'A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behaviour), need for admiration, and lack of empathy...': so reads the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (fourth edition, p. 661), describing the symptomology of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. It is tempting to consider whether this modern, psychological lens of Narcissistic Personality Disorder offers insight into particular figures from the ancient world, especially when this description appears so aptly to capture the behaviours displayed by the infamous Hellenistic king Demetrius Poliorcetes, 'the Besieger' (336-282 BCE). In this paper, we explore the possibility that a psychological explanation could allow for greater insight into the actions of Demetrius, but also examine the issues which are raised by attempting to retrospectively diagnose a historical figure. This will include both concerns over the accuracy and limitations of our historical sources, as well as important ethical considerations which must be considered when attempting such a diagnosis.
The publication in 1978 of the richly detailed decree for Callias of Sphettus was a watershed moment for the study of Athens in the early third century BCE, but it introduced a new confusion. The text as restored by the original editor, T. Leslie Shear, Jr, suggested that the Great Panathenaea had been cancelled in 286. But Shear's explanation for this highly unusual event - the festival was abandoned because the city was under siege by the forces of Demetrius Poliorcetes - is undermined by literary and epigraphic evidence. Since the application of a photogrammetric technique to the stone confirms Shear's restoration, we must seek a new explanation for the cancellation. This article demonstrates that the Panathenaea was cancelled in the wake of a disastrous Athenian attack on the Macedonian garrison in Piraeus. This failure led to changes in Athenian policy that can be traced in the built environment of the city.
This article analyses the place of the city of Corinth within the imperial structure of the Antigonid polity. It shows how Corinth functioned as the imperial centre from which the Antigonids projected and sustained their supremacy over the Greek states. Under their control, the city was invested with a military, dynastic, and panhellenic character, which allowed the dynasty to create zones of imperial paramountcy in southern Greece. By centring Antigonid actions, this article reconstructs the ways in which their imperial presence shaped, sustained, and responded to political developments on its southern limits and in areas where their authority was constantly challenged.
This study examines the political role of Antigonid royal women who bore the title basilissa during the third century BCE. While recent scholarship has increasingly explored the power and influence of Hellenistic queens, Antigonid women - aside from Phila I - have received limited attention, largely due to the scarcity of surviving evidence compared to their Ptolemaic and Seleucid counterparts. Through an analysis of epigraphic sources, this research investigates the political agency of the four Antigonid basilissai: Phila I, Phila II, Phthia, and Polycratia. It argues that these women played an active and enduring role within the Antigonid monarchical system, participating in broader inter-dynastic power structures from the late fourth to the first centuries BCE.
This article offers a reassessment of the relationship between Philip V and the Greeks as represented in ancient historiography. The surviving literary tradition, heavily shaped by Polybius, has transmitted an image of this relationship as negative, one-dimensional, and politically motivated. A closer and more critical reading of the sources, however, reveals a more complex and differentiated picture. Philip's interactions with the Greeks were not uniformly hostile but frequently characterised by positive and consistent engagement with his allies. This revised interpretation finds support in recent analyses of epigraphic evidence and contributes to a more balanced and nuanced understanding of the dynamics between Philip V and the Greek world.
The paper examines the emergence of `the Macedonians' as a political entity in the Antigonid period; it is argued that processes of institutionalisation (on the local, regional, and national level) and crystallisation of the political field within the Macedonian state - a state in the making - should be interpreted not as some sort of waning of royal power but, on the contrary, as a means through which the control of the kings through, and not simply over, the state became more deeply embedded.
In this paper I explore the different ways in which the Argeads, Antipatrids, and Antigonids engaged with the cities of mainland Greece. While certain dynasties framed their power differently, the fundamentally consistent concern shared by all was to garrison key sites, support allied regimes within the poleis, and legitimise hegemony through soft-power means, such as supporting the panhellenic games, making benefactions to city-states, or presenting the king as benefactor, protector, or eirenoplylax. The Antigonids, following Argead precedent, employed terms such as eleutheria, autonomic, and demokratia, but these, along with the foundation of Macedonian-backed Greek leagues, did not ensure long-term stability, could only be followed haphazardly, and complicated immensely the king's ability to impose his rule. The reigns of Cassander and Antigonus Gonatas are examined as case-studies of rulers who neither used leagues nor claimed to defend Greek freedom yet had long, successful reigns that saw expansive hegemonies of the Greek poleis.
In this paper we discuss circulation patterns of bronze coins of the Antigonids minted from the time of Demetrius I to that of Perseus, mainly through the evidence of hoards, based on a catalogue of 89 reported finds. The material is classified geographically and an annex of lots that have been erroneously described as hoards in recent publications has been added. The topics we aim to address are the question of legal tender in Macedonia and abroad; the relation of the spreading of bronzes to the presence of the Macedonian army; the eventual acceptance of bronzes of Antigonus in everyday transactions in areas under Macedonian control; and the connection of findspots of the hoards to military activity. Hoards found in cultural context, mainly burial hoards that provide little information on the topics mentioned above, are examined separately and, finally, the presence of Antigonid bronzes in hoards buried after the fall of the monarchy is a subject that is also investigated.
This paper examines Demetrius the Besieger's pursuit of the Macedonian throne and his broader attempts to establish a durable dynasteia. The analysis is structured around two distinct historical phases: before and after the Antigonid defeat at Ipsus in 301 BCE. It considers both primary historical developments and relevant archaeological evidence to assess Demetrius' agency in articulating a renewed model of basileia. The discussion is organised into seven sections: the king's formative years (1); the foundation of his first city (2); the ideological function of the theatre in relation to royal authority (3); Antigonid presence and political strategies in Corinthia and Attica (4-5); and, finally, the articulation of dynastic cult practices and royal symbolism, culminating in the foundation of Demetrias in Thessaly as a royal capital (6-7). Through this multifaceted approach, the study aims to illuminate the mechanisms through which Demetrius sought to legitimise and perpetuate Antigonid kingship in the post-Alexandran era.
This article examines Basiliscus' seizure of imperial power in Constantinople in 475. The events are examined from the perspectives of Basiliscus, the reigning emperor Zeno, Zeno's wife Ariadne, and Verina, mother of Ariadne and brother of Basiliscus. Rather than compiling a single narrative, the different accounts of three primary source traditions, those of John of Antioch, The Life of Daniel the Stylite, and Malalas, are discussed. The relationships of Zeno and Basiliscus with various eastern Roman field armies are analysed, as is the impact of personality on these events. Finally, it is suggested that a personality-based analysis is useful for assessing short-term Roman political crises like Basiliscus' seizure of imperial power but is less useful for analysing day-to-day government and slower moving crises.
This article explores the power attributed to military commanders labelled as generalissimos in the fifth century western Roman Empire. The significance of the western magistri utriusque militiae (army generals) in this era has long been recognised. Men such as Stilicho or A & euml;tius achieved positions of secular authority that often threatened to marginalise even the emperors they were serving. Yet throughout this era, no generalissimo could tackle by himself the many crises plaguing the hesperium regnum (western empire). This article investigates the priorities of western magistri militum, when dealing with usurpation, revolts and invasions. It assesses the areas to which these senior commanders were more likely to send subordinates to wage war in their stead. Finally, it also shows how emperors sought to curb their powers.
Medieval Christianity witnessed a close co-operation between the State and various ecclesiastical institutions. Thus, the spread of heresies across the various principalities of Medieval Christendom was perceived as threatening multiple crises, social, theological, and political in nature. The rise of the heretical sect known as the Bogomils in the Byzantine Empire during the tenth to eleventh centuries and the attempts of imperial authorities to combat them present such an instance of the many types of crises that a heretical group was perceived to elicit in medieval Christian states. This article examines tenth and eleventh-century Bogomilism through the prism of crisis, stressing the different representations of its adherents by various Byzantine heresiological writers. Attention is paid to how Byzantine heresiologists deploy categories of crises coined much earlier, during the initial wave of heresiological material produced during Late Antiquity.
The escalation in conflict between Rome and Iran following the Sasanian Persian overthrow of the Parthians in the 220s CE saw Roman imperial leadership challenged in significant ways across the third and fourth centuries CE. On two occasions during this period conflict between Rome and Iran was a contributing factor to crises in imperial succession in the Roman Empire due to the death of an emperor on campaign: Gordian III in 244 and Julian in 363. Despite serious military losses to the Persians, including the demise of their predecessors, Philip I and Jovian as their respective successors made claims of victory over the Persians on their return. In both cases peace deals were struck in which losses were considerable, but the newly elevated emperors promoted different accounts of the outcomes to the Roman population. This article analyses the mechanisms that Philip and Jovian employed to promote stories of success over the Persians to internal populations, why they chose to do so and the extent to which they were successful.
Jerusalem played a key role in apocalyptic expectations for both Christians and Jews in the mid-fourth century. Cyril of Jerusalem's Catechetical Homily 15 dealt with these expectations in the context of an earthquake that threatened to destroy the city. By comparing this homily with contemporary apocalyptic texts of other genres, we can see how scriptures were being reinterpreted to cope with the transition to a newly Christian empire and other changing circumstances for eastern Roman citizens and Jews in the turbulent mid-fourth century. I look at the way Greek New Testament terms were reframed to deal with various crises of religion for Christians in Jerusalem: first the Roman imperial persecutors and Jews, then heterodox Christianity, and finally the rise of a false Christ or agent of Satan, in the person of Emperor Julian (361-3).
The emperor Julian became sole ruler of the Roman Empire in December 361. Considering that he took control after his adversary died unexpectedly just when they were to engage in battle, and that he ruled for a mere 18 months, it may be assumed that he had to consolidate his position during most of his reign. Within the constraints set by the Constantinopolitan court and powerful elites, Julian employed various strategies to legitimise his rule among those who mattered. This article considers two of his works, the Letter to Themistius and his Oration against Heracleius from this perspective. When the traditional dating of the former (October/November 361) is assumed as correct, the former may be read-with Elm-as Julian supporting his own circle in factional court politics in Constantinople. By way of the fabricated myth Julian presents in the latter, he musters support by offering a narrative of divine ordination to halt the Constantinian line of his predecessor Constantius II and to replace the religious politics of that line with a return to traditional cult in accordance with his own ideology of Hellenism.
The 500-1000 CE period in Byzantium opens and closes with a monumental biography of a 'Fool for Christ': St. Symeon in 6th century Syria and St. Andrew in 10th century Constantinople. Both centuries, albeit for different reasons, are periods of major crises. In this respect, the present article puts forward the following hypothesis: The fact that the most typical Byzantine 'Fools for Christ' come from these centuries is indicative of their character as a response to the socio-political crises of their times, and also that the more extreme the nature of the crises, the more it made sense and was expected to be presented with a religiously extreme response/solution. 'Fools for Christ' have been linked to ancient Cynics and the concomitant aspects of city criticism, elite critique, symbolic purification, and social consolidation through moral advancement. Comparison has also been made with the social roles that shamans have played within their cultures or with the function of liminal social figures. The present article explores the aforementioned hypothesis in light of the following questions: In which ways did St. Symeon and St. Andrew function as solutions to the crises of their times? How is one to explain their religious extremism as a means for socio-political stability? What does foolishness for Christ reveal regarding the relationship between religion and society?
In this article, we look at how the late Latin poet Claudian applied a broad palette of earlier rhetorical and literary devices to present the eunuch Eutropius, consul in the East in 399 CE, as a kind of dirum, that is, a physical portent of impending doom that requires immediate expiation. Claudian, seemingly working hand in hand with Stilicho, the most influential of Honorius' generals in the West, cleverly applies tropes from a wide variety of earlier Latin poets, such as Juvenal, Lucan, Ovid, and Vergil, to cast his subject as a foul harbinger of decline. In addition, we argue that Claudian did so in a way that embraces both pagan and Christian traditions, especially in view of Constantine the Great's appropriation of elements of earlier Roman superstition, such as the Sybilline oracles, and the Christian embrace of Stoicism, with its emphasis on civic virtue and moral restraint. This melding of both pagan and Christian world views allows Claudian to portray Eutropius not only as a monstrous entity that is an affront to religion both old and new, but also as a kind of pseudo-sibyl, albeit one so fraudulent that he remains spectacularly unaware of his own oracular failings.
The Introduction aims to inform readers about the circumstances in which this double issue was inspired and compiled. Its starting point was a research project, funded by the Australian Research Council, on the various types of crises people experienced during Late Antiquity, when 'crisiology,' to use the term of Edgar Morin, was at its peak. While the preoccupation of our own era with various crises informed the arguments of our research proposal, the project acquired immediate currency because of the Covid pandemic. Both Covid and the ongoing debates on crises, crisis management, and leadership highlight the need to define our key terms in their historical context, starting with the term 'Late Antiquity.' Thus, the Introduction explains the chronological, geographical, and thematic scope of the project alongside its key methodological considerations, as reflected in the individual articles.
This paper examines a Persian poem produced by the Indian Zoroastrian community in the 17th century. This poem is an uninspiring piece describing an incident that took place in the Sasanian empire of the late 5th and early 6th century and represents an entirely predictable fusion of sacred history, historical epic and reports from the Perso-Arabic historical tradition. It is also, however, a text with a great deal to say about how the Early Modern Zoroastrian community saw its past. In its description of the temporary dominance of a heretical prophet over "orthodox" Sasanian kingship, its emphasis on the role of priests in correcting this and the marked mismatch between the glorious past described by the poem and the reduced circumstances of the community that composed it, it shows distinct parallels to apocalyptic literature. As such, the poem can be taken as evidence for the social function of apocalyptic texts (as opposed to apocalyptic movements). It supports an interpretation of such works as products of scribal and priestly cultures, highlighting their emphasis on the restoration of correct authority and maintenance of communal tradition.
