Hellenistic Constructs

by Cartledge, Paul; Garnsey, Peter; Gruen, Erich S.

• ISBN13: 9780520206762
• ISBN10: 0520206762
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-11-01
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

The Hellenistic period (approximately the last three centuries B.C.), with its cultural complexities and enduring legacies, retains a lasting fascination today. Reflecting the vigor and productivity of scholarship directed at this period in the past decade, this collection of original essays is a wide-ranging exploration of current discoveries and questions. The twelve essays emphasize the cultural interaction of Greek and non-Greek societies in the Hellenistic period, in contrast to more conventional focuses on politics, society, or economy. The result of original research by some of the leading scholars in Hellenistic history and culture, this volume is an exemplary illustration of the cultural richness of this period. Paul Cartledge's introduction contains an illuminating introductory overview of current trends in Hellenistic scholarship. The essays themselves range over broad questions of comparative historiography, literature, religion, and the roles of Athens, Rome, and the Jews within the context of the Hellenistic world. The volume is dedicated to Frank Walbank and includes an updated bibliography of his work which has been essential to our understanding of the Hellenistic period.

Table of Contents

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS	vii
Introduction	1	(19)
Paul Cartledge
1. The Heroic Past in a Hellenistic Present	20	(15)
Susan E. Alcock
2. "These fragments have I shored against my ruins": Apollonios Rhodios and the Social Revalidation of Myth for a New Age	35	(37)
Peter Green
3. Fact and Fiction: Jewish Legends in a Hellenistic Context	72	(17)
Erich S. Gruen
4. Hellenistic History in a Near Eastern Perspective: The Book of Daniel	89	(16)
Fergus Millar
5. The Hellenistic World and Roman Political Patronage	105	(15)
Jean-Louis Ferrary
6. Athens between Rome and the Kings: 229 8 to 129 B.C.	120	(25)
H. Mattingly
7. Poseidonios and Athenion: A Study in Hellenistic Historiography	145	(14)
Klaus Bringmann
8. The Middle Stoics and Slavery	159	(16)
Peter Garnsey
9. Physis and Nomos: Polybius, the Romans, and Cato the Elder	175	(24)
A. M. Eckstein
10. The Court Society of the Hellenistic Age	199	(26)
Gabriel Herman
11. Decolonizing Ptolemaic Egypt	225	(17)
Roger S. Bagnall
12. The Infrastructure of Splendour: Census and Taxes in Ptolemaic Egypt	242	(17)
Dorothy J. Thompson
PUBLICATIONS OF F. W. WALBANK	259	(22)
GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY	281	(24)
INDEX	305