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II. 1. Ägyptische Herrscher bis zu Alexander d.Gr. Die ägyptische Chronologie ruht auf mehreren Säulen. Einerseits gibt es innerägyptische Herrscherlisten sowie die griechischsprachige Umsetzung dieser Tradition durch Manethon [1]; allerdings sind erstere nur sehr fragmentarisch erhalten, letzterer nur in textkritisch problematischen Exzerpten überliefert. Für manche Epochen dichter Bezeugung können auch die Daten administrativer Texte gute Aufschlüsse über die Länge von Regierungszeiten geben. Daneben …

1. Ziele des Bandes Lange Reihen von Jahreszahlen und endlose Listen von Namen gehören gewiß nicht zu der Lektüre, die besondere Spannung oder gar Begeisterung erzeugt: Kaiser, Könige, Fürsten, Amts- und Würdenträger folgen einander, säulenartig angeordnet und begleitet von Zahlensäulen mit den Daten ihrer Lebens- und Wirkungszeit, eine »versäulte« Geschichte der Antike, auf den ersten Blick so leblos wie der Marmor antiker Säulen. Aber schon der zweite Blick zeigt, daß in diesen Säulen auch komprim…

Im folgenden Abschnitt sind die Herrschaftsbildungen einiger germanischer Völker zusammengefaßt, die seit dem frühen 5. Jh. n. Chr. auf dem Boden des spätröm. Reiches und an seinen Grenzen entstanden. Die Hunnen (Hunni) waren freilich keine Germanen (Germani), gehören aber zweifellos in den vorliegenden Zusammenhang: Ihre plötzliche Expansion löste die sog. »germanische Völkerwanderung« aus. Ebenso führte der baldige Zusammenbruch der Hunnenherrschaft nach dem Tod Attilas nur im Osten zu einem W…

I. 1. Mesopotamien und benachbarte Gebiete im 3./2. Jahrtausend v. Chr. Nach der Erfindung der Schrift im ausgehenden 4. Jt. v. Chr. (um 3200 v. Chr.; vgl. Mesopotamien II.D., Keilschrift, Schrift II.B.) vergingen einige Jahrhunderte, bis ab etwa 2700/2600 v. Chr. Herrscher in der zeitgenössischen Überl. bezeugt sind. In der späteren chronographischen (vgl. u. a. Sumerische Königsliste; Chronik B.) und in der epischen Literatur (Epos I.) finden sich darüber hinaus zahlreiche weitere Herrschernamen, die sic…

V. 1. Phrygien Die griech.-röm. Historiographie und Dichtung kennt nur drei Herrscher der Phryger (Phryges, Phrygia), nämlich einen König Midas sowie dessen Vater und Sohn, die beide den eponymen Namen Gordios [1] tragen (vgl. epṓnymos), der allerdings auch für histor. Personen bezeugt ist [13. 29f.]. Ein Sohn des jüngeren Gordios namens Adrastos erscheint bei Herodot (Herodotos [1]) als Zeitgenosse des Lyderkönigs Kroisos (Lydia), wodurch sich als chronologischer Anhaltspunkt für diesen angeblichen Enkel des Midas die Zeit um 5…

X. 1. Archonten von Athen Laut Aristoteles (Ath. Pol. 3) wurden in Athen die Könige durch Archonten ersetzt ( árchontes [I]), die ihr Amt zunächst auf Lebenszeit, dann auf zehn Jahre und schließlich für ein Jahr ausgeübt haben sollen. Es handelt sich hierbei freilich um bloße Kombinationen der atthidographischen Tradition (vgl. AtthísA). Allerdings kann die Einführung des Archontats sowie die Fixierung der hiermit verbundenen Kompetenzen ebenso wie die Regelungen zur Einsetzung der Amtsträger in einem längeren Prozeß erfolgt sein (vgl. [1]). Das…

1. Aims of the present volume Long lists of dates and endless series of names hardly make for reading that is especially exciting or even interesting: emperors, kings, princes and holders of various offices follow one another, arranged in columns and accompanied by more columns with the dates of their lives and terms in office. The result: a ‘columned’ or compartmentalised history of antiquity that, at first sight, is just as lifeless as the marble of ancient columns. A second look, however, shows tha…

X. 1. Archons of Athens According to Aristotle ( Ath. Pol. 3), the kings of Athens were replaced by archons (Archontes [I]), who were first elected for life, then for ten years and in the end for one year only. This statement is clearly based on nothing more than the conjectures of the Atthidographic tradition (cf. Atthis). Still, the introduction of the archonship, the establishment of the powers associated with the office and the regulations regarding the installation of magistrates may have been the re…

II. 1. Egyptian rulers until Alexander the Great Egyptian chronology rests on several supports. First there is a native tradition of kinglists as well as the Greek reworking of this tradition by Manetho [1]. These kinglists, however, are quite fragmentary, and the work of Manetho is only transmitted in excerpts replete with textual problems. For periods from which richer textual evidence survives, the dates of administrative texts can also provide good information on the length of reigns. Furthermore, t…

V. 1. Phrygia In Graeco-Roman historiography and poetry only three rulers of the Phrygians (Phryges, Phrygia) are attested. These are king Midas, his father and his son. The latter two both have the eponym Gordius [1] (cf. Eponymus), which, however, is also attested for historical individuals (Laminger-Pascher 1989: 29f.). A son of the younger Gordius, Adrastus, is mentioned by Herodotus [1] as a contemporary of the Lydian king Croesus (Lydia), which would place Midas’ purported grandson in ca. 550 BC (Hdt. I.35-45). Yet, the dates given by Apollodorus [7], Sextus [2] Iu…

I. 1. Mesopotamia and neighbouring regions in the third and second millennium BC Notwithstanding the invention of Writing by the end of the fourth millennium ( ca. 3200 BC; cf. Mesopotamia II.D, Cuneiform script, Writing II.B), several centuries intervene until, in ca. 2700/2600 BC, the first rulers are attested in contemporary traditions. Later chronographic (cf., among others, the Sumerian Kings’ lists; Chronicles B) and epic (Epic I) literature mentions numerous additional royal names, which are, however, otherwise unattested (such …

This section includes the states of a number of Germanic peoples that emerged from the early fifth century AD onwards on the territory of the late Roman Empire and on its borders. The Huns (Hunni) were admittedly not a Germanic nation (Germani), but they certainly belong in the survey below as their sudden expansion triggered the so-called migrations of the Germanic peoples. Moreover, the rapid collapse of Hunnish rule after the death of Attila led to a recovery of imperial power only in the Eas…

[German version] Abbreviation of the Roman praenomen Lucius. In the Roman numbering system, L denotes the value 50 and probably developed from the bisection of the Greek aspirate Θ (via the form , which found no use as a letter in the early Latin alphabet). Italy, alphabetical scripts; Numerical systems Eder, Walter (Berlin)

(Ζηνόβιος/ Zēnóbios). [German version] [1] General of Mithridates [6] VI, 1st cent. BC General of Mithridates [6] VI in the first of the Mithridatic Wars (89-85 BC). He captured Chios in 86 BC and organized, despite the payment of the imposed fine of 2,000 talents, deportation of the entire population to the Black Sea (App. Mithr. 180-187; Colchis: Ath. 6,266), in order to warn other cities against secession (cf. Syll.3 785, lines 13-15). During a subsequent stay in Ephesus (still in 86: [1. 172 f.]), however, he was killed by the citizens, who feared a simila…

[German version] The A. form the royal dynasty of the East Goths and, with regard to reputation, stand above the royal dynasty of the West Goths, the  Balthi. The family tree of the A., which was developed by Iordanes (died 79) in AD 551 and began with Gaut, indicates godly origin; the eponym of the tribe, Amal, stands only in the fourth place. Iordanes relies upon Cassiodorus, who outlined shortly after the death of the Amal Theoderic the Gr. (526) in his (lost) history of the Goths an origo Gothica, which, in turn, took up an already-existing gentile tradition that had been cultiv…

[German version] [1] Statilia M. Third wife of Nero Born between AD 30 and 40, daughter of T. Statilius Taurus ( cos. 44), married her fourth husband M. Atticus Vestinus (= M. Iulius [II 147] Vestinus Atticus, cos. 65) in 63/4. In 65, emperor Nero forced Vestinus to commit suicide so that he could take M. as his (third) wife in 66 (Tac. Ann. 15,68,3; Suet. Nero 35,1; IG IV 1402 and IV2 604: M. as Nero's wife). In the same year, she was installed as Augusta. As a widow, she was courted by Otho in 69 (Suet. Otho 10,2). M., who was deified during her lifetime (as noted in the Acts o…

[German version] As distinct from the ager peregrinus, the 'foreign territory', ager Romanus (AR) was the area of the state of Rome inhabited by Romans (including the city). It consisted of privately owned real estate ( ager privatus) and public lands ( ager publicus ). Parts of the ager publicus could be transformed into ager privatus through the settlement of Roman citizens ( assignatio viritim, 'man by man'; or in closed citizens' colonies, cf. coloniae C) or could be completely divided from the AR to become ag er peregrinus when colonies with their own state areas were establis…

(τόπος/ tópos). [German version] [1] Administrative unit Territorial subdivision of a nome ( nomós [2]), attested from the Hellenistic period onwards in Egypt and in its external possessions (Syria, Palestine, southern Asia Minor); also as an administrative unit under the Seleucids and Attalids (Attalus, with stemma), probably with a similar structure but not understood in detail [1. 440]. In Egypt a topos comprised several villages or kômai (Kome B), and therefore formed a unit of intermediate size, which had no pharaonic antecedent, unlike the nome and kome, but was newly form…

[German version] A victory title assumed by Roman emperors to indicate a military success over the Sarmatians (Sarmatae). After AD 175, Marcus [2] Aurelius and his son Commodus were the first to bear the epithet Sarmaticus following the peace treaty with the Iazyges. Maximinus [2] Thrax and his son Maximus bore the title Sarmaticus maximus from AD 236. Although Sarmatian tribes continued to threaten the Danube border, Diocletianus was the first to accept the title Sarmaticus maximus again in AD 285 (three more times from then on). After Diocletian, all the Augusti of the…

[German version] Neither Greek nor Roman law is familiar with prison sentences as punitive detention in the modern sense (otherwise [1]). As a rule, until the trial the accused remains free (in Rome a kind of pre-trial confinement is permissible for political crimes), a convicted criminal only stays in prison until the execution of the sentence. Also, private detention of a debtor for a creditor, precisely regulated in Rome from the time of the Law of the Twelve Tables onwards, is not to punish but rather to force payment. Addictus; Carcer; Desmoterion Eder, Walter (Berlin) Bibliography 1 …