This thesis examines Demosthenes’ rhetorical use of Athenian ideology in his deliberative speeches from 351-341 BCE. I argue that during this period of crisis, which is usually narrated in terms of conflict with Macedonia, Demosthenes confronts an internal crisis within the Assembly. While Demosthenes’ deliberative speeches have traditionally been defined as ‘Philippic’, this thesis argues that the speeches do not prioritise an ‘Anti- Macedonian’ agenda, but rather focus on confronting the corruption of the deliberative decision-making process. Due to an attitude of apathy and neglect, Demosthenes’ rhetoric suggests that their external problems are a direct product of this internal crisis, both of which are perpetuated by their failure to recognise how self-sabotaging practices undermine the polis from within. As he asserts in On the Chersonese and the Third Philippic, they cannot hope to deal with their external situation before they deal with their internal crisis. To address this, I argue that Demosthenes’ parrhēsia interweaves criticism of the dēmos with the praise of Athens, using social memory and past exempla both to recall and prescribe didactically the attitudes central to Athenian identity. As such, I propose that the deliberative speeches do not confront a ‘Macedonian Question’, but a fundamentally Athenian one.

This thesis explores Plutarch’s use of metaphors and similes of the theatre in order to represent, explore and criticise political action in his Parallel Lives. Most of the studies available on Plutarch’s use of the theatre have tended to address his understanding and employment of the tragic, that is what is defined as tragedy as a genre from the conventions of language, plot and characterisation. This approach belongs to the textual, literary aspect of theatrical production, the word of the writer, and the interpretation of the reader. Although interlinked with my study, this is not what my thesis examines. I am concerned with the performative aspect of the theatre. This envelops all the components which define the activity of the theatrical spectacle: the professionals involved in the production, from the sponsors, to the musicians and dancers, the actors and their performance, from its preparation to its presentation, the costumes, the props and the sets, the intention of the performance, the impact on and the reaction of the audience. Plutarch has two means of approaching the theatrical world. He draws on the reality of theatrical productions, showing an awareness of the technical demands involved in the creation of spectacle and drama. He also draws upon the tradition of theory and definitions of the theatre which had been laid down by philosophers and playwrights. But whether his understanding stems from a familiarity with theatrical productions or a reading of theoretical discourse, Plutarch’s deployments are consistent: they become a tool to assess morally the statesman or political body he is observing. While Plutarch’s judgement tends to be severe, he recognises the impact and effectiveness of histrionic politics. This thesis concentrates on three political structures: kingship, oratory and the relationship between statesman and assembly. Plutarch’s moral assessment is consistent, and yet he draws on different aspects and different theories to represent not only these different structures but also individual approaches to the office of statesman. While absolute monarchs tend to resort to staging, some put the emphasis on spectacle and the experience of the observer and others concentrate on their own person by styling themselves as actors. If some orators draw on techniques used by actors, they do not equally resort to the same methods but according to their character and origin, choose different aspects of the acting profession. Although several assemblies take place in the theatre, their histrionic behaviour depends on the statesman who influences them. While other studies have notes the theatrical quality of Plutarch’s Lives, this thesis offers the first in-depth analysis of the intricacy and richness of Plutarch’s understanding of theatre as a political tool. Other works have tended to put characterisation at the centre of Plutarch’s use of theatre. I propose, however, to focus on political action, revealing Plutarch’s attitude not only towards the spectacular, but also, and crucially, towards some of the most important political structures of antiquity.

Several previously overlooked questions related to ancient Greek dedicatory practices are investigated in this thesis. The main questions addressed are: how do the contexts of Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic votive miniature vessels inform us about the Greek cults in which they are used, and the transmission of such cults? What role did miniaturisation play in the sanctuaries and the rituals in ancient Greek society, and why miniaturisation? A number of supplementary questions accompany the main questions, for example, what did miniaturisation mean in the context of votive dedications in sanctuaries? This thesis aims to demonstrate that earlier explanations arguing that miniatures are simply and profoundly cheap substitutes for more expensive objects do not work well, since many of these small objects are carefully made and some are elaborately decorated, and would thus not have been cheaper, or less time consuming to produce compared to full sized objects. The chronological time frame of the thesis is limited to the Archaic to the Hellenistic period, and its core is three case studies with different themes and different geographical locations in focus (Kalydon, Olympia, Kombothekra, various sites in South Italy, and other sites for comparison). The thesis addresses also issues relating to, for instance, miniaturisation, imitation and models, the functionality, and non- functionality of small votive objects, agency, trade, and colonization. The study of ancient Greek dedicatory practices within the scholarship of Classical Studies tends to concentrate on votive statues, religious architecture, inscribed metal dedications, and stelai. Little attention has been paid to less extravagant dedications even though these groups of material have been found in abundant amounts in sanctuaries throughout Greece. Moreover, in those cases where this material has been published interpretation and thoroughly analyses are often lacking. As a result, this study makes important contributions to two large questions within Classical studies: how did the Greeks view their gods and how did the Greeks interact with the gods. Miniature pottery contributes to our understanding of ancient Greek ritual practice as well of specific rituals. The work presented in this thesis accentuates that miniature pottery’s material meaning and symbolic importance can no longer be dismissed.

Les diadèmes, dans l’Antiquité grecque, sont des bijoux essentiellement mis au jour dans des ensembles funéraires du monde méditerranéen grec ou sous influence grecque. Ils sont confectionnés à partir de divers matériaux, précieux ou non, l’or étant majoritairement représenté. Nous avons établi un catalogue recensant la quasi-majorité des diadèmes en matériaux précieux datés entre le IXe siècle et le IVe siècle avant J.-C. Le corpus s’appuie sur plusieurs champs de recherche : technologique, iconographique, typologique, bibliographique, graphique et archéologique. L’emploi de la macrophotographie, technique d’observation récemment développée pour comprendre les étapes de fabrication des bijoux anciens, a permis de définir la conception des structures et éléments des bijoux, de mettre en évidence le type de soudure utilisé et d’identifier différentes séries de diadèmes, liées à un atelier ou à une matrice commune. Cette démarche, associée à la confrontation des contextes archéologiques dont sont issus les exemplaires du corpus, ainsi qu’à une analyse iconographique, a mis en évidence les différentes fonctions prêtées aux diadèmes durant cette période, et a souligné, dans certains cas, l’appartenance sociale et culturelle des porteurs. / Diadems, in classical Antiquity, are usually discovered in funerary sites from the Greek Mediterranean world or under Greek influence. They are made from various materials, precious or not, gold is mainly represented. We have established a catalogue making an inventory of a great number of diadems made of precious metal, dated between 9th-4th century BC. The corpus is based on several research areas: technological, iconographic, typological, bibliographic, graphic and archaeological. The use of macro photography, a method of observation recently developed to understand the stages of manufacture of antique jewellery, helped to define the design of the structures and the items of the jewels, to emphasize the type of solder used and to identify different series of diadems, linked to a workshop or a common matrix. This approach, combined with the confrontation of archaeological contexts of the diadems of the corpus, as well as an iconographic analysis, highlighted the various functions of the diadems during this period, and pointed out, in some cases, the social and cultural background of the holders.

Despite the wealth of research on Roman interior decoration, little has been said about the use of motifs of arms and armour in domestic contexts. Previous scholarship has generally interpreted such images as representing Roman spoils of war. This study challenges this connection with spoils, looking at a wider range of influences on the development and deployment of motifs of arms. It explores how such motifs could have been interpreted in light of their wider decorative context. Drawing on an extensive catalogue of images in painting, mosaic and stucco dating from 100 BC to 100 AD, this thesis looks at the ways real captured arms were displayed in public and private contexts to assess how closely the domestic decorations mirror these idealised practices. It also explores the influence of Greek culture on Roman decorative motifs, decorative fashions across Mau’s Four Styles, the possible influence of gladiatorial combats on the depiction of arms and begins to assess the extent to which all of these factors may have been involved in interpreting motifs of arms in the Roman home. This allows a more nuanced approach to motifs of arms in decorations, emphasising their flexibility and ambiguity. This study also begins to explore how the location of motifs of arms within the house can impact on how a Roman observer could have interpreted the images, opening up a further avenue of research on motifs of arms and understanding how they were deployed and responded to in Roman domestic contexts.

This thesis explores the roles played by secretaries in Athens and the Peloponnese. Secretaries are present in some form in all documents produced by the Athenian boule. They are often named as the writer of a stele, or their existence is inferred from the existence of the document itself. However, little is known about the daily duties of these individuals, as the means of writing and setting up of inscriptions is limited to brief, epigraphic formulae lacking in procedural detail, and any other information about an office is confined to passing references in ancient authors and bald statements in ancient lexica. These issues are even more pronounced in the Peloponnese, where the existence of a secretary can be limited to a single word – his job title or designation – in an inscription, and many unique types of Peloponnesian secretary are absent from ancient historical works and lexica altogether. This thesis takes both a quantitative, and analytical approach to the question ‘what does it mean to be a secretary in ancient Greece?’. It examines all sources from Athens and the Peloponnese which refer to any type of secretary, or specify that an officer is to write something (i.e. perform some or all of the duties of a secretary). It categorises secretaries using various criteria (such as their activities, the duration of their appointment and collegial environment, and their public profile), and thus provides a catalogue of characteristics and duties which fall under the remit of the secretary. Using these criteria, these offices are analysed both geographically and chronologically, to illustrate how the work of the secretary could differ from location to location, and over time. This thesis constitutes the first comprehensive work on the secretaries of Athens in over one hundred years, and the first work of its kind on the secretaries of the Peloponnese.

Das Ziel der Arbeit ist die Erfassung und Analyse sakraler sowie profaner Gebäudetüren des griechischen Mutterlandes von der archaischen bis in die hellenistische Zeit. Im Vordergrund stehen hierbei vor allem Bau- und Gestaltungsfragen der zwar nicht mehr erhaltenen Türflügel, hinsichtlich derer sich jedoch anhand in situ befindlicher Schwellen sowie gefundener Beschläge Rückschlüsse ziehen lassen. Können somit unter anderem Aussagen bezüglich Ausmaß, Flügelanzahl sowie Befestigungstechnik der Türverschlüsse getroffen werden, sind Material- und Gestaltungsfragen oftmals nur mit Hilfe der erhaltenen Darstellungen auf Bildträgern sowie Schriftquellen zu beantworten. Da das Gros der auf Bildträgern in Erscheinung tretenden Türen des untersuchten zeitlichen Rahmens hauptsächlich auf der bemalten Keramik zu finden ist, wird unter dem Aspekt der Darstellungsweisen und bildlichen Semantik auf diese Abbildungen ein weiteres Hauptaugenmerk gelegt. / The aim of the work is to record and analyze sacred and profane building doors in the Greek motherland from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period. The focus here is primarily on construction and design questions regarding the door wings, which are no longer preserved, but conclusions can be drawn about them based on thresholds in situ and fittings found. If statements can be made regarding, among other things, the size, number of leaves and fastening technology of the door locks, questions about materials and design can often only be answered with the help of the surviving representations on image carriers and written sources. Since the majority of the doors appearing on image carriers in the period examined can be found primarily on painted ceramics, further focus is placed on these images from the aspect of representation and pictorial semantics.

This thesis is an investigation into Herodotus’ views about the gods and how they relate to human life and history, and particularly how narrative and theology interact. It is divided into four chapters: Chapter one (The History of Herodotean Theology) falls into two parts. In the first I outline the reception of Herodotus’ theological views from antiquity to the present, focusing on the warners’ statements that ‘the divinity is phthoneros’, the subject of controversy since Plutarch. I explore the role of contemporary rhetorical and religious pressures in forging various interpretative traditions, and trace their evolution over the last five centuries of scholarship. The second part examines the assumptions and approaches of more recent scholarship to the problems that arise in Herodotean theology. Chapter two (Religious Discourses in the Histories) develops our understanding of Herodotus’ theological inconsistencies, which have increasingly come to dominate discussion of Herodotean religion. I make the case that Herodotus uses various theological discourses or registers, which are (literally interpreted) quite incompatible. I explore the influence of narrative style, narratorial persona, and context upon Herodotus’ theological assumptions and vocabulary, before considering the question of his own ‘belief’. Chapter three (The Phthonos of Gods and Men) offers my own analysis of the much-disputed concepts of ‘divine φθόνος’ and ‘νέμεσις’ in the Histories and classical Greek more widely. I begin by examining the use of phthonos in the context of humans from Homer to the fourth century. I then offer a close analysis of the meaning and significance of the five speeches that assert that ‘the divinity is phthoneros’ (or phthoneei), which precede or refer back to the most dramatic reversals of fortune in the work. Chapter four (Theology in the Croesus Logos) analyses the treatment of theology in the Croesus logos. It explores how Herodotus crafts a coherent narrative while negotiating the numerous theological principles of his contemporary world and narrative tradition. I argue that Croesus’ character and the deceptive oracles that force him to campaign are commonly misread, largely due to attempts to interpret the story on a quite different narrative patterning that is compatible with anachronistic principles of divine ‘benevolence’ or ‘divine justice’. The Epilogue draws together the themes discussed in the previous chapters, with some comments on the relationship between literature and theology more generally.

The early stages of colonisation in the Thracian Littoral are not well understood. These sites are often viewed with reference to the cultural contributions of Greece, to the exclusion of the Thracian participants. The Oisyme collection provides a unique opportunity to view ritual activity with a view of the archaeological evidence informed by the contributions of local, regional and ‘international’ players. In order to contextualize the pottery, I created a detailed study on the architecture and landscape of Oisyme, with reference to the Thracian culture contributions. It is from this vantage point that the East Greek, North Aegean and Oisymian pottery from the acropolis and south necropolis of Oisyme are analysed. These pottery groups are included together because they are the earliest traditions present at Oisyme and stylistically linked. They range in date from the earliest Thracian settlement through the emporion, apoikia and polis phases, as I have defined them at Oisyme. By focusing on the predominant shape (Drinking Vessels) and the origins of each variety in context, this study alters our view of Oisyme by demonstrating earlier contact, trade connections and a complex pattern of depositional preferences. All these suggest the construction of an identity by the Oisymians themselves.

Temple-church conversion was a deeply meaningful process that took many different forms throughout the Eastern Mediterranean. It was not simple triumphalism, nor was it motivated purely by expedience. No such single, overarching explanations are found. Instead, many factors influenced the process, with factors local to specific sites key to understanding why conversion took place and why different forms were taken. This variety led, both intentionally and not, to a vast array of created, appropriated and adapted user experiences. Unlike many previous studies, I believe one can only understand temple-church conversion by considering user experience, not by categorising them by type, e.g. direct, indirect, cella-church, and related types. Indeed, I actively divorce analysis from such types and demonstrate throughout the necessity of doing so. Rather, I develop a theoretical approach and thematic method in Part One that allows for in-depth analysis of specific sites in terms of user experience. This focusses upon phenomenological analysis, with memory, landscape, materiality and biography important. By placing this theoretical basis at the fore, I repopulate often sterile architecture. In so doing, the terms temple-church and temple-church conversion are reconsidered and new definitions that focus upon user understanding and experience are created that replace those that rely heavily on architectural continuity. I am then able to tackle the three central research questions of this thesis: why conversion took place; why examples took the forms that they did; and what the process actually meant to users. I focus upon three regions of the Eastern Mediterranean: the Levant; Asia Minor; and Greece, which constitute Parts Two, Three and Four. Within each, analysis is divided into a number of sections that focus upon themes of experience and use, e.g. Temple replacement, Experiences of temple inversion, and Appropriation of associations and spaces, enabling analysis to focus upon user experience and understanding. By examining examples in depth within these thematic sections reinterpretations and new analyses of specific sites are provided and key local factors explored, enabling questions of motivations, forms and user understandings to be considered. Broader Eastern Mediterranean-wide comparisons are discussed in the final part, Part Five. Data is gathered from architectural, archaeological and literary sources. Architectural study is brought together with archaeological context and theory, the two too often kept separate. Similarly, literary evidence, often excluded or marginalised in archaeological studies, is used critically to enable comparisons between literary and archaeological data to be made and to allow for analysis of the often quite different narratives each created. In turn this enables the experiences of readers and listeners to be added to the evolving biographies of sites. By focussing upon user experience and developing and utilising a new theoretical approach, this thesis demonstrates the inadequacy of any typology of temple-church forms and its use in analysing the phenomenon, while also demonstrating that temple-church conversion did not in many ways constitute a unified phenomenon; a vast array of forms, experiences and interpretations were created and appropriated.