A few new reviews

Some of the more recent reviews on the Bryn Mawr Classical Review should be noted here as they are of interest for the study of the Diaspora at the time of Philo:
Olivia Remie Constable, Housing the Stranger in the Mediterranean World. Lodging, Trade, and Travel in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Pp. 427. ISBN 0-521-81918-0. $65.00. Reviewed by Bert Roest.
Intro: In this fascinating multi-disciplinary study, Constable traces the evolution of the pandocheion in late antiquity (from its earliest references in the fifth century BC), following its transformation into the funduq of the Muslim Mediterranean and its further evolution into the fondaco merchant colonies of European traders.

Michael B. Poliakoff, Kampfsport in der Antike. Das Spiel um Leben und Tod. Translated from the original English by Hedda Schmidt. Düsseldorf: Patmos, 2004. Pp. 260. ISBN 3-491-69110-9. €11.95 (pb). Reviewed by Stephen Evans.
Intro: Michael Poliakoff is an acknowledged expert on combat sports and the English-language original Combat Sports in the Ancient World. Competition, Violence and Culture (1987) is already a classic in its own right. This is a timely German paperback reprint by Patmos brought out for the Athens Olympic year 2004, but without amendments or updating from the 1987 English original or from the first German publication by Artemis Verlag in 1989. Those original books are then linked to the atmosphere of the 1988 Seoul Olympics. BMCR readers will find the English version readily available.

William Hansen, Handbook of Classical Mythology. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2004. Pp. 394. ISBN 1-57607-226-6. $75.00. $80.00 (e-book). Reviewed by Todd W. Ewing.
Intro: William Hansen, professor of Classical Studies and Folklore at Indiana University, has produced the latest contribution to ABC-CLIO's Handbooks of World Mythology series, which serves to provide introductory materials in the mythology of various cultures (from Native American to Hindu and Japanese), for high school and college students. Hansen's volume covers Classical mythology, focusing primarily on the Greek myths, yet still incorporating Rome's connection to them.

W. Deming, Paul on Marriage and Celibacy. The Hellenistic Background of 1 Corinthians 7. Second edition. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004. Pp. xxii, 271. ISBN 0-8028-3989-4. $28.00 (pb). Reviewed by Pieter W. van der Horst.
Intro: This book started its life as the author's 1991 dissertation, supervised at the Chicago Divinity School by Hans-Dieter Betz; it was then first published in a revised version in 1995 and is now available in a second, expanded and updated version. Although the apostle Paul does not enjoy great popularity among classical philologists, this book may yet be of importance to those among them who are interested in the debates among intellectuals in the Hellenistic and Roman periods.