Abstract: The appearance of Elam as a political and cultural notion is deeply entrenched in the unique lowland/highland physical setting provided by the Iranian provinces of Khuzestan and Fars (fig.1). This setting was responsible for conditioning the material wealth, cultural resiliency, and longevity characterizing Elamite civilization. It also determined the political history of Elam by providing a buffer and retreat zone that allowed for the periodic mustering of Elamite expansionistic ambitions upon neighbouring political entities. Throughout the centuries, however, the notion and identity of Elam underwent noticeable alterations that forced the reformulation of its territorial, political, social, and cultural character.
Abstract: Shannahan, John Numismatics is, by and large, esoteric. It is replete with complicated terminology, obfuscating catalogues, and technicalities. Coins are, however, becoming easier to bring to the classroom through online databases. We need only communicate the methods and scholarship of coins to teachers in order to enable the effective use of these databases. It is with that goal in mind that this paper was written. The seeds of this paper lie in a learning and teaching project undertaken by myself and Associate Professor Ken Sheedy at Macquarie University.
Abstract: Pritchard, David This article calculates the public spending of classical Athens. The major public activities of this ancient democracy were festivals, politics and wars.There is hot debate about what was spent on these three activities. Ancient historians cannot agree whether the Athenian dēmos ('people') spent more on festivals or wars. This debate goes back to the first book on Athenian public finance. In 1817 August B ckh famously criticised the Athenians for wasting money on their festivals instead of building up their armed forces. Calculating their public spending would settle this debate. B ckh lacked the evidence to do such. Two centuries after him this is no longer the case. But this article's calculations do more than settle a longstanding debate. In classical Athens the dēmos had full control over public spending. In the assembly they authorised all the public activities of their state. Assembly-goers understood the financial consequences of their decisions. They knew how much a proposal that was put before them would cost. They had a good general knowledge of what the state spent on its major activities. Consequently, they could judge whether a proposal cost the same as what was normally spent on such things.This made it possible for the Athenians to change their pattern of spending and so what they spent on one class of activities relative to other classes. Such votes allowed the dēmos to spend more on what they saw as a priority. Over time the sums that they spent on different public activities reflected the order of the priorities that they had set for their state. By calculating these sums this article demonstrates that it was not religion or politics but war that was the overriding priority of the Athenian people.
Abstract: Plant, Ian There are two biographies of Thucydides that were written in antiquity and attached to copies of his History. One was attributed to an otherwise unknown Marcellinus, the other biography is anonymous. The earliest copy of the anonymous Life of Thucydides has come down to us in a parchment manuscript of the tenth or eleventh centuries, now housed in the library of the University of Heidelberg.This text prefaced what is one of our earliest copies of Thucydides' History and was accompanied by a copy of the Life of Thucydides by Marcellinus. The combination of the two biographies in the one text has encouraged scholars to read them together, compare them and ask whether the shorter anonymous Life is not derived from the longer one.
Abstract: Plant, Ian Life of Thucydides by Marcellinus is an exceptional example of ancient biography of the type known as a Life. Many such Lives, were written in antiquity and still survive today. Lives are typically biographies of Greek authors who were widely read in antiquity. Good examples include the ancient Lives of Homer, Pindar, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes. Lives differed from later more substantial biographical works, such as those of Diogenes Laertius and, of course, Plutarch, in that the Lives were normally attached to texts of their subject and were intended to give the reader an introduction to the author of the text being read and to the work.
Abstract: Kearsley, Rosalinde Any investigation of Livia is made interesting by the richness of the source material for her compared to most ancient women. Livia is a topic with which students can become very involved as well as classroom teachers because, when the sources are examined and stacked up against each other, there is room for varying interpretations and healthy debate.
Abstract: Waldron, Byron Of the Hellenistic kingdoms, that of the Seleucids was both the largest and encompassed the most diverse range of peoples. That this kingdom would constitute a substantial empire during the course of the 3rd century is testament to the success of the strategies of establishment and maintenance formulated by the Seleucids of that period. I will argue that they established power and provided a scaffold of control largely through three strategies: accommodation to existing power structures, colonization and urbanization, and the promotion of multifarious justifications for kingship. To reach this conclusion, it will be demonstrated that each of these strategies were primary aspects of 3rd century Seleucid rule, and held considerable strategic importance for Seleucid control.
Abstract: Ockinga, Boyo Review(s) of: The Lost Obelisks of Egypt, Bloomsbury, by Bob Brier, Cleopatra's Needles, London and New York, 2016; 237 pp.;ISBN978-1-47424-293-6; H/B; $40.99.
Abstract: Forbes, Chris Review(s) of: A History of the center of the ancient world, by M. Scott, Delphi, Princeton U.P., 2014; 440 pp.; 8 colour illustr., 41 half-tones, 3 maps; H/B ISBN 9780691150819, $29.95; P/B ISBN 9780691169842, $17.95; E-book ISBN 9781400851324.
Abstract: Kierstead, James Review(s) of: Public Spending and Democracy in Classical Athens,by David M. Pritchard, University of Texas Press, Austin, 2015; xvi + 191 pp.; ISBN 9780292772038; $50.00.
Abstract: Leary, Nicolle Review(s) of: In search of kings and Conquerors: Gertrude Bell and the archaeology of the middle east, by Lisa Cooper, I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd., London, New York, 2016; xxii + 314 pp., 102 illus.; ISBN 978-1-84885-498-7; H/B; $57.95.
Abstract: Judge, Edwin Review(s) of: Destroyer of the gods: Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World, by Larry W. Hurtado, Baylor University Press, Waco, Texas, 2016; 290 pp.; ISBN 978-1-4813-0473-3; H/B; $29.95.
Abstract: Criscitelli, Rocco Review(s) of: Starting to Teach Latin, by Stephen Hunt,Bloomsbury Academic, London, 2016; 193 pp.; ISBN 978-1-47253791-1; $53.99.
Abstract: Mootz, Denis Review(s) of: The Roman Army, by David J. Breeze, Bloomsbury Academic, London 2016; 150 pp.; 29 b/w pictures, 4 tables; ISBN 978-1-474227-15-5; P/B; $31.99.
Abstract: Review(s) of: Pompeii Awakened: a Story of Rediscovery, by I.B.Tauris, London and New York, 2015; xi and 308 pp.; ISBN 978-1-78076-964-6; P/B ed. of the 2007 H/B; $41.95.
Abstract: Leadbetter, Bill Review(s) of: Finding the Lost Years of Jesus: a Christian approach, by Daryn Graham, Createspace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015; 156 pp.; ISBN 1-50848-1857; P/B; n.p.
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