Open research questions in Classical Antiquity Studies

What the literature leaves open

• This paper analyses for the first time several elements which put in question the existence of an ancient funerary monument carrying the poem dedicated to a Batavian soldier, which, because of 63 Re-discovery of Cassius Dio at the court of Justinian in the 6th century AD (Mecella 2016). 64 65 Syme 1971, 45–49, 113–134; Birley 1997b; Sallmann 1997, 53–56, § 405.1. Syme 1971, 30–53; Sallmann 1997, 56–57, § 405.2; Benario 1997. Ignotus, the Good Biographer would have been the source of the Historia Augusta of the lives until Caracalla. A change is clear be tween Caracalla and Macrinus. 66 Bleckmann 1997. 67 Bollansée 1994. 68 Dio 69.11.2: “ὡς Ἁδριανὸς γράφει”; Dio 69.17.3: “ἒστι γε αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐπιστολὴ αὐτὸ τοῦτο ἐνδεικνυμένη”; see Davenport – Mallan 2014. 69 Caes., de bell. Gall. 5.44. 20 Aequora Danubii cunctis transnare sub armis: A new interpretation of the poem CLE 427 the exceptionality of the narrated event, has been treated in the modern historiography as a source for the reconstruction of the life of emperor Hadrian and the political events along the Danubian limes under his reign. The uncertainty of the find place, the characteristics of the manuscript tradition, the historical imprecisions in the poetic narration, and the close similarities with a passage of Cassius Dio seem to prove that the poem was in fact a late antique literary composition, which had the work of Cassius as its primary source. Furthermore, this allows to correct an assumption on the life of Hadrian—that he employed his army in Pannonia in AD 118—primary evidence of which was the existence of this funerary monument. The crossing of the river by Hadrian’s soldiers, likely the equites singulares accompanying him from Syria, must have happened in Moesia inferior when the emperor settled the uprising of the Roxolani. However, this episode seems to be related to the time of his governorship in Pannonia inferior in AD 107, when he was acting as arbiter of the disputes between the tribes on the other side of the Danube and was the head of a perfectly trained army that included—of course—the alae Batavorum. In a long‑term perspective, this kind of study opens new ways on how to deal with verse inscriptions which are known only from manuscripts. As we know that poems often imitate epitaphs, the use of an epigraphic style cannot be used as an element to distinguish verse inscriptions from merely literary works.

  Aequora Danubii cunctis transnare sub armis · 2026 · DOI

• Although the Barberini Faun is a well-known museum piece today, scholarly literature has largely approached the sculpture within the frameworks of eroticism, Dionysian cult practices, or the theme of sleep, while its psychological depth and internal dramatic structure have often remained insufficiently explored.

  Hellenistik Dönemde Bireysel Boşluk ve Bedensel Çöküş: Barberini Faun Örneği · 2026 · DOI

• ODY-C employs gender flips as a mechanism of feminist critique, but the comic's attempts to subvert and reimagine the gender politics of Greek myth meet with mixed results.

  Rendering the Monstrous Feminine: Myth, Feminism, and Gender Flips in Matt Fraction and Christian Ward's <i>ODY-C</i> · 2025 · DOI

• Building upon some recent advancements in the study of native onomastics and incorporating some more recent epigraphic attestations, the paper discusses the anthroponymy recorded in Roman inscriptions from the region, aiming to prompt further research on population dynamics by offering updated references and insights grounded in a relevant methodological framework.

  The Names of Roman Dardania: Approaching the Indigenous Personal Names in the Southern Part of Upper Moesia · 2025 · DOI

• The author conducts a preliminary review of the preserved, fragmentary evidence, which has not yet been examined together: Pompeian graffiti mentioning a sexual interpretation of the myth of the fight of Heracles and Geryon, epigrams from the Palatine Anthology, Roman literature and historiography, Christian literature, paintings from Pompeii and Herculaneum and elsewhere, representations on Roman pottery, gems, lamps and mirrors.

  „Pornograficzne” interpretacje klasycznych mitów w starożytności grecko-rzymskiej · 2025 · DOI

• Further study of the site, together with the pottery evidence, indicates that the peristyle and its associated rooms were the public reception area of an elaborately decorated Roman domus of the second century AD, and that adjacent buildings to the south may have been the private quarters of this house.

  THE SO-CALLED VILLA DIONYSOS AT KNOSSOS · 2022 · DOI

• The study examines the relations between different aspects (Ancient Greek main text, miniatures, Old French translation on the margins, Old French headlines) of the manuscript Iviron ? 463, which is a bilingual (Ancient Greek-Old French) Byzantine manuscript kept on Mount Athos, from a new perspective by including formerly not investigated viewpoints: by exploring the relationship between the miniatures and the headlines that are highlighted by red ink in the Old French text.

  The codex-images and captions of the Barlaam-romance (cod. Athon. Iviron 463 [Lambros 4583]) · 2021 · DOI

• The beginning of the etiological tale should reasonably be related to the following fragment of text:     “when he caught the wild boar…”Discussions of the possible written sources are lacking in argumentation based on textual analysis, since there is considerable shortage of the written artefacts that could be paralleled to the Sovius tale in terms of their narrative structure and semantics.

  The Baltic and Arabic Character of the Sovius Tale. The Origins of the Mythonym · 2015 · DOI

• The category of the sublime, which has been amply discussed but not well defined and which is a central category to modern and contemporary aesthetics, was first exposed in detail in a treatise on rhetoric dating from the first century, AD.

  Desde el umbral de las palabras: sobre lo sublime a partir de Pseudo-Longino · 2012 · DOI

• [End Page 95] Fagles’ translation is forceful and reads well, but it strikes me as a bit agitated in its rhythm and pacing, with its use of dashes (and even its spatial organization) suggesting a choppiness of expression that is lacking in the original.

  Sophocles. The Theban Plays: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone (review) · 2010 · DOI

• This approach may frustrate the student encountering the Georgics for the first time (one group this series is aimed at), but as Volk points out, it is in keeping with recent trends in scholarship, since the “lack of consensus in Vergilian scholarship has—especially in recent, poststructuralist times—been viewed as a positive thing, with the inherent openness and polysemy of Vergil’s works being regarded as indicative of their quality” (p.

  Oxford Readings in Classical Studies: Vergil's Georgics by Katharina Volk · 2009 · DOI

• The final paper in this section, John Davidson on performance (194–211), is in the awkward position of having to cover too much ground within a single chapter; as a result, the [End Page 254] discussion is compressed at key points, and alternative possibilities remain under-explored.

  A Companion to Greek Tragedy (review) · 2007 · DOI

• While the long-term impact of such digital facsimiles remains to be seen, the advantages for scholars include the ability to enlarge the image to study details; the ability to compare multiple manuscripts on one screen; access to more lifelike images in color than on black-and-white microfilm; immediate access to critical apparatuses; the ability to print excerpts easily; and a compact format that travels easily.

  Horae Beatae Mariae ad usum Romanum (Hours of the Blessed Virgin Mary Following the Roman Use), France, 1524 (review) · 2004 · DOI

• Since evidence is scarce on the direct administration of this Ptolemaic possession between 321 and 96 BC, the study of the royal cult and the relations between the Ptolemies and traditional cults of the city provides valuable insight on the nature of the dialogue between the king and the cities.

  The Ptolemaic ruler as a religious figure in Cyrenaica · 2003 · DOI

• 876), a stone copy of which survives at Arles, laudably makes the connection with a real, contemporary, and ideologically significant shield, but (as West points out) it is too schematic and does not account for all the details (how are the she-wolf and the rape of the Sabines to be accommodated under those labels?).

  The Survival and Supremacy of Rome: The Unity of the Shield of Aeneas · 1997 · DOI

• Many regional epigraphies remain to be characterized in terms of their chronology, but such local studies as have been done strongly suggest that, although there was certainly some inter-regional variation in the scale, rate, and timing of this phenomenon, in its broad outlines this pattern was very widespread.

  Monumental Writing and the Expansion of Roman Society in the Early Empire · 1996 · DOI

• In the first part I shall present the available evidence, and in the second use it to defend Döme’s position against its detractors; in the third part I shall argue that the confusion of the two began in the early Christian centuries, through a mixture of knowledge and pardonable ignorance, and finally I shall advance another candidate, whose credentials for the position of Origen’s tutor have not been adequately examined in modern discussion.

  Ammonius, Teacher of Origen · 1993 · DOI

• If "ethnic distinctions" are insufficient to explain comparable phenomena, do the reasons necessarily lie in their "basic structures?" What is meant by "ethnic" and "basic"? Are these structures socio-economic, cultural-linguistic or psychological ? The very concept of "ethnic distinctions" is surely too modern and too loaded ("pertaining to nations not Christian or Jewish," O.

  Reappropriating Greek Sacrifice: homo necans or άνθρωπος θυσιάζων? · 1990 · DOI

• We do, of course, possess fine editions of the major contemporary poets, but materials for the novel are scarce, and even scarcer are teaching editions of short stories, which have the obvious pedagogical advantage of being more easily digestible by most of our students than is a three- or four-hundred page novel.

  Vasilis Arvanitis (review) · 1984 · DOI

• It may be noted, however, that in dealing with the process of conversion the authors introduce a number of words of Greek origin which are insufficiently explained in the text; and the fragmented notes at the end of each chapter and absence of a bibliogra- phy make it difficult t o follow up refer- ences.

  The Ancient View of Greek Art: Criticism, History, and Terminology · 1974 · DOI

• The decline of late Roman paganism could hardly be said to have been an under-studied subject in the past, nor one which currently lacks appeal among late Roman historians: indeed, one has the impression that it is often through this, and the broader question of the ‘conflict’ between paganism and Christianity in the fourth century, that students of Roman history have acquired their interest in the late imperial period.

  Symmachus and the Oriental Cults · 1973 · DOI

• This runs counter to my own feeling that a truly diachronic work of art was scarcely possible before that special kind of historical consciousness which became prevalent during the eighteenth century. 3 I am no Joyce scholar; and for all I know this may be an appropriate thing to do with Finnegan's Wake, a work I not only find difficult, and in some sense alienating, but which prompts me to question whether the amount of commentary needed is warranted by the work itself.

  Goethe's <i>Faust</i>: Tragedy in the Diachronic Mode · 1972 · DOI

• Three ideas of theatre are expounded there: that of the manager, obsessed with box-office, spectacle, and cardboard scenery; that of the comedian, revelling in the direct responses of the public, its vitality, warmth, youth, and laughter; that of the poet, despising the necessity to please, and longing for a theatre of the mind in which the reality of his imagination is not limited by the grossness of earth.

  The Incarnation of Imagery in<i>Faust Part I</i> · 1970 · DOI

• W e are obliged, for lack of evidence to the contrary, to assume that the average density of urban settlement was as great within a small city, like Burdigalia (Bordeaux) or Isca 8zG. ~ ~ Too little is known of the cities of the eastern provinces for estimates of their size and interrelationships to be possible.

  THE URBANIZATION OF THE CLASSICAL WORLD · 1969 · DOI

• The analysis of the concept ingeneracy and the name 'The Ingenerate' as the (mere) absence of a property is insufficient to account for the (logical) impossibility of God's being generate—he does not lack what he could never conceivably be. The tensions within this viewpoint are scarcely concealed.

  THE <i>SYNTAGMATION</i> OF AETIUS THE ANOMEAN · 1968 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Classical Antiquity Studies

• Tam Firmum Municipium: The Romanization of Volaterrae and its Cultural Implications · The Journal of Roman Studies · 1998 · 104 citations
• The Survival and Supremacy of Rome: The Unity of the Shield of Aeneas · The Journal of Roman Studies · 1997 · 70 citations
• Monumental Writing and the Expansion of Roman Society in the Early Empire · The Journal of Roman Studies · 1996 · 49 citations
• The hero of Lefkandi · Antiquity · 1982 · 37 citations
• <i>Tam Firmum Municipium</i>: The Romanization of Volaterrae and its Cultural Implications · The Journal of Roman Studies · 1998 · 30 citations
• r.23 The Catullus Room: The Missing Aorist \u2014 Nugas as Compressions and the Operative Caption of Rome on Greece · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026 · 19 citations
• <i>CHRONOS, KAIROS, KRISIS</i>: THE GENESIS OF WESTERN TIME · History and Theory · 2021 · 15 citations
• Porous Bodies: Environmental Biopower and the Politics of Life in Ancient Rome · Theory Culture & Society · 2020 · 11 citations
• Nature & Convention in Thucydides' History · Polity · 1978 · 10 citations
• The dragon’s head or Athens’ sacrifice zone? Spatiotemporal disjuncture, logistical disruptions, and urban infrastructural justice in Piraeus port, Greece · Urban Geography · 2024 · 10 citations

Most recent work

• r.23 The Catullus Room: The Missing Aorist \u2014 Nugas as Compressions and the Operative Caption of Rome on Greece · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026
• Achilles — Canon Provenance Node (The New Human Standing Canon) · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026
• «He deceived the fickle, and they swore allegiance to him»: causes and social support of the rebellion of Tiberius Petasius, 729–730 · Ethnic History of European Nations · 2026
• Re-cognizing hair: Orestes’ lock in Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides · Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies · 2026
• Callimachus <i>Aetia</i> fr. 75.32–35 H: Ἰκμίου and ἀμβώνϵσσιν (34) · Symbolae Osloenses · 2026
• Continued Focus on the Historia Augusta (on Zecchini, Historiae Augustae Colloquium Romanum 15) · Histos · 2026
• Portraying the emperor - seeing the emperor: between typology and individuality in a colossal portrait at Sagalassos · Lirias (KU Leuven) · 2026
• Miasto greckie w szczytowym okresie hellenizmu w świetle dwóch inskrypcji z Miletu (Milet I.3 145 i 150) · Classica Wratislaviensia. Series Altera · 2026
• ἑκὼν εἶναι (Phryn. <i>Ecl.</i> 239) · Digital Encyclopedia of Atticism · 2026
• δυσωπέομαι, δυσωπία (Phryn. <i>Ecl.</i> 160, Poll. 1.197, Poll. 2.52, [Hdn.] <i>Philet.</i> 183, Moer. δ 24) · Digital Encyclopedia of Atticism · 2026

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