Reviews
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Global Classics
9–14 minutesJacques A. Bromberg, Global Classics (New York: Routledge, 2021). ISBN 9780367549268. Reviewed by Goran Đurđević, University of Zadar, Croatia. goran.djurdjevich@gmail.com. In Global Classics, Jacques A. Bromberg explores the challenges facing Classics in the 21st century, integrating the global turn into classical studies. His primary concerns include the question of what makes Classics global, and perhaps more importantly, what it means to study Classics within a global context. Global studies have seen significant advancements in the…
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Making and Unmaking Ancient Memory
13–19 minutesDe Marre, Martine and Rajiv K. Bhola, eds., Making and Unmaking Ancient Memory, (New York: Routledge, 2022). 9780367371449. Reviewed by Stephanie Murphy, University of North Texas, Stephaniemurphy3@my.unt.edu. The past few decades have seen a growing interest in the field of historiography.1 While previous academic generations have asked the questions of “how” and “from what sources” ancient authors composed their works (with the German tradition of Quellenforschung having reigned supreme in questions of historiography), newer generations…
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Pliny the Elder and the Matter of Memory. An Encyclopaedic Workshop
10–15 minutesAnna Anguissola, Pliny the Elder and the Matter of Memory. An Encyclopaedic Workshop. London and New York: Routledge, 2023. ISBN 9781032056227. Reviewed by Jazz Demetrioff, University at Buffalo (SUNY), jazzdeme@buffalo.edu. Pliny the Elder’s Natural History was the ultimate source for obtaining information in order to preserve traditions and knowledge during the first century CE, when free time and leisure (otium) were overshadowing business and commerce (negotium). The text was not just about collecting, however; it…
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Production, Trade, and Connectivity in Pre-Roman Italy
11–17 minutesJeremy Armstrong and Sheira Cohen, eds., Production, Trade, and Connectivity in Pre-Roman Italy (London and New York: Routledge, 2022). 9780367631727. Reviewed by Ulla Rajala, Stockholm University, Sweden, email rajalaullam@gmail.com. This volume originates from the conference “Exchanging Ideas: Trade, Technology, and Connectivity in Pre-Roman Italy,” held in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2020. Not all of the papers from the conference are published in this volume, as some appeared elsewhere, particularly in its sister volume Adoption, Adaption,…
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Aristotelianism and Magic in Early Modern Europe: Philosophers, Experimenters, and Wonderworker
7–10 minutesDonato Verardi, ed., Aristotelianism and Magic in Early Modern Europe: Philosophers, Experimenters, and Wonderworkers (London, New York, and Dublin: Bloomsbury, 2023). 9781350121092. Reviewed by Adrien Mangili, FNS/Université de Toulouse Jean Jaurès., adrien.mangili@gmail.com. This edited volume, Aristotelianism and Magic in Early Modern Europe, explores the unexpected intersections between Aristotelian philosophy and magical practices over a long span, from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century, marked by epistemological shifts. Donato Verardi’s introduction emphasizes the book’s focus on…
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Trees in Ancient Rome. Growing an Empire in the Late Republic and Early Principate.
10–15 minutesAndrew Fox, Trees in Ancient Rome. Growing an Empire in the Late Republic and Early Principate (London, New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023). 9781350237803. Reviewed by Caroline Arbuckle MacLeod, St Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan, carbuckle@stmcollege.ca. Andrew Fox’s Trees in Ancient Rome is a substantial adaptation of his 2019 PhD thesis. Through a series of case studies, the author explores the multifaceted impact of trees on the Roman mindset and cityscape. While previous approaches to…
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Religion and the Everyday Life of Manichaeans in Kellis: Beyond Light and Darkness
12–17 minutesMattias Brand, Religion and the Everyday Life of Manichaeans in Kellis: Beyond Light and Darkness, Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 102 (Leiden: Brill, 2019). ISBN 9789004510296. Reviewed by Evan Axel Andersson, University of California, Santa Barbara, eandersson@ucsb.edu. Manichaeans were often understood through the polemics of their doctrinal enemies or, less often, through the writings of their thought leaders. These texts reveal a religion that perceived two principles, light and life, from which the soul derived, and…
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Ciris: A Poem from the Appendix Vergiliana
8–12 minutesKayachev, Boris. Ciris: A Poem from the Appendix Vergiliana. Introduction, Text, Apparatus Criticus, Translation and Commentary. Swansea, UK: Classical Press of Waales, 2020. ISBN 978-1-910589-81-6. Reviewed by Thomas R. Keith, Independent Scholar, trkeith@hotmail.com. In the hortus deliciarum (garden of delights) of Latin literature, the Ciris is a thornbush. Its authorship and date are much disputed, as is its literary merit (or lack thereof), and its text has a degree of instability out of proportion to…
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Cutting Words: Polemical Dimensions of Galen’s Anatomical Experiments
7–11 minutesLuis Alejandro Salas, Cutting Words: Polemical Dimensions of Galen’s Anatomical Experiments (Leiden: Brill, 2020). 9789004439184. Reviewed by Matthew J. Chalmers, Independent Scholar, mattjchal@gmail.com. Medical literature has historically received less attention from classicists than it deserves, as is generally the case with ancient technical literature.1 Nevertheless, specialist study has flourished, especially since the important work of Heinrich von Staden in the 1980s brought attention to the complexity of medical debate in antiquity.2 Salas’s book, illuminating the Galenic…
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From Photography to 3D Models and Beyond: Visualizations in Archaeology
13–20 minutesDonald H. Sanders, From Photography to 3D Models and Beyond: Visualizations in Archaeology (Oxford: Archeopress, 2023). 9781803276182. Reviewed by David M. Wheeler, University of California, Berkeley, david.wheeler@berkeley.edu. From Photography to 3D Models and Beyond: Visualizations in Archaeology is, in many ways, a summation of Donald H. Sanders’s life’s work as a scholar and advocate for digital heritage. This book considers the position of 3D strategies, and in particular 3D modeling, within archaeology. To understand the…
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