Sword Arm of the Demos: The Military Contributions of the Athenian Elite

Sword Arm of the Demos: The Military Contributions of the Athenian Elite

Green, Derek

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, History

Traditionally, scholars of Classical Athenian history have assumed that the Athenian demokratia organized itself for war around the principle of egalitarianism. My dissertation, which focuses on the military contributions of the elite, marks a significant departure from this view by arguing that this is decidedly not the case. In fact, I argue that the elite were so dominant in every aspect of war-making that warfare under the demokratia was primarily an elite concern. Not only did wealthy Athenians serve more frequently in the ranks, but they did so in a larger number of capacities. The liturgies of elite citizens funded both the individual triremes and in many cases, entire military expeditions. Athenian armies and fleets were led by the most elite citizens, who also dominated debates over matters of war and peace in the ekklesia. This elite domination did not undermine the sovereignty of the demos as a whole, however, as the demos was able to keep its elite members in line due to strict accountability measures. Significantly, these accountability measures, which were vital to the demokratia, were enforced almost exclusively by the elite. This decidedly inegalitarian approach to warfare has a broader significance when it comes to understanding the very nature of demokratia itself. I argue that, when we consider both the inequalities that we see at work when the Athenians made war with better known inequalities, such as the non-inclusion of women in politics and the widespread use of slave labor, this shows that demokratia was built on different principles than modern democracy and did not share modern concerns about inequality. The broader significance of this realization, I argue, is that future studies of demokratia should be more careful about delineating the differences between demokratia and democracy before hazarding comparisons.

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Committee: Greg Anderson (Advisor); Kristina Sessa (Committee Member); Anthony Kaldellis (Committee Member) 

 

 

Infant Feeding Practices in Roman Italy: A Study of Weaning Variation and its Relationship to Physiological Stress During Infancy and Early Childhood

Infant Feeding Practices in Roman Italy: A Study of Weaning Variation and its Relationship to Physiological Stress During Infancy and Early Childhood

Oldershaw, Leigh

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Anthropology

Weaning is a central factor in both infant morbidity and mortality in archaeological populations. While a relationship between weaning and physiological stress has been established in many living populations, the degree to which weaning is associated with infant stress is highly dependent upon living conditions, food availability, and nutritional quality. As such, the impact of weaning on infant health cannot be assumed in archaeological samples. The aim of this research is to use high-resolution longitudinal weaning profiles to explore variation in weaning timing and its impact on physiological stress in one historic complex society, specifically Imperial Roman Italy. Individual weaning timelines for 52 ancient Romans from the Lazio and Marche regions of Italy are reconstructed using Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) based analyses of Sr/Ca and, to a lesser extent, Ba/Ca signal intensity (concentration) ratios within dental enamel. Weaning timelines are compared to the timing of accentuated lines, histologically observable physiological stress markers in enamel. Timing of both weaning and accentuated lines are examined to determine the relationship between weaning behavior and stress in infancy and early childhood. Results indicate that early infant feeding practices were highly variable, with infants being exclusively breastfed, exclusively bottle fed – likely with herbivore milk – and fed with a combination of breastmilk and herbivore milk. Counter to expectations, exclusive breastfeeding was not associated with fewer accentuated lines in enamel when compared to bottle feeding or mixed feeding, although the weaning period in general was associated with higher frequencies of accentuated lines when compared to exclusive breastfeeding, bottle feeding, and mixed feeding prior to the onset of weaning. Exclusive breastfeeding was also not associated with improved mortality rates. Interestingly, feeding behavior between sites varied (open full item for complete abstract)

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Committee: Debbie Guatelli-Steinberg (Advisor); Douglas Crews (Committee Member); Mark Hubbe (Committee Member); Clark Larsen (Advisor) 

 

Illuminating the Abyss: The Divine Underworld in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter

Illuminating the Abyss: The Divine Underworld in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter

Knodel, Rachael

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Greek and Latin

This dissertation re-examines the gods Hades and Persephone as they are portrayed in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Though the poem is nominally dedicated to Demeter, Persephone's story propels the remainder of the narrative. Historically, scholarship on this poem has focused on the relationship between the narrative and cult activity; instead, my dissertation relies on a close reading of the text, in unison with comparative texts, feminist readings, and narratological theory. With these tools, I demonstrate how the characters of Hades and Persephone evolve through the story and how this has been overlooked in previous scholarship. Persephone, for example, is often read as a victim and never beyond that. I build upon feminist readings to show how Persephone's roles are vital to the interpretation of the poem. She is first portrayed as a naive παρθενος (maiden), who becomes περιφρων (wise) by the time the narrative returns to her story. My study of Hades begins by pushing against the notion in scholarship that he is an inherently negative deity. I show that there are biases in our studies of this god which are unfounded and based instead on modern perspectives. By reading these characters in this way, I highlight previously unrecognized moments of the poem; for example, I read the opening flower-picking scene as an epiphany of Hades and Persephone as consenting to the consumption of the pomegranate seed. This project proposes an alternative way to read the Hymn but does not negate or remove the value of other approaches to the text. I focus on the narrative itself and its historical, social, and mythological background to better comprehend the ways the ancient audience likely understood this story, especially regarding Hades and Persephone. I accomplish this by prioritizing the narrative of the poem and the use of narratological theories. This project is, therefore, a narratological-feminist reading of and commentary on the Homeric Hymn to Demeter.

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Committee: Sarah Johnston (Advisor); Harriet Fertik (Committee Member); Tom Hawkins (Committee Member); Fritz Graf (Committee Member) 

 

 

Archaeology in Greece Online / Chronique des fouilles en ligne

[First posted in AWOL 30 November 2009. Updated 13 October 2026]

Archaeology in Greece Online / Chronique des fouilles en ligne

Editorial project

Archaeology in Greece Online combines the Chronique published annually in the BCH by the French School at Athens, and Archaeology in Greece published as part of the annual Archaeological Reports by the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies and the British School at Athens (which continues to appear in print in a new review format).

The project is managed jointly by the French School at Athens and the British School at Athens: data processing is divided by region and reflects the traditions, history and research foci of the two schools. Texts are thus either in English or in French, but the search engine draws on the entire database regardless of language.
 

Collaborators

The Chronique team of the French School at Athens consists in 2026 of Véronique Chankowski (School Director), Guillaume Biard (Director of Studies in Antiquity and Byzantine Studies), Catherine Bouras (editorial secretary), and Louis Mulot (Developments). Entries on Cyprus are written by Sabine Fourrier (CNRS). The drafting of entries is regularly entrusted to scientific members of the School. For the British School at Athens, the team consists of Rebecca Sweetman (School Director), Georgios Mouratidis (Assistant Director), and Kostis Christakis (Knossos Curator).

Past collaborators : Laurianne Sève, Amélie Perrier, Julien Fournier, Arthur Muller, Directors of Studies in Antiquity and Byzantine Studies, Alexandre Farnoux, Dominique Mulliez (Directors) , Catherine Aubert, Publications assistant, Catherine Morgan, John Bennet, Directors, Robert Pitt, Chryssanthi Papdopoulou, Michaeol Loy, assistant directors. 

General Information

The inclusion of material in Archaeology in Greece Online does not constitute its formal publication.
The EfA and the BSA cannot supply copies of illustrations here reproduced to which they do not hold copyright.
 

Website

This website has been entirely redeveloped during the year 2018 at the EfA by Louis Mulot (Software engineer) and G. Bejjaji (trainee in the IT department).

The site has been tested with different browsers (for computers, phones and tablets) in their most recent versions, supporting actual HTML standards. It is strongly recommended that you update your browser to avoid problems with display, animation, content management, and security. 
Refer to the official site of your web browser for more information.

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Open Data in Ancient and Byzantine Studies

Open Data in Ancient and Byzantine Studies

Valeria Vitale (Editor), Gabriel Bodard (Editor) 

 

This volume presents case studies in classical and Byzantine research that exemplify practices, structures and standards in open data which transform and subvert historical scholarship. It leverages new data publication methods and embeds them as part of its argument, exploring the potential of non-linear discourse, multimedia content and data visualisation. Individual chapters illustrate how open scholarship enables a shift from authority-based interpretative frameworks to transparent, collaborative approaches, and combining datasets allows for analysis and comparisons at unprecedented scales, empowers researchers and elicits creative and original responses to old and new research questions.

Collaborative practices and data models lead historians to reflect rigorously and openly on assumptions, definitions and biases, encouraging more diverse approaches to interpretation of ancient sources. The different perspectives, methodologies, disciplines and research questions showcased in this book highlight the role of open data and code in the pursuit of historical research questions and the creation of new knowledge. It demonstrates that methods like linked open data, open licensing, documentation of standards and the publication of code influence the development of open data, tools and workflows, and are in turn nourished by a rich, sustainable classical open data ecosystem.

Published in association with: Institute of Classical Studies 

 

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License

Copyright: © Authors 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.63674/shcx2882

Number of pages: 268

Number of illustrations: 24

Publication date: 8 October 2026

Introduction
Valeria Vitale and Gabriel Bodard

1 Historical authority and the prosopography of the Byzantine world: from factoids to assertions
Tara Andrews

2 Connecting late antiquities: challenges and opportunities for prosopographical data
Charlotte Tupman & Richard Flower

3 Venetian officals in sixteenth-century Cyprus: An online database and a pilgrimage account
Tassos Papacostas

4 Connections through collections: linking archaeological and epigraphic archives through places and people
Alessandra Giovenco & Nurdan Atalan Çayırezmez

5 Engraving the soil: the challenges of defining spatial footprints in Cypriot cultural heritage
Stuart Dunn

6 You can’t step into the same dataset twice: iterative improvement through reuse of open Libyan place data
Valeria Vitale

7 The makeup of Ajax: reconstructing networks of interpretation through the commentary tradition
Charles Pletcher & Matteo Romanello

8 Traces of lost libraries in the works of Alexandrian and Byzantine scholars: bibliographic open data from antiquity to Wikimedia
Monica Berti

9 Digital epigraphy at Dura-Europos: toward a FAIR-er inscriptional corpus
Anne Hunnell Chen, Carl R. Rice, Ilaria Bucci & Jennifer A. Baird

10 Reception of Sapphic language in Hadrianic verse epigraphy: building on open philological data
Marja Vierros & Gabriel Bodard

11 The next decade of Byzantine sigillography: the impact of open data as collaboration
Martina Filosa, Jonathan Shea & Alessio Sopracasa

 

 

How to Build Belief with Blocks: The Religious Affordance of Greco-Roman Funerary Inscriptions

How to Build Belief with Blocks: The Religious Affordance of Greco-Roman Funerary Inscriptions

Kron, Colleen

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Greek and Latin

This dissertation investigates how ancient Roman people came to believe that stories are true. It focuses on Roman funerary inscriptions in Greek and Latin that make extraordinary eschatological claims about ordinary people. It uses the idea of religious affordances to build an ecological model for understanding funerary inscriptions in context. It adapts the environmental model of visual perception for understanding inscribed epitaphs as a network of three interdependent spheres: the locational, temporal, acculturative, and linguistic affordances of the medium, the material affordances of the substance, and the visual and verbal affordances of the inscribed surface. It takes the ‘Cave of the Vipers,' a late 1st or early 2nd century CE tomb for a Roman woman named Atilia Pomptilla (CIL X 7563–7578), as an extended case study to develop and demonstrate the efficacy of this ecological model. Above all, this dissertation argues for the relevance of belief as a valid analytical concept in the broader study of Greco-Roman religion.

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Committee: Fritz Graf (Advisor); K.A. Rask (Committee Member); Gaia Gianni (Committee Member) 

 

The Talmud Yerushalmi’s Civil Law in Its Ancient Legal Context: Rabbinic Law – Roman Law – Hellenistic Law

The Talmud Yerushalmi’s Civil Law in Its Ancient Legal Context: Rabbinic Law – Roman Law – Hellenistic Law

Hezser, Catherine / Willems, Constantin

 

Philippika - Altertumswissenschaftliche Abhandlungen / Contributions to the Study of Ancient World Cultures

 The Talmud Yerushalmi’s Civil Law in Its Ancient Legal Context provides a historical and comparative examination of legal issues that were shared by both rabbis and jurists during the Roman-Byzantine period. The topics covered concern slaves and manumission, women and property, house building and ownership rights, the treatment of laborers, liability for wild animals, and the broader issue of surveillance and accountability of citizens in the Roman world.
The chapters are written by historians of Roman law as well as scholars of rabbinic literature and ancient Judaism. They reveal the shared interest of rabbis and jurists in specific legal issues, their attention to the same details, similarities in legal solutions, and interesting differences that point to social, cultural, and religious concerns. The interdisciplinary volume exemplifies how the inclusion of rabbinic legal traditions in the study of ancient legal systems enables a better understanding not only of Jewish law but also of Roman legal culture and social practice in late antiquity.

pages/dimensions: VIII, 178 pages language: English binding: Book (Paperback) dimensions: 17.00 × 24.00 cm weight: 307g publishing date: 14.10.2026 prices: 49,00 Eur[D] / 50,40 Eur[A] ISBN: 978-3-447-12607-6 DOI: 10.13173/9783447126076