Looking around the web, I discover that the poems and letters of Sidonius Apollinaris are online in French and Latin at remacle.org. In particular Carmen 5, the panegyric for Majorian, is here.
Author: Roger Pearse
British Library papyrus of the Aristotelean constitution of the Athenians – images online
Via AWOL I stumbled across this item:
Sean Bonawitz, Neel Smith, and Christopher Blackwell are working during the summer of 2012 on the first steps of a comprehensive publication of only surviving witness to the Aristotelian Constitution of the Athenians. The papyrus is B.M. Pap. 131, that is, British Museum Papyrus number 131. Christopher Blackwell and Amy Hackney Blackwell, working with Chris Lee of the British Library, photographed this papyrus in November of 2011. …
The papyrus exists in five fragments. The five fragments show four different manuscript hands. The hands differ in appearance and in their use of abbreviations. According to John Edward Sandy’s 1893 commentary, pp. xxxvi–xxxix,, the first hand “extends over Columns 1–12” the second columns 13 to 20, the third hand runs from 20 to 24 and columns 31–37, while the fourth scribe includes columns from 25 to 30.
Hands one and four are most similar to each other, but certainly not identical; Sandy’s came to this conclusion by counting the occurrence of abbreviations. While the first and fourth scribes used a significant amount of short-hand (“tachygraphy”) and abbreviations, the second hand hardly uses any, and in the columns written by the third hand they are scarce. Perhaps the most important thing about the change of hands are the editorial notes that occur throughout the piece. Who was this editor, and why did he make these notes?
The papyrus is public property, so naturally the British Library staff have demanded copyright notices all over the place, in case somebody not a member of the public should use them for something. It reminds us forcefully how much we need reform of copyright law.
But placing the images online is invaluable! I very much hope that people will work with them.
The papyrus itself dates to the end of the 1st century AD. It is a roll, from Egypt, acquired on the art market apparently, and on the “normal” side there is a set of accounts drawn up by a bailiff on a private estate in the 11th year of Vespasian (i.e. Aug. 78-June 79 A.D.). The reverse was used, some time later, for a column and a half of a summary of the Midias of Demosthenes. But this was then erased, and the Constitution of the Athenians written instead.
The text exists in translation by F.G.Kenyon here. It was composed before 322 BC, and after 334 AD.[1]
The constitutions begin with an overview of Athenian political history, and they contain many interesting snippets on ancient life in Athens. Here are a couple of random examples:
As soon as he was at the head of affairs, Solon liberated the people once and for all, by prohibiting all loans on the security of the debtor’s person: and in addition he made laws by which he cancelled all debts, public and private. This measure is commonly called the Seisachtheia [= removal of burdens], since thereby the people had their loads removed from them. In connexion with it some persons try to traduce the character of Solon. It so happened that, when he was about to enact the Seisachtheia, he communicated his intention to some members of the upper class, whereupon, as the partisans of the popular party say, his friends stole a march on him; while those who wish to attack his character maintain that he too had a share in the fraud himself. For these persons borrowed money and bought up a large amount of land, and so when, a short time afterwards, all debts were cancelled, they became wealthy; and this, they say, was the origin of the families which were afterwards looked on as having been wealthy from primeval times. However, the story of the popular party is by far the most probable. …
It was in one of these progresses that, as the story goes, Pisistratus had his adventure with the man of Hymettus, who was cultivating the spot afterwards known as ‘Tax-free Farm’. He saw a man digging and working at a very stony piece of ground, and being surprised he sent his attendant to ask what he got out of this plot of land. ‘Aches and pains’, said the man; ‘and that’s what Pisistratus ought to have his tenth of’. The man spoke without knowing who his questioner was; but Pisistratus was so leased with his frank speech and his industry that he granted him exemption from all taxes. …
The democracy has made itself master of everything and administers everything by its votes in the Assembly and by the law-courts, in which it holds the supreme power. Even the jurisdiction of the Council has passed into the hands of the people at large; and this appears to be a judicious change, since small bodies are more open to corruption, whether by actual money or influence, than large ones. At first they refused to allow payment for attendance at the Assembly; but the result was that people did not attend. Consequently, after the Prytanes had tried many devices in vain in order to induce the populace to come and ratify the votes, Agyrrhius, in the first instance, made a provision of one obol a day, which Heracleides of Clazomenae, nicknamed ‘the king’, increased to two obols, and Agyrrhius again to three. …
It is interesting to see that, in ancient Athens as today, ordinary people have better things to do than attend political meetings!
There are ten Commissioners for Repairs of Temples, elected by lot, who receive a sum of thirty minas from the Receivers-General, and therewith carry out the most necessary repairs in the temples.
There are also ten City Commissioners (Astynomi), of whom five hold office in Piraeus and five in the city. Their duty is to see that female flute-and harp-and lute-players are not hired at more than two drachmas, and if more than one person is anxious to hire the same girl, they cast lots and hire her out to the person to whom the lot falls. They also provide that no collector of sewage shall shoot any of his sewage within ten stradia of the walls; they prevent people from blocking up the streets by building, or stretching barriers across them, or making drain-pipes in mid-air with a discharge into the street, or having doors which open outwards; they also remove the corpses of those who die in the streets, for which purpose they have a body of state slaves assigned to them.
Silencing dissent in the modern world
It is extraordinary to me how something mad and evil, which was unheard of a couple of years ago, can suddenly become something which it is positively dangerous to oppose. But so it is, in our unhappy world. In this case I refer to “gay marriage”, but it could be any number of causes, where disagreement is suddenly dangerous to express.
I read today this blog post, which discusses how, in the USA, opposition to this cause is being silenced, by a “wall of hatred” technique. It spells out particularly well, how dissent is silenced.
… it’s basically unprecedented for a professor to be formally investigated on a charge of scientific misconduct because a blogger didn’t like his findings. …
What is the purpose of his baseless charge? I suspect it is twofold: first to get the university to let him conduct a fishing expedition through Prof. Regnerus’s personal correspondence to find anything that can be used to a.) tar this scholar and/or b.) harass others close to him, for being close to him.
Second, Rose hopes the hassle will discourage any other professor from investigating how children fare raised by gay parents, unless they can pretty much guarantee the results will be favorable to the Scott Rose’s of the world.
Marriage is important. Religious liberty is important. The structures of scientific inquiry are also important.
In a society that has lost faith in other modes of reasoning, science has become a trump card in public and moral debates.
Therefore, if you want to establish a new public morality, it becomes important to control the scientific processes to suppress dissent, to make dissent costly and therefore rare.
A culture war is a struggle over who has the power to name reality.
Celebrities, professionals and scholars are all now subjected to this dynamic: to oppose gay marriage is to be subjected to an outpouring of hatred and threats.
The goal is to silence.
It doesn’t matter what the cause is, although this one is particularly vile. For we may be sure that the next one will be worse: the vileness is intentional, the purpose is to give offence, and then to force compliance.
It is not enough for evil that someone does what they want; they must be made to do it against their will.
Until we have some mechanism to push back against this technique of censorship, we may be sure that more, and worse will follow.
UK government promoting open access to research it funds?
The UK government has done something or other, according to The Register. But it’s not as clear as one might like:
Universities will be provided with funding to ensure that their academics’ research papers are made more widely available, the government has said.
The government broadly backed recommendations contained in a report by the Working Group on Expanding Access to Published Research Findings in its policy aimed at supporting ‘open access’ to research.
The seven UK Research Councils will provide universities that establish ‘publication funds’ with grants in order that the organisations can pay publishers an ‘article processing charge’ (APC) to publish their work.
Erm, this sounds complicated. Why not simply require that government-funded work is open access? No open access, no funds?
“Where APCs are paid to publishers, the government would expect to see unrestricted access and use of the subject content …”
… Under the policy wholly or partially publically funded peer reviewed research papers will be required to be published in journals that comply with its open access policy and detail information such as how the “underlying research materials such as data, samples or models can be accessed”.
Wow. Complicated. And:
Willetts said that the government was happy to enable publishers to put embargoes that restrict access to content in certain circumstances. He said publishers should be able to protect the value of their work where their funding is not mainly reliant on APCs but that length embargo periods may not be justified in the public interest.
“Embargo periods allowed by funding bodies for publishers should be short where publishers have chosen not to take up the preferred option of their receiving an Article Processing Charge,” Willetts said.
Um, “embargo periods”?
It sounds very complicated, and expensive for the tax payer.
Let’s hope that underneath all this verbiage is a clear simple commitment that the tax payer should not pay for material which the tax payer cannot access.
UPDATE: It seems that I am not alone in being sceptical about this announcement. Bishop Hill comments:
All scientific research funded by the UK taxpayer is to become open source, according to an article in the Guardian. It seems that academics will be required to pay the fees to make their papers freely available.
Since few journals will solely publish papers by UK academics, this presumably means that the scientific publishers will retain the library subscriptions which are the bedrock of their profits, while gaining a massive windfall in the shape of open access fees for much of their content.
A good day to be a scientific publisher I think.
I suspect so. The Guardian article contains some sensible words by Stevan Harnad:
“The Finch committee’s recommendations look superficially as if they are supporting open access, but in reality they are strongly biased in favour of the interests of the publishing industry over the interests of UK research,” he said.
“Instead of recommending that the UK build on its historic lead in providing cost-free green open access, the committee has recommended spending a great deal of extra money — scarce research money — to pay publishers for “gold open access publishing. If the Finch committee recommendations are heeded, as David Willetts now proposes, the UK will lose both its global lead in open access and a great deal of public money — and worldwide open access will be set back at least a decade,” he said.
The phrase that springs to mind is “crony capitalism”, where the government is in the pocket of the vested interests. Yet this is OUR money being spent!
Tellingly the Register says:
The UK Publishers’ Association welcomed the plans.
Majorian in the De Imperatoribus Romanis site
I have been reading the entry in the DIR website on Majorian (457-461 AD), the last effective western Roman emperor. The article is by Ralph Mathisen, and is a model of what an online article should be. The site is, indeed, invaluable.
Majorian is an attractive figure, and it is a pity that the main source for his reign is not online. I refer here to the Panegyric for Majorian by Sidonius Apollinaris. An English translation does exist in the Loeb edition, but this is in copyright. I digitised the letters of Sidonius from an out-of-copyright source some time back.
Mathisen quotes a revealing passage, from one of Sidonius’ letters, from Majorian’s Gallic campaign, when he was attempting to conciliate the grandees of the region, soon to lose their independence and property to the Goths. Majorian had issued an edict against informers.
In the reign of Majorian, an anonymous but very biting satire in verse was circulated at court; gross in its invective, it took advantage of unprotected names… its attack was above all personal… I came to Arles suspecting nothing…
The next day I paid my duty to the emperor… The emperor commanded my presence at the banquet he was giving on the occasion of the games…
When the dinner was well advanced… the emperor turned round to me and said, “It is news to me, Count Sidonius, that you are a writer of satires.” “Sire,” I replied, “It is news to me too.”
“Anyhow,” he replied with a laugh, “I beg you to be merciful to me.” “I shall spare myself also,” I rejoined, “by refraining from illegality.”
Thereupon the emperor said, “What shall we do, then, to the people who have accused you?”
“This, Sire,” I answered, “Whoever my accuser be, let him come out into the open. If I am proven guilty, let me suffer the penalty. But if, as is likely, I rebut the charge, I ask of Your Clemency permission to write anything I choose about my assailant, provided I observe the law.”
The emperor … replied, “I agree to your conditions, if you can put them in verse on the spot.” … I replied,
Who says I write satires? Dread soverign, I cry,
Let him prove his indictment, or pay for his lie.Then the emperor proclaimed, “I call God and the common welfare to witness that in future I give you license to write what you please; the charge brought against you was not susceptible of proof. It would be most unjust if the imperial decision allowed such latitude to private quarrels that evident malice might imperil by obscure charges nobles whom conscious innocence puts wholly off their guard…
(Epist.1.11.2-15: Dalton trans., 1.26-33. and Hodgkin trans., 2.425).
It is telling that, in the last days of the Roman state, opinion was strictly regulated. The state that was too feeble to defend its citizens was not too feeble to imprison them for voicing the opinion that its rulers were inept.
From my diary
I have been away on holiday for a while, so most of my projects have taken a back seat.
I’ve received the first draft of a translation of the 4th century Acts of ps.Linus, or rather of the “Peter” half. This I hope to look at today.
I’ve also started to do more work on the PHP code for my Mithras pages.
It is summer time, although it doesn’t quite seem like it, and I notice everyone is blogging less. We all need some kind of stimulation — anger, rage, envy, resentment, disagreement, the usual staple incentives for online posting — and this is rather lacking at the moment. No-one has said anything I disagree with for ages! Oh well.
4th British Patristics Conference – Exeter, 5-7 September 2012
The conference details are here:
Fourth British Patristics Conference
A 3-day conference to be held at the University of Exeter, 5-7 September 2012
The aim of the conference is to foster the study of early Christianity broadly considered in its social, historical and theological context and to cultivate a community of scholars of the subject inBritain. We particularly welcome participation by and applications for papers from current graduate students studying at British Universities.
We are delighted to announce that three plenary speakers have already been confirmed:
- Sebastian Brock, formerly Reader in Syriac Studies, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford
- Alastair Logan, Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Theology and Religion, University of Exeter
- Teresa Morgan, Lecturer in Ancient History and Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History, Oriel College, University of Oxford
The conference will begin after lunch on Wednesday 5th September and will close after lunch on Friday 7th September.
Registration Details
Further Information
Bookings for this need to be made by the end of July. There are only 61 places! The last one, in Durham, was great – rather better than the Oxford conferences.
You can book on-line via the web-page:
http://humanities.exeter.ac.uk/research/conferences/patristics
I have just booked. It’s a Wednesday-Friday event. It costs £210 if you book everything including accomodation.
Harassing the monastery of Mor Gabriel in Turkey
Paleojudaica has been monitoring a rather sad story from Turkey, of a dispute between a Syriac monastery in south-east Turkey, in the Tur-Abdin region, and its neighbours. The monastery was founded in 397 AD, and so it is of considerable historical interest.
I’ve been aware of the situation for some time; but it can be difficult to know all the facts in such cases, and it’s never right to jump to conclusions. Previous reporting left me with the impression that the Turkish officials were trying to be even-handed in a difficult case.
The story starts in 2008. On 25th June 2009 Hurriyet Daily News reported:
A Syriac Christian monastery in the Eastern Province of Mardin lost its legal battle Wednesday to overturn a Forestry Department decision to claim part of its land, with community representatives vowing to file an appeal.
The boundaries around Mor Gabriel, located in the Midyat region, and its surrounding villages were redrawn last year as part of an effort to update the land registry. The foundation operating the monastery petitioned the court to have the new boundaries re-examined, saying that they take large plots of land on which the monastery has been paying tax since 1938 and turn them over to the villages.
Villagers also applied to the court, asking for the monastery wall to be pulled down and accusing the foundation operating the monastery of taking land they need for their cattle.
On May 22, another court ruled in favor of Mor Gabriel over 110 hectares of land claimed by neighboring villages.But in Wednesday’s ruling, the Midyat court decided a 33.6-hectare parcel of land claimed by the monastery within and outside of the building’s walls belongs to the Treasury.
The case has grumbled on since. It is, of course, difficult to know the in’s and out’s of such cases; but surely the Turkish government could recognise that the potential tourist value of a monastery full of monks speaking the language of Jesus far outweighs a few acres of land?
… the final verdict issued by the Supreme Court of Appeals on June 13 of this year, stating that the monastery, founded in A.D. 397 and often referred to as a “second Jerusalem,” does not have rights to the land on which it sits.
However, he added that all the information they have with regards to the verdict has come through the Turkish press.
“Nothing official has been sent to us by the court,” he said. “When we have the official court ruling in our hands, and if the news is true, then we will seek further legal remedies.”
The conflict surrounding Mor Gabriel began when land officials for the Turkish government redrew the boundaries around the monastery and surrounding villages in 2008 in order to update the national land registry as part of a cadastre modernization project in compliance with European Union instructions. The officials finished this work across nearly half the country in less than five years. In addition, several new laws have been passed that require the transfer of uncultivated land to the Treasury and, in some cases, that re-zone other land, such as forest land, transferring it to the jurisdiction of the Forestry Directorate.
In the wake of these new classifications, it has become difficult for former owners to use this land. The issue has also become a Muslim-Christian dispute, with the neighboring villages complaining to the court that the monastery’s monks have engaged in “anti-Turkish activities,” including converting children to Christianity.
The final verdict of the top court has been called scandalous by the Turkish press as the court “lost” several land title and financial/tax documents, undoubtedly demonstrating the ownership of the land by the monastery.
“I feel sad for the Turkish legal system,” Ergün said.
He feels that if the verdict is true, the decision is against the Arameans of Turkey. He added: “Everybody knows to whom the monastery has belonged for the last 1,600 years. But we will be put in a very difficult situation if the court says the land does not belong to the monastery.”
Meanwhile, a petition campaign has recently been started through a website called, in English, “We grew up together in this country” (http://beraberbuyudukbuulkede.com/).
In Today’s Zaman for 12th July 2012, an EU commissioner is reported as expressing concern.
All this seems to simplify matters.
-
If the local villagers are claiming the land on which a monastery, founded in 397 AD, stands, then plainly the claim is fraudulent and malevolent, and probably all the other claims are equally baseless. In this case the court cases are simply harassment, and the Turkish state should prosecute the villagers for their attack on their neighbour, the monastery.
-
If a court has upheld a fraudulent claim of this kind, then the court is corrupt. For there is no possible case that a monastery standing on lands granted 15 centuries ago can be squatting. In that case the Turkish state needs to reform the court, and send the bent judges for trial.
This is, as I said, rather sad. I would suggest that the Turkish president step in and bring an end to this story. It does great discredit to the Turkish state. Turkey’s interests are not served by a story like this one. Let the monks get on with their praying.
I have always tended to feel that the Turks get a raw deal over Cyprus. In that unhappy island, they are the victims of repeated, endless, harassment by Greek hotheads. Indeed the presence of the Turkish army there is solely because of an attempt by Greece to annex the island. Yet it is invariably the Turks who are blamed in the western media. I suspect that much of our reporting of Turkish issues is unfair.
I’m not sure how I feel about getting the European Union involved. The issue is really an internal Turkish one. The risk of involving the EU is that the EU is seen to be pro-monastery and anti-Turk; that the monastery, therefore, is not seen as part of Turkey’s heritage, but as aliens who can be held hostage for concessions from the foreigner. That would be disastrous. Turkey should be proud of its heritage, and that, almost alone in the world, it has a small minority of people who speak Syriac.
From my diary
A few bits and bobs have attracted my attention today.
More technical manuscripts at the British library. This is mostly medieval, but includes BL Harley 6, which contains the Etymologies of Isidore of Seville.
Via Dunelm Road I learn of an interesting rationale for Christians to be learning NT Greek.
Curious Presbyterian has useful advice for people who write, from a Guardian article by Robert Harris.
I’d very much like to know what the sources are that tell us about Roman interest in tin mining in Cornwall. This website gave some ideas; perhaps I will find the time to do some research on it.
Hunting the wild misquotation – “our Father was crucified”
At Paleojudaica, Jim Davila has an odd story from an Israeli newspaper, featuring a quotation from an ancient author:
A VERY ODD STORY from Arutz Sheva:
Shocking ‘Land of Israel’ Exam Shows Christian Crosses
High school “Land of Israel” exam features Christian crosses. Is the Education Ministry trying to undermine students with Christianity?By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
First Publish: 7/8/2012, 8:58 AMHigh school students last week were shocked by a matriculation exam in “Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology” that showed Christian crosses and referred to a place where “our father was crucified.”
[…]
I’m really scratching my head over this:
The exam included a quote from a Christian pilgrim who visited Jerusalem and wrote in a dairy about “the little hill of Golgotha where our father was crucified.”
It would be very unusual for a Christian pilgrim, or any other kind of Christian, to refer to Jesus as “our father.” Either this pilgrim had some confused ideas about the Trinity or Arutz Sheva has made a mistake. I would like to know more about the source of this quotation.
The source is not far to seek, I fear. A lazy journalist has used Wikipedia as his source, and is quoting from here, misremembering as he typed:
In 333, the Pilgrim of Bordeaux, entering from the east described the result:
“On the left hand is the little hill of Golgotha where the Lord was crucified. About a stone’s throw from thence is a vault [crypta] wherein his body was laid, and rose again on the third day. There, at present, by the command of the Emperor Constantine, has been built a basilica; that is to say, a church of wondrous beauty.”[12]
The “reference” given is “Itinerarium Burdigalense, pages 593, 594.” Naturally there is no indication of edition. The Latin is online and reads:
A sinistra autem parte est monticulus golgotha, ubi dominus crucifixus est.
[594] Inde quasi ad lapidem missum est cripta, ubi corpus eius positum fuit et tertia die resurrexit; ibidem modo iussu constantini imperatoris basilica facta est, id est dominicum, mirae pulchritudinis habens ad latus excepturia, unde aqua leuatur, et balneum a tergo, ubi infantes lauantur.
The “page reference” would appear, thus, to be to the Latin.