Issue 3 WWW.ANCIENTHISTORYMAGAZINE.COM // KARWANSARAY PUBLISHERS KARWANSARAY // WWW.ANCIENTHISTORYMAGAZINE.COM

APR / MAY 2016 US/CN $10.99 // €7.50 HELLENISTIC SPLENDOR IN 04 8

SCULPTUREPERGAMON, MEDICINE & ARCHITECTURE 74470 58034 0

THEME - A BOOKISH RIVALRY // THE PERGAMON ALTAR // SATAN'S THRONE // ROMAN GLADIATORS SPECIALS - MAKING PAPYRUS // REINVENTING THE PERSIAN PAST // RADIOCARBON DATING

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Publisher: Rolof van Hövell tot Westerflier Managing Director: Jasper Oorthuys Editor: Jona Lendering Contributing Editor: Josho Brouwers Design & Media: Christianne C. Beall THEME: Design © 2015 Karwansaray Publishers ANCIENT PERGAMON Pergamon was one of the jewels of the Hellenistic world, a centre Contributors: Kees Alders, René van Beek, Chris Bond, Duncan Campbell, Marc DeSantis, Pieter van der Horst, of art and learning, whose influence can be felt even today. Christian Koepfer, Richard Kroes, Holger Michiels, Daan Nijssen, Manolis Peponas, Tanya Sieiro van der Beek, Dirk-Jan de Vink, Cristian Violatti 16 Pergamon 32 Pergamene puzzle Illustrators: Christy Beall, Rocío Espin, Shen Fei, Milek Hellenism's forgotten civilization The great altar of Pergamon Jakubiec, Mirco Paganessi, Maxime Plasse, Fabrice Weiss 20 The Attalid empire and capital 38 "The throne of Satan" Thanks to: Duncan Campbell, Marc DeSantis Maps of the Pergamene world Five ways to read four ancient words Print: Grafi Advies 21 The Attalid jewel 40 Imperial gladiators Editorial office The city of Pergamon A procurator's offering PO Box 4082, 7200 BB Zutphen, The Netherlands Phone: +31-575-776076 (NL), +44-20-8816281 26 A bookish rivalry (Europe), +1-740-994-0091 (US) E-mail: [email protected] Libraries at Alexandria and Pergamon Customer service: [email protected] Website: www.ancienthistorymagazine.com SPECIAL FEATURES Contributions in the form of articles, letters, reviews, news, and queries are welcomed. Please send to the 6 Glass 48 Roman segmental arch bridges above address or use the contact form on Ancient objects and ancient sources A blind spot in the history of technology www.ancienthistorymagazine.com 8 The papyrus 55 Enigmatic Hatra Subscriptions Subscriptions can be purchased at www.kp-shop.com, Growing an ancient sedge A desert city long ago abandoned via phone, or by email. For the address, see above. 12 Money talks 59 Lust for life Distribution Cash in the first century AD The philosophical system of the Hedonists Ancient History Magazine is sold through retailers, the internet, and by subscription. If you wish 43 to become a sales outlet, please contact us at Kayanian history [email protected] How the Persians reinvented their past

Copyright Karwansaray B.V. All rights reserved. Noth- ing in this publication may be reproduced in any form without prior written consent of the publishers. Any in- DEPARTMENTS dividual providing material for publication must ensure that the correct permissions have been obtained before 4 Preliminaries 64 How do they know? submission to us. Every effort has been made to trace On the cover & other things The age of organic material copyright holders, but in few cases this proves impos- sible. The editor and publishers apologize for any un- 62 Reviews witting cases of copyright transgressions and would like Books about the ancient world to hear from any copyright holders not acknowledged. Articles and the opinions expressed herein do not neces- sarily represent the views of the editor and/or publishers. Advertising in Ancient History Magazine does not nec- 26 8 48 essarily imply endorsement.

Ancient History Magazine is published every two months by Karwansaray B.V., Rotterdam, The Netherlands. PO Box 1110, 3000 BC Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

ISSN: 2211-5129

Printed in the European Union.

Unless otherwise indicated, all photos © Karwan- saray Publishers, Holger Michiels, Izabela Miszczak, WAR OF WORDS POUNDING PAPYRUS BRIDGING THE GAP or Livius.org. The rivalry between the libraries How the ancient world's favour- Ancient Roman bridge building in Pergamon and Alexandria. ite writing material was created. technique and practice.

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PRELIMINARIES Editorial Creating a magazine is an adventure. You the rapidly developing field of science discuss the project with colleagues, schol- communication. It is regrettable that ars, and journalists. You prepare yourself there is nothing comparable in the hu- by looking at other magazines: Ancient manities, because scholars can learn a Warfare, National Geographic, New Scien- lot from the way science communicators tist... You realize that if you want to bring think about information flows or dealing together all ancient studies, you are not with increasingly skeptical audiences. addressing a well-defined audience, but Fortunately, the flaw that Huyser had you'll be dealing not only with historians, spotted was less serious. Ancient His- archaeologists, and philologists interested tory Magazine does not explain where in Classical Antiquity, but also with Egyp- and when the readers should situate this tologists, Assyriologists, and other “-olo- ancient culture or that long-ago tribe on gists”. You decide that you need a recurring their mental maps. This is can be prob- feature to explain that which is obvious to lematic, because if you don’t know where one group of readers, to the other readers: to store new information, you'll find it “how do they know?” hard to remember and apply it. When you have thought long enough, We first tried to solve this with small you publish your first issue. Now the real ad- maps and year numbers next to the titles venture begins. Because hidden defects have of our articles, but found out that this was the unpleasant tendency of not staying hid- impractical. In the end, we settled for us- den, you pay special attention to what your ing the line at the top of the page, saying, readers suggest. After all, they can spot the for example, “Iran, Late Antiquity”. It’s a problems for which you had a blind eye. very, very minor change, but we hope it One of those who responded was will help you find your way through the Mr Kees Huyser, who makes his living many civilizations of Antiquity. explaining subatomic physics to a larger — Jona Lendering audience. In other words, he is active in Editor, Ancient History Magazine

On the cover The Asclepium, the sanctuary of the heal- it: Menander’s comedies were immensely ing god Asclepius in Pergamon, was a popular in the Hellenistic age. very large hospital, where all kinds of The illustration is based on a mosaic patients were treated. Because it was be- from the so-called Villa of Cicero in Pom- lieved that people with mental illnesses peii, made by one Dioscorides of Samos would benefit from music, there was a in about 120 BC. Excavated in the eight- small theater which was also used for eenth century, it can now be seen in the Scene from Synaristosae on a humorous performances to entertain the Archaeological Museum in Naples. mosaic from Pompeii. Asclepium’s residents (see page 24). After As always, the actors are masked, but © WolfgangRieger via Wikimedia all, laughter is the best medicine. the mosaic o¢ers an interesting detail: the On the cover, illustrator Milek Jakubiec figure to the right, who arrives with a drink, has depicted a performance of Synaristosae has no mask. It is possible that he is an extra (“The lunching ladies”), a comedy by the in the play. On the cover, it is a portrait of Jef- Athenian playwright Menander (342-291). ferson Green, one of the backers of the Kick- Only a couple of lines of this text survive, starter campaign that enabled us to launch but we may be sure that the people enjoyed Ancient History Magazine.

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Hiatus The ancient studies have one thing in com- that he wants to return to what he calls Assyria mon that is rare among other branches of (i.e., Mesopotamia). This is interesting, be- scholarship: a devastating lack of informa- cause we know from another author, Arrian, tion. Because we don’t want to ignore what that the Persian king who had invaded Greece we cannot know, here’s our new recurring in 480, Xerxes, attacked Babylon on his return feature about lost information: “Hiatus”. from Greece (Anabasis 7.17.2). We can imag- When reading an ancient text, we are ine that the Babylonian insurrection of 484 BC well-advised to look for clues that indicate was still smoldering, demanded Xerxes’ atten- incompleteness. For example, the Histories, tion, and prevented his return to Greece. in which the Greek researcher Herodotus of Did Herodotus plan a grand finale Halicarnassus tells the story of the Graeco- for the Histories, in which he narrated the Persian Wars, break o¢ in the winter of 479 story of a new Babylonian revolt? We don’t BC: we don’t read about the expeditions know, but it is possible. If this is true, we un- to the strategically important city of Byz- expectedly recognize a message of Hero- antium, to Cyprus, to pro-Persian Thessaly, dotus to his contemporaries, who were wit- and to the Persian base in Eion: the Histo- nessing the outbreak of the Peloponnesian ries end before their logical conclusion. War: just like Persia had created an empire However, Herodotus o¢ers clues about but had to take the wellbeing of its Babylo- what he had intended to relate in the missing nian subjects into account, so Athens had section. In 1.106 and 1.184, he announces to think about the interests of its own allies.

THE NUMBER: 210 Books about the decline and fall of the Roman Empire are always the same: the explanation they o¢er for “the awful revolution” is always a problem that was im- portant in the day and age of their authors. Because the disintegration of the Roman administration in the western provinces – which is usually the real subject; in the East, the Empire continued for another millennium – was a process that lasted for about a century, an author can always find arguments for his thesis. So the history of the fall of Rome is always a story about the anxieties of the histo- rian. If the historian fears a totalitarian state, he will blame the absolute powers of the emperors. If the historian considers religion something terrible, he will suggest that the rise of Christian asceticism and pacifism caused the demise of the Roman Empire. If the historian is afraid of militarism, he will identify Rome’s professional army as the root of all evil. If the historian fears the excesses of capitalism and embraces Marxism, Rome’s fall is triggered by a crisis in the slave mode of production. And so on. Books about the decline and fall of the Roman Empire are always the same. Still, the number of contributing factors is not infinite. In 1984, German his- torian Alexander Demandt published a famous book on the fall of Rome, Der Fall Roms, in which he describes how people look at the transition from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. At the end of the book, Demandt o¢ers a list of causes: 210 fac- tors have been mentioned as contributing to the demise of Rome. It’s a fascinating summary, that makes you understand why historians tend to be modest about their explanations: what seems right today, will be outdated tomorrow.

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