Reviews
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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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Gendered Politics in Sophocles’ Trachiniae
8–12 minutesGesthimani Seferiadi, Gendered Politics in Sophocles’ Trachiniae (Bloomsbury Academic Press: 2022). 9781350260313. Reviewed by Janette Snyder, Florida State University, js23c@fsu.edu. Despite the popularity of reexamining tragic Greek heroines, not every play has been considered equally. Seferiadi asserts that the leading heroine of Sophocles’ play Trachiniae, Deianeira, is due for a reexamination. Deianeira, a character often left out in lieu of Sophocles’ more popular heroines such as Antigone and Electra, has yet to experience the same…
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Greek Warfare beyond the Polis: Defense, Strategy, and the Making of Ancient Federal States
12–18 minutesDavid A. Blome, Greek Warfare beyond the Polis: Defense, Strategy, and the Making of Ancient Federal States (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2020). 9781501747526. Reviewed by Jesse Obert, University of Pittsburgh, jesse.obert@pitt.edu. David Blome’s book explores four important moments in classical Greek history: the Thessalian invasion of Phocis at the beginning of the fifth century, the Athenian invasion of Aetolia in 426 during the Archidamian War, the Peloponnesian invasion of Acarnania in 389 during the Corinthian…
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Dogs in the Athenian Agora
5–7 minutesColin M. Whiting, Dogs in the Athenian Agora. Agora Picture Book 28 (Princeton: American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 2022). 9780876616468. https://www.ascsa.edu.gr/publications/book/?i=9780876616468. Reviewed by Yusi Liu, Bryn Mawr College, yliu2@brynmawr.edu. Since 1931, the Athenian Agora excavations conducted by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA) have continuously enriched our understanding of ancient Greece and the broader Mediterranean region. The ASCSA publishes the materials from the Agora excavations in Hesperia and the Athenian…
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