Résumé En 2011, nous avions mis en exergue que le ‘district’ macédonien était une hypothèse qui remontait au milieu du XIX e siècle. Selon nous, l’examen des données – notamment épigraphiques, conduisait à revenir de cette hypothèse. Or, en 2020, Hatzopoulos affirma que des découvertes archéologiques assureraient, a contrario , l’indubitable existence de cette structure administrative de la Macédoine hellénistique. La reprise de détail de ces données de terrain montrera que, bien au contraire, celles-ci ne livrent absolument aucun argument pouvant soutenir l’hypothèse traditionnelle. Ledit ‘district’ macédonien demeure donc un fantôme dont il semble bien vain de défendre la réalité historique.

Article Jonas Osnabrügge, Die epigraphische Kultur an Oberrhein und Neckar in römischer Zeit, Stuttgart (Franz Steiner Verlag) 2024, (HABES – Heidelberger Althistorische Beiträge und Epigraphische Studien 66), 33 s/w Tab., 4 s/w Grafiken, 27 farbige Tafeln, 702 S., ISBN 978-3-515-13556-6 (geb.), € 98,– was published on June 30, 2025 in the journal Klio (volume 107, issue 1).

Article Claudio Vacanti, Lucio Elio Seiano. Il potere all’ombra dell’imperatore Tiberio, Rom (Carroci) 2022 (Studi Storici Carocci), 216 S., ISBN 978-88-290-1711-9 (brosch.), € 22,80 was published on June 30, 2025 in the journal Klio (volume 107, issue 1).

Summary The current article wishes to reassess the Christian texts mentioning Queen Zenobia’s potential affinity to Judaism, or her conversion to Judaism. It will be shown that the claims against the reliability of these texts are deficient or inaccurate. Furthermore, it will be clarified that she was not Jewish from birth. Instead, the sources indicate that she had a special relationship with monotheism, and Judaism in particular, and that she may have wished to convert to Judaism or did so in secret. The reasoning for this action and her relationship with Judaism will be examined while considering her politically precarious position, as well as the place of monotheism and Judaism in Palmyra, the Roman East and the Roman Army. Through this, the current article wishes to provide a better, more accurate presentation of Zenobia’s religious inclinations, how she used and manoeuvred between an ambiguous monotheism and Judaism in order to gain power and support, and what was her raison d’être for such a move and choice.

Riassunto Scopo di questo articolo è l’analisi di due frammenti dei Persikà dello storico Ellanico di Lesbo che contengono cenni di storia assira relativi in particolare alla figura del re Sardanapalo. L’analisi di queste testimonianze costituisce una buona occasione per riflettere sulla ricezione della storia assira nella cultura storiografica greca nel V secolo e sull’evoluzione degli Assyrikà a partire dai Persikà di Ctesia di Cnido.

Zusammenfassung Der Friedensvertrag zwischen Philipp V. von Makedonien und Rom nach der Schlacht von Kynoskephalai ist einer der bekanntesten zwischenstaatlichen Verträge der Antike. In diesem Aufsatz wird die These vertreten, dass die drei nur von Livius überlieferten Zusatzklauseln über die Beschränkung des makedonischen Heeres, die Verbote zum Besitz von Elefanten sowie zur Kriegsführung jenseits der Grenzen Makedoniens ohne Senatserlaubnis in einem decretum decem legatorum standen. Diese Klauseln waren somit keine annalistische Erfindung, vielmehr waren sie das Ergebnis eines mehrteiligen Ratifizierungsprozesses. Um diesen Prozess zu verstehen, sollen zunächst die Ereignisse nach der Schlacht von Kynoskephalai bis zum Eintreffen der Zehnmännerkommission bei Flamininus rekonstruiert und anschließend die problematischen Klauseln analysiert werden, um daraufhin die Rechtskraft des decretum decem legatorum vor dem Hintergrund der aufkommenden Bedrohung durch das Seleukidenreich herauszuarbeiten. Abschließend wird gezeigt, warum die Vertragsverletzungen in den letzten Regierungsjahren Philipps von Rom bis zu einem gewissen Grad toleriert wurden.

Summary Revolts against the Persian Great Kings remain a largely contentious issue in Achaemenid studies, several aspects of which are however left unexplored. One such example is the question of the role of the Persian sovereign himself in this conflict: Was he actively implicated or did he adopt a more passive stance? This study aims to provide an answer to this question by systematically examining in a chronological order all the attested rebellions that have broken out in opposition to the incumbent Persian sovereign. Although on the surface level the attitude of the Achaemenid monarchs greatly varied, through this study a more coherent picture emerges, as it gradually becomes clear that the policy of the Persian sovereigns when facing an internal threat to their authority depended on the objective of the rebel themselves: Secession from the empire and the formation of an independent state or usurpation of the imperial throne.

Summary This paper addresses the vexed question of the origins and nature of archaic Greek tyranny by focusing on the conceptual roots of the phenomenon, namely by investigating the political significance and implications of the Luwian notion of tarrawanni-, ‘just, justice,’ the term from which Greek tyrannos is believed to derive. Firstly, the paper shows how both Neo-Hittite and early Greek societies display a similar attitude towards justice as a key element for political legitimation. After concluding, however, that this commonality is not enough to explain why the Greeks borrowed the concept of tarrawanni- as tyrannos, the paper moves on to examining what specific way of doing politics is captured by the two concepts, arguing that they identify a type of political actor that exercises supreme powers independently of any kind of institutional arrangement. Finally, the paper discusses reasons, modalities, contexts, and timing of the transmission of Luwian tarrawanni- into Greek.

Article Zinon Papakonstantinou, Sport and Identity in Ancient Greece, London – New York (Routledge) 2019, 236 S., ISBN 978-1-4724-3822-5 (geb.), £ 130,– was published on June 1, 2024 in the journal Klio (volume 106, issue 1).