Studies In Greek Epigraphy And History In Honor Of Stefen V Tracy

This collection of studies in Greek epigraphy honors the work of Stephen V. Tracy. His meticulous research on the hands of Attic letter-cutters has transformed the way we think about Greek inscriptions in Attica and beyond. The twenty-nine scholars who have contributed to this volume offer papers ranging from publication of new inscriptions and studies of others long-known to wide-ranging discussions of historical, religious, and social matters. Chronologically and geographically they cover Greece, the Aegean, and western Asia Minor from the Archaic period to the Roman Empire. What unites the work here offered to Tracy is the centrality of epigraphy to the questions addressed and conviction that careful attention to even the smallest details of the epigraphic evidence can advance our understanding of the Greek past in rich and unexpected ways.

Little of the historiography of third-century Athens survives, and much of what we know—or might know—about the period has come down to us in inscriptions carved by Attic stonemasons of the time. In this book Stephen Tracy, the world's preeminent expert in this area, provides new insight into an unsettled and obscure moment in antiquity.

Regions and regionalism have been staples of historical analysis for the Greek world for a very long time. What is meant by a region, however, is not always obvious. The contributions in this volume seek to address the question of defining regions and working out the implications of regionalism along different dimensions of analysis for Asia Minor in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Looking at culture, coinage, political institutions, the papers explore different markers of regional identity, consider ways in which these identities may remain stable or change over time, review the character of the interaction between regional entities and hegemonic powers, and challenge the usefulness in some cases of regional analysis. Questions of ethnicity are also addressed. This volume will be of interest to historians working in Asia Minor and also to anyone concerned with the conceptual questions around regions and regionalism in the Mediterranean world.

This book has chapters on methodology, on the writing of the first decrees and laws of the years ca. 515 to 450 B.C., on unique examples of writing of ca. 450 to 400, on the inscribers of the Lapis Primus and Lapis Secundus (IG I3 259-280), and on those of the Attic Stelai (IG I3 421-430). These are followed by studies of 11 individual cutters arranged in chronological order. This study brings order to the study of hands of the fifth century by setting out a methodology and by discussing the attempts of others to identify hands. Another aim is to bring out the individuality of the writing of these early inscribers. It shows that from the beginning the writing on Athenian inscriptions on stone was very idiosyncratic, for all intents and purposes individual writing. It identifies the inscribing of the sacred inventories of Athena beginning about 450 B.C. as the genesis of the professional letter cutter in Athens and traces the trajectory of the profession. While the dating of many inscriptions will remain a matter for scholarly discussion, the present study narrows the dates of many texts. It also pinpoints the origin of the mistaken idea that three-bar sigma did not occur on public documents after the year 446 in order to make those who are not expert more aware that this is not a reliable means of dating.

Cultural records such as dedications, honorific statues and decrees are keys to understanding the manifold and diverse social roles and religious functions of priesthoods in the cities of Asia Minor and the Aegean islands from the classical period to late antiquity. These texts and images indicate how the priests and priestesses saw themselves and were viewed by others. The approaches in this volume are historical, religious, and archaeological, and they elucidate the religious functions that the cult personnel fulfilled for the city, and the perception of priests and priestesses as citizens of the polis. The volume focuses on developments from the Hellenistic period into Imperial times. Subjects include: gendered priesthoods and family traditions, the topography of honorary statues and the presentation of funerary monuments, federal and civic priesthoods as well as priests of private cult-foundations, benefactions and social pressure, and the religious, social and political functions of priests and priestesses within cities.

Recent scholarship has recognized that Philip II and Alexander the Great adopted elements of their self-fashioning and court ceremonial from previous empires in the Ancient Near East, but it is generally assumed that the advent of the Macedonian court as a locus of politics and culture occurred only in the post-Alexander landscape of the Hellenistic Successors. This volume of ground-breaking essays by leading scholars on Ancient Macedonia goes beyond existing research questions to assess the profound impact of Philip and Alexander on court culture throughout the ages. The papers in this volume offer a thematic approach, focusing upon key institutional, cultural, social, ideological, and iconographical aspects of the reigns of Philip and Alexander. The authors treat the Macedonian court not only as a historical reality, but also as an object of fascination to contemporary Greeks that ultimately became a topos in later reflections on the lives and careers of Philip and Alexander. This collection of papers provides a paradigm-shifting recognition of the seminal roles of Philip and Alexander in the emergence of a new kind of Macedonian kingship and court culture that was spectacularly successful and transformative.

This edited volume includes a compilation of new approaches to the investigation of inscriptions from different cultural contexts. Innovative research questions about "material text cultures" are examined with reference to Classical Athens, late ancient and Byzantine churches and urban spaces, Hellenistic and Roman cities, and medieval buildings.

This volume collects twelve historical papers, some published here for the first time, in which Stephen Lambert explores the implications of the inscribed Athenian laws and decrees for the history of Athens in the age of Demosthenes.