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23971 results in Ancient history

Page 1 of 1199

Roman Rural Archaeology
  • Society, Economy, and Culture
  • Edited by Gijs Willem Tol, Astrid Van Oyen
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    July 2026
    Print publication:
    31 July 2026
  • The Roman world was a rural world. Most of the Roman population lived in the countryside and had their immediate rural surroundings as their social and economic frame of reference. For much of the Roman period, rural property provided the basis for political power and urban development, and it was in rural areas that the agricultural crops that sustained an expanding empire were grown and many of the most important Roman industries were situated. Rural areas witnessed the presence of some of the most durable symbols of Roman imperial hegemony, such as aqueducts and paved roads. It was mainly here that native and Roman traditions collided and were negotiated. This volume, containing 30 chapters by leading scholars, leverages recent methodological advancements and new interpretative frameworks to provide a holistic view, with an empire-wide reach, of the importance of Roman rural areas in the success of ancient Rome.

Ancient Greek Democracies
  • Matthew Simonton
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    May 2026
    Print publication:
    31 May 2026
  • Classical Athenian democracy is rightly famous but democracy flourished in other parts of the Greek world as well. In this clear and fascinating book, Matthew Simonton traces the emergence, growth, consolidation and decline of democratic city-states over the millennium down to the fifth century CE. He argues for the widespread and highly participatory nature of democratic constitutions across the Greek world, particularly in the fourth, third, and second centuries BCE. Readers will also learn to appreciate the characteristic ideological, institutional, and material-cultural features of democratic poleis. The evidence marshalled includes literary texts, inscriptions, coins, archaeological remains, and monumental art. The book does not shy away from the fact that ancient Greek democracies both empowered lower-class men but also rested on a series of exclusions (of women, enslaved people, and foreigners). Nevertheless, dēmokratia emerges as a major facet of ancient Greek culture and society.

The Cambridge Companion to Classics and Race
  • Edited by Rosa Andújar, Elena Giusti, Jackie Murray
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    May 2026
    Print publication:
    31 May 2026
  • Race as a concept has had a fraught role in the history of Classics, woven into its formation as an academic discipline. While the texts and artefacts of the ancient Mediterranean world provide complex understandings of what race might mean and how it might operate, they have also provided fodder for modern racial ideologies. This Companion offers a wide-ranging and groundbreaking overview of 'race' and 'racism' in ancient Mediterranean cultures and as well as in the formation of Classics as a discipline. Through twenty-four chapters written by a team of international scholars, it clarifies the terms and concepts that are central to contemporary theories of race and explores the extent to which they can be applied to the study of the ancient Mediterranean world, in and beyond Greece and Rome. It also showcases various concrete examples of how Classics has been shaped by the intertwined histories of race and colonialism.

Diodoros of Sicily: Bibliotheke Historike
  • The Rise of Macedon under Philip II, and the Conquests of Alexander III (the Great). Translation, with Introduction and Notes
  • Volume 2, Books 16-17
  • Edited and translated by Phillip Harding
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    May 2026
    Print publication:
    31 May 2026

The Cambridge History of International Law

Architecture and Politics in Mycenaean Greece
  • Stoneworking, Labor, and Regional Ties in the Late Bronze Age
  • Nicholas G. Blackwell
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    April 2026
    Print publication:
    30 April 2026
  • In Late Bronze Age Greece, Mycenaean authorities commissioned impressive funerary monuments, fortifications, and palatial complexes, reflecting their advanced engineering and architectural skills. Yet the degree of connectivity among Mycenaean administrative centers remains contested. In this book, Nicholas Blackwell explores craft relationships by analyzing artisan mobility and technological transfer across certain sites. These labor networks offer an underexplored perspective for interpreting the period's geopolitical dynamics. Focusing on iconic monuments like the Lion Gate relief, the refurbished Grave Circle A, and the Treasury of Atreus, Blackwell reconsiders the topographical and political evolution of Mycenae and the Argolid in the 14th-13th centuries BCE.  Notable stone-working links between the Argolid and northern Boeotia also imply broader state-level relationships.  His analysis contributes fresh ideas to ongoing research into the organization of the Mycenaean world.

The Cambridge Companion to the Greek Iron Age
  • Edited by Jane B. Carter, Carla M. Antonaccio
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    April 2026
    Print publication:
    30 April 2026
  • Once considered a period of poverty and isolation, devoid of impressive material culture, the Iron Age is now regarded as a pivotal era. It witnessed how the ancient Greeks lost and regained literacy, created lifelike figural representations and monumental architecture, and eventually established new and complex civic polities. The Companion to the Greek Iron Age offers an up to date account of this critical epoch of Greek antiquity. Including archaeological surveys of different regions, it presents focused discussions of the Early Iron Age cultures and states with which Greek regions had contacts and which are integral for understanding cultural developments in this formative period. They include Cyprus, Syro-Anatolia, Italy, and Egypt, regions in which, as in Greece, the Early Iron Age is diverse and unevenly documented. Offering a synthesis of the key developments, The Companion to the Greek Iron Age also demonstrates how new archaeological and theoretical approaches have enlarged and clarified our understanding of this seminal period.

Women, Wealth and Power in the Roman Republic

The Archaic and Early Classical Greek World
  • Using Coins as Sources
  • Keith Rutter
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    March 2026
    Print publication:
    31 March 2026
  • The western tradition of coinage began in Asia Minor around 650 BCE and from there the idea spread quite rapidly to other parts of the Mediterranean. This book describes and evaluates developments in coinage down to the period of the Persian Wars, ending in 479. Early coinage was not monolithic. The new medium of exchange proved attractive to a variety of rulers and societies – kings, dynasts, tribes, city–states with varying forms of governance. The physical characteristics of the coins produced were another source of difference. Initially there was no fixed idea of what a coin should look like, and there were several experiments before a consensus emerged around a small, circular metal object with a design, or type, on both sides. This book provides students with an authoritative introduction, with all technical terms and methodologies explained, as well as illustrations of over 200 important coins with detailed captions.

The Judgment of the Provinces
  • The Roman Empire and the Origins of Law and Society
  • Ari Z. Bryen
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    March 2026
    Print publication:
    31 March 2026
  • Roman law is justly famous, but what was its relationship to governing an empire? In this book, Ari Z. Bryen argues that law, as the learned practice that we know today, emerged from the challenge of governing a diverse and fractious set of imperial subjects. Through analysis of these subjects' political and legal ideologies, Bryen reveals how law became the central topic of political contest in the Roman Empire. Law offered a means of testing legitimacy and evaluating government, as well as a language for asking fundamental political questions. But these political claims did not go unchallenged. Elites resisted them, and jurists, in collaboration with emperors, reimagined law as a system that excluded the voices of the governed. The result was to separate, for the first time, 'law' from 'society' more broadly, and to define law as a primarily literate and learned practice, rather than the stuff of everyday life.

Calendar, Cult, and Law in Rome to the Age of Augustus
  • Daniel J. Gargola
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    March 2026
    Print publication:
    28 February 2026
  • Rome's calendar often falls into the background in studies of republican political, legal, and religious practices. Its relationship to celestial phenomena is usually unexamined and modernizing assumptions are made about its regularity of operations and the advantages of Caesar's reform. In this book, Daniel Gargola clarifies its relationship to celestial phenomena and reveals the extent to which celestial references permeated public cult; he also demonstrates that the competent authorities often intervened in its operations in order to accommodate other concerns. The calendar also provided the temporal framework for the regulation of public and cultic activities and thus had a central role in Roman law. Roman writers attempted to bring clarity to the norms involving the calendar, and their efforts have often influenced modern attempts to study it. Nevertheless, the complexity of public and cultic life undermined these attempts and Romans always had to navigate between competing norms.

Myth, Text and Image in Ancient Mesopotamia
  • A Narrative Reading of the World
  • Beate Pongratz-Leisten
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    March 2026
    Print publication:
    31 March 2026
  • This book is about the power of story-telling and the place of myth in the cultural memory of ancient Mesopotamia. Rather than reducing mythology to an archaic state of the mind, this study redefines myth as a system of knowledge (episteme) and part of cognitive and cultural experience serving as an explanatory system. It demonstrates how among the multiple ways of world-making (Nelson Goodman) myth not only reflects experiences and reality but also constitutes reality in text and image alike. Drawing on cognitive semiotics, visual studies, and cognitive narratology, it explores the power of the image in showing and revealing something that is absent (deixis). Thus, it demonstrates the contribution of the image to knowledge production. The book calls for re-introducing meaning when dealing with the imagery and iconology of ancient Mesopotamia and introduces an innovative approach to the art history of the ancient Near East.

Athena's Sisters
  • Reclaiming the Women of Classical Athens
  • Katherine Backler
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    February 2026
    Print publication:
    28 February 2026
  • Athena's Sisters transforms our understanding of Classical Athenian culture and society by approaching its institutions—kinship, slavery, the economy, social organisation—from women's perspectives. It argues that texts on dedications and tombstones set up by women were frequently authored by those women. This significant body of women's writing offers direct insights into their experiences, values, and emotions. With men often absent, women redefined the boundaries of the family in dialogue with patriarchal legal frameworks. Beyond male social and political structures, women defined their identities and relationships through their own institutions. By focusing on women's engagement with other women, rather than their relationships to men, this timely and necessary book reveals the richness and dynamism of women's lives and their remarkable capacity to shape Athenian society and history.

Visiting the Oracle at Dodona
  • Contexts of Unknowing in Ancient Greek Religion
  • Edited by Hugh Bowden, Esther Eidinow
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    February 2026
    Print publication:
    28 February 2026
  • Previous studies of Greek oracles have largely studied their social and political connections. In contrast, this pioneering volume explores the experience of visiting the oracle of Zeus at Dodona in NW Greece, focusing on the role of the senses and embodied cognition. Building on the unique corpus of oracular question tablets found at the site, it investigates how this experience made new ways of knowing and new forms of knowledge available. Combining traditional treatments of evidence with more recent theoretical approaches, including from psychology, narratology and environmental humanities, the chapters explore the role of nature, sound, touch, and stories in the experience of consultation. By evoking the details of this experience, they help the reader understand more deeply what it was like for ancient men and women to visit the oracle and ask the god for help. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.

War and Community in Late Antiquity

The Cambridge Introduction to the Old Testament
  • 2nd edition
  • Bill T. Arnold
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    February 2026
    Print publication:
    28 February 2026
  • This textbook offers students who have no prior background in biblical studies an understanding of the lasting contribution of Israel's scriptures. Bringing a literary approach to the topic, it strikes a balance between historical reconstructions, comparative religions, and theology. Among several distinctive features, It traces the legacy of monotheism first emerging in the pages of Israel's scriptures as an enduring contribution for twenty-first century readers. Monotheism gives the volume an immediate relevance because the so-called Abrahamic religions are rooted in this concept. Whether one is Jewish, Christian, Muslim, or secularist, students will gain a new understanding of the origins of monotheism as their common heritage. The Second Edition of this textbook includes expanded discussions within the text and in sidebars, notably on the history of biblical scholarship, modern methods of interpretation, and wisdom literature.

The Cambridge History of Rights
  • Volume 1, The Ancient World
  • Edited by Clifford Ando, Mirko Canevaro, Benjamin Straumann
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    January 2026
    Print publication:
    27 November 2025
  • The ancient world existed before the modern conceptual and linguistic apparatus of rights, and any attempts to understand its place in history must be undertaken with care. This volume covers not only Greco-Roman antiquity, but ranges from the ancient Near East to early Confucian China; Deuteronomic Judaism to Ptolemaic Egypt; and rabbinic Judaism to Sasanian law. It describes ancient normative conceptions of personhood and practices of law in a way that respects their historical and linguistic particularity, appreciating the distinctiveness of the cultures under study whilst clarifying their salience for comparative study. Through thirteen expertly researched essays, volume one of The Cambridge History of Rights is a comprehensive and authoritative reference for the history of rights in the global ancient world and highlights societies that the field has long neglected.

Inscriptions from the Age of Constantine
  • Editions, Translations, and Essays
  • Edited and translated by Raymond Van Dam
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    January 2026
    Print publication:
    31 January 2026
  • The reign of Constantine, Roman emperor from 306 to 337, was one of the most important periods in world history. Although literary texts often represented him as the first Christian emperor, the inscriptions engraved on monuments, statue bases, and milestones offer alternative perspectives. Inscriptions highlight the influence of the other emperors, the prominence of senators at Rome, the civic traditions for praising benefactors in provincial cities, the logistics of the economy, and the abiding importance of traditional cults. This book includes the Greek and Latin texts of over 800 inscriptions from the early fourth century, with translations and critical annotations. An extended Introduction and almost 200 short essays provide context by explaining the issues and problems, correlating the literary texts, and comparing the legends and images of coins. Without the emperor as the constant focus, the Age of Constantine becomes all the more fascinating.

The Topography and Monuments of Ancient Rome
  • C. Brian Rose
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    January 2026
    Print publication:
    31 January 2026
  • Tracing the development of Rome over a span of 1200 years, The Topography and Monuments of Ancient Rome offers an overview of the changing appearance of the city and the social, political, and military factors that shaped it. C. Brian Rose places Rome's architecture, coinage, inscriptions and monuments in historical context and offers a nuanced analysis regarding the evolution of the city and its monuments over time. He brings an interdisciplinary approach to his study, merging insights gained from cutting-edge techniques in archaeological research, such as remote sensing, core-sampling, palaeobotany, neutron-activation analysis, and isotopic analysis, with literary, epigraphic, and numismatic evidence. Rose also includes reconstructions of the ancient city that reflect the rapid developments in digital technology and mapping in the last three decades.  Aimed at scholars and students alike, Rose's study demonstrates how evidence can be drawn from a variety of approaches. It serves as a model for studying and viewing the growth and structure of ancient cities.

Political Violence in Ancient Greece
  • Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches to Stasis, 500–301 BCE
  • Scott Lawin Arcenas
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    January 2026
    Print publication:
    31 January 2026
  • Political violence, which the ancient Greeks called stasis, was a fundamental aspect of Greek society. In this book, Scott Arcenas reshapes our understanding of this important phenomenon. He argues that it differed fundamentally from its analogues in both ancient and modern societies and that in most poleis it occurred with high frequency but very low levels of violence. Stasis therefore promoted economic growth, institutional innovation, and cultural creativity in a variety of important and surprising ways. In order to undertake this study, Dr Arcenas introduces new methods and tools to confront some of the greatest methodological challenges that face scholars of the ancient world: evidentiary scarcity, evidentiary bias, epistemic uncertainty, and lack of clarity regarding the explanatory value of our sources' silence. The book is therefore required reading for a wide range of scholars and students of ancient history.

Page 1 of 1199