Oxford Handbook Topics in Classical Studies
Journal Data
| Type | SOURCE_BOOK |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (GB) |
| ISBN-13 | 9780199935390 |
| Total publications | 16 |
| Coverage period | 2014 - 2018 |
| Language | EN |
| Impact factor | 0.071 |
These classical studies articles were commissioned by an editorial board as part of our former online-only review article series. We are offering them here as a freely available collection.
Multilingualism in the Roman World
Situated at the intersection of various academic disciplines, multilingualisim has attracted the attention of several categories of researchers specializing in studying the ancient Roman world, including historians, philologists, linguists, literary scholars, epigraphists, and papyrologists. While Greek-Latin bilingualism, which constitutes the most remarkable aspect of ancient multilingualism, has been the subject of landmark, comprehensive stud…
Globalization, Transnationalism, and the Local in Ancient Greece
This article examines the idea that Greek poleis were interconnected in different types of networks and that localism and the notion of the local are byproducts of globalism. It considers how Greek cities interacted through multidirectional relationships by focusing on the relationship of the polis to transnationalism and globalization. It first discusses the concept of spatial turn before turning to the interactions between poleis through supra-…
The Ptolemies
This article explores the character(s) of Ptolemaic kingship in Egypt. A special focus is placed on the legitimation of kingship and the different forms of (self-) representation of the king. After remarks on the king’s court and principles of state organization, the concept of the Hellenistic basileus is explained by using Ptolemy III as a model of the Ptolemaic king. This is followed by a discussion of the Egyptian side of Ptolemaic kingship, w…
Travel in the Roman World
This article examines Roman travel. It seeks to show how deeply travel was woven into the fabric of the ancient world and how many aspects of the Roman experience relate to it. Rather than pretend to total coverage, this article, which is divided into four sections, offers some ways of thinking about travel and its place in the Roman world, exploring the practice, ideology, and imagination of travel. Moving from a top-down perspective on Roman in…
Innovation and Society in the Roman World
This article assesses the impact of innovation on Roman society. It starts from a critical engagement with past debate about technological progress, which over the past decades has been too strongly focused on economic growth, and a re-appreciation of the literary evidence for innovation, which points to a culture in which technological knowledge and invention were thought to matter. Then, it highlights two areas where the uptake of technology ha…
The Places of Roman Isis
This article examines ancient Rome’s ties to Egypt via the goddess Isis. More specifically, it considers the political meanings of Isis and her place in Roman religion and ritual. It first provides an overview of the connection between Egyptomania and Roman Isis, taking as a point of departure the Temple of Isis in the city of Pompeii. It then explores competing explanations of the significance of Isis in Roman society: one account places Isis in…
Technologies of Knowledge
This article presents an overview of the main questions in the history of Greek and Roman pharmacology and botany. It presents the actors in the transmission of pharmacological and botanical knowledge in antiquity and discusses how they established their authority through claims to expertise and effective treatments. It shows that much of that transmission occurred orally, and that attitudes toward the written word in general, and recipes in part…
Greek Philosophy in the Twenty-first Century
This article addresses contemporary efforts to understand how the earliest practitioners of philosophy conceived of the philosophic life. It argues that, for Plato, the concept of bios was a central, animating, and structuring object of philosophic inquiry. Concentration on the imagery Plato employed to draw bios into the purview of philosophic contemplation and choice points to interpretative avenues that further the aim of treating the dialogue…
Latin Didactic, Scientific, and Technical Literature
Roman authors developed a rich and creative literature in Latin on a wide range of scientific and technical subjects, intended for a variety of readerships and spanning many different genres, including didactic poetry, as well as technical prose. This essay discusses literature in Latin that sought to illuminate the natural world for its readers or instruct them in manipulating it. Particular focus is placed on the problems of identifying and cla…
Philology and Greek Literature
This essay provides an overview of the recent revival of interest in philology (a discipline in which both textual criticism and interpretation are at home). Although Greek and Latin have long been central to philological practice, this has changed, and a new renaissance in philology is emerging in the modern languages and comparative literature. Nonetheless, it is clear that this new, global, and comparative philology owes much to Greek philolog…
Naucratis
This chapter traces the history of Naucratis and highlights the city’s main characteristics, arranged thematically. Naucratis represents the first instance of organized Greek presence recorded in Egypt, dating to the seventh century BC. While another three poleis were founded later in Egypt, the uniqueness of Naucratis lies in its status as the first Greek settlement and only emporion in Egypt, and thus the main focus is on its position as the cu…
The Ptolemaic Army
This essay discusses the recruitment and payment of soldiers, as well as the ethnic composition, organization, and training of the Ptolemaic army, through the examination of papyri, of inscriptions, and of Polybius’ account of the Ptolemaic victory against the Seleucids at Raphia. It describes the military reforms that took place between the 220s and 160s BCE in response to external and domestic pressures, in particular the integration of large n…
Social Relations and Constructions of Social Identity among Roman Non-Elites
This article discusses the social relations of the Roman non-elite in two overlapping areas: the modes of behaviour that governed their communication and relations with each other; and the communal contexts in which such interaction often took place. The nature of the surviving evidence makes these tasks problematic and accounts for why they have been largely neglected by scholars to date. The article tries to reconstruct how the non-elite intera…
Ecphrasis
This essay explores the intersections between ancient and modern notions of ecphrasis (defined by Imperial Greek rhetoricians as “a descriptive speech” that “brings the subject shown before the eyes with visual vividness”). After surveying recent comparative literary approaches to ecphrastic “intermediality,” the essay first analyzes theories of ecphrasis in the Progymnasmata. Second, by relating these Imperial Greek rhetorical discussions back t…
Oxford Handbook Topics in Classical Studies
These classical studies articles were commissioned by an editorial board as part of our former online-only review article series. We are offering them here as a freely available collection.
Time, Tense, and Temporality in Ancient Greek Historiography
One of the most important trends in recent scholarship on ancient historiography is to explore how historical meaning is constructed through the form of narrative. This essay argues that the narratives of ancient historians can and should also be seen as an engagement with temporality. Such a view, combining the lenses of narratology, philosophy, and linguistics, yields a “grammar of historiographic time”: ancient historiography engages with diff…
No prominent publications on this page.
Oxford Handbook Topics in Classical Studies
These classical studies articles were commissioned by an editorial board as part of our former online-only review article series. We are offering them here as a freely available collection.
Time, Tense, and Temporality in Ancient Greek Historiography
One of the most important trends in recent scholarship on ancient historiography is to explore how historical meaning is constructed through the form of narrative. This essay argues that the narratives of ancient historians can and should also be seen as an engagement with temporality. Such a view, combining the lenses of narratology, philosophy, and linguistics, yields a “grammar of historiographic time”: ancient historiography engages with diff…
Latin Didactic, Scientific, and Technical Literature
Roman authors developed a rich and creative literature in Latin on a wide range of scientific and technical subjects, intended for a variety of readerships and spanning many different genres, including didactic poetry, as well as technical prose. This essay discusses literature in Latin that sought to illuminate the natural world for its readers or instruct them in manipulating it. Particular focus is placed on the problems of identifying and cla…
Philology and Greek Literature
This essay provides an overview of the recent revival of interest in philology (a discipline in which both textual criticism and interpretation are at home). Although Greek and Latin have long been central to philological practice, this has changed, and a new renaissance in philology is emerging in the modern languages and comparative literature. Nonetheless, it is clear that this new, global, and comparative philology owes much to Greek philolog…
Naucratis
This chapter traces the history of Naucratis and highlights the city’s main characteristics, arranged thematically. Naucratis represents the first instance of organized Greek presence recorded in Egypt, dating to the seventh century BC. While another three poleis were founded later in Egypt, the uniqueness of Naucratis lies in its status as the first Greek settlement and only emporion in Egypt, and thus the main focus is on its position as the cu…
The Ptolemaic Army
This essay discusses the recruitment and payment of soldiers, as well as the ethnic composition, organization, and training of the Ptolemaic army, through the examination of papyri, of inscriptions, and of Polybius’ account of the Ptolemaic victory against the Seleucids at Raphia. It describes the military reforms that took place between the 220s and 160s BCE in response to external and domestic pressures, in particular the integration of large n…
Social Relations and Constructions of Social Identity among Roman Non-Elites
This article discusses the social relations of the Roman non-elite in two overlapping areas: the modes of behaviour that governed their communication and relations with each other; and the communal contexts in which such interaction often took place. The nature of the surviving evidence makes these tasks problematic and accounts for why they have been largely neglected by scholars to date. The article tries to reconstruct how the non-elite intera…
Ecphrasis
This essay explores the intersections between ancient and modern notions of ecphrasis (defined by Imperial Greek rhetoricians as “a descriptive speech” that “brings the subject shown before the eyes with visual vividness”). After surveying recent comparative literary approaches to ecphrastic “intermediality,” the essay first analyzes theories of ecphrasis in the Progymnasmata. Second, by relating these Imperial Greek rhetorical discussions back t…
Globalization, Transnationalism, and the Local in Ancient Greece
This article examines the idea that Greek poleis were interconnected in different types of networks and that localism and the notion of the local are byproducts of globalism. It considers how Greek cities interacted through multidirectional relationships by focusing on the relationship of the polis to transnationalism and globalization. It first discusses the concept of spatial turn before turning to the interactions between poleis through supra-…
The Ptolemies
This article explores the character(s) of Ptolemaic kingship in Egypt. A special focus is placed on the legitimation of kingship and the different forms of (self-) representation of the king. After remarks on the king’s court and principles of state organization, the concept of the Hellenistic basileus is explained by using Ptolemy III as a model of the Ptolemaic king. This is followed by a discussion of the Egyptian side of Ptolemaic kingship, w…
Travel in the Roman World
This article examines Roman travel. It seeks to show how deeply travel was woven into the fabric of the ancient world and how many aspects of the Roman experience relate to it. Rather than pretend to total coverage, this article, which is divided into four sections, offers some ways of thinking about travel and its place in the Roman world, exploring the practice, ideology, and imagination of travel. Moving from a top-down perspective on Roman in…
Innovation and Society in the Roman World
This article assesses the impact of innovation on Roman society. It starts from a critical engagement with past debate about technological progress, which over the past decades has been too strongly focused on economic growth, and a re-appreciation of the literary evidence for innovation, which points to a culture in which technological knowledge and invention were thought to matter. Then, it highlights two areas where the uptake of technology ha…
The Places of Roman Isis
This article examines ancient Rome’s ties to Egypt via the goddess Isis. More specifically, it considers the political meanings of Isis and her place in Roman religion and ritual. It first provides an overview of the connection between Egyptomania and Roman Isis, taking as a point of departure the Temple of Isis in the city of Pompeii. It then explores competing explanations of the significance of Isis in Roman society: one account places Isis in…
Technologies of Knowledge
This article presents an overview of the main questions in the history of Greek and Roman pharmacology and botany. It presents the actors in the transmission of pharmacological and botanical knowledge in antiquity and discusses how they established their authority through claims to expertise and effective treatments. It shows that much of that transmission occurred orally, and that attitudes toward the written word in general, and recipes in part…
Greek Philosophy in the Twenty-first Century
This article addresses contemporary efforts to understand how the earliest practitioners of philosophy conceived of the philosophic life. It argues that, for Plato, the concept of bios was a central, animating, and structuring object of philosophic inquiry. Concentration on the imagery Plato employed to draw bios into the purview of philosophic contemplation and choice points to interpretative avenues that further the aim of treating the dialogue…
Multilingualism in the Roman World
Situated at the intersection of various academic disciplines, multilingualisim has attracted the attention of several categories of researchers specializing in studying the ancient Roman world, including historians, philologists, linguists, literary scholars, epigraphists, and papyrologists. While Greek-Latin bilingualism, which constitutes the most remarkable aspect of ancient multilingualism, has been the subject of landmark, comprehensive stud…