Religious Studies Review VOLUME 42
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focused on historical and compositional issues. This vol-
ume operates from the conviction that the primary inter-
pretive tasks for the prophetic books are more literary in
nature than they are historical, sociological, or hermeneu-
tical and focuses on the art of learning to read the
prophets through attention to literary and rhetorical
dimensions. The intended audience is introductory-level
students working from English translations, and the aim
is to identify and illustrate the literary markers and
methods most critical to understanding the texts. Conse-
quently, the volume does not introduce each prophet and
each book or devote extended attention to historical back-
grounds. The introductory chapter briefly surveys some of
the standard background elements for the prophets, with
attention to ancient Near Eastern prophecy and the meth-
odological process of interpretation. Subsequent chapters
discuss literary and rhetorical formulae, markers, key
terms, metaphors, and similes, as well as major prophetic
genres and the relationship of units to their contexts. The
penultimate chapter examines major themes such as judg-
ment and salvation, and the final chapter explores ways to
engage the prophetic texts within contemporary communi-
ties of faith. Given the books focus on literary and rhetori-
cal dimensions, one wishes for more discussion of
emerging approaches such as trauma theory, postcolonial
interpretation, and gender studies. But the volume will
find a home in undergraduate and seminary libraries.
Brad E. Kelle
Point Loma Nazarene University
ZECHARIAH AND HIS VISIONS: AN EXEGETICAL
STUDY OF ZECHARIAHS VISION REPORT. By
Lena-Soa Tiemeyer. Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testa-
ment Studies 605. London: Bloomsbury, 2015. Pp.
xvii 1 305. $120.00.
This volume combines elements of a monograph and
commentary. The bulk of the book is a detailed exegetical
study of Zechariahs visions in Zech 1:86:8 (treated under
the genre of an extended vision report). However, the
volume provides examinations of broader topics. After an
introduction, the first three chapters examine dreams and
visions more generally, first in the Hebrew Bible, then in
ancient Near Eastern texts (from Mari, Neo-Assyria, Uga-
rit, and the Deir Allah inscription) and early Jewish and
Christian apocalyptic literature, and then with attention to
the role of culture in visionary experiences and writing.
The remaining chapters (412) cover the visions within
Zech 1:86:8, with each chapter containing three sections:
a survey of the visionary speech, images, and figures;
detailed exegesis of the visual imagery in the text; and an
explanation of the message of the vision account. The
unique element of the study is that Tiemeyer proposes that
at least the kernel of Zechariahs vision report is based
on the prophets actual visionary experience and that this
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DECEMBER 2016
reasonable hypothesis has exegetical consequences for
the interpretation of the biblical material. She acknowl-
edges that this claim cannot be proven, but she proposes
that adopting it as a working hypothesis yields different
ways of understanding elements of Zechariahs account
that would otherwise remain unclear. The volume will be
useful to students and scholars working more technically
on Zechariah and related material on dreams or visions
from the Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near East.
Brad E. Kelle
Point Loma Nazarene University
Greece, Rome, Greco-Roman Period
HIDDEN LIVES, PUBLIC PERSONAE: WOMEN
AND CIVIC LIFE IN THE ROMAN WEST. By Emily
A. Hemelrijk. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.
Pp. xx 1 344; plates, maps. Cloth, $85.00.
Employing a corpus of 1,400 published honorifics, dedi-
catory, and funereal inscriptions, Hemelrijk investigates the
public roles of women in Italian and western provincial
municipalities from the late first-century BCE to the late
third-century CE. Her data set is restricted to public commem-
orations of womens official functions or activities performed
on behalf of their cities. Following a brief methodological
introduction, six chapters explore elements of female civic
participation. In the opening chapter, Hemelrijk provides
social and legal contexts for womens public activity, dis-
cusses the relationship of gender and Romanization, and
tackles the problems of relying upon epigraphic evidence,
such as the impact of the epigraphic habit upon the chrono-
logical and geographical distribution of inscriptions. Succes-
sive chapters analyze the roles of civic priestesses and
benefactresses; members and officials of collegia, including
all-female organizations; patronesses and mothers of cities
and associations; and the significance of such honors as stat-
ues and public funerals. Several striking conclusions emerge.
First, womens civic involvement outside of Rome is distinct
from conditions in the metropolis, where members of the
imperial family monopolized public visibility for ideological
purposes. Second, female participation in civic activities is
characterized by great regional and local diversity, although
central and northern Italy seem to be focal points from which,
beginning in the Augustan period, Roman practices spread to
the western provinces. Although members of the elite classes
are heavily overrepresented in Hemelrijks sample, evidence
of benefactions by indigenous, non-elite, and freed women
indicates that wealth and not rank was the key qualification
for some kinds of civic engagement. Even though male rela-
tives are frequently named in commemorative inscriptions,
finally, Hemelrijk marshals proof that women pursued public
honor and recognition for themselves and not merely to
advance the careers of family members; there are signs of a
lively competition for honour among leading women as well
as reverence for family traditions of public service. This
 Religious Studies Review VOLUME 42
authoritative study, of particular interest to ancient social his-
torians, shows Roman women as meaningful contributors to
local religious, economic, and communal life whose generosi-
ty was recognized and appreciated by fellow citizens.
Marilyn B. Skinner
University of Arizona
LITERARY TERRITORIES: CARTOGRAPHICAL
THINKING IN LATE ANTIQUITY. By Scott Fitzgerald
Johnson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. Pp.
xiv 1 195. Cloth, $74.00.
The editor of the innovative Oxford Handbook of Late
Antiquity (2012) has written this intriguing volume featur-
ing Greek, Latin, and Syriac literature as far-ranging as pil-
grimage accounts, encyclopedias, letters, Holy Land
topographies, Christian histories, and official records like
the Notitia Dignitatum. Johnson uses the geographical con-
texts of these works as his organizing principle to examine
the reception of ancient thought and literature, collected
and systematized in interrelated works across languages
and cultures. Encyclopedism was not a new phenomenon,
as witnessed by the Natural History of Pliny the Elder, but
the practice accelerated in late antiquity. Johnson calls this
impulse creating an archive like the one Egeria made by
traveling with apocryphal books of the Apostles journeys
and by accumulating texts and experiences as she visited
sacred lands. The spread of Christianity enriched and
intensified this collecting and assembling of geographical
knowledge. Popular narratives featured the twelve Apostles
casting lots to divide the oikoumene into their individual
regions for preaching; cult heroes attracted visitors to
Judeo-Christian holy sites; relic-collectors became archiv-
ists; and Christians repurposed the locus amoenus topos to
celebrate loca sancta. The literary territories here extend as
far as India (whose late antique references usually indicate
either the southern Arabian Peninsula or Ethiopia, less
often referring to the Indian subcontinent). In this book
scholars will discover surprising insights into late antique
ways of understanding the world. As a bonus they will also
find a valuable appendix of astrological, astronomical, cos-
mographical, geographical, and topographical texts in
Greek, Latin, and Syriac from 1 to 700 CE.
Emily Albu
University of California, Davis
INSCRIPTIONS AND THEIR USES IN GREEK AND
LATIN LITERATURE. Edited by P. Liddel and P. Low.
Oxford Studies in Ancient Documents. New York: Oxford
University Press, 2013. Pp. xii 1 403. $185.00.
These sixteen papers (with an introductory overview by
the editors) were given at a conference at the University of
Manchester in June of 2009. Part I (seven papers) considers
the deployment of inscriptions to portray or reconstruct their
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historical contexts; Part II (nine papers), how the literary
deployment of inscriptions confirms but also challenges audi-
ences preconceptions about inscriptions. The historical
papers seem to show a trajectory over timea tendency to
use the authenticating power of inscriptions at first more
selectively (Hartmann on inscriptions within the Greco-
Roman divisions between past and present, Kosmetatou on
Herodotus possible use of possibly inscribed sanctuary
records) and then more extensively and deliberately (Petrovic
emphasizes the quotation of epigrams, but probably from epi-
gram collections, by Attic orators, while Mari details histori-
ans use of inscriptions about Delphi to exploit audiences
ignorance; Haake studies the place of both real and forged
decrees in Hellenistic biography; and Tzifopolous argues that
Pausanias used inscriptions to trigger narrative units, thus
creating a new kind of periegetic literature). Langslow cata-
logues a surprising twenty-nine Latin inscriptions dating
before 260 BC noted in both Greek and Latin literary sources.
The nine papers of Part II emphasize the ways that ancient
authors saw inscribed and spoken literature as existing in a
relationship of complementarity and competition. Epinician
poetry and inscribed dedications (Day), lyric poetry and con-
temporary material culture (Fearn), inscriptions on the Attic
stage (Lougovaya), Aristotles Hymn to Virtue and verse epi-
taphs (Le Ven), and epitaphic epigrams for poets and their
fabrication (Morrison) well represent the Greek side, and four
papers on the complex relationship between Latin literature
and Roman epigraphy (Dinter on theto merather difficult
concept of intermediality, Nelis and Nelis-Clement on the
Augustan furor epigraphicus and poetic responses, Houghton
on elegiac poetry and votive inscriptions, and Zadorojnyi on
inscriptions in imperial prose) round out the volume. All the
essays are thought-provoking and provide wonderfully full
footnotes. This volume is an excellent place to begin further
work on any of these subjects.
Elizabeth A. Meyer
The University of Virginia
A HISTORY OF THE JEWISH WAR, AD 6674. By
Steve Mason. New York: Cambridge University Press,
2016. Pp. xii 1 689. $150.00.
In a sweeping investigation of the causes and progres-
sion of the Roman-Judean war, Steve Mason re-examines
the available literary, archaeological, geographical, and
numismatic evidence. Mason characteristically insists that
each piece of evidence for the conflict, and in particular
Josephuss Jewish War, be explained as a whole within its
context, rather than mined for nuggets of historical fact.
He also utilizes a methodology of distinguishing between
the interpretation of evidence and the imagining of the
events that produced the evidence. In Part I, Mason con-
textualizes our evidence in terms of the political concerns
of the Flavian emperors at Rome, the literary and rhetori-
cal agendas of Josephus War (among other literary sour-
ces), and what we understand about the lived realities of
 Religious Studies Review VOLUME 42
ancient warfare. In Part II, Mason offers many striking
and compelling historical reconstructions, including (to
list only a few) a reinterpretation of the identities of the
so-called Sicarii and Zealots, a rehabilitation of Cestius Gal-
lus competence in command, and the possibility that anti-
Roman sentiment was not endemic among Judeans of
southern Syria, but was instead manufactured as individu-
al men were radicalized in response to Roman violence.
Furthermore, Mason posits that Titus had no discreet poli-
cy regarding the temple in Jerusalem during the siege, but
adapted his strategy as circumstances evolved, and cau-
tions against allowing the drama of Josephus account of
the fall of Masada to overshadow the scantiness of the evi-
dence for the real events. This illuminating volume is
highly recommended to all.
Sarah Teets
University of Virginia
DIVINE EPIPHANY IN GREEK LITERATURE AND
CULTURE. By Georgia Petridou. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2015. Pp. xiv 1 411; illustrations $160.00.
An outgrowth of the authors dissertation at the Universi-
ty of Exeter, this study offers an exhaustive survey of divine
epiphanies in both literary and epigraphical sources, ranging
from Homer to the second-century CE. Epiphany is here
viewed as a sociopolitical and cultural phenomenon that
served to define ones identity both within communal struc-
tures and the cultic universe. The author uses what she calls
an epiphanic schema to organize this vast material, identi-
fying epiphany as a form of crisis management, in which
divine manifestation lends authority to the one who experien-
ces it, and leads to some form of resolution that may be com-
memorated in a yearly celebration. These abstractions are
then illustrated by plentiful examples, first dealing with the
forms of divine manifestations, then the crisis situations,
especially on the battlefield, and including the cultic basis for
Phues notorious appearance as Athena in the restoration of
the Peisistratids. Illness as an individual as opposed to a com-
munal crisis leads into a discussion of epiphanies in healing
cults, especially those of Asclepius. Encounters with the
divine also occur in remote or marginal locations outside the
communitycaves and mountains or at sea. Pan, the
nymphs, and the Muses, among others, manifest themselves
in such liminal spaces causing panic, erotic encounters, or
poetic inspiration, all emphasizing a closeness to the divine
that enhances status. Similarly, cultic activities inviting the
gods participation (sacrifice, theoxenia) attempt to restore a
lost intimacy with the divine. Given the amount and variety of
the material involved, readers will find the brief synopses at
the end of each chapter helpful. The final synthesis also
reviews the material re-emphasizing the sociopolitical func-
tions of the different types of divine manifestations examined.
While one may sometimes question the validity of some the
categories adopted, one must admire the scope and
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thoroughness of this study, which make it essential reading
for all scholars of Greek religion.
Jenny Strauss Clay
University of Virginia
A COMPANION TO THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF RELI-
GION IN THE ANCIENT WORLD. Edited by Rubina
Raja and J. Ru pke. Chichester, England: Wiley Blackwell,
2015. Pp. xiii 1 502; illustrations. $195.00.
With the burgeoning market of companions, Raja and
Ru pkes companion is a welcome and stimulating addition not
only to classical studies, but also religious studies. The goal of the
companion is to offer a better understanding of religious experi-
ence, over belief. The 35 contributions of the volume derive from
a wide-ranging set of international scholars, providing a number
of innovative approaches to the subject; there is a wide chronolog-
ical swath from the eighth-century BC until well into the late
antique period, with emphasis on the Roman era. While not all
periods are covered in detail, the new insights and approaches
presented will foster much future discussion by scholars in any
period. The work is divided into nine sections: archaeology of rit-
ual; embodiment; experiences; creating spaces of experiences;
designing and appropriating sacred space; sharing public space;
expressiveness; agents; transformations. The contributions are
effectively able to incorporate archaeology into the study of reli-
gion in order to repopulate spaces with humansproviding
insight into how an ancient would have experienced a space or
interacted with objects or other humans. Stemming from post-
processual approaches to archaeology of the 1990s, the authors
successfully recreate ancient religious rituals and practices, from
the role of bodies in religious dance to Christian initiation rites.
While there are many subjects treated here, of particular note are
the chapters on religious processions (e.g., Luginbu hl; Stavriano-
poulou) and notions of public and private religion (e.g., Parker;
Bowes), the latter a perennial debate in Roman archaeology.
Although the chapters are thought-provoking, they should be
used in tandem with other sources, especially when used in
teaching. For example, the bibliography of Meniels contribution
on animal sacrifice is biased primarily towards French scholar-
ship, when there is a great deal coming out from Swedish schol-
ars, among others. The volume can be used as a whole (with a
superb index), or split into sections, which would be appropriate
for an advanced undergraduate or a graduate-level course. Reli-
gion scholars of all periods will find this a useful resource for a
better understanding of recreating religious practice in still exist-
ing or lost contexts.
Dylan Kelby Rogers
American School of Classical Studies at Athens
IUPPITER OPTIMUS MAXIMUS DOLICHENUS: UN
CULTO ORIENTALE FRA TRADIZIONE E INNOVA-
ZIONE: RIFLESSIONI STORICO-RELIGIOSE. By Ennio
Sanzi. Roma: Lithos Editrice, 2013. Pp. 398. e26.00.
 Religious Studies Review VOLUME 42
For many years the cult of Iuppiter Dolichenus has been
at the centre of Sanzis research interests. The present volume
collects the results of his investigations in six chapters, two
appendices, and a few pages of final observations. Rather than
a systematic treatise, the book is actually a set of essays, some
of which (4, 5, 6, and the two appendices) are new versions of
already published articles. The volume opens with an overly
long introduction (62 pages) on Oriental cults in Rome. Chap-
ter 1 provides an overview of the iconography of the god and of
the structure of the cult. The specific traits of Iupiter Optimus
Maximus and those of the Iupiter from Doliche are described
and compared in Chapter 2. Here and in the following section
the relationship of the two gods with the imperial power (par-
ticularly the legitimizing and order-preserving function) are
analyzed. Interesting observations are expressed on the gods
worshipped together with Iupiter Dolichenus and on the nature
of the salus asked of him (Chapters 5 and 6). The remaining
parts deal with more restricted topics. A rich bibliography,
accurate indices, and a table of concordances conclude this
widely illustrated and yet affordable volume. The book was
conceived for graduate students and this explains some of the
authors structural choices. However, it would have benefitted
from substantial cuts to avoid redundancies and digressions
which add very little to the main subject (on the formula ex
indulgentia, on some Dacian inscriptions, and on alphabetical
inscriptions for the Dolichenus cult).
Margherita Facella
 di Pisa
Universita
THEMISTIUS, JULIAN, AND GREEK POLITICAL
THEORY UNDER ROME: TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS,
AND STUDIES OF FOUR KEY WORKS. By Simon
Swain. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press,
2013. Pp. 224. Cloth, 60.00/$95.00.
Simon Swain, Warwick classics professor and editor of
numerous works from late antiquity, does not disappoint with
this volume on political theory in the Eastern Empire. While
the book contains four Greek and Arabic texts and translations,
including Sopaters Letter to Himerius and the Letter of Aristotle
to Alexander, the focus is very much on the exchange of letters
between Themistius and the Emperor Julian. As Swain demon-
strates, the tendrils of political thought extended into areas
such as religion and philosophy, and he notes the parallel
between the relationship of Julian and Themistius and that of
Constantine and Eusebius. Swains texts are carefully edited
and his translations from the Greek clear and accurate, but the
greatest virtue of this work is his sober historical analysis. His
convincing reconstruction includes Themistius lost letter to
Julian written at the end of 355, in which the orator offered
advice on kingship that offended the new Caesar; Julians hos-
tile response, the Letter to Themistius, written in spring 356; and
Themistius Letter to Julian, written in mid-356 and approaching
kingship more generally. Swain incorporates both the Sudas
claim that Themistius served as a prefect under Julian and
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DECEMBER 2016
Themistius hostility to the emperor in later orations, sugges-
ting that his second letter temporarily restored a working rela-
tionship with the emperor, who may have appointed and then
removed the orator from office. Although Swain does speculate
needlessly by placing Julian somewhere on the autistic spec-
trum (86), his conjectures are generally judicious. This is a
significant work, and should be purchased by university librar-
ies supporting research in either classics or religion.
David Neal Greenwood
University of Aberdeen
Christian Origins
NEW TESTAMENT VERBS OF COMMUNICATION:
A CASE FRAME AND EXEGETICAL STUDY. By
Paul L. Danove. Library of New Testament Studies, 520.
London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2015. Pp. x 1 245. Cloth,
$39.95.
This book applies case frame analysis to NT verbs of
communication. This method breaks verbally denoted events
of communication into their constitutive elements (speaker,
receiver, content) and potential syntactic and semantic varia-
bles (e.g., emphasis on content/receiver, verbal voice, wheth-
er an element is explicit or contextually implied) and
categorizes each verbs NT occurrences into potential combi-
nations of these features. Danove introduces this complex
system of categorization and annotation and offers exhaus-
tive results, culminating in his appended Case Frame Lexi-
con of the tabulated usages of each verb. In addition to the
lexicon, the study makes two helpful contributions: the sug-
gestion that the middle voice is more frequent when unful-
filled conditions/constraints accompany a command or
request; and the argument that kecx melding/coordination
(where multiple verbs introduce a single communicative con-
tent; e.g., he swore and said, he said, saying) emphasizes
communicative content, its verbatim nature or, in verbs not
necessarily indicating communication, enables the append-
ing of content. Unfortunately, those not already introduced to
Danoves methods must learn a densely explained system of
annotation to use the lexicon or see the payoff summarized
abovewhich explanation constitutes most of the book, exe-
getical relevance being very infrequently illustrated (despite
the subtitle). However, its database of verbal usages will be
of great use to future lexicographical endeavor. I recommend
it for specialists and research libraries.
James B. Prothro
University of Cambridge
THE OTHER GOSPELS: ACCOUNTS OF JESUS
FROM OUTSIDE THE NEW TESTAMENT. Edited
and translated by Bart D. Ehrman and Zlatko Plese.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. Pp. xiii 1 324.
Cloth, $105.00; paper, $26.95.