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Article

Zeugitana  

Brian Herbert Warmington

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Ancient Geography
The name, of unknown origin, sometimes applied to the northern part of the province of Africa (see africa, roman), centred on *Carthage. It is used by *Pliny(1) (HN 5. 23), but then seems to have gone out of use, to reappear in the 4th cent. when it was occasionally used of Africa (Proconsularis), now much smaller in area after the division of the old province of Africa by *Diocletian.

Article

Zeugma  

Margaret Stephana Drower, Eric William Gray, and Susan Mary Sherwin-White

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Near East

Zeugma (mod. Bâlkîs, opposite Bîrecik), in *Syria on the right bank of the *Euphrates at its chief crossing, about 112 km. (70 miles) below *Samosata. Twin colonies Seleuceia (right bank) and Apamea (left bank) were founded by *Seleucus (1) I (PlinHN 5. 86), which came to be known by the generic name Zeugma (‘junction’), and gave Seleucus control of the lower river crossings of the Euphrates. It is possible that Apamea was merely a suburb of Seleuceia. It was here (in 221) that *Antiochus (3) III met his own bride, *Laodice(3), daughter of *Mithradates II of *Pontus, on her journey from Pontus and celebrated the royal wedding (Polyb. 5. 43. 1–4).

Article

Zeus  

Fritz Graf

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
30 July 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Myth and Religion
Zeus, the main divinity of the Greek pantheon (see olympian gods; religion, greek) and the only major Greek god whose *Indo-European origin is undisputed. His name is connected with Latin Iu-p̣-piter, Rigveda Dyaus pitar, derived from the root †diéu-, ‘day (as opposed to night)’ (Lat. dies), (clear) sky’; as the Rigveda and Latin parallels suggest, his role as father, not in a theogonical or anthropogonical sense, but as having the power of a father in a patriarchal system, is Indo-European too. Thus in *Homer, Zeus is both πατήρ, ‘father’, and ἄναξ, ‘king’ or ‘lord’. His cult is attested in bronze-age Greece (see religion, minoan and mycenaean); the Linear B texts (see mycenaean language) attest several sanctuaries (*Pylos, Chania) and, at Minoan Cnossus, a month name or a festival, if in fact the Mycenaean names of months derive from festivals (KN Fp 5, 1). Another Cnossian text attests the epiclesis Dictaeus, Zeus of Mt. Dicte (KN Fp 1, 2), which remained an important place of cult in the first millennium. A text from Chania gives a common cult of Zeus and *Dionysus, a Pylos text (PY Tn 316, 8–10) one of Zeus, *Hera, and (a figure later unknown) Drimios son of Zeus, which suggests Hera as the consort of Zeus, as in later mythology.

Article

Zeus in art  

Karim Arafat

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture
  2. Greek Myth and Religion
Although 8th-cent. figurines may represent Zeus, he does not assume a type until early Archaic, when he strides with thunderbolt and, rarely, eagle. In the Classical period, Zeus is quieter, often seated and with a sceptre: the prime example is *Phidias' cult statue at *Olympia, familiar from literature (esp. Paus. 5. 11), coins, gems, and echoes on vases. The type continues in the Hellenistic period.Zeus participates in many scenes. The east pediments of Olympia and the *Parthenon centred on him. He fights in the Gigantomachy (see giants) from Attic and S. Italian Archaic and Classical vases to the Hellenistic Pergamum altar frieze. On Classical vases and sculpture, his pursuits include Aegina (the eponymous heroine of *Aegina, see eponymoi) and *Ganymede. His transformations occur, particularly in depictions of his seduction of Europa from early Archaic, and *Leda from late Classical. He is common on coins. Zeus was favoured by *Alexander(3) the Great and some Roman emperors, especially *Hadrian (see olympieum).

Article

Zeuxis(1), of Heraclea (1) in Lucania, painter, 397 BCE  

Karim Arafat

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek History and Historiography
  2. Near East
Zeuxis (1), painter, of *Heraclea(1) in Lucania, pupil of Neseus of Thasos or Damophilus of Himera. *Pliny(1) dates him 397 bce, rejecting 424. *Quintilian dates both him and *Parrhasius to the *Peloponnesian War. In *Plato(1)'s Protagoras (dramatic date about 430) he is young and a newcomer to Athens. His rose-wreathed *Eros is mentioned in Ar. Ach.991–2 (425). He painted Alcmena for Acragas before 406, and *Archelaus (2)'s palace between 413 and 399. He ‘entered the door opened by Apollodorus and stole his art’; he added the use of highlights to shading, and *Lucian praises in the *Centaur family (an instance of the unusual subjects which Zeuxis preferred) the subtle gradation of colour from the human to the animal body of the female Centaur; his paintings of grapes were said to have deceived birds; he said that if he had painted the boy carrying the grapes better, the birds would have been frightened off. His figures lacked the ethos (character) of *Polygnotus, although his Penelope was morality itself, and his Helen (for Croton or Acragas) an ideal picture compiled from several models; pathos (emotion) rather than ethos distinguished the Autoboreas with *Titan look and wild hair, and the *Menelaus (1) drenched in tears.

Article

Zeuxis (2), 'the Empiricist', Greek physician, 2nd cent. BCE  

Heinrich von Staden

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Science, Technology, and Medicine
Zeuxis (2), a physician of the Empiricist school (see medicine, § 5.3; probably 2nd cent. bce), wrote commentaries on all the ‘authentic’ works of *Hippocrates (2) (according to *Galen), often taking issue with other interpreters, including Herophileans (see herophilus) and fellow-Empiricists (e.g. Glaucias). His commentaries offered variants, emendations, glosses, and historical but partisan accounts of critical controversies, such as the one triggered by the Herophilean *Zeno(7)'s interpretation of the mysterious symbols in some copies of the Hippocratic Epidemics.

Article

Zeuxis (3), Philalethes ('Truth-lover'), Greek physician  

Heinrich von Staden

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Science, Technology, and Medicine
Philalethes (the ‘Truth-lover’), physician, founder of the Asian branch of the ‘school’ of *Herophilus. A contemporary of Strabo (Geography 12. 8. 20, 580c), he established the ‘school’ (διδασκαλεῖον) at the temple of *Men Karou between Laodicea and Carura. Bronze coins from Laodicea, bearing the head of Augustus on the obverse, commemorate Zeuxis on the reverse. Other ancient sources often leave unclear whether Zeuxis Philalethes or *Zeuxis (2) the Empiricist is meant.

Article

Zeuxis (4), Seleucid viceroy  

Simon Hornblower

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Near East
Zeuxis (4), important *Seleucid viceroy of the time of *Antiochus (3) III: Polybius 5. 45. 4 and 16. 1. 8 with Walbank, HCP and J. Ma, Antiochus III and the Cities of Western Asia Minor (1999) for the inscriptions. Cf. SEG 36. 973 =Ma no. 29 for his title, and Ma nos. 123 ff. for his role. See amyzon; sardis.

Article

Zoïlus, of Amphipolis, 4th cent. BCE  

John Francis Lockwood and Robert Browning

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Philosophy

Zoïlus (Ζωΐλος) of *Amphipolis (4th cent. bce), the *Cynic philosopher, pupil of *Polycrates (2) and teacher of *Anaximenes(2) of Lampsacus; is described by the Suda as ῥήτωρ καὶ φιλόσοφος (rhetorician and philosopher), by Aelian, VH 11. 10, as κύων ῥητορικός and ψογερός, a ‘cynic rhetorician’ and ‘censorious’. He was notorious for the bitterness of his attacks on *Isocrates, *Plato(1), and especially *Homer. He probably visited *Alexandria(1) when the Library and *Museum were being established.

(1) Against Isocrates. (2) Against Plato, favourably mentioned by Dion. Hal.Pomp. 1. (3) Against Homer (Καθʼ Ὁμήρου or Κατὰ τῆς Ὁμήρου ποιήσεως ‘Against Homer's poetry’ or perhaps Ὁμηρομάστιξ ‘scourge of Homer’, which became the author's nickname). This work was chiefly devoted to severe, though often captious, criticism of the poet's invention, of the credibility of incidents (e.g. Il.

Article

Zonaras, Johannes, Byzantine historian and canonist  

Arnaldo Momigliano

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Late Antiquity
A commander of the body-guard and imperial secretary, he was probably forced to retire into monastic life after the failure of the conspiracy to make Anna Comnena empress in 1118 ce. Living in exile on an island far from the capital he devoted himself to writing. He composed an authoritative commentary to Byzantine canon law, commentaries on the poems of *Gregory(2) of Nazianzus and on the terminology of religious poetry. Various other exegetic books and lives of saints go under his name; he is also the author of at least one religious poem. As a historian he wrote a universal history from the creation to ce 1118. Zonaras never claimed to be more than a compiler. For Greek history he mainly used *Herodotus(1), *Xenophon(1), *Plutarch, and *Arrian. For Roman history to the destruction of *Carthage he excerpted Plutarch and the first twenty-one books of *Cassius Dio, for which he is our only important source.

Article

Zonas, of Sardis  

Alan Douglas Edward Cameron

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Zonas of *Sardis, author of nine *epigrams in the Greek *anthology from the Garland of Philip. If the Diodorus Zonas of Strabo 627–8, then he lived about 80 bce (see Page in GLP 2. 263–4). He writes on humble folk and rural themes, ‘among the most attractive of the imitators of *Leonidas, far superior to their model’ (GLP413).

Article

zooarchaeology  

Michael MacKinnon

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
19 July 2023
Subjects:
  1. Ancient Economy
  2. Greek Material Culture
  3. Science, Technology, and Medicine
  4. Roman Material Culture

Zooarchaeology/archaeozoology focuses on the investigation of animals in the past through analysis of recovered faunal remains, largely teeth and bones, from archaeological sites. As such zooarchaeological analyses can disclose much about the animals themselves, the environmental and ecological parameters in which they existed, as well as the cultures that kept, herded, controlled, hunted, manipulated, killed, ate, valued, symbolized, treated, and exploited them. The historical development of zooarchaeological study within classical archaeology showcases its expansion from earlier studies (in the 1970s and 1980s) that concentrated on reconstructing the core economic and ecological roles of animals in antiquity to its current state, which emphasizes more diversified, multidimensional investigations of animals across all spectra and components of ancient life. Key topics of interest in the discipline include ancient husbandry operations; the interaction between animals and ecological settings; the input of meat and other animal foodstuffs in ancient diets; the exploitation of non-consumable animal products, such as bones, hides, and wool in antiquity; breeding regimes and their effects on animals during Greek and Roman times; and the roles and characteristics of work, pet, and sacrificial animals in the past.

Article

Zopyrus  

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Science, Technology, and Medicine

Zopyrus, writer on *physiognomy, known from his judgement on Socrates' appearance.

Article

Zoroaster  

Heleen Sancisi-Weerdenburg and W. F. M. Henkelman

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Near East
Zoroaster, Ζωροάστρης (Ζαθραύστης, Ζαράτας), is the Greek form Old Iranian Zarathuštra. He is considered by Zoroastrian tradition as prophet of a new religion; the revolutionary nature of his teachings is, however, debatable. In the oldest part of the Avesta, the Gāthā, he is called a ma̢thrān, ‘he who possesses the sacred formulas’. The Gāthā, ritualistic hymns, portray a dualistic system in which Aṣ̌a (truth, rightness) is opposed to Druj (lie, deceit) with *Ahura Mazdā is the supreme deity. They are dated, on linguistic grounds, to c.1000 bce. Whether Zoroaster was a historical figure, lived around this date, and wrote the Gāthā is debated; his persona certainly served as focal point of an emergent religious community. A date in the 6th cent. bce is suggested by late Zoroastrian tradition, but not supported by conclusive historical evidence. The Greeks knew of Zoroaster by the 5th cent. bce (*Xanthus(2) of Lydia in Diog.

Article

Zosimus  

John F. Matthews

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Late Antiquity
Zosimus, Greek historian. Little is known of his life except that he had been advocatus fisci (see fiscus) and obtained the dignity of comes (see comites). His identification with either the sophist Zosimus of Ascalon or the sophist Zosimus of Gaza is very unlikely (see second sophistic). He wrote a history (Historia nova) of the Roman empire from *Augustus reaching as far as ce 410, where his extant text terminates just before the sack of Rome by *Alaric. He completed his work after 498, if indeed he refers to the abolition of the auri lustralis collatio (2. 38; see collatio lustralis), and c.518, since the work is quoted in the chronicle of Eustathius of Epiphania, written apparently in the early years of Justin II. Book 1 summarizes the history of the first three centuries of the empire (the section of *Diocletian is lost); in books 2–4 he gives a more precise account of the 4th cent.