Julian's strategy in AD 361
Both Roman generals and modern historians have tended to find Julian’s moves in the civil war of AD 361 hazardous as well as difficult to understand. This is especially true of his long, ultra-rapid and semi-clandestine journey down the Danube, which was carried out by a dangerously small corps (under the command of the Usurper himself !) and ended with a very brief visit to Sirmium.
WHAT COULD MARCUS AURELIUS FEEL FOR FRONTO?
n a provocative booklet, Amy Richlin, a distinguished scholar in the field of ancient sexuality, has used these letters to prove that the relationship between Marcus Aurelius and Fronto was in fact a fully sexual, physically erotic relationship.
THE SOCIAL AND CULTURAL IMPLICATIONS OF CURSE TABLETS [DEFIXIONES] IN BRITAIN AND ON THE CONTINENT
The tradition of writing curses on lead tablets appears to have originated in Greece, with the earliest examples having been discovered in Sicily, Olbia and Attica dated to the fifth century B.C., and by the second century AD they were being written throughout Western Europe, with this practice continuing throughout the Mediterranean until at least the sixth century A.D.
Suetonius and his treatment of the Emperor Domitian's favourable accomplishments
Suetonius’ negative portrayal of emperors was not limited to Domitian. Emperors Tiberius, Gaius, Claudius, Nero and Vitellius also received negative portrayal in accordance with the senatorial influence and damnatio memoriae evident in the literature of the period. This attitude towards these condemned emperors matched the views of the senatorial aristocracy who were the patrons of literary commissions and their authors.
Attire in Ammianus and Gregory of Tours
Ammianus (c. 330–c. 395) and Gregory of Tours (538–594) both wrote large-scale histories and, as a soldier and a bishop respectively, had first hand experience of many of the persons and events they wrote of. But they lived in very different worlds, the splendid Indian summer of the Roman Empire on the one hand, and the fragmented, perpetually feuding Germanic kingdoms of sixth century, sub-Roman, Merovingian Gaul on the other, where not only bodily coverings and adornments themselves changed but some attitudes towards them did too.
THE ARCHAIC BIOGRAPHY OF HOMER
Thus the discussions about which of the epics might have been composed by Homer, as well as the considerations about his person and life seem to have taken place simultaneously, at the end of the 6th century. The increased interest in the person of the poet gives reason to assume that something in connection with those discussions might have also been put down at that time.
A Crisis in the Multiethnic Society of Ancient Alexandria (66 A.D.)
My intention is to examine an episode from the first period of Roman domination, when the coexistence between the different ethnic groups in Alexandria (the body of Greek cit- izens, the Egyptian population and the Jewish community) was marked by signs of extreme tension and outbreaks of violence.
Grain Distribution in Late Republican Rome
In the scholarly debate, on the basis of judgements which we find in ancient sources, the grain laws are often considered to be, mainly, a political tool used to win approval from theRoman plebs.