The Roman World of Dio Chrysostom
The Roman World of Dio Chrysostom

Author: Christopher Prestige Jones

Publisher:

Published: 1978

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13:

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The Greek orator Dio Chrysostom is a colorful figure, and along with Plutarch one of the major sources of information about Greek civilization during the early Roman Empire. C.P. Jones offers here the first full-length portrait of Dio in English and, at the same time, a view of life in cities such as Alexandria, Tarsus, and Rhodes in the first centuries of our era. Skillfully combining literary and historical evidence, Mr. Jones describes Dio's birthplace, education, and early career. He examines the civic speeches for what they reveal about Dio's life and art, as well as the life, thought, and language of Greek cities in this period. From these and other works he reinterprets Dio's attitude toward the emperors and Rome. The account is as lucid and pleasantly written as it is carefully documented.

Dio Chrysostom
Dio Chrysostom

Author: Simon Swain

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 9780199255214

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Dio Chrysostom is a major representative of the flourishing world of the Greeks under Rome. He offers an impressive range of high-quality writing, social comment, and appraisal of Rome's Empire at its height. This volume presents eleven new assessments by an international team of experts who for the first time study Dio's politics alongside his philosophy and writing.

Rethinking the Gods
Rethinking the Gods

Author: Peter van Nuffelen

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2011-12-01

Total Pages: 283

ISBN-13: 113950343X

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Ancient philosophers had always been fascinated by religion. From the first century BC onwards the traditionally hostile attitude of Greek and Roman philosophy was abandoned in favour of the view that religion was a source of philosophical knowledge. This book studies that change, not from the usual perspective of the history of religion, but as part of the wider tendency of Post-Hellenistic philosophy to open up to external, non-philosophical sources of knowledge and authority. It situates two key themes, ancient wisdom and cosmic hierarchy, in the context of Post-Hellenistic philosophy and traces their reconfigurations in contemporary literature and in the polemic between Jews, Christians and pagans. Overall, Post-Hellenistic philosophy displayed a relatively high degree of unity in its ideas on religion, which should not be reduced to a preparation for Neoplatonism.

Urban Life and Local Politics in Roman Bithynia
Urban Life and Local Politics in Roman Bithynia

Author: Tønnes Bekker-Nielsen

Publisher:

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13:

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Most studies of Roman local administration focus on the formal structures of power: imperial laws, urban institutions and magistracies. This book explores the interplay of formal power with informal factors such as social prejudice, parochialism and personal rivalries in the cities of northwestern Asia Minor from the first to the fifth centuries AD. Through a detailed analysis of the municipal speeches and career of the philosopher-politician Dion Chrysostomos, we gain new in-depth insight into the petty conflicts and lofty ambitions of an ancient provincial small-town politician and those around him. The author concludes that Roman local politics were rarely concerned with political issues but more often with social status and the desire for recognition within an agonistic society.

Empire of Honour
Empire of Honour

Author: J. E. Lendon

Publisher: Clarendon Press

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 9780199247639

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J. E. Lendon offers a new interpretation of how the Roman empire worked in the first four centuries AD. A despotism rooted in force and fear enjoyed widespread support among the ruling classes of the provinces on the basis of an aristocratic culture of honour shard by rulers and ruled. The competitive Roman and Greek aristocrats of the empire conceived of their relative standing in terms of public esteem or honour, and conceived of their cities - toward which they felt a warm patriotism - as entities locked in a parallel struggle for primacy in honour over rivals. Emperors and provincial governors exploited these rivalries to gain the indispensable co-operation of local magnates by granting honours to individuals and their cities. Since rulers strove for honour as well, their subjects manipulated them with honours in their turn. Honour - whose workings are also traced in the Roman army - served as a way of talking and thinking about Roman government: it was both a species of power, and a way - connived in by rulers and ruled - of concealing the terrible realities of imperial rule. -- Book Cover

Who's who in the Roman World
Who's who in the Roman World

Author: John Hazel

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 390

ISBN-13: 9780415291620

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A wide-ranging bibliographical survey of one of the greatest civilizations in history. This is an authoratative and hugely enjoyable guide to figures from all walks of Roman life, from Emperors to generals, from politicians to thieves.

Clemency & Cruelty in the Roman World
Clemency & Cruelty in the Roman World

Author: Melissa Barden Dowling

Publisher: University of Michigan Press

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 412

ISBN-13: 9780472115150

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Explores the formation of clemency as a human and social value in the Roman Empire

The Use of Sacred Books in the Ancient World
The Use of Sacred Books in the Ancient World

Author: Leonard Victor Rutgers

Publisher: Peeters Publishers

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 9789042906969

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In this volume a number of scholars from Israel, the USA, and England have joined forces with the well-known Utrecht University Research Unit "The Cultural Milieu of Early Christianity" to investigate in an unprecendently interdisciplinary fashion how sacred books functioned in pagan, Jewish, and Christian circles. The 16 essays cover a wide range of topics including a discussion of emergence of canonical scriptures in late antiquity, an investigation of parallels between exegesis of Homer by the Greeks and that of the Bible by the Jews, a study of the rise of Virgil's Aeneid to the status of "canonical" book; a discussion of the use of sacred books as instant oracles; an investigation of the role of the Bible in polemics between Jews and Christians; an analysis of the wide variety of quotation formula's used by New Testament authors, a discussion of the role of biblical interpretation in the thought world of Jesus' brother, James; an investigation of the function of Scripture in the midrash Aggadat Bereshit, and other topics.

Roman Social History
Roman Social History

Author: Tim Parkin

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2007-10-17

Total Pages: 393

ISBN-13: 1134091249

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This Sourcebook contains a comprehensive collection of sources on the topic of the social history of the Roman world during the late Republic and the first two centuries AD. Designed to form the basis for courses in Roman social history, this excellent resource covers original translations from sources such as inscriptions, papyri, and legal texts. Topics include: social inequality and class games, gladiators and attitudes to violence the role of slaves in Roman society economy and taxation the Roman legal system the Roman family and gender roles. Including extensive explanatory notes, maps and bibliographies, this Sourcebook is the ideal resource for all students and teachers embarking on a course in Roman social history.