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Part II. DidacticismAaron P. Johnson, Eusebius’ Praeparatio Evangelica as Literary Experiment

Eusebius’ Praeparatio Evangelica as Literary Experiment Aaron P. Johnson, University of Texas, Austin I Eusebius’ Praeparatio Evangelica is a masterful work that defies easy categorization. Written between 314 and 324, soon after Eusebius had become bishop of the metropolis of Caesarea in Palestine, its fifteen books offered a sustained critique of Greek thought by the formidably erudite librarian and scholar. [1]… Read more

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Yannis Papadoyannakis, Instruction by Question and Answer: The Case of Late Antique and Byzantine Erotapokriseis

Instruction by Question and Answer: The Case of Late Antique and Byzantine Erotapokriseis Yannis Papadoyannakis, University of Birmingham In this contribution I would like to discuss and problematize the literary process of instruction by question and answer. This process is integral to a very little-studied body of literature, that of the question-and-answer or otherwise known as erotapokriseis in late antiquity but also to the literary form… Read more

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Ruth Webb, Rhetorical and Theatrical Fictions in Chorikios of Gaza

Rhetorical and Theatrical Fictions in Chorikios of Gaza Ruth Webb, Birkbeck, University of London; Université de Paris X–Nanterre The surviving works of Chorikios of Gaza encompass the main genres of post-classical Greek rhetoric. He is probably best known for his panegyrical descriptions of two churches in Gaza containing some of the most prominent early examples of the ekphrasis of church buildings. [1]… Read more

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Part III. ClassicismElizabeth Jeffreys, Writers and Audiences in the Early Sixth Century

Writers and Audiences in the Early Sixth Century Elizabeth Jeffreys, Exeter College, Oxford This paper takes as its starting point three passages that have to do with Helen of Troy and her seducer Paris: Ἐν δέ τοῖς χρόνοις τοῦ Δαβίδ ἐβασίλευσεν τοῦ Ἰλίου, ἤτοι τῆς Φρυγῶν χώρας, Πρίαμος, ὑιὸς Λαομέδοντος, ἐν δὲ τῇ αὐτοῦ βασιλείᾳ τότε καὶ τὸ Ἵλιον καὶ τὸ Δάρδανον καὶ ἡ Τροία… Read more

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Adrian Hollis, The Hellenistic Epyllion and Its Descendants

The Hellenistic Epyllion and Its Descendants Adrian Hollis, Keble College, Oxford In a volume dedicated to the Greek literature of late antiquity and the early Byzantine period it may seem strange to start this contribution from Alexandria in the third century BC. Yet many have sensed a certain community of spirit between Alexandria and Constantinople, and my purpose here is to trace one of the most… Read more

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Part II. A Preclassical Homer from the Bronze Age

Part Two. A preclassical Homer from the Bronze Age A working definition of the Bronze Age II§1 Just as I redefined the Dark Age in Homeric terms as a transitional phase leading up to a notionally terminal phase of Homer the Classic, I now redefine the Bronze Age as the corresponding initial phase. In Homeric terms, this initial phase of Homer the Preclassic is marked… Read more

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6. Variations on a Theme of Homer

Chapter Six: Variations on a theme of Homer II 6ⓢ1. Rival datings of Homer II§6 In the Life of Homer traditions we find explicit references to the dating of Homer, linked directly to the dating of the Trojan War. In Vita 3a (25–44), which draws upon Book 3 of Aristotle’s Poetics as its source (F 76 ed. Rose), it is said that Homer was conceived… Read more

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7. Conflicting Claims on Homer

Chapter Seven: Conflicting claims on Homer II 7ⓢ1. The tomb of Achilles and the topography of the Troad II§42 The Aeolians had their own motives for claiming the territory of Sigeion as their very own Iliadic space. The tomb of the hero Achilles was understood to be located in Aeolian territory, specifically in the environs of Sigeion. As we are about to see, the Aeolians… Read more

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8. Homeric Variations on a Theme of Empire

Chapter Eight: Homeric variations on a theme of empire II 8ⓢ1. Four festivals and four models of empire II§230 In the account of Herodotus, Miletus figures as the premier city in a federation of twelve cities that comprise the Ionian Dodecapolis. This privileging of Miletus reflects an early model of political dominance that shaped the later model that we know as the Athenian empire. To… Read more

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9. Further Variations on a Theme of Homer

Chapter Nine: Further variations on a theme of Homer II 9ⓢ1. Homer the federal hostage II§327 The time has come to ask this fundamental question about the festive poetics of federal politics. How could Homeric poetry express the idea of a federal society? Or, to put it another way, how could a poetic figure like Homer serve as a spokesman for such a society? The… Read more