More inclusive scholarly reviews.
An open-access book review journal prioritizing underrepresented scholarly voices in ancient Mediterranean studies.
Recent Reviews
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Technological Animation in Classical Antiquity
8–13 minutesTatiana Bur, Maria Gerolemou, and Isabel A. Ruffell, eds., Technological Animation in Classical Antiquity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024). 9780192857552. Reviewed by Matthew Walmsley, The University of Queensland, uqmwalms@uq.edu.au. With the rising interest in the relationship between humans and machines, Technological Animation in Classical Antiquity, edited by Tatiana Bur, Maria Gerolemou, and Isabel A. Ruffell, contends that this is not a new fascination. In fact, the ancient Greeks and Romans consistently utilised devices which granted…
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Keeping to the Point in Athenian Forensic Oratory: Law, Character and Rhetoric
9–13 minutesEdward M. Harris and Alberto Esu, eds., Keeping to the Point in Athenian Forensic Oratory: Law, Character and Rhetoric (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2025). 9781399523899. Reviewed by Sidney Kochman, Independent Scholar, sidneykochman@gmail.com This edited volume is one of the newest additions to Edinburgh University Press’s series New Approaches to Ancient Greek Institutional History. With this book, the editors set out to contribute to a growing body of work that “reconcile the alleged opposition between rhetoric…
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Reading the Letter to Titus in Light of Crete: Dynamics of Early Christian Identity Co
11–17 minutesMichael S. Robertson, Reading the Letter to Titus in Light of Crete: Dynamics of Early Christian Identity Construction, Critical Approaches to Early Christianity 3 (Leiden: Brill, 2024). 9789004685710. Reviewed by John D. Doss, Asbury Theological Seminary, Asbury University, John.doss@asburyseminary.edu. As the title suggests, Michael Scott Robertson provides an important contribution to New Testament (hereafter NT) studies by Reading the Letter to Titus in Light of Crete. Titus is one of the most neglected books of…
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Philip V of Macedon in Polybius’ Histories: Politics, History, & Fiction
16–23 minutesEmma Nicholson, Philip V of Macedon in Polybius’ Histories: Politics, History, & Fiction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023). 9780192866769. Reviewed by Aaron L. Beek, Case Western Reserve University and North-West University,aaronlbeek@gmail.com. This work is a detailed examination of the Polybian view of Philip V of Macedon. One might readily ask whether this is a work about Polybius or about Philip, surely a tricky line to walk, as the historian is by far the most important…
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J.R.R. Tolkien’s Utopianism and the Classics
6–9 minutesHamish Williams, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Utopianism and the Classics, Classical Receptions in Twentieth-Century Writing (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023). ISBN 9781350241459. Reviewed by Martha Shillaker, University of St Andrews, Martha.M.Shillaker@gmail.com. Hamish Williams’s monograph J.R.R. Tolkien’s Utopianism and the Classics explores how the Classical past is (re)used by Tolkien in the creation and development of his literary utopianism. Williams argues that Tolkien’s use of Classical utopian narratives, and their implied ethics and ideals, creates a world that is…
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Rival Praises: Ovid and the Metamorphosis of the Hymnic Tradition
10–15 minutesCelia M. Campbell, Rival Praises: Ovid and the Metamorphosis of the Hymnic Tradition (Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2024). 9780299348748. Reviewed by Daniel Libatique, Fairfield University, dlibatique@fairfield.edu. Ovid’s experiments with genre have provided fruitful material not only for scholars but also for Ovid himself. From the recusatio of Amores 1.1.1–4 where Cupid steals a metrical foot from Ovid’s martial epic and turns it into amatory elegy to Metamorphoses 1.2’s fake-out caesura mimicking the…
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Athenian Power in the Fifth Century BC
7–11 minutesLeah Lazar, Athenian Power in the Fifth Century BC (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024). 9780198896265. Reviewed by Christine Downton, University of Leicester, cad38@leicester.ac.uk. The overall aim of this monograph is to re-examine the concept of Athenian power in the fifth century BCE. Whilst Athenian power has been the subject of considerable scholarship in the past, Leah Lazar presents a more nuanced view, arguing that Athenian power was flexible, negotiated, and engaged in two-way dialogue through…
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Adoption, Adaption, and Innovation in Pre-Roman Italy
14–20 minutesJeremy Armstrong and Aaron Rhodes-Schroder (eds.), Adoption, Adaption, and Innovation in Pre-Roman Italy: Paradigms for Cultural Change, Archaeology of the Mediterranean World 3 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2023). 9782503602325. Reviewed by Ulla Rajala, Stockholm University, Sweden, rajalaullam@gmail.com. This volume originates from the conference “Exchanging Ideas: Trade, Technology, and Connectivity in Pre-Roman Italy,” held in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2020, and I previously reviewed its sister volume Production, Trade, and Connectivity in Pre-Roman Italy for Rhea Classical Reviews.1…
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Roman Imperial Artillery: Outranging the Enemies of the Empire
10–15 minutesAlan Wilkins, Roman Imperial Artillery: Outranging the Enemies of the Empire, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2024). 9781803277837. Reviewed by Evan Schultheis, independent scholar, flavivsaetivs@gmail.com. Alan Wilkins’s Roman Imperial Artillery is written as a standard reference text for specialists and non-specialists alike, designed as an introduction to the study of Roman artillery. While it is often difficult to capture such a broad audience and effectively guide them through such an introduction to a field, Wilkins is…
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Christ the Emperor: Christian Theology and the Roman Emperor in the Fourth Century AD
17–25 minutesNathan Israel Smolin, Christ the Emperor: Christian Theology and the Roman Emperor in the Fourth Century AD, Oxford Studies in Late Antiquity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024). 9780197689547. Reviewed by Leslie Ivings, independent scholar, ivingsl188@gmail.com. The transformation of the Roman Empire in the fourth century CE was not merely institutional or territorial, it was intellectual, symbolic, and theological. As emperors from Constantine to Theodosius I grappled with the implications of Christianity’s new role in imperial…