"This masterful study will have its place on every ancient historian's bookshelf."—Claudia Rapp, author of Holy Bishops in Late Antiquity: The Nature of Christian Leadership in an Age of Transition

Addressing a marginalized era of Greek and Roman history, Taken at the Flood offers a compelling narrative of Rome's conquest of Greece.

Frankness, Greek Culture, and the Roman Empire discusses the significance of parrhēsia (free and frank speech) in Greek culture of the Roman empire. The term parrhēsia first emerged in the context of the classical Athenian democracy and was long considered a key democratic and egalitarian value. And yet, references to frank speech pervade the literature of the Roman empire, a time when a single autocrat ruled over most of the known world, Greek cities were governed at the local level by entrenched oligarchies, and social hierarchy was becoming increasingly stratified. This volume challenges the traditional view that the meaning of the term changed radically after Alexander the Great, and shows rather that parrhēsia retained both political and ethical significance well into the Roman empire. By examining references to frankness in political writings, rhetoric, philosophy, historiography, biographical literature, and finally satire, the volume also explores the dynamics of political power in the Roman empire, where politics was located in interpersonal relationships as much as, if not more than, in institutions. The contested nature of the power relations in such interactions - between emperors and their advisors, between orators and the cities they counseled, and among fellow members of the oligarchic elite in provincial cities - reveals the political implications of a prominent post-classical intellectual development that reconceptualizes true freedom as belonging to the man who behaves - and speaks - freely. At the same time, because the role of frank speaker is valorized, those who claim it also lay themselves open to suspicions of self-promotion and hypocrisy. This volume will be of interest to students and scholars of rhetoric and political thought in the ancient world, and to anyone interested in ongoing debates about intellectual freedom, limits on speech, and the advantages of presenting oneself as a truth-teller.

Fergus Millar is one of the most influential contemporary historians of the ancient world. His essays and books, including The Emperor in the Roman World and The Roman Near East, have enriched our understanding of the Greco-Roman world in fundamental ways. In his writings Millar has made the inhabitants of the Roman Empire central to our conception of how the empire functioned. He also has shown how and why Rabbinic Judaism, Christianity, and Islam evolved from within the wider cultural context of the Greco-Roman world. Opening this collection of sixteen essays is a new contribution by Millar in which he defends the continuing significance of the study of Classics and argues for expanding the definition of what constitutes that field. In this volume he also questions the dominant scholarly interpretation of politics in the Roman Republic, arguing that the Roman people, not the Senate, were the sovereign power in Republican Rome. In so doing he sheds new light on the establishment of a new regime by the first Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus.

The extraordinary story of the intermingled civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome, spanning more than six millennia from the late Bronze Age to the seventh century The magnificent civilization created by the ancient Greeks and Romans is the greatest legacy of the classical world. However, narratives about the "civilized" Greek and Roman empires resisting the barbarians at the gate are far from accurate. Tony Spawforth, an esteemed scholar, author, and media contributor, follows the thread of civilization through more than six millennia of history. His story reveals that Greek and Roman civilization, to varying degrees, was supremely and surprisingly receptive to external influences, particularly from the East. From the rise of the Mycenaean world of the sixteenth century B.C., Spawforth traces a path through the ancient Aegean to the zenith of the Hellenic state and the rise of the Roman empire, the coming of Christianity and the consequences of the first caliphate. Deeply informed, provocative, and entirely fresh, this is the first and only accessible work that tells the extraordinary story of the classical world in its entirety.

Publisher description

Did the ancient Greeks and Romans use psychoactive cannabis? Scholars say that hemp was commonplace in the ancient world, but there is no consensus on cannabis usage. According to botany, hemp and cannabis are the same plant and thus the ancient Greeks and Romans must have used it in their daily lives. Cultures parallel to the ancient Greeks and Romans, like the Egyptians, Scythians, and Hittites, were known to use cannabis in their medicine, religion and recreational practices. Cannabis in the Ancient Greek and Roman World surveys the primary references to cannabis in ancient Greek and Roman texts and covers emerging scholarship about the plant in the ancient world. Ancient Greek and Latin medical texts from the Roman Empire contain the most mentions of the plant, where it served as an effective ingredient in ancient pharmacy. Cannabis in the Ancient Greek and Roman World focuses on the ancient rationale behind cannabis and how they understood the plant’s properties and effects, as well as its different applications. For the first time ever, this book provides a sourcebook with the original ancient Greek and Latin, along with translations, of all references to psychoactive cannabis in the Greek and Roman world. It covers the archaeology of cannabis in the ancient world, including amazing discoveries from Scythian burial sites, ancient proto-Zoroastrian fire temples, Bronze Age Chinese burial sites, as well as evidence in Greece and Rome. Beyond cannabis, Cannabis in the Ancient Greek and Roman World also explores ancient views on medicine, pharmacy, and intoxication.