The epigraphy and history of Boeotia : new finds, new prospects
Contents Preface Abbreviations List of Contributors Introduction Section I: Boeotian History: New Interpretations 1. Hans Beck: "Ethnic Identity and Integration in Boeotia: the Evidence of the Inscriptions (6th and 5th Centuries BC)" 2. Emily Mackil: "Creating a Common Polity in Boeotia" 3. Denis Knoepfler: "EPSILONCHITHETAOMICRONNUDELTAEPSILON TAUALPHASIGMA BETAOMICRONIOTAOMEGATAUIOTAALPHASIGMA: The Expansion of the Boeotian Koinon towards Central Euboia in the Early Third Century BC" 4. Adrian Robu: "Between Macedon, Achaea and Boeotia: The Epigraphy of Hellenistic Megara Revisited" 5. Christel Muller: "A Koinon after 146? Reflections on the Political and Institutional Situation of Boeotia in the Second Half of the Second Century BC" Section II: The New Epigraphy of Thebes 6. Vassilios L. Aravantinos: "The Inscriptions from the Sanctuary of Herakles at Thebes: An Overview" 7. Angelos P. Matthaiou: "Four Inscribed Bronze Tablets from Thebes: Preliminary Notes." 8. Nikolaos Papazarkadas: "Two New Epigrams from Thebes" 9. Margherita Bonanno-Aravantinos: "New Inscribed Funerary Monuments from Thebes" Section III: Boeotian Epigraphy: Beyond Thebes 10. Albert Schachter: "Tlepolemos in Boeotia" 11. Yannis Kalliontzis: "Digging in Storerooms for Inscriptions: An Unpublished Casualty List from Plataia in the Museum of Thebes and the Memory of War in Boeotia" 12. Robert Pitt: "Just As It Has Been Written: Inscribing Building Contracts at Lebadeia" 13. Claire Grenet: "Manumission in Hellenistic Boeotia: New Considerations on the Chronology of the Inscriptions" 14. Isabelle Pernin: "Land Administration and Property Law in the Proconsular Edict from Thisbe (Syll.3 884)" Index Locorum General Index
TWO NOTES ON THE NEW CROESUS EPIGRAM FROM THEBES
In March 2005 a rescue excavation uncovered a spectacular new epigraphic find from Thebes. Now on display in the Archaeological Museum of Thebes, a column drum 0.41 m in height has inscribed on it two identical epigrams, one (the older one) written vertically in Boeotian script and a second (later) Ionian copy written horizontally on the other side. Nikolaos Papazarkadas published the editio princeps of the epigram in 2014, using both inscriptions to create a composite text. As Papazarkadas realized, the column drum, which has a chi-shaped orifice at one end meant to hold a stationary object, at one point displayed a ‘shining shield’ (φαεννὰν | [ἀσπ]ίδα, lines 3–4) that Herodotus had seen in the temple of Apollo Ismenius in Thebes. Moreover, this shield was interpreted by Herodotus (relying on the language of the inscription and likely on the commentary of temple staff) as having been dedicated by the Lydian king Croesus to the hero Amphiaraus, when he was ‘testing’ the various oracles in Greece in order to decide on a course of action against his rival Cyrus of Persia.
CATARACT: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE.
The earliest extant description of a surgical operation for the cure of cataract is that of Celsus, toho practiced medicine in Rome at the beginning of the Christian era. In his text De Meclicina he described in detail his method of couching, by which he inserted a bronze needle into the eye at the equator on the lateral side of ihe globe and depressed the cataract downward into the lower part of the vitreous where the surgeon hoped it would remain out of the way of vision. The same method had been employed by the Greeks and Hindus for at least several hundred years earlier and ivas to continue as the only operation available until the middle of the eighteenth century when Daviel of Paris described extraction of the lens through the cornea. The early couchers worked on the premise that the crystallin humor we know as the lens was the receptor for vision, and that in certain conditions of disease a suffusion flowed doivn in front of the crystallin humor where it solidified and formed a dense curtain. The purpose of couching was to press the hardened corrupt humor out of the way of the lens. That cataract was opaque material within the lens itself was not recognized until after the middle of ihe seventeenth century. Until then ihe surgeons were not even aware that it was the lens they were dislocating.