Reviews
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Greek Dialogue in Antiquity: Post-Platonic Transformations
10–14 minutesKatarzyna Jażdżewska, Greek Dialogue in Antiquity: Post-Platonic Transformations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022). 9780192893352. Reviewed by John Anderson, University of Texas at Austin, johnanderson@utexas.edu. In Greek Dialogue in Antiquity (hereafter GDA), Jażdżewska reconsiders the history of dialogue from Plato’s immediate successors until the early Roman Imperial period. To convince us the genre of dialogue never
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The Life of Comedy after the Death of Plautus and Terence
11–17 minutesMathias Hanses, The Life of Comedy after the Death of Plautus and Terence. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2020. ISBN 9780472132256. Mali Skotheim, Ashoka University, mali.skotheim@ashoka.edu.in. In this riveting volume, Hanses argues against the idea that the age of Roman comedy ended in the mid-first century BCE, and demonstrates that in fact, Roman comedy
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The Grotesque Body in Graeco-Roman Antiquity
9–14 minutesAnastasia Meintani, The Grotesque Body in Graeco-Roman Antiquity, Image & Context 21 (Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter, 2022). 9783110691733. Reviewed by India Watkins Nattermann, University of Cologne, inatterm@uni-koeln.de. The Grotesque Body in Graeco-Roman Antiquity, a reworking of Anastasia Meintani’s dissertation, provides a much-needed reevaluation of the Graeco-Roman corpus of grotesque miniatures. She sheds light on
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Rhetorical Economy in Augustine’s Theology
8–13 minutesBrian Gronewoller, Rhetorical Economy in Augustine’s Theology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021). 9780197566558. Reviewed by Zachary Taylor, University of Chicago, zjtaylor@uchicago.edu. In Book IX of his Confessions, Augustine dramatically describes his retirement from an ambitious career as a rhetorician in the imperial Roman bureaucracy. In accordance with a frequent theme in the text up to
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Characterizing Old Greek Deuteronomy as an Ancient Translation
9–14 minutesJean Maurais, Characterizing Old Greek Deuteronomy as an Ancient Translation, Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 203 (Leiden: Brill, 2022). 9789004516571. Reviewed by Joseph Scales, University of Agder, joseph.scales@uia.no. Jean Maurais frames this study as an exploration of the active decisions made by the translator of the Old Greek (OG) Deuteronomy. Rather
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Mediterranean Timescapes: Chronological Age and Cultural Practice in the Roman Empire
20–29 minutesRay Laurence and Francesco Trifilò, Mediterranean Timescapes: Chronological Age and Cultural Practice in the Roman Empire (Abingdon: Routledge, 2023). 9781138288751. Reviewed by Eleanor M. Vannan, University of Victoria, eleanormvannan@gmail.com. Historians have long privileged written sources as the paramount form of primary source evidence. Yet, the historiographical role of epigraphy in studying the ancient world has been
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Aspar and the Struggle for the Eastern Roman Empire, AD 421–71
8–12 minutesRonald A. Bleeker, Aspar and the Struggle for the Eastern Roman Empire, AD 421–71 (New York: Bloomsbury, 2022). 9781350279261. Reviewed by Stuart McCunn, University of New Haven, smccunn@newhaven.edu. Ronald A. Bleeker’s Aspar and the Struggle for the Eastern Roman Empire, AD 421–71 is the first English-language biography of the East Roman warlord and patrician Aspar.
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Roman Self-Representation and the Lukan Kingdom of God
17–26 minutesMichael Kochenash, Roman Self-Representation and the Lukan Kingdom of God (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2020). 9781978707351. Reviewed by Robert D. Heaton, Anderson University, rdheaton@anderson.edu. Recent decades have witnessed no shortage of attempts to contextualize the two Lukan volumes that loom large over early Christian historiography. In particular, scholars have attempted to elucidate, among other worthy subjects, (1)
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Atomism in the Aeneid: Physics, Politics, and Cosmological Disorder
7–10 minutesMatthew M. Gorey, Atomism in the Aeneid: Physics, Politics, and Cosmological Disorder (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021). 9780197518748. Reviewed by Robert E. Hedrick, III, University of South Florida, hedrick@usf.edu. Matthew Gorey’s recent monograph, Atomism in the Aeneid, presents an intriguing study of philosophical allusions in Virgil’s epic. The author argues that Virgil engages with
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Roman Ionia: Constructions of Cultural Identity in Western Asia Minor
7–11 minutesMartin Hallmannsecker, Roman Ionia: Constructions of Cultural Identity in Western Asia Minor (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022). 9781009150187, 9781009158510. Reviewed by Joshua P. Nudell, Truman State University, jpnudell@gmail.com. Archaic Ionia has traditionally received the bulk of attention in Anglophone scholarship when compared to the region’s later history. This earlier period, it is often supposed, was
Rhea Classical Reviews 