Social Networks in Byzantine Egypt - Hardcover

Giovanni Roberto Ruffini

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521895375 ISBN 13: 9780521895378

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2008

Synopsis

Social network analysis maps relationships and transactions between people and groups. This is the first book-length application of this method to the ancient world, using the abundant documentary evidence from sixth-century Oxyrhynchos and Aphrodito in Egypt. Professor Ruffini combines a prosopographical survey of both sites with computer analyses of the topographical and social networks in their papyri. He thereby uncovers hierarchical social structures in Oxyrhynchos not present in Aphrodito, and is able for the first time to trace the formation of the famous Apion estate. He can also use quantitative techniques to locate the central players in the Aphrodito social landscape, allowing us to see past the family of Dioskoros to discover the importance of otherwise unknown figures. He argues that the apparent social differences between Oxyrhynchos and Aphrodito in fact represent different levels of geographic scale, both present within the same social model.

About this title

About the Author

Giovanni Ruffini is an Assistant Professor in History at Fairfield University in Connecticut. Publications include Ancient Alexandria between Egypt and Greece (co-edited with William Harris, 2004) and Ostraka from Trimithis, volume 1 (co-edited with Roger Bagnall, forthcoming).

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521895375
• ISBN 13: 9780521895378
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 290