scholarly journals Narratives on child and childhood in Greek city-states: an interview with Gillian Shepherd

2020 ◽  
pp. 12-38
Author(s):  
Gillian Shepherd
Keyword(s):  
Greek City ◽  
City States

Interview with Gillian Shepherd.

The Athenian Reconciliation Agreement of 403 bce and its Legacy for Greek City-States in the Classical and Hellenistic Ages

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Joyce
Keyword(s):  
Civil Conflict ◽  
Greek City ◽  
Political Forgiveness ◽  
The Law ◽  
City States ◽  
Robust Procedures ◽  
Greek World

This chapter surveys amnesty agreements throughout the Greek world in the Classical and Hellenistic ages and argues that in many the principle of political forgiveness was both important and necessary when reconciling communities in the aftermath of civil conflict. The most successful amnesties were those which made use of the law and prohibited the revisiting of old grievances which led to or stemmed from a period of internal strife. Where and when exceptions were made to this rule they normally had to be spelled out in the terms of a treaty. The methods by which individual cities put this principle into effect varied widely, but the most famous and enduring example, the Athenian amnesty of 403 BCE, illustrates that a community could only successfully reconcile if its citizens were willing to forgo vindictive instincts which otherwise would have destabilised it. Robust procedures were put in place to restrain vengeance and protect the rights of individuals.

Athens, Sparta, and Persia

2020 ◽  
pp. 61-70
Author(s):  
Matthew Kroenig
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Persian Empire ◽  
Greek City ◽  
Naval Power ◽  
International Power ◽  
City States ◽  
Open States

This chapter considers the rise of Athens in the ancient world and its competitions against its rivals, Persia and Sparta. It argues that its democratic institutions were a key to its success. Athens was the world’s first democracy, and it rose to become the leader of the Greeks, with an empire that stretched from North Africa to Crimea. It was a major trading and naval power and forged a formidable alliance of Greek city-states to defeat the mighty Persian Empire. It then fought a legendary series of wars against its oligarchic rival for ascendancy in Greece, Sparta. In the end, Athens’s form of direct democracy and decision-making through tyranny of the majority was its undoing. But not before Athens reigned as a liberal leviathan for nearly a century and showcased an enduring model for how other open states could acquire international power and influence.

From the Classical World to the Medieval

2021 ◽  
pp. 13-25
Author(s):  
Clive Emsley
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Greece ◽  
The State ◽  
Ancient Rome ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Greek City ◽  
Weights And Measures ◽  
Classical World ◽  
City States ◽  
The Individual

This chapter examines the presence of the police and policing from the classical world to the medieval. The Greek city states had no significant bodies of people organized specifically to ensure survival and welfare, though militias could be brought together to defend the state and suppress popular disorder. Some officials were charged with checking weights and measures and grain supplies. However, there were no institutions to prevent assaults and thefts, or to detect and pursue offenders. Both Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome were similar. Offences that affected the individual rather than the state were usually left to victims, their kin, or passers-by, if they were prepared to get involved. Victims, any servants that they had, their kin, or passers-by did not have to fight, though they sometimes did; but they could act as witnesses when a suspect was accused or brought before a court. Sources for police and policing in the classical world are thin, and much has to be gleaned from between the lines. Meanwhile, the sources for the medieval period are better, and, while these show the similar kinds of divisions and institutions, there are gaps in the sources and little to explore for those looking for police institutions.

scholarly journals ANOTHER CENTURY OF GODS? A RE-EVALUATION OF SELEUCID RULER CULT

2018 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-111
Author(s):  
Kyle Erickson
Keyword(s):  
Divine Nature ◽  
Greek City ◽  
Royal Court ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Royal Ideology ◽  
Civic Practice ◽  
City States ◽  
Divine Kingship

This paper proposes that living Seleucid kings were recognized as divine by the royal court before the reign of Antiochus III despite lacking an established centralized ruler cult like their fellow kings, the Ptolemies. Owing to the nature of the surviving evidence, we are forced to rely heavily on numismatics to construct a view of Seleucid royal ideology. Regrettably, it seems that up until now much of the numismatic evidence for the divinity of living Seleucid rulers has not been fully considered. I argue that the evidence from silver coinage produced in the name of the Seleucid kings presents a version of the official image of the reigning king and that images which portray the king as divine reflect central acceptance of the king's divinity. This is clear from the epithets on the coinage of Antiochus IV and his successors, but I will argue that the same principle holds for all earlier Seleucid kings. Thus coinage with divine images of Seleucid kings provided one of the mechanisms through which the royal court transmitted the divine nature of the kings to the population. As we will see, in the case of Antiochus Hierax, local considerations also influenced the numismatic representation of the king. This blurring of boundaries between the local veneration of the king, which has long been accepted as normal civic practice in the Greek city-states and in non-Greek temples, and the royal images of the divine king calls into question the strict division between civic and centralized ruler cults. The reflection of local cults within royal ideology can be seen as a manifestation of a negotiating model of Seleucid power that relied heavily on a dialogue with a wide range of interested groups. This article argues that the inconsistencies in the development of an iconography of divine kingship before the reign of Antiochus IV is a manifestation of the same phenomenon.

Greek City-States

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mogens Herman Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Greek City ◽  
City States
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document