Published by Harvard University Press

Revealing Antiquity

Edited by: G. W. Bowersock

ISSN: 1052-0422

Volumes

Book 2014

Greek Models of Mind and Self

A. A. Long

Volume 22 in this series

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A. A. Long’s study of Greek notions of mind and human selfhood is anchored in questions of universal interest. What happens to us when we die? How is the mind or soul related to the body? Are we responsible for our own happiness? Can we achieve autonomy? Long shows that Greek thinkers’ modeling of the mind gave us metaphors that we still live by.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674735910
ISBN:: 9780674729032
ISBN:: 9780674735910
Subject:: Philosophy
Subject:: History of Philosophy
Subject:: Ancient Philosophy
Publisher:: Harvard University Press

Book 2014

Public Spectacles in Roman and Late Antique Palestine

Zeev Weiss

Volume 21 in this series

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Wishing to ingratiate himself with Rome, Herod the Great built theaters, amphitheaters, and hippodromes to bring pagan entertainments of all sorts to Palestine. Zeev Weiss explores how the indigenous Jewish and Christian populations responded, as both spectators and performers, to these cultural imports, which left a lasting imprint on the region.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674726628
ISBN:: 9780674048317
ISBN:: 9780674726628
Subject:: Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
Subject:: Classical Studies
Subject:: Ancient History
Publisher:: Harvard University Press

Book 2013

From Shame to Sin

The Christian Transformation of Sexual Morality in Late Antiquity

Kyle Harper

Volume 20 in this series

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The transformation of the Roman world from polytheistic to Christian is one of the most sweeping ideological changes of premodern history. At the center was sex. Kyle Harper examines how Christianity changed the ethics of sexual behavior from shame to sin, and shows how the roots of modern sexuality are grounded in an ancient religious revolution.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674074569
ISBN:: 9780674072770
ISBN:: 9780674074569
Subject:: Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
Subject:: Classical Studies
Subject:: Ancient History
Publisher:: Harvard University Press

Book 2013

Spartacus

Aldo Schiavone

Volume 19 in this series

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The slave and gladiator Spartacus has been the subject of myth-making in his own time and of movie-making in ours. Aldo Schiavone brings him squarely into the arena of serious history. Spartacus emerges here as the commander of an army, whose aim was to incite Italy to revolt against Rome and to strike at the very heart of the imperial system.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674075801
ISBN:: 9780674057784
ISBN:: 9780674075801
Subject:: History
Subject:: Miscellaneous
Publisher:: Harvard University Press

Book 2010

New Heroes in Antiquity

From Achilles to Antinoos

Christopher P. Jones

Volume 18 in this series

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Heroes and heroines in antiquity inhabited a space somewhere between gods and humans. In this detailed, yet brilliantly wide-ranging analysis, Jones starts from literary heroes such as Achilles and moves to the historical record of those exceptional men and women who were worshiped after death.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674054080
ISBN:: 9780674054080
Subject:: Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
Subject:: Classical Studies, other
Publisher:: Harvard University Press

Book 2006

Ruling the Later Roman Empire

Christopher Kelly

Volume 15 in this series

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Kelly portrays a complex system of government openly regulated by networks of personal influence and the payment of money. Focusing on the Roman Empire after Constantine's conversion to Christianity, Kelly illuminates a period of increasingly centralized rule through an ever more extensive and intrusive bureaucracy.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674039452
ISBN:: 9780674039452
Subject:: Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
Subject:: Classical Studies
Subject:: Ancient History
Publisher:: Harvard University Press

Book 1994

Prophets and Emperors

Human and Divine Authority from Augustus to Theodosius

David Potter

Volume 7 in this series

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To the practical modern mind, the idea of divine prophecy is more ludicrous than sublime. Yet to our cultural forebears in ancient Greece and Rome, prophecy was anything but marginal; it was in fact the basic medium for recalling significant past events and expressing hopes for the future, and it offered assurance that divinities truly cared about mere mortals. Prophecy also served political ends, and it was often invoked to support or condemn an emperor's actions. In Prophets and Emperors, David Potter shows us how prophecy worked, how it could empower, and how the diverse inhabitants of the Roman Empire used it to make sense of their world.

This is a fascinating account of prophecy as a social, religious, and political phenomenon. The various systems of prophecy--including sacred books, oracles, astrological readings, interpretation of dreams, the sayings of holy men and women--come into sharp relief. Potter explores the use of prophecy as a nieans of historical analysis and political communication, and he describes it in the context of the ancient city. Finally, he traces the reformation of the prophetic tradition under the influence of Christianity in the fourth century.

Drawing on diverse evidence--from inscriptions and ancient prophetic books to Greek and Roman historians and the Bible--Potter has produced a study that will engage anyone interested in the religions of the ancient Mediterranean and in the history and politics of the Roman Empire.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674437067
ISBN:: 9780674437050
ISBN:: 9780674437067
Subject:: Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
Subject:: Classical Studies
Subject:: Ancient History
Publisher:: Harvard University Press

Book 1994

Actors in the Audience

Theatricality and Doublespeak from Nero to Hadrian

Shadi Bartsch

Volume 6 in this series

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When Nero took the stage, the audience played along--or else. The drama thus enacted, whether in the theater proper or in the political arena, unfolds in all its rich complexity in Actors in the Audience. This is a book about language, theatricality, and empire--about how the Roman emperor dramatized his rule and how his subordinates in turn staged their response. The focus is on Nero: his performances onstage spurred his contemporaries to reflect on the nature of power and representation, and to make the stage a paradigm for larger questions about the theatricality of power. Through these portrayals by ancient writers, Shadi Bartsch explores what happens to language and representation when all discourse is distorted by the pull of an autocratic authority.

Some Roman senators, forced to become actors and dissimulators under the scrutinizing eye of the ruler, portrayed themselves and their class as the victims of regimes that are, for us, redolent of Stalinism. Other writers claimed that doublespeak--saying one thing and meaning two--was the way one could, and did, undo the constraining effects of imperial oppression. Tacitus, Suetonius, and Juvenal all figure in Bartsch's shrewd analysis of historical and literary responses to the brute facts of empire; even the Panegyricus of Pliny the Younger now appears as a reaction against the widespread awareness of dissimulation. Informed by theories of dramaturgy, sociology, new historicism, and cultural criticism, this close reading of literary and historical texts gives us a new perspective on the politics of the Roman empire--and on the languages and representation of power.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674280991
ISBN:: 9780674280984
ISBN:: 9780674280991
Subject:: Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
Subject:: Classical Studies
Subject:: Ancient History
Publisher:: Harvard University Press

Book 1989

Unruly Eloquence

Lucian and the Comedy of Traditions

R. Bracht Branham

Volume 2 in this series

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Branham expounds with sophistication and subtlety the essential ingredients of Lucian's satirical humor. He makes frequent reference to its importance for comic theory and literary history.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674734111
ISBN:: 9780674734104
ISBN:: 9780674734111
Subject:: History
Subject:: Miscellaneous
Publisher:: Harvard University Press

Book 2000

The Invention of Jane Harrison

Mary Beard

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Jane Ellen Harrison (1850-1928) is the most famous female Classicist in history, the author of books that revolutionized our understanding of Greek culture and religion. This lively and innovative portrayal of a fascinating woman raises the question of who wins (and how) in the competition for academic fame.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674269088
ISBN:: 9780674269088
Subject:: General Interest
Publisher:: Harvard University Press