ABSTRACT The Horseman’s charge. The echo of the battle of Ticinus in Curt. VIII 1, 24 The episode in which Alexander the Great saves Philip II, narrated by Curtius Rufus, is not supported by other historical sources, raising doubts about its authenticity. It shows significant similarities to Livy’s account of Scipio the Elder being rescued by his son, Scipio Africanus, suggesting a possible Livian influence on Curtius Rufus. The parallels include young protagonists, fathers wounded in battle and a heroic rescue. Furthermore, the criticisms made by Cleitus the Black in Curtius Rufus mirror those of Livy toward Alexander the Great in his excursus concerning Papirius Cursor. Recognizing Livy’s influence, this study explores two possible reasons behind this choice: a potential influence of a ‘Scipionic Circle’ at Claudius’ court and a veiled criticism of Emperor Caracalla. These elements suggest that the episode is not merely a literary adaptation but also carries deeper political and historical implications.
ABSTRACT From Chaeremon to Tiberius Julius Alexander. People, interests, and strategies of the party for «Alexandria as capital» in the face of the Jewish problem from Caligula to the Flavians Twice, first under the principality of Caligula, after the political turning point of the autumn of 39 and then between the second part of Nero’s reign and the first three years of Vespasian’s reign, Alexandria witnessed the formation of what could be defined as a sort of party for «Alexandria capital of the Roman Empire» which, although composed differently, expressing different interests and consequently operating with different strategies (as will be seen below), nevertheless set itself the same objective of making the city the capital of the empire. At the time of Caligula the idea was to propose Alexandria as an ideal capital of an empire to be reinvented in a theocratic and anti Jewish perspective, but with an unchanged territory at least towards the east, while at the time of Nero the aspect of the modification of the form of government was still present, but it was the planned territorial expansion and the consequent development of commercial traffic with India and the East in general that justified, as a more functional solution, the move of the capital of the empire from Rome to Alexandria with a full support by the large and powerful Jewish community of the Egyptian metropolis.
ABSTRACT This paper is a detailed study of the Greek name for pistachio, its attestation, forms, meaning and etymology. The author argues that the neuter nouns πιστάκιον and βιστάκιον ‘pistachio nut and tree’ are primary. They come from early Middle Persian *pistak ‘pistachio nut’ (cf. Middle Persian pistag ‘id.’ and Old Persian *pistaka- ‘id.’ attested in Elamite pi-iš-tuk-qa). The foreign word was modified with the diminutive suffix -ιον. Accordingly, the feminine noun πιστάκη ‘pistachio tree’ is interpreted as a secondary backformation from πιστάκιον. The form ψιττάκιον, from which the feminine noun ψιττακία is derived, is a later development of πιστάκιον or βιστάκιον. On the other hand, the forms φιττάκιον and ψιττάκη seem to be dubious. The paper also contains an excursus on πιστάκια ‘terebinth’, which is attested in a fragment of the Georgica written by the Quintilii brothers.
ABSTRACT This paper addresses an oversight in classical scholarship: moving beyond metaphorical interpretations of voice, it draws on ancient physiognomics, modern paralinguistics, and acoustics theories to establish a vocalics framework and analyse the material qualities – volume, pitch, depth, harshness, and pace – of the aggressor in selected passages from oratory, tragedy, and comedy. The central argument is that the voice provides audible indicators of aggression (whether innate, as in Meidias’ persistent hybris in Dem. XXI 72, 195, 201, or circumstantial), moral decay, and civic unworthiness. The analysis demonstrates that the voice serves as an encoded index of socio-political values and as a signifier of the cultural construction of ancient societies.
ABSTRACT In the early years of the Peloponnesian War, the Attic Confederacy faced a well-planned revolt on Lesbos, instigated by the polis of Mytilene. This article reconstructs the role of intelligence, in short, the collection, communication and application of information, in Thucydides’ narrative of the Mytilenean revolt, and aims to offer a novel perspective on the Athenian success in quelling it. The first part argues how the premature discovery of the revolutionary scheme crippled the revolt from the outset. The rebels’ subsequent need for external backing forms the starting point of the second part, in which the supportive operations and Athenian counteractions, with a focus on the intelligence underpinning them, are sketched out. In doing so, the informational advantage which the Attic Confederacy held over its adversaries is highlighted, despite the limits inherent in the unorganised nature of intelligence activity in classical Greece.
