By Alison E. Cooley Abstract: The chapter starts with an assessment of the importance of Italy’s support for Augustus in the lead up to Actium, and how the theme of tota Italia continued to be promoted afterwards. It…
By Dr Elena Franchi for the University of Nottingham Abstract: On the eve of the Peloponnesian war, the Spartans had to decide whether to launch an offensive attack or not. King Archidamus advised them to be warlike…
By Josine Blok Abstract: What did citizenship really mean in classical Athens? It is conventionally understood as characterised by holding political office. Since only men could do so, only they were considered to be…
By Melissa Benson for Herodotus Helpline Abstract: Dr Melissa Benson (UCL) offers a thorough reassessment of several passages form Book 3 of the Histories, and explores Herodotus’ awareness of Darius’ official account…
By Elizabeth Irwin Abstract: The poetry of archaic Greece gives voice to the history and politics of the culture of that age. This 2005 book explores the types of history that have been, and can be, written from…
By Sheila Murnaghan Abstract: This chapter highlights the paradoxical status of the tragic chorus: as a group of musical performers, the chorus is a manifestation of social and political order, but as a group of…
By Joanna Kenty Abstract: In narrating Rome’s victory over Capua in the Hannibalic War, Livy engages substantially with Cicero’s three orations De Lege Agraria as an intertext, and in particular with Cicero’s argument…
By Carole Newlands Abstract: This paper examines Statius’ depiction of landscape in comparison with Ovid’s. Three landscapes that illustrate Statius’ important and complex debt to Ovid are discussed: the sacred grove…
By Zoë M. Tan Abstract: Geography is a fundamental element of ancient ethnography, yet the account of the environment in Tacitus’ Germania is notably sparse. Standard elements of geographic description are absent, or…
By Barbara Kellum Abstract: This chapter argues that Octavian’s victory at Actium and the final demise of the senatorial republic created a new world of opportunities for the municipal elite of Italy and for freedmen,…