Gerión. Revista de Historia Antigua

Libros recibidos

Gerión — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

From Tablets to Emotions: Reflections on "Emotional Practices" in the Study of Cuneiform Texts

Patricia Bou Pérez — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This article contributes to the emerging theoretical discussion on emotions in Assyriology by examining the analytical model of “emotional practices” proposed by Monique Scheer and evaluating its applicability to the study of Old Babylonian texts (ca. 2000-1600 BCE). The study analyzes three letters from Mari (M.13014, ARM 2 44, and ARM 10 107) that share a specific context of war, examining them through the lens of Scheer’s emotional practices framework. Although this model has been cited in some Assyriological works, it has not been thoroughly discussed or applied to textual analysis within the field. This research represents the first systematic application of the emotional practices model to Old Babylonian textual sources, offering new methodological possibilities for understanding emotions. The study’s findings suggest that Scheer’s framework provides valuable insights into how emotions were practiced and expressed in Old Babylonian society, while also highlighting the specific challenges of applying modern theoretical approaches to ancient textual sources. This contribution aims to enhance our understanding of emotional practices in Mesopotamia and advance theoretical discussions within Assyriological studies.

English

Miriam Valdés Guia — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In this paper, the intention is to discuss the socio-economic status of the third census class, the zeugitai (small and middling peasants vs. farmers belonging to the leisure class), in the light of the organisation of the Solonian fiscal system. Particularly useful for this purpose is the analysis of an anecdotal passage concerning Peisistratus and a taxpaying Attic peasant of modest means. This is followed by some brief reflections on the subsequent fifth-century eisphora in both the Athenian cleruchies/colonies and Athens itself as of 428, during and after the Peloponnesian War.

Oiantheia in between. Cross-border Activities in Ancient Federal Greece

Elena Franchi — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Oiantheia is a city located on the eastern border of Aitolia having an outlet to the sea and probably a harbour. Their access to the Corinthian Gulf played an essential role in their relations with neighbouring towns and ethne. The town was undoubtedly perceived as Lokrian, yet its location on the border meant there was a pervasive element of Aitolian identity present too. Unsurprisingly, many Aitolian and Lokrian towns in the eastern borderlands with the Ozolian Lokrians had converging interests with their neighbours across the political divide. They exchanged goods locally and regionally, whereas certain surplus goods were even circulated inter-regionally. They also shared a communal enemy in Naupaktos. The cross-border activities and dynamics help to account for the Aitolian-Lokrian synergic integration in the area. The Aitolian koinon set in motion top-down strategies of institutional integration. They also endeavoured to manipulate the symbolic attachment by merging Lokrian genealogies into Aitolian lore. The success of their strategy, however, most likely depended on an effective exploitation of previous political and economic cross-border cooperation, as will be argued in this article.

Sailing gifts. On the ships that Seleucus IV and Ptolomeus V offered to the Achaean Leage (185-180 BCE) and their parallels to Rhodes

Miguel Esteban Payno — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This paper addresses the offer of warships as diplomatic gifts to the Achaean League by two Hellenistic kings at the beginning of the Second century BCE. These diplomatic initiatives are analysed attending to multifaceted character of the gift when it comes to the international relations. It is concluded that, despite the relatively low value of ships (compared with other usual gifts), their concomitant usefulness as weapon, as a symbol of power and as social instrument —which is the very essence of the gift— jointed making of them suitable diplomatic gifts, not usual ones but of huge political potential.

The Sullan colony of Pompeii and the so-called lex Cornelia de civitate adimenda

Nicolò Spadavecchia — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This paper focuses on the institutions of Pompeii in the decades after the Social war. Epigraphic and literary sources suggest that the Pompeians became municipes during the Eighties of the first century BCE, but were deprived of Roman citizenship (like the Arretini and the inhabitants of other municipia) a few years later, following Sulla’s victory and the so-called lex Cornelia de civitate adimenda; then the colony of Sullan veterans Cornelia Veneria Pompeianorum was founded in the territory of the indigenous community. Cicero’s speech pro Sulla indicates that in 62 BCE the old Pompeians had already regained Roman citizenship (presumably during the censorship of 70-69) and had been admitted within the colony: nevertheless they still faced discrimination in suffragia (elections) and ambulatio (which in this context probably means “passage through country roads”).

The Ἰταλικός banquet. A Philo of Alexandria's criticism on pagans banquets

Diego Andrés Cardoso Bueno — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Philo mentions banquets at different fragments of his work, but it is in the treatise De vita contemplativa where he dedicates greater attention to them. It is surprising that in a writing focused on the ascetic life he wants to comment in an insulting tone on pagan banquets and also does so in considerable detail, sometimes even descending into somewhat ribald descriptions, typical of profane symposium literature or satirical comedy. His intention is to make a σύγκρισις that compares and contrasts these banquets with the θεραπευταὶ, therapeutae agape, an example of a modest diner attitude. By extension, and in the context in which he writes the work, the philosopher could also be alluding to the contrast between the behavior of the pagans and that of the Jews and in the events of the year 38 in Alexandria.

The poor's and the rich's dinners: Food as a marker of social categories in Martial's epigrams

Amalia Lejavitzer — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Martial's epigrams are a very valuable literary source for understanding the food and dining customs in Rome in the 1st century AD. The compositions referring to dinners show not only the preparations that were served, but also food as a material and symbolic element of status and demarcation of the different social groups. In particular, the dinners offered by the patrons to their clients are studied. In these epigrams, the contrast between the luxurious dishes and products enjoyed by the patrons and the poor quality food given to the clients allows Martial to make a sharp criticism of the social inequalities prevailing in his time. Moreover, this contrast is also a compositional and discursive device characteristic of his poetics. In conclusion, in Martial, the motif of food, the ways of consuming and eating associated with it, are a means of attacking the vices and moral degradation of the customs of his time, and in the contrast between one food and another, the poet finds the metaphorical expression of the ethical values he longs for: honesty, equality and friendship.

Christ and Posca: A Matter of Vocabulary

Yann Le Bohec — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Gospels and the Apocrypha say that Roman soldiers gave something to drink to Christ when he was crucified: wine, or vinegar, or posca. Posca was a famous drink among soldiers; but every people liked drink it. Normally pleasant and thirst-quenching, it was also used as a medicine.

Comradeship Relations in the Roman Army during the 1st-3rd Centuries AD. A Study through the Legio III Augusta

Jorge Ortiz de Bruguera — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The professionalisation of the army under Augustus had important consequences for the troops, since from then on, enlistment implied the temporary loss of certain rights. The suspension of the ius conubium must be taken into account for its negative effects on the capacity to socialise of the soldiers, who were often distanced from their families and the civic community. The relationships that these men established among themselves to try to alleviate their situation constitute the subject of this study, which focuses on the African provinces of the pars Occidentalis and uses as its main source the epigraphy that corresponds to the legio III Augusta. Its results can be summarised as follows: on the one hand, a better understanding of the terms and formulas that were used to reflect the existence of ties and, on the other hand, a more comprehensive vision of the phenomena of socialisation within the troop.

Criticism of Greek Myths in Early Christian Apologetics as a Way of Religious Delegitimization

Carlos Megino — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The aim of this paper is to show that the criticism of Greek myths made by the Second-Century Christian Apologists is based on the role that these myths play as source of legitimacy of a religious message that looks for the social hegemony. This criticism is not a simple literary discussion on different ways of understanding the divine confined to intellectual circles, but a way of discrediting the cultural identity on which rests the way of being in the world of the Greek-speaking pagan society. Furthermore, this criticism transcends the framework of apology, in order to become a tool to replace a culture through the delegitimization of religion on which that culture is based. I adopt as a key concept that of “mosaic distinction”, according to which Christianity, as an exclusive monotheism, presents itself to the pagan religion as the only true religion, since it is the result of revelation of the one true God, whereas pagan religion is founded on traditional fictions (myths), which present false gods as role models. Therefore, the Apologists’ arguments against the myth will be mainly based on taking the Greek myths as evidence of the inexistence of gods. If the gods don’t exist, the myths that make them actors of the symbolic universe on which the cosmovision that grounds the cultural identity of the pagan society is founded, are delegitimazed, remaining as alternative that offered by Christianity.

Julian's The Caesars: a Constantine's implied psógos

María Pilar García Ruiz — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Julian`s The Caesars has presented difficulties of comprehension in both structure and content. This article aims to contribute to its understanding by highlighting the existence of a second level of reading in which the key is Constantine's imitation of men and gods. The characterisations of the emperors, studied from this perspective, show that the competition constitutes a great psógos against Constantine. The reasons Jesus proposes for embracing Christianity (336A) are but a synthesis of this underlying critique.

Cleisthenes the Athenian: From 1964 to 2024

Marco García Quintela — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Sixty years after the publication of Clisthène l'Athénien, an essay published in 2024 (La Cité et le nombre, by Paulin Ismard and Arnaud Macé) challenges the foundations and conclusions of its predecessor, offering a novel perspective on the institutional reforms of Athens in 508/7 BCE. The authors discard the idea of the reformer as a "genius" and find the models applied to the new Athenian institutions in the simple forms of vernacular arithmetic used since Homer to manage military affairs. Furthermore, Athens is not an isolated case, as similar models can be found in other institutional reforms of the period. This approach allows for a broader, more straightforward, and more explanatory understanding of the underlying cognitive processes that shaped institutional and political action in archaic Greece. Furthermore, the historiographical implications of this proposition are contextualised within the framework of the "Paris School," emphasising its dual intellectual authorship by a historian and a philosopher.

C. Causinius Schola: an eques in Frontline Politics

Federico Santangelo — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This note discusses the evidence on the eques C. Causinius Schola, an associate of Clodius, and argues for the significance of his political role in late Republican Rome.

Dumtaxat in a Funerary Inscription from Verona (regio X)

Simone Don — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

An inscription found in Verona is here analyzed; it presents the term dumtaxat, already known in the legal field, but otherwise rare in funerary epigraphy, referable, in this case, to the exclusion of other deceased in the sepulchral monument.

Adolfo J. Domínguez Monedero – Esther Sánchez Medina – Jorge García Cardiel (eds.), Las elites recuerdan. Memoria y religión en la Antigüedad, Madrid, UAM Ediciones, 2024, 328 pp. [ISBN: 978-84-8344-922-6]

Isabel Rodríguez López — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Greg Woolf – Ilaria Bultrighini – Camilla Norman (eds.), Sanctuaries and Experience. Knowledge, Practice and Space in the Ancient World (=Potsdamer altertumswissenschaftliche Beiträge 83), Postdam, Franz Steiner Verlag, 2024, 474 pp. [978-3-515-13399-9]

Lucía Díez Rodríguez — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Marco Ramazzotti (ed.), Costeggiando l’Eurasia/Coasting Eurasia. Archeologia del paesaggio e geografia storica tra l’Oceano Indiano e il Mar Mediterraneo (=Atlante del Vicino Oriente antico, Opere collettanee 3), Roma, Sapienza Università Editrice, 2024, 558 pp- [ISBN: 9788893773430]

Fernando Escribano Martín — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Aida Fernández Prieto – Unai Iriarte Asarta (eds), (In)visibilidad, vulnerabilidad y agencia. Visiones de las mujeres en la antigua Grecia (=Estudios Helénicos 6), Sevilla, Universidad de Sevilla, 2024, 292 pp. (ISBN: 978-84-472-2636-8)

Miriam A. Valdés Guía — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Nassos Papalexandrou – Amy Sowder Koch (eds.), Hephaistus on the Athenian Acropolis: Current Approaches to the Study of Artifacts Made of Bronze and Other Metals (=Selected Papers on Ancient Art and Architecture 7), Boston, Archaeological Institute of America, 2023, x+137 pp. [ISBN: 9781931909440]

Pelayo Huerta Segovia — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Alicia Perea Caveda – Ricardo Olmos Romera, Mujeres de la mitología ibérica (Arqueologías, Serie Ibera 13). Jaén, Universidad de Jaén, 2024, 108 pp. [ISBN: 978-84-9159-612-7]

Jorge García Cardiel — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Trinidad Tortosa Rocamora (ed.), Los objetos viajeros. Patrimonio arqueológico en Extremadura (=Ataecina. Colección de Estudios Históricos de la Lusitania 13), Mérida, Consorcio de la Ciudad Monumental de Mérida, 2023, 208 pp. [ISBN: 978-84-09-52417-4]

Jorge del Reguero González — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Loredana Cappeletti – Sylvie Pittia (ed.), L’ Italie entre déchirements et reconciliations: la guerra sociale (91-88 avant notre ere) et ses lendemains (=Institut des Sciences et Techniques de l’Antiquité, 1627), Toulouse, Presses Universitaires de Franche-Comté, 2024, 508 pp. [ISBN: 978-2-84867-865-8]

Diego Tobar Muñoz — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Sara Casamayor – Pepa Castillo (eds.), Conspiradoras. Mujer y espacio público en la Antigua Roma (=Mujeres, Historia y Feminismos 17), Granada, Comares, 2024, 277 pp. [ISBN: 978-84-1369-858-8]

Carmen Mª Ruiz Vivas — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Pedro Mateos Cruz – Manuel Olcina Doménech – Antonio Pizzo – Thomas G. Schattner (eds.), Small Towns, una realidad urbana en la Hispania romana (=Mytra 10), Mérida, Instituto de Arqueología de Mérida, 2022, 700 pp. + ilustraciones B/N [ISBN: 978-84-09-458

Jesús Bermejo Tirado — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Gregorio Carrasco Serrano (coord.), La meseta sur de Hispania en época romana altoimperial, Cuenca, Ediciones de la Universidad de Castilla La Mancha, 2024, 360 pp. [ISBN: 978-84-9044-635-5]

Javier Larequi Fontaneda — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Guadalupe López Monteagudo, Mosaicos hispanorromanos de aguas (=Spal monografías arqueología 54), Sevilla, Editorial Universidad de Sevilla, 2024, 366 pp. [ISBN: 978-84-472-2399-2]

Gregorio Carrasco Serrano — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Yann Le Bohec, L’Armée romaine d’Afrique sous le Bas-Empire. Recueil d’articles inédits ou déjà publiés (=Essais 3), Paris, Les Cents Chemins, 2022, 264 pp. [ISBN: 978-2-9570860-I-6]

Esther Sánchez Medina — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Diego Piay Augusto, Priscillian. The Life and Death of a Christian Dissenter in Late Antiquity, Piscataway, Gorgias Press, 2024, 207 pp. [ISBN: 9781463245597]

Marco Alviz Fernández — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000