Brill’s New Pauly

Get access Subject: Classical Studies
Edited by: Hubert Cancik and Helmuth Schneider (Antiquity) and Manfred Landfester (Classical Tradition).
English translation edited by Christine F. Salazar (Antiquity) and Francis G. Gentry (Classical Tradition)

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Brill´s New Pauly is the English edition of the authoritative Der Neue Pauly, published by Verlag J.B. Metzler since 1996. The encyclopaedic coverage and high academic standard of the work, the interdisciplinary and contemporary approach and clear and accessible presentation have made the New Pauly the unrivalled modern reference work for the ancient world. The section on Antiquity of Brill´s New Pauly are devoted to Greco-Roman antiquity and cover more than two thousand years of history, ranging from the second millennium BC to early medieval Europe. Special emphasis is given to the interaction between Greco-Roman culture on the one hand, and Semitic, Celtic, Germanic, and Slavonic culture, and ancient Judaism, Christianity, and Islam on the other hand. The section on the Classical Tradition is uniquely concerned with the long and influential aftermath of antiquity and the process of continuous reinterpretation and revaluation of the ancient heritage, including the history of classical scholarship. Brill´s New Pauly presents the current state of traditional and new areas of research and brings together specialist knowledge from leading scholars from all over the world. Many entries are elucidated with maps and illustrations and the English edition will include updated bibliographic references.

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Abolus

(41 words)

Author(s): Manganaro, Giacomo (Sant' Agata li Battiata)
[German version] (Ἄβολος; Ábolos). Torrent by  Catana, near which Timoleon defeated Mamercus (prior to 338 BC; Plut. Timoleon 34,1).  Sicily Manganaro, Giacomo (Sant' Agata li Battiata) Bibliography E. Manni, Geogr. fisica e politica della Sicilia antica (Cocalus Suppl. 4), 1981, 93.

Abonutichus

(211 words)

Author(s): Marek, Christian (Zürich)
[German version] (Ἀβώνου τεῖχος; Abṓnou teîchos). Coastal town in  Paphlagonia, east of the foothills of Carambis (Ptol. 5,4,2). The etymology of its name (cf. Gordiou Teichos, Panemou Teichos) lies as much in the dark as the beginnings of its existence as an urban settlement; recorded it as a  polis from Trajan onwards (beginning of 2nd cent. AD). Initially part of the province of Pontus, A. was apparently transferred by Marcus Aurelius to the province of  Galatia. It gained particular notoriety through  Lucianus' pamphl…

Aborigines

(286 words)

Author(s): Sonnabend, Holger (Stuttgart)
[German version] In Roman tradition the name given to the earliest inhabitants of  Latium (Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 1,10; Lydus, Mag. 1,10). The etymology of the name is uncertain: Lycoph. 1253 hints at a derivation from Βορείγονοι ( Boreígonoi;  Aeneas [1] was prophesied that he would settle ἐν τόποις Βορειγόνων; en tópois Boreigónōn); others -- on the presumption that the A. pursued a nomadic way of life -- formulate an onomastic development from Aberrigenes ( aberrare) to A. (Paul. Fest. 19; Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 1,10; Auctor de origine gentis Romanae 4,2). The origin of the A. is equa…

Abortifacients

(173 words)

Author(s): King, Helen (Reading)
[German version] Traditional botany and modern laboratory research agree that many substances in the ancient medicine chest possessed potentially abortive effects. Among these number ruewort ( Ruta graveolens), birthwort ( Aristolochia), pennyroyal ( Mentha pulegium), pomegranate ( Punica granatum), wild carrot ( Daucus carota) and juniper ( Juniperus). However, it is still not easy to make a comparison between modern botanical chemistry and ancient medicine; the portion of ethereal oil and, therefore, the effect of the plants each varied ac…

Abortio

(196 words)

Author(s): Schiemann, Gottfried (Tübingen)
[German version] also partus abactio, is  abortion in late Roman law. For a long time abortion in Rome was apparently not punishable, any more than it was in Greek law (  amblosis ). This was consistent with a legal system which even allowed abandonment of children. It is possible, though, that the censor made sure there was effective social control with regard to evident abuses. Not until a rescript of Sept. Severus and Caracalla (cf. Marcianus Dig. 47,11,4) was exile imposed on married and divorced women w…

Abortion

(1,070 words)

Author(s): King, Helen (Reading)
[German version] A. Corpus Hippocraticum Abortion is a procedure which was performed frequently in antiquity. However, the Hippocratic Oath forbids the use of a pessary. This text, which had great influence on the later history of medicine, is extremely controversial, whereby the aforementioned clause is the most discussed. In the version which has been handed down to us, neither surgical nor oral abortion methods are excluded. The famous passage in Nat. pueri 13 [1], in which a prostitute is encour…

Aboulites

(62 words)

Author(s): Badian, Ernst (Cambridge, MA)
[German version] Satrap of  Susa under  Darius, father of  Oxathres. In 331 BC he handed the city over to  Alexander [4] with 50,000 silver  talents and was confirmed as satrap. The subdued  Uxii were subordinated to him. During the cleansing after Alexander's losses in  Gedrosia (324), A. and his son were executed. Badian, Ernst (Cambridge, MA) Bibliography Berve 2, no. 5.

Abradatas

(73 words)

Author(s): Kuhrt, Amélie (London) | Sancisi-Weerdenburg, Helen (Utrecht)
[German version] (Ἀβραδάτης; Abradátēs). Fictitious king of Susa, protagonist in a novella in Xen. Cyr. (5,1,2; 6,1,45-52; 6,3,35-36; 6,4,2-10; 7,1,29-32; 7,3,2-14). His beautiful wife, Pantheia, was taken prisoner by Cyrus, treated very well and convinced A. to join Cyrus. A. fell in the battle against the Lydians. Pantheia committed suicide on his grave. Kuhrt, Amélie (London) Sancisi-Weerdenburg, Helen (Utrecht) Bibliography C. J. Brunner, s. v. A., Enclr 1, 228 D. Gera, Xenophon's Cyropaedia, 1993, 221-245.

Abraham

(625 words)

Author(s): Ego, Beate (Osnabrück) | Müller, Walter W. (Marburg/Lahn)
[German version] [1] Biblical figure The biblical A. figure is subject to various interpretations during the early Jewish and rabbinical periods. To traditionally devout circles, A. represents the law-abiding patriarch, who, owing to the timeless nature of Jewish law, was able to observe the Halachic commandments previous to their revelation on Sinai (cf. i.a. Sir 44,19; Jub 15,1; 16,21; 21,5; syrBar 57,2; mQid 4,14; bYom 28b). As A. destroyed his father's graven images, he is regarded as the first r…

Abrax­as

(358 words)

Author(s): Harrauer, Christine (Vienna)
[German version] (Ἀβρασάξ, Ἀβράξας, Latin Abraxas). Magical power, created by speculation using number mysticism (seven letters, numerical value: 365) probably associated with Egyptizing Gnosis. Etymologically unsolved, usually assigned to Hebrew arba(s) [1]; possibly in connection with forming of phrases such as Abra(cad)abra [2. 67 f.]. Documented as from the 2nd cent. BC. According to Irenaeus (Adv. Haer. 1,24,7) and Hippolytus (haer. 7,26,6; cf. Ps.Tert. Adv. Haer. 1,5) the Gnostic Basileides saw in Abraxas the all-encom…

Abrettene

(79 words)

Author(s): Schwertheim, Elmar (Münster)
[German version] (Ἀβρεττηνή; Abrettēnḗ). Region in northern  Mysia, north of Abbaitis and south of Olympene (Plin. HN 5,123; Str. 12,8,9; 11). At the time of the 2nd Triumvirate (43-36/32 BC) Cleon, a leader of the many local bands of brigands, dominated the region. Confirmed in his leadership by the future  Augustus in about 30 BC, he was also a priest of  Zeus Abrettenus [1. 154]. Schwertheim, Elmar (Münster) Bibliography 1 E. Schwertheim, Die Inschr. von Hadrianoi und Hadrianeia (IK 33), 1987.

Abritus

(178 words)

Author(s): von Bredow, Iris (Bietigheim-Bissingen)
[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Thraci, Thracia | (Ἄβριττος; Ábrittos). Roman fortress and civilian settlement, 2 km east of the modern Razgrad, Bulgaria; pre-Roman Thracian settlement, probably the administrative centre of the strategia Rysiké under the last of the Thracian kings (IGBulg 743). From 45 BC part of  Moesia inferior; from no later than AD 78 encampment of auxilia (CIL XVI 22); in the 2nd cent. AD garrison of the cohors II Lucensium (CIL III 13727); strongly fortified in the 4th cent. AD. Inscriptions confirm a civilian settleme…

Abrocomas

(137 words)

Author(s): Kuhrt, Amélie (London) | Sancisi-Weerdenburg, Helen (Utrecht)
(Ἀβροκόμης, Ἀβροκόμας; Abrokómēs, Abrokómas). [German version] [1] Son of Darius I and Phratagune Son of Darius I and Phratagune, fell during the battle of Thermopylae (Hdt. 7,224) [1]. Kuhrt, Amélie (London) Sancisi-Weerdenburg, Helen (Utrecht) [German version] [2] Persian General Persian general at the time of Artaxerxes II, 401 BC, commissioned to lead the war against the Egyptians; questionable whether he was satrap of Syria (Xen. An. 1,3,20; Diod. Sic. 14,20,5). Hurried to support Artaxerxes in the battle of Cunaxa, but he arriv…

Abrogatio

(306 words)

Author(s): Gizewski, Christian (Berlin)
[German version] In public law, abrogatio refers to the suspension of a right or law. 1a: the complete suspension of a law (  lex ) passed by   rogatio by the assembly (Ulp., prooem. 3: abrogatur legi, cum prorsus tollitur). 1b: in a broader sense also the obsoletion of a paragraph of law due to persistent non-observance (Dig. 1,3,32,1: receptum est, ut leges etiam tacito consensu omnium per desuetudinem abrogentur). 2a: the taking away of an   imperium transferred by the comitia via a rogatio. 2b: in a broader sense the denial of rights by a competent court (Cod. Theod. 9,10,3). The abrogatio i…

Abrote

(49 words)

Author(s): Meier, Mischa (Bielefeld)
[German version] (Ἀβρώτη; Abrṓtē). According to Plut. Mor. 295a, the canny wife of  Ninus, the king of Megara. In her memory, he is supposed to have introduced her official dress ἀφάβρωμα ( aphábrōma) to the Megarean women; its abolition was supposedly forbidden by an oracle. Meier, Mischa (Bielefeld)

Abrotonon

(47 words)

Author(s): Stein-Hölkeskamp, Elke (Cologne)
[German version] Traditionally, A. is given among others as the name of the mother of  Themistocles (Plut. Themistocles 1, cf. Ath. 13,576). Her Thracian origins were supposedly the reason that Themistocles was not a full citizen.  Themistocles Stein-Hölkeskamp, Elke (Cologne) Bibliography F. J. Frost, Plutarch's Themistocles, 1980, 61-63.

Abroupolis

(109 words)

Author(s): Peter, Ulrike (Berlin)
[German version] (Ἀβρούπολις; Abroupolis). Dynast of the Thracian Sapaioi east of the Nestus and north of Abdera; crossed the Macedonian border as far as Amphipolis in 179 BC, captured mines in Pangaeum, was repelled by  Perseus and driven from his country. The Roman request, in 172, for the restoration of its socius et amicus served as a pretence for the third Macedonian War (Syll.3 643; Pol. 22,18,2-3; Diod. Sic. 29,33; Liv. 42,13,5; 40,5; 41,10-11; App. Mac. 11; Paus. 7,10,6). Thracian name form Ἀβλουπορις ( Ablouporis) known from two inscriptions from 80 BC (Sherk, no. 20; …

Abrus

(130 words)

Author(s): Hünemörder, Christian (Hamburg)
[German version] Arabic (orig. Indian) name for the coral-red, poisonous seeds of the legume Abrus precatorius L. that have been used in India since antiquity in medicine, criminal science and as weights as ‘rati’ like those of Ceratonia (karat; seed of the carob tree), but which were probably not brought to Europe until after 1550 (according to Prosper Alpinus, 1553-1617, in 1592), in [1] pisa rubra, in [2. 343] pisum indicum minus coccineum, called ‘semen Jequiritii’ or ‘rosary peas’ by other botanists, especially common for rosaries like the stones of the oleaster.  Weights Hünemörd…

Absentia

(469 words)

Author(s): Gizewski, Christian (Berlin)
[German version] Absence of persons or lack of facts with significant public or civil legal consequences: 1. Absence of a civis Romanus on the   census date, when personal presence is required (Vell. Pat. 2,7,7; exceptions: Gell. NA 5,19,16). Inexcused absentia can cause disadvantageous estimation of assets and class assignment (Cic. Att. 1,18,8), and can also bring sanctions as harsh as the forced sale of assets (Zon. 7,19). 2: The absentia of a candidate for public office during registration as a candidate and also during candidacy. Candidacy assumes personal re…

Absolutio

(227 words)

Author(s): Schiemann, Gottfried (Tübingen)
[German version] in Roman court proceedings is the opposite of ‘condemnation’ (  condemnatio ). In civil proceedings the formula in which the praetors set down the programme for the iudex ends stereotypically with the judicial command ... condemnato. Si non paret, absolvito. Both absolutio and condemnatio were final and absolute, in other words the decision -- apart from the special case of   appellatio -- was irrevocable, the dispute was definitively concluded and the exceptio rei iudicatae (demurrer of legal force) stood in the way of a new action. The saying omnia iudicia absolutor…
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