The Ancient Egyptians have always had a strong connection with their animals. This can be seen in the depictions of their gods as well as in their way of writing in hieroglyphics, in which multiple animal figures are used. The Ancient Egyptians are also associated strongly with the afterlife and their interest in the deceased and funerary texts. Much of the Ancient Egyptian material culture that has been preserved has some connection to one of these aspects. Their funerary culture has been well-preserved thanks to the dry and arid conditions of the desert, while the Nile has almost completely destroyed the rest of their culture. This dissertation focuses on the relationship of the Ancient Egyptians with animals, specifically canines, in association with death and the afterlife. The focus is on the similarities between canines and the main canine deities: Anubis, Wepwawet, and Duamutef, listing the connections between the funerary, canine gods and the animals the Egyptians linked to them. It also looks at the hieroglyphic representation of both the gods and the canines. The animals in question are also briefly discussed, analysing their behaviour, and linking it to the information gathered on the canine deities. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Ancient Languages / MA / Unrestricted

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Procopius of Caesarea wrote a classicizing history of the wars of Justinian, which focuses squarely on warfare in an age when his contemporaries were often directing their attention towards theological matters. Battles make up a significant portion of this history and they are the focus of this thesis, with particular attention paid to their literary construction, as well as the values, norms, and assumptions which underscore them. Chapter one focuses on the life and social background of Procopius, addressing issues such as his literary career and education. Chapter two looks at the wider context, including the three strands of thought concerning the composition of a work of history written in Greek, namely rhetoric, historiographical theory, and Greek military theory. It looks, particularly, at the theorists’ respective discussions of battle; and, the practices adopted by Procopius’ contemporaries when approaching battle, whether writing an ecclesiastical history, chronicle, or classicizing history, or a military treatise. In the next four chapters I focus on the text itself. Chapter three, on the Persian Wars, looks at issues such as narrative order and pace, the exhortation, and morale, discipline, and the use of stratagems. Battles in the Vandal Wars is the subject of chapter four, and here I look at how Procopius engages with his audience through the use of literary devices such as narrator interventions and narrative markers, as well as how he characterizes the warfare itself. In chapter five I explore the influence that Homer has had on Procopius’ descriptions of battle in the Gothic Wars, especially the siege of Rome. The last chapter, six, skips the thematic approach used in the previous three chapters and instead evaluates his battles on a case-by-case basis. While Procopius’ conception of battle betrays many of the hallmarks of his classical predecessors, there are unmistakable signs of the influence of his contemporary context, such as the attribution of outcomes to God. What is more, these battles, which are carefully constructed, and integrated into the wider text, showcase Procopius’ skill and ingenuity as a writer, and historian. As a result, my thesis demonstrates that Procopius needs to be taken seriously as a literary, cultural, and historical source for the sixth century.

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<p> Despite myriad causes given to the end of Republican Rome and the beginning of Imperial Rome, there still remains a basic truth: the form of political rule and the institutions that structured this rule changed in the span of about a hundred years, from Sulla&rsquo;s first armed takeover in 88-87 B.C. to Augustus&rsquo;s death in 14 A.D. After Sulla, the political institutions of Republican Rome became a fa&ccedil;ade; within a couple of generations they were a farce. I argue in this paper that the effect of the individual on this loss of institutional inviolability is vital to understanding both how it happened and what came after.</p>

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The definition and function of Socratic irony has been much disputed in contemporary scholarship. This thesis identifies some methodological difficulties in interpreting and defining Socratic irony and attempts to narrow the field of interpretation in order to facilitate the formulation of a new definition of the concept. With reference to the primary texts of Plato, Xenophon and Aristophanes, as well as some fragments, the different types of irony as employed by Socrates are identified as verbal, in the form of self-deprecation and knowledge disavowal, and physical. A review of late 18th, 19th and 20th century philosophical scholarship on the topic is done in order to gain a better understanding of the perceived functions of Socratic irony. On the basis of this, as well as the opinions of prominent classical scholars, it is argued that the function of Socratic irony in its verbal form is primarily heuristic, while the physical form is a political mode of being designed to criticise 5th-century Athenian politics. Socratic irony is then redefined to allow for these forms and functions, which are shown to be much more complex than previously thought. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Daar word baie gedebatteer oor die definisie en funksie van die Sokratiese ironie in die onlangse navorsing. Hierdie tesis identifiseer sommige metodologiese probleme in die interpretasie en die definisie van Sokratiese ironie en poog om die veld van interpretasie te beperk ten einde die formulering van 'n nuwe definisie van die begrip te fasiliteer. Met verwysing na die primêre tekste van Plato, Xenophon en Aristophanes, asook 'n paar fragmente, word die verskillende vorme van ironie soos deur Sokrates gebruik, geïdentifiseer as verbaal, in die vorm van self-afkeuring en ontkenning van kennis, en fisies. ʼn Oorsig van die laat 18de-, 19de- en 20ste-eeuse filosofiese navorsing is gegee ten einde 'n beter begrip te verkry van die waargenome funksies van Sokratiese ironie. Op grond hiervan, asook die menings van vooraanstaande klassici, word aangevoer dat die funksie van die Sokratiese ironie in sy verbale vorm hoofsaaklik heuristies is, terwyl die fisiese vorm 'n politieke bestaanswyse is, met die doel om die 5de-eeuse Atheense politiek te kritiseer. Teen hierdie agtergrond word Sokratiese ironie dan herdefinieer om voorsiening te maak vir bogenoemde vorme en funksies wat blyk baie meer kompleks te wees as wat voorheen gemeen is.

The original objective of this thesis was to produce a survey of the metalwork recovered from the Lower Danubian region in the Late Antique and Migratory periods. The problem appeared to be largely one of developing a new organization for existing material which was not readily available to Western scholars. Secondarily the study proposed to analyse these forms in order to determine their function and to evaluate symbolic content and - where possible - the technical achievement which they demonstrate. It soon became evident that there was simply not enough range in the available material to satisfy these objectives. Therefore the period covered was shifted back to classical times and material from adjacent regions was included in order to establish a sound basis for comparison. No attempt was made to prove the evolution of Thraco-Getic or Dacian art from earlier material. Some of the examples illustrated have been cited repeatedly by scholars as relevant for one reason or another. They have become virtually a part of the literature especially associated with Thraco-Getic art, and yet have brought us no closer to appreciating the evolution of this art. While the present state of knowledge of the Thraco-Getic and Dacian culture does not allow more than speculation as to the specific symbolic content of these forms, this symbolism was reflected in similar forms and images in the established art of contemporary cultures. Looking at similar or related metalwork over a substantially enlarged region and extended period proved to be fruitful in several ways. The individual character of Thraco-Getic and Dacian metalwork was clearly revealed by comparison with the metalwork of their contemporaries - the Greeks, Persians, Scythians and Colts. Further, through such comparisons the forms themselves became comprehensible as examples taken from large families or categories of forms already ancient by the classical period. Consequently an attempt was made to explain the longevity of these categories of metalwork and the continuity demonstrated in both the forms and their symbolic content. Tho originality of this study rents mainly on two factors: the detailed analysis of Thraco-Getic and Dacian metalwork and the interpretation of its technical achievement through analysis of its material structure. The study has perhaps been successful in advancing to some degree current knowledge of Thraco-Getic and Dacian metalwork. It is largely due to the fact that this material is not widely recognised as a link between East and West that care was taken to include early on in the text background information about the cultures and peoples whose influence is clearly recorded in these artefacts. Material relevant to metalwork in general which was discovered during this study and is germane to the forms themselves is presented in Chapters I and II, and again as essential introductory material. A general description of each category of form precedes the detailed analysis of specific pieces. Thus the study moves from the general to the particular even though this is the inverse order by which the research was conducted. The reason for this is precisely the lack of a major study surveying the entire field.

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