An Engagement with Plato’s Republic contributes to a genre on the rise: a work about Greek Philosophy whose target audience is the non-specialist. Sales of scholarly books have been dwindling, and academic publishers must gain a foothold among the general readership in order to survive. The marketing strategy of a book such as this is displayed on its cover: the all-too-familiar reproduction of Raphael’s ‘School of Athens’ has been updated with photographs of a man holding a cell phone and a woman gazing into a laptop. Even if fueled by economic motives, this trend should be welcomed. It is useful and fair to challenge serious scholars to write books accessible to intelligent readers of all sorts, and not just fellow specialists. In other words, a good scholar should be able to teach as well as do ‘research’. (Disclosure: the author of this review has himself contributed to this genre. On the cover of his Retrieving the Ancients: An Introduction to Greek Philosophy [Malden, MA, 2004], a photograph of a skyscraper is juxtaposed with one of a Doric column.) Mitchell and Lucas are serious scholars whose goal is to ‘engage’ their readers in a study of Plato’s Republic. They explicate the central issues of the dialogue—morality as mental health, the theory of forms, feminism, the critiques of democracy and poetry—by writing clearly, but never condescendingly. They often cite contemporary examples (television, airport bookstores, British educational policy) to illustrate the ‘relevance’ of Plato’s philosophical arguments. Particularly e¶ective are their discussions of (i) the tripartite soul of Book 4, which they explain as ‘three classes’ of ‘motives’ (p. 32); (ii) the tyrant in Book 9, whom they describe as an ‘autistic autocrat’ (p. 43); (iii) the theory of forms, which they introduce as a ‘theory of adjectives’ and defend because ‘communication would break down if I applied adjectives just as I fancied’ (p. 58); and (iv) dialectic, which for them is an ‘informal, cumulative style of argument’ (p. 107), a notion they illuminate with a vivid ‘architectural analogy’ (p. 104). In these exemplary sections the reader is in the hands of experienced teachers and able guides. Nonetheless, this useful little book does not quite live up to its own billing. Rather than An Engagement with Plato’s Republic, a more accurate title would be ‘An Engagement with a Few of Socrates’ Arguments that Have been Extracted from Plato’s Republic’. For, despite their acknowledgement that ‘Plato believed that philosophy could only be properly carried out in the form of a dialogue’ (p. viii), the authors 314   

THE REPUBLIC B. Mitchell, J. R. Lucas: An Engagement with Plato’s Republic. A Companion to the Republic. Pp. xii + 177. Aldershot and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2003. Paper, £15.99 (Cased, £45). ISBN: 0-7546-3366-7(0-7546-3365-9 hbk).

Roman Economic Policy in the Erythra Thalassa: 30 B.C.-A.D. 217

Rethinking Ostia presents an archaeological and spatial approach to Roman urbanism, focused on Rome's port city. It takes the reader along the route of a 'spatial investigation', offering a fresh look and detailed insights into the past society and the built environment of this port town. Following a scaled approach, the book examines different aspects of Ostia's urban landscape, applying Space Syntax's methods for spatial analysis to the urban neighbourhood of one city block - Insula IV ii, selected buildings (Ostia's guild seats), and the entire street system. All through the book a 'Space First' policy has been followed, combining archaeological research with today's insights into urban planning. The heart of this scalar approach is the complete re-working of the archaeological evidence and its interpretative potential for the city block, Insula IV ii. This neighbourhood enjoys an excellent location and boasts a striking variety of buildings including the well-known Terme del Faro, the Caseggiato dell'Ercole, and the Caupona del Pavone, but till now has not been studied in its entirety and within its own social and spatial context. Through a careful reconstruction of the Insula's development over the first three centuries AD, the work fills a lacuna - but more importantly it reveals the way everyday life was structured in the city, and how this evolved over time in response to internal and external influences on the lives of its inhabitants. Rethinking Ostia draws upon archaeological data and extensive spatial analyses, both carefully documented and illustrated. The findings highlight the active role of space in structuring social activity in the ancient city. Archaeological Studies Leiden University (ASLU) is a series of the Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University since 1998. The series' aim is to publish Research and PhD theses of Archaeology and covers the international research fields of European Prehistory, Classical-, Near Eastern-, Indian American- and Science-based Archaeology

Rethinking Ostia : a spatial enquiry into the urban society of Rome's imperial port-town

Inscriptions and Port Societies: Evidence, ‘Analyse du Discours’, Silences and Portscapes

The natural and cultural landscape of Naples (southern Italy) during the Graeco-Roman and Late Antique periods

https://www.archeorient.mom.fr/sites/archeorient.mom.fr/files/annuaire-du-personnel/goiran-jean-philippe/Geoarchaeology%20ancient%20harbour%20Ostia%202014%20JAS.pdf

Geoarchaeology confirms location of the ancient harbour basin of Ostia (Italy)

This paper presents a detailed description of the sediments trapped by the Canale Romano in the Imperial harbour complex of Portus (Rome). The study confirms the hypothesis of a Roman canal (active during the early 2nd century ad and the 3rd/5th century ad) with a maximum water-depth between 4.36 and 7.37 m. The function of this canal as a harbour seems to particularly fit with the data available. This study follows a multidisciplinary approach. It combines all previous data available on the Canale Romano (geophysical surveys, archaeological and historical data) and provides a new palaeoenvironmental dataset in order to draw a more complete overview about its history. Three cores drilled in the Canale Romano are analyzed using sedimentological data, CM diagram and bioindicators, 14C and archaeological data. Four main sedimentation phases were identified: (1) Pre-canal deposits; (2) relatively quiet fluvial environment deposits; (3) flood sediments inputs; and (4) fine sediment infill after the cut-off of the canal. In the discussion, the paper attempts to put this stratigraphic sequence into context of the reorganization of the harbour of Imperial Rome during the reign of Trajan (early 2nd century ad) and its subsequent evolution.

A harbour–canal at Portus: a geoarchaeological approach to the Canale Romano: Tiber delta, Italy

L’objectif de ce travail est d’obtenir la preuve sedimentaire de la localisation du port antique de la cite d’Ostia par l’utilisation de carottages (fig. 1). En effet, de nombreuses tentatives de localisation du port fluvial d'embouchure d'Ostia ont ete entreprises, sans veritable succes. Fig. 1 - Carte de localisation d'Ostia et de son delta. Il a fallu attendre les XIXe et XXe siecles pour que des archeologues italiens definissent un secteur au nord de la ville et a l’ouest du Palazzo impe...

/pdf/port-antique-d-ostie-resultats-preliminaires-de-la-premiere-4z9rqg75q6.pdf

Port antique d’Ostie. Résultats préliminaires de la première campagne de carottages

Roman Port Societies: the evidence of inscriptions

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