This thesis considers the geographical and chronological forms of ‘mirroring’ that offer a way of reading 'Annals' 1-6. It looks at how Tacitus’ depictions of non-Romans reflect back on Rome, and at the echoes of Rome’s past and future that can be discerned within his description of Tiberius’ principate. After an introduction that discusses key thematic and methodological questions, Chapter 1 shows that Tiberius’ accession and the Pannonian and German mutinies described in 'Annals' 1 echo Tacitus’ account in 'Histories' 1 of events of AD 69. Moreover, when the Romans attempt to conquer Germany, the Germans’ resistance to this and to other efforts to rule them shows up Roman responses to civil war and autocracy. Chapter 2 begins by examining potential similarities between Roman and both Parthian and Armenian history, and then focuses on Germanicus’ voyage in the east, recounted in 'Annals' 2. His actions associate him with many late republican and early imperial Roman figures, which suggests that there are continuities between those two eras. Chapter 3 extends this theme by discussing the echoes of Sallust and Caesar in the central books of the Tiberian hexad. Intertexts with Sallust’s 'Bellum Catilinae' especially hint that earlier civil conflicts are about to be replayed in some form, as the appearance of Sejanus, the ‘new Catiline’, confirms. Chapter 4 further considers Tacitus’ inferences about the overlap between republican and imperial history, and then examines anti-Roman revolts in 'Annals' 2, 3 and 4. Foreign rebels’ relative success in attempting to reclaim their freedom correlates with their distance from Rome, and this has clear implications for the status of Roman 'libertas' under Tiberius. Finally, the outbreak of ‘civil war within the principate’, and indeed within the imperial house, is analysed. Chapter 5 traces the continuation of this ‘civil war’, and proposes that the last book of the Tiberian hexad again looks directly to 69, as well as to the excesses of other Julio-Claudians. It also considers Tacitus’ account of Roman intervention in Parthia: this episode confirms imperial Rome’s propensity for autocracy and civil war. There follows a short conclusion in which some speculation is offered about how some of the themes discussed in this thesis with reference to the Tiberian hexad may have been represented in the lost central books of the 'Annals'.

À partir des mises en scène de L’Orestie d’Eschyle, d’Œdipe roi de Sophocle et des Bacchantes d’Euripide diffusées dans les institutions nationales en Allemagne, en France et au Royaume-Uni entre 1973 et 2010, la thèse procède à une archéologie du commun, en explorant, d’une part, le concept de commun, et en particulier ses enjeux politiques, à travers une analyse des mises en scène contemporaines du chœur tragique et en étudiant, d’autre part, ces mises en scène à travers l’expression du commun. Ce travail propose donc de mettre au jour la construction et la circulation du discours sur le commun dans et entre ces trois pays. L’analyse des spectacles, d’abord, expose les éléments qui font ou entendent faire du chœur une incarnation du commun et met en perspective ces choix avec la réception de la tragédie grecque. Le discours sur le commun qui se construit ainsi au théâtre est ensuite confronté aux discours philosophiques et anthropologiques du moment mais aussi aux événements économiques, politiques et sociaux afin de faire apparaître les échos, les analogies, les ruptures et les discontinuités. Ainsi, entre 1973 et 1980, la mise en scène du chœur des Bacchantes a donné du commun une représentation utopiste où la communauté est fondée par le rituel. Dès 1980, à partir des Orestie de Peter Stein et Peter Hall qui tiennent lieu de modèles, le chœur devient un collectif où ce que les individus ont en commun est précisément leur singularité. Dans la continuité, jusqu’en 1999, les mises en scène d’Œdipe roi racontent la naissance de l’individu moderne à laquelle le chœur sert de cadre archaïque. Enfin, et malgré les tentatives dans des mises en scène de L’Orestie, au tournant du millénaire, pour refonder la communauté à partir d’une mémoire commune, les tragédies grecques montées dans les années 2000 présentent un désespoir de communautés – au double sens objectif et subjectif de l’expression. Cette archéologie du commun, qui reflète la globalisation à l’œuvre, est donc en creux une archéologie de l’individu. / Analysing productions of Aeschylus’ The Oresteia, Sophocles’ Oedipus the King and Euripides’ The Bacchai in national theatres in France, Germany and the United-Kingdom between 1973 and 2010, this thesis proposes an archaeology of the common (in the sense of « what we have in common ») both exploring the political implications of the concept – thrown into sharp relief by the various ways ancient choruses were staged – and studying the productions themselves through the type of community that they make manifest. This work intends to highlight the construction and the circulation of contemporary discourses about the common within, and between, these three countries. Performance analyses first focus on the elements that make, or intend to make, the chorus into an incarnation of the common and put these choices into perspective through the reception of Greek tragedy. The discourse about the common thus built in theatres, is then confronted with philosophical and anthropological discourses, as well as with economic, political and sociological events in order to call attention to echoes, analogies, disruptions and discontinuities. Thus, between 1973 and 1980, performances of choruses in The Bacchai were built upon rituals, putting forward a utopian conception of the common. From 1980 onward, as Peter Stein’s and Peter Hall’s Oresteia became established models, the chorus morphed into a collective in which individuals had their singularity in common. Following this, until 1999, the performances of Oedipus the King hailed the birth of the modern individual, for whom the chorus acts as archaic backdrop. Lastly, and despite attempts in performances of The Oresteia at the turn of the millennium to rebuild a community out of common memory, Greek tragedies staged in the 2000s show the despair of, and about, communities. This archaeology of the common, reflecting the globalisation of European societies, is therefore indirectly an archaeology of the individual.

This study examines how women are represented in exhibitions about the ancient cultures of Greece, Rome and Egypt. The two museums which have been studied are the Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm and the British Museum in London. Observations of the exhibitions, notes and interviews with museum personnel are the methods used in this study. The theory used is gender theory, focussing on Yvonne Hirdman’s gender system. The purpose of the study is to examine how the museums are working with representing women in ancient cultures, what objects are exhibited that relates to women and how museum teachers include women in tours. The study shows that women are represented in different degrees in the exhibitions and are much less included in texts. The Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities have the ambition and interest from the personnel to review their exhibits to include a broader perspective where women are better represented.

This thesis examines the meanings of purification practices and purity concepts in early Christian culture, as they were articulated and formed by Greek Christian authors of the first three centuries, from Paul to Origen. As purity and defilement are especially suited for articulating difference, hierarchy and change, these concepts were essential for early Christians, shaping their understanding of human nature, sin, history, and ritual. In parallel, the major Christian practices embodying difference and change, baptism, abstinence from food or sexual activity, were all understood, emoted and shaped as instances of purification. Two broad motivations, at some tension with each other, were at the basis of Christian purity discourse. The first was a substantive motivation: the creation and maintenance of anthropologies and ritual theories coherent with the theological principles of the new religion, and the integration of purity traditions and concepts into these worldviews and theories. The second was a polemic motivation: construction of Christian identity by laying claim to true purity while marking the purity practices and beliefs of others (Jews, pagan or “heretics”) as false. I trace the interplay of these factors through a close reading of second- and third-century Christian Greek authors discussing food abstentions, death defilement, sexuality and baptism, on the background of Greco-Roman and Jewish purity discourses. This thesis demonstrates three central arguments. First, purity and defilement are central concepts for understanding Christian cultures of the second and third centuries. Second, Christianities developed their own conceptions and practices of purity and purification, distinct from those current in contemporary and earlier Jewish and pagan cultures, though decisively influenced by them. Third, concepts and practices of purity and defilement were shifting and contentious, an arena for boundary-marking between Christians and others and between different Christian groups.

The aim of this thesis is to examine changes in the status of traditional Egyptian religious culture during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, from 331 BCE to 313 CE. Four distinct categories of material culture are examined: monumental construction of temples and civic buildings, traditional hard-stone sculpture, Alexandrian tombs, and Roman coins. These bodies of evidence were chosen because each offers a unique perspective, reflecting respectively the personal inclinations and official attitudes of both the culturally Hellenic and indigenous elites, which have not previously been studied in this context. Examined together for the first time, these categories reveal commonalities that show clearly the progression of the status of indigenous religious culture. From this, it is argued that, despite being economically disadvantaged by the Roman administration, the high status of this culture persisted in Egyptian society under both the Ptolemies and the Romans. Patterns of Egyptian temple and classical civic building show that Egypt's indigenous elite controlled the resources allocated for temple construction under the Ptolemies, but that the Romans gradually transferred this land into the management of the culturally Hellenic elite. This resulted in a decrease in Egyptian temple building after the first century CE and a corresponding increase in classical construction from then on. The production of hard-stone statues is shown for the first time to reveal that the indigenous elite had the resources and cultural confidence to continue and develop their traditions under the Ptolemies, while the sharp decrease at the start of the Roman period reflects their diminution in autonomy and prosperity under Roman rule. New analysis of traditional elements and motifs in the tombs of Alexandrian elites shows that this group respected and adopted indigenous religious customs and beliefs, with a higher incidence of indigenous imagery in the Roman period compared with the Ptolemaic period. In a similar way, well-informed Egyptian religious iconography rendered in a classical style on Alexandrian coins demonstrates the respect of the Roman authorities for Egyptian religious cults and institutions at an official level. In sum, it is argued that indigenous religious culture largely maintained its privileged economic and social status throughout the Ptolemaic period, despite political upheavals. Under Roman rule, the individuals and institutions representing Egyptian religious culture were disadvantaged economically; however, its social importance and standing were preserved and it continued to enjoy respect.

Trismegistos (TM, http://www.trismegistos.org) is a metadata platform for the study of texts from the Ancient World, coordinated and maintained by the KU Leuven research group of Ancient History. Originating from the Prosopographia Ptolemaica, TM was developed in 2005 as a database containing information about people mentioned in papyrus documents from Ptolemaic Egypt. In other related databases additional information about these texts was found: when they were written (dates), where they are stored (collections) and to which archive they belong (archives). The following years also epigraphic data were added to these databases. The TM platform has two important goals: firstly it functions as an aggregator of metadata for which it also links to other projects (e.g. Papyrological Navigator, Epigraphic Database Heidelberg), secondly it can be used as an identifying tool for all of its content such as Ancient World texts, places and people. With its unique identifying numbers and stable URI\''s, TM sets standards for and bridges the gap between different digital representations of Ancient World texts. In the future TM aims not only to expand its coverage, but also to provide new ways to study these ancient sources, for example via social network analysis trough its latest addition: Trismegistos networks ((http://www.trismegistos.org/network).

The myth of the Amazons began in Ancient Greece. Renditions of the myth were found in art and literature of the Greeks and Romans in the ancient world. The image of the Amazons changed with the culture and ideology that discussed them. The Amazon myth reflected Greek and Roman views of women. Through looking closely at the three stages of the myth of the Amazons one can determine the myth strengthens the image of women that was held by men of the ancient world. The Amazons were connected with the heroes Heracles, Theseus, and Alexander the Great. Individual Amazons such as Antiope, Penthesilea, and Camilla were also dominant in the mythology of the Amazons. By completing a literary analysis of the myths of the Amazons beginning in the eighth century B.C. and through the fourth century A.D. one is able to see what was expected and deemed acceptable of women.

No description available.

In this thesis, I hope to demonstrate that what I call the magic contest tradition, that is the episodes of competitive wonder-working that appear in a wide variety of apocryphal and non-canonical Christian texts, made an important contribution to the development of Christian thought during the second to the fifth centuries CE. This contribution was to articulate ‘the way’ to be a Christian in a world which was not isolated from the secular, and not insulated from the reality of the Roman empire. First, I demonstrate that a tradition of texts which feature magic contests exists within the broader scope of non-canonical Christian literature (looking at this literature across communities, regions and time periods). Second, I identify what the major features of the traditions are, e.g. what form the narratives take, what the form for a magic contest is, and what the principles used to build the magic contests are, and how these principles feature in the texts. The principles I identify are power, authority, ritual, and conversion, as well as their use as historical exempla. Third, I discuss what the texts did in the context of the time period, and for the communities that produced and read them: in other words, how did the this tradition work? I show that they served multiple purposes: as tests of faith, religious truth and ways to proclaim such; as constructors and markers of group identity (and the perilous task of identifying the insiders and those who should be outsiders); as calls to unity within the overarching diversity of the times and places, and a unified front for the ‘battle’ against evil. I suggest that the texts present a model for how one could decide what the ‘true faith’ was and how one could practice it in the turbulent environment that early Christians faced both before and after Constantine.

The Tuoba's success in the making of the Northern Wei as a conquest dynasty in fifth century northern China will be argued in this thesis as a result of their ability to cross between the traditions and practices of the Chinese sphere and those of the Eurasian steppe, through the construction of a "dual presence" in the Pingcheng period (398-494 CE). A negotiation of material culture in this formative phase of state-building allowed for new notions of kingship, dynastic identity, and representations of daily life to be (re)created. This was manifested separately through the application of mountain-side stone sculptures, tomb repertoires, as well as the conception of Pingcheng as a capital city. The material cultural expressions explored in this thesis reflect significant changes in the socio-cultural atmosphere at this point in history. In effect, these ritual, funerary, and commemorative discourses wove together to create new notions of "Chineseness" in fifth century northern China. In the following discussion, we will come to recognize the Tuoba’s maintenance of a "dual presence", not only as "Son of Heaven" to the conquered subjects, but also carrying over practices that befit a Khagan in the Central Asian tradition, as an act of ingenuity.