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Philetaerus of Pergamon: Seleucid Servant or Independent Actor?

By Gregory John Callaghan (University of Pennsylvania)

Philetaerus, ruler of Pergamon and the founder of the Attalid dynasty, broke away from Lysimachus in 282 and used the vast wealth he appropriated from his former master to finance a robust foreign policy, with a high number of attested benefactions to numerous sanctuaries and cities. Because many of these gifts were to sites under Seleucid control, they raise several questions as to why the Seleucids would condone such involvement within their realm, or why Seleucid-controlled cities would accept these gifts and risk Seleucid ire?

Patterns of Property Ownership on Hellenistic Delos (314-167 BCE)

By Michael McGlin (Temple University)

This paper investigates practices and behaviors related to private property ownership on the island of Delos during the period of its political independence (314-167 BCE). Previous work on property and property ownership on Delos has explored several different arenas. It has established the existence of private property on the sacred island and the various forms of property offered as security for temple loans (Reger 1992).

Maritime Lenders Managing Risk in 4th Century Athens

By Andrew Foster (Fordham University)

Embedded within the 4th century Athenian maritime contract preserved in Demosthenes’ Against Lacritus is evidence that maritime lenders charged different rates of interest at different times and destinations based upon the relative risk of each prospective journey:

 

‘With all goodwill and eagerness’: Reciprocity in Seleucid Grants of Royal Land

By Talia Prussin (University of California, Berkeley)

Under the Seleucid kings, royal land grants created a reciprocal relationship parallel to Ma (2000)’s conception of the relationship between Antiochus III and the cities of Asia Minor based in euergetism. Traditionally, the grant is understood as repayment by the king for services rendered, such as military or diplomatic work, by the recipient. I argue that this relationship did not end with the grant but rather was constituted by it. After the grant was made, there were further expectations of good behavior from the recipient of land.

The Eastern Execution of Lykides in Herodotus 9.5

By Irene Elias (University of Pennsylvania)

Historians have often overlooked the stoning of the Athenian Lykides in Herodotus 9.5, despite it being a rare and shocking event. Those who have treated the topic of Greek stoning have tended to present it as somewhat “democratic:” it involves a judgment of the demos against a threatening individual (Pease 1907; Gras 1984; Rollinger 2004). But this normalization of stoning as an acceptably Athenian form of violence ignores the fact that it seems to have been extremely rare, and the repetition of Lykides’ story through the Roman period demonstrates the shock value it carried.

Solon’s Remedy against Hybris or Paranomon

By Edwin Carawan (Missouri State University)

 

“If anyone commit hybris against a child or a man or woman, whether free or slave, or if he do anything paranomon to any of these, there shall be prosecution for hybris ...” (Aeschin. 1.15 ~ Dem. 21.47)

Political Violence and Economic Growth in Ancient Greece

By Scott Lawin Arcenas (University of Montana)

Archaic and classical poleis experienced unusually high rates of both political violence (Gehrke, Hansen, Arcenas) and economic growth (Scheidel et al., Ober, Bresson). Because violent political conflict and economic growth are thought to be mutually exclusive (Collier, North et al., Hegre et al.), these findings confront ancient historians with an intriguing question: given the deleterious effects of political violence on economic growth, how can we account for unusually high rates of both phenomena in ancient Greece?

Inscribing the Mediterranean: Greek Myths of Rape and Network Theory

By Stephanie L Larson (Bucknell University)

In this paper I present select mythic traditions from the archaic and early-to-mid classical periods concerning the physical abduction of female figures which also involve movement across or around the Mediterranean. I highlight two traditions of lesser known figures (Mestra, Sinope and the Asopides), focusing on the earliest Greek sources for these stories (e.g., the Hesiodic Catalogue).

Gatsby in Aegina: Economic Exclusivity and the Problem of Archaic Greek Aristocracy

By Evan Vance (University of California, Berkeley)

In the past twenty years, the prevailing model of archaic Greek aristocracy has shifted from one of conflict between elites and the state to one that questions the very concept of aristocracy. Scholars have painted a picture of archaic aristocracies as relatively open hierarchies where belonging and status were performed rather than preordained (Duplouy 2006, Wecowski 2011, Fisher and Van Wees 2015). This paper uses Pindar’s Aeginetan odes to question whether aristocracies were as open in practice as in theory.

Explosion or Expansion: Genealogical Networks and The Synoecism of Megalopolis

By Benjamin Winnick (University of British Columbia)

The Arcadian Federation’s synoecism of Megalopolis in 370 or 368 BCE transformed 1500 km2 of Southwestern Arcadia from an area dominated by tribal states (ethnoi) and small poleis into a single polis state (Nielsen).  This event appears in the textual record in Pausanias 8.27 and Diodorus 15.72.  In this paper, I apply social network analysis (SNA) to the mythic genealogies of Arcadia to determine whether this entire territory was incorporated into Megalopolis at once or over a long period of time.  In this way, I demonstrate the usefulness of this