Private and public lies : the discourse of despotism and deceit in the Graeco-Roman world /
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Graeco-Roman literary works, historiography, and even the reporting of rumours were couched as if they came in response to an insatiable desire by ordinary citizens to know everything about the lives of their leaders, and to hold them to account, at some level, for their abuse of constitutional powers for personal ends. Ancient writers were equally fascinated with how these same individuals used deceit as a powerful tool to disguise private and public reality. The chapters in this collection examine the themes of despotism and deceit from both historical and literary perspectives, over a range of historical periods including classical Athens, the Hellenistic kingdoms, late republican and early imperial Rome, late antiquity, and Byzantium.
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"Represents the proceedings of the conference ... held at the University of Melbourne from 7-10 July 2008"--Pref. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [387]-423) and indexes. :
9789004188839 :
1572-0500 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Novel Perspectives on Communication Practices in Antiquity : Towards a Historical Social-Semiotic Approach /
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Documentary texts are vital to our understanding of many aspects of the ancient world, such as its administration, education, and economy. The value of these texts goes even further however: being autographs, they directly testify to ancient communication practices, a field of study which so far has remained underexplored. In this volume, specialists in the field engage with a broad range of documentary sources. They discuss not only how various modes of communication, such as language, handwriting, and lay-out, are employed in specific contexts of writing, but also how these different modes are interrelated. Building on insights from contemporary social-semiotic theory, the volume makes a case for the establishment of historical social semiotics as a discipline.
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1 online resource :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004526518
9789004526525