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Article

Cassope  

W. M. Murray

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Ancient Geography
  2. Greek Material Culture

Cassope, main city of the Cassopaeans, a Thesprotian people (see thesproti) who broke away around 400 bce to become an independent tribal state. An Epidaurian inscription (see epidaurus) attests to the city's existence by the mid-4th cent., although it was probably not fortified this early. A member of the Epirote Alliance (343/2–232) and the League of *Epirus (232–168), Cassope supported *Perseus (2) against the Romans and suffered reprisals when the Romans punished Epirus following his defeat (168). Never totally abandoned, the city continued in existence until 31 bce when its inhabitants participated in the synoecism of *Nicopolis (3). Well-preserved remains of the city can be found above modern Kamarina and include a 3-km. (1 3/4-mi.) circuit wall, an agora, two theatres, a katagōgion, or ‘guest house’, and numerous Hellenistic houses.

Article

cemeteries  

Ian Morris

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture
  2. Roman Material Culture
The organization of a formal cemetery, as a space reserved exclusively for the disposal of the *dead, was an important dimension of the social definition of the ancient city. Burial within the settlement had been common in many parts of the Mediterranean world in the early iron age, but after the 8th cent. bce it was rare. Cemeteries normally lined the roads leading away from cities. They usually consisted of numerous small grave-plots, which were rarely used for more than two or three generations, although some cemeteries, such as the *Ceramicus at Athens, remained in use for over a millennium. Burial in a recognized cemetery was a primary symbol of *citizenship in Athens.The spatial distinction between city and cemetery held fast throughout pagan antiquity, only changing as part of the broader transformation associated with the Christian take-over of the western Roman empire. There were two parallel developments. Starting in the 3rd cent., Christians began building *basilicas over the shrines of saints, which were normally in extramural cemeteries.

Article

Cephisodotus (1), Athenian sculptor, fl. c. 372–369 BCE  

Andrew F. Stewart

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture
Cephisodotus (1), Athenian sculptor, probably father of *Praxiteles and a brother-in-law of *Phocion. *Pliny (2)'s floruit of 372–369 bce (HN 34. 50) may relate to his most famous work, the bronze *Eirene and *Plutus (Peace and Wealth) in the Athenian *agora, perhaps commissioned to celebrate the *Common Peace of 371.

Article

Cephisodotus (2), Athenian sculptor, fl. 344–293 BCE  

Andrew F. Stewart

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture

Cephisodotus (2), Athenian sculptor, son of *Praxiteles. Active between 344 and 293 bce. With his younger brother Timarchus, Cephisodotus inherited his father's workshop, his clientele, and his wealth. The two specialized in marble statues of divinities and in portraits, chiefly in bronze, of which the most famous was the *Menander (1) (d. 293/2) in the theatre of Dionysus at Athens (see portraiture, greek). Many copies of it survive, plus some statuettes in Praxitelean style from *Cos that may be part of their sculpture for the altar of *Asclepius. Attributions include the Capitoline Aphrodite and a fine female head from Chios in Boston. His son Praxiteles (II) continued Cephisodotus’ work; the *Hermes and *Dionysus group from *Olympia is sometimes ascribed to him.

Article

Ceramicus  

Antony Spawforth

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture
Ceramicus, Kerameikos, large and (in ancient authors) loosely defined district of NW Athens based on the potters’ (kerameis) quarter. Within the Themistoclean wall it embraced the area from the *Dipylon gate up to and including the Agora, for which it could be a virtual synonym (Paus. 1. 2. 4 ff.), although Classical authors (esp. Thuc. 2. 34. 5; Xen. Hell. 2. 4. 33) used it above all of the famous extramural cemetery (including the Dēmosion Sēma or public burial-ground: see epitaphios) lining the routes which fanned out from the Sacred and Dipylon gates. Excavations since 1863 (the Germans from 1913) provide detailed information about Athenian mortuary practices over 1,500 years, from the earliest Submycenaean burials (c.1100 bce) to late antiquity. Many fine funerary monuments, both ceramic and sculptured, are now displayed in the Athens archaeological museum (see art, funerary, greek). The Cleisthenic *demeKerameis lay somewhere in this vicinity.

Article

Chares (4), of Lindus, Greek sculptor, fl. 300 ?BCE  

Andrew F. Stewart

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture
Chares (4), of *Lindus, Greek sculptor, active c.300 bce. A follower of *Lysippus (2), Chares was renowned for his bronze statue of *Helios for *Rhodes, the famous Colossus. Some 32 m. (105 ft.) high, it was financed by the sale of the equipment left behind by *Demetrius (4) Poliorcetes when he abandoned the siege of Rhodes in 305.

Article

colonization, Greek  

D. W. R. Ridgway

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
30 July 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture

‘Colonization’, in the language of a former imperial power, is a somewhat misleading definition of the process of major Greek expansion that took place between c.734 and 580 bce. In fact, the process itself was not so much ‘Greek’ as directed in different ways and for different reasons by a number of independent city-states (see polis). This at least emerges with relative clarity from both the historical and the archaeological evidence. For the rest, the mass of general and particular information that has accumulated under these two headings is only rarely susceptible to a single uncontroversial interpretation. Although the position has greatly improved since the 1930s, it is still only too true that archaeologists and ancient historians do not always appreciate each other's aims and methods—a problem that is exacerbated by the fact that on the subject of colonization ancient no less than modern authors are more than usually influenced by their own political agenda and accordingly more than usually liable to project the priorities, practices, and terminology of their own times onto the much earlier events they purport to describe.

Article

court  

Antony Spawforth

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture
  2. Roman Material Culture
Court, in mediaeval and early-modern times the ruler's household and retinue, its spatial and institutional setting, and, by extension, the ruling power as constituted by monarch and helpers in governance. Ancient Greek ‘aulē’, a domestic ‘hall’ or ‘courtyard’, acquired some, if not all, of this abstract sense of ‘court’: cf. ‘hoi peri tēn aulēn’, literally ‘the people about the courtyard’, to describe *Alexander (3) the Great's courtiers (Diod. Sic. 17.101.3). Having come to denote the courts of the Hellenistic monarchs, the word, Latinized as ‘aula’, was taken over by the Romans as the normal term for the imperial court.Courts are best understood as ‘universal social configurations’ (G. Herman) which arise in societies where power becomes the monopoly of a monarch. Modern court studies owe much to the sociologist Norbert Elias. In The Court Society, based on a German PhD first published in 1933, Elias used the Versailles of Louis XIV of France to construct a model of the court as a system of power.

Article

Cresilas, Greek sculptor, active c. 440–410 BCE  

Andrew F. Stewart

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture

His statues of *Pericles (1) and Dieitrephes shot through with arrows (Plin.HN 34. 74; Paus. 1. 23. 3, 25. 1) stood on the Acropolis; their signed bases survive, plus a dedication to Athena and two more at Hermione (Argolid, see argos(1)) and *Delphi; one of his works was later displayed at *Pergamum. According to Plin HN 34. 53, his *Amazon for *Ephesus was placed third after those of *Polyclitus (2) and *Phidias. Copies of Pericles’ head survive, and the Sciarra/Lansdowne-type Amazon is often ascribed to him.

Article

Critius  

Andrew F. Stewart

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture

Critius, Athenian (?) sculptor, active c.490–460 bce. Author, with Nesiotes, of six dedications on the Acropolis, all bronzes. The two were famed for their bronze Tyrannicides (Harmodius and *Aristogiton), commissioned in 477/76 to replace those by *Antenor (2), stolen by *Xerxes in 480. Copies of them survive; they are often considered to represent the ‘official birthday’ of the early Classical style in Greek sculpture. Attributions include the ‘Critius Boy’ from the Acropolis.

Article

crowns and wreaths, Greek  

Brian Campbell

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 July 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture

Crowns and wreaths (στέφανος, στεφάνη) were worn by Greeks for a variety of ceremonial purposes: by priests when *sacrificing, by members of dramatic choruses, orators and symposiasts (see symposium). They served as prizes at games and as awards of merit. Originally made from the branches of trees and plants, each having a specific connotation (e.g. olive/*Olympian victory, funerals; vine and ivy/*Dionysus; rose/*Aphrodite, symposium), crowns began to be made in gold and occasionally silver. Less solid examples were made for funerary use, and some are preserved in the archaeological record. Gold crowns occur frequently in the epigraphic sources relating to Athens and *Delos, where, however, the figures given represent their cost in silver drachmae rather than their weight in gold. The crown-making stage was often bypassed, and the recipient simply pocketed the money.

Article

Cypselus, chest of  

Stanley Casson, Gisela M. A. Richter, and Michael Vickers

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture
A chest of cedar-wood decorated with figures in ivory, gold, and wood, exhibited at *Olympia in the temple of Hera. It is said to have been the one in which the infant *Cypselus was hidden, and afterwards to have been dedicated by either Cypselus or his son *Periander.

Article

Damophon, Messenian sculptor  

Andrew F. Stewart

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture

Messenian sculptor, active early 2nd cent. bce. Repaired Phidias' *Zeus at *Olympia and made marble cult statues for cities of the *Achaean Confederacy: Messene, Aegium, *Megalopolis, and *Lycosura in Arcadia. Substantial fragments of the last have survived, comprising *Demeter and Despoina enthroned, with *Artemis and the *Titan Anytus. They show that Damophon was an eclectic neoclassicist who attempted to update the style of Phidias while paying close attention to the needs of the cult's devotees. Pausanias thought his work important enough to describe at length (8. 37. 1–6, etc. ); other connoisseurs ignored it.

Article

dead, disposal of  

Ian Morris

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture: Bronze Age
  2. Greek Material Culture
  3. Roman Material Culture
Correct disposal of the dead was always a crucial element in easing the *soul of the deceased into the next world. However, the forms of burial varied enormously. Great significance was attached to the choice of inhumation, cremation, or some other rite (e.g. Herodotus 3. 38; Lucretius 3. 888–93), but there is rarely any reason to see a direct correlation between specific methods and specific racial, class, or religious groups.In prehistory there was enormous variation. An inhumation burial is known from mesolithic times in the Franchthi cave (Argolid), while in Thessaly cremation cemeteries go back to early neolithic. In the early bronze age rich grave goods were sometimes used, particularly in the multiple inhumation tombs of the *Cyclades and *Crete. In the late bronze age, there was for the first time considerable uniformity on the mainland, with multiple inhumations in rock-cut chamber-tombs being the norm. In early .

Article

Delion  

John F. Lazenby

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek History and Historiography
  2. Greek Material Culture

Temple of *Apollo on the NE coast of *Boeotia (now Dhilesi), where the Boeotians defeated the Athenians in 424 bce. The Athenians, with 7,000 *hoplites and some cavalry, but no proper light troops, had fortified the temple and were caught returning to Attica by a Boeotian army also of 7,000 hoplites, but with more than 10,000 light troops, 500 *peltasts, and some cavalry. The battle provides the first example of the Boeotian tactic of deploying hoplites in a deep *phalanx—here the Thebans (see Thebes (1)) on the right were 25 deep, whereas the Athenians were only eight deep. The Thebans defeated the Athenian left, and although the Athenian right was at first successful, it fled in panic at the sudden appearance of Boeotian cavalry, sent round behind a hill to support their left. Athenian losses, at over 14 per cent, were perhaps the worst ever suffered by a hoplite army.

Article

Delphi  

Catherine A. Morgan, Simon Hornblower, and Antony Spawforth

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Ancient Geography
  2. Greek Material Culture
  3. Greek Myth and Religion
(See also Delphic oracle; Pythian Games). Delphi, one of the four great *panhellenic*sanctuaries (the others are *Isthmia, *Olympia, *Nemea), is on the lower southern slopes of *Parnassus, c.610 m. (2,000 ft.) above the gulf of *Corinth.There was an extensive Mycenaean village in the *Apollo sanctuary at the end of the bronze age; the area was resettled probably during the 10th cent., and the first dedications (tripods and figurines) appear c.800. The settlement was probably relocated after the first temple was built (late 7th cent.). The first archaeological links are with Corinth and Thessaly. The 6th cent. Homeric *hymn to Apollo says Apollo chose *Cretans for his Delphic priests, and early Cretan metal dedications have been found, but Cretan material could have come via Corinth, and Cretan priests may have been invented because Crete was distant i.e. this is a way of stressing the end of local domination. The first .

Article

Demetrius (2), of Alopece, Athenian sculptor  

Andrew F. Stewart

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture
Demetrius (2) of Alopece, Athenian sculptor, active c.400–370 bce. Maker of portrait-bronzes renowned for their realism (Quint.Institutio oratoria 12. 10. 9, etc. ). His subjects included the aged priestess Lysimache and the horse-breeder Simon; Lucian's account of his Pellichus (Philops.18), a Corinthian general, is probably a comic invention. See portraiture, Greek.

Article

dēmiourgoi  

Frank William Walbank and P. J. Rhodes

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Ancient Economy
  2. Greek Material Culture
Dēmiourgoi, ‘public workers’, are in *Homer such independent craftsmen as metalworkers, potters, and masons, and also seers, doctors, bards, and heralds. *Plato (1) and *Xenophon (1) use the word thus. More generally in Classical Greece the word is used sometimes in that sense, sometimes as the title of major officials in a state; though perhaps of greatest antiquity in *Elis and *Achaea, they are most often found in Dorian states. In the *Achaean Confederacy they formed a council of ten, who assisted the *stratēgos; the *Arcadian League imitated this organization, based originally on local representation. Outside mainland Greece, dēmiourgoi are found in *Crete and several Aegean islands, and in the Roman period in *Asia Minor. In Athens there are references to a division of the citizen body into *eupatridai, farmers, and dēmiourgoi, and to the involvement of those classes in the appointment of the archons after 580 bce (Ath.

Article

diadem  

Ludwig Alfred Moritz and Antony Spawforth

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture
Diadem (διάδημα), royal headband, with sceptre and purple an attribute of Hellenistic kingship; a flat strip of white cloth, knotted behind, with the ends left free-hanging. It originated with *Alexander (3) the Great, who probably assumed it to mark his conquest of Asia. Late sources (Diod. Sic. 17. 77. 6; Q. *Curtius Rufus 6. 6. 4) saw it as part of his adoption of Persian royal dress: a claim as yet unconfirmed by archaeology. A less likely source is the range of headbands already known to the Greeks. The ancient tale of its discovery by the god *Dionysus (Diod. Sic. 4. 4. 4), who wore it to mark his eastern conquests, may reflect some of the symbolism attached to it by *Alexander (3) the Great and his successors. A silver-gilt headband found in Tomb II at Vergina (see Aegae) may have served as a Macedonian royal diadem. Refused by *Caesar in 44 bce and avoided by earlier Roman emperors, under *Constantine I it became (as a purple band fitted with jewels and pearls) a regular part of the insignia of the reigning Augustus and Augusta (see Augustus, Augusta as titles).

Article

dicing  

Ludwig Alfred Moritz

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture
  2. Roman Material Culture

Dicing with six-sided dice (κύβοι, tesserae) or four-sided knucklebones (ἀστράγαλοι, tali; natural or manufactured from e.g. ivory) was a popular amusement in both Greece and Rome, either by itself or in association with board-games. In Rome, where even emperors (esp. *Claudius) were keen players, high sums were often staked; and dicing was officially illegal except at the Saturnalia (see Saturnus). Tesserae may have been used in varying numbers, but tali were normally used in fours, the best (though statistically not the rarest) of the 35 possible throws being when each showed a different face (probably = Venus). Canis (‘dog’) was the worst throw with both tali and tesserae, but its precise nature is uncertain. Cheating, sometimes with loaded dice (μεμολυβδωμένοι), was not unknown, and to help prevent it the dice-box or ‘tower’ was soon introduced. Finds of ancient dice, which include an Etruscan pair, are not uncommon.