Open Access Publications of the Institute of Classical Studies at the Humanities Digital Library

This edited volume collects together peer-reviewed papers that initially emanated from presentations at Digital Classicist seminars and conference panels. This wide-ranging volume showcases exemplary applications of digital scholarship to the ancient world and critically examines the many challenges and opportunities afforded by such research. The chapters included here demonstrate innovative approaches that drive forward the research interests of both humanists and technologists.

Some two and a half millennia ago, in the summer of 490 BC, a small army of 9,000 Athenians, supported only be a thousand troops from Plataea, faced and overcame the might of the Persian army of King Darius I on the plain of Marathon. While this was only the beginning of the Persian Wars, and the Greeks as a while would face a far greater threat to their freedom a decade later, the victory at Marathon had untold effects on the morale, confidence, and self-esteem of the Athenians, who would commemorate their finest hour in art and literature for centuries to come.

Questions of ethnic and cultural identities are central to the contemporary understanding of the Roman world. The expansion of Rome across Italy, the Mediterranean, and beyond entailed encounters with a wide range of peoples. Many of these had well-established pre-conquest ethnic identities which can be compared with Roman perceptions of them. In other cases, the ethnicity of peoples conquered by Rome has been perceived almost entirely through the lenses of Roman ethnographic writing and administrative structures.

This annual publication contains summaries of the Mycenaean Seminar convened by the Institute of Classical Studies. The seminar series has been running since the 1950s, when it focused largely on the exciting new research enabled by the decipherment of Linear B. The series has now evolved to cover Aegean Prehistory in general, and is well known among subject specialists throughout the world. Taken together, the summaries provide a rich resource for Aegean Prehistory, and often provide the only citable instance of new research projects.

This annual publication contains summaries of the Mycenaean Seminar convened by the Institute of Classical Studies. The seminar series has been running since the 1950s, when it focused largely on the exciting new research enabled by the decipherment of Linear B. The series has now evolved to cover Aegean Prehistory in general, and is well known among subject specialists throughout the world.

This volume brings together six papers relating to oratory and orators in public fora of Classical Greece and Rome. Edwards and Bers explore aspects of oratorical delivery in the Athenian courts and Assembly, including the demands placed on orators by the physical settings. Tempest examines the conceptions of oratorical competence and incompetence, particularly in respect of performance, as they are implied in Cicero’s criticisms of the rival prosecutor in the trial of Verres.

This innovative approach to Cicero’s persuasive language analyses the style and structure of one of his important speeches in more details than has ever been done before. It applies ideas from modern linguistics (sentential topic, lexical patterning, interactional discourse), and explores the possibilities and limitations of quantitative analysis, made easier by modern computing power, in the areas of syntax and vocabulary.