Greek History

Xenia, proxenia, and other formal or informal delegations and diplomatic interactions (such as angeloi; presbeis; apostoloi; spondophoroi) between Athens and Sparta in the classical period represent a subset of data surrounding interstate transactions and political actors.

This paper uses the Milesian islands (Haussoullier 1902) as a case study to argue that Athens’ extraction of tribute, or phoros, from its allies in the fifth century BCE inadvertently augmented governmental capacity in those states.

At the end of the sixth century, Cleomenes asserted that only a fool would think the Spartans would travel three months from the sea (Hdt. 5.50); at the beginning of the fourth, however, Agesilaus was planning to do just that when a revolt among Sparta’s erstwhile allies drew him back to the Peloponnese (Xen. Hell. 4.2). Within roughly one hundred years, something drastically changed in how the Spartans perceived the space of the oikoumenē, their place within it, and the ease of crossing that space.

Recent scholarship on the archaic Greek polis no longer conceives of a monolithic state forcing elites to comply with its will, but instead portrays polis development as a negotiation between burgeoning institutions and the elites who made up these institutions (e.g., Von Reden 1997; Papakonstantinou 2008; Hawke 2011; Bubelis 2016).

The history of Macedonian expansionism has been presented almost exclusively as a linear narrative in past scholarship. While this approach has been incredibly valuable for reconstructing this highly fragmentary history, it tends to emphasize the military aspects of conquest and fails to interrogate other aspects. Macedonian political and economic history remains relatively unexplored since the publication of M.B. Hatzopoulos’s landmark study in 1996.

Drawing upon evidence from the corpus of forensic oratory, this paper argues that juries in democratic Athens were responsible not only for determining the facts of each case, but also for deciding the evidentiary basis upon which any disputes as to the facts should be resolved. Because Athenian juries enjoyed significant discretion, a litigant could debate the parameters of their decision-making and promote an epistemological framework more conducive to his case.

The inheritance cases of the Attic orators are a rich source of evidence for both legal practices and the history of the family. Yet it takes some effort to uncover this evidence: the already complex relationships between family members grow even more tangled due to the rhetorical machinations of the logographers, and it can be difficult for scholars to separate exaggerations and emotional appeals from the facts of the case.

Soon after his kingdom's expansion by Roman fiat through the Peace of Apamea in 188, Eumenes II found himself at war with Prusias of Bithynia. Due to Pergamon’s dependence on Roman intervention for its expansion, scholars have mistakenly assumed that Pergamon sought and required Roman intervention against Bithynia (Hansen 1971; Hopp 1977; Gruen 1984; Habicht 1989). In truth, there is no evidence that Eumenes II ever requested intervention against Prusias.

In this paper, I offer a detailed literary and cultural study of the Ithyphallic Hymn for Demetrius Poliorcetes (pp.173-5 Powell), a lyric poem attributed to Hermocles of Cyzicus. I argue that this poem offers rare insight into competing appropriations of local literary heritage in the Hellenistic age.

The laws of the Cretan city of Gortyn prescribe penalties for offenses that are all monetary fines; none are non-monetary penalties such as exile or loss of rights. These fines have never been systematically studied. I argue that an economic analysis (following, e.g., Becker, Posner) reveals an underlying logic to the type of fine imposed.