“丝绸西销导致罗马帝国经济衰落说”源流辨析

中国丝绸西销导致罗马帝国经济衰落说是学界较为流行的一种观点。梳理这一观点的源流、脉络,分析这一观点所依赖的基础,是探究的重点。研究的最后结论是:进入罗马的中国丝绸不但数量少,而且对帝国经济的影响非常有限,根本无法撼动罗马帝国的根基。     

“The Roman Giant”: Overgrowth Syndrome in Skeletal Remains from the Imperial Age

A very tall skeleton was found during archaeological excavations in the territory of Fidenae, an administrative centre of the Roman territorial organization, situated along the Via Salaria about 7 km north of Rome (Italy). The individual was a young male, dated back to the Imperial Age (3^rd century AD), presenting a very tall but normally proportioned stature, estimated around 202 cm. The long bones showed incomplete epiphyseal union; therefore, the stature would probably have been taller, if he had lived longer. In this work, the metric data are compared with those from the Roman Imperial Age population, and differential diagnosis is discussed. The skeletal evidence is characteristic of a form of gigantism, a rare growth disease that may be linked to different syndromes. The most common etiology is associated with a dysfunction of the pituitary gland, which causes overproduction of the growth hormone (hGH) during childhood. This endocrine disorder stimulates cartilaginous activity at the growth plate, delaying epiphyseal fusion and resulting in increased bone length. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Two Late Roman Wrecks from Southern Cyprus

Two scattered Late Roman shipwrecks were discovered in the course of underwater survey at Cape Zevgari and Avdimou Bay off the southern coast of Cyprus. Each was transporting a primary cargo contained in amphoras, in one case either local or from nearby Syria or Cilicia, and the other certainly from the southern Levantine coast. The two wrecks offer insight into regional maritime exchange networks within the socio-economic context of late antique commerce around the island. Both sites also contribute to a greater understanding of the utility of systematic shallow-water survey to shipwreck archaeology.
© 2007 The Author     

A Nabataean and Roman shrine with civic and military gods at Humayma,Jordan

The lifecycle of a Nabataean and Roman community shrine at Humayma, Jordan reflects the evolving values of the town's inhabitants from the first to the third century CE. This paper reviews the evidence for the shrine's appearance and significance over this period, as well as the nature of the cult practised there. Beginning its existence as a Nabataean shrine, whose design incorporated the rising sun and the town's primary peak, the building was damaged when the Romans converted Nabataea into Provincia Arabia. The Roman garrison initially dismantled the shrine to build their fort, but a few decades later the shrine was restored with a centrally placed Nabataean betyl and legionary altar symbolising harmony between the garrison and the town. The garrison's god, Jupiter‐Ammon‐Serapis, and possibly Isis, were now worshipped alongside the town's Nabataean deity. This shrine stressing military‐civilian harmony was later deliberately damaged, most likely during Zenobia's revolt.     

Writing the History of the “Persian Arabs”: The Pre-Islamic Perspective on the “Naṣrids” of al-Ḥīrah

Modern scholarship on Arabs in the pre-Islamic period has focused on Rome's Arab allies—the so-called “Jafnids” or “Ghassānids,” with much less attention paid to Persia's Arab allies, the so-called “Na?rid” or “Lakhmid” dynasty of Arab leaders at al-?īrah in Iraq. This article examines select pre-Islamic sources for the Persian Arabs, showing that even with the meager evidence available to us, and the lack of archaeological material, it is possible to draw a relatively complex portrait of the Persian Arabs. This article situates the Persian Arabs as important figures in some key themes and phenomena of late antiquity, such as the growth of Christian communities, the conflict between Rome and Persia, and the struggle for influence in the Arabian peninsula.     

Leibniz,Locke, and the Early Modern Controversy over Legal Maxims

This article investigates the context of a side line in Leibniz's critique of Locke on maxims. In an enigmatic and little-explored remark, Leibniz objects that Locke has overlooked some legal maxims that fulfil the function of ‘constituting the law’. I propose to read this remark against the background of the divergence between conceptions of legal maxims in the common law tradition and conceptions of legal maxims in the Roman law tradition. In a few remarks, Locke seems to echo the common law emphasis on customs and conventions expressed by legal maxims. According to such a conception, reason would mainly fulfil the function of subsuming particular norms under more general conventional norms. By contrast, Leibniz uses the Roman law idea that some ‘rules of law’ express demands of natural reason and, thereby, express principles constitutive of natural law. This is why he proposes to reform vague and confused ‘brocards’ used by jurists in order to identify sound maxims that provide a natural-law foundation for legal institutions.