Athenian Foreign Policy

2018 ◽  
pp. 128-142
Author(s):  
P. J. Rhodes
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social War

Chapter 10 examines foreign policy in Classical Athens, beginning with a discussion of the conflict between Athens and Sparta in the fifth century—that is, before the birth of Demosthenes. Athens lost in the war with Sparta, becoming a subordinate ally of the latter, but rebounded quickly in the fourth century. Thus, the ambition of Thebes/Boeotia to become another leading power was heralded by its leading an alliance including Athens into the Corinthian War against Sparta in 395. The article first provides an overview of the Peace of Antalcidas, or King’s Peace, signed between the Spartans and the Persians in 387/6, before analysing the Social War of 356–355 and the Peace of Philocrates (346). It also describes Alexander the Great’s invasion of Asia in 334 and important developments in Athenian foreign policy in the period after the invasion.

ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΙΚΑ: Notes on the Macedonians of Philip and Alexander

1957 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 3-10
Author(s):  
G. T. Griffith
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
Solid Metal ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
Philip Ii ◽  
Military Aid ◽  
Expensive Equipment ◽  
Metal Type ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Military

It seems uncertain whether the Macedonian infantrymen of Philip II had breast-plates or not. How much it matters, too, is also perhaps uncertain, though obviously it mattered not a little to the men themselves at the time, whether or not they carried on them that combination of strength and of weight, of moral comfort and physical encumbrance, that a breastplate meant to the man inside it. There may perhaps be something in this question, too, for the social historian as well as for the military specialist.That Greek hoplites of the archaic period normally wore breastplates appears from vase-paintings, especially those proto-Corinthian examples which show combats not of individuals but of opposing phalanxes: it appears, too, from Tyrtaeus. Xenophon in theAnabasis, when he makes a passing remark about casualties on one occasion, gives the same impression about the Ten Thousand, who were predominantly a hoplite force. But breastplates were not uniform. Metal ones could vary greatly in weight, and there were variants (πĩλοι, σπολάδες) that were probably quite light in metal, on linen or leather. It has been suggested with some likelihood that in the fifth century the solid metal type virtually went out of use. If this were so, then the peltasts of the early fourth century would represent a logical development from a hoplite who had already become lighter than of old. It would seem logical for the pekast to have no breastplate at all, an arrangement incidentally that might suit well the mercenaries of the day who often were peltasts, and who were often poor men unlikely to own expensive equipment. But in spite of their occasional spectacular successes even against hoplites, the peltasts did not supersede them, so far as can be seen, in the citizen armies of the Greek cities. Indeed in the Hellenistic period still, in a treaty of about 270 B.C. between the Aetolians and the Acarnanians, the clause providing for reciprocal military aid distinguishes between three classes of infantry: (1) those who wore breastplates (πανοπλίαν), (2) those wore τὸ ἡμιθωράκιον, and (3) those who had no defensive armour (ψιλῲ). The first class is presumably, still, the hoplite.

A Note on the Dating of the Social War

1997 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Peake
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
Central Problem ◽  
The Social ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Social War

The chronology of the Social War has for a long time been a source of dispute amongst historians of fourth-century Athens. The central problem has been the confusion that Diodoros, our main source for the period, got himself into. In the first of his two references to the Social War Diodoros refers to the outbreak of a ‘three-year war’ in the archonship of Cephisodotos (358/357). However, later on he refers to the closure of the war in the archonship of Elpines (356/355) after a ‘four-year war.’

The Institutional Foundations of Prosperity

2019 ◽  
pp. 108-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federica Carugati
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Market Incentives ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Status ◽  
Social War ◽  
Institutional Foundations

This chapter shows that the available evidence for fiscal and economic policy is consistent with the model's predictions. It emphasizes that fiscal and economic policy reflects growth-enhancing, innovative departures from the status quo, but departures crafted with an eye to preserving the balance of power among domestic actors. Throughout the fourth century, the Athenians sought to regulate the burden of taxation on the elite. But regulating elite taxation made it even harder for the state to generate revenues in a post-imperial era. In the first half of the century, the Athenians sought to extract rents from abroad while developing market incentives at home. After the defeat in the Social War from 357 to 355 ruled out the coercion option, the Athenians sought to intensify the exploitation of domestic natural resources, most notably the harbor of Piraeus and the Laurion silver mines. But in order to intensify the exploitation of Piraeus and Laurion, the polis had to provide incentives to those actors that were primarily involved in such exploitation. As a result, forms of access to social, legal, and economic institutions were extended to selected categories of noncitizens.

Islamic Law and Society

1990 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-191
Author(s):  
Louay M. Safi
Keyword(s):  
Composite System ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Legal Theory ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Muslim Community ◽  
Social Growth ◽  
The Social ◽  
Collective Experience ◽  
Law And Morality ◽  
The Impact

Shari'ah (Islamic law) has been the dominant moral and legal code ofMuslim societies for the gnxter part of their history. During the early centuriesof Islam, Shari'ah hcilitated the social growth and develojment of the Muslims,growth that culminaa in the establishment of a vast emph and an outstandmgcivilization. By the close of the fifth century of Islam, however, Shari'ahbegan to lose its role as the guiding force that inspired Muslim creativityand ingenuity and that nurtured the growing spirit of the Muslim community(Ummah). Consequently, the Ummah entered a period of stagnation thatgradually gave way to intellectual decline and social decadence. Regrettably,this painful trend continues to be more or less 'part of the individualconsciousness and collective experience of Muslims.This paper attempts to trace the development of the principles of Islamicjurisprudence, and to assess the impact of Shari'ah on society. It argues thatthe law ceased to grow by the sixth century of Islam as a result of thedevelopment of classical legal theory; more specifically, law was put on hold,as it were, after the doctrine of the infallibility of ijma' (juristic consensus)was articulated. The rigid principles of classical theory, it is contended, havebeen primarily induced by the hulty epistemology employed.by sixth-centuryjurists.Shari'ah, or Islamic law, is a comprehensive system encompassing thewhole field of human experience. It is not simply a legal system, but rathera composite system of law and morality. That is, Islamic law aspires to regulateall aspects of human activities, not only those that may entail legalconsequences. Hence, all actions and relationships are evaluated in accordancewith a scale of five moral standards.According to Shari'ah, an act may be classified as obligatory (wajib),recommended (mandub), permissible (mubah), reprehensible (makruh), orprohibited (haram). These five categories reflect the varying levels of moral ...

Fortuna in Translation, Fortuna as Translation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniele Miano
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Structural Elements ◽  
Magna Graecia ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter considers the relationship between Fortuna and Tyche as one of translatability. The first half of the chapter focuses on Tyche, with the aim of determining semantic and structural elements common with Fortuna. The second part of the chapter looks at instances in which Fortuna is translated in Greek. The appearance of bronze strigils bearing the epithet soteira from Praeneste in the fourth century BC seems to presuppose this translation, and also points to the salvific meanings of Fortuna as a base for the process of translation. This process of translation had probably occurred through early contacts between Latium, Sicily, and Magna Graecia, where Tyche seems to be associated with salvation already from the fifth century BC. Other instances of translations of Fortuna and Tyche are studied across the Aegean.

Real-World Global Egalitarianism

2018 ◽  
pp. 117-129
Author(s):  
Darrel Moellendorf
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Real World ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
International Political Theory ◽  
Human Rights Norms ◽  
Egalitarian Justice

This chapter notes that normative International Political Theory (IPT) developed over the past several decades in response to political, social, and economic events. These included the globalization of trade and finance, the increasing credibility of human-rights norms in foreign policy, and a growing awareness of a global ecological crisis. The emergence of normative IPT was not simply an effort to understand these events, but an attempt to offer accounts of what the responses to them should be. Normative IPT, then, was originally doubly responsive to the real world. Additionally, this chapter argues that there is a plausible account of global egalitarianism, which takes the justification of principles of egalitarian justice to depend crucially on features of the social and economic world. The account of global egalitarianism applies to the current circumstances in part because of features of those circumstances.

The Athenian Hoplite Force in 431 B.C.

1927 ◽  
Vol 21 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 142-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. W. Gomme
Keyword(s):  
Military Service ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Arbitrary Assumption

There is still something to be said about these figures for the Athenian hoplite force, the more so as the most reasonable discussion of them, Meyer's, is spoilt by some unsound inferences and has in consequence not found support. Their difficulty is apparent: a muster πανσημει in 338 meant calling up all classes up to the age of 50 (Lycurg. c. Leocr. 39), and since Socrates fought at Delion and Amphipolis when he was in his late forties, and not at Mantineia when he was over 50, we may assume that it meant the same in the fifth century; we also assume (though this is by no means proved) that ‘the youngest’ are those in their nineteenth and twentieth years, as in the fourth century, certainly after the reform of the Ephebeia, perhaps earlier (Aeschin. II. 167); military service ceased at 60. But how could the number of men in these twelve classes, 19-20 and 51-60, stand in the proportion of 13: 17 (16,000 less 3,000 metics, 13,000 plus 1,000 cavalry and 3,000 metics) to the men between 21 and 50 ? They could not be more than a third, and might be less. (Beloch, 1923, tries to make the problem more difficult by the arbitrary assumption that the 13,000 citizen hoplites are all the men of 21-60, instead of 21-50. Meyer, who accepts Thucydides’ figures, forgets that there must have been ‘oldest and youngest’ metics, besides the 3,000 who marched into Megara. Busolt and Meyer also argue that the classes 51-60 will have suffered specially heavy losses in the battles of 459-445, while the eight youngest classes would have seen no fighting;

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