
A Small Greek World
Networks in the Ancient Mediterranean
Irad Malkin(Author)
Oxford University Press Inc
Published on 19. September 2013
Book
Paperback/Softback
306 pages
978-0-19-931572-7 (ISBN)
Description
Greek civilization and identity crystallized not when Greeks were close together but when they came to be far apart. It emerged during the Archaic period when Greeks founded coastal city states and trading stations in ever-widening horizons from the Ukraine to Spain. No center directed their diffusion: mother cities were numerous and the new settlements ("colonies") would often engender more settlements. The "Greek center" was at sea; it was formed through back-ripple effects of cultural convergence, following the physical divergence of independent settlements. "The shores of Greece are like hems stitched onto the lands of Barbarian peoples" (Cicero). Overall, and regardless of distance, settlement practices became Greek in the making and Greek communities far more resembled each other than any of their particular neighbors like the Etruscans, Iberians, Scythians, or Libyans. The contrast between "center and periphery" hardly mattered (all was peri-, "around"), nor was a bi-polar contrast with Barbarians of much significance.
Should we admire the Greeks for having created their civilization in spite of the enormous distances and discontinuous territories separating their independent communities? Or did the salient aspects of their civilization form and crystallize because of its architecture as a de-centralized network? This book claims that the answer lies in network attributes shaping a "Small Greek World," where separation is measured by degrees of contact rather than by physical dimensions.
Should we admire the Greeks for having created their civilization in spite of the enormous distances and discontinuous territories separating their independent communities? Or did the salient aspects of their civilization form and crystallize because of its architecture as a de-centralized network? This book claims that the answer lies in network attributes shaping a "Small Greek World," where separation is measured by degrees of contact rather than by physical dimensions.
Reviews / Votes
Malkin has written a thought-provoking and very readable book, which introduces a promising new method to the study of Greek colonisation and identity. Jorrit M. Kelder, Landscape History this book succeeds in evoking a compelling image of The Greek Wide Web as multidirectional, decentralized, nonhierarchical, boundless and proliferating, accessible, expansive, and interactive.More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Ancient historians, Classicists, archaeologists, general historians of all periods interested in Network Theory, and advanced undergraduate and graduate students.
Illustrations
21 illus.
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
524 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-931572-7 (9780199315727)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Book
11/2011
Oxford University Press Inc
€130.00
Shipment within 15-20 days

E-Book
10/2011
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€23.99
Available for download
Person
Irad Malkin is Cummings Chair for Mediterranean History and Culture and Professor of Ancient Greek History at Tel Aviv University.
Author
Cummings Chair for Mediterranean History and Culture and Professor of Ancient Greek HistoryCummings Chair for Mediterranean History and Culture and Professor of Ancient Greek History, Tel Aviv University
Content
List of Figures and Maps ; Acknowledgements ; A note on transliteration ; Abbreviations ; 1. Introduction: Networks and History ; 2. Island Networking and Hellenic Convergence: From Rhodes to Naukratis ; 3. Sicily and the Greeks: Apollo Archegetes and the Sikeliote Network ; 4. Herakles and Melqart: Networking Heroes ; 5. Networks and Middle Grounds in the Western Mediterranean ; 6. Cult and Identity in the Far West: Phokaians, Ionians, and Hellenes ; Conclusion