Vol 83, No 1 (2023)

The so-called “Daiva inscription” of Xerxes found in Persepolis addresses the activity of this Achaemenid Persian king in two lands, one of which is said to have been in commotion, while the other is alluded to have been characterized by unacceptable religious practices. Xerxes stresses his involvement in the restoration of order in both countries but does not mention their names. Egypt, Babylon, Greece and Bactria were all adduced as candidates by 20th-century scholars, while the recent mainstream scholarship tends to interpret the same accounts as abstract ideological statements without an anchor in time or space. The new approach advocated in this paper assumes that Xerxes resorted to historical narratives only in order to provide his own apologetic version of embarrassing events. In particular, his self-professed involvement in the destruction of the cults of evil gods is to be interpreted as a twisted account of the destruction of the Acropolis of Athens by the Persian army in 480 BCE. In the wake of the disastrous war against the Greeks, Xerxes strove to present it as a successful special operation against the Greek deities.

It is suggested that some kind of markers could be used to show the sequence of events in extensive motivation clauses of biographical honorific decrees, especially from the Hellenistic period. In order to find such markers, we analysed the most fully preserved honorary decrees from Olbia, Istros, Odessos and Apollonia Pontica. An attempt is made to determine how such markers were used by authors of policy decisions.

According to Roman surveyors, history of the most common system of Roman orthogonal surveying – limitatio – goes back to the disciplina etrusca, a complex of Etruscan rituals. There is no consensus among specialists regarding the degree of Etruscan influence on Roman surveying, since the Etruscan achievements in orthogonal surveying are scarcely known and the orthogonal plans of the Greek colonies in Southern Italy are much more famous. The archaeological evidence, in particular, the research of the Etruscan colony in Marzabotto, shows that there are traces of orthogonal surveying on the territory of the Etruscan cities. The organization of these settlements is close to the Greek cities with orthogonal surveying; however, there are also some features, which can be explained by the influence of disciplina etrusca. Some of them (the apparent orientation of the main roads of the settlement to the cardinal points, the presence of special signs at the roads’ intersection) were also important for the imperial surveyors, even though they recognized a need to take into account features of landscape and other practical considerations. The earliest traces of Roman land surveys, close to limitatio, date back to the 3rd century B.C. It can be explained by a closer knowledge of the disciplina etrusca, which became possible after the conquest of the main Etruscan religious centers.

This article contains the editio princeps of the Greek papyri held at the History Museum of Perm State University. The majority of these papyri were glued and pressed together as a means of strengthening a book cover. These papyri can be dated to the Byzantine or early Islamic period since they were pressed together with Pahlavi and Arabic fragments. Two papyri can be dated to IV AD. In total, twenty-six papyri are published.

The introduction of Latin in Soviet schools remains an unexplored topic today. There are only brief accounts of this experiment in the memoirs of contemporaries. This article reconstructs the course of the reform on the basis of normative and legal documents, records, and memoirs, in which the most active phases can be distinguished: 1944–1948 and 1952–1954. The author manages to determine that A.V. Mishulin and N.F. Deratani had the greatest influence on the promotion of the idea of introducing Latin in school. However, the inconsistent implementation of the initiative, the lack of proper organization and methodological work and the lack of measures to explain the innovations to the general public led to the rapid curtailment of the reform. As a decisive reason for the exclusion of Latin from the curricula of Soviet schools the abolition of separate education in 1954 is called.

The book by Renaud Gagnier, a professor at the University of Cambridge, continues his series of works in the field of ancient literature and religion. This work, as can be seen from the title, is devoted to the image of the Hyperboreans and the idea of Hyperborea in ancient literature, as well as to the philological understanding of the cosmographic aspects of this mythological discourse.

September 27, 2022 marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Honored Professor of Lomonosov Moscow State University, Doctor of Historical Sciences, I. Leonidovna Mayak. In memory of the great scientist, teacher and organizer of science, an anniversary conference was held at Moscow University with the support of the IVI RAS and the Russian Association of Antiquaries.

Just five years ago, in 2017, we dedicated the XVIII issue of the scientific collection "The Ancient World and Archaeology" to the 80th anniversary of our colleague and teacher, classical scholar and patriarch of ancient archaeology Vladimir Ivanovich Katz. And now we have to write about the fact that he is not with us. It is bitter and insulting, so much still needed to be done, coordinated with him, consulted, especially since he was distinguished by an excellent memory, efficiency and a reasonable attitude to life until the very end.