A COMPANION TO ANCIENT

HISTORY

Edited by

Andrew Erskine

A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication

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A COMPANION TO ANCIENT HISTORY

BLACKWELL COMPANIONS TO THE ANCIENT WORLD

This series provides sophisticated and authoritative overviews of periods of ancient history, genres of classical literature, and the most important themes in ancient culture. Each volume comprises between twenty-fi ve and forty concise essays written by individual scholars within their area of specialization. The essays are written in a clear, provocative, and lively manner, designed for an international audience of scholars, students, and general readers.

ANCIENT HISTORY

A Companion to the Roman ArmyEdited by Paul Erdkamp

A Companion to the Roman RepublicEdited by Nathan Rosenstein and Robert Morstein-Marx

A Companion to the Roman EmpireEdited by David S. Potter

A Companion to the Classical Greek WorldEdited by Konrad H. Kinzl

A Companion to the Ancient Near EastEdited by Daniel C. Snell

A Companion to the Hellenistic WorldEdited by Andrew Erskine

A Companion to Late AntiquityEdited by Philip Rousseau

A Companion to Archaic GreeceEdited by Kurt A. Raafl aub and Hans van Wees

A Companion to Julius CaesarEdited by Miriam Griffi n

A Companion to Ancient HistoryEdited by Andrew Erskine

LITERATURE AND CULTURE

A Companion to Classical ReceptionsEdited by Lorna Hardwick and Christopher Stray

A Companion to Greek and Roman HistoriographyEdited by John Marincola

A Companion to CatullusEdited by Marilyn B. Skinner

A Companion to Roman ReligionEdited by Jrg Rpke

A Companion to Greek ReligionEdited by Daniel Ogden

A Companion to the Classical TraditionEdited by Craig W. Kallendorf

A Companion to Roman RhetoricEdited by William Dominik and Jon Hall

A Companion to Greek RhetoricEdited by Ian Worthington

A Companion to Ancient EpicEdited by John Miles Foley

A Companion to Greek TragedyEdited by Justina Gregory

A Companion to Latin LiteratureEdited by Stephen Harrison

A Companion to OvidEdited by Peter E. Knox

A Companion to Greek and Roman Political ThoughtEdited by Ryan K. Balot

A COMPANION TO ANCIENT

HISTORY

Edited by

Andrew Erskine

A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication

This edition fi rst published 2009 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Blackwell Publishing was acquired by John Wiley & Sons in February 2007. Blackwells publishing program has been merged with Wileys global Scientifi c, Technical, and Medical business to form Wiley-Blackwell.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A companion to ancient history / edited by Andrew Erskine. p. cm. (Blackwell companions to the ancient world) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4051-3150-6 (hardcover : alk. paper)1. History, Ancient. I. Erskine, Andrew. D57.C66 2009 930dc22 2008046753

A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.

Set in 10/12.5 pt Galliard by SNP Best-set Typesetter Ltd., Hong KongPrinted in the United Kingdom

01 2009

www.wiley.com/wiley-blackwellwww.wiley.com/wiley-blackwell

In Memory ofPeter Derow

andGeorge Forrest

Contents

List of Figures xi

List of Maps xii

Notes on Contributors xiii

Preface xix

Abbreviations, Reference Works xx

Abbreviations and Glossary, Ancient Authors xxiii

Timeline xxx

1 Personal Perspectives 1Josiah Ober, Peter Derow, Andrea Giardina, Neil McLynn, Kathryn Welch

Part I: Evidence 11

2 Historiography 13John Marincola

3 Epigraphical Cultures of the Classical Mediterranean: Greek, Latin, and Beyond 23Gregory Rowe

4 Papyrology 37Alan K. Bowman

5 Numismatics 48A. R. Meadows

6 Archaeology and Ancient History 59Stephen L. Dyson

viii Contents

7 Oratory 67Catherine Steel

8 Ancient History Through Ancient Literature 77Tim Whitmarsh

Part II: Problems and Approaches 87

9 Ancient History Today 89J. A. North

10 Political History 99Robert Morstein-Marx

11 Economic and Social History 112Neville Morley

12 Ethnicity and Culture 123Edward Herring

13 Population and Demography 134Walter Scheidel

14 Writing Women into History 146Amy Richlin

15 Interpreting Myth 154Carol Dougherty

16 Environmental History 164Robert Sallares

Part III: People and Places 175

17 The Near East 177Maria Brosius

18 Egypt under the Pharaohs 189John Ray

19 The Jews 201Gideon Bohak

20 The Greeks 213Thomas Harrison

21 Asia Minor 222Peter Thonemann

22 Rome 236Christer Bruun

Contents ix

23 Italy beyond Rome 248Kathryn Lomas

24 North Africa 260Josephine Crawley Quinn

25 The Iberian Peninsula in the Roman Period 273A. T. Fear

26 The Celts 284Constanze Witt

Part IV: Encountering the Divine 299

27 Religion 301Mark Humphries

28 The Emergence of Christianity 312John Curran

Part V: Living and Dying 327

29 The Family 329Mary Harlow and Tim Parkin

30 Food 342John Wilkins

31 Eros: Love and Sexuality 352James Davidson

32 Housing 368Lisa C. Nevett

33 Entertainment 381David Potter

34 Education 392Jason Knig

35 Medicine 403Helen King

36 Death 414David Noy

Part VI: Economy 427

37 The Mediterranean and the History of Antiquity 429R. Bruce Hitchner

x Contents

38 Ancient Economies 436John Davies

39 Labor: Free and Unfree 447Peter Fibiger Bang

40 The Countryside 462Robert Witcher

41 Finance and Resources: Public, Private, and Personal 474Paul Millett

42 Ancient Technology 486Tracey Rihll

Part VII: Politics and Power 497

43 Structures 499Hans Beck

44 Citizenship 510Andrew Lintott

45 Law 520Elizabeth A. Meyer

46 Warfare 531Louis Rawlings

Part VIII: Repercussions 543

47 The Impact of Antiquity 545Rosamond McKitterick

48 Ancient History and National Identity 555Andrew Erskine

49 Hollywoods Ancient World 564Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones

Bibliography 580

Index 654

Figures

3.1 Celtic calendar from Coligny, France 33 4.1 Writing tablet from Vindolanda 39 5.1 Bronze coin of Tyre in Phoenicia 50 5.2 Silver tetradrachm of Artaxerxes III 5413.1 Graph: life expectancy 13613.2 Graph: Roman males with living relatives 14019.1 Sepphoris mosaic 20821.1 Fortifi cations at Alinda in Karia 22621.2 Plan of the urban center of Aizanoi 23021.3 The temple of Zeus at Aizanoi 23122.1 Plan of imperial Rome 23722.2 The Colosseum 24023.1 The peoples of Italy 24924.1 A bronze coin issued by the Numidian king Syphax 26924.2 A chieftain stele from the Kabylie 27026.1 Ludovisi Gaul group 29128.1 Debris from the Roman destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem

(AD 70) 31432.1 Axonometric reconstruction of a single-entrance courtyard house:

a pastas house from Olynthos 37132.2 Generalized plan of a Pompeian atrium house 37432.3 House from Ostia: plan 37736.1 Sarcophagus with the death of Meleager 41636.2 Relief from Amiternum showing a funeral procession 41839.1 Products manufactured in the bazaar 45948.1 Mosaic from Foro Italico 56048.2 Gold casket from royal tombs at Vergina 56149.1 Poster advertising Quo Vadis 57049.2 Poster advertising Cleopatra 575

Maps

1 Greece and the Aegean xxxv2 Egypt and the Near East xxxvi3 The Roman empire in the time of Augustus xxxvii4 Asia Minor 2235 North Africa 262

Notes on Contributors

Peter Fibiger Bang is an Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen. His interests range from the comparative history of the Roman empire to ancient eco-nomic history and the reception of classical antiquity in European culture. Publica-tions include The Roman Bazaar (2008).

Hans Beck is John MacNaughton Professor of Classics at McGill University in Montreal. He has published widely on both the Roman republic and the history of Greek federalism. Books include Polis und Koinon (1997) and, on the republican nobility, Karriere und Hierarchie (2005). He is also co-editor of Brills New Jacoby.

Gideon Bohak is an Associate Professor at Tel Aviv University, working on Jewish literature and culture in the Greco-Roman world, on ethnic stereotypes in ancient literature, and on Jewish magic. His most recent book is Ancient Jewish Magic: A History (2008).

Alan K. Bowman is Camden Professor of Ancient History and Fellow of Brasenose College Oxford. His main research interests are the social and economic history of the Roman empire, Papyrology, and Greco-Roman Egypt. Publications include Egypt after the Pharoahs (19902), Life and Letters on the Roman Frontier (20032).

Maria Brosius is Reader in Ancient History at the University of Newcastle. She is the author of The Persians: an introduction (2006) and editor of Ancient Archives and Archival Traditions (2003).

Christer Bruun is Professor in the Department of Classics, University of Toronto. Among his research interests are Roman topography, and the government and social history of Rome and Ostia. His publications include The Water Supply of Ancient Rome (1991) and as editor The Roman Middle Republic (2000).

John Curran is Senior Lecturer in Ancient History at The Queens University of Belfast. He is the author of Pagan City and Christian Capital: Rome in the Fourth

A COMPANION TO ANCIENT HISTORYContentsFiguresMapsNotes on ContributorsPrefaceAbbreviations, Reference WorksAbbreviations and Glossary, Ancient AuthorsTimelineCHAPTER ONE: Personal PerspectivesPART I: EvidenceCHAPTER TWO: HistoriographyCHAPTER THREE: Epigraphical Cultures of the Classical Mediterranean: Greek, Latin, and BeyondCHAPTER FOUR: PapyrologyCHAPTER FIVE: NumismaticsCHAPTER SIX: Archaeology and Ancient HistoryCHAPTER SEVEN: OratoryCHAPTER EIGHT: Ancient History Through Ancient Literature

PART II: Problems and ApproachesCHAPTER NINE: Ancient History TodayCHAPTER TEN: Political HistoryCHAPTER ELEVEN: Economic and Social HistoryCHAPTER TWELVE: Ethnicity and CultureCHAPTER THIRTEEN: Population and DemographyCHAPTER FOURTEEN: Writing Women into HistoryCHAPTER FIFTEEN: Interpreting MythCHAPTER SIXTEEN: Environmental History

PART III: People and PlacesCHAPTER SEVENTEEN: The Near EastCHAPTER EIGHTEEN: Egypt under the PharaohsCHAPTER NINETEEN: The JewsCHAPTER TWENTY: The GreeksCHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: Asia MinorCHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: RomeCHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: Italy Beyond RomeCHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: North AfricaCHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: The Iberian Peninsula in the Roman PeriodCHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: The Celts

PART IV: Encountering the DivineCHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: ReligionCHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT: The Emergence of Christianity

PART V: Living and DyingCHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: The FamilyCHAPTER THIRTY: FoodCHAPTER THIRTY-ONE: Eros: Love and SexualityCHAPTER THIRTY-TWO: HousingCHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: EntertainmentCHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR: EducationCHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE: MedicineCHAPTER THIRTY-SIX: Death

PART VI: EconomyCHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN: The Mediterranean and the History of AntiquityCHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT: Ancient EconomiesCHAPTER THIRTY-NINE: Labor: Free and UnfreeCHAPTER FORTY: The CountrysideCHAPTER FORTY-ONE: Finance and Resources: Public, Private, and PersonalCHAPTER FORTY-TWO: Ancient Technology

PART VII: Politics and PowerCHAPTER FORTY-THREE: StructuresCHAPTER FORTY-FOUR: CitizenshipCHAPTER FORTY-FIVE: LawCHAPTER FORTY-SIX: Warfare

PART VIII: RepercussionsCHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN The Impact of AntiquityCHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT: Ancient History and National IdentityCHAPTER FORTY-NINE: Hollywoods Ancient World

BibliographyIndex