Archaeology

Edition of P.Vindob. inv. G 42484, a small fragment of a papyrus codex that contains fragments of a metrical text embedded in a prose commentary. The few words that remain suggest that the subject of the poem is an episode from the myth of Andromeda and Perseus. The prose text on the other side of the codex leaf is written in the same hand and may therefore be presumed to be related; it contains references to the Ptolemies and citizens.

This monographic article presents a course-by-course reconstruction of the entablature of the Temple of Nemesis, with original illustrations of how the blocks should fit together, and a description and discussion of the other parts of the temple. The temple is dated to the 420s and compared in detail with other Attic temples dating to the second half of the 5th century BC. The question of authorship or architectural “hands” is investigated, and the attribution to the so-called “Theseum Architect” is shown to be incorrect. The historical context of the construction at Rhamnous during the Peloponnesian War is discussed with references to many other contemporary building projects. Some attention is given also to the rebuilding of the east façade in the Roman period.

To the left of the Panathenaic Way as it winds up the steep northern slope of the Athenian Akropolis lies the City Eleusinion, a sanctuary of Demeter and Kore, linked ritually with Eleusis. When the Eleusinian Mysteries were held each September, the Sacred Objects brought on foot by priestesses from Eleusis were deposited in the City Eleusinion and kept there while the festival began and during the initial rituals in the Agora and in Piraeus. The Eleusinion and its Temple of Triptolemos are noted by Pausanias (although he was forbidden in a dream to describe it thoroughly). Excavations by the American School of Classical Studies in Athens during the late 1930s and 1950s uncovered the forecourt of the sanctuary, and the architecture, inscriptions, sculpture and other finds are presented in this volume. The book includes a chapter on the plemochoe, a ritual vessel used in the Eleusinian Mysteries.

What happens to art in time of war?  Who should own art, and what is its appropriate context? Should the victorious ever allow the defeated to keep their art?  These questions were posed by Cicero in speeches he gave in 70 BCE, when he prosecuted the Roman governor of Greek Sicily, Gaius Verres, for extortion during his time in office. Cicero’s  published speeches had a very long afterlife, affecting debates about collecting art in the 18th century, and reactions to the looting of art by Napoleon. The focus of this book is on those speeches by Cicero, and what they reveal about the context of Verres’ trial, Roman attitudes toward Greek art, and how the text illuminates the history of Greek Sicily. The subsequent impact of Cicero’s arguments on legal thinking about cultural property is also discussed, concluding with the decisions made by the Duke of Wellington after Waterloo in Paris in autumn, 1815.

Just as Shakespeare asserted she always would, the fascinating Cleopatra VII, Queen of Egypt, continues dazzle us. This book presents papers that consider Cleopatra and her legacies by scholars working in archaeology, art history, history and literary and film studies. The papers include discussion of Cleopatra’s obelisks; her use of traditional Egyptian imagery in sculpture; her time in Rome; her death; Egyptian themes in Augustan Rome; Cleopatra in Renaissance Rome; the afterlife of her love potions; how she is depicted by Sir Alma-Tadema; Cleomania in mass culture; and an overview of Cleopatra’s images in western painting.  The book concludes with a wonderful poem by Peter Green.