Alexander Rubel – författare

Athens at the time of the Peloponnesian war was the arena for a dramatic battle between politics and religion in the hearts and minds of the people. Fear and Loathing in Ancient Athens, originally published in German but now available for the first time in an expanded and revised English edition, sheds new light on this dramatic period of history and offers a new approach to the study of Greek religion. The book explores an extraordinary range of events and topics, and will be an indispensable study for students and scholars studying Athenian religion and politics.

Rome and Barbaricum: Contributions to the archaeology and history of interaction in European protohistory asks the following questions: How did the ‘Barbarians’ influence Roman culture? What did ‘Roman-ness’ mean in the context of Empire? What did it mean to be Roman and/or ‘Barbarian’ in different contexts? The papers presented here explore the concepts of Romanisation and of Barbaricum from a multi-disciplinary and comparative standpoint, covering Germania, Dacia, Moesia Inferior, Hispania, and other regions of the Roman Empire. They deal with issues such as conceptual analysis of the term ‘barbarian’, military and administrative organization, inter-cultural and linguistic relations, numismatics, religion, economy, prosopographic investigations, constructing identities; and they present reflections on the theoretical framework for a new model of Romanisation.

Experiencing the Frontier and the Frontier of Experience deals with the Roman Empire’s responses to the threats which were caused by the new geostrategic situation brought on by the crisis of the 3rd century AD, induced by the ‘barbarians’ who – often already part of Roman military structures as mercenaries and auxiliaries – became a veritable menace for the Empire. Rome adopted different strategies: they oscillated between inclusion, warfare and other means of exerting influence. The contributions to this volume explore the archaeological evidence for Roman practice and especially the varying strategies of power and influence in the central regions on the one hand, and the south-eastern parts of the European ‘Barbaricum’ on the other. They show how ‘Divide et impera’ functioned as practical policy based on alliances, as well as consequent warfare, and diplomatic initiatives, which are traceable by prestige-goods and subsidia treasures found in the Barbaricum. The comparison of Roman imports in different parts of Iron-Age Europe can help understand better a complex process of shifting power and influence in an emerging new Europe, which transformed the Empire towards medieval ‘Herrschaft’ and social structure.

Athens at the time of the Peloponnesian war was the arena for a dramatic battle between politics and religion in the hearts and minds of the people. Fear and Loathing in Ancient Athens, originally published in German but now available for the first time in an expanded and revised English edition, sheds new light on this dramatic period of history and offers a new approach to the study of Greek religion. The book explores an extraordinary range of events and topics, and will be an indispensable study for students and scholars studying Athenian religion and politics.