In a study concerned with understanding the types of population and modes of contact in the multiple ecosystems of Iron Age southern Italy, ranging from the Greek poleis of the coastal flood plains to the Apennine mountain regions of Calabria and Lucania, it is necessary to examine the contexts carefully, as each culture and every region may react differently to contacts with other cultures. This chapter discusses three different contexts along the Ionian coast, namely L'Amastuola, Incoronata and Francavilla Marittima, where traditional reconstruction of the settlement dynamics, as proposed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, saw the presence of Greeks as a disruptive element which shattered a static indigenous situation and that led first to the conquest and subjugation of the indigenous inhabitants. Finally, the chapter focuses on the site of Torre di Satriano, where exceptional remains have been found in recent years.

This introductory chapter of the book begins by presenting the goals of the book, summarizing the state of knowledge in ancient Greek and Roman economic history, and contributing to shaping future research. Most ancient historians rely on literary sources produced by and for a leisured elite. The publication of huge numbers of inscriptions, papyri, coins, and mute archaeological data has transformed scholarship in the last two generations, and Greco-Roman economic historians are now asking new questions and using new methods to answer them. The book can help students of classical culture understand the material forces that made the Greeks' and Romans' cultural achievements possible, and can allow economic historians of other times and places to fit the Greco-Roman experience into the broader sweep of world economic history. The chapter also gives an outline of the content available in other chapters of the book.

Christian teaching in the third century displayed a complex integration of spiritual sensibility, textual interpretation, and philosophical reflection. Pedagogical aspirations within the Platonist tradition began with Socrates' sharp denunciation of the role of traditional poetic texts in shaping human character. In the Republic, Plato has Socrates vehemently oppose the poetic narratives that had long been the centrepiece of Greek moral education. Literary and philosophical strands in Greek culture had long been at odds with one another, and early Christian teachers exploited that internal cultural debate by endorsing Greek philosophy's demythologization of poetic, mythical traditions and by identifying parallels between pagan philosophical and Christian theological ideas. The fashioning of Christian identity in the third century did not turn principally on the alliance between Christian theology and Greek philosophy against the mythological texts of Greek religion. Instead, it turned on the displacement of culturally authoritative Greek texts by the Christian Bible.

Syriac culture was heir to three quite different literary cultures: ancient Mesopotamian, Jewish and Greek. In the period up to 425, elements from all three can be readily identified, in varying proportions, in the extant literature; from the early fifth century onwards the Greek element became the predominant influence, while the other two fade into the background. This applies equally to the history of Syriac culture in the Sasanian empire, although there the influence of Greek culture on Syriac literature does not become strong until the sixth century. The interaction between Greek and Syriac culture in Syria and northern Mesopotamia was in fact a complex affair, and in the period under consideration the juxtaposition of the two literary cultures resulted in mutual enrichment. In the sixth century, at a time when the prestige of Greek culture was resulting in ever stronger influence on Syriac literature, Syriac was actually gaining ground as a written language to the west of the Euphrates.

The narrative of the Ionian Revolt marks the beginning of the full-scale account in Herodotus of political and military events shows that he and his contemporaries regarded it as an intrinsic part of the series of wars between Greece and Persia. For the Ionian Revolt, Herodotus is our only surviving literary source; yet his narrative has generally been regarded as one of the most problematical sections of his history. Many attempts have been made to place Herodotus in a literary context that would provide him with written sources for his information, and also perhaps explain the origins of his conception of history. The absence of a politically oriented oral tradition in Ionia may reflect certain characteristics of Ionian society, where aristocratic dominance was perhaps less marked than on the Greek mainland. The immediate cause of the Ionian Revolt lay in the failure of the Persian attack on Naxos.