Reviews
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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
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Performing Gods in Classical Antiquity and the Age of Shakespeare
8–12 minutesDustin W. Dixon and John S. Garrison, Performing Gods in Classical Antiquity and the Age of Shakespeare (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021). 9781350098145. Reviewed by Amy K. Vandervelde, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, amykv2@illinois.edu. Dixon and Garrison posit that gods onstage can open doors to new ways of thinking about plays, focusing on cases from the
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Urban Space between the Roman Age and Late Antiquity: Continuity, Discontinuity and Changes
12–19 minutesArabelle Cortese and Giulia Fioratto, eds., Urban Space between the Roman Age and Late Antiquity: Continuity, Discontinuity and Changes (Regensburg: Schnell & Steiner, 2022). 9783795436605. Reviewed by Carolyn T. La Rocco, Universität Hamburg, clr9@st-andrews.ac.uk. Urban Space between the Roman Age and Late Antiquity is a collation of the Acts of the International Workshop at the
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Dictator: The Evolution of the Roman Dictatorship
5–8 minutesMark B. Wilson, Dictator: The Evolution of the Roman Dictatorship (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2021). 9780472132669. Reviewed by Peta Greenfield, The University of Sydney, peta.greenfield@sydney.edu.au. In Dictator, Wilson sets out to offer a full overview of the Roman dictatorship with an eye to understanding the position within the context of a changing Republic.
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The Egyptian Mummies and Coffins of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science
17–26 minutesMichele L. Koons and Caroline Arbuckle MacLeod, eds., The Egyptian Mummies and Coffins of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science (Louisville: University Press of Colorado, 2021). 9781646421367. Reviewed by Sarah E. Wenner, Cincinnati Art Museum, sarah.wenner@cincyart.org. In the introduction to this small but fantastically detailed collection of papers about the Egyptian mummies and coffins
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The Origins of Roman Concrete Construction in Roman Architecture: Technology and Society in Republican Italy
15–22 minutesMarcello Mogetta, The Origins of Roman Concrete Construction in Roman Architecture: Technology and Society in Republican Italy (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2021). 9781108845687. Reviewed by Amanda K. Pavlick, Xavier University, pavlicka@xavier.edu. Any archaeologist knows the need for typologies and chronologies; the amount of data generated by survey and excavation cries out for fixed points of dating to
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Antioch in Syria: A History from Coins (300 BCE–450 CE)
21–31 minutesKristina M. Neumann, Antioch in Syria: A History from Coins (300 BCE–450 CE) (Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press, 2021). 9781108837149. Reviewed by Melissa Ludke, Florida State University, mludke@fsu.edu. Reminiscent of Christopher Howgego’s Ancient History from Coins (London: Routledge, 1995), Neumann’s ambitious numismatic survey of Antioch in Syria, originally based on her dissertation, provides just that:
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Military Departures, Homecomings and Death in Classical Athens: Hoplite Transitions
8–12 minutesOwen Rees, Military Departures, Homecomings and Death in Classical Athens: Hoplite Transitions (New York: Bloomsbury, 2022). 9781350188648. Reviewed by Stuart McCunn, University of New Haven, smccunn@newhaven.edu. Military Departures, Homecomings and Death in Classical Athens is a monograph that positions itself to play an important role in the debate about PTSD in the ancient world. Was
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Imagining Ithaca: Nostos and Nostalgia Since the Great War
14–20 minutesKathleen Riley, Imagining Ithaca: Nostos and Nostalgia Since the Great War (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021). Benjamin Jasnow, William Jewell College, jasnowb@william.jewell.edu. Kathleen Riley has written a richly ornamented appraisal of nostalgia in works of literature, film, theater, and television since the end of World War I. Riley situates each modern work within its social,
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