Written during the final decades of the first century BCE, Virgil's Aeneid is often celebrated as the masterpiece of Latin epic poetry. For centuries, it served as one of the principal narratives through which Romans understood their origins, justified their political institutions, and imagined their collective destiny. The Aeneid did not merely recount the journey of the Trojan hero Aeneas from the ruins of Troy to Italy. It offered Rome a coherent narrative that linked the

Introduction Lagina was one of the most important religious centers of ancient Caria. Known throughout the ancient world as the principal sanctuary of the cult of Hecate, it stands as a significant historical sacred site demonstrating how the indigenous religious traditions of Anatolia became integrated into the Hellenistic and Roman worlds. The origins of the cult of Hecate remain uncertain. Nevertheless, many scholars argue that its roots predate the Archaic Period (c. 800–

Introduction With a settlement history spanning more than 2,500 years, Stratonikeia is one of the rare places where the Carian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Beylik, Ottoman, and Republican periods can all be traced within the same geographical setting. The significance of Stratonikeia lies not merely in the succession of civilizations that once inhabited the site, but in the remarkable way the traces they left behind continue to coexist and interact within the same landscap

This article is the second part of a three-part series on Daoism, Stoicism, and their comparative relevance for modern societies. While the first article examined Daoism as a civilizational ethics of restraint against domination and ecological excess, this study focuses on Stoicism as a Western ethical response to systemic crisis under empire. Stoicism did not emerge as a philosophy of political reform or institutional redesign. It arose as an ethics of endurance in a world