154

Most scholarly discussions of the epitaph of Allia Potestas (CIL 6.37965 = CLE 1988) note the presence of five nail holes around its periphery by which it was affixed to the wall of a tomb. There is almost no mention, however, of the metal embedded in the center of the slab. It is 1.5 cm. tall, 2 cm. wide and protrudes visibly from the stone. The text is carefully laid out to accommodate it such that there is open space approximately 4.5 cm. tall and 2.5 cm. wide at the center of the inscription.

Odysseus’ itinerary appropriates locations and themes from an Indo-European myth about dangerous giants who live in three communities at varying levels of civilization, enjoy year-round agricultural productivity, and face a prophesied destruction by the god who wields the trident.

One of only two Roman comedies to stage no female character, Plautus’ Trinummus has been dismissed as dull by scholars from Wilamowitz to Segal to Sharrock. I ar­gue that it is an overlooked source on women’s lives: in its contin­uous fuss about providing a dowry for an off-stage daughter, Trinummus offers tantalizing perspectives on women’s marriages that have been over­looked in its scanty scholarship.

This paper explores how tuberculosis (phthisis/ phthoe) was understood and characterized in Greco-Roman antiquity as a disease transmissible between people. Although human-to-human transmission of tuberculosis was observed by non-medical authors, among the medical authors only Galen acknowledges its transmissibility. This paper explores the reasons for this disconnect between secular observation and medical theorizing about contagion, with tuberculosis as the specific case-study.

Against the prevalent scholarly reconstruction of the concept of physis in Antiphon’s sophistic fragments, this paper argues that Antiphon’s physis serves as the anchor of a well-developed ethical theory, in which physis features as the sole locus of human value. These fragments include perhaps the earliest surviving discussion of the nomos/physis antithesis, which left so definitive a mark on the Greek literature of the classical period.

Affect scholars, such as Sedgewick (2003) and Brinkema (2014), suggest reading a text for moments of intensity. Lyric poetry thus provides fertile ground for such study of affect, given its snapshots of transient moments and lack of action. In this paper I examine affect evoked by aging, a universal motif of human existence, as expressed in both Archaic Greek Lyrics and Classical Chinese lyrics.

The Agency of Plants in Pliny’s Natural History

This paper examines the materiality of wills, contracts, and depositions in the speeches of the Attic orators. I argue that the orators draw attention to the physical nature of these documents as a way to exploit various strains of respect and suspicion associated with the written word; at the same time, since legal discourse both reflects and influences the world that produces it (Smith 2014; Biber, Luker, and Vaughan 2022), the material nature of the documents in legal oratory has shaped ancient and modern attitudes towards textuality and legal discourse.

This paper examines literary and epigraphic evidence for fillets in ancient Greek sanctuaries. Fillets, fabric bands crafted through varied textile techniques, featured prominently in ritual practices, including votive dedication and crowning ceremonies (Papadopoulou 2017; Brøns 2016; Rask 2016; Lichtenberger et al. 2012; Smith 1988). Since fillets have been studied primarily as a form of costume (Krug 1968), their adornment of cult topographies has lacked sustained treatment.

Rhetoric was part of the standard education of churchmen. Nonetheless, its use in Christianity was contentious (see Asay 2015). This paper analyzes how the fifth-century church historian Sozomen made Classical rhetoric acceptable in a Christian context by emphasizing persuasion through truth and character rather than the art of eloquence. He thus informs us about Christian communication culture and practices of community building in a formative period of church history.