Maximus of Tyre on the Zeus of Homer and Plato

The present article discusses the ingenious account of Zeus that was put forward by Maximus of Tyre in his Orations IV and XXVI. When reading into Homer various Platonic and Stoic concepts, Maximus originally amalgamates the notion of Demiurge with that of Providence. As he thus unearths Homer’s latent theology, Maximus not only praises the heritage of Greek culture but also demonstrates the close affinity between poetry and philosophy.

The Mediterranean Spearfish in Ancient Greek and Latin

The article discusses the problem of identifying a Mediterranean fish called γλαῦκος in Ancient Greek and glaucus in Latin. It was a big and well-known fish living in the Mediterranean Sea. It appears in numerous literary sources of the classical (Greek and Roman) world. After analyzing all preserved attestations of the Greco-Latin ichthyonym, the authors of the present article suggest that this fish should be identified with the Mediterranean spearfish (Tetrapturus belone Rafinesque, 1810). It is possible that the fish name γλαῦκος/glaucus referred to the roundscale spearfish (Tetrapturus georgii R.T. Lowe, 1841) and also to the Atlantic white marlin (Kajikia albida Poey, 1860, syn. Tetrapturus albidus Poey, 1860).

Compensazione del danno (timoria) e giustizia come reciprocità nella demostenica Contro Midia, sul pugno

This article offers an analysis of the legal arguments that Demosthenes uses in his speech Against Meidias, concerning the punch to prove that Meidias, who had struck Demosthenes as he exercised his public functions as a choregos, is guilty of hybris, and that he (Demosthenes) deserves adequate (i.e. public) reparation for the outrage suffered. Demosthenes claims his right to a punishment (timoria) capable of repairing the collective, more than individual, damage. This claim appears to allow him, on the one hand, to legitimise, with effective legal argumentation, all the choices made in the aftermath of the episode of the punch, and on the other, to give a strong legal basis for requesting the death penalty for Meidias. The paragraphs 2-3 of the article deal with the choices Demosthenes made after the episode of the punch. Here I intend to show that Demosthenes is able to demonstrate to the judges the relevance of the procedural choices and to qualify them as ‘choices’ precisely because they were motivated and considered at length. In the following paragraphs of the article I discuss the legal argumentation that Demosthenes uses with regard to the ‘measure’ of the penalty required (the death penalty). The aim is to understand what roles the principle according to which Meidias’s hybristic conduct must be assessed from an overall view and the principle of justice as reciprocity play in this argument. The latter must take into account the merit of the epieikes Demosthenes as compared to the hybristes Meidias.

Il martirio in epoca severiana di S. Alessandro presso Baccano lungo la via Cassia tra testimonianze agiografiche e dati archeologici

A rupestrian church near the ancient mansio ad Baccanas (via Cassia) can now be read under a new light: this building probably was mainly the tomb of the bishop Alexander, a Christian martyr of III century.

Tracce dell’organizzazione di una figlina imperiale a Mursa

This article aims at investigating the administration, the economic activities and the evolution of an imperial estate epigraphically attested in ancient Mursa, in Pannonia inferior, along the Drava river. Particularly, there are evidences of imperial slaves engaged in business management as well as many stamped bricks with different inscriptions. By matching these two types of epigraphs, it can be sketched that the property began its activities between the 1st and 2nd century AD, reached its maximum bricks production under Hadrian, in connection with the establishment of the colony, and went on until a sudden stop due to the Marcomannic invasion. Now, we are quite sure that the production resumed under the Severian dynasty, even if we do not know for how long it continued in the 3rd century, as is the case of neighboring provinces.

Impersonalización, modalidad deóntica y discurso judicial: un estudio del modal δεῖ en Lisias

Impersonalization is a communicative peculiarity of courtroom discourse and the modal verb δεῖ is one of the linguistic devices that encode it in Greek. Δεῖ expresses deontic modality, which includes directive value for the expression of orders and other directive speech acts. This paper offers a study of δεῖ in Lysias’ forensic speeches.

La función de Posidonio como fuente de Estrabón

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of Posidonius as a source for Strabo. Both were Greek-speaking authors who lived under Roman rule, and both professed Stoic doctrine. Strabo made extensive use of Posidonian works to complete his own geographical ouvre, however, we will see that the conditioning factors derived from the different political necessities in which each lived would mark fundamental ideological and methodological differences.

Cristianesimo delle origini e politica linguistica

The Roman world was a multilingual community. Aiming on one side to ensure effective communication (as Latin was not so widely known and spoken) but not to encourage nationalistic revivals on the other, Romans choose Greek as an additional official language. Indeed, Greek, by then already deprived of any national character, was already used as a ‘lingua franca’ in the eastern Mediterranean. Despite Jewish tendency to refer to Hebrew as a mark of national and religious identity, early Christianity adopted (and maintained until the second half of the II century) Greek as its own language. This choice was not only due to practical considerations related to communication needs, but also to more ‘political’ reasons, and therefore it must be framed in the more general friendly approach to the Roman empire which was always taught during his life by Jesus and was practiced by him even in front of Pilate.

Acque reflue e rischio ambientale: inquinamento fluviale nella Roma imperiale

The paper intends to examine a specific area of research concerning the pollution of large rivers – the Tiber above all but not exclusively – and the resulting contamination of water and air as well as the depletion of fish fauna and related food risks. The data on the damage to fluvial (but also lake and marine) habitats are not presented by the intellectuals of the Flavian-Trajan and Antonine ages (Pliny the Elder, Pliny the Younger, Galen) in an ‘environmentalist’ perspective stricto sensu, but each time presented in terms of moral condemnation, or of political propaganda aimed at seeking consensus or even in terms of risk to health and/or possible economic damage. In spite of this, from a legal point of view, appears undeniable a concern of the State to introduce measures aimed at limiting environmental damages as well as protecting and conserving natural resources, although certainly not systematic, but dictated by completely pragmatic needs and by occasional or emergency circumstances.

Callia e la confederazione euboica

Callias of Chalcis is the main figure of Euboean history in the mid-fourth century b.C. Aeschines (III 85-105) dedicated a long exursus to him, thanks to it we could understand and analyze the close relationship between Athens and the island, during the reign of Philip II of Macedonia. The complex question of the existence of the Euboean koinon in the fourth century is very interesting, and the debate among scholars is still open. A reconstruction of the events of the life of this character, on which a specific study is still missing, and a review on the controversial question of Euboean koinon are the focus of this paper.