(G.D.) Weinberg, (E.M.) Stern The Athenian Agora. Results of Excavations Conducted by The American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Volume XXXIV. Vessel Glass. Pp. xxxiv + 214, figs, ills, maps, pls. Princeton: The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 2009. Cased, £100, US$150. ISBN: 978-0-87661-234-7.

Abstract

This is the second volume of 'Debates and Documents in Ancient History', a series which tries to 'provide up-to-date and accessible accounts of the historical issues and problems raised by each topic written by expert academics' (p. viii). Part 1 (Debates) opens with a survey of sources; other chapters cover 'Family', 'Conversion', 'Gaul', Julian's 'Imperial Style', 'Religion' and 'Persia'. A short meditation 'The Elusiveness of Julian' ends this section. Part 1 contains cross-references to Part 2 (Documents): a selection of Julian's writings, Claudius Mamertinus' gratiarum actio (362), Libanius, Gregory of Nazianzus' inuectiones, Ephrem the Syrian's hymns, Ammianus, Eunapius, Zosimus, etc.; excerpts from the Theodosian Code, four inscriptions, three coins, a picture of the statue of Julian at the Louvre, and E. Armitage's painting 'Julian the Apostate Presiding at a Conference of Sectarians' (1874). There are a family tree of the Emperor, three maps of the Empire, a Chronology, a list of 'Further reading' by chapters, a collection of 'essay questions and exercise topics', and a Bibliography including a list of Internet resources. Written in a lively and stimulating style, the book is an admirable general approach to Julian and his reign; it raises many of the principal questions but provides fewer answers than a reader could expect. The confl ict between Paganism and Christianity eclipses other possible viewpoints. Particularly enjoyable are 'Gaul', 'The Realities of Power' and 'Persia'; more speculative and more complex debates, for example on the nature of the Emperor's beliefs, need greater clarity. In this book many voices can be heard, but Julian's hardly features. To T. even the Emperor's own writings are of no value in gauging his psychology (p. 10). He omits essential issues for understanding the evolution of Julian's thought, such as the idea of 'good king' and the search for 'Platonic virtue' that pervades almost all the orationes before 361 and reappears in Misopogon (see e.g.