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owner-bmcr-l | 2 Apr 2006 19:14
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BMCR 2006.03.49, Steven Fine, Art and Judaism in the

Steven Fine, Art and Judaism in the Greco-Roman World: Toward a New
Jewish Archaeology.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 2005.  Pp.
267.  ISBN 0-521-84491-6.  $75.00.

Reviewed by Tyler Jo Smith, University of Virginia (tjs6e <at> virginia.edu)
Word count:  1654 words
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To read a print-formatted version of this review, see
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2006/2006-03-49.html
-------------------------------

Table of Contents
(http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip0422/2004019667.html)

Jewish Studies, like classical ones, are interdisciplinary by nature. A
scholar of Jewish art and archaeology, in theory, should be well-versed
in monuments, objects, and texts. The traditional path for classical
archaeologists has been Latin and Greek languages and literature first,
followed by training with visual and material evidence. By the late
19th century, once "archaeology saps the authority of the text," the
relationship between words and things altered irreversibly.[[1]]
Today's students of the Greco-Roman world, be they specialists in
Pindar, Polybius or the Parthenon are expected to gain familiarity with
classics "as a whole, in all its manifestations," to quote Sir John
Beazley.[[2]] Via the American Academy in Rome, the American School of
Classical Studies at Athens, and like institutions representing and
located in other countries, the ideal classicist is introduced to
sites, field archaeology techniques, conservation, and cataloguing. In
an effort to produce both responsible and original research, theory and
method are expected to find their place as well. With Steven Fine's new
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owner-bmcr-l | 2 Apr 2006 19:15
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BMCR 2006.04.01: BMCR Books Received (March)

BMCR Books Received (March).

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To read a print-formatted version of this review, see
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2006/2006-04-01.html
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Titles marked by an asterisk are available for review. Qualified
volunteers should indicate their interest by a message to
classrev <at> brynmawr.edu, with their last name and requested author in the
subject line. (Please do NOT reply to this message.) They should state
their qualifications (both in the sense of degrees held and in the
sense of experience in the field concerned) and explain any previous
relationship with the author.

A Loeb Classical Library Reader. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 2006. Pp. 234. $9.95 (pb). ISBN 0-674-99616-X.

*Alaux, Jean, et al., Ho^s ephat', dixerit quispiam, comme disait
l'autre ... Me/canismes de la citation et de la mention dans les
langues de l'Antiquite/. Recherches & Travaux, Hors-se/rie no. 15.
Grenoble: E/ditions litte/raires et linguistiques de l'universite/ de
Grenoble, 2006. Pp. 365. EUR 13.00 (pb). ISBN 2-9518254-5-5.

*Amigues, Suzanne (ed.), The/ophraste: Recherches sur les plantes, Tome
V Livre IX. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2006. Pp. 397. EUR 55.00. ISBN
2-251-00529-3.

*Angeli Bertinelli, Maria Gabriella, and Angela Donati (edd.), Il
cittadino, lo straniero, il barbaro, fra integrazione ed emarginazione
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owner-bmcr-l | 2 Apr 2006 19:13
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BMCR 2006.03.48, Mazzoleni, et al., Pompejanische Wandmalerei

Donatella Mazzoleni, Umberto Pappalardo, Luciano Romano, Pompejanische
Wandmalerei. Architektur und illusionistische Dekoration.  Mu+nchen:
Hirmer Verlag, 2005.  Pp. 415; color ills. 344, foldouts 3.  ISBN
3-7774-2445-5.  EUR 128.00.

Reviewed by Stephan T.A.M. Mols, Radboud University, Nijmege
(s.mols <at> let.ru.nl)
Word count:  1655 words
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To read a print-formatted version of this review, see
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2006/2006-03-48.html
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The book under discussion is a beautifully published substantial
volume, with splendid (often full-page) photographs. Emphasis is on
these photographs -- with comparatively little text. It is, therefore,
surprising that the photographer's name, Luciano Romano, is absent from
the cover. He is, luckily, mentioned on the title page.

The volume is a German translation of the Italian Domus: Pittura e
architettura d'illusione nella casa romana (Venezia 2004), an English
version of which was reviewed by John Clarke (BMCR 2005.08.32).

Two introductory chapters are followed by a number of short
descriptions of houses and villas in Pompeii and surroundings,
Herculaneum and Rome. The first introductory chapter ("Domus --
Architektur und illusionistische Malerei im ro+mischen Haus," pp. 7-39)
is written by Donatella Mazzoleni. She discusses primarily the linking
of architecture and paintings, and supplies a demarcation of the
material. Chronologically, the volume includes paintings from the
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owner-bmcr-l | 3 Apr 2006 08:37
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BMCR 2006.04.03, Amerise, Il battesimo di Costantino

Marilena Amerise, Il battesimo di Costantino il Grande. Storia di una
scomoda eredita\. Hermes Einzelschrift 95.  Stuttgart:  Franz Steiner,
2005.  Pp. 177.  ISBN 3-515-08721-4.  EUR 34.00.

Reviewed by Jan Willem Drijvers, History, University of Groningen
(j.w.drijvers <at> rug.nl)
Word count:  1426 words
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To read a print-formatted version of this review, see
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2006/2006-04-03.html
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Scholarly interest in the emperor Constantine and his times continues,
and understandably so because his reign was a turning-point in the
history of western civilization. It seems, however, that in recent
years this interest in the monarchy of the first Christian emperor has
been increasing. In 2000 Hal Drake published his fascinating and much
discussed Constantine and the Bishops. The Politics of Intolerance,
followed in 2004 by Odahl's monograph and Ross Holloway's study on
Constantine and the city of Rome. Only a few months ago a Cambridge
Companion on Constantine and his age appeared, and there is presumably
more to come in the form of conference proceedings and exhibition
catalogues in the near future: it was exactly 1700 years ago that
Constantine was proclaimed emperor in York by the troops of his
deceased father, a good occasion for organising conferences and
exhibitions.[[1]] Apart from these recent major publications there is a
mountain of articles and papers on all aspects of Constantine's life
and reign. His Christianity -- and in particular the motives he may
have had for promoting it -- has provoked and will continue to provoke
much discussion. Constantine's dream and vision before the battle at
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owner-bmcr-l | 3 Apr 2006 08:37
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BMCR 2006.04.02, Response to BMCR 2006.02.39 by Hempel

Response to BMCR 2006.02.39:

Hempel on Chatr Aryamontri on Hempel, Die Nekropole von Tarent im 2.
und 1. Jh.v.Chr.

Response by Karl Gerhard Hempel, Facolta\ di Lettere Filosofia,
Universita\ degli Studi di Messina (Gerhard.Hempel <at> web.de)
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To read a print-formatted version of this response, see
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2006/2006-04-02.html
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In her review of my book Die Nekropole von Tarent im 2. und 1.
Jh.v.Chr. Deborah Chatr Aryamontri accepts all my conclusions and gives
a quite positive appraisal defining my work as "a significant addition
to the archaeological research on Southern Italy". While I agree
obviously with this general tendency, some of the negative remarks in
the final part of the review distort the facts and give a wrong
impression about the real content of the book.

(1) In detail, Chatr Aryamontri after a general criticism ("The
publication fails now and then in consistency and clarity") asserts the
following: "To mention a few examples, not all the vase shapes are
contained in the typological charts (see e.g., the lamps and urns),
..."

This is not correct, because the drawings of the urns are on page 247
(form 800). Furthermore, someone could think that the book lacks of
illustrations, while there have been presented drawings of about 200
vase shapes (surely one of the biggest and best illustrated typologies
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owner-bmcr-l | 7 Apr 2006 04:09
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BMCR 2006.04.07, Le littoral de la Tunisie

He/di Slim, Pol Trousset, Roland Paskoff, Ameur Oueslati, Le littoral
de la Tunisie: E/tude ge/oarche/ologique et historique. E/tudes
d'Antiquite/s africaines.  Paris:  CNRS E/ditions, 2004.  Pp. 308.
ISBN 2-271-06260-8.  EUR 49.00.

Reviewed by David L. Stone, Florida State University
(dstone <at> mailer.fsu.edu)
Word count:  1662 words
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To read a print-formatted version of this review, see
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2006/2006-04-07.html
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How did people utilize coastal environments in antiquity? What evidence
do we have for changes to the Mediterranean shoreline in the last 3,000
years? Did human activities or the climate cause greater modification
to the central North African coastline in this time? A survey team
combining geologists and archaeologists set out to answer these
questions through an examination of the entire 1,300-km coastline of
Tunisia beginning in 1987. He/di Slim, Pol Trousset, Roland Paskoff,
and Ameur Oueslati (hereafter the authors) recognized archaeological
remains provided essential evidence for dating coastal changes, and a
study of archaeological markers over such a long stretch of coastline
had never been undertaken. They developed a balanced geoarchaeological
approach which permitted the project to build a database related to
both the coastal environment and human activities. Le littoral de la
Tunisie is the final publication of this project, which will be
familiar to specialists in this field from the dozen or so preliminary
reports already available.[[1]]
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owner-bmcr-l | 7 Apr 2006 04:08
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BMCR 2006.04.04, Andrew Bell, Spectacular Power in the Greek

Andrew Bell, Spectacular Power in the Greek and Roman City.  Oxford/New
York:  Oxford University Press, 2004.  Pp. viii, 289.  ISBN
0-19-924234-8.  $125.00.

Reviewed by Kathleen Coleman, Harvard University
(kcoleman <at> fas.harvard.edu)
Word count:  2797 words
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To read a print-formatted version of this review, see
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2006/2006-04-04.html
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Andrew Bell's book gets off to an arresting start with the
miscalculated speech by Nicolae Ceaus,escu in Bucharest four days
before his death that revealed his weakness and unleashed the anger of
his subjects. Bell is interested in the self-presentation of political
leaders, and the responses that they elicit from the citizen body. The
ancient sources, as he admits, tell us much more about the former than
about the latter; but from the surviving textual record, unbalanced
though it is, he sets out to reconstruct the way in which the ruler
manipulated his physical presence and paraded his material resources to
impress his subjects in classical Athens, the Hellenistic world, and
Republican Rome. Sometimes the subjects were not impressed; but failure
is just as revealing of intention as success, and one of Bell's
concerns is the extent to which the "ordinary man" in Antiquity
possessed the power to refuse to be over-awed by the spectacle that his
ruler strove so hard to make of himself and his treasures.

The image of Ceaus,escu hovering on his balcony, humiliated by the
jeering audience, introduces theoretical considerations that occupy the
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owner-bmcr-l | 7 Apr 2006 04:08
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BMCR 2006.04.06, Bringmann, Geschichte der Juden im Altertum

Klaus Bringmann, Geschichte der Juden im Altertum: Vom babylonischen
Exil bis zur arabischen Eroberung.  Stuttgart:  Klett-Cotta, 2005.  Pp.
365.  ISBN 3-608-94138-X.  EUR 32.00.

Reviewed by Linda Zollschan (zollschan <at> yahoo.com)
Word count:  2176 words
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To read a print-formatted version of this review, see
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2006/2006-04-06.html
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Bringmann (henceforth B.) has produced an ambitious narrative history
for the general reader or undergraduate student that covers the history
of the Jews from the sixth century BCE to the seventh century CE. For
German-speaking readers, this volume is welcome, as the 1983 work by
Peter Scha+fer, Geschichte der Juden in der Antike: Die Juden
Pala+stinas von Alexander dem Grossen bis zur arabischen Eroberung is
by the author's own admission out of date.[[1]] In writing a new
treatment, B's work differs from the former on two accounts. Firstly,
B. believes that Jewish history should begin not with the Hellenistic
period but with the Persian period. Secondly, B. weaves into his
narrative a discussion of the origins of anti-Judaism that differs from
that of Scha+fer.[[2]]

In his foreword, B. explains the title of his work. The history of the
Jews in antiquity is not the same as the history of ancient Israel. The
latter covers the period until the end of the First Temple period,
while the former starts in 538 BC with the return from exile in
Babylonia (p. 7).
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owner-bmcr-l | 7 Apr 2006 04:08
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BMCR 2006.04.05, Steven Fine, Art & Judaism in the

Steven Fine, Art & Judaism in the Greco-Roman World. Toward a New
Jewish Archaeology.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 2005.  Pp.
267.  ISBN 0-521-84491-6.  $75.00.

Reviewed by Jodi Magness, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
(magness <at> email.unc.edu)
Word count:  2188 words
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To read a print-formatted version of this review, see
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2006/2006-04-05.html
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Table of Contents
(http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip0422/2004019667.html)

The notion that ancient Jewish art does not exist is widespread and
deeply rooted. Many scholars assume that Jews either did not produce
works of art or at best, produced only "bad art." As recently as 1998,
one prominent art historian described Judaism as "the most un-iconic
(indeed anti-iconic) of religions" (J. Elsner, quoted by Fine, 47).
Part of the reason why modern art historians have overlooked ancient
Jewish art is that whereas the Greco-Roman world was filled with works
of art by Classical masters the Jews produced no painted (figured)
vases and almost no sculpture in the round.

In this dense, erudite study, Fine attempts to set the record straight,
reviving the term "Jewish archaeology" as a parallel to "Christian
archaeology." The monograph is divided into four unequal parts, each
subdivided into chapters. In Part One Fine provides a fascinating and
insightful account of the history of Jewish art in the late nineteenth
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owner-bmcr-l | 7 Apr 2006 15:06
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BMCR 2006.04.08, Hanna M. Roisman, Sophocles: Philoctetes.

Hanna M. Roisman, Sophocles: Philoctetes. Duckworth Companions to Greek
and Roman Tragedy.  London:  Duckworth, 2005.  Pp. 159.  ISBN
0-7156-3384-8.  $22.00.

Reviewed by Ian C. Storey, Trent University (istorey <at> trentu.ca)
Word count:  1882 words
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To read a print-formatted version of this review, see
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2006/2006-04-08.html
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Roisman (R.) has selected a particularly attractive play for her entry
in Duckworth's very useful series of companions to ancient tragedy.
Easterling had pointed out that this play had attracted more attention
during the 1960s and 1970s than any other play by Sophokles. This
critical attention has not eased off, for good reason, since
Philoktetes has a lot going for it: an unusual setting, a particularly
isolated and suffering Sophoklean hero, the coming of age of a
sympathetic young man, a plot full of unanticipated twists and turns,
and a deus ex machina to resolve the impasse (or is there?). Plus it
admits of a variety of readings, thus a godsend for the students of
Greek tragedy.

Waldock entitled his chapter on Philoktetes, "Sophokles Improvises",
laying stress on the unexpected plot twists that Sophokles adds to "a
dramatic subject of the second rank" (196), rather unsuccessfully so in
Waldock's view. Dramatic irony is rare in this play, precisely because
the audience is unsure of the truth of what is said by the characters.
R. takes a similar line on the play, not so much on the convolutions of
the plot-line, but on the ambiguity of Sophokles' handling of the myth
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