Preface
The primary scope of this book is to introduce students of ancient history to the world of Athenian democracy and its continuing legacy in the Hellenistic and Roman ages.
The people of classical Athens considered their city to be like no other, and the democratic constitution the most extraordinary product of the uniqueness of the Athenian experience, whether they liked it or not. The Greek noun usually translated as ‘constitution’ is politeia. The term derives from the same stem of polis, or – not very appropriately – ‘city-state’, the most typical form of civic organization of the classical world. Politeia generally refers to the form of government of a polis and its political institutions, but can also indicate its members, the body of citizens, and the right to be one of its members, citizenship. The fact that the same word signified ‘constitution’ and ‘citizenship’ (meant both as civic/political rights and body of citizens) is very important for understanding the political mentality of the Greeks: in a society where political participation was not a universal right, but indeed the privilege of a minority, from which women and foreign residents were excluded, not to mention slaves, the set of rules and institutions that formed the politeia-constitution represented a vital element in defining the culture and identity of the polis community. This book will analyze Athenian democracy from this wider perspective: it will consider the evidence relating to the political activity within the polis as well as the other spheres of life to investigate how the development of a system of government based on public debate and collective decision-making, albeit confined to a tiny minority, contributed to the birth of a new kind of society and, indeed, of a new kind of man. This book will therefore present a very wide range of texts, from administrative documents to private letters, from legal speeches to epic poems.
All the translations are my own; the most common proper names and other words have been transliterated in their Latinized or Anglicized version. All the dates in this book are BC, unless otherwise stated.
This book is dedicated to my sister Silvia.
The University of Queensland, June 2014
Ancient authors
|
Aes. |
Aeschines |
|
Ag. Tim |
Against Timarchus |
|
Aesch. |
Aeschylus |
|
Eum. |
Eumenides |
|
Supp. |
Suppliant Women |
|
And. |
Andocides |
|
Ag. Ctes. |
Against Ctesiphon |
|
Myst. |
On the Mysteries |
|
App. |
Appian |
|
Myth. |
The Mythridatic Wars |
|
Ar. |
Aristophanes |
|
Lys. |
Lysistrata |
|
Arist. |
Aristotle |
|
Ath. Const. |
Constitution of the Athenians |
|
Pol. |
Politics |
|
Ath. |
Athenaeus |
|
Deip. |
Deipnosophistae |
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Cic. |
Cicero |
|
Att. |
Letters to Atticus |
|
Dem. |
Demosthenes |
|
Ag. Ev. Mnes. |
Against Evergus and Mnesibulus |
|
Ag. Lep. |
Against Leptines |
|
Ag. Nea. |
Against Neaera |
|
Ag. Tim. |
Against Timotheus |
|
Alex. |
On the Treaty with Alexander |
|
Answer Alex. |
Answer to Alexander |
|
Answer Phil. |
Answer to Philip |
|
Crown |
On the Crown |
|
Emb. |
On the False Embassy |
|
On. Org. |
On Organization |
|
Phil. III |
Third Philippic |
|
Rhod. |
For the Liberty of the Rhodians |
|
Diod. |
Diodorus Siculus |
|
Dion. |
Dionysius of Halicarnassus |
|
Hdt. |
Herodotus |
|
Hist. Aug. |
Historia Augusta |
|
Hom. |
Homer |
|
Il. |
Iliad |
|
Od. |
Odyssey |
|
Hyp. |
Hyperides |
|
Ag. Ath. |
Against Athenogenes |
|
Fun. Speech |
Funerary Speech |
|
Isoc. |
Isocrates |
|
Areop. |
Areopagiticus |
|
Hel. |
Helen |
|
Peace |
On the Peace |
|
Lyc. |
Lycurgus |
|
Ag. Leoc. |
Against Leocrates |
|
Lys. |
Lysias |
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Ag. Nic. |
Against Nicomachus |
|
Aristoph. |
On the Property of Aristophanes |
|
Corr. |
Defence against a change of corruption |
|
Paus. |
Pausanias |
|
Pl. |
Plato |
|
Ap. Soc. |
Apology of Socrates |
|
Gor. |
Gorgias |
|
Hipp. |
Hipparchus |
|
Lett. |
Letters |
|
Plin. |
Pliny the Elder |
|
Nat. Hist. |
Natural History |
|
Plut. |
Plutarch |
|
Arist. |
Life of Aristides |
|
Demet. |
Life of Demetrius |
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Per. |
Life of Pericles |
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Sol. |
Life of Solon |
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Sull. |
Life of Sulla |
|
Them. |
Life of Themistocles |
|
Thes. |
Life of Theseus |
|
Pol. |
Polybius |
|
Poll. |
Pollux |
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PS. Ap. |
Pseudo-Apollodorus |
|
Ps. Xen. |
Pseudo Xenophon |
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Ath. Const. |
Constitution of the Athenians |
|
Stob. |
Stobaeus |
|
Tac. |
Tacitus |
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Or. |
Dialogue on Oratory |
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Theoph. |
Theophrastus |
|
Char. |
Characters |
|
Thuc. |
Thucydides |
|
Xen. |
Xenophon |
|
Hell. |
Hellenica |
|
Sp. Const. |
Constitution of the Spartans |
|
Symp. |
Symposium |
Modern texts and collections
|
AAntHung |
Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae |
|
ABSA |
The Annual of the British School at Athens |
|
AC |
L’Antiquité classique |
|
Agora Inv. |
Agora Inventory |
|
AgoraPicBk |
Excavations of the Athenian Agora Picture Book, Princeton, 1958– |
|
AH |
Ancient History |
|
AJA |
American Journal of Archaeology |
|
AJAH |
American Journal of Ancient History |
|
AncSoc |
Ancient Society |
|
AncW |
Ancient World |
|
APRS |
The American Political Science Review |
|
ATL |
B. D. Meritt, H. T. Wade-Gery, M. F. McGregor, The Athenian Tribute Lists, Cambridge (MA) and Princeton, 1939–53 |
|
Benjamin |
A. S. Benjamin, ‘The altars of Hadrian in Athens and Hadrian’s Panhellenic program’, Hesperia 32 (1963), 57–86 |
|
Bergk |
Poetae lyrici graeci recensuit Theodorus Bergk, Lipsiae, 1878–82 |
|
BICS |
Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies |
|
BSA |
The Annual of the British School at Athens |
|
CCC |
Civiltà classica e cristiana |
|
CIL |
Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, Berlin, 1847– |
|
CJ |
The Classical Journal |
|
ClAnt |
Classical Antiquity |
|
CQ |
The Classical Quarterly |
|
DHA |
Dialogues d’Historie Ancienne |
|
EMC |
Échos du monde classique |
|
FGH |
F. Jacoby, Die Fragmente der grieschischen Historiker, Berlin and Leiden, 1923– |
|
Fornara |
C. V. Fornara, Translated Documents of Greece and Rome, Volume 1. Archaic Times to the End of the Peloponnesian War, Cambridge, 1986 |
|
G&R |
Greece and Rome |
|
GHI |
J. Rhodes and R. Osborne, Greek Historical Inscriptions: 404–323, Oxford, 2003 |
|
GRBS |
Greek Roman and Byzantine Studies |
|
Hansen |
M. H. Hansen, The Athenian Democracy in the Age of Demosthenes: Structures, Principles and Ideology, Oxford and Cambridge, MA, 1991 |
|
HPTh |
History of Political Thought |
|
HSCP |
Harvard Studies in Classical Philology |
|
HT |
History Today |
|
IDRE |
C. C. Petolescu, Inscriptiones Daciae Romanae. Inscriptiones extra fines Daciae repertae, Bucharest, 1996 |
|
IG |
Inscriptiones Graecae, Berolini, 1873– |
|
ILS |
Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae, Berolini, 1892–1916 |
|
InscrAtt |
Inscriptiones Atticae, Chicago, 1976 |
|
JHS |
The Journal of Hellenic Studies |
|
JNS |
Journal of Near Eastern Studies |
|
JP |
The Journal of Politics |
|
LexRetCant |
Lexicon Rhetoricum Cantabrigense |
|
M&L |
R. Meiggs and D. Lewis, eds, A Selection of Greek Historical Inscriptions to the End of the Fifth Century BC, Oxford, 1969 |
|
MedArch |
Mediterranean Archaeology |
|
MHR |
Mediterranean Historical Review |
|
PCPhS |
Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society |
|
PRIA |
Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy |
|
QUCC |
Quaderni urbinati di cultura classica |
|
RSQ |
Rhetoric Society Quarterly |
|
SCI |
Scripta Classica Israelitica |
|
SEG |
Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum |
|
SMEA |
Studi micenei ed egeo-anatolici |
|
SyllClass |
Syllecta Classica |
|
TAPhA |
Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association |
|
Tod I |
M. N. Tod, A Selection of Greek Historical Inscriptions, vol. I, To the End of the Fifth Century BC, Oxford, 1946 |
|
Tod II |
M. N. Tod, A Selection of Greek Historical Inscriptions, vol. II, From 403 to 323 BC, Oxford, 1948 |
|
YClS |
Yale Classical Studies |
|
ZPE |
Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik |