Classical Greece: 500-323 BC (Short Oxford History of Europe)

285 Pages·2000·2.32 MB·English

by  Robin Osborne

The Short Oxford History of Europe
Classical Greece
The Short Oxford History of Europe
General Editor: T. C. W. Blanning
available now
Classical Greece
edited by Robin Osborne
The Eighteenth Century
edited by Tim Blanning
The Nineteenth Century
edited by Tim Blanning
in preparation
The Roman Era
The Early Medieval Era
The Later Medieval Era
The Sixteenth Century
The Seventeenth Century
The Early Twentieth Century
The Later Twentieth Century
The Short Oxford History of Europe
General Editor: T. C. W. Blanning
Classical Greece
bc
500–323
Editor: Robin Osborne
1
3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp
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ISBN 0–19–873154–X (hbk)
ISBN 0–19–873153–1 (pbk)
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General Editor’s Preface
The problems of writing a satisfactory general history of Europe are
many, but the most intractable is clearly the reconciliation of depth
with breadth. The historian who can write with equal authority about
every part of the continent in all its various aspects has not yet been
born. Two main solutions have been tried in the past: either a single
scholar has attempted to go it alone, presenting an unashamedly
personal view of a period, or teams of specialists have been enlisted to
write what are in eVect anthologies. The Wrst oVers a coherent per-
spective but unequal coverage, the second sacriWces unity for the sake
of expertise. This new series is underpinned by the belief that it is this
second way that has the fewest disadvantages and that even those can
be diminished if not neutralized by close cooperation between the
individual contributors under the directing supervision of the vol-
ume editor. All the contributors to every volume in this series have
read each other’s chapters, have met to discuss problems of overlap
and omission, and have then redrafted as part of a truly collective
exercise. To strengthen coherence further, the editor has written an
introduction and conclusion, weaving the separate strands together
to form a single cord. In this exercise, the brevity promised by the
adjective ‘short’ in the series’ title has been an asset. The need to be
concise has concentrated everyone’s minds on what really mattered
in the period. No attempt has been made to cover every angle of every
topic in every country. What this volume does provide is a short but
sharp and deep entry into the history of Europe in the period in all
its most important aspects.
T. C. W. Blanning
Sidney Sussex College
Cambridge
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to the Series Editor, Tim Blanning, and to successive
History editors at Oxford University Press, Tony Morris and Ruth
Parr, for their help and encouragement. I am indebted to John
Roberts for kindly reading and commenting copiously and acutely
on the Wrst drafts of all the chapters.
Robin Osborne
Contents
List of Illustrations x
List of Contributors xi
1 The creation of classical Greece 1
Robin Osborne
The natural world of Greece 3
The pre-classical past: the literary inheritance 5
The pre-classical past: oral history 10
The pre-classical past: the monuments 12
City and nation 18
The programme of this book 21
2 The economy 23
Paul Millett
The political economy of Attic Oratory 23
Back to the land 26
From the shop Xoor 31
The silver lining 35
Toilers of the sea 39
Go a-borrowing, go a-sorrowing? 44
The heart of the matter 49
Envoi 51
3 The classical city 52
Rosalind Thomas
The civic model 52
Citizens and citizenship 55
Athens and Sparta 60
The polis 69
Religious activity and the polis 74
viii | contents
4 The city at war 81
Hans van Wees
The causes of war 82
The soldiers: military roles and social status 84
Waging war 93
The economics of warfare 106
The transformation of classical warfare 109
5 Political conflicts, political debates, and political thought 111
Josiah Ober
Introduction: civil war in Corcyra, 427 bc 111
Political theory: the sources of conXict and its prevention 115
Democracy at Athens and its critics 121
Political conXict on stage 126
Spartan oligarchy: the rise and fall of a political ideal 131
Monarchy revisited 134
Conclusions: from destructive political conXict to constructive
political debate 135
6 Private life 139
James Davidson
The body 142
Dress 144
Diet and health 149
Oikos: household and house 151
Family 154
Slaves 158
Friendship 160
Sexuality 162
A civic morality 165
Conclusion 168
7 The fifth century: political and military narrative 170
Lisa Kallet
The Ionian Revolt and the Persian Wars 171
Consequences of the Persian Wars 173
contents | ix
The Delian League and the creation of empire 176
Sparta, Corinth, and Athens, 478–446 182
Greeks in the West 184
Thucydides and the development of a genre 185
The Peloponnesian War 187
Conclusion 196
8 The fourth century: political and military narrative 197
Robin Osborne
Discerning a pattern 197
A pattern repeated 202
The decades of uncertainty 206
The rise of Macedon 211
Greece into Asia 219
9 Epilogue 223
Robin Osborne
Further Reading 232
Chronology 237
Glossary 240
List of Ancient Authors 241
Maps 248
Index 251