Compitum

Alan Bowman et Andrew Wilson (éd.), The Roman Agricultural Economy, Oxford, 2018.

Éditeur : Oxford University Press
352 pages
ISBN : 9780198788522
£ 27

This volume is a collection of studies which presents new analyses of the nature and scale of Roman agriculture in the Mediterranean world from c. 100 BC to AD 350. It provides a clear understanding of the fundamental features of Roman agricultural production through studying the documentary and archaeological evidence for the modes of land exploitation and the organisation, development of, and investment in this sector of the Roman economy.
Moving substantially beyond the simple assumption that agriculture was the dominant sector of the ancient economy, the volume explores what was special and distinctive about it, especially with a view of its development and integration during a period of expansion and prosperity across the empire. The papers exemplify a range of possible approaches to studying and, within limits, quantifying aspects of Roman agricultural production, marshalling a large quantity of evidence, chiefly archaeological and papyrological, to address important questions of the organisation and performance of this sector in the Roman world.

Source : Oxford University Press

Beatriz García Prieto et Ana María Mateo Pellitero (éd.), Pensamiento, religión y sociedad del Mundo Hispánico. Orígenes y persistencias, León, 2018.

Éditeur : Universidad de León
Collection : Estudios Panhispánicos, 4
194 pages
ISBN : 978-84-9773-938-2
14 €

Monográfico creado como plataforma para la promoción y la valoración de jóvenes humanistas de ambos lados del atlántico, centrado en estudios de Historia. Se pretende dar a conocer a la comunidad científica los estudios de jóvenes investigadores con el fin de promover el intercambio de ideas, la reflexión sobre nuevas líneas de investigación y el repensamiento de las existentes, de forma que los resultados obtenidos sirvan para mejorar las hipótesis y aporten una nueva tesela al diverso mosaico que conforma la Historia, a través de las interrelaciones entre el pensamiento, la religión y la sociedad que los amparan.

William Vernon Harris, Roman Power. A Thousand Years of Empire, Cambridge, 2019.

Éditeur : Cambridge University Press
ISBN : 9781316606667
19,99 £

The Roman Empire was one of the largest and most enduring in world history. In his new book, distinguished historian W. V. Harris sets out to explain, within an eclectic theoretical framework, the waxing and eventual waning of Roman imperial power, together with the Roman community's internal power structures (political power, social power, gender power and economic power). Effectively integrating analysis with a compelling narrative, he traces this linkage between the external and the internal through three very long periods, and part of the originality of the book is that it almost uniquely considers both the gradual rise of the Roman Empire and its demise as an empire in the fifth and seventh centuries AD. Professor Harris contends that comparing the Romans of these diverse periods sharply illuminates both the growth and the shrinkage of Roman power as well as the Empire's extraordinary durability.

Stephen L. Dyson, Archaeology, Ideology, and Urbanism in Rome from the Grand Tour to Berlusconi, Cambridge, 2019.

Éditeur : Cambridge University Press
340 pages
ISBN : 9780521874595
75 £

Rome is one of the world's greatest archaeological sites, preserving many major monuments of the classical past. It is also a city with an important post-Roman history and home to both the papacy and the modern Italian state. Archaeologists have studied the ruins, and popes and politicians have used them for propaganda programs. Developers and preservationists have fought over what should and should not be preserved. This book tells the story of those complex, interacting developments over the past three centuries, from the days of the Grand Tour through the arrival of the fascists, which saw more destruction but also an unprecedented use of the remains for political propaganda. In post-war Rome, urban development predominated over archaeological preservation and much was lost. However, starting in the 1970s, preservationists have fought back, saving much and making the city into Europe's most important case study in historical preservation and historical loss.

Claudia Moser, The Altars of Republican Rome and Latium: Sacrifice and the Materiality of Roman Religion, Cambridge, 2019.

Éditeur : Cambridge University Press
217 pages
ISBN : 9781108428859
75 £

In this book, Claudia Moser offers a new understanding of Roman religion in the Republican era through an exploration of sacrifice, its principal ritual. Examining the long-term imprint of sacrificial practices on the material world, she focuses on monumental altars as the site for the act of sacrifice. Piecing together the fragments of the complex kaleidoscope of Roman religious practices, she shows how they fit together in ways that shed new light on the characteristic diversity of Roman religion. This study reorients the study of sacrificial practice in three principal ways: first, by establishing the primacy of sacred architecture, rather than individual action, in determining religious authority; second, by viewing religious activities as haptic, structured experiences in the material world rather than as expressions of doctrinal, belief-based mentalities; and third, by considering Roman sacrifice as a local, site-specific ritual rather than as a single, monolithic practice.

Christophe Cusset (éd.), Redécouvrir l'Apparition de Ménandre, Paris, 2019.

Éditeur : l'Harmattan
Collection : Études grecques
270 pages
ISBN : 978-2-343-17246-0
29 €

La découverte du papyrus Bodmer au milieu du siècle dernier a restitué une pièce complète de Ménandre(342-292) : "Dyscolos". Depuis les études sur le fameux dramaturge se sont beaucoup développées. Si les éditions des pièces les mieux conservées de Ménandre se sont multipliées ces dernières années, il convient aussi de revisiter les pièces plus fragmentaires à la lumière de nos dernières connaissance sur le sujet. C'est dans cette perspective qu'est menée ici une étude renouvelée des fragments de la pièce intitulée "L'Apparition" dont l'importance est attestée par de nombreux témoins.