THE JOURNAL OF ROMAN STUDIES

VOLUME XCIX 2009

CONTENTS

ARTICLES

Alan Cameron: Young Achilles in the Roman World, 1–22

David Kovacs: Horace, Pindar and the Censorini in Odes 4.8, 23–35

Kevin W. Wilkinson: Palladas and the Age of Constantine, 36–60

Walter Scheidel and Steven J. Friesen: The Size of the Economy and the Distribution of Income in the Roman Empire, 61–91

Fergus Millar: Linguistic Co-existence in Constantinople: Greek and Latin (and Syriac) in the Acts of the Synod of 536 c.e., 92–103

Jane Rowlandson and Ryosuke Takahashi: Brother-Sister Marriage and Inheritance Strategies in Greco-Roman Egypt, 104–139

Ralph Mathisen: Provinciales, Gentiles, and Marriages between Romans and Barbarians in the Late Roman Empire, 140–155

A. K. Bowman, R. S. O. Tomlin and K. A. Worp: Emptio Bovis Frisica: the ‘Frisian Ox Sale’ Reconsidered, 156–170

REVIEW ARTICLES

Clifford Ando: Evidence and Orthopraxy (J. Scheid, Quand faire, c’est croire. Les rites sacrificiels des romains), 171–181

Jörg Rüpke: Early Christianity out of, and in, Context (M. M. Mitchell and F. M. Young (Eds), The Cambridge History of Christianity. Vol. 1: Origins to Constantine; A. Casiday and F. W. Norris (Eds), The Cambridge History of Christianity. Vol. 2: Constantine to c. 600), 182–193

Peter Fibiger Bang: The Ancient Economy and New Institutional Economics (W. Scheidel, I. Morris and R. Saller (Eds), The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World), 194–206

L. B. T. Houghton and Emma Buckley: Si quid mea carmina possunt … Reflections on the Virgilian Tradition (J. M. Ziolkowski and M. C. J. Putnam (Eds), The Virgilian Tradition. The First Fifteen Hundred Years; C. Kallendorf, The Virgilian Tradition, Book History and the History of Reading in Early Modern Europe; C. Kallendorf, The Other Virgil. ‘Pessimistic’ Readings of the Aeneid in Early Modern Culture), 207–

REVIEWS (in alphabetical order)

Adams, G., The Suburban Villas of Campania and their Social Function (by H. Platts), 282–284

Alston, R., and S. N. C. Lieu (Eds), Aspects of the Roman East: Papers in Honour of Professor Fergus Millar, Volume 1 (by J. Baird), 234–235

Balbo, A. (Ed.), I frammenti degli oratori romani dell’età Augustea e Tiberiana (by C. Steel), 266

Bang, P., M. Ikeguchi and H. Ziche (Eds), Ancient Economies, Modern Methodologies: Archaeology, Comparative History, Models and Institutions (by C. Holleran), 248–249

Bastien, J.-L., Le Triomphe romain et son utilisation politique à Rome aux trois derniers siècles de la république (by J. Rich), 220–222

Beard, M., The Roman Triumph (by E. S. Gruen), 219–220

Bispham, E., From Asculum to Actium. The Municipalization of Italy from the Social War to Augustus (by A. E. Cooley), 227–228

Bonini, P., La Casa nella Grecia Romana: forme e funzioni dello spazio privato fra I e VI secolo (by L. Nevett), 284–285

Booth, J. (Ed.), Cicero on the Attack: Invective and Subversion in the Orations and Beyond (by J. Paterson), 254–255

Briscoe, J., A Commentary on Livy, Books 38–40 (by J. D. Chaplin), 257–258

Capogrossi Colognesi, L., Dalla storia di Roma alle origini della società civile: un dibattito ottocentesco (by P. Garnsey), 250–252

Cavalieri Manasse, G. (Ed.), L’area del Capitolium di Verona. Ricerche storiche e archeologiche (by N. Christie), 285–286

Chin, C., Grammar and Christianity in the Late Roman World (by R. Green), 304–305

Cole, T., Ovidius Mythistoricus: Legendary Time in the Metamorphoses (by L. Jansen), 265–266

Connolly, J., The State of Speech: Rhetoric and Political Thought in Ancient Rome (by L. Wilson), 253–254

De Miro, E., and A. Polito, Leptis Magna: dieci anni di scavi archeologici nell’area del foro vecchio: i livelli fenici, punici e romani (by J. Crawley Quinn), 288–290

Den Boeft, J., J. W. Drijvers, D. den Hengst, and H. C. Teitler, Philological and Historical Commentary on Ammianus Marcellinus XXV and XXVI (by G. Kelly), 294–296

Di Vita, A., and M. Livadiotti (Eds), I tre templi del lato nord-ovest del foro vecchio a Leptis Magna (by J. Crawley Quinn), 288–290

Dreyer, B., Die römische Nobilitätsherrschaft und Antiochos III (205–188 v. Chr.) (by A. M. Eckstein), 223–225

Dufallo, B., The Ghosts of the Past. Latin Literature, the Dead, and Rome’s Transition to a Principate (by H. Lovatt), 242–243

Dyck, A. (Ed.), Cicero, Catilinarians (by D. H. Berry), 256–257

Dyson, S., and R. Rowland, Jr., Archaeology and History in Sardinia from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages: Shepherds, Sailors, and Conquerors (by E. Blake), 286–287

Edwards, C., Death in Ancient Rome (by H. Lovatt), 242–243

Edwell, P., Between Rome and Persia: the Middle Euphrates, Mesopotamia and Palmyra under Roman Control (by P. Alpass), 235–236

Evans, R., Utopia Antiqua: Readings of the Golden Age and Decline at Rome (by M. Beagon), 236–237

Feeney, D., Caesar’s Calendar: Ancient Time and the Beginnings of History (by M. Jaeger), 222–223

Fox, M., Cicero’s Philosophy of History (by J. G. F. Powell), 252–253

Galinier, M., La Colonne Trajane et les forums impériaux (by A. Claridge), 277–279

Gardner Coates, V., and J. Seydl (Eds), Antiquity Recovered: the Legacy of Pompeii and Herculaneum (by J. Paul), 276–277

Giesecke, A., The Epic City: Urbanism, Utopia and the Garden in Ancient Greece and Rome (by D. Spencer), 237–238

Green, C., Roman Religion and the Cult of Diana at Aricia (by J. Davies), 245–247

Hall, L. (Ed.), Confrontation in Late Antiquity: Imperial Presentation and Regional Adaptation (by A. Gillett), 301

Heller, A., Les Bêtises des grecs. Conflits et rivalités entre cités d’Asie et de Bithynie à l’époque romaine (129 a.c.–235 p.c.) (by T. Corsten), 232–233

Heyworth, S. (Ed.), Sexti Properti Elegi (by D. Butterfield), 261–262

Heyworth, S., Cynthia: A Companion to the Text of Propertius (by T. Chrysostomou), 262–264

Hollander, D., Money in the Late Roman Republic (by J. Williams), 229

Hutchinson, G. O., Talking Books: Readings in Hellenistic and Roman Books of Poetry (by K. Volk), 259–261

Jaeger, M., Archimedes and the Roman Imagination (by H. Flower), 240–241

Johnson, P., Ovid Before Exile. Art and Punishment in the Metamorphoses (by R. Armstrong), 264–265

Kelly, G., Ammianus Marcellinus: the Allusive Historian (by T. D. Barnes), 292–294

Kulikowski, M., Rome’s Gothic Wars from the Third Century to Alaric (by B. Ward-Perkins), 296–297

Lassère, J.-M., Manuel d’épigraphie romaine (by A. E. Cooley), 291–292

Lintott, A. W., Cicero as Evidence (by R. Seager), 225–227

Martin-Kilcher, S., with H. Amrein and B. Horisberger (Eds), Der römische Goldschmuck aus Lunnern (Zh). Ein Hortfund des 3. Jahrhunderts und seine Geschichte (by N. Christie), 290–91

Marvin, M., The Language of the Muses: the Dialogue between Greek and Roman Sculpture (by M. Squire), 274–276

Marzano, A., Roman Villas in Central Italy. A Social and Economic History (by G. Bradley), 281–282

Mastrangelo, M., The Roman Self in Late Antiquity. Prudentius and the Poetics of the Soul (by G. J. P. O’Daly), 302–304

Miles, M., Art as Plunder: the Ancient Origins of Debate about Cultural Property (by C. Vout), 273–274

Modéran, Y., Les Maures et l’Afrique romaine (IV^e–VII^e siècle) (by A. Leone), 298–299

Moreno García, J. C. (Ed.), L’agriculture institutionelle en Égypte ancienne: État de la question et perspectives interdisciplinaires (by D. Rathbone), 249–250

Morgan, J., and M. Jones (Eds), Philosophical Presences in the Ancient Novel (by S. Tilg), 269–270

O’Hara, J., Inconsistency in Roman Epic: Studies in Catullus, Lucretius, Vergil, Ovid and Lucan (by A. Rogerson), 258–259

Oltean, I., Dacia: Landscape, Colonisation, Romanisation (by S. Chappell), 287–288

Phang, S., Roman Military Service: Ideologies of Discipline in the Late Republic and Early Principate (by K. L. Pickford), 231

Pomeroy, A., Then it was Destroyed by the Volcano: the Ancient World in Film and on Television (by G. Nisbet), 271

Pomeroy, S., The Murder of Regilla: a Case of Domestic Violence in Antiquity (by C. Vout), 244

Ronning, C., Herrscherpanegyrik unter Trajan und Konstantin (by R. Rees), 297–298

Roth, R., Styling Romanisation: Pottery and Society in Central Italy (by J. A. Becker), 280–281

Schultz, C., and P. Harvey Jr (Eds), Religion in Republican Italy (by J. Davies), 245–247

Sears, G., Late Roman African Urbanism. Continuity and Transformation in the City (by R. B. Hitchner), 299–301

Stratton, K., Naming the Witch. Magic Ideology and Stereotype in the Ancient World (by D. Ogden), 247–248

Tassinari, C., M. Destro, M. T. di Luca and M. Pagani, Colombarone. La villa romana e la basilica paleocristiana di San Cristoforo ad Aquilam. The Roman Villa and Early-Christian Basilica of San Cristoforo ad Aquilam (by N. Christie), 305–306

Taub, L., Aetna and the Moon. Explaining Nature in Ancient Greece and Rome (by S. Cuomo), 239

Thomas, E., Monumentality and the Roman Empire: Architecture in the Antonine Age (by P. J. Goodman), 279–280

Trapp, M., Philosophy in the Roman Empire: Ethics, Politics and Society (by R. Fletcher), 241

Uhalde, K., Expectations of Justice in the Age of Augustine (by D. Lambert), 302

Van Mal-Maeder, D., La Fiction des declamations (by W. M. Bloomer), 267–268

Winkler, M. (Ed.), Spartacus: Film and History (by N. McKeown), 272–273

Woytek, B., Armi et nummi: Forschungen zur römischer Finanzgeschichte und Münzpragung der Jahre 49 bis 42 v. Chr. (by V. Györi), 230

Zissos, A., Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica. Book 1. Edited with Introduction, Translation, and Commentary (by G. Manuwald), 268–269

JRS 2009 ABSTRACTS

Alan Cameron: Young Achilles in the Roman World

This paper considers the representation of Achilles in Roman poetry and art and, in particular, Roman interest in his childhood, culminating in the ‘exposure’ on Scyros. It is argued that common features in literature and art support the existence of illustrated mythographic handbooks. The relationship of Statius’ Achilleid to the cycle of scenes representing Achilles’ early years known from wall-paintings, mosaics, sarcophagi and the Kaiseraugst plate is discussed. Although the surviving book of the Achilleid concerns the pre-Troy years, it is suggested that Statius’ real focus was the Trojan War itself.

David Kovacs: Horace, Pindar and the Censorini in Odes 4.8

Odes 4.8 is anomalous: its thirty-four lines are not a multiple of four. Most editors delete two or six lines, but this involves deleting at least one blameless line and disturbing the stanzaic structure of the poem. Instead mark a lacuna of two or six lines before the final couplet. The missing lines will have contained a prayer for Censorinus’ immortality and some words of praise, thereby fulfilling the expectations raised earlier in the poem. Vota in 34 refers to Horace’s prayer, which Bacchus fulfils as god of poetry. Finally, the conceit that uates potentes can in real terms immortalize or deify their subjects chimes in with a feature of Roman religion noted by A. D. Nock.

Kevin W. Wilkinson: Palladas and the Age of Constantine

This article begins with a review of the traditional dates for Palladas (c. a.d. 360–450) and the current consensus of most scholars (c. a.d. 319–400). The first of these relies almost exclusively on the dubious manuscript lemmata and the second on an interpretation of Palladas’ epigrams pertaining to the rise of Christianity and the weakening of the pagan cults, which are supposed to be Theodosian in date. Both timelines are difficult to reconcile with two external clues, which together suggest that his floruit must have been earlier than the second half of the fourth century. Further analysis reveals that the important pagan-Christian epigrams are full of Constantine’s political and religious propaganda post-324. Another line of inquiry establishes a new set of dates: c. a.d. 259–340.

Walter Scheidel and Steven J. Friesen: The Size of the Economy and the Distribution of Income in the Roman Empire

Different methods of estimating the Gross Domestic Product of the Roman Empire in the second century c.e. produce convergent results that point to total output and consumption equivalent to 50 million tons of wheat or close to 20 billion sesterces per year. It is estimated that élites (around 1.5 per cent of the imperial population) controlled approximately one-fifth of total income, while middling households (perhaps 10 per cent of the population) consumed another fifth. These findings shed new light on the scale of economic inequality and the distribution of demand in the Roman world.

Fergus Millar: Linguistic Co-existence in Constantinople: Greek and Latin (and Syriac) in the Acts of the Synod of 536 c.e.

This paper considers the interplay of Latin and Greek in the workings of both State and Church in sixth-century Constantinople, and the way that these two languages are represented in the written records of each. The richest source of evidence is provided by the Acts of the Church Councils and Synods, because at the end of a session, or of a multi-authored document, it was the custom for those involved to make a one-sentence statement of assent in their own handwriting. These processes also leave room for reflections of the use of Syriac (but not for items of actual Syriac text), but of no other language.

Jane Rowlandson and Ryosuke Takahashi: Brother-Sister Marriage and Inheritance Strategies in Greco-Roman Egypt

Responding to recent discussions of brother-sister marriage in Roman Egypt, this article re-examines the Greek and Egyptian evidence for the practice, both papyrological and literary. Exploring possible antecedents in Egypt and Greece and the distinctive development of Egyptian inheritance practice, we argue that the brother-sister marriages involved real siblings, and that by the beginning of Roman rule such marriages were legitimised by a Ptolemaic law and the prevalent belief that they followed ancient Egyptian custom. But new circumstances introduced by Roman rule, particularly the increasing importance of private property ownership, encouraged the practice to become popular through much of northern Egypt. The explanation for brother-sister marriage in Egypt must be sought in the immediate local historical context, not that of the Eastern Mediterranean generally.

Ralph Mathisen: Provinciales, Gentiles, and Marriages between Romans and Barbarians in the Late Roman Empire

Codex Theodosianus 3.14.1, issued in the early 370s, has been understood in the past to indicate a ban on all marriages between ‘Romans’ and ‘barbarians’. But this interpretation contradicts evidence that Roman-barbarian marriages occurred with great frequency, and the lack of any other evidence for such a ban. This study argues that the specific wording of the law, referring to gentiles (barbarian soldiers) and provinciales (residents of provinces), suggests that the ban was imposed to ensure the continued performance of specific duties incumbent upon these two classes of individuals, and had nothing to do with ethnicity-qua-ethnicity.

A. K. Bowman, R. S. O. Tomlin and K. A. Worp: Emptio Bovis Frisica: the ‘Frisian Ox Sale’ Reconsidered

The article offers a re-edition of a Latin stilus tablet found in 1917 at Tolsum in the Netherlands, the region inhabited in Roman times by the tribe of the Frisii, and first published as a contract of sale for an ox. The re-edition, with readings based on new techniques of digital image capture, establishes the date of the text (a.d. 29) and shows that it does not concern the sale of an ox, but is more probably the second half of a loan-note for a sum of money now lost, between a debtor whose name is lost and a creditor named Carus (or perhaps Andecarus) who was a slave of Iulia(?) Secunda, herself perhaps the wife of a tribune of Legion V named T(itus) Cassius.