Illiterate geography in classical Athens and Rome / Daniela Dueck.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dueck, Daniela, 1965- author.

Series:

Routledge monographs in classical studies.

Routledge monographs in classical studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Classical geography.

Illiterate persons--Greece, Athens.

Illiterate persons.

Illiterate persons--Rome.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (279 pages) : illustrations.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Routledge, 2021.

Summary:

This study is devoted to the channels through which geographic knowledge circulated in classical societies outside of textual transmission. It explores understanding of geography among the non-elites, as opposed to scholarly and scientific geography solely in written form which was the province of a very small number of learned people. It deals with non-literary knowledge of geography, geography not derived from texts, as it was available to people, educated or not, who did not read geographic works. This main issue is composed of two central questions: how, if at all, was geographic data available outside of textual transmission and in contexts in which there was no need to write or read? And what could the public know of geography? In general, three groups of sources are relevant to this quest: oral communications preserved in writing; public non-textual performances; and visual artefacts and monuments. All of these are examined as potential sources for the aural and visual geographic knowledge of Greco-Roman publics. This volume will be of interest to anyone working on geography in the ancient world and to those studying non-elite culture.

Contents:

Cover

Half Title

Series Page

Title Page

Copyright Page

Table of Contents

List of figures

List of maps

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

Chapter 1 Evaluating the unwritten and the unread

Scope of the question and goals

The sources

Methodological outline

Literacy, illiteracy and orality

The crowds and their culture

Daily and practical geography

Greek and Roman geography - realities and availability

Written geographies - not for the masses

Notes

Chapter 2 Speeches

The Attic Orators

Antiphon (480-411 bce)

Lysias (445-380 bce)

Andocides (440-390 bce)

Isocrates (436-338 bce)

Isaeus (early 4th century bce)

Lycurgus (390-324 bce)

Hyperides (390-322 bce)

Aeschines (389-314 bce)

Demosthenes (384-322 bce)

Dinarchus (361-291 bce)

Speeches in Thucydides

Geography in Attic Speeches

Roman speeches - Cicero

Comparison and conclusion

Chapter 3 Drama

Athenian tragedy

Aeschylus

Sophocles

Euripides

Geography in Athenian tragedies

The comedies of Aristophanes

Fragments of Old Comedy

Menander's geography

Victory odes

Drama in Rome

Plautus (c. 254-184 bce)

Terence

The tragedies of Seneca

Chapter 4 Proverbs and idioms

Geographic layout and spatial awareness

Local environment

Local products and resources

Local myth and history

Ethnic idioms

The world within the word

Chapter 5 Spectacles and public shows

Athenian public events

Roman ceremonial triumphs

Showing Roman conquests

Circenses: beast shows, gladiators and staged battles

Conclusion

Chapter 6 Visualizing geography

Roads to visual geography

Attic vase paintings and reliefs

Greek coins

Visual geography in Athens

Roman triumphal monuments.

Ethnic portraits

Roman coinage

Nilotic scenes in Rome

The shape of Rome

The visual aspect of epigraphic lists

Conclusion - The visual impact

Chapter 7 The scope of an illiterate geography

Appendix A: Lists of place-names in speeches

Appendix B: Lists of place-names in dramatic plays

Appendix C: Selection of Greek geographic and ethnographic proverbs and idioms

Appendix D: Selection of Latin geographic and ethnographic proverbs and idioms

Appendix E: List of place-names in Olympic victor lists

Appendix F: List of place-names in the Fasti Triumphales 264/3-19 bce

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-00-301473-9

1-003-01473-9

1-000-22502-X

9781003014737

OCLC:

1222802073