Paul McKechnie

Macquarie University · Department of Ancient History

Cambridge Core - Church History - Christianizing Asia Minor - by Paul McKechnie

After the Lamian War, the cities of peninsular Greece became a pawn in the wider conflicts between Antigonids in Macedon and Ptolemies in Egypt, with the former trying to dominate the Greeks through strategic garrisons and compliant governments while the latter provided money for those opposing Macedon in the name of Greek freedom. New configuratio...

In the Peloponnese in the late third century, the Achaean League was engaged in opposing Sparta's attempts to reassert its authority over its neighbors, especially Megalopolis and Mantinea. Achaean efforts were often commanded by Philopoemen and were frequently supported by the Romans when they happened to have an army in the Balkans.

Division of the post-Alexander world did not lead to a cessation of hostilities. Competition for influence in the Aegean Greek world led to several substantial naval engagements, while competing claims to Palestine and Syria resulted in a series of “Syrian” wars between Ptolemies and Seleucids. One result of these protracted conflicts, which dimini...

‘All political lives…end in failure’, as Enoch Powell said; and Themistocles son of Neocles died twice. His first life ended with his ostracism in the late 470 s, after which he was dead to an Athens enthralled by Cimon; but he would not lie down. This article considers his two afterlives: one which ended about 459 in Magnesia on the Maeander, and...

FREEDOM - Dmitriev (S.)The Greek Slogan of Freedom and Early Roman Politics in Greece. Pp. xvi + 524, ill., map. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. Cased, £60, US$99. ISBN: 978-0-19-537518-3. - Volume 63 Issue 2 - Paul McKechnie

With its emphasis on the dynasty's concern for control of the sea – both the Mediterranean and the Red Sea – and the Nile, this book offers a new and original perspective on Ptolemaic power in a key period of Hellenistic history. Within the developing Aegean empire of the Ptolemies, the role of the navy is examined together with that of its admiral...

In the two decades before the First Jewish war, litigants or diplomats from the province of Judaea had recourse to Roman emperors on a number of occasions. In some cases the matters at issue involved objections against actions of Roman prefects of Judaea. Evidence about the outcomes of the hearings and diplomatic encounters shows that the emperors...

Paul McKechnie (Auckland), Beau monde and Demi-monde in Alexandria, 323-116 BC. In this article debate is continued about hetaerae in Hellenistic Alexandria, engaging with points made by Alan Cameron in Callimachus and his Critics (1995). Evidence from the works of Asclepiades, Posidippus and Hedylus is examined. It is proposed that love epigrams s...

The virgin and the bride. Idealized womanhood in late antiquity. By Kate Cooper. Pp. xii+180. Cambridge, Mass.–London: Harvard University Press, 1999 (first publ. 1996). £10.50 (paper). 0 674 93949 2; 0 674 93950 6 - - Volume 51 Issue 3 - Paul McKechnie

Les circonstances externes et les reflexions propres de Ben Sira dans les rares passages en je de son livre le Siracide convergent avec sa description du scribe ideal. Il souligne qu'il est un resident d'Alexandrie ne a Jerusalem. Il a probablement ete un courtisan ptolemaique qui, peut etre peu de temps apres avoir pris sa retraite du service roya...

Marcella – discipula et magistra. Auf den Spuren einer römischen Christin des 4. Jahrhunderts. By Silvia Letsch-Brunner. (Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der älteren Kirche, 91.) Pp. xi+272. Berlin–New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1998. DM 168. 3 11 015808; 0171 6441 - - Volume 51 Issue 1 - Paul McKechn...

In this article I shall republish a small corpus of epitaphs from the Roman imperial household, with apparently Christian features. These texts have not previously been published together. The dating of these inscriptions will be discussed, and inferences about the Christian community in the imperial service during the Severan period will be drawn...

Nothing is as problematic in contemporary work on the early Christian Church as Orthodoxy. P. Henry's 1980 conference paper ‘Why is contemporary scholarship so enamoured of ancient heretics?’ outlined the situation, saying, ‘we have moved from historical criticism through historical even-handedness to historical advocacy. The historian is not conte...

Chapters 114 and 115 of Diodorus Siculus Book 17 give rise to impressive difficulties, considering their relative brevity. At the beginning of Chapter 113 Diodorus has announced the opening of the year 324/3 (Athenian archon, Roman consuls, 114th Olympic Games)—the last year of Alexander the Great's life. Alexander by then has already, at the end o...

En se fondant sur les multiples indices contenus dans le Martyre de Perpetua, l'A. precise quelle education recut la sainte martyr et quelle fut sa vie. Perpetua mourut a l'âge de 22 ans. Elle etait encore catechumene lorsqu'elle fut arretee la premiere fois ; elle fut baptisee avant sa mort. Au moment de son arrestation, elle etait mariee et avait...

In Dio's debate on constitutions, set in 29 B.C., the speech favouring democracy occupies chapters 2–13 of book 52, and the speech urging monarchy runs from 14–40: most of this speech, indeed the main content of the whole book, is a detailed set of proposals for the administration of the Roman Empire, written with a view to being applicable in the...