Ancient Greece A Political, Social, and Cultural History

by Pomeroy, Sarah B.; Burstein, Stanley M.; Donlan, Walter; Roberts, Jennifer Tolbert

• ISBN13: 9780195097429
• ISBN10: 0195097424
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-10-22
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Written by four leading authorities on the classical world, here is a new history of ancient Greece that dynamically presents a generation of new scholarship on the birthplace of Western civilization. Ranging from Greece's first beginnings in the Bronze Age through the tumultuous Hellenistic era dominated by Alexander the Great, this volume offers a truly wide-ranging portrait, blending the traditional political and military approach with a more modern accent on social and cultural history. Everything is included here--the sweeping philosophical systems of Plato and Aristotle, the daily lives of women in Athens, dramatic sea battles in the Aegean, the epic poetry of Homer, the rise of the city-state. The book offers illuminating descriptions of Sparta and Athens, recounts the Persian and Peloponnesian wars, evaluates the contributions of notable figures such as Solon, Cleisthenes, Pericles, and Philip II of Macedon, and discusses the remarkable rise of Alexander the Great. Throughout the book, the editors trace the slow evolution of Greek culture, revealing how the early Greeks borrowed from their neighbors, but eventually developed a distinctive culture of their own, marked by astonishing creativity, versatility, and resilience. Featuring 17 original maps, over 80 photographs, and numerous "document boxes" which highlight a variety of primary source material, this book provides an account of the Greek world that is thoughtful and sophisticated while remaining accessible to the nonscholar. A dynamic collaboration between four renowned scholars Sarah Pomeroy, Stanley M. Burstein, Walter Donlan, and Jennifer Tolbert Roberts it is the definitive portrait of the fountainhead of Western philosophy, literature, science, and art.

Author Biography

Sarah Pomeroy is Professor of Classics at Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate Center. Stanley M. Burstein is Professor of History and Chair of the History Department at California State University, Los Angeles. Walter Donlan is Professor of Classics at the University of California, Irvine. Jennifer Tolbert Roberts is Professor of Classics and History at the City College of New York and CUNY Graduate Center.

Table of Contents

List of Maps	xi	(2)
Preface	xiii	(4)
Acknowledgments	xvii	(2)
Time Line	xix
I Early Greece and the Bronze Age	1	(40)
The Land of Greece	1	(3)
Sources for Early Greek History	4	(1)
Greece in the Stone Ages	5	(1)
The Ancient Civilizations of the Near East	6	(2)
Greece in the Early Bronze Age (c. 3000-2100 BC)	8	(1)
Greece in the Middle Bronze Age (c.2100-1600 BC)	9	(2)
The Discovery of Aegean Civilization: Troy, Mycenae, Knossos	11	(1)
Minoan Society and Culture (c.1700-1500 BC)	12	(6)
The Mycenaeans	18	(3)
The Early Mycenaeans (c.1600-1400 BC)	21	(1)
The Later Mycenaeans (c.1400-1200 BC)	22	(15)
The End of the Mycenaean Civilization	37	(4)
II The "Dark Age" of Greece and the Eighth-Century "Renaissance" (c.1150-700 BC)	41	(41)
Sources for the Dark Age	42	(1)
Decline and Recovery (c. 1150-900 BC)	42	(4)
Society in the Early Dark Age	46	(4)
Revival (c. 900-750 BC)	50	(1)
Homer and Oral Poetry	51	(2)
Late Dark Age (Homeric) Society	53	(13)
Community, Household, and Economy in the Late Dark Age	66	(5)
The End of the Dark Age (c. 750-700 BC)	71	(11)
III Archaic Greece (c. 700-500 BC)	82	(49)
Sources for the Seventh and Sixth Centuries	83	(1)
The Formation of the City-State (Polis)	84	(2)
The Ethnos	86	(1)
Government in the Early City-States	87	(3)
The Colonizing Movement	90	(5)
Economic and Social Divisions in the Early Poleis	95	(4)
Hesiod: The View from Below	99	(4)
The Hoplite Army	103	(3)
The Archaic Age Tyrants	106	(3)
Art and Architecture	109	(7)
Lyric Poetry	116	(5)
Philosophy and Science	121	(3)
Relations Between States	124	(3)
Panhellenic Institutions	127	(4)
IV Sparta	131	(28)
Sources for Spartan History and Institutions	131	(3)
The Dark Age and the Archaic Period	134	(4)
The Spartan System	138	(8)
Demography and the Spartan Economy	146	(3)
Spartan Government	149	(4)
Sparta and Greece	153	(1)
Historical Change in Sparta	154	(1)
The Spartan Mirage	155	(4)
V The Growth of Athens and the Persian Wars	159	(42)
Sources for Early Athens	159	(1)
Athens from the Bronze Age to the Early Archaic Age	160	(4)
The Reforms of Solon	164	(5)
Peisistratus and His Sons	169	(5)
The Reforms of Cleisthenes	174	(4)
The Rise of Persia	178	(3)
The Wars Between Greece and Persia	181	(20)
VI The Rivalries of the Greek City-States and the Growth of Athenian Democracy	201	(45)
Sources for the Decades After the Persian Wars	202	(1)
The Aftermath of the Persian Wars and the Foundation of the Delian League	203	(9)
The "First" (Undeclared) Peloponnesian War (460-445 BC)	212	(3)
Pericles and the Growth of Athenian Democracy	215	(4)
Literature and Art	219	(14)
Oikos and Polis	233	(7)
The Greek Economy	240	(6)
VII Greece on the Eve of the Peloponnesian War	246	(41)
Sources for Greece on the Eve of the War	246	(1)
Greece After the Thirty Years' Peace	247	(3)
The Breakdown of the Peace	250	(4)
Resources for War	254	(1)
Intellectual Life in Fifth-century Greece	255	(5)
The Literature of the Fifth Century	260	(7)
Currents in Greek Thought and Education	267	(7)
The Physical Space of the Polis: Athens on the Eve of War	274	(13)
VIII The Peloponnesian War	287	(43)
Sources for Greece During the Peloponnesian War	287	(2)
The Archidamian War (431-421 BC)	289	(14)
Between Peace and War	303	(2)
The Invasion of Sicily (415-413 BC)	305	(6)
The War in the Aegean and the Oligarchic Coup at Athens (413-411 BC)	311	(8)
Fallout from the Long War	319	(7)
The War in Retrospect	326	(4)
IX The Crisis of the Polis and the Age of Shifting Hegemonies	330	(41)
Sources for Fourth-century Greece	331	(1)
Postwar Greece and the Struggle for Hegemony	332	(11)
Law and Democracy in Athens	343	(6)
The Fourth-century Polis	349	(4)
Philosophy and the Polis	353	(18)
X Phillip II and the Rise of Macedon	371	(24)
Sources for Macedonian History	371	(1)
Early Macedonia	372	(1)
Macedonian Society and Kingship	373	(4)
The Reign of Philip II	377	(11)
Macedonian Domination of Greece	388	(7)
XI Alexander the Great	395	(32)
Sources for the Reign of Alexander	398	(1)
Consolidating Power	399	(9)
From Issus to Egypt: Conquest of the Eastern Mediterranean (332-331 BC)	408	(2)
From Alexandria to Persepolis: The King of Asia (331-330 BC)	410	(4)
The High Road to India: Alexander in Central Asia	414	(5)
India and the End of the Dream	419	(3)
Return to the West	422	(5)
XII Alexander's Successors and the Cosmopolis	427	(44)
A New World	427	(2)
Sources for the Hellenistic Period	429	(2)
The Struggle for the Succession	431	(1)
The Regency of Perdiccas	432	(4)
The Primacy of Antigonus the One-Eyed	436	(5)
Birth Pangs of the New Order (301-276 BC)	441	(5)
The Place of the Polis in the Cosmopolis	446	(4)
The Macedonian Kingdoms	450	(3)
Hellenistic Society	453	(2)
Alexandria and Hellenistic Culture	455	(8)
Social Relations in the Hellenistic World	463	(8)
Epilogue	471	(5)
Glossary	476	(14)
Art and Illustration Credits	490	(4)
Index	494