https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/143090 2026-06-13T21:35:33Z 2026-06-13T21:35:33Z Cheimaras, Nikolaos Anargyros https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/143424 2026-02-03T15:15:44Z 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Views on treason in ancient Greece : supporting Philip II of Macedon in fourth-century Athens Authors: Cheimaras, Nikolaos Anargyros Abstract: During the Persian Wars an Athenian would be stoned even for suggesting that Athens might discuss Mardonius’ proposals to submit to Persia. In his account, Herodotus (9.4-5) reports the visit of the Hellespontian Murychides to Athens who acted as a representative of Mardonius and sought to lure Athens into supporting Mardonius’ schemes against the rest of the Greeks of the Hellenic Alliance, and thus achieve the Athenians’ submission to Persia. Herodotus attests that when a certain Athenian councillor named Lycides suggested that Athens should actually take the Persian terms into further consideration and bring them before the Athenian people for potential approval, both his fellow councillors and the Athenian public that happened to be nearby found his suggestion outrageous and executed him by stoning. In addition, the rest of his family shared a similar fate, as soon after Lycides’ stoning an infuriated mob of Athenian women marched to Lycides’ house and pelted his wife and children to death. [excerpt]

2024-01-01T00:00:00Z Gabilondo Gutierrez, Jon Mateo https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/143358 2026-02-02T14:47:24Z 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Rethinking Indo–Mediterranean relations : new approaches to the Roman Indian Ocean following the 3rd century crisis Authors: Gabilondo Gutierrez, Jon Mateo Abstract: The present day globalised and interconnected world has caused a shift in how we face interconnectivity when studying the Ancient World. New methodologies and new horizons have risen to challenge this new outlook on ancient civilizations. In this regard, Global and World History perspectives allow us firstly to analyse the different processes of interconnectivity of the past, and secondly to analyse a wider and miscellaneous geographical area which has not been explored yet by traditional historiography. In this vein, this paper aims to focus on the Indo– Mediterranean relations in Late Antiquity.; Although the topic of Indo–Roman relations has become increasingly popular, it has rarely been analysed in the time–period suggested. In this context we will look at the turbulent transitionary period that the crisis of the 3rd century produced, not only within Roman frontiers, but also in the Indian Ocean, which had previously seen an unprecedented increase in connectivity with the Mediterranean world. Illustrated by the Sassanid expansion in Central Asia and the Persian Gulf, the “Late Antiquity” of the Indian Ocean suffered from several transformations that added new Central Asian influences, but that conversely also helped consolidating previous economic and social structures.; As a participant in these changes, the Roman Empire was forced to adapt a new policy towards Indian Ocean, in which its influence shrunk, but did not disappear. As a result, we shall explore how religious, economic and diplomatic policies become crucial for the interactions between the main powers of the Indian Ocean’s “Late Antiquity”.

2024-01-01T00:00:00Z Sheppard–Larsen, Lars https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/143357 2026-02-02T14:42:23Z 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Creating Roman identity : Caesar’s Bello Gallico and the enfranchisement of Cisalpine Gaul Authors: Sheppard–Larsen, Lars Abstract: The political nature of Caesar’s Bello Gallico is a well–recognised aspect of the text and the purposes behind its production, especially when understood in the context of elite competition and the resulting concentration of power within the hands of a few ‘big men’ during the first century BCE. This is a perfectly convincing way of understanding some of the political motives that Caesar would have had in producing and distributing the account of his campaigns in Gaul, and I do not wish to challenge this notion here. Rather, I seek in this paper to propose a different angle of approach to the politics of Caesar’s Bello Gallico, thinking specifically about how it may relate to the creation or reinforcement of a sense of Roman identity in Cisalpine Gaul, a province where the process of enfranchisement had begun only a few decades before Caesar launched his intervention against the Helvetii. [excerpt]

2024-01-01T00:00:00Z Xie, Sisi https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/143353 2026-02-02T14:27:24Z 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Virginity and purity : implications of the Vestals’ sexual status Authors: Xie, Sisi Abstract: The Vestal Virgins, priestesses of Vesta, are one of the most well–documented and much–discussed colleges of priests in Rome. They have attracted wide scholarly attention both in ancient and modern times owing to their strict vow of virginity and their symbolic standing within the state religion. Narratives recording the privileges and power enjoyed by the Vestals, which set them apart from ordinary Roman women, as well as accounts of their punishment for breaking their sexual virginity are preserved in literary sources. They were ‘women of the highest rank (summo loco nata) and invested with the holiest of all priesthoods (sanctissimo sacerdotio praedita).’ (Cic. De Domo. 53.136.) [excerpt]

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