This study investigates the nature of koinodikion (“shared tribunal”) in Hellenistic Crete, addressing questions of what it was and how it functioned in intercity treaties, and particularly its relationship to the Cretan Koinon, or federation. In my report, I examine koinodikion through a close reading of the inscriptional (IC IV.197, IC III.iii.4, and a new treaty between Gortyn and Knossos) and literary (Polybius 22.19.1-5) evidence, observing not only its use in a particular passage, but also that passage's significance in context of the whole document. I then compare my findings in the Cretan context to attestations of koinodikion from outside of Crete, where the Cretan Koinon was not a factor. Finally, I examine two earlier Cretan inscriptions (IC IV.80 and IC I.xvi.1) to reconstruct a cultural context for shared judicial practices. / text

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The Parallel Lives are primarily concerned with exploring various modes of eudaimonia, as Plutarch mines the lives of illustrious Greeks and Romans for moral exempla and offers them up to his audience for contemplation and imitation. In contrast to his usual practice, Plutarch offers the Demetrius and its Roman pair the Antony as explicitly negative examples. These men, who are “conspicuous for badness,” habitually engage in behavior this is to be rejected, not imitated. Demetrius is capable of great virtues, but his life provides a paradigm of how not to live. The ruinous state of Hellenistic historiography, however, places a historical burden on Plutarch’s moralizing biography that it was manifestly not designed to bear. Indeed, Plutarch’s Life is the sole continuous account of Demetrius’ career, and provides the only literary evidence for many of the events from the Battle of Ipsus in 301 to Demetrius’ death in 282. Despite all this, there is no full-length commentary on the Demetrius in any language. This thesis represents an attempt to fill that gap. The commentary is not merely a survey of relevant scholarship, but offers many original contributions to the study of Hellenistic kingship and ruler-cult, the politics and propaganda of the Successors, and Demetrius’ pivotal role in the remarkable advances in naval technology and siegecraft for which the period is justly famous. While the body of the commentary firmly grounds Demetrius’ career in the historical context of the early Hellenistic period, the historiographical introduction illuminates the didactic ethics that shape Plutarch’s biographical project, and confronts the vexed question of his sources.

This doctoral thesis is an editio princeps with transcriptions, translations and commentaries of twenty-two previously unedited papyrus Greek texts from Oxyrhynchus in Middle Egypt, all edited or assigned to the Roman Period, namely from the first century B. C. to the fourth A. D. It offers a balanced mixture of assorted Literary, Subliterary texts and Documents. Specifically, on the literary side, Homer and Demosthenes, the most popular authors in Egypt, are represented with one and five pieces respectively. All these texts are interesting with respect to the textual tradition of these particular authors. The rest of the literary and subliterary pieces are `new texts', including Scholia Minora to Iliad 1, Commentary on Odyssey 3, a fragment of the lost author Dictys Cretensis, historical and oratorical prose, and two very short fragments. An eclectic collection of nine documents is edited in the second part of the thesis: five official, namely two declarations of sheep and a census-return of early date, a petition and an order to summons, and four private documents, that is an acknowledgement of indebtedness, a sale of land, and two letters. All these documents are of interest, since they provide information regarding economy, admimistration, legal system, prosopography, literacy, language and other aspects of a hellenised provincial society under Roman rule.

First, this thesis outhnes part of the thought of some pre-Socratic thinkers, particularly Heraclitus. In doing this, I explore the historical provenance of certain ideas which came to be important in Stoicism. It then moves on to look at the Stoic view of 'physics', including some comparison with Epicurus and Aristotle, and with a focus on the concept of the continuum. The third chapter attempts to synthesise a common problem arising from a belief in the continuum, namely a problem of indeterminacy. In the fourth chapter, certain characterisations of Stoic epistemology are considered, along with an overview of recent interpretations of the Stoic theory of impressions. It concludes with the thought that at certain crucial points - such as whether impressions themselves are to be thought of as true and false - the Stoic position is underdetermined with respect to the evidence. Pursuing this thought into the fifth chapter, we see the evidence as being equivalently consistent with a 'two-tier’ theory of perception, where impressions themselves are understood as neither true nor false in any sense, but iu which 'the true' arises as a result of the transformative effect of reason. This theory is shown to connect with verbalisation through the 'rational impression'. This leads to the suggestion that the Stoics had a linguistic diagnosis for some problems in philosophy, arrived at by their reflections on ambiguity and etymology. In the final chapter, an account of intersubjectivity is explored, which preserves for the Stoics the claim that their truth has an objective character and is thus appropriate for a 'dogmatic' philosophy.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 2005. / Title from title screen (viewed 22 May 2008). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Dept. of Classical Archaeology, Faculty of Arts. Degree awarded 2005; thesis submitted 2004. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.

This thesis explores the presence of canonical texts in the Hellenistic period beyond individual reading habits. It utilises the interpersonal context of the symposium to understand the place and significance of literature as a social phenomenon. Methodologically, it combines art and text, synthesising literature which represents, and literature visualised and depicted at, Hellenistic symposia. My over-arching argument is not simply that the post-classical symposium persists, contrary to much scholarship which represents it as dead or as vain re-enactments. Rather, I claim that studying the Hellenistic symposium exposes the social mechanisms which ensured that a Greek literary past remained relevant even in the Hellenistic world. Chapter One discusses the historical shift from the Archaic and Classical symposium to the Hellenistic symposium, and defends the latter’s often-questioned existence. It also theorises a new approach for handling images and texts related to the Hellenistic symposium. the subsequent chapters offer case studies showing the utility of this approach. Chapter Two considers the reception of the Phaeacians in relation to the symposium and Chapter Three looks at the theatrical tradition. Chapter Four focuses on Callimachus’ Iambi and the Letter of Aristeas, texts which in different ways have the symposium as a structuring principle and are concerned with the literary past. The aim is to highlight how the argument obtains even when the symposium is an imagined, textual one. The Conclusion advances the thesis in two ways. First, it extends my argument beyond the Hellenistic period with a short study of the visual and verbal reception of the comic poet Menander at Late Antique symposia. Second, its theorises the greater significance of studying the literary past and the Hellenistic symposia for a wider conception of how literary reception works.

Since the day of its discovery (1878) the Great Altar of Pergamon has been evaluated for its aesthetic and stylistic contribution to Greek art. The aim of this thesis is to study the monument not merely from an art-historical point of view but within its historical and cultural context. The intention is to view the Pergamene monument as a characteristic example of the Hellenistic age and in relation to the Attalids as Hellenistic rulers. It is divided into five chapters. The first deals with the monument itself and the various theories regarding the date of its inception, the number of sculptor/s employed and the theories of interpretation so far suggested. The second chapter examines certain aspects of Attalid policies such as: military history and foreign relations, coinage, cults and festivals, ruler-cult, art and building programme, and finally patronage of learning. The third and fourth chapters deal with the friezes of the monument - the Gigantomachy and Telephos frieze respectively. They examine the iconographic tradition of the myths depicted, the current literature on the style of the friezes, some difficulties with currently accepted theories are noted and new theories advanced. The fifth and final chapter is divided into two parts. The first part points out the elements of the artist's technique that make the monument a characteristic example of the Hellenistic Aesthetic. The second part examines how the imagery on the monument was manipulated by the Attalid kings in their search for self-definition. Their case is examined against the examples of 5th century BC Athens and 1st century BC Augustan Rome

This study argues that the so-called Sicilian Slave Wars are best understood as two differing instances of civic disquiet, social disorder and provincial revolt in Sicily, rather than as slave wars. Both events are reconnected to their Sicilian context geographically, politically and socially, and shown to have arisen from those contexts. This thesis is demonstrated in seven chapters. Chapter I reassesses the principle evidence for the kingdom established by the rebels in the first war: their numismatic issues. This evidence is best understood in the context of contemporary Sicilian numismatics and emphasises the Sicilian nature of the uprising. It is argued that the insurgency was contingent on the support of certain parts of the (free) Sicilian populace. Chapter II presents a reinterpretation of Diodorus’ text from a narratological point of view. The text is shown to be highly rhetorical and constructed with a view to demonise the leaders of the first war, Eunus and Cleon, through reference to Hellenistic stereotypes of femininity, cowardliness, magic and banditry. Chapter III argues that Diodorus’ explanation of the origin of the war is anachronistic and shows evidence of narratorial intervention and invention, thereby rendering his interpretation unreliable. Chapter IV considers Cicero’s Verrine Orations and shows that his engagement with the two wars in the text cannot be used as a reliable indicator of historical fact because of the text’s continual engagement with history. Chapter V argues that the two leaders of the so-called Second Slave War, Salvius/Tryphon and Athenion, were described using the same matrix of ideas that were present for Eunus and Kleon, for the same rhetorical and narratological effect. Chapter VI analyses Diodorus’ narrative of the origin of the war, and shows that Diodorus only provides a chronology of coincidental events, and beyond a single connective narrative line, demonstrates no connection between these events. Finally, Chapter VII suggests that the best context in which to understand this war is that of a general breakdown of social order on Sicily at the end of the second century B.C. caused by internal political problems in the cities of Sicily. Further, the insurgency led by Salvius/Tryphon and Athenion is shown to be only part of a broader crisis on Sicily that stretched from 106-93 B.C., part of an extended stasis for the island. In sum, I argue that the events typically referred to as the Sicilian Slave Wars are better understood through a focus on the historical contexts provided by the Hellenistic milieu in which the wars arose and the development of the Roman provincial system – rather than through the (preconceived) lens of slavery: instead of servile unrest, there was civic disquiet, social disorder and provincial revolt on Sicily in the 2nd century BC.