This article argues for an approach based on the cognitive linguistic theory of conceptual metaphors (CMT) by demonstrating its potential for the discussion and interpretation of Homeric metaphors. CMT provides a theoretical framework for analysing metaphors in a conceptual context, and even with unique, i.e. apparently non-formulaic, metaphors in Homeric poetry the possibility of a conceptual basis

In the famous story of Paris’ choice, he favoured the goddess who offered him ‘grievous lust’ (μαχλοσύνην ἀλɛγɛινήν). This is what Homer tells us in Il. 24.30. It has not often been noticed that Cratinus (5th cent. BC) and Lucian (2nd cent. AD) mention another gift – that Aphrodite's bribe was to make Paris irresistible to women. This alternative version happens to correspond to a high degree with

This article identifies and defends a previously unobserved dedicatory acronym to Maecenas in the second half of Ecl. 6.69 (MAEC- in reverse: Calamos, En Accipe, Musae) and contextualizes the specific linguistic choices and central themes of that acronym within a broader network of Vergilian word games. I argue that the dedicatory acronym in Ecl. 6.69 shares linguistic and thematic features with numerous

Since the late sixteenth century parts of the ‘imperial frieze’ of the Ara Pacis have been known. The most striking figure in the background of the southern frieze is that long thought to be a portrait of Maecenas, the Etruscan prince and literary patron of the Augustan era. This article attempts three things: to discover 1. Where and how this identification originated, 2. What evidence there now is

Poet-figures in Ovid's Metamorphoses have been the object of much study, especially those silenced by the powerful, but little attention has been given to Pyreneus. Immediately before the famous contest of the Muses and Pierides, the former briefly narrate their attempted rape by the usurping Thracian tyrant Pyreneus and his precipitous death while trying to fly after them. The few critics who have

This article aims to examine the ways in which the Calpurnian text converses with the earlier pastoral tradition focusing on the women identified in the collection. Leaving aside the mythical female figures who are also traced in the collection (e.g. Pales and Venus), this study focuses on all the female characters mentioned by male figures, trying to show that women in the Eclogues, among other elements

In his Philippics Cicero more than once refers to Fadia, whom he depicts as Antony's wife, and to the children she bore him. He also discusses Fadia in his correspondence with Atticus. Plutarch was aware of the Philippics and much of Cicero's correspondence, and therefore of Fadia, and yet, in his Life of Antony, he says nothing about her. This paper examines three possible explanations for the biographer's

The Life of Aesop is an entertaining yet profound account of Aesop's life dating from the first to second centuries ad. Although it is widely agreed that the Life of Aesop may be read as a ‘metafable’, there has been, in my view, a widespread and perversely negative interpretation of the supposed moral of this life story: that ‘pride comes before a fall’. This supposed moral is not borne out by the

Our image of ‘conversion’ takes its form from well-known episodes in the lives of St Paul and St Augustine. Paul's life is turned around by a blinding vision of Jesus on the road to Damascus (Act. Ap. 9.1–22); Augustine is directed by an oracle to a scriptural passage that ends his hesitations and sets him on the course that he has long known he should take (August. Conf. 8.12). Very much in parallel

Abstract The clades Variana was a major Roman defeat, occurring over three days of fighting in AD 9. Three Roman legions and several units of auxiliaries were destroyed, and their commander, Publius Quinctilius Varus, died at the climax of the fighting. Suetonius said that the army paid the price for its general's temeritas and neglegentia, and many other commentators, both ancient and modern, have

Abstract This article investigates the physical parameters of Athenian democracy. It explores the collective-action problems that these parameters caused and settles debates about them that R. G. Osborne famously provoked. Classical Athens was ten times larger than an average Greek state. Fourth-century Athenians were ten times more numerous. These parameters significantly contributed to the success

Abstract For a long time, the classical profession of the hetaira, or paid female companion, has eluded definition. The hetaira has often been described as a ‘courtesan’ and her work as a ‘form of prostitution’, yet these appellatives often conflict with depictions of the hetaira by classical authors. Accordingly, in this article I will argue that the hetaira was perceived by the Greeks as an elite

Abstract In one of his fragments, Empedocles addresses his protégé Pausanias, predicting or promising that he will learn pharmaka, a word that is usually understood to mean herbal ‘drugs' or ‘remedies’ for disease, an interpretation that in turn seems to have been encouraged by a modern understanding that Empedocles was an empirically minded medical doctor. An alternate interpretation is suggested

Abstract This article analyses Euripides’ mythopoetics in what survives of the first quarter of his fragmentary Hypsipyle: prologue, parodos, and first episode. It examines Euripides’ innovation in joining two myths (the Seven Against Thebes and the story of Hypsipyle and the Argonauts) into one, and the representation of Hypsipyle herself. In her private moments, the thoughts that preoccupy her mind

Abstract It is intrinsically plausible that the Odyssey, which freely uses realistic details of many aspects of life on and beside the sea, was informed by real seafaring experience. This paper corroborates that hypothesis. The first part catalogues parallels between details of Odyssean and real-world seafaring. Odyssean type-scenes in particular echo real practice. The second part argues that three

Abstract This article examines the public image of the emperor Carausius, a Roman army officer who claimed authority over Britain and parts of Gaul between 286 and 293, in opposition to Diocletian and his Tetrarchic colleagues. Carausius’ coinage celebrated his fleet, his naval prowess, and his divine support from Neptune and Oceanus. These designs were created as part of a strategy to refashion Carausius’

Abstract This paper introduces a Latin funerary stele, now in the R. D. Milns Antiquities Museum at the University of Queensland, which does not appear in any of the major epigraphic collections or data bases. In doing so, this paper addresses questions pertaining to its date of manufacture and the name form of the deceased child commemorated on the tombstone. This study suggests that the date originally

Abstract This article discusses the evolution and main characteristics of Delphi’s statuary landscape, focussing on the process of prestige spatialisation via erection of honorific portraits within the Delphic territory. My goal is to present trends and tendencies in placing honorific portraits at Delphi from the mid-fifth century b.c. to the late fourth century a.d. The article focusses on issues

Abstract The inscription CIL 6.16019 has remained substantially dependent on an 1881 publication that has provided the fullest description of the inscription and a relief on a separate panel reported as found with it. Even though more recent analyses have adopted different lines of interpretation, there has been no new encounter with the actual panels. No photograph has been published and the inscription

Abstract This paper outlines the full details of Lucretius’ treatment of parental love. It shows that Lucretius is faithful to Epicurus’ notorious claim that parental love is not natural: in addition to orthodox Epicurean hedonist concerns, Lucretius asserts that children do not ‘belong to’ their parents by nature; as such, even though parental love is now ubiquitous and indeed a cultural norm, there

Abstract Mythological twin brothers played key roles in the establishment and preservation of the city of Rome. This article examines the use of one particular set of brothers, Castor and Pollux, by rival forms of government in the early fourth century ce. In his work on the representations of the Dioscuri on Roman coinage, Gricourt argues that the Dioscuri symbolise the same ideas on Maxentius’ coins

Abstract Heliodorus’ Aethiopica narrates the adventurous journey of a couple through Egypt to the kingdom of Meroe in Ethiopia where they get married. To increase the plausibility of this story Heliodorus uses his knowledge of Rome’s trade activities in the East and he even introduces some characters involved in trade ventures in those regions (e.g. Nausicles) at crucial moments of its development

ABSTRACT This article examines Rome’s diplomatic relations with Carthage and Numidia in the period between the Second and Third Punic Wars. Polybius’ suggestion that Rome consistently decided against Carthage in territorial disputes with Numidia in the aftermath of the Second Punic War (Polyb. 31.21.5-6) has often been taken up in explanations of the origins of the Third Punic War. Many ancient and

Abstract In this paper, I offer a cognitive analysis of the invocations of the Muse in earliest Greek epic poetry that is based on recent advances in cognitive science in general and the cognitive science of religion in particular. I argue that the Muse-concept most likely originated in a feeling of dependence on an external source of information to provide the singer with the subject matter of their

Abstract Among the personal hobbies which Horace recommends his young friend Lollius conduct at a discreet distance from his potens amicus is the re-enactment of the battle of Actium, which should only be undertaken in the privacy of his father’s estate. Critics have noted that the potential offence in this seemingly affirmative celebration of the ‘miracle of Actium’ lies in the casting of Lollius’

Abstract While the general absence of Rome’s nobility from the traditions of the regal period has often been noted, the nobility’s prompt appearance at the beginning of the republican period has elicited little comment. This paper argues that the nobility’s appearance is more significant than its earlier absence, precisely on account of its very promptness and also because the nobility appears primarily

Abstract Whether the result of internal revolution or external factors, in the late sixth century BC Rome underwent regime change. A king, or at least a sole ruler of some sort, was replaced by a governmental system in which power was distributed amongst a wider aristocratic group. Just what that elite group comprised at that point in time remains open to question, and the institutional reality is

Abstract A dominant and fascinating figure at the very beginning of the Republic is Porsenna, king of Clusium. He has been a focus of attention since the Renaissance and for the following seven centuries. Fashions in interpretation have come and gone. This essay surveys those interpretations, and attempts to sum up the complexities of contemporary scholarship.

This collection of papers derives from a conference held at the University of Auckland in January 2016. We are grateful to the university for its help in the organisation of the conference, as well as to the managers of the Staff Common Room at Old Government House for providing us with such an exceptional venue. We are also grateful to the Faculty of Arts, and particularly Robert Greenberg (Dean of

Abstract Many modern scholars have argued that the consulship was not created at the foundation of the Republic as Roman tradition maintained, and that the government of the early Republic went through several stages of development before it reached the familiar ‘classical constitution.’ Building on this work, this article considers what the early civilian government of Rome may have looked like. It

Abstract This paper attempts to gauge the ability of the gens to influence the affairs of its members by tracing the development of the rules governing intestate inheritance. It will argue that, although the power of the gens in this area of the law did eventually give way to a more centralised and stronger state, a development which has been documented in other areas of Roman society as well, the

Abstract This essay seeks to establish the parameters of our uncertainty concerning one of the most difficult periods of Roman history, the period between the traditional end of the Roman monarchy and the passing of the Licinio-Sextian legislation. In addition to some methodological observations, the essay attempts to offer a model for understanding Roman choices and decisions in a period of change

Abstract One consequence of the globalisation of the modern world in recent years has been to focus historical interest on human migration and movement. Sociologists and historians have argued that mobility is much more characteristic of past historical eras than we might expect given our modern nationalistic perspectives. This paper aims to contribute to this subject by surveying some of the evidence

Abstract This article examines the origins of the Roman alliance system in the second half of the 4th century. The significance of the allies for the creation of a Mediterranean empire is undisputed; allied troops provided the Roman Republic with a manpower reservoir unmatched by any of its opponents. However, the stunning achievement of incorporating defeated foes into the military in equal numbers

Abstract A tension exists within the literary sources for early Rome, between the supposedly static nature of military authority, embodied by the grant of imperium which was allegedly shared both by archaic reges and republican magistrates, and the evidence for change within Rome’s military hierarchy, with the early republican army being commanded by a succession of different magistrates including

Abstract This study employs a comparative approach using Greek models of historical enquiry, especially those of Herodotus, to illustrate how Romans prior to the Punic Wars, and indeed as early as the fifth and fourth centuries BC, might have developed their own historical consciousness and historical traditions concerning their early past in much the same way as we know the Greeks had done by the

Abstract In the Latin Settlement, which was supposedly initiated in 338 BC, Rome organised many of the incorporated communities into either the civitas or civitas sine suffragio. Livy, and those scholars who have accepted his explanation, claim that the use of these two types of citizenship was influenced by the political and military circumstances of each community’s incorporation. Such an argument

Abstract Ancient history begins and ends with the ancient evidence. The evidence represents not only the foundation of the discipline, but the material out of which any argument must be built, and it is not possible to go further than it allows. This is part of the reason why the nature and value of the evidence for early Rome have long been, and remain, matters of considerable and sometimes contentious

Abstract In a recent article in this journal, Kathryn Welch and Hannah Mitchell examined a much debated question: to what extent did Roman commanders, and in particular Pompeius, model themselves on Alexander the Great? 1 The opposing views on this question are best encapsulated by Peter Green on the one side, and Erich Gruen on the other. 2 One piece of evidence used in this continuing debate is an

Abstract The censors of 154/3 commissioned a stone theatre which was almost completed when it was demolished on the exhortations of P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica. The sources suggest that this destruction was as late as 151 or 150. Though an array of scholars has seised on Nasica’s claims that a theatre would soften Rome’s moral strength, there has been no satisfactory explanation of this peculiarly long

Abstract This article addresses the neglected problem of elite sport in classical Athens. Democracy may have opened up politics to every citizen, but it had no impact on sporting participation. Athenian sportsmen continued to be drawn from the elite. Thus it comes as a surprise that non-elite citizens judged sport to be a very good thing and created an unrivalled program of local sporting festivals

In the first half of the 1960s there were several groups putting forward proposals to establish a wider-based, academic organisation to promote Classics and Ancient World Studies. There had been in existence for many years state Classical Associations, based on the model of, and affiliated to, the U.K. Classical Association, but these were, and still are, comprised of a different range of members –

Abstract Shakespeare’s Et tu, Brute has been influential in shaping a tradition that interprets Caesar’s last words as an expression of shock at Brutus’ betrayal. Yet this interpretation is not suggested in the ancient sources that attest the tag καὶ σύ, τέκνον (‘you too, son’). This article argues that Caesar’s dictum evokes a formula of funerary epigrams, which refers to death as the common lot of

Abstract In 133 BC, when Scipio Aemilianus heard of the violent death of his cousin and brother-in-law, Ti. Gracchus, he uttered a line from Homer: ‘Thus perish all who attempt such.’ In effect, this endorsed the lynching of Gracchus. At a deeper level, it cast Gracchus (in the Homeric context of that quotation) as the tyrant Aegisthus. It may also have suggested an image of moral turpitude, Aegisthus

Abstract In accordance with its notoriously rich plot, Phoenician Women explores diverse aspects of fear that affect, and are thematised by, various parties at different stages of the plot. 1 Against the background of a virtually ‘irrational’ and inescapable divine necessity (treated as a source of dread in itself), Euripides presents the play’s central crisis as being largely determined by rational

Abstract This article highlights the significant role played by Constantia, posthumous daughter of the emperor Constantius II, in late fourth century dynastic politics and ideology. Though Constantia has generally been neglected in modern studies of the period, close examination of the surviving sources reveals her pivotal position, even from her earliest years, as a coveted link between the Constantinian

Abstract In the second half of the 6th century BC four South Italian Greek colonial cities – Sybaris, Croton, Metapontum and Caulonia – were minting silver-copper alloy coins, all in the incuse fabric, with the same weight standard of c. 8gm. These incuse coins were to remain in production at Croton and Metapontum for the next 100 years. Coins hoards indicate that these four cities began minting their

Abstract This paper explores the use of utopian motifs in early Greek concepts of the afterlife. The notion of a paradisiacal existence for selected heroes after death is widespread in Greek thought, going back at least as far as Hesiod, and appearing in such diverse sources as Pindar, the Orphic gold leaves, Attic comedy, and Lucian. Such idyllic afterlives share various features common to Lewis Mumford’s