Staging Women

By Jeffrey Henderson

These three plays by the great comic playwright Aristophanes (c. 446-386 BCE), the well-known Lysistrata, and the less familiar Women at the Thesmophoria and Assemblywomen, are the earliest surviving portrayals of contemporary women in the European literary tradition. These plays provide a unique glimpse of women not only in their familiar domestic roles but also in relation to household and city, religion and government, war and peace, theater and festival, and, of course, to men.

This freshly revised edition presents, for the first time in a single volume, all three plays in faithful modern translations that preserve intact Aristophanes’ blunt and often obscene language, sparkling satire, political provocation, and beguiling fantasy. Alongside the translations are ample introductions and notes covering the politically engaged genre of Aristophanic comedy in general and issues of sex and gender in particular, which have been fully updated since the first edition in light of recent scholarship. An appendix contains fragments of lost plays of Aristophanes that also featured women, and an up-to-date bibliography provides guidance for further exploration.

In addition to their timeless humor and biting satire, the plays are unique and invaluable documents in the history of western sexuality and gender, and they offer strikingly prescient speculations about the social and political future of the female sex.

ISBN: 9780415871327

Published March 09 2010 by Routledge.

By Charles Odahl

This story of Cicero and the Catilinarian Conspiracy is set within and offers a case study of the political, military, economic and social crises besetting the late Roman Republic in the era of the "Roman Revolution." The book chronicles the efforts of the defeated radical politician Lucius Sergius Catilina to bring together a group of disaffected Roman nobles and discontented Italian farmers in a conspiracy to overthrow the republican government at Rome and to take control of the Italian peninsula (while the proconsul Pompey the Great and the majority of Roman military units were campaigning in the Near East), and the success of the conservative optimate consul Marcus Tullius Cicero in uncovering the conspiracy, driving Catiline out of Rome, and defeating his revolutionary followers in the capital and in Etruria. The narrative reveals the political corruption, economic problems, and military instability which were leading to the demise of the republican system and the rise of an imperial government in the first century B.C.

The author’s comprehensive knowledge of the ancient sources and the modern scholarship relevant to the last century of the republic has allowed him to offer a detailed and definitive account of this important episode in Roman history. In the same seamless combination of vivid narrative and historical analysis through which he enlightened the Roman imperial age of Constantine, Dr. Odahl here illuminates the Roman republican era of Cicero. This book is a significant publication in Ciceronian studies and will become the standard account of the Catilinarian Conspiracy.

ISBN: 9780415874724

Published February 18 2010 by Routledge.

Edited by Paul Stephenson

The Byzantine World presents the latest insights of the leading scholars in the fields of Byzantine studies, history, art and architectural history, literature, and theology. Those who know little of Byzantine history, culture and civilization between AD 700 and 1453 will find overviews and distillations, while those who know much already will be afforded countless new vistas.

Each chapter offers an innovative approach to a well-known topic or a diversion from a well-trodden path. Readers will be introduced to Byzantine women and children, men and eunuchs, emperors, patriarchs, aristocrats and slaves. They will explore churches and fortifications, monasteries and palaces, from Constantinople to Cyprus and Syria in the east, and to Apulia and Venice in the west. Secular and sacred art, profane and spiritual literature will be revealed to the reader, who will be encouraged to read, see, smell and touch. The worlds of Byzantine ceremonial and sanctity, liturgy and letters, Orthodoxy and heresy will be explored, by both leading and innovative international scholars.

Ultimately, readers will find insights into the emergence of modern Byzantine studies and of popular Byzantine history that are informative, novel and unexpected, and that provide a thorough understanding of both.

ISBN: 9780415440103

Published February 15 2010 by Routledge.

A Source-Based Approach

By Terry Buckley

Aspects of Greek History 750- 323 BC: A Source-Based Approach offers an indispensable introduction to the central period of Greek History for all students of classics, from pre-university to undergraduate level. Chapter by chapter, the relevant historical periods from the age of colonization to Alexander the Great are reconstructed. Emphasis is laid on the interpretation of the available sources, and the book sets out to give a clear treatment of all the major problems within a chronological framework.

This new edition brings the book up-to-date with the latest scholarship and includes a more detailed study of Sparta, Delian League, and the Athenian Empire, expands the range of sources examined, and offers an extended discussion of the growth of Athenian Imperialism towards Samos, Mytilene and Melos.

It includes:

• A critical discussion of the lives, works, usefulness and reliability of the main literary sources: Thucydides, Herodotus, Xenophon, Plutarch, Diodorus, and Aristotle
• Numerous quotations and references from these and other sources, including inscriptional and archaeological evidence, accompanied by a critical analysis of their worth
• Maps, a glossary of Greek terms, and a full chapter-based bibliography

Aspects of Greek History is an invaluable aid to note-taking, essay preparation and examination revision.

ISBN: 9780415549769

Published February 11 2010 by Routledge.

Edited by D. Jeffrey Bingham

The shape and course which Christian thought has taken over its history is largely due to the contributions of individuals and communities in the second and third centuries. Bringing together a remarkable team of distinguished scholars, The Routledge Companion to Early Christian Thought is the ideal companion for those seeking to understand the way in which Early Christian thought developed within its broader cultural milieu and was communicated through its literature, especially as it was directed toward theological concerns.

Divided into three parts, the Companion:

• asks how Christianity's development was impacted by its interaction with cultural, philosophical, and religious elements within the broader context of the second and third centuries.
• examines the way in which Early Christian thought was manifest in key individuals and literature in these centuries.
• analyses Early Christian thought as it was directed toward theological concerns such as God, Christ, Redemption, Scripture, and the community and its worship.

ISBN: 9780415442251

Published December 21 2009 by Routledge.

A Sourcebook

Edited by Michael Maas

Late Antiquity (ca. 250-650) witnessed the transition from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages in the Mediterranean and Near Eastern worlds. Christianity displaced polytheism over a wide area, offering new definitions of identity and community. The Roman Empire collapsed in Western Europe to be replaced by new "Germanic" kingdoms. In the East, Byzantium emerged, while the Persian Empire reached its apogee and collapsed. Arab armies carrying the banner of Islam reshaped the political map and brought the late antique era to a close.

This sourcebook illustrates the dramatic political, social and religious transformations of Late Antiquity through the words of the men and women who experienced them. Drawing from Greek, Latin, Syriac, Hebrew, Coptic, Persian, Arabic and Armenian sources, the carefully chosen passages illuminate the lives of emperors, abbesses, aristocrats, slaves, children, barbarian chieftains, and saints . The Roman Empire is kept at the centre of the discussion, with chapters devoted to its government, cities, army, law, medicine, domestic life, philosophy, Christianity, polytheism, and Jews. Further chapters deal with the peoples who surrounded the Roman state: Persians, Huns, northern "Germanic" barbarians, and the followers of Islam.

This revised and updated second edition provides an expanded view of Late Antiquity with a new chapter on domestic life, as well extra material throughout, including passages that appear for the first time in English translation. Readings in Late Antiquity is the only sourcebook that covers such a wide range of topics over the full breadth of the late antique period.

ISBN: 9780415473361

Published December 08 2009 by Routledge.

Tales of the Orient

By LLoyd Llewellyn-Jones, James Robson

Towards the end of the fifth century BC Ctesias of Cnidus wrote his 23 book History of Persia. Ctesias is a remarkable figure: he lived and worked in the Persian court and, as a doctor, tended to the world’s most powerful kings and queens. His position gave him special insight into the workings of Persian court life and access to the gossip and scandal surrounding Persian history and court politics, past and present. His History of Persia was completed at a time when the Greeks were fascinated by Persia and seems very much to cater to contemporary interest in Persian wealth and opulence, powerful Persian women, the institution of the harem, kings and queens, eunuchs and secret plots.

Presented here in English translation for the first time with commentaries, Ctesias offers a fascinating insight into Persia in the fifth century BC.

ISBN: 9780415364119

Published November 30 2009 by Routledge.

By William Lewis Leadbetter

Drawing from a variety of sources - literary, visual, archaeological; papyri, inscriptions and coins – the author studies the nature of Diocletian’s imperial strategy, his wars, his religious views and his abdication. The author also examines Galerius’ endeavour to take control of Diocletian’s empire, his failures and successes, against the backdrop of Constantine’s remorseless drive to power.

The first comprehensive study of the Emperor Galerius, this book offers an innovative analysis of his reign as both Caesar and Augustus, using his changing relationship with Diocletian as the principal key to unlock the complex imperial politics of the period.

ISBN: 9780415404884

Published November 19 2009 by Routledge.

New Perspectives

Edited by Zinon Papakonstantinou

Sport has been practised in the Greco-Roman world at least since the second millennium BC. It was socially integrated and was practised in the context of ceremonial performances, physical education and established local and international competitions including, most famously, the Olympic Games. In recent years, the continuous re-assessment of old and new evidence in conjunction with the development of new methodological perspectives have created the need for a fresh examination of central aspects of ancient sport in a single volume. This book fills that gap in ancient sport scholarship.

When did the ancient Olympics begin? How is sport depicted in the work of the fifth-century historian Herodotus? What was the association between sport and war in fifth- and fourth-century BC Athens? What were the social and political implications of the practice of Greek-style sport in third-century BC Ptolemaic Egypt? How were Roman gladiatorial shows perceived and transformed in the Greek-speaking east? And what were the conditions of sport participation by boys and girls in ancient Rome? These are some of the questions that this book, written by an international cast of distinguished scholars on ancient sport, attempts to answer. Covering a wide chronological and geographical scope (ancient Mediterranean from the early first millennium BC to fourth century AD), individual articles re-examine old and new evidence, and offer stimulating, original interpretations of key aspects of ancient sport in its political, military, cultural, social, ceremonial and ideological setting.

This book was previously published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

ISBN: 9780415497152

Published September 17 2009 by Routledge.

By Estelle Lazer

Resurrecting Pompeii provides an in-depth study of a unique site from antiquity with information about a population who all died from the same known cause within a short period of time.

Pompeii has been continuously excavated and studied since 1748. Early scholars working in Pompeii and other sites associated with the AD 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius were seduced by the wealth of artefacts and wall paintings yielded by the site. This meant that the less visually attractive evidence, such as human skeletal remains, were largely ignored.

Recognizing the important contribution of the human skeletal evidence to the archaeology of Pompeii, Resurrecting Pompeii remedies that misdemeanour, and provides students of archaeology and history with an essential resource in the study of this fascinating historical event.

ISBN: 9780415261463

Published August 24 2009 by Routledge.