The miracle-workers and magicians we meet in the Greco-Roman world and on the pages of Greco-Roman narratives are among the most difficult characters for modem scholars to understand. While Greco-Roman writers presume their readers will share their socio-cultural script and understand how one distinguishes between a legitimate miracle-worker and an illegitimate magician, this script is lost on modem scholars. Hindered first by absolute definitions for miracle and magic from social anthropology and then by relative definitions from the sociology of knowledge, this thesis calls for a re-engagement of the "historic imagination" with respect to these sorts of characters. In particular, this thesis suggests that a detailed investigation into the operation of characters labelled as performers of miracles or magic can reveal the criteria which distinguished the two in the minds of Greco-Roman Mediterraneans as well as revealing the practical outworking of the criteria themselves. Two narratives are chosen for this task-the canonical Acts of the Apostles, representing a Jewish- Christian angle, and Philostratus' Life of Apollonius of Tyana, representing a pagan angle. Methodologically the study proceeds by converting these narratives into "narrative worlds" and then subjecting the narrative worlds to a social investigation using models suggested by the work of Mary Douglas and Peter Brown. Under the rubric of "gaining power, " "intersecting power, " and "defending power" the two narrative worlds projected by these texts are compared and contrasted with respect to the criteria being used to distinguish miracle-worker from magician. The conclusion reached is that in both texts legitimacy for a mediator of divine power is found especially in demonstrating power without appearing desirous of personal gains. A miracle-worker is successful in this regard; a magician is one who fails in this regard.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Universität Bonn, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [260]-290).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Universität Bonn, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [260]-290).

Thesis (M.A.)--Brigham Young University. Dept of Visual Arts, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 126-133).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University. / Life. Bibliography: p. 64.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University. / Life. Bibliography: p. 64.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Universität Bonn, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [260]-290).

The purpose of my research is to illuminate the gendered and ethnic stereotyping of Easterners in Roman literature of the central period (c. 200 BCE to 200 CE), particularly in texts concerned with masculinity and warfare. Military situations were often constructed as the ultimate ‘tests’ of masculinity and Romanness, and they are, therefore, uniquely revealing for the constructions of these ideas. The idea of gendered lifestyles was central to these constructions. Roman authors distinguished between easy, pleasurable, feminine lifestyles and hard, austere, masculine ones. Masculinity and virtue were intertwined, and these precepts informed the ways in which Roman authors constructed their own worth, and the worth of other peoples. Easterners were presented as living luxurious, pleasurable lives, which were contrasted with a stereotypical Roman life of martial toil. However, when Easterners were depicted in martial contexts, this resulted in the caricature of their inabilities in this area. The accusation that Easterners allowed pleasure into martial contexts underpins these caricatures, and this was particularly challenging for Roman authors. Athletic training, for example, was constructed as pseudo-martial but inadequately so, as it was enjoyable. This was contrasted with difficult, ‘true’ military training, which helped build a man’s endurance, and proved his masculinity. The relationship of Easterners to arma (arms) was also deemed troubled, and Easterners were often constructed as having poor ability with arms, or an interest in adorned arms for their aesthetic value rather than their rugged purpose. Similarly, in the naval sphere, Roman authors were prone to depict Hellenistic rulers with luxurious and ornamented flagships, oversized and unsuitable for real warfare. In essence, these constructions were used to affirm Roman superiority – both moral and military – and also to serve as a warning as to what could happen should Romans allow themselves to succumb to easy, ‘effeminate’ lifestyles. Fundamentally, I argue that gendered constructions of ethnic ‘warlikeness’ were the principal force behind the disparagement of Greeks and other Easterners in Roman literature.

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 study examines the connection between architecture and economy in Mycenaean Greece; it is a deep investigation of economic theory and models of the Mycenaean economy, existing methods for the study of prehistoric architecture, and particular Mycenaean structures. Over the course of the study, I present current thinking on the Mycenaean economy and fundamentally rethink the concept of economic embeddedness and human agency. With a novel theoretical grounding, I present a methodology based in human action to study the intersection of architecture and the Mycenaean economy, and in three detailed case studies, I apply the methodology to the Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae, the harbor town of Kalamianos in the Corinthia, and the Northeast Extension of Mycenae's fortification wall. I argue that to advance the study of Mycenaean economy and theory, the concept of economic embeddedness, which posits that economic actions and decisions are bounded by larger social concerns, must be rethought. In its place, I offer a theory of complex embeddedness that envisions human action as fluid and cross-cutting traditionally circumscribed categories of economy, society, and polity. This foundation in human action with it links to agency theory helps to move the study of architecture away from the static sociopolitical meaning of the final built form and towards the human processes of construction. Under the guidance of this theory, I envision construction as a form of production in which individuals interact with one another and the material world to build a structure. I ultimately use the term architectural production to label this novel viewpoint. To study architectural production at a range where human actions and agency matter, I advance a methodology that draws together architectural energetics, chaîne opératoire, and tools from the construction management industry. I argue that architectural energetics offers a starting point for studying architectural production, but that existing applications of architectural energetics have placed too much weight on summed labor-costs and macroscale typologies. By reformulating architectural energetics with a focus on the chaîne opératoire, or operational sequence, and by using construction management tools to investigate the dynamic nature of the chaîne opératoire, I propose a method that builds on architectural energetics' basis in labor-costs to explore the temporal and spatial configuration of architectural production. With the method, I reconstruct and detail processes of architectural production, model the ordering of human-centric production tasks and patterns of labor organization, explore timeframes for the completion of structures under different conditions, and isolate how active human agents move through space and time during architectural production. I apply the method to the Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae, the town of Kalamianos in the Corinthia, and the Northeast Extension of Mycenae's fortification wall. For each, I collate published data and field observations to recreate the structures in 3-D CAD models, profoundly contemplate the entire process of production from the planning stages to the finishing touches, investigate the spatiotemporal configuration of labor during production, and stress the plethora of human choices and actions that occurred in the production of these structures. Finally, I fold my study of each structure into larger topics that engage models of the Mycenaean economy, including decision making and group interactions during architectural production, the creation of architectural monumentality and power, and the administration and compensation of builders. I argue for a networked view of the Mycenaean economy that builds on close range analyses of human acts of production; the acts of architectural production that I stress in this study were a complex and integral part of this networked Mycenaean economy. Four supplementary PDF files are included with this study. They form part of the application of my methodology to the Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae, the harbor town of Kalamianos in the Corinthia, and the Northeast Extension of Mycenae's fortification wall. The supplementary files (Supplements 1–4) are referenced in Chapter 7. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Classics in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2016. / March 28, 2016. / Architectural Energetics, Architecture, Economic Theory, Greek Bronze Age, Labor, Mycenaean / Includes bibliographical references. / Daniel J. Pullen, Professor Directing Dissertation; John O. Sobanjo, University Representative; Christopher A. Pfaff, Committee Member; James P. Sickinger, Committee Member.