A Hellenistic Ethical Lexicon
Description
Building on his previous work on Hellenistic Interstate Political Ethics (T&T Clark, 2022) leading historian Doron Mendels presents three hundred interstate ethical rules of conduct which he has discovered within three reconstructed Hellenistic codes. These codes appear in the work of three major Hellenistic historical writers, with Mendels also adding remarks that appear in The Letter of Aristeas.
Mendels has formulated these - probably originally oral - rules embedded within the historical narratives using a mixture of statements by rulers and other actors concerning interstate relationships, historical events which point to ethical behaviour of states and/or their breach, as well as related thoughts of the historians themselves regarding interstate encounters. The result is a comprehensive catalogue of ethical rules referring to behaviour on the international scene, which include not only rules but also a lexicon of moral terms borrowed from the individual ethical scenarios. The volume constitutes a significant addition to knowledge of the Hellenistic era in the 3rd-1st centuries BC, the universe against which Judaism and early Christianity operated.
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Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. The Ethics of Ruling an Empire during Conquest: Ptolemy I (3rd century BCE, Ptolemaic
Egypt)
2. The Ethics of Interstate Relationships during Imperial Expansion: Polybius (2nd century BCE
Greece)
3. The Ethics of Interstate Relationships during the rule of an 'International Regime' (1st
Century BCE Rome)
4. An Analysis of the collection of rules of behavior as a newly discovered facet of the
Political Science of the Hellenistic Era
5. The Jewish Response to the Hellenistic interstate ethical code (2nd-1st Centuries BCE,
Palestine)
Bibliography
Index