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(Τύνης/ Týnēs). [German version] I. Location, Punic to Roman period Libyan city in Africa proconsularis (Africa 3.; Str. 17,3,16; Tab. Peut. 5,5), 15 km south-west of Carthage, the modern Tunis. First mentioned in conjunction with the uprising of allied troops against Carthage in 396 BC (Diod. Sic. 14,77,3). In 310 BC, the city served Agathocles[2] as a base for his attack on Carthage [1. 190-193], and similarly in 256 BC during the First Punic War the Roman consul Atilius [I 21] Regulus [1. 235-237]. In …

[German version] [1] City in southern Arabia (Νάγαρα μητρόπολις/ Nágara mētrópolis, Ptol.6,7,37; Nagara, Amm. Marc. 23,47; πόλις Νεγράνων/ pólis Negránōn, Str. 16,4,24). Urban centre in ancient southern Arabia, modern Naǧrān, located in the wadi of the same name. N.'s importance was due to its geographical location at the crossing of two caravan routes from the Hadramaut to the Mediterranean over the Ḥiǧāẓ and into Iraq over the Yamama. It was conquered by Aelius Gallus in 24 BC (Plin. HN 6,160), but retained its …

Strohmaier, Gotthard (Berlin RWG) I. The Near East (CT) [German version] A. Origin and Development of the Arabic-Islamic Cultural Sphere (CT) In a power vacuum between Byzantium and Persia, the prophet Mohammed founded a new theocratic and militant state on the Arabian peninsula in 622. Within less than a century, it extended from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indus. These conquests were facilitated by mild taxation laws and tolerant religious policies: Jews and Christians, who for the most part belonged to national chu…

(Τάρας/ Táras). [German version] [1] Son of Poseidon and a South-Italian nymph Son of Poseidon and a South-Italian nymph (Paus. 10,10,8), or son of Heracles [1] (Serv. Aen. 3,551); hero and eponym of the town of Taranto ( cf. T. [2]) and of its river. He is considered to be the founder (Paus. l.c.), or at least the patron (Serv. l.c.) of Taranto. On a coin from Taranto, he is represented as a boy reaching out for Poseidon; the image of a dolphin rider appearing on other coins from Taranto, represents rather Phalantus [1], in spite o…

[German version] I. Concept The Greek word parádeisos (παράδεισος/ parádeisos, Latin paradisus) or Hebrew pardēs comes from the ancient Iranian pairidaeza, meaning “surrounding walls, round enclosure, something that is enclosed,” and originally referred to an enclosed park. In the ancient Orient, gardens, particularly in conjunction with palace and temple grounds, “epitomized a wholesome living space” as well as representing a “visible domestication of "chaotic" powers” [4. 705] (especially when wild animals were k…

(Συράκουσαι/ Syrákousai, Lat. Syracusae). Syracuse, town on Sicily's southeast coast, modern Siracusa. [German version] I. Topography Colony of Corinth (Colonization), founded in 734/3 BC. The place name is said to have derived from the swamp area of Lysimeleia, also called Συράκω/ Syrákō (cf. Scymn. 280-282), which existed until the 20th cent. and was located west of the slim promontory, which, together with the island Ortygia facing it, constituted the original bridgehead settlement (inhabited from the early Paleolithic). The factor …

(Σικελία/ Sikelía, Sicily). The largest island in the Mediterranean (Mare Nostrum; cf. Str. 2,5,19; differently Hdt. 1,170 and Timaeus FGrH 566 F 65): 25,460 km2, including the offshore islands such as the Insulae Aegates, Ustica, the Aeoli Insulae, Cossura, Lopadusa (present-day Lampedusa), Aethusa (present-day Linosa) and Melite [7] 25,953 km2. [German version] I. Name The island was originally called Trinacria (Τρινακρία/ Trinakría, Hellanicus FGrH 51 F 79b), later Sicania (Σικανίη/ Sikaníē, Hdt. 7,170; Σικανία/ Sikanía, Thuc. 6,2,2) and only then Sicelia (Σικελία)…

I. General [German version] A. Notions of measuring time Most cultures have some method of measuring time, frequently based on periodical changes within nature or the stars. The oldest of these is the pars-pro-toto method, in which it is not a certain period of time as a whole that is connected, but a regularly recurring phenomenon within that time [1. 9 f.] (e.g. lunar phases). Metaphors of time or the measuring thereof play no great role in antiquity, with the exception of the field of  metrics. Usually, the focus was not on …

[German version] I. Classical antiquity Pilgrimage, defined here as a journey of considerable length to a sacred place, undertaken for religious reasons, was a common practice in all of antiquity, not solely a Christian phenomenon. Rutherford, Ian C. (Reading) [German version] A. Greek world The best-documented form is the state pilgrimage ( theōría ), in which the Greek city-states sent out envoys ( theōroí) to attend religious festivals, announce their own festivals or consult oracles. However, festivals drew not only official theōríai but also private pilgrims; in general…

(σοφία/ sophía, Latin sapientia). I. Greco-Roman [German version] A. General and philosophical concept The Greek noun σοφία/ sophía (Ionic: σοφίη/ sophíē), derived from the adjective σοφός ( sophós), which has been documented since the 6th cent. BC, generally refers to the superior skill and knowledge that distinguishes the expert and artist from the masses and accounts for the high regard in which he is held. The term sophía is used to describe any practical mastery, such as that of a helmsman, master builder, physician, military commander or statesman (cf. Ho…

I. Ancient Near East [German version] A. Definition When applying the term wisdom literature (WL) to ancient Mesopotamian literature we need to distinguish between the idea of wisdom (Akkadian nēmequ, Sumerian nam.kù.zu, 'precious knowledge') [10; 11] as 'wealth of general human experience' and the concept of wisdom as expertise in a cult. On the one hand, there are a number of non-homogenous, formally different literary genres in which knowledge, procedures, advice and behavioural guidelines are passed on; on the other han…

[German version] I. Definition The term 'creation of the world' ('CW') (κτίσις/ ktísis, Lat. creatio) in the narrower sense should be distinguished from two similar concepts. Unlike 'cosmogony', 'CW' refers to a personal act. Secondly, unlike 'fashioning of the world' in the sense of the craft of a demiourgos [3] (cf. [1]), 'CW' does not mean the mere modelling of existing material in analogy to the creative intervention of an artist, but the absolute bringing-into-being of everything (the universe, i.e. 'the whole', τὰ πάντα/ tà pánta) out of the void. The concept of a creation…

I. Terminology and philosophy [German version] A. Modern concept The general modern meaning of the word 'tolerance' is the readiness of individuals, groups or states to permit the opinions, ways of life and philosophical and religious convictions of others to 'have validity' alongside their own. Today, the meaning of the word ranges from 'sufferance' (e.g. in the sense of constitutional law: the sufferance of immigrants, diverse confessions, religions) to the emphatic affirmation of the 'different' pheno…

[German version] I. Introduction The term P. has found its way as a loanword from the Greek translation of the Bible into numerous languages. The Septuagint regularly uses prophḗtēs to translate the Hebrew substantive nābī, which is etymologically connected with Akkadian nabû(m) = 'one who is called'. Since then a very much wider use has emerged. For a more precise demarcation of the concept, it is useful to adopt Cicero's distinction between inductive and intuitive divination ( genus artificiosum, genus naturale: Cic. Div. 1,11,34; 2,26 f.) and to describe as prophets onl…

I. Geography and history [German version] A. Name Since the 1st cent. AD, H. has referred more and more to the entire Iberian Peninsula. Although the name Hispania is only attested since the time of the 2nd Punic War (218-201 BC; Liv. 21,2; Enn. Ann. 503), it is the oldest of all, because it is derived from Phoenician í-shephanním, ‘rabbit coast’ (according to a new interpretation ‘land of metal plates’). A further name was Ophioussa (‘land of the snakes’; Avien. 148; 152; 172; 196), which was probably coined by the Phocaeans when they came into contact with some reg…

I. Ancient Orient [German version] A. General The magic of the ancient Orient and of Egypt is based on a view of the world that runs counter to that of religion. In the world-view of magic, men, gods and demons are tied to each other and to the cosmos by sympathies and antipathies, whereas in the religious world view everything is created by the gods for their own purposes; the relations between men and the cosmos are the result of deliberate actions of the gods. In the practice of religion, however, b…

[German version] I. Term Ritual refers to an elaborate sequence of individual rites which, following an established ritual syntax, are logically connected within a certain functional context. Rituals are not limited to religious contexts but exist in other cultural contexts, political as well as social. The significance of rituals for those who participate in them can be reduced neither to an integrative function (legitimation ritual) nor to a temporary disabling of the regular structure - the two e…