The Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. is an event of Greek history that has inspired numerous subsequent receptions. Many of these later ‘receptions’ of the battle have been studied in varying degrees of detail by scholars over the years, however certain periods, or modes of reception have been ignored or neglected in this scholarship. In this dissertation I examine some of these neglected areas of research. These areas include: the uses and abuses of the Battle of Thermopylae in contemporary popular culture. In this section I focus primarily on Frank Miller’s graphic novel 300 (1998/9), as well as Zack Snyder’s 2006 film of the same name. Secondly I focus on a ‘national’ response to the ‘Thermopylae theme’, in which I consider its use in South Africa. I narrow my focus to examine its use as a motif in the poetry of the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. Finally I explore how the Battle of Thermopylae was employed by writers of children’s literature in the Victorian period, where I delimit my discussion to Caroline Dale Snedeker’s The Coward of Thermopylae (1911), as well as Andrew Lang’s short story: ‘The Spartan Three Hundred’ in The True Story Book (1893). These categories cover films, graphic novels, poetry as well as fiction and non-fiction for children. Yet despite being disparate categories, each of these periods, places or genres maintains the ‘kernel’ of the story of Thermopylae: a few, brave Greeks who fought for freedom against the countless Persians invading their land. At the same time different elements of the story are exploited to highlight various issues important in the different contexts and periods. It is my hope that this thesis will not only play a role in researching these lesser known appropriations and adaptations of the Battle of Thermopylae, but that it will also ‘break boundaries’ in the field of reception studies within the discipline of Classics. / Theses (M.A)-University of KwaZulu Natal, Durban, 2009.

This dissertation demonstrates how the cross-disciplinary application of methods and tools from archaeology, philology, and engineering can yield insights into ancient water-supply systems and help to solve problems associated with their precise function and with their description in ancient literature. Conventional calculations determine the flow properties of seven ancient long-distance pipelines. Components of the water-supply pipeline at Aspendos are simulated with a commercially available Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software package (FLUENT® by Fluent Inc.) that is widely used in the design and research of complex flow systems. The application of CFD clarifies the interaction of water and air during the filling process of a pipeline. The project establishes a methodology using state-of-the-art computer simulation tools for the investigation of these systems. The combination of the numerical results with the insights derived from a comparison of Latin technical documents with ancient Greek medical texts answers conclusively some long-term questions that have been plaguing aqueduct research for a long time. The simulation makes visible the flow of water in the pipeline, disproving the long-term misunderstanding that entrained air will form bubbles in the flowing water column that lead to pressure transient. It is possible to explain the function of lateral holes in the sides of pipe segments. The calculated volume flow rates for each pipeline allow estimates about the population sizes for the cities supplies by the aqueducts. The creation of a computer-based methodology for the study of ancient aqueducts will enable scholars to investigate, compare, and catalogue a wide variety of ancient hydraulic systems.

This thesis documents three polychrome, geometric mosaics that were discovered in the Praetorium of the Trajanic Roman fort at Humayma in southern Jordan. Patterns used in the mosaics are swastika meanders, quatrefoil rosettes and interlocking circles, while colours used are beige, red, and two shades of blue. The mosaics can be confidently dated to the initial construction of the fort, between A.D. 111 and A.D. 114. I document the excavation and present state of the most southern mosaics in Jordan, and place them in their regional and social context. By comparing the patterns employed with other similar mosaics, both geographically and temporally, I shed light on the early development of mosaics in the region. I argue that the Roman military employed local craftsmen to construct the mosaics and that evidence of craftsmen training is visible in details of the mosaics. The social and cultural context of the Humayma mosaics is reconstructed by examining both other local examples, and comparanda from the wider, Mediterranean corpus of mosaics, including sites such as Delos, Olynthus, Antioch, Pompeii, and Ostia. The focus is on the extent of diffusion of the specific motifs employed. Interpretation of the mosaics at Humayma will concentrate on such issues as patronage, craftsman training, and indications of regional wealth.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Lehigh University, 2008. / Adviser: Steven L. Goldman.

No description available.

This thesis studies the inscriptions produced by the southern and western settlements on the Anatolian peninsula - modern Turkey - from the death of the emperor Commodus (AD 192) to Diocletian's accession (284). The 3rd century AD, a period of fundamental transition between the high and late Roman imperial ages, has traditionally been considered an age of crisis and decline. This crisis supposedly affected civic life as members of the local communities were not willing or financially able to take part in politics. Against this prevalent opinion in scholarship, the purpose of this study is to analyse the abundant epigraphic evidence surviving from this region in order to reassess the local activity of such political communities. The first chapter intends to determine whether the effects of the Constitutio Antoniniana on the nomenclature of the peregrine (i.e. non-Roman) population can be used as a reliable dating criterion. It also explains the methodology on which my collection of epigraphic evidence has been based. The second chapter examines the families, individuals, institutions and celebrations comprising the civic life of Ephesus, Lydia, Aphrodisias and Southern Anatolia (esp. Termessos, Perge and Side) in the first half of the 3rd century. These four case studies demonstrate a high level of local activity, which was recorded with inscriptions resembling those produced in the 2nd century AD. The third chapter analyses the communication between these local communities and the ruling power of Rome. On the one hand, this analysis describes the prevalent diplomatic procedures followed and their motivations. On the other, it evaluates the testimonies attesting direct contact between the population of south-western Asia Minor and imperial representatives such as governors, administrators and soldiers. The final chapter deals with the particular circumstances affecting the production of inscriptions in the region from 250 to 284. These four chapters demonstrate that the civic life of south-western Asia Minor can be studied from a local perspective and beyond the narrow methodological framework imposed by adherence to the model of the '3rd century crisis'. The contextualised analysis of epigraphic evidence provided shows strong elements of continuity in the civic life of the region and its relation with Rome. The same analysis also concludes that the stark decline and changes of the inscriptions produced in the second half of the 3rd century were not only caused by internal factors. According to these results, this thesis hopes to contribute to the reconsideration of the Anatolian peninsula in such a crucial period of the history of the Roman Empire.

In this thesis, I look at the use of inscriptions on stone in the Lycian peninsula during the fourth and third centuries BC, considering the effect of internal and external events on the production of inscriptions in the area, and looking at aspects of continuity and change across the two centuries. In Chapter 1, I discuss the development of the Lycian alphabet, arguing that origins of the alphabet are far more complex than has usually been believed, and involved elements of both organic development and conscious devising of letters forms. Building on the work of earlier scholars, I consider the alteration of certain letters-forms over time, and use these - and other available indications of date - to allocated number of inscriptions from different sites to 'early' or 'later' periods; the results of this work are presented in the 'harts' at the back of my thesis. In the subsequent chapters, I build on my conclusions from the first chapter to discuss certain aspects of the epigraphy of Lycia in a broadly chronological fashion, first setting out the what we know about the historical background of each period under discussion, and then considering inscriptions of particular interest. In Chapter 2, dealing with the late-fifth and early-fourth century, I look at the earliest of the Lycian epitaphs, as well as the uniquely long inscriptions of the rulers of Xanthos. I consider the development and structure of the 'building formula' which is so common in Lycian inscriptions, and how this relates to other Anatolian epigraphy. Chapter 3 looks at the effect of the internal strife in early-third century Lycia, and particularly the figure of Perikle, on the epigraphic culture of Lycia, with particular discussion of the ẽnẽ ... Xñtawata 'ruler formula', while Chapter 4 discusses the changes brought about by Hekatomnid rule over Lycia, and the beginnings of the use of Greek in private epigraphy. Finally, Chapter 5 looks at the beginning of the Ptolemaic period, arguing that Lycian continued to be used in both official and private inscriptions, and discussing the ways in which official epigraphy became more similar to that of other Greek poleis - while retaining specifically Lycian features.

No description available.

This thesis will trace the origin and development of the term "Sacred War" in the corpus of extant Greek literature. This term has been commonly applied by modern scholars to four wars which took place in ancient Greece between the sixth and fourth centuries B. C. The modern use of "the attribute "Sacred War" to refer to these four wars in particular raises two questions. First, did the ancient historians give all four of these wars the title "Sacred War?" And second, what justified the use of this title only for certain conflicts? In order to resolve the first of these questions, it is necessary to examine in what terms the ancient historians referred to these wars. As a result of this examination, it is clear that only two of the modern series of "Sacred Wars" (the so-called Second and Third Sacred Wars) were actually given this title in antiquity. The other two wars (the so-called Second and Third Sacred Wars), although they were evidently associated by the ancients with the "Sacred Wars," were not given this attribution. Consequently, the habit of grouping all four wars together as "Sacred Wars" is modern. Nevertheless, the fact that the ancients did see some connection between these wars does justify this modern classification to some degree. Once this conclusion had been reached, it became possible to proceed to the second of the problems presented in this thesis, namely the justification for the application of the title "Sacred War" to two specific conflicts. In order to achieve this aim, those conflicts labelled "Sacred Wars" by the ancient historians were compared to two categories of test cases: the other two conflicts classified as "Sacred Wars" by modern scholars and conflicts which share elements in common with "Sacred Wars" but which are not given this attribution by ancient or modern authorities. In the course of this comparison, I discovered that little differentiated the so-called "Sacred Wars" from the non-"Sacred Wars" and that all of these latter conflicts appear equally worthy of the title as those which were in fact given this attribution. The deciding factor in the classification of a certain conflict as a "Sacred War," as a result, lies not in the specific elements making up its constitution but rather in the political circumstances surrounding it. The two conflicts labelled by the ancients as "Sacred Wars" were given this title by contemporary powers in order to justify military interference in the political affairs of other states which might otherwise have been considered unnecessary. Thus, the term "Sacred War" arose originally as the result of an effective propaganda campaign. / Arts, Faculty of / Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies, Department of / Graduate

This dissertation examines the history of elite male youth in the Roman Empire from 218 BCE to 68 CE by demonstrating how a young elite man could “act his age” in his specific historical context. The Prologue introduces the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of my approach, which depart from traditional social history models. Drawing on gender and age studies, theories of discourse and interpellation, my argument re-inscribes age as a performance, whereby the age-roles that existed in Roman society were constituted by historically determined performances of “age scripts”. The performances of youth examined are demonstrably intersectional in nature, frequently overlapping with gendered performances of masculinity. By concentrating attention on the behaviors prescribed for young elite men at Rome in these scripts, as recovered from the discourses about youth preserved in both textual and visual evidence, my inquiry tracks how changes in these scripts were historically contingent, rather than universal. As a result, this study foregrounds the interconnection between age and male power relations in ancient Rome and explains the diachronic changes in this relationship. Changes in the social, demographic, legal and, above all, political context(s) from the Middle Republican period down to the death of Nero, in turn occasioned edits—sometimes even full rewrites—in the age scripts available to young elite men. Structured as a historical play in three parts, each part corresponds diachronically to a moment of change in these scripts. Part 1 examines the Middle Republic and introduces the “comic script” primarily through the plays of Plautus and Terence, as well as the “normative script” preserved in exempla and the works of Cato the elder to which the comic script responded and sometimes offered challenges. These scripts are examined in dialogue with the radical demographic, legal and political changes occasioned by Rome’s near defeat in the Second Punic War. Part 2 then moves down to the Late Republic, acknowledging how both the normative and comic scripts endured in this period, but instead trains its focus on the emergence of new scripts for youth—oratorical, philosophical, sexual and poetic. These scripts are set against the background of a shift away from military pursuits among the youth and toward the civic sphere, stemming from political, legal and cultural developments that arose out of Rome’s increasing imperial hegemony in the Mediterranean during the second century BCE. In particular, the efforts of politicians to interpellate the youth, understood as the next political generation, according to specific ideological scripts, and in contrast to other scripts (for example, the martial, sexual, or philosophical scripts), reveals how young men in this period were presented with more behavioral options than ever before. That these young men were consequently torn by these conflicting options is borne out in Catullus’ parodic rejection of certain scripts, but also the discourses about other young men, such as C. Trebatius Testa and M. Caelius Rufus. Cicero’s attempt to script the behavior of one youth, the young Octavian (later known as Augustus) and the dramatic shift in power relations that Octavian’s rise occasioned for the age scripts at Rome forms the first half of Part 3. From here my analysis extends out from Octavian’s personal aetas to the Augustan “age” more generally and how this period saw a conscious promotion of a normative script for the iuventus. Conjoined to this script, and driving its promotion, was the biological ageing of Augustus himself, whereby his own aetas and its youthfulness became contiguous with that of his youthful successors and more generally the community, as represented by the iuventus, and even more abstractly, the urbs itself. With the advent of the youngest princeps yet, the problem of the emperor Nero’s young age and the script he would enact forms the core concern of Part 4, the epilogue to this dissertation. The De Clementia of Seneca is examined for its role in scripting the imperial youth and his behavior. The case study of Nero’s first bearded portrait as a visual commemoration of his depositio barbae, coinciding with his celebration of age-based spectacles during the Iuvenalia of 59 CE, demonstrates how Nero was both the heir to earlier scripts and in his reception of them, the author of a new one centered around an attempt to construct his imperial maturity. The response to Nero’s script is then traced both at an elite and non-elite level, from elite literary texts, such as Petronius’ Satyrica, to graffiti and non-elite bearded portraits. As a historical study in visual discourses as much as textual ones, this dissertation encompasses a wide range of visual material from numismatic iconography to portrait sculpture in the round, and represents the first attempt to bring such material into dialogue with the textual evidence. A catalogue of imperial male portraits, from Octavian to Nero, which feature facial hair—a key piece of evidence assessed in Parts 3 and 4—is presented in the Appendices.