The 'Old Oligarch' The Constitution of the Athenians Attributed to Xenophon

by Marr, J. L.; Rhodes, P. J.

• ISBN13: 9780856687815
• ISBN10: 0856687812
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-07-26
• Publisher: Liverpool University Press

Summary

'Old Oligarch' is a label often applied to the unknown author of the Athenian Constitution preserved with the works of Xenophon. Probably written in the mid 420's B.C., it is the earliest surviving Athenian prose text, and its author was probably a young pupil of the teachers known as sophists. It is an essay which replies to oligarchic criticisms of the Athenian democracy by agreeing with the critics that democracy is distasteful but arguing that it is appropriate for Athens as a city whose power depends on the poorer citizens who row the navy's ships, and that it is successful and could not easily be overthrown. This edition provides a Greek text and English translation, with Introduction, Commentary and Appendixes which discuss the date, authorship and character of the work, the historical background, the statements and arguments presented by the author and features of the author's style.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
References	p. xi
Introduction
The name 'Old Oligarch'	p. 1
The title of the work	p. 2
The date of the work	p. 3
The authorship of the work	p. 6
The author and his immediate audience	p. 13
The author's argument: the self-interest theory	p. 16
The two-fold class division: the demos versus the oligoi	p. 19
Class designations and class labels	p. 24
Other stylistic features	p. 26
Structure	p. 27
The text	p. 28
Dates assigned to the Constitution of the Athenians	p. 31
Select Bibliography	p. 33
Text and Translation: [characters not reproducible]/ The Constitution of the Athenians	p. 35
Commentary	p. 59
Appendixes
The imagined criticisms answered in the work	p. 169
Occurrences of the words demos / demotikoi / demokratia	p. 170
Qualities and characteristics ascribed to the demos and the oligoi	p. 170
Class designations and class labels	p. 171
Characteristic vocabulary	p. 172
Examples of verbal repetition	p. 173
Generalisations	p. 175
Index	p. 177
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