Blog

Updates regarding the project, the database, and the website are posted here regularly

 

New content! Competitors associated with Hellenistic dynasties

Posted by: Caroline van Toor 3 years, 2 months ago

Over the winter we’ve added a miscellany of competitors associated with the royal dynasties of the Hellenistic world. These range from actual royalty (the Ptolemies in particular were very fond of chariot-racing) to Greeks who came to take part in the new contests established by rulers eager for recognition and cultural authority. Particularly notable is Arsinoe II (Person ID 4178) - successively married to two of the most powerful rulers in the Hellenistic world and the first woman in Greek history to be declared a god, she won three races at the same Olympic festival in 272 BC. Also fun is an unnamed actor from Tegea (Person ID 4202). Known for outstanding performances in tragedies, he also managed to win a boxing contest at the newly-founded Ptolemaia festival at Alexandria. It’s still uncertain whether this means that the quality of the new competition was low, or whether he simply got very lucky!

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Caldelli's Capitolian victors online

Posted by: Caroline van Toor 4 years ago

All victors and participants collected by Caldelli (L'Agon Capitolinus. Storia e protagonisti dall'istituzione domizianea al IV secolo, 1993) have been added to the Connected Contests database. Find out all about the strange story of Herakleides, whose dream that he butchered the audience and judges during his performance meant that he would lose - which he did (event ID 30166). Or about the enormously successful Marcus Aurelius Asklepiades (person ID 656), a.k.a. Hermodoros, who quit boxing in his prime (he was 25) because of 'dangers and envious people' in IG XIV 1102. 

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Spatial Data Support awarded to the Deep-Mapping Sanctuaries project

Posted by: Christina Williamson 4 years ago

Christina Williamson's project 'Deep-Mapping Sanctuaries', a subproject of 'Connecting the Greeks', is the recipient of a competitive call for 5 days of support from the Geo-services at the University of Groningen. As a pilot, this support will focus on mapping the experiences of Aelius Aristides in the Asklepieion in Pergamon. See also: https://deepmappingsanctuaries.wordpress.com/2020/03/30/support-grant-from-the-geodienst/

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Erfurt students learn about networking with ancient competitors

Posted by: Christina Williamson 4 years, 5 months ago

Where did the victors in the Isthmian games come from in the Hellenistic period? What about the Roman period? What festivals did Pythokles, son of Aristarchos from Hermione, compete in? These were some of the questions that first-year digital humanity/archaeology students in Erfurt were able to answer after an introduction by Christina Williamson in network theory, ancient festivals, and the Connected Contests database. Students were interested to learn about festival culture in the post-classical world, how it spread and how inscriptions provide great sources of data for analyzing relationships ('Those lists aren't as boring as I thought' was overheard). We also learned that exporting files on csv works much better on a laptop than a tablet or smartphone, certainly if you want to do some geo-networking with Palladio! But they enjoyed the interactive component and working with the database. If you want to try out the practicum yourself, the instructions and files are available at  https://github.com/cgwilliamson1/connectinggreeks_demo

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New Search Option Available

Posted by: Onno van Nijf 4 years, 9 months ago

We have added more sophisticated search option. Not only can you specify that you want to have a list of persons, rather than events, you also can use Boolean operators AND & OR. The find results are downloadable in CSV format for further processing. For instructions,  click on the search database button.

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Recent Posts

  • Added Strasser Mémoire de champions

    We have now added references to Jean-Yves Strasser's  magisterial corpus Mémoire de champions. Corpus des palmarès d'Octavien à Valentinien Ier. Athens, 2021 (École française d'Athènes). This wonderful work is available online via   >> https://books.openedition.org/efa/13782?. Blang=en <<

  • New feature: mapping who went where

    It is now possible to view the trajectories of individual athletes and performers: if you do a persons search you will get a map with registered victories.

  • New feature! Distribution map of festivals

    Take a look at the first version of our geographically and chronologically determined distribution map of festivals ((the link is also available via our homepage). The map shows cities in the ancient world where one or more festivals were organised. Sliding the bar below the map allows you to see the chronological development and popularity of the cities and their festivals. The size of the red bulb represents the number of participants in a particular period. By clicking the red bulbs you will see which festival(s) were hosted by this particular city, how many known participants it attracted, and the names of the athletes and musicians that were born in that particular city. We are working on improving the functionality of the map, i.a. by creating a map that shows the result of any query you might run. 

  • New content! Organizers and competitors in Boiotian contests centred on Rome

    The newest addition to the database includes ca. 150 competitors in and organizers of some Boiotian contests associated with the presence of Rome, that were being organized in the second and first centuries BCE: the Amphiaraia kai Rhomaia in Oropos, the Rhomaia in Thebes, and the alleged Erotideia kai Rhomaia in Thespiai. Like other contemporaries, the Boiotians seem to have used their association with Rome through these contests to claim their status in a rapidly changing world.   

  • CfP - Rooted Cities, Wandering Gods: Inter-Urban Religious Interaction

    We are proud to announce that the members of the Connecting the Greeks project are organising a conference on inter-urban religious contacts, to take place (hopefully in person!) at Groningen in the autumn of 2021. We invite anyone interested in cities, religious practices, and the ties between them to submit an abstract – you can read all about the conference theme and confirmed speakers in the full call for papers. 

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