Ancient Illiteracy?

Ancient writing is conventionally approached as a counterpart of speech, as in the dyad orality/literacy. Alphabetical writing systems are often regarded as superior precisely because they are better able to record speech. This paper takes inspiration from the work on ancient Near Eastern writing systems and considers ancient literacy as a general competence in handling sign systems that are often as much about numbers and quantities as about phonetic transcription. Means of recording proper names assume a special importance in transactions between strangers, and in documents that circulate without much context. But judged in terms of a capacity to handle numbers, signs, diagrams, and other symbols the debate over ancient literacy, and illiteracy, looks rather different. The paper argues that relative to their need to handle sign systems of this kind, very few members of the ancient world can be considered as functionally illiterate. Moving away from orality/literacy also raises questions about the widespread (but incomplete) spread of alphabets and abjads in the last and first millennia

Movers and Stayers

A Mobile World? "The importance of mobility in early societies now no longer needs demonstration. Recent work over the last decades has rendered obsolete the image of populations that are for the most part immobile that demographers have sought to purvey. Within the Mediterranean area, throughout a very long period lasting from Antiquity down to modern times, the circulation of human beings constitutes a fact that is both structural and structuring, an element of continuity that forms the very basis of the Mediterranean network." Claudia Moatti, whose research has done so much to illuminate human mobility across Mediterraneans ancient and early modern, succinctly sums up the current consensus. As historians and archaeologists of the classical world we now repeatedly emphasise movement and communication, mobility and con-nectivity, hybridity and cosmopolitanism. Our fascination with movement and exchange is evident in revisionist accounts of the Roman economy, in studies of the ancient novel between east and west, in projects that track diasporas through haplotype distribution and stable isotope analysis, and in multiple appropriations of post-colonial criticism and globalisation theory. A little of this is simply the latest round in a familiar old game of asserting the modernity of the ancients, but the evidence for movement is undeniable. The issue now is to assess the scale, nature and significance of all this, and to avoid an exaggerated reaction that underplays the equally undeniable differences between globalised modernity and the ancient world

Only Connect? Network analysis and religious change in the Roman World

The emergence during the Roman Empire of new religious forms and groups alongside the collective cults of the city and ruler worship invites analysis in terms of various kinds of network theory. Some of the main version of network theory currently in use are examined, and their applicability to ancient material is discussed and assessed. Network thinking turns out to be very useful, but the problems in conducting a more formal network analysis are formidable. Network theory does allow us to approach religious change from new directions and two models of change in current use – conversion as contagion, and religious change as the spread of idea – are examined. Thinking about religious change in these terms forces historians to formulate more precise descriptions of change as a process that involves socialization and the routinization of new habits and rituals, as well as a process of learning a new way of imagining and describing the cosmos

Rome and Imperialism

Contribution on ancient Rome to a general encyclopedia on imperialis

Pliny/Trajan and the Poetics of Empire

A series of recent articles have challenged literal and realist readings of the tenth book of Pliny the Younger's Letters. This article builds on these to suggest some poetic effects of this addition to the collection

Moving Peoples in the Early Roman Empire

The opening pages of James C. Scott’s The Art of Not Being Governed offer a global account of the political economy and ecology of early states. The first states, for Scott, were miniscule authoritarian regimes nestled on arable plains and plateaux and surrounded by vast ungoverned peripheries of mountain, marshland, swamp, steppe and desert. Around them peripheral populations were both natural trading partners – because the ecologies of their respective homes were so different – and a constant threat. Peripheral populations posed a double threat in fact since they not only periodically raided the plains, but also represented an alternative, freer way of life, an object lesson in “the art of not being governed”

Fragmentos de la política religiosa de un emperador: el caso de Adriano

Neither the concept of “imperial policy” nor of “religion” are easily applied to antiq­uity. Yet the activities of Roman emperors often did have consequences for religious activity, and their behaviour was not neces­sarily chaotic or random. Hadrian provides a good case for examining how religious activity was incorporated into ancient biog­raphy and historical writing, and how it was related to other fields of imperial conduct. A good deal is recorded about Hadrian’s conduct of religious offices, his building projects and his engagement with older tradition, Roman and foreign. The dossier of testimonia does reveals some consist­encies in his behaviour but these seem to derive less from policy than from habits of thought and action. Many of his actions can be interpreted as conventional, even if sometimes performed on an unconvention­al scale. Hadrian certainly exercised agency, and he had particular dispositions as a rul­er. But religious policy seems an anachro­nistic term to apply to his conduct.Ni el concepto “política imperial” ni el de “religión” son fácilmente aplicables a la Anti­güedad. A pesar de ello, la labor de los empe­radores romanos tuvo, frecuentemente, un notable impacto sobre la actividad religiosa, y su comportamiento no fue, necesariamen­te, caótico o aleatorio. Adriano proporciona un buen caso para examinar cómo la activi­dad religiosa del emperador fue incorpora­da a las biografías antiguas y a la narración histórica, y cómo estaba relacionada con otros ámbitos de la acción imperial. Nos ha llegado mucha información sobre la activi­dad adrianea relativa a cargos religiosos, a sus proyectos edilicios y a su vinculación con la tradición anterior, romana y extranjera. El elenco de testimonia revela una cierta con­sistencia en su comportamiento, pero parece derivar menos de la política que de hábitos de pensamiento y acción. Muchas de sus ac­ciones pueden ser interpretadas como con­vencionales, incluso si algunas veces se lleva­ron a cabo a una escala inusual. Ciertamente, Adriano ejerció su voluntad, y tuvo una dis­posición particular como gobernante. Pero el término “política religiosa” parece un ana­cronismo al aplicarlo sobre su conducta.

Movilidad y estabilidad de las poblaciones en el mundo romano: una reflexión metodológica e historiográfica

El presente artículo tiene como objetivo hacer una reflexión sobre las posibilidades de estudio de la movilidad en el mundo antiguo y en concreto en el Imperio romano. Para ello parte de un análisis de la obra The Corrupting Sea de N. Purcell y P. Horden y de estudios sobre la movilidad según la han estudiado los arqueólogos para época prehistórica y los demógrafos modernos para tiempos más recientes. Como conclusión se argumenta que, a pesar de las limitaciones de la documentación antigua para conocer en detalle el fenómeno, es posible sostener la existencia de una movilidad limitada cuantitativamente, pero que suponía un importante grado de conectividad en el mundo romano

World systems analysis and the Roman empire

El análisis de sistemas mundiales ha demostrado ser una poderosa herramienta para conceptualizar y analizar el mundo moderno. En este documento, el autor argumenta que tiene un potencial similar para comprender las estructuras y dinámicas a gran escala del imperio romano y sus vecinos, y para facilitar las comparaciones entre Roma y otros imperios primitivos. Se han sugerido varias hipótesis preliminares.Tem sido demonstrado que as análises a partir da teoria de sistemas-mundo são uma ferramenta poderosa para conceber e analisar o mundo moderno. Neste artigo o autor argumenta que ela tem um potencial similar para a compreensão das estruturas e dinâmicas de macro escala do Império Romano e seus vizinhos e para facilitar comparações entre Roma e outros impérios antigos. Aqui, são sugeridas algumas hipóteses.World-systems analysis has been shown to be a powerful tool for conceptualising and analysing the modern world. I n this paper, the author argues that it has a similar potential for understanding the macro-scale structures and dynamics of the Roman empire and its neighbours, and for facilitating comparisions between Rome and other early empires. A number of preliminary hypotheses have been suggested