100 years of International Affairs

2022 marks International Affairs' 100th year. This editorial reflects on the journal's history and outlines plans and goals for its second century, not least ensuring that International Affairs becomes a truly global and inclusive journal.

THE ANTIKYTHERA WRECK: A NUMISMATIC APPROACH

The paper examines the coins found inside the Antikythera wreck. The wreck of Antikythera was discovered by chance by some sponge fishermen in October 1900, in the northern part of the island of Antikythera. The archaeological excavation of the wreck has allowed the recovery of many finds in marble and bronze, with acquisitions of human skeletons related to the crew of the sunken ship, in addition to the famous “Antikythera mechanism”. Various proposals have been made for the chronology of the shipwreck, as well as the port of departure of the ship, which have been based on literary sources or on the chronology of ceramic finds. As far as coins are concerned, it should be remembered that thirty-six silver coins and some forty bronze coins were recovered in 1976, all corroded and covered by encrustations. The separate study of the two classes of materials, those Aegean and those Sicilian allows to deepen the history of the ship shipwrecked to Antikythera. The treasury of silver coinage is composed of thirty-six silver cistophoric tetradrachms, 32 of which are attributable to the mint of Pergamon and 4 to that of Ephesus. From the chronological point of view, the coins minted in Pergamon have been attributed by scholars to the years from 104/98 B.C. to 76/67 B.C., the date that marks the end of the coinage until 59 B.C. The coins of Ephesus are easier to date because they report the year of issue, even if, in the specimens found, the only legible refers to the year 53, corresponding to our 77/76 B.C., if it is assumed as the beginning of the era of Ephesus its elevation to the capital of the province of Asia in 129 B.C., or 82/81 B.C., if we consider 134/133 B.C., the year of the creation of the Provincia Asiana. As for the three legible bronzes, we note that there are a specimen of Cnidus and two of Ephesus. The coin of the city of Caria was dated by scholars in the second half of the third century B.C. The two bronzes of Ephesus are dated almost unanimously around the middle of the first century B.C., although this fundamental data was never considered for the dating of the shipwreck. The remaining three legible bronzes from Asian mints, two from the Katane mint and one from the Panormos mint, belong to a completely different geographical context, such as Sicily, with its own circulation of coins. The two coins of Katane show a typology with a right-facing head of Dionysus with ivy crown, while on the reverse we find the figures of the Pii Fratres of Katane, Amphinomos and Anapias, with their parents on their shoulders. The specimen of Panormos has on the front the graduated head of Zeus turned to the left, and on the verse the standing figure of a warrior with whole panoply, in the act of offering a libation, with on the left the monogram of the name of the mint. As regards the series of Katane, usually dated to the second century B.C., it should be noted, as, moreover, had already noticed Michael Crawford, that there is an extraordinary similarity between the reverse of these bronzes and that of the issuance of silver denarii in the name of Sextus Pompey, that have on the front the head of the general, facing right, and towards the two brothers from Katane on the sides of a figure of Neptune with an aplustre in his right hand, and the foot resting on the bow of the ship, dated around 40 B.C., during the course of the Bellum siculum. We wonder how it is possible to justify the presence in a wreck of the half of the first century B.C. of two specimens of a very rare series of one hundred and fifty years before, but well known to the engravers of the coins of Sextus Pompey. The only possible answer is that Katane coins have been minted more recently than scholars have established. For the coin series of Panormos, then, it must be kept in mind that there are three different variants of the same type of reverse, for which it is not possible to indicate a relative chronology. In one coin issue, the legend of the ethnic is written in Greek characters all around the warrior; in another coin we have a monogram that can be easily dissolved as an abbreviation of the name of the city of Panormos; in the third, in addition to the same monogram, we find the legend CATO, written in Latin characters. In our opinion, this legend must necessarily refer to the presence in Sicily of Marcus Porcius Cato of Utica, with the charge of propraetor in the year 49 B.C. Drawing the necessary consequences from the in-depth analysis, the data of the Sicilian coins seem to attest to their production towards the middle of the first century B.C., in line with what is obtained from the ceramic material found inside the shipwrecked ship, and from the dating of the coins of Ephesus. The study of numismatic materials and a proposal of more precise dating allows to offer a new chronological data for the sinking of the ship. The presence of rare bronze coins of Sicilian mints suggests that the ship came from a port on the island, most likely from that of Katane.

Poemat dydaktyczny Markellosa z Side o leczniczych walorach ryb morskich

The article describes a preserved poetic fragment commonly called De piscibus, written by Marcellus of Side. He was a physician and a renowned epic poet, who lived in the town of Side (Pamphylia) in the second century AD. In the analyzed fragment (v. 41–101), being an extract from his didactic epos entitled Cheironides, Marcellus of Side presents a number of remedies prepared from some marine animals, especially fishes, living in the Mediterranean Sea.

Missing Links or to the History of the Second Century AD Bosporan Kingdom under Eupator: by numismatic data

Under the Bosporan king Eupator, sestercii were issued with two busts on the obverse: an elderly bearded man in a ray crown and a woman in a high openwork crown, as well as two men: a young one, with or without a beard, and an elderly, bearded one. All men have long hair. The elderly man is no doubt Eupator. Together with him, as is commonly believed, they portrayed Aphrodite Urania and Marcus Aurelius. But this is hardly the case. After all, a very similar image of a woman, framed by the legend “Β … ΕΥΝΟΜΙΑC”, is imprinted on the reverse of the Bosporan sesterces with two male busts on the obverse. But the figures of the deities on the Bosporan coins were not signed. Judging by the crown, this was a Sarmatian queen. We believe that Eunomia, who is mentioned in the coin legend, was the wife and co-ruler of Eupator. The Roman emperors on the Bosporan coins were always depicted with short hair. We believe that the studied sestercii had portraits of Eupator, his wife Eunomia, and also their son, who ruled the Bosporus from 170/171 to 174/175 without the sanction of Rome and, as a result, did not receive the right to issue coins and did not leave lapidary inscriptions.

Silapathikaram quotes in grammatical text

Epics has been created in various languages such as Greek, Latin, Persian and Tamil in the world. Even in Tolkappiyam, there is no reference the existence of epics in Tamil. Dandiyalankara is the first script recorded about epics in Tamil. Silappathikaram is the first epic to appear in Tamil literature. This epic and Tolkappiyam were appeared during Sangam literature followed by AD Appeared in the second century. The author of this epic is Ilangovadi. He is the son of Cheramannan Neduncheralathan and the brother of Cheran Senkuttuvan. Silappathikaram is one of the greatest epics that appeared in the Tamil language. It is no exaggeration to say that as the epics were developed next to vintage literature appeared. Grammar rules are composed and written by Vaithiyanatha Desikar in the AD seventeenth century. He has used quotations from various grammatical texts in the context of the text with rich evidence for the text. He has used these quotations to clarify grammatical explanatory threads, for further explanation and for textual concentration. The purpose of this article is to illustrate how grammatical lyricism supports grammatical interpretation.

Hybrid Knowledge and the Historiography of Science

Originating in the field of biology, the concept of the hybrid has proved to be influential and effective in historical studies, too. Until now, however, the idea of hybrid knowledge has not been fully explored in the historiography of pre-modern science. This article examines the history of pre-Copernican astronomy and focuses on three case studies—Alexandria in the second century CE; Baghdad in the ninth century; and Constantinople in the fourteenth century—in which hybridization played a crucial role in the development of astronomical knowledge and in philosophical controversies about the status of astronomy and astrology in scholarly and/or institutional settings. By establishing a comparative framework, this analysis of hybrid knowledge highlights different facets of hybridization and shows how processes of hybridization shaped scientific controversies.

The region and its resources

This chapter describes the landscapes of production found around London. Salterns and stone quarries in the Thames estuary, managed woodlands upriver of the city, and the ironworking sites of the High Weald are considered, along with the evidence for livestock and arable farming. These extraction industries responded to the creation of the Roman city, and saw considerable intensification from the Flavian period into the second century. This drew on the development of a supporting infrastructure that benefitted from military engineering and management, and is argued to have responded to elevated procuratorial demand. Some surplus may have been raised by taxes and rents in kind, and parallels are drawn with sharecropping arrangements for tenant farming documented in North Africa. The potential importance of imperial and other estates is also reviewed. Whilst direct evidence is lacking it is argued that imperial land-holdings would have been extensive in conquered territories, and this may account for some of the particularities of the economic relationship between London and its hinterland.

The great forum (c. AD 110–25)

This chapter summarizes evidence for the form, date, and use of the massive monumental forum complex that replaced London’s Flavian forum in the late first and early second century. Work probably started on this vast public building under Trajan, following soon after the new waterside quays were built, and after the successful conclusion of the first Dacian war. The complex was not completed, however, until the Hadrianic period, perhaps in preparation for Hadrian’s visit to Britain in AD 122. The forum’s role as the public focus of imperial ideology, and as a place for managing supplies and business affairs, is discussed.