James Corke-Webster | King's College London (original) (raw)
Papers by James Corke-Webster
Christian Martyrdom in Late Antiquity (300-450 AD)
Greece and Rome
Another bumper edition, again by way of apology for absenteeism in the spring issue (though this ... more Another bumper edition, again by way of apology for absenteeism in the spring issue (though this time due to paternity rather than plague). We begin with the latest Beard blockbuster. In her Twelve Caesars, based on her 2011 A.W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts, Mary Beard turns her trademark combination of penetrating gaze and jovial tongue to the reception of the famed group of elite first-century ce Roman men who span a key moment in the transformation of ancient politics. Belying their importance for ancient historians and archaeologists, they have been rather neglected by art historians of later periods. With an extraordinarily wide lens, spanning from Alexander the Great to the 2017 modern art of Alison Wilding, Beard corrects that omission, demonstrating their central place in the history of Western art, and exploring not just how those emperors have been represented, repackaged, and reused, but what that says about the identities, worlds, and priorities of those who so mobi...
The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Christian Martyrdom
Greece and Rome, 2021
A bumper edition this time, by way of apology for COVID-necessitated absenteeism in the autumn is... more A bumper edition this time, by way of apology for COVID-necessitated absenteeism in the autumn issue. The focus is on three pillars of social history – the economy (stupid), law, and religion. First up is Saskia Roselaar's second monograph, Italy's Economic Revolution. Roselaar sets out to trace the contribution made by economics to Italy's integration in the Roman Republic, focusing on the period after the ‘conquest’ of Italy (post 268 bce). Doing so necessitates two distinct steps: assessing, first, how economic contacts developed in this period, and second, whether and to what extent those contacts furthered the wider unification of Italy under Roman hegemony. Roselaar is influenced by New Institutional Economics (hereafter NIE), now ubiquitous in studies of the ancient economy. Her title may be an homage to Philip Kay's Rome's Economic Revolution, but the book itself is a challenge to that work, which in Roselaar's view neglects almost entirely the agency...
The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Biography, 2020
Eusebius’ Life of Constantine is one of the oddest works of biography to survive from Antiquity. ... more Eusebius’ Life of Constantine is one of the oddest works of biography to survive from Antiquity. As such, its authenticity and genre have been much studied. But its literary qualities remain undervalued. This chapter reads it not as a stand-alone work, but as the climax of its author’s long history of biographical experimentation. It focuses in particular on the ‘episcopal equivalencies’—the two passages where Constantine is described as being bishop-like. These passages can only be properly understood when read against the backdrop of Eusebius’ construction of bishops in his earlier biographical writings.
Caesarea was the provincial capital of Syria Palaestina, the seat of both the Roman governor and ... more Caesarea was the provincial capital of Syria Palaestina, the seat of both the Roman governor and the financial procurator. 2 It was founded by Herod the Great in the 1 st century BC, and from its inception was a highly Romanised city (reflected in its name). 3 Herod's building projects included a temple dedicated to Rome and Augustus (e.g. Josephus, Jewish War 1.414). 4 The harbour Herod built afforded excellent trade links in the Mediterranean, and the archaeological record attests the cosmopolitan diversity one expects of a harbour town. 5 Caesarea's fortunes fell with those of Palestine during the Jewish Revolt, but the city was re-founded by Vespasian as a Roman colony (e.g. Pliny, Natural History 5.14.69). 6 In the early 3 rd century it acquired the title of Metropolis Palaestinae because of its administrative prominence. A population estimate of one hundred thousand has been made for our period. 7 Though Latin was still used for public inscriptions, by Eusebius' time the dominant language for private inscriptions was Greek. 8 In other words, Caesarea was a typical Romanised town of the eastern Empire. Like those other towns, Caesarea was run by local Greek-speaking elites, and it is in that stratum of society we must place Eusebius. These were all Roman citizens (both since it gained the status of a colony under Vespasian, and regardless following Caracalla's 212 declaration of universal citizenship) and shared the literary, Hellenised paideia common to the Empire's Romanised elite. Caesarea's reputation as a centre for 2 The following picture is drawn largely from
Greece and Rome, 2020
Some questions never go out of fashion. My main focus in this issue is the spread of Roman power ... more Some questions never go out of fashion. My main focus in this issue is the spread of Roman power across the Mediterranean, with multiple new publications appearing on this oldest of subjects. First up is Dexter Hoyos’ Rome Victorious. This work of popular history aims to cover what Hoyos dubs in his subtitle The Irresistible Rise of the Roman Empire, though that is rather an odd choice, since Hoyos stresses that Rome's imperial efforts did not always succeed. Hoyos walks us through the unification of Italy and the acquisition of the Republican provinces in the first two chapters, taking the narrative up to the death of Caesar in 44 bc. The next two chapters consider the consequences of those conquests: what a province actually meant, how it was controlled, and the effects both on the new territories’ inhabitants and on Rome's social and political make-up. In Chapter 5, Hoyos turns to the extensive imperial efforts of Augustus and those around him; those of his successors ove...
The Classical Review, 2018
are labelled in the PGM. Some remarks may be directed towards specific philological issues, like ... more are labelled in the PGM. Some remarks may be directed towards specific philological issues, like the awkward choice of a critical apparatus in English, with long and sometimes misleading formulations such as the one at h. 11.84 (p. 246); one may also note that the attempt at reconstructing an archetype in the case of Hymn 2, a text attested in three different versions in the PGM (the fourth version is edited as a composite hymn by B. as Hymn 1) is incoherent with the critical remarks advanced on this approach in the introduction (p. 67). Moreover, B. often insists in preserving the unmetrical readings of the papyrus even in cases where a light intervention could restore a metrical sequence: the most notable example of this conservative approach is to be found at h. 4.7, where Preisendanz’s ὑσγινοϊδῆ is an economic emendation of the sequence εισγηνονιδη, which B. admits is corrupt. In at least one case B. misunderstands an emendation found in Preisendanz’ apparatus: at h. 11.2 the conjecture ἐννημένη refers to the meaning of ‘kindle/set on fire’ (see LSJ II, with e.g. Aristophanes, Peace 1032), and not of ‘to clad in’ as B. understands it (p. 250). In conclusion, one cannot but remark that a synoptic table with Preisendanz numbers would have been a most useful instrument for the reader. As for the general analysis, it would have been interesting to investigate further the connection between magical and oracular texts, a theme barely sketched by B. What could be the relation between late-antique oracles in verses and magical compositions? Could we speak of a form of theological koiné? To cite one example, at h. 7.19 we find one verse recurring with small variations in a late oracular collection (Thes. min. π8 64 Erbse = Theos. I 5.20 Beatrice); in general, the case of Hymn 7 shows that these texts respond to compositional strategies akin to oracular patchworks. In spite of these desiderata, one must credit B.’s work with the strong merit of contesting the syncretistic interpretation of the PGM, demonstrating that the compilers of these handbooks had no intention of creating new divinities: they drew their texts from different sources, Greek and/or Egyptian, and adapted them to a new magical context. This book represents a most welcome addition to the scarce bibliography on the subject and should be considered a starting point for future investigations focusing on the problematic topics addressed by B.
The Hagiographical Experiment: Developing Discourses of Sainthood, 2020
Greece and Rome, 2021
After a focus on social and cultural history in the last issue, this issue's offerings return... more After a focus on social and cultural history in the last issue, this issue's offerings return us to more traditional subjects – political institutions, and historiography. That spring review ended with religion, which is where we start here: an apposite reminder that religion pervades all aspects of the Roman world. It is precisely that principle which undergirds our first book, Dan-el Padilla Peralta's Divine Institutions. Padilla Peralta is interested, at root, in how the Roman state became such through the third and fourth centuries bce. That is a story usually told – in a tradition going back to the ancient historians themselves – via a swashbuckling tale of successive military campaigns. Padilla Peralta, however, sets that anachronistic narrativization aside, and instead builds a careful case that between the siege of Veii and the end of the Second Punic War ‘the Roman state remade and retooled itself into a republic defined and organized around a specific brand of inst...
The Hagiographical Experiment: Developing Discourses of Sainthood, 2020
Greece and Rome, 2019
As I write this, my wife and I are awaiting the imminent arrival of our first child. A natural te... more As I write this, my wife and I are awaiting the imminent arrival of our first child. A natural tendency to find reassurance in research has led me to read a series of modern takes on fatherhood, which have proved of varying value. Imagine my delight, then, when Infancy and Earliest Childhood in the Roman World arrived on my desk. What better source of information? Unsurprisingly, What to Expect When You're Expecting this is not, though I have noted Soranus’ sage advice not to indulge pregnant women's cravings for charcoal or earth (Gyn. 1.15.48; 50). What Maureen Carroll's major new work does offer is the first systematic study of the youngest Romans, those in their first year of life, a topic which – despite the raft of work on the Roman family and life course over the last few decades – still stands in need of a synthesis. As well as evidence-gathering, Carroll's work has a central thesis; that ‘the evidence from archaeology, funerary epigraphy, and material cultur...
Greece and Rome, 2018
Identity studies live. This latest batch of publications explores what made not just the Romans b... more Identity studies live. This latest batch of publications explores what made not just the Romans but the Italians, Christians, and Etruscans who they were. We begin with both age and beauty, the fruits of a special exhibition at the Badischen Landesmuseum Karlsruhe in the first half of 2018 into the most famous of Roman predecessors, the Etruscans. Most of the exhibits on display come from Italian museums, but the interpretative essays that break up the catalogue – which are also richly illustrated – are by both Italian and German scholars. These are split between five overarching sections covering introductory affairs, the ages of the princes and of the city-states, the Etruscans’ relationship with Rome, and modern reception. The first contains essays treating Etruscan origins, history, identity, and settlement area. The second begins with the early Iron Age Villanova site, before turning to early Etruscan aristocratic culture, including banqueting, burials, language, writing, and s...
TAPA, 2017
If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination... more If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination, volume/issue, and date of publication details. And where the final published version is provided on the Research Portal, if citing you are again advised to check the publisher's website for any subsequent corrections.
Harvard Theological Review, 2017
Perhaps the most extraordinary story about Jesus to survive from antiquity is one of the least of... more Perhaps the most extraordinary story about Jesus to survive from antiquity is one of the least often told. It runs as follows: Towards the end of his life, Jesus's reputation has spread out from Palestine and reached the terminally ill Abgar V (also known as Abgar the Black), toparch of Edessa, the capital city of the kingdom of Osroëne. Abgar writes to Jesus requesting that he visit Edessa and heal him. In return he offers sanctuary from the Jews and shared rule of his city. The story preserves the text of both this letter and Jesus's reply, in which he declines to visit (citing his upcoming engagements in Jerusalem), but promises to send a disciple in his stead. After Jesus's death, the apostle Thomas, moved by divine impulse, sends Thaddaeus, one of the seventy (Luke 10:1–24), to Edessa. Escorted to Abgar's court, Thaddaeus cures him along with one Abdu son of Abdu. The newly converted Abgar gathers his citizens to hear Thaddaeus preach, and the story ends with th...
The Classical Quarterly, 2017
In 1967 Alan Cameron published a landmark article in this journal, ‘The fate of Pliny'sLetter... more In 1967 Alan Cameron published a landmark article in this journal, ‘The fate of Pliny'sLettersin the late Empire’. Opposing the traditional thesis that the letters of Pliny the Younger were only rediscovered in the mid to late fifth century by Sidonius Apollinaris, Cameron proposed that closer attention be paid to the faint but clear traces of the letters in the third and fourth centuries. On the basis of well-observed intertextual correspondences, Cameron proposed that Pliny's letters were being read by the end of the fourth century at the latest. That article now seems the vanguard of a rise in scholarly interest in Pliny's late-antique reception. But Cameron also noted the explicit attention given to the letters by two earlier commentators—Tertullian of Carthage, in the late second to early third century, and Eusebius of Caesarea, in the early fourth. The use of Pliny in these two earliest commentators, in stark contrast to their later successors, has received almost ...
Christian Martyrdom in Late Antiquity (300-450 AD)
Greece and Rome
Another bumper edition, again by way of apology for absenteeism in the spring issue (though this ... more Another bumper edition, again by way of apology for absenteeism in the spring issue (though this time due to paternity rather than plague). We begin with the latest Beard blockbuster. In her Twelve Caesars, based on her 2011 A.W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts, Mary Beard turns her trademark combination of penetrating gaze and jovial tongue to the reception of the famed group of elite first-century ce Roman men who span a key moment in the transformation of ancient politics. Belying their importance for ancient historians and archaeologists, they have been rather neglected by art historians of later periods. With an extraordinarily wide lens, spanning from Alexander the Great to the 2017 modern art of Alison Wilding, Beard corrects that omission, demonstrating their central place in the history of Western art, and exploring not just how those emperors have been represented, repackaged, and reused, but what that says about the identities, worlds, and priorities of those who so mobi...
The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Christian Martyrdom
Greece and Rome, 2021
A bumper edition this time, by way of apology for COVID-necessitated absenteeism in the autumn is... more A bumper edition this time, by way of apology for COVID-necessitated absenteeism in the autumn issue. The focus is on three pillars of social history – the economy (stupid), law, and religion. First up is Saskia Roselaar's second monograph, Italy's Economic Revolution. Roselaar sets out to trace the contribution made by economics to Italy's integration in the Roman Republic, focusing on the period after the ‘conquest’ of Italy (post 268 bce). Doing so necessitates two distinct steps: assessing, first, how economic contacts developed in this period, and second, whether and to what extent those contacts furthered the wider unification of Italy under Roman hegemony. Roselaar is influenced by New Institutional Economics (hereafter NIE), now ubiquitous in studies of the ancient economy. Her title may be an homage to Philip Kay's Rome's Economic Revolution, but the book itself is a challenge to that work, which in Roselaar's view neglects almost entirely the agency...
The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Biography, 2020
Eusebius’ Life of Constantine is one of the oddest works of biography to survive from Antiquity. ... more Eusebius’ Life of Constantine is one of the oddest works of biography to survive from Antiquity. As such, its authenticity and genre have been much studied. But its literary qualities remain undervalued. This chapter reads it not as a stand-alone work, but as the climax of its author’s long history of biographical experimentation. It focuses in particular on the ‘episcopal equivalencies’—the two passages where Constantine is described as being bishop-like. These passages can only be properly understood when read against the backdrop of Eusebius’ construction of bishops in his earlier biographical writings.
Caesarea was the provincial capital of Syria Palaestina, the seat of both the Roman governor and ... more Caesarea was the provincial capital of Syria Palaestina, the seat of both the Roman governor and the financial procurator. 2 It was founded by Herod the Great in the 1 st century BC, and from its inception was a highly Romanised city (reflected in its name). 3 Herod's building projects included a temple dedicated to Rome and Augustus (e.g. Josephus, Jewish War 1.414). 4 The harbour Herod built afforded excellent trade links in the Mediterranean, and the archaeological record attests the cosmopolitan diversity one expects of a harbour town. 5 Caesarea's fortunes fell with those of Palestine during the Jewish Revolt, but the city was re-founded by Vespasian as a Roman colony (e.g. Pliny, Natural History 5.14.69). 6 In the early 3 rd century it acquired the title of Metropolis Palaestinae because of its administrative prominence. A population estimate of one hundred thousand has been made for our period. 7 Though Latin was still used for public inscriptions, by Eusebius' time the dominant language for private inscriptions was Greek. 8 In other words, Caesarea was a typical Romanised town of the eastern Empire. Like those other towns, Caesarea was run by local Greek-speaking elites, and it is in that stratum of society we must place Eusebius. These were all Roman citizens (both since it gained the status of a colony under Vespasian, and regardless following Caracalla's 212 declaration of universal citizenship) and shared the literary, Hellenised paideia common to the Empire's Romanised elite. Caesarea's reputation as a centre for 2 The following picture is drawn largely from
Greece and Rome, 2020
Some questions never go out of fashion. My main focus in this issue is the spread of Roman power ... more Some questions never go out of fashion. My main focus in this issue is the spread of Roman power across the Mediterranean, with multiple new publications appearing on this oldest of subjects. First up is Dexter Hoyos’ Rome Victorious. This work of popular history aims to cover what Hoyos dubs in his subtitle The Irresistible Rise of the Roman Empire, though that is rather an odd choice, since Hoyos stresses that Rome's imperial efforts did not always succeed. Hoyos walks us through the unification of Italy and the acquisition of the Republican provinces in the first two chapters, taking the narrative up to the death of Caesar in 44 bc. The next two chapters consider the consequences of those conquests: what a province actually meant, how it was controlled, and the effects both on the new territories’ inhabitants and on Rome's social and political make-up. In Chapter 5, Hoyos turns to the extensive imperial efforts of Augustus and those around him; those of his successors ove...
The Classical Review, 2018
are labelled in the PGM. Some remarks may be directed towards specific philological issues, like ... more are labelled in the PGM. Some remarks may be directed towards specific philological issues, like the awkward choice of a critical apparatus in English, with long and sometimes misleading formulations such as the one at h. 11.84 (p. 246); one may also note that the attempt at reconstructing an archetype in the case of Hymn 2, a text attested in three different versions in the PGM (the fourth version is edited as a composite hymn by B. as Hymn 1) is incoherent with the critical remarks advanced on this approach in the introduction (p. 67). Moreover, B. often insists in preserving the unmetrical readings of the papyrus even in cases where a light intervention could restore a metrical sequence: the most notable example of this conservative approach is to be found at h. 4.7, where Preisendanz’s ὑσγινοϊδῆ is an economic emendation of the sequence εισγηνονιδη, which B. admits is corrupt. In at least one case B. misunderstands an emendation found in Preisendanz’ apparatus: at h. 11.2 the conjecture ἐννημένη refers to the meaning of ‘kindle/set on fire’ (see LSJ II, with e.g. Aristophanes, Peace 1032), and not of ‘to clad in’ as B. understands it (p. 250). In conclusion, one cannot but remark that a synoptic table with Preisendanz numbers would have been a most useful instrument for the reader. As for the general analysis, it would have been interesting to investigate further the connection between magical and oracular texts, a theme barely sketched by B. What could be the relation between late-antique oracles in verses and magical compositions? Could we speak of a form of theological koiné? To cite one example, at h. 7.19 we find one verse recurring with small variations in a late oracular collection (Thes. min. π8 64 Erbse = Theos. I 5.20 Beatrice); in general, the case of Hymn 7 shows that these texts respond to compositional strategies akin to oracular patchworks. In spite of these desiderata, one must credit B.’s work with the strong merit of contesting the syncretistic interpretation of the PGM, demonstrating that the compilers of these handbooks had no intention of creating new divinities: they drew their texts from different sources, Greek and/or Egyptian, and adapted them to a new magical context. This book represents a most welcome addition to the scarce bibliography on the subject and should be considered a starting point for future investigations focusing on the problematic topics addressed by B.
The Hagiographical Experiment: Developing Discourses of Sainthood, 2020
Greece and Rome, 2021
After a focus on social and cultural history in the last issue, this issue's offerings return... more After a focus on social and cultural history in the last issue, this issue's offerings return us to more traditional subjects – political institutions, and historiography. That spring review ended with religion, which is where we start here: an apposite reminder that religion pervades all aspects of the Roman world. It is precisely that principle which undergirds our first book, Dan-el Padilla Peralta's Divine Institutions. Padilla Peralta is interested, at root, in how the Roman state became such through the third and fourth centuries bce. That is a story usually told – in a tradition going back to the ancient historians themselves – via a swashbuckling tale of successive military campaigns. Padilla Peralta, however, sets that anachronistic narrativization aside, and instead builds a careful case that between the siege of Veii and the end of the Second Punic War ‘the Roman state remade and retooled itself into a republic defined and organized around a specific brand of inst...
The Hagiographical Experiment: Developing Discourses of Sainthood, 2020
Greece and Rome, 2019
As I write this, my wife and I are awaiting the imminent arrival of our first child. A natural te... more As I write this, my wife and I are awaiting the imminent arrival of our first child. A natural tendency to find reassurance in research has led me to read a series of modern takes on fatherhood, which have proved of varying value. Imagine my delight, then, when Infancy and Earliest Childhood in the Roman World arrived on my desk. What better source of information? Unsurprisingly, What to Expect When You're Expecting this is not, though I have noted Soranus’ sage advice not to indulge pregnant women's cravings for charcoal or earth (Gyn. 1.15.48; 50). What Maureen Carroll's major new work does offer is the first systematic study of the youngest Romans, those in their first year of life, a topic which – despite the raft of work on the Roman family and life course over the last few decades – still stands in need of a synthesis. As well as evidence-gathering, Carroll's work has a central thesis; that ‘the evidence from archaeology, funerary epigraphy, and material cultur...
Greece and Rome, 2018
Identity studies live. This latest batch of publications explores what made not just the Romans b... more Identity studies live. This latest batch of publications explores what made not just the Romans but the Italians, Christians, and Etruscans who they were. We begin with both age and beauty, the fruits of a special exhibition at the Badischen Landesmuseum Karlsruhe in the first half of 2018 into the most famous of Roman predecessors, the Etruscans. Most of the exhibits on display come from Italian museums, but the interpretative essays that break up the catalogue – which are also richly illustrated – are by both Italian and German scholars. These are split between five overarching sections covering introductory affairs, the ages of the princes and of the city-states, the Etruscans’ relationship with Rome, and modern reception. The first contains essays treating Etruscan origins, history, identity, and settlement area. The second begins with the early Iron Age Villanova site, before turning to early Etruscan aristocratic culture, including banqueting, burials, language, writing, and s...
TAPA, 2017
If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination... more If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination, volume/issue, and date of publication details. And where the final published version is provided on the Research Portal, if citing you are again advised to check the publisher's website for any subsequent corrections.
Harvard Theological Review, 2017
Perhaps the most extraordinary story about Jesus to survive from antiquity is one of the least of... more Perhaps the most extraordinary story about Jesus to survive from antiquity is one of the least often told. It runs as follows: Towards the end of his life, Jesus's reputation has spread out from Palestine and reached the terminally ill Abgar V (also known as Abgar the Black), toparch of Edessa, the capital city of the kingdom of Osroëne. Abgar writes to Jesus requesting that he visit Edessa and heal him. In return he offers sanctuary from the Jews and shared rule of his city. The story preserves the text of both this letter and Jesus's reply, in which he declines to visit (citing his upcoming engagements in Jerusalem), but promises to send a disciple in his stead. After Jesus's death, the apostle Thomas, moved by divine impulse, sends Thaddaeus, one of the seventy (Luke 10:1–24), to Edessa. Escorted to Abgar's court, Thaddaeus cures him along with one Abdu son of Abdu. The newly converted Abgar gathers his citizens to hear Thaddaeus preach, and the story ends with th...
The Classical Quarterly, 2017
In 1967 Alan Cameron published a landmark article in this journal, ‘The fate of Pliny'sLetter... more In 1967 Alan Cameron published a landmark article in this journal, ‘The fate of Pliny'sLettersin the late Empire’. Opposing the traditional thesis that the letters of Pliny the Younger were only rediscovered in the mid to late fifth century by Sidonius Apollinaris, Cameron proposed that closer attention be paid to the faint but clear traces of the letters in the third and fourth centuries. On the basis of well-observed intertextual correspondences, Cameron proposed that Pliny's letters were being read by the end of the fourth century at the latest. That article now seems the vanguard of a rise in scholarly interest in Pliny's late-antique reception. But Cameron also noted the explicit attention given to the letters by two earlier commentators—Tertullian of Carthage, in the late second to early third century, and Eusebius of Caesarea, in the early fourth. The use of Pliny in these two earliest commentators, in stark contrast to their later successors, has received almost ...
Whilst water has permeated countless dimensions of religious life throughout history, the Roman a... more Whilst water has permeated countless dimensions of religious life throughout history, the Roman and Late Antique Near East provides an especially rich context for the study of this topic. Our chronological range, from the Roman conquest in 64 BC to the rise of Islam in the seventh century AD, bears witness to the development of pagan, Jewish and Christian religious traditions and their interaction on local and regional scales. Our geographical span, stretching from Iraq’s western border to the eastern Mediterranean coast, incorporates a striking variety of microclimates, which fostered distinctive local responses to the hydrological environment and elevated the importance of water in both sacred and utilitarian contexts across the region. It is this concurrent religious and environmental diversity that recommends the Roman and Late Antique Near East as a stimulating setting to examine the relationship between water and religious life.