Introduction

Forthcoming in: D. Felton (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Monsters in Classical Myth. Oxford 2024, 245-253.

The rapid spread of the Proto-Slavic language in the second half of the first millennium CE was long explained by the migration of its speakers out of their small primary habitat in all directions. Starting from the 1980s, alternative theories have been proposed that present language shift as the main scenario of the Slavic spread, emphasizing the presumed role of Slavic as the lingua franca of the Avar Khaganate. Both the migration and the language shift scenarios in their extreme forms suffer from factual and chronological inaccuracy. On the basis of some key facts about human population genetics (the relatively recent common ancestry of the East European populations), palaeoclimatology (the Late Antique Little Ice Age from 536 to around 660 CE), and historical epidemiology (the Justinianic Plague), we propose a scenario that includes a primary rapid demographic spread of the Slavs followed by population mixing and language shifts to and from Slavic in different regions of Europe....

The city undeniably occupied a significant place in the Greco-Roman mindset, symbolizing a crucial aspect of civilization. However, the aristocracy did not universally view all facets of urban life favourably. From Xenophon (Οικονoμικός, 4.3) to Cicero (De Officiis, 1.150), specific urban economic activities, such as craftsmanship, retail trade, and some "liberal professions," were deemed inferior and, in certain cases, unworthy of a citizen. This perspective finds support in epigraphy, which reveals that many trades in Hispania were carried out by slaves and freedmen and women. Nevertheless, the archaeological record challenges this established viewpoint. Urban economy not only received serious consideration during the founding of a new Roman city, with designated areas like macella, but also integrated organically as tabernae within residential and public areas during subsequent development. Municipal legislation, as seen in the bronzes of Irni, Urso, and Salpensa, took urban economic activities into account, regulating issues such as the overall production of "industrially" manufactured items and the management of emissions like fumes and smells. The objective of this intervention is to assess the degree of integration of the economy into the topographic and social fabric of Roman cities in Hispania, utilizing available epigraphic, literary, and archaeological sources. Additionally, it aims to initiate a debate on the current theoretical approach to ancient economies, particularly pertinent in Spanish academia, where the influence of the "finleyan" perspective and that of classical authors on the Greco-Roman city is substantial.

http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/764611505401428300/Nepal-development-update-fiscal-architecture-for-federal-Nepal In this edition of the Update, we take a closer look at the main emerging issues and potential risks in the design of the fiscal architecture for the new federal Nepal. In general, issues regarding the transition to federalism can be grouped into three categories: the functions category (that is, which level is responsible for delivering which service), the finance category (that is, which level or levels collect revenue and raise debt), and the functionaries category (that is, how will the existing civil service be transformed). All the issues under these three categories need to be resolved effectively for government service delivery not to get disrupted. In sum, while the constitutional provisions and laws currently under consideration in the Parliament will create a mismatch between the levels that collect revenue and those that are responsible for service delivery, this does not have to be problematic if the system of intergovernmental transfers is designed properly.