A previous assessment of the measurement unit employed in building the Antonine Wall compared the distance slabs with LiDAR-derived three-dimensional distances on the ground and concluded that it was the pes Drusianus. Using more precisely determined discovery locations, correcting an error in previous published calculations and making allowance for installations already built, establishes that the unit was the pes Monetalis. The wider implications are examined, concluding that postulated secondary forts were, indeed, later additions; that fortlets were an integral part of the original plan, though not all were constructed before the rampart; that there is no direct correlation between the location of the slabs and pre-existing installations; and that the Bridgeness–Avon sector was one of the earliest to be constructed.

A newly identified RPG die from Gloucester is shown to have been a repurposed quinquennales die which was modified after the officials’ year of office was completed. In the light of this a further RPG die is proposed as having been repurposed from another quinquennales die. The implications for the duration of civic die production are discussed.

Book 2 of Aristotle’s De anima is transmitted in two versions: a vulgate version, attested in the overwhelming majority of extant manuscripts, and a non-standard version, hitherto known primarily by the few subsisting remains of the original recension of manuscript Parisinus graecus 1853, the oldest extant direct witness. After identifying additional witnesses to the non-standard version, the article argues that it derives from the vulgate version and that some of its innovations originate in the ancient commentaries to the treatise.

The exiles in the so-called ‘Themistocles Decree’ from Troezen are universally identified with the ostracized who, according to the Athenaion Politeia, were recalled due to Xerxes’ invasion. This identification should be questioned. If the document is a forgery (as is now widely believed), it need not correspond with all available information. The decree’s language suggests instead that, in its author’s mind, the exiles had collectively been in exile for ten years when he thought they returned. Some speculation is offered about their possible identification within the context of fourth-century historiography.

This article analyses how Flavius Josephus presents the conquests of Asinaeus and Anilaeus, two robber-bandits who established a fiefdom in first-century Babylonia. In dialogue with common Roman tropes about gender and his previous writings on the notable physical features of men in times of war, this article focusses on how Josephus progressively effeminizes Asinaeus and Anilaeus. Although their military feats abound, their increasingly risky behaviour and their growing neglect of Jewish ways of life jeopardize their own character and the safety of their Jewish kin. With this strategy of emasculation, Josephus undermines those who self-interestedly seek power and influence.

This article is a study of political morality using historical, philosophical, and literary sources in combination. It evaluates ‘greatness of soul’ (magnanimitas/magnitudo animi; μεγαλοψυχία), a moral and political concept which I argue was of central importance to the Cornelian family inheritance. Greatness of soul was present in the Roman consciousness in the second century BC, linked to the life and actions of Scipio Africanus. The concept had been Stoicised in the Hellenistic period to express the moral quality of the outstanding individual labouring on behalf of others, and it was received in this form by Africanus’ descendants. Stoic philosophers, active in Rome, advised its statesmen of the imperative to identify action with morality in making progress to virtue. However, there were different interpretations of Stoic doctrine which insisted on different roles for the man of great soul: reform for the benefit of the people (the Gracchi), conservation for the benefit of the community (Scipio Aemilianus). Magnanimitas was contested by the descendants of Scipio Africanus and their rival interpretations of greatness of soul help explain divergence in their ethical intentions and actions.

Escaping from the sack of Amida in 359, the historian Ammianus Marcellinus encountered a runaway horse pulling behind it the dead body of a groom who had tied himself to the horse and fallen off (19.8.6–7). The article argues that errors in text and punctuation and a lack of equestrian knowledge have led to an illogical interpretation of the passage. Where most translators describe the groom being tied to the reins, we should understand habena as a halter used to guide the animal from on foot. Prose rhythm implies that ne labi possit ex more should be taken as a single clause, meaning ‘in the usual manner to stop [the horse] escaping’. Moreover, attention to prose rhythm and Ammianus’ usage also shows that we should further emend sedens to insidens.

At the climax of the Myth of Er in Plato’s Republic, the soul of Odysseus chooses to be reincarnated as an ἀπράγμων ἰδιώτης, breaking with Homer’s characterization of Ithaca’s king (620c–d). Previous treatments of Odysseus’ choice have linked it to Socrates’ suggestion that the best course for a philosopher in an imperfect political context is to retreat from his society, as if taking shelter beside a wall (496d). They have also linked it to the discussion of how the philosopher who returns to the cave after gazing on the forms in a society not ready for him to rule will be reviled (517a) despite being the best leader for a city based on justice.

This article builds on these intratextual connections by proposing that Plato also exploits the marked language of disaffected fifth-century elites and a pertinent intertext: the Odysseus of the prologue of Euripides’ Philoctetes. Euripides’ Odysseus uses language resembling Plato’s to express his dissatisfaction with how honour is allocated in society, which evokes contemporary debates about rewards and punishments for democracy’s successes and failures. Plato exploits the resonance of this language, but subordinates it to his philosophical purpose. Instead of finding the ἀπράγμων life attractive because of frustration with the distribution of honour, Plato’s Odysseus recognizes the inadequacy of φιλοτιμία more broadly. This signals that the quiet life should be chosen for philosophically sound reasons. The example is intended to inspire Socrates’ ambitious interlocutor during the Myth of Er, Plato’s brother Glaucon.

The paper examines line 97 of the poem Ad coniugem suam, traditionally attributed to Prosper of Aquitaine. This line has been misedited in the last two critical editions by Hartel (1894) and Santelia (2009), whose unjustified omission of the words mundus and omnibus (respectively) resulted in an unmetrical line and distorted the meaning of the text. This paper, therefore, advocates for a restoration of the original line.