This thesis examines the current state of preservation of the 37 opus vermiculatum mosaics found at Pompeii by exploring the history of their excavation, conservation, and preservation. The intriguing dichotomy of the architectural and artistic aspects of the mosaics has added obstacles to their successful treatment and protection. Each event in the lives of the mosaics has affected their preservation including their production and use in the early 1st century B.C.E., their burial resulting from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 C.E., and every action performed on the mosaics since their rediscovery between 1759 and 1931. The fates of the opus vermiculatum mosaics have been determined by the history and development of excavation, conservation, and preservation techniques. Ten of the mosaics are still in situ, 25 have been moved to the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, one has been lost, and one has completely deteriorated. Since the early excavations, the development of mosaic conservation associations and more effective theories and techniques have allowed for greater protection of ancient mosaics. In order to protect both the physical and contextual integrity of Pompeii's opus vermiculatum mosaics, a balance must be found between the preservation of the site's distinct archaeological heritage and necessary intervention procedures. Through the study of history, ideology, and technology, this thesis suggests where this balance may be found. Since the analysis is contingent upon the documentation of these events, this study also features a catalog of the mosaics which, in documenting the available information regarding their treatment history, allows for further study and should ensure that the mistakes of past treatments will not be repeated. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Classics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2008. / Date of Defense: March 24, 2008. / Preservation, Conservation, Pompeii, Mosaics, Opus Vermiculatum, Excavation / Includes bibliographical references. / David Stone, Professor Directing Thesis; Nancy T. de Grummond, Committee Member; Daniel J. Pullen, Committee Member.

This thesis examines the relationship between Vedic and Orphic theogonies, both from a mythological and poetic perspective. In both the Rig Veda and in the various Orphic fragments, a primordial god is born from a cosmic egg, which when broken becomes the source of heaven and earth. Both the Vedic Prajāpati and the Orphic Protogonos self-procreate in order to create other gods, humans, and animals. They are also both connected to sacrifice through ritual dismemberment, Prajāpati with the annual disassembling of the sacrificial altar, and Protogonos through his heir, Dionysus. The consistent theme in each mythology is creation through fragmentation from an original source. Therefore, the goal of the religious practitioner is to identify with the primordial god and so share his original creative power. This religious purpose is reflected in the poetic tradition of each culture. The poet uses meter, themes and formulae in order to invoke the god's completeness and the dualistic nature of the universe. This comparison contributes to a larger picture of interaction between Greece and India in the development of their poetic and religious traditions. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Classics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2008. / Date of Defense: December 3, 2007. / Orphism, Vedism, Indo-Europeans, Poetics / Includes bibliographical references. / James Sickinger, Professor Directing Thesis; Kathleen Erndl, Committee Member; John Marincola, Committee Member; Svetla Slaveva-Griffin, Committee Member.

This dissertation offers a reading of Juvenal's Satires. It maintains that Juvenal consciously frustrates readers' attempts to identify his poetic voice with a single unitary character or persona. At the same time, it argues that Juvenal's poems are influenced in both form and theme by cultural trends in the early second century. The arguments staged in these poems constitute a critique of aspects of Roman intellectual culture in the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian.

This dissertation examines the relationship between scientific inquiry and hexameter poetry at Rome in the first century CE. It focuses on three poetic texts: Manilius' Astronomica, Lucan's Civil War, and the anonymous Aetna. It argues that despite generic and thematic differences, these works participate in a common dialogue and therefore can benefit from being read side by side. In particular, the dissertation demonstrates that all three authors reflect on the ability of poetry to communicate scientific knowledge, and that they simultaneously question or undermine the practical value of that knowledge. As a result, it allows us to see that scientific inquiry itself constitutes a dynamic and multifaceted area of creative literary activity in Early Imperial Rome.

This study traces the development of building inscriptions in Roman North Africa, in order to understand the rich epigraphic record testifying to public construction during the reign of Diocletian. In particular, it examines the role of the imperial government in construction, both in how it itself built and how it related to locals who did. Treating construction as a form of communication between builder and society, I have examined the claims made by the state as it took on the role of builder, and to what social groups these claims were directed. A wide approach has been called for to understand the role played by public construction - and by broadcasting it through inscriptions - for the negotiation of influence in the province. I have examined the activities of both imperial and local builders, which has revealed well defined conventions as to what and where to build, and how to communicate it. Against this backdrop, I have traced the relations of the Diocletianic government to a number of social strata, as expressed through building inscriptions, from rural entrepreneurs and small town councilors to Carthaginian senators. An image has emerged of a government that was keenly aware of the social makeup of the province, and deeply invested in its economic fabric, concerned with maintaining a viable, small scale network of independent municipalities as a counterweight to the interests of the highest elites, while at the same time maintaining stable relations to said elites.

In the 2003 excavation season at Cetamura del Chianti, a mortarium was unearthed which has undergone cleaning, restoration and residue analysis. A mortarium is a vessel used for grinding or mashing food items in conjunction with a grinding implement(pestle).This study will review the mortarium from several aspects: a review of the circumstances of its discovery, a study of the mortarium in Greek and Roman literature to help determine its possible use, a review of mortars in art, and a brief discussion of grinding tools. A discussion of the mortar and its circumstances will help to illuminate the use of this mortarium at Cetamura del Chianti. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Classics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Art. / Fall Semester, 2007. / April 23, 2007. / Mortar, Mortarium, Etruscan, Ceramics, Cetamura, Pestle / Includes bibliographical references. / Nancy T. de Grummond, Professor Directing Thesis; Daniel J. Pullen, Committee Member; David Stone, Committee Member.

Epicurean philosophy is perhaps best known for its ethical system, which places an emphasis on the pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain, and for its removal of the gods from the physical world. While many approaches have been made to interpret Epicureanism through its ethics, I believe that the whole of the Epicurean system of philosophy can be comprehended by a thorough understanding of its epistemology. Using Lucretius' De Rerum Natura, I hope to show that Epicurean thought is based not on ethics but rather on the epistemological claim that the senses cannot be rebutted. In doing so, I will also resolve some of the inherent contradictions that arise from the Epicureans' empirical understanding of the world, such as how the senses can be deceived, and how the world can be comprised of imperceptible atoms. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Classics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester, 2012. / March 26, 2012. / Epicurean, Epicurus, epistemology, ethics, Lucretius / Includes bibliographical references. / Svetla Slaveva-Griffin, Professor Directing Thesis; Timothy Stover, Committee Member; Nathanael Stein, Committee Member.

This dissertation provides a new diachronic history of the Athenian ephebeia, a state-sponsored and -directed system of military training for ephebes. Ephebes at Athens were eighteen- and nineteen-year-old newly enrolled citizens. Young men of this age-class had at times been traditionally responsible for providing military service, the most basic duty of a citizen. In the Lykourgan Period (335/4-322/1 BCE), Athenians created a system that required all able bodied ephebes to submit themselves for two years of military training at Peiraieus and military service in the border fortresses. They established this institution in the wake of the Macedonian conquest of Greece, especially Alexander's destruction of Thebes in 335 BCE. In addition to preparing new Athenian citizens in the military arts, the ephebes of this period participated in Athenian state religion by making a tour of sanctuaries, processing at the Panathenaia and running torch-races at certain festivals. Thus, the institution was situated into the overall goals of the Lykourgan program, namely the revitalization of Athenian military strength, religiosity and patriotism, which had been greatly diminished as a result of their defeat at the hands of Philip II at Chaironeia in 338 BCE. This study also traces the development of the ephebeia from a two-year compulsory institution for all citizens in the Lykourgan Age to a one-year, voluntary system of training for Athens' "civic elites," a transition which occurred sometime after 303 BCE but no later than 267 BCE. This dissertation demonstrates that while its numbers shrank and its members were most likely drawn from the wealthier classes at Athens, its system of training remained military in nature. The Athenians also added certain new responsibilities for its members. Chief among these was the greatly expanded role in Athenian state religion. While ephebes in the Lykourgan Age had participated in a few festivals, the degree was limited due to the fact that removing ephebes en masse from Peiraieus or the border forts was impractical. For the ephebes of the Hellenistic Period, participation in festivals was central. The number of festivals in which they played some role multiplied and eusebeia was added to the list of civic virtues for which the ephebes were praised. This occurred in the Age of Eurykleides and Mikion sometime after the liberation of Athens from Macedonian power soon after 229 BCE. This form of the ephebeia, in which military training remained paramount, continued to 88 BCE. By the last quarter of the second century BCE new features made their first appearance. First, the number of ephebes participating in the institution tripled. The rise in enrollment was most likely connected with the increased prosperity that the Athenians enjoyed as a result of their reacquisition of Delos from the Romans at the end of the Third Macedonian War. Another new feature was the inclusion of foreign youth in the ephebeia. While religious service also remained central to the ephebeia the number of festivals in which the ephebes participated continued to grow. The Athenians also added new responsibilities to the traditional service of its members. Ephebes were now charged with meeting and escorting important foreign travelers visiting Athens, in particular the Romans. In certain years some classes of ephebes were also expected to take philosophical instruction from Athens' resident philosophers, although this was a late development and most likely did not involve lessons in philosophy but the study of literature. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Classics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2011. / September 9, 2011. / Athens, athletic training, ephebe, ephebeia, Greek religion, military training / Includes bibliographical references. / James P. Sickinger, Professor Directing Dissertation; Nicole Kelley, University Representative; John Marincola, Committee Member; Christopher Pfaff, Committee Member.

This dissertation is a study of the political and cultural unification of Italy during the period between the Social War and the Age of Augustus, focusing on four cities in the Arno River Valley of northern Etruria: Arretium, Faesulae, Florentia, and Pisae. This region provides an important case study for investigating socio-political change in late Republican and early Imperial Italy due to its prosperity and autonomy throughout the Republic while Rome was conquering most of peninsular Italy. After the Social War, Northern Etruria continued to fight against Roman hegemony well into the first century B.C.E. after which its territory was subject to repeated waves of colonization under Sulla, the Triumvirs, and Octavian, significantly altering patterns of land tenure and community demographics. These events appear on the surface to have caused a region-wide spike in economic production, urban building, and network ties during the first centuries B.C.E. and C.E. A great deal of attention in previous studies of the history and archaeology of the late Roman Republic has focused on explaining Italy's process of political and cultural unification under Rome which is thought to have been set in motion during the early first century B.C.E. and completed during the reign of the emperor Augustus (31 B.C.E. - 14 C.E.). A fundamental assumption of past scholarship has stressed the importance of Roman colonization in accelerating Italians' voluntary convergence toward a superior Roman state, a process sometimes referred to as "Romanization." My work reconsiders this scholarly agenda by contributing evidence from a region that has been previously marginalized in larger syntheses of socio-political change during the Roman Republic. This study aims to establish the degree to which the presence of veteran colonists at the cities along the Arno River altered the existing socio-political demographic into a homogeneous Roman society, and, in so doing, to contribute to the larger debate on the existence of an Italy unified under Rome during the course of the first century B.C.E. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Classics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2013. / December 10, 2012. / Arretium, Etruria, Faesulae, Florentia, Pisae, Roman / Includes bibliographical references. / Nancy T. de Grummond, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; David Stone, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Jack Freiberg, University Representative; Trevor Luke, Committee Member; Tim Stover, Committee Member.

This dissertation questions the dominant paradigm of a 'cultural revolution' in ancient Rome and Italy, as a product of the Augustan age. It also calls into consideration the notions that aristocratic elites were cultural trend-setters during the last two centuries BCE and that the majority of ancient Italians were largely passive as the sweeping changes of the period unfolded. Breaking new ground with sophisticated quantitative analyses, the dissertation conducts a long-term comparative study of food consumption among the mass society throughout Italy to see whether popular cultural habits come toward any point of homogeneity in the Augustan age. It illustrates how macroregional groups (Etruria, Apulia, and Latium) reveal a distinct tendency toward Italian homogeneity that transpires slowly over time starting around the mid-second century BCE. Apulian sites moreover begin to diverge from this trend starting in the first century CE, showing that the maximum point of cultural unification occurred under Augustus but that it was not permanent. These results thus not only complicate the narrative of Italian unification and illustrate the different levels into which culture can be particularized, but they also provide a context for the agency of Augustus and the members of his regime, in terms of their ability to exact or perpetrate cultural change: leaders and the elites of a social order are granted their authority, to a degree, through their own making, but the maintenance of that power depends upon a concession of power on the part of the rest of society. The way in which the proliferation of the symbols of power found common purchase within Italy corresponds with an era of a shared culture reflected in the habits of mass consumption. The success of the Augustan age, therefore, and its proliferation of symbols of power, should be considered in light of this preexisting long-term sociohistorical trend. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Classics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2014. / April 3, 2014. / Includes bibliographical references. / Nancy T. de Grummond, Professor Directing Dissertation; David Levenson, University Representative; John Marincola, Committee Member; Daniel Pullen, Committee Member; Debajyoti Sinha, Committee Member; David Stone, Committee Member.