Graeco-Roman

Megalopolis (Megale Polis, 'Great City’), a new foundation in SW ’Arcadia in the period following ’Leuctra (sources differ on the date, in the range 370-367 bc). Existing communities were combined to produce a new state with a new urban centre; five Arcadian poleis (see polis) provided ‘founders, but the Theban ‘Epaminondas is credited with strong influence. The main accounts (Diod. Sic. 15. 72. 4; Paus. 8. 27) differ on the number of communities incorporated into Megalopolis, but its territory clearly covered SW and central Arcadia, which had had no major state. The main part of the territory was a large upland basin crossed by the river ‘Alpheus, an area crucial for access to north¬ ern Messenia, and for travel across the Eurotas/Alpheus water¬ shed between upper ‘Laconia and southern Arcadia. The new city, built in the era of liberation from Sparta, was fortified (cf. mantinea; messene) by walls enclosing a large area; its buildings included a notable theatre and a m...

king of Sparta (338-330 bc), ’Eurypontid. Ascending the throne at a time of humiliation, when Sparta had lost her borderlands to ’Philip (1) II of Macedon, he devoted himself to reviving his city’s fortunes. Inconclusive intrigues with the Persian commanders in the Aegean (333) led to intervention in ’Crete, where he attracted 8,000 Greek mercenaries, refugees from ’Issus. With their support he declared open war in the Peloponnese during (it seems) summer 331. ’Elis, ’Tegea, and the ’Achaean Confederacy joined his cause, but the Athenians fatally stood aloof. ’Antipater (1) was able to raise a coalition army 40,000 strong, profiting from the common detestation of Spartan expansionism, and relieved the siege of ’Megalopolis. Agis suffered a crushing defeat. He died heroically, but left Sparta enfeebled beyond redemption. Berve, Alexanderreich 2, no. 15; E. Badian, Hermes, 1967, 170 ff., and in I.  Worthington (ed.), Ventures inta Greek History (1994), 258 ff.; A. B. Bosw...

Imitated from different Parts of his Tristia. Jam mea cygneas imitantur tempora plumas,  Inficit & nigras alba senecta comas:  Trist. Lib. iv. Eleg. 8. MY aged head now stoops its honours low,  Bow'd with the load of fifty winters' snow;  And for the raven's glossy black assumes  The downy whiteness of the cygnet's plumes:  Loose scatter'd hairs around my temples stray,  And spread the mournful shade of sickly grey:  ​I bend beneath the weight of broken years,  Averse to change, and chill'd with causeless fears.  The season now invites me to retire  To the dear lares of my household fire;  To homely scenes of calm domestic peace,  A poet's leisure, and an old man's ease;  To wear the remnant of uncertain life  In the fond bosom of a faithful wife;  In safe repose my last few hours to spend,  Nor fearful nor impatient of their end.  Thus a safe port the wave-wo...

Photographer:Jean Housen @Heritagedaily.com Pella is an archaeological site and the historical capital of the ancient kingdom of Macedon. Pella was founded next to the modern-day town of Pella, near the Macedonian Gulf in northern Greece. Most scholars believe that Pella was built as the capital for Archelaus I, who was King of Macedon from 413 to 399 BC, although some attribute Pella to Amyntas III, who ruled Macedon from 392 to 370 BC. Pella is famed as the birthplace and ruling seat of Philip II and his son, Alexander III of Macedon, commonly known as Alexander the Great who succeeded Philip II to the throne at the age of 20. Although Alexander’s empire-building made Macedon a major power that stretched from Greece to northwestern India, it was Phillip II who consolidated most of Classical Greece and reformed the Macedonian army into an effective fighting force. Pella became one of the largest cities in Macedonia and was designed to an early grid ...

An obol is an ancient Greek coin that has one-sixth the value of a drachma. The first silver obols were minted in Aegina, most likely sometime after 600 BCE. Previously, the unit of currency was iron cooking-spits. One obol became the equivalent of one spit. Obols in Aegina were produced from one gram of silver. Though some other parts of Greece adopted the obol, the amount of silver was different in obols of different regions. In Athens an obol would weigh only .72 grams, while in Corinth it weighed .42 grams. There were several coins minted which were variations of the obol. Silver obols and triobols (three obol pieces) were among the most common coins in Thessaly, while central Thrace minted large numbers of tetrobols, triobols, and diobols. Macedonia not only had coins of different obol values (the most common were octobols and tetrobols), but had two different types of tetrobols—heavy and light—which were measured on different standards. Light t...

(c. 20 b.c.e.­c. 50 c.e.) philosopher and scholar The first-century c.e. Jewish author and philosopher Philo of Alexandria is an important figure for both Hellenistic Judaism and early Christianity. He was born  around 20 b.c.e. in Alexandria into one of the wealthiest and most distinguished Jewish families. Alexandria  had a thriving Jewish community and was known for  its intellectual vigor. In addition to his Jewish education,  therefore, Philo received schooling in the Greek custom,  including the philosophy of Plato, Middle Platonism,  Neoplatonism, and Stoicism, as well as Greek literature and rhetoric, all of which are evident in his work.  For example, he refers to God with the Greek term logos when discussing the divine creation of the world.The influence of Greek traditions on Judaism in Philo’s  work becomes in part representative of what is generally  known as Hellenistic Judaism in distinction from Palestinian Judaism...

Where linguistic evidence can give us very little help, however, is with chronology. We know the Slavic language family emerged relatively recently, but what does that mean? Some experts argue that the split with Baltic-speakers began only in the middle of the first millennium AD, at the precise moment when Slavic-speakers begin to appear in our sources. Others would place it much earlier – by maybe even a thousand or more years. This difference of opinion matters when it comes to trying to understand the Slavicization of Europe which unfolded after c.500 AD. If we should be envisaging very few Slavic-speakers at that date because the linguistic split was just beginning, so that Europe’s Slavic-speakers may have amounted to no more than the Sclavenes and Antae of Korchak and Penkovka fame, then the broad Slavic domination of Europe achieved by c.900 AD has to be accounted for from an extremely restricted demographic base. If, on the contrary, the Slavic linguist...