Böcker i Cambridge Classical Studies-serien

The first edition with introduction and commentary of a unique second-century BC land survey written on papyrus in Greek which, coming from Edfu in Upper Egypt, provides a new picture of landholding and taxation in the area. This volume is essential for all scholars of ancient Egypt and Hellenistic history.

This book examines a type of object that was widespread and very popular in classical antiquity - votive offerings in the shape of parts of the human body, using them to explore how beliefs about the body changed throughout the period. It will be of interest to scholars and students of classics as well as religious studies.

This book explores how different forms of reasoning and of divine disclosure played equally integral and harmonious roles in the emergence of systematic epistemology in archaic Greece, and particularly in Hesiod, Xenophanes and Parmenides. Provides a fresh perspective on long-standing questions of rationality and irrationality, philosophy and religion.

Shows that wonder and wonders constituted a central theme in Greek culture from Homer to the Hellenistic period. Argues for its importance in discussions of the purpose of philosophy and literature and in expressions of the relationships between the human and the divine and between self and other.

Sacred trees are easy to dismiss as a simplistic, weird phenomenon, but this book argues that in fact they prompted sophisticated theological thinking in the Roman world. Challenging major aspects of current scholarly constructions of Roman religion, Ailsa Hunt rethinks what sacrality means in Roman culture, proposing an organic model which defies the current legalistic approach. She approaches Roman religion as a 'thinking' religion (in contrast to the ingrained idea of Roman religion as orthopraxy) and warns against writing the environment out of our understanding of Roman religion, as has happened to date. In addition, the individual trees showcased in this book have much to tell us which enriches and thickens our portraits of Roman religion, be it about the subtleties of engaging in imperial cult, the meaning of numen, the interpretation of portents, or the way statues of the Divine communicate.

This full-length study of Plato's dialogue Phaedrus, now in paperback, is written in the belief that such concerted scrutiny of a single dialogue is an important part of the project of understanding Plato so far as possible 'from the inside' - of gaining a feel for the man's philosophy. The focus of this account is on how the resources both of persuasive myth and of formal argument, for all that Plato sets them in strong contrast, nevertheless complement and reinforce each other in his philosophy. Not only is the dialogue in its formal structure a dovetail of myth and argument, but the philosophic life that it praises is also shaped by an acknowledgement of the limitations of argument and the importance of mythical understanding. By means of this correlation of form and content Plato invites his readers, through the very act of reading, to take a first step along the path of the philosophical life.

Uses an interdisciplinary approach to throw light on the transmission process of Linear A to Linear B script, by combining structural and linguistic analyses with epigraphic, palaeographic and archaeological investigations and by placing the writing practice in its socio-historical setting. Of interest to linguists, archaeologists and historians.

A pioneering treatment of the development and importance of writing in ancient Cypriot society, throughout the second and first millennia BC. Exploring questions of literacy and identity, the book will be useful to scholars and students (epigraphists, linguists, archaeologists, historians) and to anyone interested in Cyprus or in writing systems.