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Segesta

Segesta (or Egesta), located in the north-west corner of Sicily, was an important trading town from the 7th century BCE onwards. Situated on the strategically advantageous slopes of Mt. Barbaro, yet still close enough to the coast to support a trading port, Segesta established itself as the most important regional town of the Elymi people. Flourishing in the 5th century BCE, Segesta continued to hold important status as a trading centre into Hellenistic and Roman times. Today, the site has two of the best-preserved Classical monuments anywhere and they are impressive testimony of Segesta's one-time prosperity - a 5th century BCE Doric temple which, at least externally, is reasonably intact and an equally well-preserved 3rd-2nd century BCE theatre which provides its audience with a stunning view towards the nearby Gulf of Castellamare.

In Mythology

One of the symbols often associated with Segesta is a dog, which is seen, for example, on 4th century BCE coins. The animal may refer to the founding myth that describes a dog as the personification of the river god Crimisus. It was he who fell in love with a local nymph (Egesta), and their resulting offspring, Egesto, was credited with being the founder of the city. In the Roman mythology which sought to link Segesta with her ancient Roman origins, the Trojan hero Aeneas stopped off on Sicily during his long wanderings from Troy to his final destination Italy and the founding of Rome. Aeneas, then, according to Virgil, founds Acesta (later to become Segesta). Aeneas escaping Troy is portrayed on bronze coins from Segesta minted during the reign of Augustus.

In yet another version of the mythical events surrounding the founding of the city, the principal character is one Aegesto (or Aceste), who was born in Sicily to a Trojan mother. Aegesto returned to Troy when he was an adult, but following the sacking of the city in the Trojan War, he and a group of survivors returned to Sicily. First establishing themselves at Erice, Aegesto later relocated, setting up a new city at Segesta.

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Psyche

Psyche was the goddess of the soul in ancient Greek and Roman mythology. Born a mortal woman, her beauty rivaled that of Aphrodite (Venus) and inspired the love of Aphrodite's son, Eros, god of desire. After completing a series of seemingly impossible tasks to be with Eros, Psyche was granted immortality and made into a goddess herself.

Although the story of Psyche and Eros (Cupid) can be found depicted in Greek art dating back to the 4th century BCE, the most famous and complete telling of the myth is found in ancient Roman literature, in the 2nd-century CE novel Metamorphoses, or The Golden Ass, written by Apuleius.

Origins in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses

Metamorphoses is the only ancient Roman novel written in Latin to still survive in its entirety. Written in the 2nd century CE by Apuleius, a writer and philosopher from the Roman province of Numidia, the Metamorphoses, also known as The Golden Ass, consists of eleven books.

It follows the story of Lucius, a man whose desire to see and practice magic leads him to accidentally transform himself into a donkey. This sets Lucius out on his journey, during which he hears many stories. One of these is the tale of Cupid and Psyche, which is told in full. Apuleius dedicates books four through six of The Golden Ass to this tale. Although there is evidence of the story of Cupid and Psyche appearing in Greek artwork as far back as the 4th century BCE, it is through Apuleius' inclusion of the story in his novel that the details come down to modern readers and scholars.

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Paros

Paros is an island in the Cyclades group in the central Aegean. It is the third largest island of the Cyclades and its position on important sea routes between mainland Greece and the coast of Asia Minor made it an important centre from the early Bronze Age through to Roman times. The island was also famous for the high quality of its marble which became a popular material for sculptors and architects throughout antiquity.

Bronze Age Paros

First inhabited from c. 3200 BCE (or perhaps even earlier), important settlements from the Early Cycladic Period include those at Drios, Avyssos, Galana, Gremna, Kampos, and Plastiras. The relatively high level of culture in the early Bronze Age is attested by the wealth of decorated pottery finds and in Cycladic sculpture which produced elegant marble figures rendered in a minimalistic style.

At the island's capital Parikia (Paroikia) on the west coast the first indications of settlement date to the early 2nd millennium BCE and the area was continuously occupied through Minoan and Mycenaean times and settled by colonists from Attica c. 1000 BCE being occupied until around 700 BCE. On the north coast at Naoussa there was a major Mycenaean settlement which prospered in the 13th century BCE but was destroyed in c. 1200 BCE. Nevertheless, the site was reoccupied from the 10th century BCE and once again enjoyed a period of prosperity from the 9th to the mid-7th century BCE. Koukounaries on the east coast was also an important Mycenaean centre in the 13th and 12th centuries BCE and continued into the mid-7th century BCE. It was here at Koukounaries that the oldest temple on the island was built, the temple to Athena dating to c. 700 BCE and which survived into Classical times.

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Carthaginian Art

The art of the Carthaginians was an eclectic mix of influences and styles, which included Egyptian motifs, Greek fashion, Phoenician gods, and Etruscan patterns. Precious metals, ivory, glass, terracotta, and stone were transformed into highly decorative objects ranging from everyday utensils to purely ornamental pieces. Just as the Carthaginians imported and exported all manner of trade goods, so too their art reflected their vast network of contacts across the ancient Mediterranean but they would eventually produce their own distinctive art which uniquely blended elements from other cultures. The distinctive qualities of Punic art can be best seen in their stelae, jewellery, sculpture, and masks.

Surviving examples of Carthaginian art are sadly few in comparison to contemporary cultures, and they are further limited in scope by the fact that the majority of artefacts come from a burial context and so are predominantly small in scale and of a religious nature. Secular art and objects produced exclusively for their aesthetic value are rare indeed. Nevertheless, enough examples survive of jewellery, figurines, ceramics, and stonework to hint that the Carthaginians were not as artistically impoverished as earlier historians saw fit to claim.

Influences

Carthage was founded in the 9th century BCE by colonists from the Phoenician city of Tyre. This fact and the city's continued close ties with the mother country meant that art was heavily influenced by that of Phoenicia, at least in its formative years. Just as Phoenicia was itself a melting pot of diverse cultures, its wealth based as it was on maritime trade, so too Carthage would become a cosmopolitan city with visitors, residents, and artists from across the ancient Mediterranean. Egyptian art was particularly influential and many motifs are seen in Carthaginian art such as the goat with head looking backwards beneath a sacred tree or rigid standing female figures. Near Eastern art was another strong influence, seen especially in figurines of the god Melqart/Baal. The influence of Etruscan artists is seen especially in Carthaginian pottery decoration from the 4th century BCE.

Above all, though, Carthage's art took inspiration from the Greek world from the 5th century BCE onwards. Not only were the Carthaginians appreciative collectors of Greek art, taking fine art as booty from their campaigns in Sicily, but they also produced imitative art. There was a large Greek community at Carthage, and many of these must have worked as skilled craftsmen in the workshops of the city. In turn, they would have taught local artists or the next generation. We know of at least one artist whose father was a Greek immigrant but who signed his work as 'Boethus the Carthaginian' and who became so appreciated that his work was dedicated at Olympia.

There is a general problem of identifying the exact origin of many art pieces which is exacerbated by the Punic habit of copying foreign motifs and styles. Traditionally, historians had favoured the view that, at least in general, finer pieces were imported and more rustic art was locally made. This unflattering view is steadily being revised following the discovery of large workshop areas in the city suggesting a healthy export trade and by new archaeological discoveries so that the position that all of the fine art was imported is becoming increasingly untenable.

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Foreign Influences & Imported Luxuries in Thrace

Defining Thracian art is a difficult task due to the fact that what we call today Thrace was never a single unified state but, rather, a collection of many independent communities (or tribes) who formed both alliances and rivalries with each other over time. These tribes, although collectively called 'Thracians' by the Greeks and Romans, never thought of themselves as a unified community and differed from each other. Furthermore, Thrace was geographically situated on а crossroad between Europe and Asia, and its cultural and political development was subject to continuous alterations and foreign influences.

A substantial amount of the artefacts in the Thracian archaeological record comes from diverse cultural and stylistic traditions. Seemingly, such objects have been produced in various workshops all over the ancient world from the pre-Achaemenid Middle East to Asia Minor and Classical Greece. The Thracian elite highly appreciated foreign luxuries and their tombs and graves were packed with imported pieces. Some of these objects were passed down in families for generations. Most of the artefacts were brought by foreign delegations in the form of diplomatic gifts to the local Thracian tribal chiefs. The luxury items made out of precious metals had a universally accepted monetary value and thus were the currency of choice utilised by visiting foreign envoys when trying to accomplish a political objective. The reasoning behind the seemingly one-sided gesture of gift giving varied but mainly revolved around gaining geopolitical favour of often a military character or facilitating trade.

Achaemenid & Achaemenid-inspired Vessels in Thrace

A great deal of Achaemenid and Achaemenid-inspired drinking vessels made of bronze and precious metals are continuously found in Thracian graves and tombs. According to Herodotus' writings, which are considered the primary source of information on the subject, the Achaemenid presence in European Thrace began in the late 6th century BCE (c. 513 BCE) when King Darius the Great launched his campaign against the Scythians and marched with his Persian army through Eastern Thrace up to the Istros River (Danube) and it continued during the Greco-Persian wars (499-449 BCЕ). After the wars, Anatolia remained Achaemenid territory and contacts between the European Thracians and the Persians continued until c. 400 BCЕ.

Artefacts similar in style to those in the Middle East were manufactured in Thrace before the Persians' arrival. Such items include bronze zoomorphic figures and miniature axes dating from 8th-7th century BCE in which pre-Achaemenid traces can be seen. Shallow bowls and mesomphalos phialae, shapes likely originated in Assyria from where they spread to the west, are also found on Thracian territories. The earliest phialae in Thrace resemble the bronze cups from Gordion, Phrygia. However, the rise in popularity of phialae made of precious metals used in Thrace coincided with the Persian appearance in the North Aegean, and its boom was in the 4th century BCE.

Even though oriental influences had been felt before the Achaemenids invaded the Balkans, the period of a constant close encounter, interaction, diplomatic and commercial exchange with the Achaemenid Empire for more than a century does appear to have left a detectable mark on Thracian culture. The Achaemenid presence in Thrace likely played a key role in the formation of the Odrysian kingdom at the end of the 6th century BCE, which was to become the most powerful Thracian polity in antiquity. The exact date of its foundation by the King Teres (known as Teres I), according to Thucydides, cannot be determined, but Herodotus claims that his first diplomatic interactions with the Scythians (Hdt. 4.80) can probably be dated in the second quarter of the 5th century BCE, and the beginning of the kingdom can possibly be placed in the late 6th century BCE. The military strength of the Achaemenid campaign was formidable, and the implications to the sovereignty of any tribes or empires that stood in their way were significant. This political reality has possibly played a key factor in the partial unification of the Thracians.

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Ancient Greek Medicine

In Ancient Greek Medicine illness was initially regarded as a divine punishment and healing as, quite literally, a gift from the gods. However, by the 5th century BCE, there were attempts to identify the material causes for illnesses rather than spiritual ones and this led to a move away from superstition towards scientific enquiry, although, in reality, the two would never be wholly separated. Greek medical practitioners, then, began to take a greater interest in the body itself and to explore the connection between cause and effect, the relation of symptoms to the illness itself and the success or failure of various treatments.

Greek Views on Health

Greek medicine was not a uniform body of knowledge and practice but rather a diverse collection of methods and beliefs which depended on such general factors as geography and time period and more specific factors such as local traditions and a patient's gender and social class. Nevertheless, common threads running through Greek medical thought included a preoccupation with the positive and negative effects of diet and a belief that the patient could actually do something about their complaint, in contrast to a more fatalistic and spiritual mindset of earlier times.

However, the distinction between the spiritual and physical worlds are often blurred in Greek medicine, for example, the god Asclepius was considered a dispenser of healing but also a highly skilled practical doctor. The god was called upon by patients at his various sanctuaries (notably Epidaurus) to give the patient advice through dreams which the site practitioners could then act upon. Grateful patients at the site often left monuments which reveal some of the problems that needed to be treated, they include blindness, worms, lameness, snakebites and aphasia. As Epidaurus illustrates, there could, then, be both a divine and a physical cause or remedy for illnesses.

Lifestyle and such factors as heat, cold and trauma were discovered to be important factors in people's health and they could alleviate or worsen the symptoms of an illness or the illness itself. It was also recognised that a person's physical constitution could also affect the severity of, or susceptibility to, an illness. There was also a growing belief that a better understanding of the causes of an illness' symptoms could help in the fight against the illness itself. With a greater knowledge of the body there also came a belief that the balance of the various fluids (humours) within it could be a factor in causing illness. So too, the observation of symptoms and their variations became a preoccupation of the Greek doctor.

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Chandragupta Maurya

Chandragupta Maurya (c. 321 - c. 297 BCE), known as Sandrakottos (or Sandrokottos) to the Greeks, was the founder of the Maurya Dynasty (4th-2nd century BCE) and is credited with the setting up of the first (nearly) pan-Indian empire. Aided by his mentor and later minister Chanakya or Kautilya (c. 4th century BCE), he set up a vast centralized empire, details of whose functioning, society, military, and economy are well preserved in Kautilya's Arthashastra.

Chandragupta's Period: Political Setting

India around the 4th century BCE was divided into numerous kingdoms and republics. The foremost among them was the Magadha Kingdom in eastern India, whose rulers beginning with King Bimbisara (543-492 BCE) had embarked on a quest for empire-building. Magadha's boundaries had thus been much extended over time and contained a good part of central, eastern, and north-eastern India. Alexander the Great (356-323 BCE) invaded India in 326 BCE, and in consequence, much of north-western India was thrown into turmoil and political chaos.

The Magadha ruler during these times was Dhanananda (329-322/321 BCE) of the Nanda Dynasty. He possessed a vast treasure and an army numbering 20,000 cavalry, 200,000 infantry, 2,000 chariots, and 3,000 elephants, according to the Roman historian Curtius (c. 1st century CE). Known to the Greeks as Xandrames or Agrammes, the knowledge of his Magadhan might had also added to the despair of the already war-weary Macedonian troops on India's north-west, forcing them, among other reasons, not to press further into India.

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