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Societies at War

Ruffing, Kai, Kerstin Dross-Krüpe, Sebastian Fink & Robert Rollinger (Eds.). 2020. Societies at war: Proceedings of the 10th symposium of the Melammu project held in Kassel September 26-28 2016 & Proceedings of the 8th symposium of the Melammu project held in Kiel November 11-15 2014 (MELAMMU, 10). Vienna: Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.

War and war-related issues have attracted an increasing attention within current historical and archaeological research, not least in response to recent global political events. Another reason for this growing interest is probably a general trend towards Modern Military History that has drawn academic attention to war-related issues through all cultures and epochs, going beyond Clausewitz’s argument of war as a continuation of politics by other means. The present vol-ume is committed to this broad approach by examining and comparing phenomena related to ancient warfare from the perspective of Ancient Near Eastern Studies and Classical Studies. Due to unforeseeable circumstances, which prevented the organizers from editing their own proceedings, some papers of the 8th Symposium of the Melammu Project, held at Kiel on the subject “Iranian Worlds”, have been added to this volume in their own section.

Table of Contents:

  • Acknowledgements
  • Kerstin Drojß-Krüpe, Sebastian Fink & Kai Ruffing: Societies at War – Introduction
  • Hannes D. Gaiter & Kai Ruffing: Introduction: “War and Numbers”
  • Davide Nadali: Numbers Matter. On the Nature and Function of
    Counting in Warfare in the Neo-Assyrian Period
  • Reinhold Bichler: Numbers in Herodotus
  • Patrick Reinard :”I do not think anyone in his senses would accept that!” Remarks on Numbers of Fallen Soldiers in Roman
    Historiography and commentarii
  • Giovanni B. Lanfranchi & Sabine Muller: Introduction: “War and Legitimacy”
  • Salvatore Gaspa: The Assyrian King as a Warrior: Legitimacy through War as a Religious and Political Issue from Middle Assyrian to Neo-Assyrian Times
  • Simonetta Ponchia: Legitimation of War and Warriors in Literary Texts
  • Daniel Ogden: The Treatment of Warfare in the Legendary
    Traditions of Seleucus
  • Frances Pownall: Liberation Propaganda as a Legitimizing Principle in Warfare: Dionysius I as an Antecedent to Philip and Alexander of Macedon
  • Racia Da Riva: Introduction: “War and Ritual”
  • Salvatore Gaspa: War and Ritual in Mesopotamia and the Old Testament
  • Kai Trampedach: The Use of Divination in Ancient Greek Warfare
  • Wolfgang Havener: Tropaion. The Battlefield Trophy in Ancient Greece and Rome
  • Oliver Stoll: Introduction: “War and Civilians”
  • Josue J. Justel: “Run for your lives!” War and Refugees in the
    Ancient Near East during the Late Bronze Age
  • AnnaMaria Kaiser: Recruits and Deserters – How Wars affect the Civil
    Administration in the Late Roman Empire
  • General Session
  • Igor Kreimerman: Why Were Cities Destroyed in Times of War? A View from the Southern Levant in the Third and Second Millennia BCE.
  • Geert De Breucker: The Babylonian Temple Communities and Greek
    Culture in the Hellenistic Period
  • Christopher Baron: Communication in Alexander’s Empire
  • Hilmar Klinkott: Mithridates VI and the Formation of an Empire
  • 8th Symposium of the Melammu Project “Iranian Worlds”, held at Kiel in November 2014
  • Marion-Isabell Hoffmann: Sasanian rock reliefs and the British embassy, 1810–1812
  • Jake Nabel: The Arsacids of Rome and Parthia’s “Iranian Revival” in the First Century CE.
  • Sean Manning: War and Soldiers in the Achaemenid Empire: Some Historiographical and Methodological Considerations
  • Sabine Muller: The Winner Takes it All? Reflections on Persian Booty and Persian Cultural Property in Wartime
  • Susanne Rudnig-Zelt: “Who Created this Earth, Who Created Yonder Heaven, Who Created Man” – The Understanding of Creation in Old Persian Royal Inscriptions and the Old Testament
  • Ennio Biondi: Traces of Egyptian Culture in Plato’s Laws
  • Aleksandra Szalc: Indian Philosophers and Alexander the Great-Reality and Myth
  • Stephanie Anthonioz & Nicolas Tenaillon: Greek Philosophy and the Wisdom of the East: The Case of ‘Lady Wisdom’
  • Jeremy A. Simmons: Paideia, God, and the Transformation of
  • Egyptian Lore in Plutarch’s De Iside et Osiride
  • Alberto Bernabe: Greek Philosophy and the Wisdom of the East. Response
  • Contributors
  • Index