Vol 18, No 3 (2026): Society and Сulture of the Ancient Mediterranean

The purpose of the study is to find out the reasons why one of the greatest athletes of antiquity, Theagenes of Thasos, so rarely participated in the Olympic Games. Among the Hellenic athletes of the archaic and classical periods, victory in Olympia was considered the most honorable, and the honorable lists of athletes’ achievements always began with victories in Olympia. However, Theagenes, whose career was one of the most brilliant in the history of ancient sports, only participated in Olympic competitions twice. Based on written sources and epigraphic data, the author shows that the reasons for the athlete’s behavior could be explained both by the social and financial situation of Theagenes’ family, and hence by the specifics of the schedule of his participation in the Panhellenic and local Games, as well as by the specifics of the organization of the Olympic Games. Statistical analysis of the chronology of Theagenes’ victories allowed the author to assume that if we take into account the version that Theagenes’ family did not belong to the aristocracy of Thasos, then this explains his desire to participate in local games with valuable prizes, and unwillingness to waste a month dedicated to training before the Olympic Games. Therefore, Theagenes was able to participate only in the 75th and 76th Olympiads, when he became financially independent, where he won two victories, in a boxing in and in pankration. His further absence from the Olympics is due to the fine imposed on him by the Hellenicists after the duel with Euthymos of Lokri, and the subsequent end of Theagenes’ career.

This study describes the cultural life of the cities of Asia Minor in the 4th-1st centuries BC. Sources reveal a very high level of social activity and cultural life in the cities. The city-states created a favorable environment for cultural development: the economy thrived, extensive contacts were maintained with other Greek cities throughout the Mediterranean, and city-states were improved, with theaters, odeons, and temples built. The city-states also had vibrant cultural life: theaters staged plays, often written by local playwrighters, and they had their own scientific, artistic, philosophical, and medical schools. The city-states of Asia Minor boasted a large creative community, including sculptors, architects, scientists, philosophers, artists, teachers, doctors, and others, many of whom were trained in their cities. The combined body of available sources demonstrates that culture in the cities of Asia Minor underwent significant development during the Hellenistic period and the region of Asia Minor became one of the most important centres of Greek culture.

The relevance of the research is determined by the insufficient study in Russian historiography of the judicial process in Roman land law. Using a comprehensive method of historical research, the author reconstructs the formulary process and the appearance of a part of the adjudicatio (compensation) formula from the archaic period to the classics. The purpose of the study is to trace how adjudicatio has become an essential element of balancing the results of land disputes. The study concluded that during the trial, the determination of compensation for lost property was extremely important. The decisive role in the establishment of adjudicatio was played by agrimensors - field surveyors. Their expertise was the decisive argument in the dispute. On this basis, Guy considered their role as judges in the process. The author points out that agrimensors remained only experts, not assuming the functions of judges in the formal process.

The issue of combating corruption arising from the illicit collusion between unscrupulous administrators and dishonest businessmen remains highly relevant. The author sets out to examine the legal protection afforded to provincials against the arbitrary actions and abuses of Roman administrators and publicani (tax farmers) during the Late Roman Republic. The aim of study is to demonstrate how this situation improved over the course of the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. Initially, the authority of a provincial governor was virtually unlimited. For a long time, conflicts in the provinces were resolved by the Senate on a case-by-case basis. Nevertheless, as the author has demonstrated, by the mid-2nd century BC, a body of legal norms existed within the Roman Republic to protect the rights of provincials. In 149 BC, at the initiative of the plebeian tribune Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi, Rome’s first law regarding extortion - the lex Calpurnia de repetundis - was enacted. This led to the establishment of the quaestio perpetua de repetundis, a permanent judicial panel composed of senators tasked with adjudicating cases of extortion. Over the subsequent 90 years, no fewer than six laws were enacted to combat abuses by Roman officials. An analysis of the sources and historiography led the author to conclude that the situation regarding Roman criminal legislation on repetundae underwent a fundamental transformation during the 63 years separating the Lex Acilia (122 BC) from the Lex Iulia (59 BC): whereas the former merely regulated the judicial procedure for resolving disputes, the latter governed the entire scope of relations between Roman officials and provincials.

The aim of this study is to reconsider the established interpretation of the Alexamenos graffito (Palatine Hill, Rome, early 3rd century AD) as a purely anti-Christian caricature and to propose a new reading of this monument within the context of the social environment of the Paedagogium - the imperial school for slaves. The study analyzes the corpus of sources related to the monument: the image itself, accompanying inscriptions and drawings from the Paedagogium, as well as the written testimonies of Tertullian, Minucius Felix, and other ancient authors. The methodological framework includes historical-comparative analysis, iconographic method, and a critical survey of scholarly approaches from the 19th to the 21st centuries - from R. Garucci to modern sociocultural interpretations (A. Soon, F. Harley-McGowan, P. Keegan). The traditional interpretation of the graffito as a pagan’s mockery of a Christian remains the most plausible, yet it can be significantly deepened through an analysis of the internal life of the Paedagogium. It is argued that the caricature served not only a parodic but also an informant function: the author deliberately employed pagan stereotypes - the worship of the donkey and the disgraceful nature of crucifixion - in order to compromise Alexamenos before his teachers in the context of fierce competition among imperial slaves. This approach allows the monument to be viewed not in isolation, but as a product of a specific social milieu in which religious identity became an instrument of intra-group rivalry.

The relevance of this research topic stems from the fact that Constantine Porphyrogenitus’s treatise “De Thematibus” (On the Themes) is a valuable source on ethnic history, previously unappreciated in world historiography. The purpose of this study is to examine the first part of “De Thematibus” as a source on the history of Anatolia peoples in antiquity. Using a comparative method, the authors established that Constantine Porphyrogenitus possessed extensive erudition and was familiar with a large body of ancient written sources. His lack of interest in the current ethnic picture of Byzantine Anatolia supports dating the treatise to the period of Constantine removal from political power (c. 934), when he was focused on literary pursuits. It has been proven that the author of the treatise divided the ancient peoples of Asia Minor into ‘important’ and ‘unimportant’, ‘good’ and ‘bad’ based on the significant role they played in the events of ancient history and the side they occupied in the conflicts between the Greeks and Romans and their enemies. Constantine Porphyrogenitus’s archaization of Anatolian ethnic history testifies to the Byzantine elite’s search for historical continuity from the peoples of antiquity, with all their virtues and shortcomings, in the mid-10th century. This prompted authors of that era to deeply study the works of ancient authors, preserve their legacy, and seek out, find, and commission copies of ancient treatises. Thanks to their efforts, a significant body of ancient literary heritage has survived to this day.

This research focuses on the analysis of the place of the slavery in the social and economic system of the Ancient Maya society. The relevance of the study is defined by the necessity of comprehensive re-analysis of the lexical and textual data from the Postclassic and Early Colonial sources, as well as a critical review of the data from the hieroglyphic texts. The main objective is to identify key terms for slaves, identify their primary functions, and determine their social status. The study revealed that all historical vocabularies of the Mayan languages share a common core terminology ( mun , “slave”, winik / winak “dependent person”), although additional terms vary considerably. Within this broad category, a distinction was made between slaves born in captivity and purchased ones, with prisoners of war forming a separate group designated by special lexemes. None of the analyzed vocabularies contain a word for debt bondage, although sources indicate that this was an important way of recruiting slaves. Slaves were perceived as the property of their masters. Female slaves primarily performed domestic work, while male slaves were used for various heavy labor tasks (clearing and cultivating fields, carrying heavy loads, fishing). The descendants of slaves were excluded from inheritance and were perceived as people of low birth even after several generations. Overall, the status of slaves was quite low and differed significantly from that of free people.