Journal of Late Antiquity最新文献

{"title":"The Acts of Early Church Councils: Production and Character by Thomas Graumann (review)","authors":"Alexander H. Pierce","doi":"10.1353/jla.2024.a927804","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jla.2024.a927804","url":null,"abstract":"<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span>\u0000<p> <span>Reviewed by:</span> <ul> <li><!-- html_title --> <em>The Acts of Early Church Councils: Production and Character</em> by Thomas Graumann <!-- /html_title --></li> <li> Alexander H. Pierce </li> </ul> <em>The Acts of Early Church Councils: Production and Character</em> T<small>homas</small> G<small>raumann</small> Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. Pp. xii + 333. ISBN: 978-0-1988-6817-0 <p>Professor of Ancient Christian History and Patristics Studies at the University of Cambridge, Thomas Graumann has provided massive gains to the modern study of late antique and medieval church councils. Graumann's latest contribution, <em>The Acts of Early Church Councils: Production and Character</em>, offers a window into the complex and largely unpredictable operations underlying extant conciliar acts and canons. As Graumann explains, the method of his examination is to attend at one and the same time to concurrent descriptions of conciliar documentation and to retrospective assessments of those documents in later conciliar contexts. Together, these vantage points enable Graumann to reconstruct the likely \"expectations and conventions\" for conciliar acts and the various constituents thereof (7).</p> <p>Graumann's study focuses on conciliar texts of \"session-protocols that present themselves as the direct records of 'live' oral interventions by individual speakers\" (9). Although Graumann draws upon numerous records of this kind, the predominant sources of his study include the Conference at Carthage <strong>[End Page 287]</strong> (411), the Council of Ephesus (431), and the Council of Chalcedon (451). The book contains five parts:</p> <ol> <li> <p>I. The Quest for Documentation</p> </li> <li> <p>II. \"Reading\" and \"Using\" Acts</p> </li> <li> <p>III. \"Writing\" Acts: The Council's Secretariat in Action</p> </li> <li> <p>IV. The Written Record</p> </li> <li> <p>V. Files, Collections, Editions: Dossierization and Dissemination</p> </li> </ol> <p>The first part includes three chapters. Chapter one provides a historical overview of early church councils and their documents. Graumann describes the increasing role of church councils as an institution in the life of the church and summarizes the diverse and complicated processes required to facilitate the documentation that supported their institutional functions. Chapter two explores the wide range of characteristics and qualities constitutive of what are commonly referred to as conciliar \"acts.\" The third chapter examines the Conference at Carthage (411) as a most vivid example of the technical strategies employed to ensure a reliable conciliar record. That this conference involved the contested parties of Catholics and Donatists in Africa Proconsularis meant that particular care and clarity was required to secure a trustworthy record that could speak to the present imperial outcome but also remain reliable for pos","PeriodicalId":16220,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Late Antiquity","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140938296","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Urban Space between the Roman Age and Late Antiquity: Continuity, Discontinuity and Changes ed. by A. Cortese and G. Fioratto (review)","authors":"Miko Flohr","doi":"10.1353/jla.2024.a926294","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jla.2024.a926294","url":null,"abstract":"<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span>\u0000<p> <span>Reviewed by:</span> <ul> <li><!-- html_title --> <em>Urban Space between the Roman Age and Late Antiquity: Continuity, Discontinuity and Changes</em> ed. by A. Cortese and G. Fioratto <!-- /html_title --></li> <li> Miko Flohr </li> </ul> <em>Urban Space between the Roman Age and Late Antiquity: Continuity, Discontinuity and Changes</em> E<small>dited by</small> A. C<small>ortese</small> and G. F<small>ioratto</small> Regensburg: Schnell &amp; Steiner, 2022. Pp. 178. ISBN: 978375436605 <p>This edited volume publishes the proceedings of a workshop on late antique transformations of urban space in the Roman and post-Roman Mediterranean held at Regensburg in February 2020. It consists of seven chapters preceded by an introductory chapter authored by the two editors and a concluding discussion by Nadin Burkhardt. The individual chapters vary somewhat in their scope and approach, but there is a some emphasis on developments in Anatolia and surrounding regions further to the East, though two papers focus on the city of Aquileia in Northern Italy. Thematically, there is a slight focus on religion and religious architecture. Ideologically, as the editors rightly observe, the chapters are connected by the fact that they tend to see Late Antiquity as a \"time of renewal and transformation\" (9) rather than as an era of decline. The volume certainly offers ammunition to those who want to stress the vitality of urban communities in Late Antiquity, particularly in the Eastern Mediterranean—but at the same time, this reviewer feels that the book does not offer a strong case against those who wish to argue that there (also) was substantial urban decline or abandonment.</p> <p>The two chapters following the introduction focus on Aquileia. The first, by Fioratto, analyses the transformation of the \"peri-urban\" space of Aquileia in order to assess the demographic development of the city after the third century <small>ce</small>. F. argues how particularly in the fourth century, domestic structures in several areas appear to have been transformed or abandoned, suggesting a decline in the population. The second chapter, by Furlan, uses waste management as a perspective to understand the transformation of the city between the third and fifth century <small>ce</small>. It sketches a similar picture to Fioratto's, one of general urban decline, though Furlan notes, rightly, that the gradual break-down of the early imperial <strong>[End Page 290]</strong> sewage system and the appearance of rubbish dumps within the city coincided with the period in which the community invested significantly in the construction of churches.</p> <p>The subsequent two chapters focus on western Anatolia. The third chapter, by Poulsen, offers a case study of the city of Halicarnassus between the Hellenistic and the late antique period, showing that evidence for the period between the fourth and se","PeriodicalId":16220,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Late Antiquity","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140938489","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Senatori romani nel Pretorio di Gortina: le statue di Asclepiodotus e la politica di Graziano dopo Adrianopoli ed. by Francesca Bigi and Ignazio Tantillo (review)","authors":"Sara Baldin","doi":"10.1353/jla.2024.a926293","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jla.2024.a926293","url":null,"abstract":"<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span>\u0000<p> <span>Reviewed by:</span> <ul> <li><!-- html_title --> <em>Senatori romani nel Pretorio di Gortina: le statue di Asclepiodotus e la politica di Graziano dopo Adrianopoli</em> ed. by Francesca Bigi and Ignazio Tantillo <!-- /html_title --></li> <li> Sara Baldin </li> </ul> <em>Senatori romani nel Pretorio di Gortina: le statue di Asclepiodotus e la politica di Graziano dopo Adrianopoli</em> E<small>dited by</small> F<small>rancesca</small> B<small>igi</small> and I<small>gnazio</small> T<small>antillo</small> Studi 49. Pisa: Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, 2020. Pp. 274. ISBN: 9788876426902 <p>This edited book aims at providing a complete picture of the puzzling group of honorary epigraphy found in Gortina (Crete) in the area of the long-standing Praetorium. The ensemble was dedicated there in connection with reconstruction works during the mandate of the governor Oecumenius Dositheus Asclepiodotus (382–383) for reasons not openly stated. The analysis and interpretation of the thirteen remaining inscribed bases and scattered fragments is the pivotal point of a multidisciplinary survey drawing evidence from several contexts and different approaches to frame the realization within the political fragility in the aftermath of the defeat at Adrianople. The variety yet perfect complementarity of the authors and their expertise is the key point of this book, entirely in Italian, that represents a most welcome synthesis of the results achieved during five excavation campaigns in Gortina (2008, 2010, 2013, 2016) and Olous (2012) by the team of the Università di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale, in collaboration with the Scuola Archeologica Italiana di Atene.</p> <p>Already partly presented elsewhere, the various contributions and interpretations are offered now in a unitary publication enriched with further discussions on relevant and related topics built on the dialogue with the main primary and secondary literature in light of the newly gathered evidence. The volume is articulated in six independent chapters made mutually coherent and cohesive by internal cross-references that, while anticipating where necessary topics covered elsewhere, do not cause unpleasant and redundant repetition.</p> <p>The declared purpose of the volume is a new interpretation of the group of inscriptions from a multifaceted perspective involving material, archaeological, textual, prosopographical, chronological, and historical analysis. Tantillo devotes the first chapter to a brief introduction to the province of Crete and its recent administrative history, emphasizing the westward orientation of the region in the bipartite division between the <em>partes Orientis</em> and <em>Occidentis</em> of the prefectural offices. The focus shifts then to the area of the Praetorium. Through rigorous examination of the other honorary epigraphic documentation from the area prior and later to the gr","PeriodicalId":16220,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Late Antiquity","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140938581","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Debt in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East: Credit, Money, and Social Obligation ed. by John Weisweiler (review)","authors":"Brent D. Shaw","doi":"10.1353/jla.2024.a926288","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jla.2024.a926288","url":null,"abstract":"<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span>\u0000<p> <span>Reviewed by:</span> <ul> <li><!-- html_title --> <em>Debt in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East: Credit, Money, and Social Obligation</em> ed. by John Weisweiler <!-- /html_title --></li> <li> Brent D. Shaw </li> </ul> <em>Debt in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East: Credit, Money, and Social Obligation</em> E<small>dited by</small> J<small>ohn</small> W<small>eisweiler</small> Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022. Pp. xii + 296. ISBN: 9780197647172 <p>The proclaimed aims of the ten collected essays in this volume are two: to contribute to a \"history of ancient credit systems\" and \"to test the accuracy\" of David Graeber's well-known grand narrative on debt (2). As for the first, it is a qualified success; the second will leave many readers, including the reviewer, with an unresolved paradox. Graeber's overarching program in <em>Debt: The First 5000 Years</em> (2011) is clearly explained in Weisweiler's introduction (chapter 1). Graeber held that credit, and therefore debt and attendant moralizing ideas, have been primal driving forces of human economic exchange. Other than moral injunctions, he argued that violence has been the key creator and enforcer of large-scale indebtedness and that states were the formalized structures that invented coinage as an efficient uniform computational mode of paying their hired enforcers, the soldiers in their armies. Whenever this configuration of state power receded—what Graeber calls the currency-slavery-warfare nexus—so did money in the form of currency and slavery as a form of labor. The structure of debt and state power, vitally linked to chattel slavery, first occurred on a global scale in Karl Jaspers' \"Axial Age.\" Each contributor therefore considers Graeber's ideas within his or her own scholarly bailiwick in this time <strong>[End Page 273]</strong> span—from Babylonian Mesopotamia to the post-Roman states of western Europe. Since the focus of this journal is Late Antiquity, I shall consider the final half dozen contributions that are most relevant to its concerns and, amongst these, focus on the ones that most directly grapple with Graeber's big theory. These chapters are especially welcome because, as Neville Morley observes, \"Rome is a striking absentee from Graeber's historical narrative\" (85).</p> <p>Of the latter contributions, one that puts Graeber's ideas directly to the test is, paradoxically, John Weisweiler's essay on late Roman antiquity (chapter 7). I say \"paradoxically\" because, unlike the paean to Graeber with which Weisweiler begins the book (chapter 1), all the facts arraigned in his essay speak directly against the big picture advocated by the anthropologist. Late Roman antiquity, he shows, was not a time marked by the dissolution of previous economic or political forces; it did not lapse into a species of non-currency economy; it did not witness a much weakened system of coin","PeriodicalId":16220,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Late Antiquity","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140938531","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Defeat on Display: The Public Abuse of Usurpers and Rebels in Late Antiquity","authors":"Harry Mawdsley","doi":"10.1353/jla.2024.a926280","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jla.2024.a926280","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Abstract:</p><p>This paper examines the treatment of deposed emperors, defeated usurpers, and other political malcontents in Late Antiquity. During the period, such individuals, or their corpses, were occasionally displayed before the public in some of the major cities of the Roman Empire. While this phenomenon has attracted comparatively little attention in the historiography, this paper demonstrates that it can tell us much about late antique society. By studying these displays in detail, it explores the traditions and practices from which they emerged, how their nature and functions evolved over time, and the extent to which they affected the empire's inhabitants. Ultimately, the paper argues that their development during the period reflects a more autocratic political culture but one which still valued and solicited popular participation in the legitimization of power.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":16220,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Late Antiquity","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140938386","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"From the Editor","authors":"Sabine R. Huebner","doi":"10.1353/jla.2024.a926278","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jla.2024.a926278","url":null,"abstract":"<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span>\u0000<p> <ul> <li><!-- html_title --> From the Editor <!-- /html_title --></li> <li> Sabine R. Huebner </li> </ul> <p>In this issue, we delve again into the rich tapestry of Late Antiquity, exploring a wide array of topics, sources, and methodologies that reflect the period's complexity. From the nuanced interpretations of biblical figures and theological treatises to the examination of Roman law, public spectacles of power, and the impact of pandemics on trade and society, the current issue's contributors offer fresh insights into the late ancient world. Their works span a chronological range from the third to the seventh century <small>ce</small>, across diverse geographical locales from the eastern Mediterranean to the Iberian Peninsula. Employing sources that range from homilies, legal texts, and monumental inscriptions to archaeological findings, these papers collectively underscore the interdisciplinary nature of studying Late Antiquity. They reveal the dynamic interactions between political, religious, and social forces that shaped this pivotal era in history. First, Ben Kolbeck examines the evolving perspectives on Pontius Pilate, revealing early Christian strategies to engage with Roman authority while navigating their identity within the empire, particularly with John Chrysostom's homilies. Harold Mawdsley delves into the public humiliation of political figures, analyzing these spectacles as a means of reinforcing imperial authority, deterring rebellion, and engaging the public in the political culture of Late Antiquity. Peter Martens offers a new interpretation of Origen's \"Peri Archon\" as a defense against critiques of deviating from orthodox Christianity, crafted in response to the Alexandrian community and Bishop Demetrius. It portrays Origen's efforts to affirm his orthodoxy and resolve theological controversies within the ecclesiastical framework. Michael Speidel then reevaluates the \"Column of the Goths,\" arguing for its significance in the foundation of Constantine's Constantinople as a second Rome and the monument's dedication to Fortuna Redux as a symbol of the complex interplay between traditional and Christian religious symbols in his new city. Ulrich Wiemer explores Jerome's engagement with Roman law, suggesting that Jerome's writings reflect the legal awareness and practices of provincial elites, thereby offering insights into the legal culture of Late Antiquity. Thomas Batterman and Henry Gruber then offer critical reevaluations of the impact of the Justinianic plague. Thomas Batterman challenges the traditional dating and the geographical and chronological precision of the Ligurian Plague in Paul the Deacon's work, proposing a critical reevaluation of its narrative role and historical accuracy. He suggests that Paul's account is more reflective of his narrative aims and theological perspectives than an accurate historical record of the p","PeriodicalId":16220,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Late Antiquity","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140938389","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Legal Knowledge among Late Roman Elites: The Evidence of Jerome","authors":"Hans-Ulrich Wiemer","doi":"10.1353/jla.2024.a926283","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jla.2024.a926283","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Abstract:</p><p>Hans-Dieter Spengler sodali et iuris consulto</p><p>Jerome's oeuvre is huge; it comprises translations and commentaries of many books of the Christian Bible, a universal history, a history of Christian literature, biographies of monks, many treatises, and more than 130 letters addressed to people from the educated upper classes of the late Roman West. This article investigates what role Roman law played in Jerome's writings, what he knew about it, and how he evaluated it. It also looks at his views on late Roman jurisdiction and collects the evidence he provides for petitions to the emperor and for imperial rescripts. The main section analyzes Jerome's ideas about imperial legislation, his knowledge of individual laws, and the way he presented them. On this basis, it is argued that Jerome's writings bear impressive witness to the importance of Roman law for both the social practice and the mindset of the provincial and local elites in the late Roman empire.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":16220,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Late Antiquity","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140938537","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An Exceptional Late Antique Belt Buckle Plate from Jaffa: From Metalworking Technology to Cultural Biography","authors":"Matasha Mazis, Dana Ashkenazi, Alexander Fantalkin","doi":"10.1353/jla.2024.a926286","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jla.2024.a926286","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Abstract:</p><p>This paper introduces a technological and cultural biography of an exceptional copper-based belt buckle plate from ancient Jaffa. The exploration of intricate metalworking techniques and the cultural significance of this find provide new insights into late antique material culture in the Levant. Although similar buckles appear in museum collections around the world, few have archaeological provenience and, to date, none have been analyzed and published in terms of their material characteristics. This study establishes a metallurgical database for future comparative analyses, employing X-ray fluorescence spectrometry and scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy to characterize the buckle's composition and manufacture. The results reveal the use of recycled metals, casting, cold fastening, and decorative finishing techniques, including contouring of the openwork shapes. The analysis finds no evidence of enameling, challenging existing theories about these buckles. A comparison of the crafting techniques and design elements of this belt buckle plate with those of similar buckles shows evidence of distinctive artisanal traditions. The socio-cultural inferences of its art and iconography are also explored in light of the geopolitical landscape after the Arab conquests. This study sheds light on the production and distribution of Levantine buckles and enriches understanding of their use in late antique culture and society.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":16220,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Late Antiquity","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140938387","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Responding to his Critics: A New Account of Origen's Peri Archon","authors":"Peter W. Martens","doi":"10.1353/jla.2024.a926281","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jla.2024.a926281","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Abstract:</p><p>Why did Origen write <i>Peri Archon</i>? The standard view, often tinged with triumphant hues, envisions him as a \"man of the church,\" embarking upon a bold research agenda while laying waste to his heterodox opponents. But I believe this picture misses the mark. It was really Origen—and not these heretics—who was in the dock. And it was those whom he regarded as his fellow Christians in Alexandria, including his bishop, who made up the prosecution. In this essay I argue that <i>Peri Archon</i> was Origen's response to these in-house critics, who increasingly regarded his views on select issues as heretical, or at least, less than orthodox. This essay has two parts. In the first, I examine Origen's self-portrait in the preface of <i>Peri Archon</i>, demonstrating how he shrewdly maneuvered his project into orthodox waters. In the second, I explain why he adopted this tactic. I spotlight five issues from his earlier writings where he challenged positions adopted by most Christians in his day, including prominent church leaders. These controversial stances surface again in <i>Peri Archon</i> but often in a diplomatic form and always in an orthodox frame. <i>Peri Archon</i> was Origen's apologia to fellow Christians.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":16220,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Late Antiquity","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140938379","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Tales of Dionysus: The Dionysiaca of Nonnus of Panopolis. A Group Translation ed. by William Levitan and Stanley Lombardo (review)","authors":"Domenico Accorinti","doi":"10.1353/jla.2024.a926292","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jla.2024.a926292","url":null,"abstract":"<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span>\u0000<p> <span>Reviewed by:</span> <ul> <li><!-- html_title --> <em>Tales of Dionysus: The Dionysiaca of Nonnus of Panopolis. A Group Translation</em> ed. by William Levitan and Stanley Lombardo <!-- /html_title --></li> <li> Domenico Accorinti </li> </ul> <em>Tales of Dionysus: The Dionysiaca of Nonnus of Panopolis. A Group Translation</em> E<small>dited by</small> W<small>illiam</small> L<small>evitan</small> and S<small>tanley</small> L<small>ombardo</small> Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2022. Pp. xviii + 798. ISBN 978-0-472-03896-1 <p>More than eighty years after the English prose translation by W. H. D. Rouse for the Loeb Classical Library (1940), here is an interesting experiment in translating <strong>[End Page 282]</strong> the <em>Dionysiaca</em>, the longest known poem surviving from antiquity (about 21,000 lines in forty-eight books) written by the Egyptian Nonnus of Panopolis (fifth century <small>ce</small>), a towering figure of Greek Late Antiquity, also known as the author of a hexameter <em>Paraphrase of St John's Gospel</em> (about 3,600 lines in twenty-one books). <em>Tales of Dionysus</em>, the first English verse translation of Nonnus's epic poem, is the product of a multi-faceted group work that brings together forty-two translators from different and varied backgrounds (classicists, scholars of English literature, academics from other fields, and poets). All of them, starting from their own experiences, have tried to give a manifold voice to the complex polyphony of the <em>Dionysiaca</em>. The Nonnian dedication (Ποικίλον ὕμνον ἀράσσομεν, compare <em>Dion</em>. 1.15 ποικίλον ὕμνον ἀράσσω) to the memory of Douglass Parker (1927–2011) is a fitting tribute to an eccentric classicist who had planned a complete translation of Nonnus's poem, as he stated in an interview (1981–1982) with Laura Drake (\"My perpetual, 'I'llnever-finish-it-but' project is a translation of the <em>Dionysiaca</em> of Nonnos\", see <em>Didaskalia</em> 9 [2012] 15, https://www.didaskalia.net/issues/9/15/). All that remains of his project is the translation of books 1 and 2 (up to line 162), originally published in <em>Arion</em> (https://www.bu.edu/arion/files/2016/09/Nonnos.pdf) and here re-edited (the translation of B. 2 has been completed by William Levitan) in its dazzling impact, such as Roman alternating with italics, boldface combined with increased fonts, and even Gothic characters for some German words in the translation of <em>Dion</em>. 2.11–13a (66).</p> <p>It is well known that a group translation project runs the perilous risk of falling into inconsistency, even though the stylistic variety in the translation may be welcome, as Thelma Jurgrau writes in her foreword to <em>Story of My Life: The Autobiography of George Sand. A Group Translation</em> (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991) 2–4. However, even if stylistic consistency is not","PeriodicalId":16220,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Late Antiquity","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140938488","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}