The discourse of kingship in classical Greece

253 Pages·2020·3.334 MB·English

by  Atack, Carol

The Discourse of Kingship
in Classical Greece
This book examines how ancient authors explored ideas of kingship as a political
role fundamental to the construction of civic unity, the use of kingship stories to
explain the past and present unity of the polis and the distinctive function or status
attributed to kings in such accounts.
It explores the notion of kingship offered by historians such as Herodotus, as
well as dramatists writing for the Athenian stage, paying particular attention to
dramatic depictions of the unique capabilities of Theseus in uniting the city in the
fi gure of the ‘democratic king’. It also discusses kingship in Greek philosophy:
the Socratics’ identifi cation of an ‘art of kingship’, and Xenophon’s and Isocrates’
model of ‘virtue monarchy’. In turn, these allow a rereading of explorations of
kingship and excellence in Plato’s later political thought, seen as a critique of
these models, and also in Aristotle’s account of total kingship, or p ambasileia ,
treated here as a counterfactual device developed to explore the epistemic benefi ts
of democracy.
This book offers a fascinating insight into the institution of monarchy in
classical Greek thought and society, both for those working on Greek philosophy
and politics, and also for students of the history of political thought.
Carol Atack works on classical Greek political thought and intellectual history.
She is currently a fellow of the Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington DC, and
a bye-fellow and associate tutor at Newnham College, University of Cambridge.
She holds a PhD in Classics from the University of Cambridge (2014), and
undergraduate degrees in Classics (Cambridge) and Government (London School
of Economics). Carol has held teaching positions in ancient history and classical
literature at the University of Warwick and St Hugh’s College, University of
Oxford, and was recently a postdoctoral researcher on the Anachronism and
Antiquity project at Oxford, contributing to the monograph A nachronism and
Antiquity (written with Tim Rood and Tom Phillips; forthcoming) and preparing
a monograph on the temporality of Platonic dialogue. Carol has published several
articles and book chapters on topics in Greek political thought, including political
thought in the pseudo-Platonic letters, Aristotle’s thought on kingship and Foucault
on Plato on frank speech. She serves as associate editor for Greek political thought
for the journal Polis. Her current research continues her work on fourth-century
Greek political thought, with a particular focus on the political and ethical thought
of Plato and Xenophon.
Routledge Monographs in Classical Studies
Titles include:
Combined Warfare in Ancient Greece
From Homer to Alexander the Great and His Successors
Graham Wrightson
Power Couples in Antiquity
Transversal Perspectives
Edited by Anne Bielman Sánchez
The Extramercantile Economies of Greek and Roman Cities
New Perspectives on the Economic History of Classical Antiquity
Edited by David B. Hollander, Thomas R. Blanton IV, and
John T. Fitzgerald
The Bible, Homer, and the Search for Meaning in Ancient Myths
Why We Would Be Better Off With Homer’s Gods
John Heath
Fantasy in Greek and Roman Literature
Graham Anderson
Piracy, Pillage, and Plunder in Antiquity
Appropriation and the Ancient World
Edited by Richard Evans and Martine de Marre
Romans at War
Soldiers, Citizens, and Society in the Roman Republic
Edited by Jeremy Armstrong and Michael P. Fronda
The Discourse of Kingship in Classical Greece
Carol Atack
For more information on this series, visit: www.routledge.com/classicalstudies/
series/RMCS
The Discourse of Kingship
in Classical Greece
Carol Atack
First published 2020
by Routledge
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© 2020 Carol Atack
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ISBN: 978-0-367-20530-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-26203-6 (ebk)
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Contents
Acknowledgements viii
Abbreviations ix
Introduction 1
1 King and cosmos in Herodotus 13
Herodotus’ ‘monarchical model’ and the ‘despotic template’ 14
Differentiating kings and tyrants 16
Kings, custom and order: Herodotus and Heraclitus 17
Kings and knowledge 19
Structure and cyclicality 20
Kingship in the constitution debate 21
Herodotus’ studies of kingship 23
Deioces, the model king of the Medes 23
Psammetichus and Egyptian kingship 26
Amasis and the burdens of divine kingship 28
Kingship at the limits of the Greek world 30
Conclusion 32
2 Monarchy on the democratic stage 39
The Athenian political imaginary and drama 40
The good king in the polis 41
The king and the coherence of the polity: Aeschylus’ Persians 41
The king as the focus of supplication 44
Greeks and others: Aeschylus’ Suppliants 45
The democratic king deconstructed: Euripides’ Suppliants 47
Kingship in Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus 49
Kingship and autochthony 52
Cosmology and comedy 55
Conclusion 61
vi Contents
3 The discourse of kingship in classical Athenian thought 68
Structuring the Athenian past in time and space 70
The Athenian past in rhetoric and philosophy 74
The focus on Theseus 76
Isocrates’ Theseus 77
The king as rhetorical exemplar for citizens 84
Conclusion 86
4 Kingship and Socratic thought 92
Antisthenes and single-person rule 94
Xenophon’s account of the ‘kingly art’ 97
The discourse of kingship in Xenophon’s Socratic works 98
The craft of kingship in the Memorabilia 100
Kingship in the Oeconomicus 104
Plato and kingship as a master art 106
Socrates’ ‘political craft’ 108
Basilikē technē in the Euthydemus and Republic 110
The hunt for basilikē technē 112
Conclusion 115
5 Virtue and monarchy 122
Isocrates’ model of virtue monarchy: the kings of Salamis 123
The qualities of monarchy 125
The qualities of the king 128
Evagoras, myth and history 132
Xenophon and virtue monarchy: the Cyropaedia 134
Persians and Medes 136
Cyrus on campaign 138
Cyrus in victory 141
Conclusion 144
6 Kingship in Plato’s later political thought 151
Kingship and time in the Statesman 152
Cosmology and politics 154
History and the Age of Zeus 158
Kingship and craft 158
Kingship and law 160
Plato’s account of historical process in the Timaeus/Critias 162
Kingship and time in the Laws 166
Contents vii
The development and decline of monarchical regimes 167
Extreme forms of constitutions 169
Replacing the structure: Laws IV 171
Conclusion 173
7 ‘Total kingship’ and the rule of law 179
Aristotle’s pambasileia and the metaphysics of monarchy 179
Aristotle’s discussion of monarchy 183
Platonic and Aristotelian arguments against monarchy:
Pol. 3.15–16 185
Historical examples 187
The pambasileus in the political imaginary 188
Conclusion 191
Conclusion: the imaginary king and the metaphysics of
political unity 197
Bibliography 199
Index of passages cited 231
General index 239
Acknowledgements
As the product of a ‘late learner’ this book has many debts, extending over many
years. At Wakefi eld Girls’ High School, Miss Smith and Miss Hardcastle intro-
duced me to Plato and Machiavelli in their Greek and history lessons, while at
the London School of Economics Ken Minogue failed to make me a Hobbes
scholar; I hope that this contribution to the political philosophy of monarchy would
have pleased him. My return to study some time later was facilitated by the Open
University and my tutor Barrie Fleet. At Lucy Cavendish College, successive
presidents, fellows and students provided further encouragement and intellectual
companionship; thanks to Jane McLarty, Anna Abulafi a and Isobel Madison for
sage advice at various stages of my studies. It saddens me that this route to further
study has been rendered inaccessible by changes in the funding of undergraduate
studies, which are unfavourable to part-time and mature returners.
M y PhD supervisors in the Faculty of Classics at Cambridge, Paul Cartledge
and Malcolm Schofi eld, provided exemplary assistance, as did my examiners Nick
Denyer and Chris Pelling. My thesis slowly transformed into this book while I held
teaching positions at St Hugh’s College, Oxford and the University of Warwick
before returning to Oxford as a postdoctoral research associate in the Faculty of
Classics and Junior Research Fellow at St Hugh’s. I owe a great deal to my col-
leagues on the Anachronism and Antiquity project, Tim Rood, John Marincola,
Tom Phillips and Mathura Umachandran, and to the helpful comments of review-
ers of this manuscript, especially Grant Nelsestuen.
D rafts of several chapters were presented at seminars in Cambridge and at the
following conferences: C hapter 1, Annual Meeting of Postgraduates in Ancient
History, Oxford, 2012; C hapter 2, Annual Meeting of Postgraduates in Ancient
Literature, RHUL, 2011; C hapter 3, Classical Association Conference, Exeter,
2012; C hapter 6, Southern Association for Ancient Philosophy, Cambridge, 2012;
Chapter 7 , B Club, Cambridge, 2013, and Institute for Historical Research Early
Career Seminar, London, 2013. I owe many insights to discussions at these events.
I am also grateful to my colleagues and supervisors, and to Thornton Lockwood
and Lynette Mitchell, for sharing unpublished work with me.
P erhaps the greatest debt is owed to my family, both for their support while I
wrote and revised the thesis, and for tolerating the signifi cant disruption to our
family life that my succession of short-term academic posts entailed. Thank you
Alex, Venice, Fred and Laurence.
Abbreviations
BNJ Brill’s New Jacoby , edited by I. Worthington. Online at https://reference
works.brillonline.com/browse/brill-s-new-jacoby
DK Diels, H. and Kranz, W. (eds.) (1951 ) Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker:
Griechisch und Deutsch , 2 vols. (6th edition, Berlin: Weidmann).
FGrH Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker = F. Jacoby (1923–1959) Die
Fragmente der griechischen Historiker (Leiden: Brill).
IG Inscriptiones Graecae
KRS Kirk, G.S., Raven, J.E., and Schofi eld, M. (1983) T he Presocratic Philos-
ophers: A Critical History with a Selection of Texts (2nd edn.; Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press).
RO Rhodes and Osborne = Rhodes, P.J. and Osborne, R. (2003) Greek His-
torical Inscriptions: 404–323 BC (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
SSR Giannantoni, G. (1990) S ocratis et Socraticorum reliquiae , 4 volumes
(Naples: Bibliopolis).
T rGF Snell, B., Kannicht, R., and Radt, S.L. (1971) Tragicorum Graecorum
fragmenta, 5 volumes (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht).
Journal titles are abbreviated following the list maintained by L ’Année Philologique .