Two cuneiform astronomical texts, the Saras Canon (BM 34597)15 and the Solar Saros (BM 36754),16 list 330/29 as Alexander's first regnal year, and some texts continued to list Philip as monarch long ...after news of his death must have reached Babylon.17 The Babylonian King List (BM 35603 obv. 3-5) records a "kingless" period followed by a reference to a sixth year for Alexander IV.18 Such confusion must also have occurred in Idumaea. Antigonus is never referred to as king, nor is any title affixed to his name on these ostraca.19 However, the general consensus is that these Antigonid ostraca should be dated according to the Babylonian chronology regarding this individual, thus making his first dated Idumaean year 317/6.20 As a result, the published ostraca referring to Antigonus's third and fifth years21 are then dated to 315 and 313 respectively.
Cette étude analyse la place et le rôle du mode de vie dans les discours et les pratiques politiques à Rome à la fin du IIIe siècle av. J.-C. et au IIe siècle av. J.-C. qui formaient un moment ...charnière. Le luxe faisait partie des pratiques de distinction de l’aristocratie à la fin du IVe siècle av. J. C. et au IIIe siècle av. J. C. À partir de la deuxième guerre punique, l’élite commença à s’inquiéter du rôle politique du faste et des menaces qu’il faisait peser sur le système oligarchique ; elle fit ensuite voter des lois régulant les festins pour éviter que ceux-ci ne servissent à gagner du crédit politique, mais sans évoquer franchement cette raison, par déférence pour le pouvoir et par souci de préserver sa légitimité. Le combat contre le luxe investit les discours, influant sur l’image que l’élite donnait d’elle-même. Les adversaires du luxe, comme Caton l’Ancien, mirent en avant une nouvelle qualité, la frugalité, correspondant à l’adoption d’un train de vie inférieur à ce que son rang permettait. Une représentation négative se structura autour du luxe, explicitement et définitivement associé aux vices, aux étrangers, en particulier aux Grecs, et implicitement considéré comme caractéristique des hommes inaptes à servir leur patrie ou aspirant à un pouvoir excessif. Une représentation antithétique se développa autour de la frugalité, qualité des vrais Romains fidèles aux mœurs de la campagne et soucieux des intérêts de la République, une image qui fut particulièrement appréciée par le peuple. Ces arguments connurent un immense succès dans les luttes politiques du dernier tiers du IIe siècle av. J. C. La frugalité était cependant difficilement applicable en toutes circonstances car elle heurtait les normes de l’élite : il importait de signifier à travers elle une position politique, mais il fallait aussi savoir recevoir convenablement ses amis. Le stoïcisme, qui se développait alors à Rome et qui prescrivait une vie tempérante, dut s’adapter à cette exigence.
This study analyses the place and role of the way of life in political speeches and practices in Rome in the late third century BC and in the second century BC, which formed a turning point. Luxury was a means of social distinction for the aristocracy in the late fourth century BC and third century BC. From the Second Punic War onwards, the elite began to worry about the political impact of this sumptuousness and the threats it posed for the oligarchic system. Consequently, the elite introduced laws regulating banquets in order to prevent hosts from gaining political prestige, without clearly citing this reason, out of deference for the government and in order to protect its own legitimacy. This fight against luxury spread in speeches and influenced the image of itself which the elite wanted to promote. The detractors of luxury, like Cato the Elder, proposed a new ideal – frugality, which implied adopting a lifestyle more humble than that which was allowed by one’s actual rank. A negative definition of luxury was proposed – it was explicitly and definitively associated with vice, foreigners (Greeks especially), and implicitly considered to be typical of men who were unable to serve their homeland or who aspired to excessive power. An antithetic representation of frugality was developed and was thought to be the quality of real Romans who were true to the values of the countryside and anxious to preserve the interests of the Republic. This image was highly valued by the people. These ideas played a significant role in the power struggles in the last third of the second century BC. Frugality remained nonetheless a difficult quality to adopt in all circumstances because it went against the standards of the elite – while it mattered for the elite to make their political position clear through frugality, it was also important to cater to one’s guests as befitted one’s rank. Stoicism, which was then developing in Rome and advocated a restrained way of life, had to adapt to this demand.
This article focuses on Elias Bickerman's analysis of the extreme Hellenizing Jewish reformers, whom he considered to be the instigators of the events that culminated in the persecutions of Antiochus ...IV, which led in turn to the revolution of the Maccabees. Unlike many of Bickerman's other contributions to the study of the Jews in antiquity, this argument was not that successful, and relatively few other scholars have followed his lead. I suggest turning to Bickerman's biography to look for the commitments that were the sources of the inspiration of these ideas. After a discussion of the problems of writing Bickerman's biography, as well as of biography in general, I propose two possible sets of life experiences that might have encouraged Bickerman to analyze the extreme Hellenizing reformers as he did: one a German context of unfavorable reaction to the excesses of German reform Judaism in earlier generations, and the other a Russian émigré context, in which Bickerman saw the ancient Jewish Hellenists in the image of contemporary Russian Jewish communists. I conclude by suggesting that some of the commitments that I see as inspiring Bickerman's conclusions concerning the ancient Jewish Hellenists were quite idiosyncratic by the standards of the time, and when the contemporary loyalties that serve as the seedbed for an analysis of the past are so far "off the charts," it is not surprising that the historical conclusions they inspire are not found that convincing.
Étude du thème de la guerre juste et des conditions de l'aide divine dans les batailles dans les Antiquités juives, du problème des relations des éléments grec et juif dans le contexte de ...l'historiographie grecque de l'époque et une analyse comparative avec les auteurs juifs hellénistiques. Deux conceptions peuvent être distinguées. L'une, typique de la littérature grecque introduite systématiquement dans la paraphrase biblique : l'aide divine est accordée à celui qui suit les règles de la guerre. L'autre, fidèle à la tradition juive de l'époque hellénistique, mais à peine présente dans la partie post-biblique : la condition de l'aide divine est la perfection morale. L'interprétation grecque du thème y joue donc un rôle dominant.
A study of just warfare and the condition for divine help during battles in Jewish Antiquities, including a new approach to the problem of the connection between Greek and Jewish elements in the context of the Greek historiography of his time, also a comparative analysis with Jewish hellenistic authors. The outcome is that two outlooks may be distinguished. One of them typical of Greek literature systematically introduced in biblical paraphrases : divine help is granted to him that follows war regulations. The second is true to the Jewish tradition of the Hellenistic period but nevertheless hardly noticeable in the post- biblical period : then, the condition for divine help is moral perfection. The Greek interpretation of the theme therefore plays a major part.
Sementchenko Lada. On the two conceptions of just war in the "Jewish Antiquities" of Flavius Josephus. In: Revue des Études Anciennes. Tome 103, 2001, n°3-4. pp. 485-495.
Several books about Jewish life in the Graeco-Roman world are reviewed, including "Heritage and Hellenism: The Reinvention of Jewish Tradition" by Erich S. Gruen and "The Hidden Heritage of Diaspora ...Judaism" by L. V. Rutgers.
This article assesses the part played by physical anthropology and classical archaeology in the transformation of nineteenth-century English and French nationalisms into racial Hellenisms. At that ...time the anthropological ideas of race and racial determinism introduced the body into conceptions of national identity and community. Physical anthropologists placed the Greek body at the centre of their studies, claiming, first, that the Greek physique, and particularly that of the ancient Greek athlete, recorded in the newly discovered Pheidian and Polycletan sculpture, was biologically perfect; second, that the perfection of the Greek athlete was due to race, in the sense of biological inheritance, as well as to athletics; third, that in accordance with the theory of racial determinism, ancient Greek civilization and political power were due to the peculiarities of Greek biology; and fourth, that the Greek body was the type of all other European nations in their fullest physical development. The nationalism and positivism of nineteenth-century European thought led European nations to accept these ideas and to claim a Greek physical and cultural identity. The belief that all Europeans were Greek had important practical consequences for English and French life, prompting an emphasis on the care for the body through open-air exercises in imitation of the Greeks, and producing a new classical revival on a national scale. However, although physical anthropology was a European discipline, national peculiarities and rivalries produced variations both in the timing and in the form of English and French Hellenisms.
Cultural pluralism in the Balkans has often been considered as the source of conflict in the region. Against this perspective it is suggested that Enlightenment political thought in southeastern ...Europe, as represented by the radical republicanism of Rhigas Velestinlis (1757-98), incorporated the idea of cultural pluralism in a project for a unitary democratic state, modelled on the 'Republic of Virtue', that was expected to replace despotism and to transform its subjects into free citizens. The political culture of this state would be provided by the principles of republican Hellenism while its ethnic pluralism would be located in its civil society. It is stressed that republican Hellenism was a political and moral, not an ethnic, project. This political project however, was preempted by the emergence of cultural nationalism that cancelled the Enlightenment vision of democratic citizenship, equality and recognition for individuals as well as ethnic groups in a unitary republic.
