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A Companion to Ancient History 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. Blackwell’s publishing program has been merged with Wiley’s global Scientifi c, Technical, and Medical business to form Wiley-Blackwell. Registered Offi ce John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, United Kingdom Editorial Offi ces 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK For details of our global editorial offi ces, for customer services, and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley. com/wiley-blackwell. The right of Andrew Erskine to be identifi ed as the author of the editorial material in this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. 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 930–dc22 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 Kong Printed in the United Kingdom 01 2009 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 1 Josiah Ober, Peter Derow, Andrea Giardina, Neil McLynn, Kathryn Welch Part I: Evidence 11 2 Historiography 13 John Marincola 3 Epigraphical Cultures of the Classical Mediterranean: Greek, Latin, and Beyond 23 Gregory Rowe 4 Papyrology 37 Alan K. Bowman 5 Numismatics 48 A. R. Meadows 6 Archaeology and Ancient History 59 Stephen L. Dyson viii Contents 7 Oratory 67 Catherine Steel 8 Ancient History Through Ancient Literature 77 Tim Whitmarsh Part II: Problems and Approaches 87 9 Ancient History Today 89 J. A. North 10 Political History 99 Robert Morstein-Marx 11 Economic and Social History 112 Neville Morley 12 Ethnicity and Culture 123 Edward Herring 13 Population and Demography 134 Walter Scheidel 14 Writing Women into History 146 Amy Richlin 15 Interpreting Myth 154 Carol Dougherty 16 Environmental History 164 Robert Sallares Part III: People and Places 175 17 The Near East 177 Maria Brosius 18 Egypt under the Pharaohs 189 John Ray 19 The Jews 201 Gideon Bohak 20 The Greeks 213 Thomas Harrison 21 Asia Minor 222 Peter Thonemann 22 Rome 236 Christer Bruun Contents ix 23 Italy beyond Rome 248 Kathryn Lomas 24 North Africa 260 Josephine Crawley Quinn 25 The Iberian Peninsula in the Roman Period 273 A. T. Fear 26 The “Celts” 284 Constanze Witt Part IV: Encountering the Divine 299 27 Religion 301 Mark Humphries 28 The Emergence of Christianity 312 John Curran Part V: Living and Dying 327 29 The Family 329 Mary Harlow and Tim Parkin 30 Food 342 John Wilkins 31 Eros: Love and Sexuality 352 James Davidson 32 Housing 368 Lisa C. Nevett 33 Entertainment 381 David Potter 34 Education 392 Jason König 35 Medicine 403 Helen King 36 Death 414 David Noy Part VI: Economy 427 37 The Mediterranean and the History of Antiquity 429 R. Bruce Hitchner x Contents 38 Ancient Economies 436 John Davies 39 Labor: Free and Unfree 447 Peter Fibiger Bang 40 The Countryside 462 Robert Witcher 41 Finance and Resources: Public, Private, and Personal 474 Paul Millett 42 Ancient Technology 486 Tracey Rihll Part VII: Politics and Power 497 43 Structures 499 Hans Beck 44 Citizenship 510 Andrew Lintott 45 Law 520 Elizabeth A. Meyer 46 Warfare 531 Louis Rawlings Part VIII: Repercussions 543 47 The Impact of Antiquity 545 Rosamond McKitterick 48 Ancient History and National Identity 555 Andrew Erskine 49 Hollywood’s Ancient World 564 Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones Bibliography 580 Index 654 PART VII Politics and Power A Companion to Ancient History Edited by Andrew Erskine © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. ISBN: 978-1-405-13150-6 CHAPTER FORTY-THREE Structures Hans Beck 1 Introduction The term structure is used in many academic and non-academic contexts, yet it is rarely conceptualized. Social scientists collect and analyze structural data; a starship’s hull has a structural integrity, as have atoms, high-rise buildings and rituals; epics such as the Odyssey or The Lord of the Rings follow a narrative superstructure; many ethnic groups are exposed to structural violence; linguistic approaches towards lan- guage include attempts to explore its logical structure, while structuralism in anthro- pology, as pioneered by Claude Lévi-Strauss, investigates the modes by which meaning is produced within a culture. The common implication underlying these examples is that something – material elements, a political organization, an academic discipline – consists of multiple parts that relate to each other, their structure being both the multiplicity of parts and their mutual relation. This meaning is already inherent in the Latin word structura, from which the modern term derives. Historians have a diffi cult relation with structure. Ever since Herodotus of Hali- carnassus presented his historias apodeixis (“Display of Inquiry,” though “Histories” is the more common translation), historians have sought to uncover the past. History, as a discipline, investigates systematically collected sources rather than deterministic structural forces. The study of the latter was extremely popular in the 1960s and 1970s, when the followers of structuralism claimed to offer a “scientifi c” approach to history through the meticulous calculation of, for instance, unemployment rates, GNPs and poverty lines. The refi nement of sociologically inspired methodologies and anthropological concepts added to the discovery of structural patterns which are specifi c to human society. This approach was tremendously fruitful and continues to be infl uential, but it also faces criticism. The main objection is that structuralism, while rightly emphasizing the longue durée of historical processes (Braudel 1972), overstretches the concept of synchronicity. It oftentimes leaves too little space for diachronic change and development through time (cf. Renfrew/Cherry 1986: 18). A Companion to Ancient History Edited by Andrew Erskine © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. ISBN: 978-1-405-13150-6 500 Hans Beck Although more recent trends in history writing emphasize various and at times com- peting concepts, it is fair to assert that the notion of culture, and the way it is trans- mitted and transformed, is at the core of today’s research. Current approaches, which are greatly inspired by the cultural studies turn, include a renewed interest in the processes and practices of generating, perpetuating and communicating power (politi- cal, religious, sexual, etc.). At the same time, human agency – that is, the capacity of individuals to shape the process of history – has regained its deserved scholarly attention. But processes such as the communication of power require a viable structure. Human action is embedded in a set of norms, patterns and sentiments that give meaning to that action and “structure” it. This set embraces both the horizontal distribution of structures as well as vertical patterns of hierarchy. Niklas Luhmann’s œuvre on system theory (cf. Luhmann 1995) is built on the assumption that those features are shared by bureaucracies, chains of command, or family bonds alike. Hence, when social scientists and scholars in the humanities speak of political or social structures, they refer to entities, institutions, and/or groups as they exist in defi nite relation to each other, and to their horizontal and vertical interaction within their respective systems. The dense network of this interaction constitutes a landscape that prefi gures human action and contextualizes its behavior. Despite the historian’s concern with process and change, history is therefore inexorably driven by structure. Yet structures are never static. They have their own history. Take the unfolding of political institutions or, in the economic domain, the interaction between trade and cultural transmission. Even though this interaction is shaped by patterns of con- tinuity, it is susceptible to human action and oftentimes moments of contingency that punctuate episodes of structural change. In the Aegean, always a highway for the exchange of ideas and goods, the structures of trade and cultural communication changed so dramatically towards the end of the Bronze Age that it is virtually impos- sible to forge a structural account that covers the time span of any two generations. Similarly, a static approach to the Roman republic has become increasingly diffi cult.
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