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The volume includes Archaic Greek and Hellenistic lamps made in Eastern Greece in the late 7th-5th centuries BCE; mainland Greece; Classical Greece of the 6th-4th centuries BCE; and lamps made after the conquest of the East by Alexander the Great (333-332 BCE) to the Roman conquest (1st century BCE-early 1st century CE), during which both civilizations - of the West and the East - merged into what is known as the Hellenistic period and the Hellenistic culture. 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Surveying so-called Jewish novels, including the Letter of Aristeas, 2 Maccabees, Esther, Daniel, Judith, Tobit, Josephus's account of Alexander's visit to Jerusalem and of the Tobiads, Artapanus, and Joseph and Aseneth, she demonstrates that the use of historical fiction in these texts does not constitute a uniform genre. Instead it cuts across all boundaries of language, provenance, genre, and even purpose. Johnson argues that each author uses historical fiction to construct a particular model of Hellenistic Jewish identity through the reinvention of the past. The models of identity differ, but all seek to explore relations between Jews and the wider non-Jewish world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe author goes on to present a focal in-depth analysis of one text, Third Maccabees. Maintaining that this is a late Hellenistic, not a Roman, work Johnson traces important themes in Third Maccabees within a broader literary context. She evaluates the evidence for the authorship, audience, and purpose of the work and analyzes the historicity of the persecution described in the narrative. Illustrating how the author reinvents history in order to construct his own model for life in the diaspora, Johnson weighs the attitudes and stances, from defiance to assimilation, of this crucial period.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of California Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44361166848134,"sku":"9780520233072","price":151.95,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0671\/9199\/6550\/files\/9780520233072.jpg?v=1788926095"},{"product_id":"jewish-perspectives-on-hellenistic-rulers-hellenistic-culture-and-society-volume-50","title":"Jewish Perspectives on Hellenistic Rulers (Hellenistic Culture and Society) (Volume 50)","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis volume gathers sixteen essays on monarchy and power in the Hellenistic period and charts a new approach to Hellenistic history by focusing attention on biblical and Jewish evidence and reading that evidence in new ways. The essays consider the kings, queens, and power figures of the Hellenistic dynasties, as well as ancient Israelite kings, the Babylonian and Persian rulers of the Bible, Parthians, and Romans. The volume also represents a new kind of interpretation of the Greek Bible (Septuagint) and of the Jewish literature of the period, setting them in the context of Hellenistic political thought and practice.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of California Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44361167437958,"sku":"9780520250840","price":151.95,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0671\/9199\/6550\/files\/9780520250840.jpg?v=1788926098"},{"product_id":"egypt-and-judaea-egypt-and-judaea-roman-conquests","title":"Egypt and Judaea: Egypt and Judaea (Roman Conquests)","description":"\u003cp\u003eJohn Grainger narrates the aftermath of Marc Antony's defeat, with Octavian's forces swiftly moving in to take control of Egypt but requiring several oft-forgotten campaigns before the country was fully subjugated.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEgypt was the last of the Macedonian Successor states to be swallowed up by Roman expansion. The Ptolemaic rulers had allied themselves to Rome while their rivals went down fighting. However, Cleopatra's famous love affair with Marc Antony ensured she was on the wrong side of the Roman civil war between him and Octavian (later to become Caesar Augustus). After the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra at the naval battle of Actium, Octavian swiftly brought it under direct Roman control, though it took several campaigns to fully subjugate the whole country. These campaigns have previously been largely neglected. Judaea was a constant source of trouble for the Romans, as it had been for the Seleucids, the previous overlords of the region. The Romans at first were content to rule through client kings like the infamous Herod but were increasingly sucked in to direct military involvement to suppress religiously-inspired revolts.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLike the other volumes in this series, this book gives a clear narrative of the course of these campaigns, explaining how the Roman war machine coped with formidable new foes and the challenges of unfamiliar terrain and climate. Specially-commissioned color plates by the renowned Graham Sumner bring the main troop types vividly to life in meticulously-researched detail.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Pen and Sword Military","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44361169666182,"sku":"9781526781598","price":50.95,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0671\/9199\/6550\/files\/9781526781598.jpg?v=1788926145"}],"url":"https:\/\/aevumbooks.com\/collections\/aevum-menu-ancient-near-east-mesopotamia-the-near-east.oembed","provider":"Aevum Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}