haven: Yale University Press.
6.   Ancient Worlds, Modern Reflections: Philosophical Perspectives on Greek and Chinese Science and Culture, New York: Oxford University Press, 2004; The Delusions of Invulnerability: Wisdom and Morality in Ancient Greece, China and Today, London: Duckworth, 2005; Principles And Practices in Ancient Greek And Chinese Science (Variorum Collected Studies Series), Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006; Analogical Investigations. Historical and Cross-cultural Perspectives on Human Reasoning, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. BMCR 2016.05.21.
7.   What is Global History? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.

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Jana Helmbold-Doyé, Aline und ihre Kinder Mumien aus dem römerzeitlichen Ägypten. Ägypten im Blick, 2. Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag, 2017. Pp. 80. ISBN 9783954901937. €15,90.

Reviewed by Inge Uytterhoeven, Koç University (iuytterhoeven@ku.edu.tr)

Version at BMCR home site

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

In the late 19^th to early 20^th century, William M.F. Petrie introduced the western public to the Roman mummy portraits from Hawara in the Egyptian Fayum. The publications of his excavations and exhibitions¹ aroused a fascination for mummy portraits, which, often after removal from their mummies, became preferred items in private collections and museums. Based on the first finds in the Fayum, the portraits became known as 'Fayum portraits', although portrait mummies were later also discovered outside this area. The interest in Roman mummy portraits and to a smaller extent also in masks underwent a revival in the late 1990s, when several studies and exhibitions were dedicated to the topic, now paying specific attention to the archaeological, religious-ideological and cultural context of the portraits.²

While Petrie became famous as the discoverer of the Hawara portraits, it is not widely known that he did not excavate all mummies with portraits and masks known from this site. For instance, the mummies discussed in Aline und ihre Kinder were found by Richard von Kaufmann in 1892 and then brought to Berlin. Aline and her children were re-investigated in January 2016 as part of an interdisciplinary study of all human mummies in the Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung at Berlin, as Jana Helmbold-Doyé explains in the preface of her new book.

The rest of this small book is composed of nine sections of various length, some written by or in collaboration with other scholars, followed by appendices. The appendices include a selective bibliography with mainly publications in German, a table listing the grave finds, an overview of the museum history of the ensemble, a map of Egypt and information on the three contributors.

Helmbold-Doyé wrote the first three, brief sections. The first section is dedicated to Richard von Kaufmann, the discoverer of Aline's tomb. Von Kaufmann (1849-1908) was an important private art collector who sponsored several excavation projects. Inspired by Petrie's successful excavations at Hawara, he himself went out into the field in 1892. The second section discusses the problem of locating Aline's tomb, which is difficult because von Kaufmann's only description of the grave is found in one of his published lectures. The tomb was apparently a roofed mudbrick construction, which possibly had an above-ground structure or cultic area. Parallels of this type of tomb, which resembled contemporaneous houses,³ are known from Tuna el-Gebel in Middle Egypt (a reference to image 15 is missing). In the third section, Helmbold-Doyé describes the acquisition of the Aline finds by the Berlin Museum. In the summer of 1892 von Kaufmann offered the Egyptian Department 45 objects for the price of 14,400 marks. In October, 1892 the museum additionally obtained a masked child mummy from Aline's grave from Dr. Seidel from Braunschweig, who had joined von Kaufmann at Hawara, in exchange for 26 Egyptian objects from its collections.

The fourth section starts with general information about the find context of the mummies and their technical characteristics (Helmbold-Doyé). The tomb contained (at least) eight mummies, buried in three horizontal layers. Nothing is known about the three plain mummies located at the highest level, which covered the masked mummies of a man (Aline's 'husband') and a girl. Aline's portrait mummy and those of two children were buried at the lowest level. The mummies with masks and portraits had rhombic wrappings; in the case of the two children's mummies, the portraits were additionally decorated with gilded stucco buttons. The a tempera portraits of these children and that of Aline were directly painted on the mummy wrappings and thus applied after death. All mummies combined Egyptian (e.g. gilded wreaths) and Greek elements (e.g. rose wreaths; wax seals with Greek iconography).

More detailed analysis of the individual family-members follows. Helmbold-Doyé first focuses on Aline. Although only her portrait has been preserved, old descriptions attest that her mummy had rhombic wrappings with gilded stucco buttons and that her portrait was, exceptionally, covered with an extra cloth. Aline's skull was investigated by Rudolf Virchow after it was separated from her body. He looked for similarities between portrait and skull. The identification of the woman as Aline, alias Tenôs, daughter of Herodes, and her age at death, 35, are known thanks to a Greek funerary stele that was placed next to the mummy's head, as is briefly discussed by Jan Moje. Helmbold-Doyé then describes the mummy mask of the anonymous man (Aline's 'husband'), which was removed from its mummy at Hawara. His seal ring and the expensive finishing of the mask identify him as a member of the local elite. Interestingly, at the top of his head, his toga ends in a painted cloth showing lotus flowers and geometric motifs, for which no parallels are known. Consequently, this part of the mask may be the result of a restoration in the early 1950s. Abb. 40 (p. 32) shows the striking differences between the mask's situation before and after its restoration.

Although the fourth section starts with general information on all mummies from the grave and the chapter's title also refers to the dead in general, Aline's children are (a bit inconsequently) discussed in a separate, fifth chapter. Alexander Huppertz' contribution on the preliminary CT results of the three children's mummies in this section forms the most original and substantial part of the book. The most important new data, including information on the sex and age of the children, the dimensions of their mummies, and the development of their teeth and bones, are presented in a useful table on p. 33 and further discussed in the text, accompanied by detailed images. The children, two girls and (presumably) one boy, were between 2 and 7 years old and smaller than children of the same age group nowadays. Interestingly, all three mummies show bends and fractures in the cervical and/or thoracic spine due to post mortem manipulation.

Thanks to these new results, the 'exterior' aspects of the children's mummies can be confronted with their 'content'. Helmbold- Doyé points out that the mask mummy of the oldest child represents a young woman, whereas the body belongs to a girl at most 7 years old. The extremely rich mummy combines 'Graeco-Roman' (clothes, hairstyle and jewelry) with Egyptian features (goddess Nut on the top and back of the mask; shroud with funerary scenes; foot cartonnage). The two younger children had portraits representing girls that were directly painted on the mummy wrappings. Although the gender of the youngest portrait has been frequently questioned in the past, criteria such as the lunula-shaped hanger, generally reserved for females, and the 'female' lilac color of the child's dress, have generally been used to identify the portrait as a girl. This identification is contradicted now by the new CT investigation.

The focus then shifts to the other finds from the tomb. In the extremely brief sixth section, Helmbold-Doyé presents the grave- goods that accompanied the mummies, including flower wreaths and a 1^st- or 2^nd-century cooking pot. The most important find, however, is the above-mentioned Greek funerary stele. In the seventh section, Jan Moje compares Aline's stele with other 2^nd century AD stelae from Hawara, which typically included the dead's name, his/her age at death and sometimes a greeting formula, epithet or profession. In the eighth section, Moje's attention goes to the broader historical and socio-cultural context of the stele. As was typical for Roman Egypt, Aline – Tenôs had a double, Greek-Egyptian name.⁴ The exact date of the stele and Aline's death remains problematic and is generally placed either in the reign of Tiberius (31 July 24 AD) or in that of Trajan (31 July 107 AD). Although the inscription does not reveal information about Aline's social position, her mummy suggests un upper-class status, while the co-occurrence of Greek and Egyptian elements presents the family as mixed Graeco- Roman/Egyptian. Interestingly, the stele of Aline was placed in the grave, which suggests that the visible identification of the dead was not a major concern.

In the ninth, concluding section, Jana Helmbold-Doyé and Jan Moye synthesize the discussion about the dating of Aline's grave, which will remain open until future scientific analysis offers a conclusive dating. If the 1^st century date is correct, Aline's portrait is one of the earliest datable mummy portraits known thus far. However, based on stylistic and technical aspects, as well as the post-mortem fractures and the changing position of the mummy heads, possibly in relation to changes in the Osiris belief, an early 2^nd century AD cannot be excluded. Apart from this, the authors conclude that, with its combination of portrait and masked mummies, Aline's tomb is rather exceptional (though not the only example) and that the luxurious treatment of the mummies identifies the family as upper-class members of Roman Egypt.

In general, Aline und ihre Kinder is a nicely presented and easily readable book, illustrating the importance of continuously integrating new techniques in archaeological research. The inserted archival material as well as the numerous photographs make it a visually attractive publication. However, the book's strong introductory character and the lack of references in the text clearly show that it is intended more for the broader public than for specialist scholars.

The topics touched upon remain mostly very general and frequently deserve a more elaborate discussion. Due to its rather descriptive approach, the book does not address certain questions that inevitably come to a reader's mind, such as whether all mummies in the grave can be automatically considered family members, whether (some of) the dead died at the same time and what may have been the criteria behind the choice of a masked, portrait or plain mummy. Therefore, a more comparative approach, placing Aline and her family in a broader geographical, chronological, and cultural framework than is the case now, and against the background of recent research at Hawara, the Fayum and Roman Egypt in general would have increased the scholarly character of the publication. Similarly, a more extensive exploration of Richard von Kaufmann and 19^th-century archaeological and museological practices could have been valuable.

Despite this, Aline und ihre Kinder forms an important contribution to current research on mummies and the history of Roman Hawara, bringing the less well-known Graeco-Roman/Egyptian population of Roman Egypt to a wide readership.

Table of Contents

Vorwort, Jana Helmbold-Doyé (5–6)
1. Richard von Kaufmann und die Entdeckung des Grabes, Jana Helmbold-Doyé (8–15)
2. Das Grab, Jana Helmbold-Doyé (16–18)
3. Die Grabfunde und das Museum, Jana Helmbold-Doyé (19)
4. Die Verstorbenen, Jana Helmbold-Doyé (20–24)
4.1. Eine Frau namens Aline?, Jana Helmbold-Doyé (25–28)
4.1.1 Die Grabstele der Aline, Jan Moje (28–29)
4.2 Ein namentlich unbekannter Mann, Jana Helmbold-Doyé (29–32)
5. Die Kindermumien, Alexander Huppertz (33–38)
5.1 Das Mädchen mit der Mumienmaske, Jana Helmbold-Doyé (38–50)
5.1.1 Die Mumienhülle, Jana Helmbold-Doyé (38–39)
5.1.2 Die Mumienmaske, Jana Helmbold-Doyé (39–41)
5.1.3 Das Mumientuch, Jana Helmbold-Doyé (42–45)
5.1.4 Der Mumienschuh, Jana Helmbold-Doyé (47–50)
5.2 Das Mädchen mit dem Mumienporträt, Jana Helmbold-Doyé (50)
5.3 Junge oder Mädchen?, Jana Helmbold-Doyé (50–51)
6. Die Beigaben, Jana Helmbold-Doyé (52)
7. Der Grabstein der Aline im Vergleich mit anderen Stelen, Jan Moje (53–54)
8. Der historisch-soziokulturelle Kontext der Aline-Stele, Jan Moje (55–59)
9. Zeitliche Einordnung und Bedeutung des Grabes, Jana Helmbold-Doyé and Jan Moje (60–61)

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Notes:

1.   W.M.F. Petrie, Hawara, Biahmu, and Arsinoe (London, 1889); W.M.F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob, and Hawara (London, 1890); W.M.F. Petrie, Roman portraits and Memphis (IV) (London, 1911).
2.   E.g. L.H. Corcoran, Portrait Mummies from Roman Egypt (I-IV Centuries A.D.) with a Catalog of Portrait Mummies in Egyptian Museums (Michigan, 1995); B. Borg, Mumienporträts: Chronologie und kultureller Kontext (Mainz, 1996); S.E.C. Walker and M.L. Bierbrier, Portraits and Masks: Burial Customs in Roman Egypt (London, 1997); K. Parlasca and H. Seemann, Augenblicke. Mumienporträts und ägyptische Grabkunst aus römischer Zeit (München, 1999).
3.   Similarities between Ptolemaic-Roman tombs and houses at Hawara are attested by material remains, as well as by the Demotic-Greek 'Hawara Undertakers Archives'. See I. Uytterhoeven, Hawara in the Graeco-Roman Period. Life and Death in a Fayum Village (Leuven, 2009).
4.   Double names have been collected as part of the Leuven Trismegistos Project (W. Clarysse and M. Depauw). See Y. Broux, Double names in Roman Egypt: A Prosopography (Leuven 2014) (Trismegistos Online Publications).

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Books Received September 2018.

Version at BMCR home site

This list contains all books and notifications of new books received in the previous month by BMCR. Potential reviewers should not respond to this email, but should use the request form linked here (Books Available for Review). Some books listed in this email may already have been assigned to reviewers.)

Ανεζιρε, Σοπηια (εδ.). Αντηολογιο:¨επιλογι επιγραφον και παπυρον τισ ελλινιστικισ και ρομαïκισ περιοδοθ. Keimena, metafrasi, sxoliasmos. Theoretikes epistemes. Athens: Ekdoseis Pataki, 2018. 350 p. ISBN 9789601677064.

Apostolou, Eua and Charles Doyen (ed.). Obolos 10. La monnaie dans le Péloponnèse: production, iconographie, circulation, histoire, de l'antiqué à l'époque moderne: actes de la sixième rencontre scientifique des Amis du Musée numismatique, Argos, 26-29 mai 2011, (2 vols.). BCH. Supplément, 57. Athens: École française d'Athènes, 2018. 527 p.; 285 p. €90,00. ISBN 9782869582798.

Ataç, Mehmet-Ali. Art and immortality in the ancient Near East. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018. xv, 285 p. £75.00. ISBN 9781107154957.

Barrenechea, Francisco. Comedy and religion in classical Athens: narratives of religious experiences in Aristophanes' Wealth. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018. xii, 201 p. £75.00. ISBN 9781107191167.

Bell, Sinclair W. and Lora L. Holland (ed.). At the crossroads of Greco-Roman history, culture, and religion. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2018. xxiv, 276 p., 3 p. of plates. £35.00. ISBN 9781789690132.

Blondé, Ward. The alpha tradition: on the origin of Greek stories. Lexington, KY: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform, 2018. 180 p. €26,75 (pb). ISBN 9781720470939.

Borghesi, Francesco (ed.). Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. Lettere. Studi pichiani, 19. Firenze: Leo S. Olschki, 2018. xii, 190 p. €26,00. ISBN 9788822265746.

Bruni, Stefano. Anton Francesco Gori, Gaetano Albizzini, Francesco Vettori e l'officina del Museum Etruscum. Symbolae antiquariae, 7 (2014). Pisa; Roma: Fabrizio Serra Editore, 2018. 116 p. €115,00 (pb). ISBN 9788833151106.

Carbon, Jan-Mathieu and Saskia Peels-Matthey (ed.). Purity and purification in the ancient Greek world: texts, rituals, and norms. Kernos. Supplément, 32. Liège: Presses Universitaires de Liège, 2018. 372 p. €31,65 (pb). ISBN 9782875621597.

Chaniotis, Angelos, Andrew Wilson and Renate Schlesier (ed.). La Nuit: imaginaire et réalités nocturnes dans le monde gréco-romain. Entretiens sur l'antiquité classique, LXIV. Corning: Fondation Hardt, 2018. ix, 410 p. CHF 55.-. ISBN 9782600007641.

Coco, Lucio (ed.). Michele Psello. Encomio del vino: Laus Vini. Firenze: Leo S. Olschki, 2018. 24 p. €5,00. ISBN 9788822266101.

Conti, Maria Clara. I bolli su tegole e coppi a Selinunte. Biblioteca di "Sicilia antiqua", 7. Pisa; Roma: Fabrizio Serra Editore, 2018. 140 p. €98,00 (pb). ISBN 9788833151175.

Cordibella, Giovanna and Stefano Prandi (ed.). Celio Secondo Curione. "Pasquillus extaticus" e "Pasquino in estasi": edizione storico-critica commentata. Biblioteca dell'"Archivum Romanicum". Serie I: Storia, letteratura, paleografia, 465. Firenze: Leo S. Olschki Editore, 2018. 313 p. €38,00. ISBN 9788822264190.

Cortadella, Jordi, Oriol Olesti Vila and Cesar Sierra Martín (ed.). Lo viejo y lo nuevo en las sociedades antiguas: homenaje a Alberto Prieto. Coloquio del GIREA. Besançon: Presses universitaires de France-Comté, 2018. 718 p. €45,00 (pb). ISBN 9782848676296.

Darras-Worms, Anne-Lise. Plotin. Traité 31: sur la beauté intelligible. Paris: Vrin, 2018. 303 p. €25,00. ISBN 978278628230.

Davies, Penelope J. E. Architecture and politics in Republican Rome. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018. xii, 366 p. £44.99. ISBN 9781107094314.

De Stefani, Claudio. Studi su Fenice di Colofone e altri testi in coliambi. Spudasmata, Band 178. Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 2018. 202 p. €39,80 (pb). ISBN 9783487156828.

Di Cosmo, Nicola and Michael Maas (ed.). Empires and exchanges in Eurasian late antiquity: Rome, China, Iran, and the Steppe, ca. 250-750. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. 500 p. $145.00. ISBN 9781107094345.

Dixsaut, Monique (ed.). Platon. Le Politique. Bibliotheque des textes philosophiques. Paris: Vrin, 2018. 630 p. €10,00 (pb). ISBN 9782711628278.

Franceschelli, Carlotta (ed.). Aqua publica dans la ville romaine: droit, technique, structures: journée d'études, Clermont-Ferrand, 9 novembre 2016. Agri centuriati, 13. Pisa; Roma: Fabrizio Serra Editore, 2017. 153 p. €180,00 (pb). ISBN 9788833150079.

Fredriksen, Paula. When Christians were Jews: the first generation. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2018. viii, 261 p. $27.50. ISBN 9780300190519.

Gill, David W. J. Winifred Lamb: Aegean prehistorian and museum curator. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2018. 340 p. £30.00 (pb). ISBN 9781784918798.

Hogan, Patrick Paul. A student commentary on Pausanias book 2. Michigan classical commentaries. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2018. xxiv, 211 p. $29.95 (pb). ISBN 9780472053988.

Hollander, David B. Farmers and agriculture in the Roman economy. London; New York: Routledge, 2018. vii, 131 p. $140.00. ISBN 9781138099883.

Hölscher, Tonio. Visual power in ancient Greece and Rome: between art and social reality. Sather classcial lectures, 73. Oakland: University of California Press, 2018. xviii, 395 p. $49.95. ISBN 9780520294936.

Jockey, Philippe (ed.). Les arts de la couleur en Grèce ancienne et ailleurs. Bulletin de la correspondance hellénique. Suppléments, 56. Athens: École française d'Athènes, 2018. 508 p. €80,00. ISBN 9782869582903.

Kasimis, Demetra. The perpetual immigrant and the limits of Athenian democracy. Classics after antiquity. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018. xvii, 206 p. £75.00. ISBN 9781107052437.

Kielau, Sven. Terrakotten aus Pergamon: Tonfiguren und -objekte aus der Wohnstadt am Südhang der Akropolis und von weiteren Fundorten. Pergamenische Forschungen, 17. Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter, 2018. xxv, 365 p., 54 p. of plates. €129,95. ISBN 9783110598131.

Kolb, Anne (ed.). Literacy in ancient everyday life. Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter, 2018. ix, 427 p. €79,95. ISBN 9783110591880.

Krag, Signe. Funerary representations of Palmyrene women: from the first century BC to the third century AD. Studies in classical archaeology, 3. Turnhout: Brepols, 2018. xii, 422 p. €100,00 (pb). ISBN 9782503569659.

Landfester, Manfred (ed.). The reception of antiquity in Renaissance humanism. Brill's New Pauly - Supplements, 8. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2018. xxiv, 548 p. €261,00. ISBN 9789004299924.

Larsen, Lillian and Samuel Rubenson (ed.). Monastic education in late antiquity: the transformation of classical paideia. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018. x, 399 p. £90.00. ISBN 9781107194953.

Lejeune, Michel and Dominique Briquel (ed.). Mediterranei orbis gentium linguae et scripturae: recueil d'écrits, (4 vols.). Pisa; Roma: Fabrizio Serra Editore, 2018. lxxv, 2865 p. €595,00 (pb). ISBN 9788862275095.

Leppin, Hartmut. Die frühen Christen: Von den Anfängen bis Konstantin. Historische Bibliothek der Gerda Henkel Stiftung. München: C.H. Beck, 2018. 560 p. €29,95. ISBN 9783406725104.

Lindermann, Jens-Olaf, Eberhard Knobloch and Cosima Möller (ed., trans., comm.). Hyginus - Das Feldmesserbuch. Ein Meisterwerk der spätantiken Buchkunst. WBG academic. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2018. 233 p. €99,95. ISBN 9783534269907.

Mussini, Cecilia, Stefano Rocchi and Giovanni Cascio (ed.). Storie di libri e tradizioni manoscritte dall'Antichità all'Umanesimo: in memoria di Alessandro Daneloni. Münchener Italienstudien, Band 5. München: Herbert Utz Verlag, 2018. 396 p. ISBN 9783831646043.

Neagu, Cristina, Katherine Harloe and Amy Claire Smith (ed.). Winckelmann and curiosity in the 18th-century gentleman's library: Christ Church Upper Library, 29 June - 26 October 2018. Oxford: Christ Church Library, 2018. 134 p. ISBN 9781872333663.

Neil, Bronwen and Eva Anagnostou-Laoutides (ed.). Dreams, memory, and imagination in Byzantium. Byzantina Australiensia, 24. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2018. xiv, 350 p. €163,00. ISBN 9789004366862.

Peláez del Rosal, Jesús and Juan Mateos. New Testament Lexicography: introduction, theory, method. Fontes et Subsidia ad Bibliam pertinentes, Band 6. Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter, 2018. 260 p. €129,95. ISBN 9783110408133.

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