After Demosthenes: The Politics of Early Hellenistic Athens

289 Pages·2011·0.849 MB·English

by  Andrew J. Bayliss

After Demosthenes

After Demosthenes
The Politics of Early Hellenistic Athens
Andrew J. Bayliss
To Vicky
Continuum International Publishing Group
The Tower Building 80 Maiden Lane
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www.continuumbooks.com
Copyright © Andrew J. Bayliss 2011
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval
system, without prior permission from the publishers.

First published 2011

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

EISBN: 978-1-4411-0276-8

Typeset by Newgen Imaging Systems Pvt Ltd, Chennai, India
Printed and bound in Great Britain
Contents
Preface vi
Abbreviations and Conventions ix
Introduction 1
Chapter 1: The Reception of Hellenistic Athens:
The Origins of a Negative Image 10
Chapter 2: Ideology in Hellenistic Athens 49
Chapter 3: The Enemy Within: Oligarchy in Hellenistic Athens 61
Chapter 4: Democracy in Hellenistic Athens 94
Chapter 5: Phocion: ‘The Good’ or ‘The Bad’? 129
Chapter 6: Stratocles of Diomeia: Audacious Buffoon or
Shamelessly Bold? 152
Chapter 7: Callippus of Eleusis: Tin-Pot General, or Generalissimo? 187
Conclusion 211
Notes 215
Select Bibliography 254
Index 271
Preface
This book has been a very long time coming. It began life as a PhD
dissertation at Macquarie University in Sydney more than ten years ago.
That dissertation was completed three years later at the British School at
Athens, and since then has been refi ned during a spell at the University of
Nottingham and lately at the University of Birmingham. During the course
of this epic journey (at least in terms of distance travelled) many individuals
have helped transform the sometimes poorly written thoughts of a
postgraduate student into what is now hopefully a thought-provoking and
somewhat provocative monograph.
I must fi rst thank Dr David Phillips, from the Department of Ancient
History at Macquarie University, who fi rst inspired me to take an interest in
early Hellenistic Athens as an undergraduate. Hopefully David will recognize
some of the sentiments expressed in this book. This academic year I had
the pleasure of introducing twelve intrepid undergraduates to Hellenistic
Athens in a module taught at the University of Birmingham, as David once
did for me at Macquarie. Like this book, that experience would never have
come about without David’s encouragement over the years.
I would also like to thank Christian Habicht, Graham Shipley and Richard
Billows for their helpful suggestions for the future publication of my work.
The length of time it has taken to develop this monograph is in no way due
to any defi ciencies in the feedback they offered. I hope that I have done
their suggestions some justice.
During my time at the British School at Athens, fi rst as a visiting doctoral
student, and later as the School Student, my knowledge and understanding
of Hellenistic Athens, epigraphy, archaeology and scholarship in general
was considerably expanded by conversation with Graham Oliver, Stephen
Lambert, David Blackman, Graham Shipley, Ioanna Kralli, Alan Henry,
Sean Byrne, Peter Thonemann, Peter Liddel, John Morgan, David Jordan,
John Traill and Charles Crowther. Special thanks go to Stephen for showing
me the ropes at the Epigraphical Museum in 1999.
During my time in Athens my endeavours were made considerably easier
by the wonderful libraries (and librarians) at the British School and the
Preface vii
American School of Classical Studies. I would also like to thank the staff at
the National Archaeological Museum, the Epigraphical Museum, and the
Athenian Agora for their assistance, and their patience with my defi ciencies
in speaking Greek.
I would also like to thank my former colleagues at the Department of
Classics at the University of Nottingham. Working with the incomparable
Alan Sommerstein on the Leverhulme Trust-funded project ‘The Oath in
Archaic and Classical Greece’ was an immensely rewarding experience.
I am immensely grateful to Alan for his generous support during and after
my time at Nottingham. I would also like to thank my other colleagues on
the Oath Project: Isabelle Torrance, Kyriaki Konstantinidou, and Lynn
Kozak. Thanks also go to Steve Hodkinson for his guidance during and
after my time at Nottingham. The benefi ts of my time working on Alan’s
Oath Project can be seen throughout this volume, but the fi rst chapter
would not have come about if not for my former colleague (and tenant) Ian
Macgregor Morris. Ian not only schooled me on the importance of the
classical tradition, but also provided me with eighteenth-century tomes
referred to in this monograph in lieu of rent! Many of the ideas in this book
were forged in the fi res of the now-infamous ‘coffee and complaining’
sessions we shared with Carsten Lange. I owe much to these two true
gentlemen and scholars.
I would also like to thank my new colleagues at the Institute of
Archaeology and Antiquity at the University of Birmingham. Collectively
they have helped make the transition from postdoctoral researcher to
lecturer much smoother than it could have been, which has allowed me
fi nally to get around to fi nishing this book. I would especially like to thank
Niall M cKeown, Gareth Sears, Mary Harlow, Diana Spencer, Gideon
Nisbet, G illian Shepherd, John Carman, and Ken Dowden for their
support. Very special thanks go to Niall for introducing me to my editor,
and for reading a large chunk of this book when he really did not have the
time to do so.
I must also thank my family for bearing with me while I have researched
and written various parts of this book over the years. It has been a long time
since my brother Peter suggested that I stop studying physics at high school
and added a third unit of ancient history since I was enjoying the fi rst two
so much. My family supported me then, and have continued to support me
despite my eccentric career choice, and my even more eccentric choice to
swap Australian sun for British rain. I would never have even started the
journey that led to this book without their love and support. I cannot thank
them enough.
viii Preface
Thanks also go to my parents-in-law for their support since my move to
the UK, not least for loaning me the laptop on which much of Chapter 1
was written!
Lastly, I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to my wife Vicky who has
balanced the roles of sounding board, copy editor, devil’s advocate, research
assistant, thesaurus, cajoler, nurse, cook, friend and partner in all ways
throughout the time that I have been writing this book. She has supported
me in every possible way, and I cannot thank her enough. I really cannot
express in words how much I owe Vicky; all I can say is that this book would
never have been fi nished without her love and encouragement. It is
dedicated to her, because without her it simply would not exist.
AJB
September 2010
Birmingham
Abbreviations and Conventions
ABSA Annual of the British School at Athens
Agora 15 Meritt, B. D. and J. S. Traill (1974), Inscriptions: The Athenian
Councillors. The Athenian Agora XV. Princeton: American School
of Classical Studies at Athens.
Agora 16 Woodhead, A. G. (1997), Inscriptions: The Decrees. The Athenian
Agora XVI. Princeton: American School of Classical Studies at
Athens.
AJPh American Journal of Philology
AM Mitteilungen des deutschen archäologischen Instituts, Athenische
Abteilung
AncSoc Ancient Society
AncW Ancient World
ASNP Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, Classe di Lettere e
Filosofi a
BCH Bulletin de correspondance Hellénique
CID Corpus des inscriptions de Delphes. Paris: École française
d’Athènes.
CQ Classical Quarterly
FD Fouilles de Delphes. Paris: Boccard.
FGrHist Jacoby, F. (1923–58), Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker.
Berlin: Weidmann.
GHI Tod, M.N. (1948), A Selection of Greek Historical Inscriptions, ii.
From 403 to 323 bc. Oxford: Clarendon.
GRBS Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies
IG Inscriptiones Graecae. Berlin: de Gruyter.
ISE Moretti, L. (1967), Iscrizioni Storiche ellenistiche. Florence: La
nuova Italia.