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Civilizations From Prehistory to 640 CE,

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 SPECIAL FEATURES
A Picture Is Worth a Thousand
Words
The Venus of Laussel 11
The Victory Stele of Naram-Sin 65
Narmer Unites Egypt (ca. 3000 BCE) 88
The Mycenaean “Warrior Vase” 121
The Behistun Inscription 166
Greek Hoplites on the March 195
The Athenian Tribute Lists 229
Ptolemy II and Arsinoë II 273
The Dama de Elche 330
Lapis Niger 346
Caesarion and Cleopatra 410
The Gemma Augustea 426
Female Gladiators 454
The Arch of Constantine 501
A Late Roman Governor Hears
a Case 520
The Court of Justinian and Theodora 571
Historical Controversy
The Origin of Noah’s Flood 14
The Chronology of the Bronze Age 54
The Date of the Biblical Exodus 135
“Black Athena” 190
The Nature of Athenian Democracy 217
The Personality of Alexander 258
Early Rome 350
The Nature of Roman Imperialism 382
The Dark Side of Romanization 448
The Rise of “Late Antiquity” 492
Constantine’s Christianity 505
The Barbarian Settlement: Catastrophe versus
Transformation 544
vii
Mysteries of History
The Scorpion Kings 83
The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel 152
The Origin of the Etruscans 327
Cleopatra: The Legend and the Reality 406
The Destruction of the Library of
Alexandria 579
In Their Own Words
The Mystery of the Vinča Signs 28
The Code of Hammurabi 70
The Autobiography of Weni 98
Ramses III Defeats the Sea Peoples 126
Two Accounts of the Siege of Jerusalem 148
The Education of a Tyrant 198
The Education of Spartan Women 208
The Division of Alexander’s Empire 266
The Empire of Kush (731 BCE) 312
The Recommendation of the Senate on the
Bacchus Worshippers 376
Sulla’s March on Rome 392
Aelius Aristides, “Praise of Rome” 446
Diocletian’s “Edict on Maximum
Prices” 496
Claudius Postumus Dardanus and the Retreat
to the Countryside 523
The Conversion of Clovis 559
The History Laboratory
Otzi the “Ice Man” 30
The Role of Climate and Ecology in
History 42
Deciphering the Rosetta Stone 86
Volcanos and the Fall of Civilizations 118
viii    special features

Setting the Value of the Coins 168 The Forma urbis Romae 456
Using Dialect Patterns to Reconstruct the Piazza Armerina 498
Dark Ages 177 The Sack of Rome by the Visigoths 540
The Construction of a Greek Trireme 223 Hagia Sophia 568
The Antikythera Device 291
Ancient Civilizations from Above 322 Subversive Personalities
Reconstructing Early Rome 345 Eve 22
Climate and History: The Cimbrian Enheduanna 63
Flood 389 Akhenaton 106
Reconstructing the Deeds of the Deified Jezebel 138
Augustus 424 Judith 156
The Debasement of the Silver Coinage 480 Sappho of Lesbos 200
The Creation of the Christian Biblical Socrates 241
Canon 530 The Maccabees 281
Ethnicity versus History versus Culture 552 Buddha 306
The Bacchanalians 374
Digging Antiquity Spartacus 394
Çatal Hüyük 20 Jesus of Nazareth 470
The Lost City of Agadē 62 Zenobia 486
Akhenaton’s Dismantled Temples 108 Hypatia of Alexandria 514
Troy 123 Theodora 566
Persepolis 170
Delphi 186 Cultural Encounters
The Parthenon 230 Rome Confronts Charismatic Barbarian
Pergamum 278 Leader 441
Carthage 324 Rome and the Far East 460
The Servian Wall 358 The Huns 534
Alesia 402 Desert Nomads, The Arabs, and Saracens 575
 LIST OF MAPS
Inside Front Cover Map: The Ancient
­Mediterranean: Physical Geography
Map 1.1: Early Human Populations and the
Spread of Homo Sapiens 7
Map 1.2: Neolithic Sites of the Ancient
Near East 15
Map 2.1: Sites of Early Mesopotamia 38
Map 2.2: Distribution of Afro-Asiatic Lan-
guages, Including the Semitic Languages of
the Ancient Near East 46
Map 2.3: The Akkadian Empire 64
Map 2.4: The Old Babylonian Empire at the
Time of Hammurabi 67
Map 2.5: The Expansion of the
Indo-Europeans 74
Map 2.6: The Kingdom of the Kassites in the
Thirteenth Century BCE 75
Map 3.1: Sites of Pre- and Early Dynastic
Egypt 79
Map 3.2: The Egyptian Empire at Its
Height 103
Map 4.1: Minoan and Mycenaean Sites 114
Map 4.2: The Path Followed by the Sea
Peoples 124
Map 4.3: The Peoples of the Eastern Mediter-
ranean Coast of the Early Iron Age 128
Map 5.1: The Assyrian Empire in 671
BCE 143
Map 5.2: The Four Successors of the Assyrian
Empire 158
Map 5.3: The Satrapies of the Persian Empire
in 500 BCE 163
ix
Map 6.1: Distribution of Greek Dialects in
the Fifth Century BCE 177
Map 6.2: Greek and Phoenician Colonies as
of 550 BCE 191
Map 7.1: Greece during the Classical
Age 206
Map 7.2: The Persian Wars
(498–479 BCE) 221
Map 7.3: The Battle of Salamis, 480 BCE 225
Map 7.4: Athens, Sparta, and Their Allies
during the Peloponnesian War 232
Map 8.1: Greece and the Aegean Sea during
the Theban Hegemony 250
Map 8.2: Ancient Macedonia 253
Map 8.3: The Campaigns of Alexander the
Great 263
Map 8.4: The Divisions of Alexander’s
Empire as of 280 BCE 271
Map 9.1: A Reconstruction of the
World Described by Herodotus
about 440 BCE 297
Map 9.2: The Eastern Fringe of the Mediter-
ranean World Circa 150 BCE, Showing the
Territories of the Parthians, Bactrians,
Indo-Greeks, Scythians, Tocharians, and
Sarmatians 302
Map 9.3: The Empire of Kush at Its Maxi-
mum Extent, ca. 700 BCE 311
Map 9.4: The Civilizations and Peoples of the
Sahara Desert, North Africa, and
Spain 318
Map 10.1: Early Italy, ca. 500 BCE 340
x    list of maps
Map 10.2: The Roman Republic, Carthage,
and the Hellenistic Kingdoms as of 264
BCE 362
Map 11.1: The Roman Republic and Its
Neighbors in 120 BCE 380
Map 11.2: The Campaigns of Julius Caesar,
58–45 BCE 399
Map 11.3: The Parthian Kingdom at the Time
of Crassus 404
Map 12.1: The Roman Empire at the Death
of Augustus (14 CE) 419
Map 12.2: The Roman Empire at Its Greatest
Extent at the Death of Trajan, 117 CE 443
Map 13.1: The Roman Empire in 270,
­Showing Barbarian Incursions and the
Breakaway Gallic Empire and Empire of
Palmyra 483
Map 13.2: The Reorganized Empire of
­Diocletian, Divided into Prefectures and
Dioceses 494
Map 14.1: The Divided Empire as
of 395 539
Map 15.1: Barbarian Settlements as
of 526 548
Map 15.2: The Byzantine Empire
at Its Greatest Extent in 555 under
Justinian 569
Map 15.3: Islamic Conquests to 644 577
Map 15.4: The Three Worlds of the Middle
Ages as They Developed by the Mid-­
Seventh Century 584
Inside Back Cover Map: The Ancient Mediter-
ranean: Regions, Places, Cities
 PREFACE

F or a long time it was my goal to write a textbook that incorporated not only
my own ideas and philosophy about what the most significant developments
and historical processes in ancient history were and what they can teach us but
also the results of my interactions with students during some forty-five years (and
counting) of teaching ancient history at all periods and levels at the University of
Wisconsin, the University of South Carolina, and the Chicago and Urbana–
Champaign campuses of the University of Illinois. Over the years I have taught,
by my rough estimate, more than ten thousand students, and their responses to
how I developed the material have significantly informed my presentation of the
material in Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations (AMC), now in its third edition.
Writing a textbook that covers human history with some specificity from
roughly 8000 BCE until 650 CE is no easy task. The very act of historical writing
is an act of interpretation. There is a multitude of ways in which an even greater
multitude of events can be organized and presented. In each case an author has
to pick one way and at the same time try to be consistent. It goes without saying
that there are many other possible interpretations of the material. On top of that,
writing a textbook is an exercise in gross oversimplification. On the first day of
class, I often get students’ attention by warning them that much of what I tell
them will be lies. One simply cannot squeeze eight thousand years of history
with any great exactitude into five hundred pages or a fifteen-week class. My own
general preferences for this volume are (1) simplicity over complexity; (2) broad
coverage over narrow coverage; and (3) uniformity of theme over a scattershot
approach.
This textbook also is much more than how I personally view ancient history,
although that necessarily is a large part of it. It also reflects what moves our stu-
dents and what works for them. Students like to see how history works—that is,
what kinds of factors bring to pass the events we study—not only global consid-
erations such as social and economic factors, religious movements, and, yes, even

xi
xii    p r e fa c e

wars and battles, but also, in particular, the considerations that connect individ-
ual people to what happened in history. Students also like to see continuity, that
is, how one period in history leads into and is influenced by what went before it.
They like connectivity, to learn how similar sets of circumstances in different
places at different times produced similar results. And they are fascinated by sto-
ries that help to contextualize and bring to life both individual events and the
grand historical processes that lie behind them.
Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations attempts to meet these needs in several
ways. It emphasizes (1) evolution and continuity, depicting history as a cumula-
tive process; (2) connections, looking at recurrent themes to show how similar
phenomena occur in different places at different times; (3) causality, depicting
how historical events happen for a reason; and (4) cultural diffusion and cultural
diversity: no period of history was more culturally diverse than the ancient world,
and by studying it, we can gain insights into the nature of cultural diversity in the
modern day. And it should be stressed that I distinguish between “culture,” the
attributes of any human society, and “civilization,” a specialized subset of culture
that meets certain fundamental criteria, such as the use of agriculture, writing,
metal technology, urbanization, social differentiation, and specialization of
labor. Civilization is not treated defensively, nor is it assumed that cultures that
do not qualify as civilizations are somehow “worse” than civilizations.
This text also integrates material culture directly into an understanding of
how history is reconstructed and goes beyond, “Here’s a pot. Isn’t it pretty?” It
shows how the study of ancient history can serve as a laboratory for the study of
modern sensitive issues, such as tolerance and intolerance and attitudes toward
race, ethnicity, gender issues and roles, slavery, religion, and imperialism. Ancient
Mediterranean Civilizations thus does not shy away from the discussion of poten-
tially sensitive issues, such as, for example, ancient popular perceptions of Chris-
tianity and the pagan backgrounds of Christianity.
Several features of Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations set it apart from similar
texts. For one thing, it covers in depth the full range of the human past, from the
Stone Age until the very end of antiquity in the seventh century CE. The entire
first chapter is devoted to the concept of “civilization before civilization,” a
period during which very complex cultures developed that did not happen to
meet all of the artificial criteria used by modern historians to define “civiliza-
tion.” Nevertheless, for some five thousand years—a period equal in length to the
period during which “civilizations” existed—sophisticated societies that mani-
fested to a greater or lesser degree nearly all the attributes of civilization existed
in Europe and the Near East. All of this demonstrates that the rise of civilization
around 3000 BCE was not a sudden phenomenon determined by a set of unique
circumstances or by the sudden onset of environmental changes, but the natural
consequence of thousands of years of human development.
Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations also strives to go beyond the standard
“Greeks and Romans” approach and to give full billing to the other civilizations
 Preface   xiii

and cultures that existed in the ancient world. This is done first of all by includ-
ing four chapters on the ancient Near East. Subsequently, aspects of non-Greek
and non-Roman cultures are incorporated into individual chapters even more
than they had been in the first two editions. In the second edition, a completely
new chapter, Chapter 9, “Civilization beyond the Near East, Greece, and Rome,”
was added, focusing directly on cultures that rarely are discussed in standard
textbooks, ranging from Scythians in the north, to Bactrians, Indians, and Toch-
arians in the east, to Kushites, the native peoples of North Africa and the Saharan
world, and Carthage in the south, and to the Etruscans, Tartessus, and the Celts
and their ancestors in the west.
The final chapter, on the other hand, continues after the point where most
traditional texts leave off, bringing antiquity to its logical conclusion at the end
of Late Antiquity in the seventh century CE. Doing so not only brings the narra-
tive full circle with a return to the Near East, where civilization originally had
developed, but also depicts the disintegration of the unified culture that gradu-
ally had developed during the preceding millennia. The disintegration resulting
from the barbarian occupation of the western Roman Empire, on the one hand,
and the rise of Islam and the early Muslim conquests in the Near East, North
Africa, and Spain, on the other, collectively created the “three worlds of the
Middle Ages” that eventually would manifest distinguishing elements that con-
tinue to characterize the modern world.
The volume also breaks with convention in other regards. The Minoan and
Mycenaean civilizations of Crete and Greece, for example, are discussed in the
context of other Bronze Age civilizations rather than being held in reserve and
lumped in with later Greek civilization. This, I believe, highlights the role of the
early Greeks in their largely Near Eastern context rather than creating a Greek
ghetto that implicitly suggests that the Greeks were somehow different from, and
superior to, the peoples of the Near East. And elsewhere, there is a focus more on
connections than on discontinuities, and what usually are treated as lines of de-
marcation are seen here as linked, bridge periods. Thus, the fourth chapter
bridges the gap between the Bronze and Iron Ages and helps to correct the
common presumption that Mesopotamia and Egypt were the only centers of
Bronze Age civilization by giving full billing to cultures that arose outside the
major river valleys. It discusses bit players of the Bronze Age who anticipated
future religious developments (the Hebrews), mainstream lifestyles, uses of tech-
nology, and forms of economic activity, commerce in particular.
In a like manner, Chapter 11 covers the fall of the Roman Republic and the
creation of the Roman Empire in the same chapter. Even though the political
creation of Augustus’s Principate marks the logical conclusion to the political
developments of the late Roman Republic, other texts create a break here and talk
about the creation of the Principate in a separate chapter on the Roman Empire.
But this text puts Octavian’s political solution to the political problems of the
Republic in the same chapter as the fall of the Republic and not only highlights
xiv    p r e fa c e

the degree of continuity of Octavian’s political actions with what had gone before
but also eliminates the awkward need for recapitulation in the next chapter. Stu-
dents thus can see this crucial transition as it happened, comprehensively, and
not artificially broken up into two chunks. In this model, the subsequent Roman
Empire chapters then can concentrate on the future of Roman society, culture,
and politics rather than having to backtrack to the Republican past.
Similarly, Chapter 13 not only discusses the Imperial Crisis but also smoothly
segues into the reign of Diocletian, showing clearly how and why one followed
on the other. And by covering this crucial period all in the same chapter, the
volume implicitly deals with the transition between classical antiquity and Late
Antiquity and with the fuzzy question of just when Late Antiquity started: all of
the suggested starting points are included in one chapter, and students will be
able to see many of the elements that distinguish the two periods from each
other.

LEARNING AIDS
Other features of Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations are intended to bring the
ancient history textbook into the modern world. For one thing, the teaching of
introductory history has increasingly become a lowest-common-denominator
situation. More and more courses, even upper-level ones, have fewer bona fide
prerequisites as departments fight to keep their enrollment levels up. Western
Civilization textbooks have responded to this development by providing text-
books with pedagogical aids that go far beyond the de rigueur source quotations
and maps and are intended to help guide students who have not been exposed
to premodern history. Ancient history textbooks, however, have been behind the
curve in this regard, perhaps on the assumption that an ancient history survey
course attracts more motivated students who don’t need to be babied or patron-
ized with high-schoolish pedagogical features. Whereas the first part of this rea-
soning is, on balance, correct, I don’t agree with the second, for the kind of
students who will be taking a survey of ancient history will have the same kinds
of academic backgrounds as students taking Western Civilization and will have
many of the same kinds of pedagogical experiences, needs, and expectations. Yes,
they will, on balance, be more engaged and more motivated, for if they were not
such, they would be taking Western Civilization. But this does not mean that
they will be any better prepared academically and any less receptive to pedagogy
that Western Civilization students might just ignore.
In addition, just like Western Civilization students, ancient history students
have grown up in a multimedia world and will find a traditional “block-text”
book just as boring and uninviting as anyone else does. Ancient history students
like to have their attention drawn to the equivalent of different hypertext links,
to different manifestations of the information they’re studying. This textbook,
therefore, includes pedagogical features that will not only guide students to a
 Preface   xv

better understanding of the material but also satisfy their innate desire to experi-
ence the kind of exposure to material that they are used to receiving electroni-
cally. Collectively, the features are designed to show how students can interpret
historical evidence, both written and material, to form a reasoned analysis of
what happened in history and what it meant.
Thus, even though this text still is organized around a central narrative de-
signed to show how history works, the volume also has a number of features
intended to catch the attention of students who spend much of their time surf-
ing web pages. For example, each chapter includes boxed features that can stand
on their own and thus be useful either for classroom discussions or out-of-class
assignments, including: (1) “A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words,” in which a
material artifact, such as a building, fresco, pot, statue, and so on, is discussed
in detail, in the context of the chapter themes, to show how nonliterary mate-
rial can shed light on ancient cultures; (2) “In Their Own Words,” an extended
quotation from a literary or epigraphical text that illustrates the chapter’s main
themes and demonstrates how different kinds of written documents can teach
history; (3) “The History Laboratory,” which shows how scientific methods,
theoretical models, and quantification can be used to understand ancient his-
tory, on the one hand, and debunk pseudoscience and modern popularizers,
on the other; (4) “Digging Antiquity,” an archaeologically based feature in
every chapter that discusses specific sites, many of which still can be visited; (5)
either “Mysteries of History,” dealing with an unknown aspect of the past, or
“Historical Controversy,” dealing with divergent modern models or interpreta-
tions of an ancient phenomenon; (6) “Subversive Personalities,” a new feature
that highlights the actions of a person or persons, particularly women, such as
Eve, Enheduanna, Akhenaton, Jezebel, Judith, Sappho, Hypatia, and Theodora,
who challenged existing institutions, beliefs, or social conventions; and (7)
“Roman Cultural Encounters,” a new feature focusing on the engagements of
the Romans with other peoples. New topics incorporated into the features of
this edition include “The Victory Stela of Piye,” “Female Gladiators,” and “The
Rise of Late Antiquity.”
In addition, smaller boxed features provide added learning opportunities
when appropriate, including “Learning from History,” which demonstrates what
history teaches us about themes and issues of broad significance that also have
an impact in the modern day, such as those relating to race, ethnicity, gender,
slavery, religion, and so on, as well as “The Legacy of Antiquity,” which considers
how what happened in history continues to affect the modern day; “Historical
Causality,” which focuses on the factors that make history happen; “Thought
Question,” which challenges students to put to use what they have learned;
“Cross-Cultural Connections,” which looks at similarities between different cul-
tures in different places at different periods; and “Alternative History,” discussion
points revolving around questions of how historical processes or events might
have turned out differently.
xvi    p r e fa c e

Furthermore, a pedagogical section, “Looking Back,” is included at the end

of every chapter to summarize the material covered in the chapter. It is fol-
lowed by “Looking Ahead,” which briefly introduces the topic of the next
chapter. Coupled with each chapter’s introductory paragraph, students will
be well informed about how the broad themes of discussion are covered
and developed.
Interspersed throughout the pages of the book are marginal “stickies” that
draw attention to modern analogies to or survivals of ancient phenomena and
show students how the present can still be related to the past. And throughout
the text, important terms, events, and concepts are highlighted in bold to draw
students’ attention to them and help students study for exams; these items also
appear in the Glossary, which provides brief descriptions and a guide to pro-
nunciation. The volume also is heavily illustrated. Whereas two commonly as-
signed ancient history textbooks have forty and sixty-five maps and illustrations,
this volume has well over two hundred. The robust visual quality of this text will
help make ancient history more up close and personal for modern students. I
feel that it is important for students to be able to associate the visual with the
verbal not only because these are cultures that, outside of Hollywood portrayals,
students are essentially unfamiliar with but also because in this multimedia age
students’ first encounters with new material are often through highly illustrated
web pages.
The new edition also includes, along with the aforementioned material, a
great deal of other added content, updated information, clarifications, correc-
tions, connective tissue, and infill, much of it suggested by the many referees of
the previous editions. The tables, timelines, bibliographies, maps, and glossary
have been updated, and there is new or fuller discussion of Göbekli Tepe, the
Epic of Gilgamesh, Sumerian dream interpretation, the Scorpion kings and Egyp-
tian trade, Artemisia and the Battle of Salamis, The Muses, Buddhism, early
Roman source material, early Roman social relations, the Second Punic War, the
temples in the Largo di Torre Argentina, Pompey, the Golden Age of Latin litera-
ture, the reigns of Tiberius, Claudius, Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, Nerva, Trajan,
Hadrian, Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius, and Commodus, the Roman economy
and trade, Judaism, the Imperial Crisis, Diocletian and Constantine, and barbar-
ians, with the addition of a section on the Alamanni.
For me, doing these three editions of Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations has
been intensely rewarding. There is no better way to gain a full understanding of
a period than to write a textbook that attempts to explain the period to someone
else. But textbook writing also is not for the faint of heart. To undertake such a
task automatically makes one a target for every scholar, student, and general
reader who thinks that the book does not give sufficient attention to their disci-
plinary specialty, their personal political agenda, or their favorite historical ex-
amples and anecdotes. Fair enough. I would offer only one desideratum: please
read the book before you comment on it.
 Preface   xvii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The results of my personal study of ancient history have appeared in many dif-
ferent venues, including fifteen monographs and edited volumes, more than
one hundred scholarly articles, and even the introductory chapters of a Western
civilization textbook, published by the old Houghton Mifflin press in 2008.
Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations had its genesis as a result of a meeting with
Robert Miller, executive editor and classics editor of Oxford University Press, in
November 2007, who responded much more favorably and enthusiastically
than I ever could have expected when I suggested to him that a new ancient his-
tory textbook might be in order. And the rest, as they say, is history. The project
moved quickly along as I updated and expanded decades of lecture notes into a
coherent and comprehensive whole. In 2009, Robert passed the classics editor
torch to Charles Cavaliere, who with tremendous enthusiasm shepherded the
second edition to completion and who has carried the torch again for this third
edition. Revising the manuscript was greatly facilitated by the dedicated assis-
tance of several Oxford staff persons, most notably, Brad Rau, production editor,
and Katie Tunkavige, assistant editor. In addition, I also would like to thank the
many colleagues who provided invaluable feedback on the third edition. I have
responded as best I could to their many good suggestions. These include Eric H.
Cline, George Washington University; Timothy Donald Doran, California State
University—Los Angeles; Philip Handyside, Stetson University; Stephanie
Quinn, Rockford University; Eric W. Robinson, Indiana University; Ruma N.
Salhi and, Jeffrey Stevens, University of Missouri, Columbia; and several anony-
mous reviewers. Their careful readings and trenchant comments opened my
eyes to a much wider range of interpretations and source material, and thus
made this a much better volume.

NEW TO THIS EDITION

• “Subversive Personalities,” a new illustrated feature added to all the chapters
that highlights the actions of a person or persons, particularly women, such
as Eve, Enheduanna, Akhenaton, Jezebel, Judith, Sappho, Hypatia, and Theo-
dora, who challenged traditional institutions, beliefs, or social conventions.
• Another new feature, “Roman Cultural Encounters,” focuses on the engage-
ments of the Romans with other peoples.
• New discussion of Göbekli Tepe, Old Europe, Sumerian dream interpreta-
tion, Buddhism, Artemisia, the temples in the Largo di Torre Argentina, recent
scientific developments, and the Alamanni.
• Expanded coverage of the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Scorpion kings and Egyp-
tian trade, and the Battle of Salamis, The Muses, early Roman source material,
early Roman social relations, the Second Punic War, Pompey, the Golden Age
of Latin literature, the reigns of Tiberius, Claudius, Vespasian, Titus,
xviii    p r e fa c e

Domitian, Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius, and Com-

modus, the Roman economy and trade, Judaism, the Imperial Crisis, Diocle-
tian and Constantine, and barbarians.
• A companion website (www.oup.com/he/mathisen-mediterranean3e) offers
new digital learning and teaching resources designed to increase engagement
with the text. Students who purchase a new copy of the text can access quiz-
zes, flashcards, videos, and an enhanced e-book at no extra charge (or they
can purchase stand-alone access at a 50 percent% discount). Videos, Power-
Point slides, and a test-item file are available to instructors. Contact your local
OUP publisher’s representative for details.
 NOTE ON SPELLING
AND PRONUNCIATION

B ecause ancient names and words were written in languages other than Eng-
lish, they can be converted into English using many different methods. The
spellings used here are the most widely used spellings, but readers should be
aware that other publications sometimes will use spellings that are different from
the ones used here.
In addition, a few general guidelines can make it easier to approximate the
pronunciation of many ancient words.

(1) In ancient words, adjacent vowels that in English would form diphthongs
often are pronounced separately. For example:
Cuneiform = coo nay’ ih form not coo nay’ form
Gudea = Goo day’ ah not Goo’ dee
Aryans = Air’ ee ans not Ar’ yans
Ea = Eh’ ah not Ee
(2) Likewise, in diaeresis, the second of two adjoining vowels is printed with an
umlaut and is pronounced separately, for example:
Pasiphaë = Pa si’ phah ee
Taÿgetus = Tah ih’ jih tus
Tanaïs = Tah na ees’
(3) Foreign words and names do not have silent e’s at the end, for example:
Cyrene = Si ree’ nee not Si rene’
Thales = Thay’ lees not Thayles
(4) Some letters of modern languages are printed with diacritical marks, for
example:
ç = “ch” as in “church,” e.g., Çatal
č = “ch” as in “chocolate,” e.g., Vinča

xix
xx    note on spelling and pronunciation

š= “sh” as in “shock,” e.g., Šuplja

ü= “oo” as in “food,” e.g., Hüyük
(5) Pronunciation of vowels in Greek words (printed in italics in the text):
a = “ah” as in “shah”
ē = “a” as in “cake”
ō = “o” as in “vote”
y = “oo” as in “room”
(6) Pronunciation of Latin words:
(1) Every vowel or diphthong represents a separate syllable, e.g.,
proles = pro’ lace not proles
(2a) In words that have not been anglicized, there are no silent vowels, and
words are divided into syllables following a vowel and/or preceding a
consonant, e.g.,
familia = fa mee’ lee ah not fa mil’ ee ah
Trasimene = Tra si mee’ nee not Tras ih mene’
(2b) But some Latin words have been made into English words and thus
are pronounced in English;, for example, “Caesar” is pronounced “See’
zer” in English not “Ky’ sar” (as it would be in Latin).
 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

R alph W. Mathisen has appointments in history, classics, and medieval stud-

ies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research interests
include ecclesiastical history, barbarian studies, late Latin literature, prosopogra-
phy, and the society, culture, and religion of late antiquity. He has authored, co-
authored, or edited fifteen books, including Ancient Roman Civilization. History
and Sources. 753 BCE to 640 CE (Oxford University Press, 2018); Sources in Ancient
Mediterranean Civilizations: Documents, Maps, and Images (Oxford University
Press, 2016); Making Europe: People, Politics, and Culture (coauthor) (Houghton
Mifflin, 2008); People, Personal Expression, and Social Relations in Late Antiquity, 2
vols. (University of Michigan, 2003); Society and Culture in Late Antique Gaul:
Revisiting the Sources (Ashgate, 2001) (with D. R. Shanzer); Law, Society, and Au-
thority in Late Antiquity (Oxford University Press, 2001); and Ruricius of Limoges
and Friends: A Collection of Letters from Visigothic Aquitania (Liverpool University
Press, 1999). He currently is working on books on the end of the western Roman
Empire; on the late Roman comedy “The Querolus”; and on the life and letters of
Desiderius of Cahors. He has published more than seventy-five scholarly articles.
He is director of the Biographical Database for Late Antiquity Project and a fellow
of the American Numismatic Society. He has degrees in astronomy and physics
(B.S., University of Wisconsin, 1969), mechanical engineering (M.S., Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute, 1972), classical languages (M.A., University of Wisconsin,
1973), and ancient history (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, 1979). He enjoys
running, traveling, ballroom dancing, and collecting ancient artifacts and six-
teenth-century book books.

xxi
 ANCIENT
MEDITERR ANEAN
CIVILIZATIONS
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 TURBOT À LA CRÊME.

Raise carefully from the bones the flesh of a cold turbot, and clear
it from the dark skin; cut it into small squares, and put it into an
exceedingly clean stewpan or saucepan; then make and pour upon it
the cream sauce of Chapter V., or make as much as may be
required for the fish by the same receipt, with equal proportions of
milk and cream and a little additional flour. Heat the turbot slowly in
the sauce, but do not allow it to boil, and send it very hot to table.
The white skin of the fish is not usually added to this dish, and it is of
better appearance without it; but for a family dinner, it may be left on
the flesh, when it is much liked. No acid must be stirred to the sauce
until the whole is ready for table.
 TURBOT AU BÉCHAMEL, OR, IN BÉCHAMEL SAUCE.

Prepare the cold turbot as for the preceding receipt, but leave no
portion of the skin with it. Heat it in a rich bechamel sauce, and serve
it in a vol-au-vent, or in a deep dish with a border of fried bread cut in
an elegant form, and made with one dark and one light sippet,
placed alternately. The surface may be covered with a half-inch layer
of delicately fried bread-crumbs, perfectly well drained and dried; or
they may be spread over the fish without being fried, then moistened
with clarified butter, and browned with a salamander.
For Mould of Cold Turbot with Shrimp Chatney, see
Chapter VI.
 TO BOIL A JOHN DORY.

[In best season from Michaelmas to Christmas, but good all the
year.]
The John Dory, though of uninviting
appearance, is considered by some
persons as the most delicious fish that
appears at table; in the general estimation,
however, it ranks next to the turbot, but it is
far less abundant in our markets, and is not
commonly to be procured of sufficient size
for a handsome dish, except in some few
parts of our coast which are celebrated for
John Dory. it. It may easily be known by its yellow gray
colour, its one large dark spot on either
side, the long filaments on the back, a
general thickness of form, and its very ugly head. It is dressed in the
same manner, and served usually with the same sauces as a turbot,
but requires less time to boil it. The fins should be cut off before it is
cooked.
 SMALL JOHN DORIES BAKED.

(Author’s Receipt—good.)
We have found these fish when they were too small to be worth
cooking in the usual way, excellent when quite simply baked in the
following manner, the flesh being remarkably sweet and tender,
much more so than it becomes by frying or broiling. After they have
been cleaned, dry them in a cloth, season the insides slightly with
fine salt, dredge a little flour on the fish, and stick a few very small
bits of butter on them, but only just sufficient to prevent their
becoming dry in the oven; lay them singly on a flat dish, and bake
them very gently from fourteen to sixteen minutes. Serve them with
the same sauce as baked soles.
When extremely fresh, as it usually is in the markets of the coast,
fish thus simply dressed au four is preferable to that more
elaborately prepared by adding various condiments to it after it is
placed in a deep dish, and covering it with a thick layer of bread-
crumbs, moistened with clarified butter.
The appearance of the John Dories is improved by taking off the
heads, and cutting away not only the fins but the filaments of the
back.
 TO BOIL A BRILL.

A fresh and full-sized brill always ranks high in the list of fish, as it
is of good appearance, and the flesh is sweet and delicate. It
requires less cooking than the turbot, even when it is of equal size;
but otherwise may be dressed and served in a similar manner. It has
not the same rich glutinous skin as that fish, nor are the fins
esteemed. They must be cut off when the brill is cleaned; and it may
be put into nearly boiling water, unless it be very large. Simmer it
gently, and drain it well upon the fish-plate when it is lifted out; dish it
on a napkin, and send lobster, anchovy, crab, or shrimp sauce to
table with it. Lobster coral, rubbed through a sieve, is commonly
sprinkled over it for a formal dinner. The most usual garnish for
boiled flat fish is curled parsley placed round it in light tufts; how far it
is appropriate, individual taste must decide.
Brill, moderate-sized, about 20 minutes; large, 30 minutes.
Obs.—The precise time which a fish will require to be boiled
cannot be given: it must be watched, and not allowed to remain in
the water after it begins to crack.
 TO BOIL SALMON.

[In full season from May to August: may be had much earlier, but is
scarce and dear.]
To preserve the fine colour of this fish, and to set the curd when it
is quite freshly caught, it is usual to put it into boiling, instead of into
cold water. Scale, empty, and wash it with the greatest nicety, and be
especially careful to cleanse all the blood from the inside. Stir into
the fish-kettle eight ounces of common salt to the gallon of water, let
it boil quickly for a minute or two, take off all the scum, put in the
salmon and boil it moderately fast, if it be small, but more gently
should it be very thick; and assure yourself that it is quite sufficiently
done before it is sent to table, for nothing can be more distasteful,
even to the eye, than fish which is under dressed.
From two to three pounds of the thick part of a fine salmon will
require half an hour to boil it, but eight or ten pounds will be done
enough in little more than double that time; less in proportion to its
weight should be allowed for a small fish, or for the thin end of a
large one. Do not allow the salmon to remain in the water after it is
ready to serve, or both its flavour and appearance will be injured.
Dish it on a hot napkin, and send dressed cucumber, and anchovy,
shrimp, or lobster sauce, and a tureen of plain melted butter to table
with it.
To each gallon water, 8 oz. salt. Salmon, 2 to 3 lbs. (thick), 1/2
hour; 8 to 10 lbs., 1-1/4 hour; small, or thin fish, less time.
 SALMON À LA GENEVESE.

A fashionable mode of serving salmon at the present day is to

divide the larger portion of the body into three equal parts; to boil
them in water, or in a marinade; and to serve them dished in a line,
but not close together, and covered with a rich Genevese sauce (for
which see Chapter V.) It appears to us that the skin should be
stripped from any fish over which the sauce is poured, but in this
case it is not customary.
 CRIMPED SALMON.

Cut into slices an inch and a half, or two inches thick, the body of a
salmon quite newly caught; throw them into strong salt and water as
they are done, but do not let them soak in it; wash them well, lay
them on a fish-plate, and put them into fast boiling water, salted and
well skimmed. In from ten to fifteen minutes they will be done. Dish
them on a napkin, and send them very hot to table with lobster
sauce, and plain melted butter; or with the caper fish-sauce of
Chapter V. The water should be salted as for salmon boiled in the
ordinary way, and the scum should be cleared off with great care
after the fish is in.
In boiling water, 10 to 15 minutes.
 SALMON À LA ST. MARCEL.

Separate some cold boiled salmon into flakes, and free them
entirely from the skin; break the bones, and boil them in a pint of
water for half an hour. Strain off the liquor, put it into a clean
saucepan and stir into it by degrees when it begins to boil quickly,
two ounces of butter mixed with a large teaspoonful of flour, and
when the whole has boiled for two or three minutes add a
teaspoonful of essence of anchovies, one of good mushroom catsup,
half as much lemon-juice or chili vinegar, a half saltspoonful of
pounded mace, some cayenne, and a very little salt. Shell from half
to a whole pint of shrimps, add them to the salmon, and heat the fish
very slowly in the sauce by the side of the fire, but do not allow it
boil. When it is very hot, dish and send it quickly to table. French
cooks, when they re-dress fish or meat of any kind, prepare the flesh
with great nicety, and then put it into a stewpan, and pour the sauce
upon it, which is, we think, better than the more usual English mode
of laying it into the boiling sauce. The cold salmon may also be re-
heated in the cream sauce of V., or in the Mâitre d’Hôtel sauce which
follows it; and will be found excellent with either. This receipt is for a
moderate sized dish.
 SALMON BAKED OVER MASHED POTATOES.

We are informed by a person who has been a resident in Ireland,

that the middle of a salmon is there often baked over mashed
potatoes, from which it is raised by means of a wire stand, as meat is
in England. We have not been able to have it tried, but an ingenious
cook will be at no loss for the proper method of preparing, and the
time of cooking it. The potatoes are sometimes merely pared and
halved; the fish is then laid upon them.
 SALMON PUDDING, TO BE SERVED HOT OR COLD.

(A Scotch Receipt—Good.)
Pound or chop small, or rub through a sieve one pound of cold
boiled salmon freed entirely from bone and skin; and blend it lightly
but thoroughly with half a pound of fine bread-crumbs a teaspoonful
of essence of anchovies, a quarter of a pint of cream, a seasoning of
fine salt and cayenne, and four well whisked eggs. Press the mixture
closely and evenly into a deep dish or mould, buttered in every part,
and bake it for one hour in a moderate oven.
Salmon, 1 lb.; bread-crumbs, 1/2 lb.; essence of anchovies, 1
teaspoonful; cream, 1/4 pint; eggs, 4; salt and cayenne; baked 1
hour.
 TO BOIL COD FISH.

[In highest season from October to the beginning of February; in

perfection about Christmas.]
When this fish is large the head and shoulders are sufficient for a
handsome dish, and they contain all the choicer portion of it, though
not so much substantial eating as the middle of the body, which, in
consequence, is generally preferred to them by the frugal
housekeeper. Wash the fish, and cleanse the inside, and the back-
bone in particular, with the most scrupulous care; lay it into the fish-
kettle and cover it well with cold water mixed with five ounces of salt
to the gallon, and about a quarter of an ounce of saltpetre to the
whole. Place it over a moderate fire, clear off the scum perfectly, and
let the fish boil gently until it is done. Drain it well[46] and dish it
carefully upon a very hot napkin with the liver and the roe as a
garnish. To these are usually added tufts of lightly scraped
horseradish round the edge. Serve well-made oyster sauce and plain
melted butter with it; or anchovy sauce, when oysters cannot be
procured. The cream sauce of Chapter V., is also an appropriate one
for this fish.
46. This should be done by setting the fish plate across the kettle for a minute or
two.

Moderate size, 20 to 30 minutes. Large, 1/2 to 3/4 hour.

 SLICES OF COD FISH FRIED.

Cut the middle or tail of the fish into slices nearly an inch thick,
season them with salt and white pepper or cayenne, flour them well,
and fry them of a clear equal brown on both sides; drain them on a
sieve before the fire, and serve them on a well-heated napkin, with
plenty of crisped parsley round them. Or, dip them into beaten egg,
and then into fine crumbs mixed with a seasoning of salt and pepper
(some cooks add one of minced herbs also), before they are fried.
Send melted butter and anchovy sauce to table with them. 8 to 12
minutes.
Obs.—This is a much better way of dressing the thin part of the
fish than boiling it, and as it is generally cheap, it makes thus an
economical, as well as a very good dish: if the slices are lifted from
the frying-pan into a good curried gravy, and left in it by the side of
the fire for a few minutes before they are sent to table, they will be
found excellent.
 STEWED COD.

Put into boiling water, salted as usual, about three pounds of fresh
cod fish cut into slices an inch and a half thick, and boil them gently
for five minutes; lift them out, and let them drain. Have ready heated
in a wide stewpan nearly a pint of veal gravy or of very good broth,
lay in the fish, and stew it for five minutes, then add four
tablespoonsful of extremely fine bread-crumbs, and simmer it for
three minutes longer. Stir well into the sauce a large teaspoonful of
arrow-root quite free from lumps, a fourth part as much of mace,
something less of cayenne, and a tablespoonful of essence of
anchovies, mixed with a glass of white wine and a dessertspoonful of
lemon juice. Boil the whole for a couple of minutes, lift out the fish
carefully with a slice, pour the sauce over, and serve it quickly.
Cod fish, 3 lbs.: boiled 5 minutes. Gravy, or strong broth, nearly 1
pint: 5 minutes. Bread-crumbs, 4 tablespoonsful: 3 minutes. Arrow-
root, 1 large teaspoonful; mace, 1/4 teaspoonful; less of cayenne;
essence of anchovies, 1 tablespoonful; lemon-juice, 1
dessertspoonful; sherry or Maidera, 1 wineglassful: 2 minutes.
Obs.—A dozen or two of oysters, bearded, and added with their
strained liquor to this dish two or three minutes before it is served,
will to many tastes vary it very agreeably.
 STEWED COD FISH, IN BROWN SAUCE.

Slice the fish, take off the skin, flour it well, and fry it quickly a fine
brown; lift it out and drain it on the back of a sieve, arrange it in a
clean stewpan, and pour in as much good boiling brown gravy as will
nearly cover it; add from one to two glasses of port wine, or rather
more of claret, a dessertspoonful of Chili vinegar, or the juice of half
a lemon, and some cayenne, with as much salt as may be needed.
Stew the fish very softly until it just begins to break, lift it carefully
with a slice into a very hot dish, stir into the gravy an ounce and a
half of butter smoothly kneaded with a large teaspoonful of flour, and
a little pounded mace, give the sauce a minute’s boil, pour it over the
fish, and serve it immediately. The wine may be omitted, good shin
of beef stock substituted for the gravy, and a teaspoonful of soy, one
of essence of anchovies, and two tablespoonsful of Harvey’s sauce
added to flavour it.
 TO BOIL SALT FISH.

When very salt and dry, this must be long soaked before it is
boiled, but it is generally supplied by the fishmongers nearly or quite
ready to dress. When it is not so, lay it for a night into a large
quantity of cold water, then let it lie exposed to the air for some time,
then again put it into water, and continue thus until it is well softened.
Brush it very clean, wash it thoroughly, and put it with abundance of
cold water into the fish kettle, place it near the fire and let it heat very
slowly indeed. Keep it just on the point of simmering, without
allowing it ever to boil (which would render it hard), from three
quarters of an hour to a full hour, according to its weight; should it be
quite small and thin, less time will be sufficient for it; but by following
these directions, the fish will be almost as good as if it were fresh.
The scum should be cleared off with great care from the beginning.
Egg sauce and boiled parsneps are the usual accompaniment to salt
fish, which should be dished upon a hot napkin, and which is
sometimes also thickly strewed with chopped eggs.
 SALT FISH, À LA MÂITRE D’HÔTEL.

Boil the fish by the foregoing receipt, or take the remains of that
which has been served at table, flake it off clear from the bones, and
strip away every morsel of the skin; then lay it into a very clean
saucepan or stewpan, and pour upon it the sharp Mâitre d’Hôtel
sauce of Chapter IV.; or dissolve gently two or three ounces of butter
with four or five spoonsful of water, and a half-teaspoonful of flour;
add some pepper or cayenne, very little salt, and a dessertspoonful
or more of minced parsley. Heat the fish slowly quite through in
either of these sauces, and toss or stir it until the whole is well
mixed; if the second be used, add the juice of half a lemon, or a
small quantity of Chili vinegar just before it is taken from the fire. The
fish thus prepared may be served in a deep dish, with a border of
mashed parsneps or potatoes.
 TO BOIL CODS’ SOUNDS.

Should they be highly salted, soak them for a night, and on the
following day rub off entirely the discoloured skin; wash them well,
lay them into plenty of cold milk and water, and boil them gently from
thirty to forty minutes, or longer should they not be quite tender.
Clear off the scum as it rises with great care, or it will sink and
adhere to the sounds, of which the appearance will then be spoiled.
Drain them well, dish them on a napkin, and send egg sauce and
plain melted butter to table with them.
 TO FRY CODS’ SOUNDS IN BATTER.

Boil them as directed above until they are nearly done, then lift
them out, lay them on to a drainer, and let them remain till they are
cold; cut them across in strips of an inch deep, curl them round, dip
them into a good French or English batter, fry them of a fine pale
brown, drain and dry them well, dish them on a hot napkin, and
garnish them with crisped parsley.
 TO FRY SOLES.

[In season all the year.]

All fish to fry well must be not only fresh but perfectly free from
moisture, particularly when they are to be dressed with egg and
bread-crumbs, as these will not otherwise adhere to them. Empty,
skin, and wash the soles with extreme nicety, from one to two hours
before they are wanted for table; and after having cleansed and
wiped them very dry both inside and out, replace the roes, fold and
press them gently in a soft clean cloth, and leave them wrapped in it
until it is time to fry them; or suspend them singly upon hooks in a
current of cool air, which is, perhaps, the better method of
proceeding when it can be done conveniently. Cover them equally in
every part, first with some beaten egg, and then with fine dry crumbs
of bread, mixed with a very little flour to make them adhere with
more certainty: a small teaspoonful will be sufficient for two large
soles. Melt in a large and exceedingly clean frying pan over a brisk
and clear fire, as much very pure-flavoured lard as will float the fish,
and let it be sufficiently hot before they are laid in to brown them
quickly; for if this be neglected it will be impossible to render them
crisp or dry. When the fat ceases to bubble, throw in a small bit of
bread, and if it takes a good colour immediately the soles may be put
in without delay. An experienced cook will know, without this test,
when it is at the proper point; but the learner will do better to avail
herself of it until practice and observation shall have rendered it
unnecessary to her. Before the fish are laid into the pan, take them
by the head and shake the loose crumbs from them. When they are
firm, and of a fine amber-colour on one side, turn them with care,
passing a slice under them and a fork through the heads, and brown
them on the other. Lift them out, and either dry them well on a soft
cloth laid upon a sieve reversed, before the fire, turning them often,
or press them lightly in hot white blotting paper. Dish them on a
drainer covered with a hot napkin and send them to table without
delay with shrimp or anchovy sauce, and plain melted butter.
Very small soles will be done in six minutes, and large ones in
about ten. They may be floured and fried, without being egged and