The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Political Thought

by Edited by Christopher Rowe , Malcolm Schofield , With Simon Harrison , Melissa Lane

• ISBN13: 9780521616690
• ISBN10: 0521616697
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-01-30
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This is the first general and comprehensive treatment of the political thought of ancient Greece and Rome ever to be published in English. It begins with Homer and ends in late antiquity with Christian and pagan reflections on divine and human order. In between come studies of Plato, Aristotle and a host of other major and minor thinkers - poets, historians, philosophers - whose individuality is brought out by extensive quotation. The international team of distinguished scholars assembled by the editors includes historians of law, politics, culture and religion, and also philosophers. Some chapters focus mostly on the ancient context of the ideas they are examining, while others explore these ideas as systems of thought which resonate with modern or perennial concerns. This clearly written volume will long remain an accessible and authoritative guide to Greek and Roman thinking about government and community.

Table of Contents

List of maps	xiii
Preface	xv
Abbreviations	xvi-xx
Introduction	1	(10)
Christopher Rowe
PART I ARCHAIC AND CLASSICAL GREECE
Greek political thought: the historical context	11	(12)
Paul Cartledge
Terminology	11	(1)
The `political'	12	(5)
The polis	17	(3)
Political theory	20	(3)
THE BEGINNINGS
Poets, lawgivers, and the beginnings of political reflection in archaic Greece	23	(37)
Kurt A. Raaflaub
Polis and political thinking	23	(3)
Archaic poetry and political thinking	26	(1)
Homer	27	(7)
Hesiod	34	(3)
Tyrtaeus to Theognis	37	(2)
Solon	39	(3)
Archaic lawgivers	42	(6)
Early philosophers	48	(2)
Near Eastern antecedents and influences	50	(7)
Conclusion: the beginnings of political thinking in Archaic Greece	57	(3)
Greek drama and political theory	60	(29)
Simon Goldhill
The institution of the theatre	61	(4)
Political themes of tragic writing	65	(9)
The Oresteia	74	(7)
Antigone	81	(3)
Comedy	84	(3)
Conclusion	87	(2)
Herodotus, Thucydides and the sophists	89	(33)
Richard Winton
The sophists	89	(12)
Herodotus	101	(10)
Thucydides	111	(11)
Democritus	122	(8)
C. C. W. Taylor
The orators	130	(12)
Josiah Ober
Introduction	130	(1)
Historical background and institutional context	131	(3)
The corpus of orations by Athenian orators	134	(1)
Popular wisdom and the problem of erroneous public decisions	135	(7)
Xenophon and Isocrates	142	(13)
V. J. Gray
Democracy	143	(3)
Rulership	146	(5)
Sparta	151	(3)
Panhellenism	154	(1)
SOCRATES AND PLATO
Socrates and Plato: an introduction	155	(9)
Melissa Lane
Approaches to Platonic interpretation	155	(2)
The chronology of Plato's dialogues	157	(3)
The Socratic problem revisited	160	(2)
The death of Socrates	162	(2)
Socrates	164	(26)
Terry Penner
The discontinuity between `Socratic' intellectualism and `mature Platonic' irrationalism about human behaviour	165	(6)
Some continuities between `Socratic' and `mature Platonic' thought: (i) the centrality of the question of the teaching of virtue, and (ii) the sciences and idealization	171	(3)
A further continuity between the `Socratic' dialogues and the middle and late dialogues: (iii) the sciences and the good	174	(5)
Socrates' response to the democratic political theory of the teaching of virtue which Protagoras propounds in the Protagoras	179	(3)
The political philosophy of Plato's Apology and Crito and another continuity between Socrates and the mature Plato: (iv) the attitude towards practical politics	182	(7)
Conclusion	189	(1)
Approaching the Republic	190	(43)
Malcolm Schofield
Introduction	190	(2)
Gorgias and Menexenus	192	(7)
Republic: a sketch	199	(4)
The problem	203	(4)
The response: (i) a first model	207	(6)
The response: (ii) a causal story	213	(4)
The digression: (i) unity and the good city	217	(7)
The digression: (ii) philosopher rulers	224	(4)
The response: (iii) justice and the city within	228	(5)
The Politicus and other dialogues	233	(25)
Christopher Rowe
The definition of the `statesman' in the Politicus	234	(5)
The myth of the Politicus and other political myths	239	(5)
King or law?	244	(7)
The statesman as director and weaver	251	(3)
The Politicus, the Timaeus-Critias, and the Laws	254	(4)
The Laws	258	(35)
Andre Laks
A singular work	258	(2)
The structure and content of the Laws	260	(7)
Three models for interpreting the Laws: completion, revision, implementation	267	(8)
Man and god: the anthropology of the Laws	275	(3)
Political institutions	278	(7)
The forms of political speech: what is a preamble?	285	(6)
Conclusion	291	(2)
Plato and practical politics	293	(10)
Malcolm Schofield
Cleitophon and Minos	303	(7)
Christopher Rowe
ARISTOTLE
Aristotle: an introduction	310	(11)
Malcolm Schofield
Politics, the legislator, and the structure of the Politics	310	(5)
Sitz im Leben	315	(3)
Aristotle's analytical models	318	(3)
Naturalism	321	(23)
Fred D. Miller. Jr
`Nature' in Aristotle's natural philosophy	322	(3)
The naturalness of the polis	325	(7)
The naturalness of the household	332	(6)
Nature and education	338	(6)
Justice and the polis	344	(22)
Jean Roberts
Natural and conventional justice	345	(5)
Justice as a virtue of individuals	350	(3)
Individuals as citizens	353	(2)
Just individuals and just citizens	355	(5)
Justice and the distribution of power in the city	360	(6)
Aristotelian constitutions	366	(24)
Christopher Rowe
Introduction: the nature of the Politics	366	(2)
Aristotle and Plato	368	(3)
Kingship, aristocracy and polity	371	(7)
Mixed and `deviant' constitutions	378	(6)
`Polity'	384	(2)
The absolutely best constitution	386	(1)
The ideal and the actual	387	(3)
The Peripatos after Aristotle	390	(11)
Christopher Rowe
The fate of Aristotle's writings	390	(1)
Aristotle's successors in the Peripatos	391	(10)
PART II THE HELLENISTIC AND ROMAN WORLDS
Introduction: the Hellenistic and Roman periods	401	(14)
Peter Garnsey
The Cynics	415	(20)
John Moles
The problem of evidence	415	(2)
Reconstructing Cynicism	417	(6)
The Cynics and politics	423	(9)
Significance and influence	432	(3)
Epicurean and Stoic political thought	435	(22)
Malcolm Schofield
Introduction	435	(2)
Epicureanism	437	(6)
Zeno's Republic	443	(3)
Later Hellenistic Stoicism	446	(7)
Roman epilogue	453	(4)
Kings and constitutions: Hellenistic theories	457	(20)
David E. Hahm
Kingship theories	458	(6)
Constitutional theory	464	(13)
Cicero	477	(40)
E. M. Atkins
Introduction	477	(1)
The historical background	478	(3)
The aristocratic code	481	(2)
Cicero's early career	483	(4)
The writings of the fifties	487	(15)
The civil war and its aftermath	502	(1)
Philosophy for Romans	503	(11)
Conclusion	514	(3)
Reflections of Roman political thought in Latin historical writing	517	(15)
Thomas Wiedemann
Seneca and Pliny	532	(27)
Miriam Griffin
De Clementia	535	(8)
Seneca's eulogies and Pliny's Panegyricus	543	(2)
De Beneficiis	545	(6)
Pliny's correspondence	551	(4)
Seneca on public versus private life	555	(3)
Conclusion	558	(1)
Platonism and Pythagoreanism in the early empire	559	(26)
Bruno Centrone
Preliminary considerations	559	(2)
Philo of Alexandria	561	(6)
Pseudo-Pythagorean literature	567	(8)
Plutarch	575	(8)
Conclusions	583	(2)
Josephus	585	(12)
Tessa Rajak
The place of political thought in Josephus' writings	585	(1)
Greek-Jewish thought	586	(1)
Leading ideas in Josephus	587	(10)
Stoic writers of the imperial era	597	(19)
Christopher Gill
Introduction	597	(4)
Musonius Rufus	601	(2)
Dio	603	(4)
Epictetus	607	(4)
Marcus Aurelius	611	(5)
The jurists	616	(19)
David Johnston
Introduction	616	(2)
General theory of law	618	(7)
Public law and private law	625	(7)
Conclusions	632	(3)
Christianity	635	(26)
Frances Young
A political movement?	635	(2)
Political attitudes in the New Testament	637	(3)
Developments under persecution	640	(10)
The response to Constantine	650	(7)
The separation of spheres	657	(4)
Epilogue	661	(68)
Malcolm Schofield
Julian and Themistius	661	(4)
Augustine	665	(6)
Conclusion	671	(1)
Bibliographies
Archaic and Classical Greece
The beginnings (Introduction and chs. 1--7)	672	(26)
Socrates, Plato and Aristotle (chs. 8-19)	698	(11)
The Hellenistic and Roman Worlds (chs. 20-31 and Epilogue)	709	(20)
Index	729