Readings in Greek History

List of Maps and Figures ; Introduction ; 1. THE ORIGIN AND SPREAD OF THE POLIS SYSTEM ; A. Greece in the Second Millennium B.C. ; 1. The Mycenaean Kingdoms (ca. 1650-1150 BC) ; 2. Mycenaean Relations with the Hittites: the Tawagalawas Letter (Selections) ; B. Greek Definitions of the Polis ; 1. The Natural Origins of the Polis: "Man Is by Nature a Political Animal" ; 2. The Nature of Citizenship: "He Who Has the Right to Take Part in Deliberative or Judicial Administration Is a Citizen" ; C. Greek Life in the Eighth Century B.C. ; 1. Homer: The Shield of Achilles ; 2. Hesiod's Works and Days ; D. Colonization and the Expansion of the Polis System: The Case of Cyrene ; 1. Herodotus' Account ; 2. The Oath of the Colonists ; E. Greeks and Non-Greeks in the Greek Colonies: The Foundation of Lampsacus ; F. Greeks and Scythians in the Black Sea: Coexistence and Interaction ; G. The Aristocratic Warrior ; 1. The Warrior Ideal ; 2. The Warrior and Society: The Drinking Song of Hybrias ; H. The Hoplite Revolution and the Citizen Soldier ; 1. The Reality of Battle ; 2. A Good Citizen: Tellus of Athens ; 3. Only Farmers Can Be Good Citizens ; I. The Hoplite Polis: Sparta ; J. The Role of Athletics ; 1. An Athletic Dynasty: The Diagorids of Rhodes ; 2. Athletics and the Polis: A Philosophical Critique ; 2. THE RISE AND FALL OF THE GREEK ARISTOCRACY IN THE ARCHAIC PERIOD ; A. Aristocratic Privilege ; 1. The Gortyn Code ; 2. How a Boy Becomes a Man in Crete ; B. Aspects of Aristocratic Life at Its Peak ; 1. A Fine Symposium: Xenophanes ; 2. The Life of an Aristocrat: Alcaeus ; 3. When You Are "Repulsive to Boys and a Laughing Stock to Women": Mimnermus on Old Age ; 4. A Woman's View of Aristocratic Life: Sappho's "To Anactoria" ; C. Heroic Athletics: The Chariot Race at Patroclus' Funeral Games ; D. The Aristocracy and Its International Connections ; 1. A Greek Officer in Egyptian Service ; 2. Greek Mercenaries in the Egyptian Army ; 3. The Life of a Soldier: An Order for Rations at Arad in the Kingdom of Judah ; 4. An Aristocratic Exile: Antimenides of Mitylene ; 5. Sappho on Intermarriage Among Aristocrats ; E. The Crisis of the Aristocracy ; 1. The Lament of Theognis ; 2. Vulgar Upstarts: Artemon and Rhodopis ; 3. The Crisis of the Aristocracy at Corinth: Cypselus and Periander ; 4. The Crisis of the Aristocracy at Athens: Solon ; 3. THE PERSIAN WARS ; A. The Persian Empire ; 1. The King and His Subjects: The Cyrus Cylinder ; 2. "By the Grace of Ahurimazda I Am King": Persian Imperial Ideology ; B. The Persian Wars ; 1. How the Wars Began: The Problems of Aristagoras ; 2. Aristagoras Seeks Help from Sparta ; 3. Aristagoras at Athens ; 4. The Battle of Marathon ; C. THE SECOND PERSIAN INVASION OF 480 B.C. ; 1. The Muddled Greek Response: "It Was Plain That the Greater Number of the States Would Take No Part in the War but Warmly Favored the Persians" ; 2. Themistocles and the "Alliance of the Willing" ; 3. The Themistocles Decree ; 4. Why Gelo of Syracuse Refused Help ; 5. The Battle of Thermopylae ; 6. Athens Evacuated ; 7. The Great Debate: Fight at Salamis or Defend the Isthmus of Corinth? ; 8. The Battle of Plataea ; 9. Revenge for Thermopylae: The Humanity of Pausanias ; 4. LIFE IN THE POLIS ; A. The Household: Family Relations ; 1. "What Is Sweeter Than Family?" ; 2. Do Parents Love Their Children More Than Children Love Their Parents? ; 3. The Nature of Youth ; 4. Husbands and Wives ; 5. Mothers and Sons: "My Mother Is a Trial" ; 6. "Except for My Mother I Hate the Whole Female Sex" ; 7. Procne's Lament: The Sorrows of Young Women ; B. Household Management ; 1. Women's Work ; 2. "Where There Is No Wife Households Are Neither Orderly nor Prosperous" ; 3. Woman and Legal Affairs ; 4. The Education of a Wife ; 5. Managing Obstreperous Children ; 6. The Short Sad Life of a Good Woman: The Epitaph of Sokratea of Paros ; C. Slaves and Slavery ; 1. "The Best and Most Necessary Possessions" ; 2. "We Have Mistresses for Our Pleasure": Sex and Slavery in the Oikos ; 3. How to Become a Slave: Be in the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time ; 4. The Slave Trade: A Eunuch's Revenge ; D. The Polis and the Household ; 1. The Murder of Eratosthenes ; 2. The Demos Must Be Pure: Athenian Laws on Pederasty ; E. Religion in the Classical Polis ; 1. The Affair of the Herms ; 2. The Festivals: "A Man Should Spend His Whole Life at Play" ; 3. Local Festivals ; 4. Athena Nike Priestess ; 5. Personal Religion: Xenophon's Temple to Artemis ; F. War and Warfare in the Polis ; 1. The Spartan Army ; 2. A Hoplite Battle: Mantineia ; G. The Place of Warfare in the Polis: Some Philosophical Reflections ; 1. "All States Are by Nature Fighting an Undeclared War with All Other States" ; 2. "Peace Is the End of War, Leisure of Work" ; 5. THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR AND THE MILITARY REVOLUTION ; A. The Rise of Athens ; 1. The Golden Age: Looking at the Past ; 2. "For Without Equal Military Power It Is Impossible for Allies to Have Equal or Similar Say in Policy-Making": The Reality of Athenian Power ; 3. The Strategic Thinking of Themistocles ; B. The Delian League ; 1. "They Had Enough of the Persian War:" The Spartans and the Delian League ; 2. "The Allies Brought All This on Themselves": From League to Empire ; 3. Aristotle on the Organization of the Athenian Empire ; C. The Athenian Empire ; 1. The Logic of Possessing an Empire ; 2. Athens and Her Subjects: The Case of Erythrae ; 3. Imperial Ideology: Pericles' Funeral Oration ; 4. The Bloody Revolution at Corcyra: "War is a Hard Master" ; 5. "Justice Enters the Discussion Only When the Parties Are Equal": The Melian Dialogue ; D. Opposition to the Peloponnesian War at Athens ; 1. Prayer to Peace ; 2. Lysistrata's Solution to War ; E. Defeat and Hard Times: Athens After the Peloponnesian War ; F. The Military Revolution ; 1. Old and New Forms of Warfare ; 2. Iphicrates: A Military Revolutionary ; 3. A Stunning Reversal: Light Infantry Defeat Heavy Infantry at Lechaeum ; 4. Mercenaries at War ; 5. A Two-Edged Sword: Mercenary Troops and Their Employers ; 6. The Need for Walls ; 6. INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENTS IN THE CLASSICAL AGE: THE PHYSIS/NOMOS DEBATE ; A. The Conventionalist Argument ; 1. "There Is No Natural Standard of Justice:" An Overview from Plato ; 2. Callicles' Superman: "Right Is the Advantage of the Stronger over the Weaker" ; 3. Protagoras: Virtue Is Taught by Parents, Teachers, and the Laws ; B. The Naturalist Argument ; 1. Antiphon: Greeks and Barbarians Are the Same by Nature ; 2. Sophocles, Empedocles, and Alcidamas: Universally Valid Norms Exist ; 3. Aristotle: Intrinsically Evil Acts ; 4. Making Fun of the Philosophers: Aristophanes ; C. The Threat of Socrates ; 1. Socrates and Anytus ; 2. The Sophist Polykrates' Pamphlet ; D. Socrates' Defense: "I Shall Obey God Rather Than You" ; E. Diogenes the Cynic ; 7. THE FOURTH CENTURY ; A. The Decline and Fall of Sparta ; 1. Social Problems at Sparta: The Conspiracy of Cinadon ; 2. Sparta at Its Peak: The King's Peace (386 B.C.) ; 3. The Foundation of the Second Athenian League (377 B.C.) ; 4. The Battle of Leuctra and the End of Spartan Primacy (371 B.C.) ; 5. The Decline of Sparta: Why? ; B. The Crisis of the Polis in Fourth-Century B.C. Greece ; 1. Fifth Column Activity in Greek Cities ; 2. Political Revolution in Argos ; 3. Mercenaries and Exiles: The Tyranny of Clearchus of Heraclea Pontica (364-352 B.C.) ; 4. Can the Polis Be Saved? Suggested Solutions ; C. The Periphery of the Greek World ; 1. Thracian Court Life: A Heroic Society ; 2. A Greek Trading Post in Thrace ; 3. Greeks and Non-Greeks in the Black Sea: Amage, Queen of the Sarmatians, Saves the City of Chersonesus ; 4. Bosporus: A Multi-Ethnic State in the Black Sea (347/6 B.C.) ; 5. A Hellenized Satrap: Mausolus of Caria ; 6. The Funeral of Mausolus: A Greek Extravaganza (353 B.C.) ; 7. A Greek View of Persia: Xenophon, The Education of Cyrus ; D. Philip II and the Emergence of Macedon ; 1. The Achievements of Philip II: Alexander the Great's Speech at Opis (324 B.C.) ; 2. Philip II's Military Reforms ; 3. The Companions of Philip II ; 4. Philippi: The First Macedonian Colony ; 5. Oath of Members of the League of Corinth (338-337 B.C.) ; 6. The Marriages of Philip II ; 7. The Assassination of Philip II ; E. The Reign of Alexander the Great: Alexander and the Greeks ; 1. The Greeks in Europe ; 2. The Greeks in Asia ; F. Alexander and Egypt ; 1. Surrender of Egypt to Alexander ; 2. Foundation of Alexandria ; 3. Alexander's Visit to Siwah ; 4. Alexander's Organization of Egypt ; 5. The Administration of Cleomenes of Naucratis ; G. Alexander and the Non-Greeks ; 1. Alexander's Organization of Babylon ; 2. Babylonian Resistance to Alexander's Plans ; 3. The Destruction of Persepolis ; H. The Challenges of Alexander ; 1. The Attempt to Introduce Proskynesis ; 2. The Pages' Conspiracy ; 3. Alexander's Last Plans ; I. What Was Alexander? Saint or Demon? ; 1. Plutarch: Alexander a Force for the Spread of Greek Culture ; 2. Alexander the Enemy of the True Religion: A Zoroastrian View ; 8. THE HELLENISTIC AGE ; A. A New World ; 1. A Greek Philosopher's View of Alexander's Conquests ; 2. The Brutal Struggle for Alexander's Empire: The Heidelberg Epitome ; B. Alexandria and the Colonial World of Hellenistic Egypt ; 1. A Hellenistic Metropolis: Alexandria in Egypt ; 2. Middle Class Life in Hellenistic Egypt ; 3. Government in Ptolemaic Egypt: Advice to a Young Official ; 4. Government Corruption in Ptolemaic Egypt: The Amnesty of 118 B.C. ; C. Cultural Contact: Ptolemaic Egypt ; 1. The Origins of Sarapis ; 2 The Praises of Isis ; 3. How Sarapis Came to Delos: The Family of Apollonios, Priest of Sarapis ; D. Cultural Contact: Bactria and India ; 1. The Greeks in Bactria and India ; 2. Greek Wisdom in Bactria ; 3. Sagala: A Greco-Indian Metropolis ; 4. The Rock Edict of King Ashoka from Kandahar ; 5. Dedication to Vishnu by Heliodorus (First Century B.C.) ; 6. Stele of Sophytos, Son of Naratos ; E. Culture Clash: Jewish Resistance to Hellenism ; 1. Jerusalem Transformed into a Polis (ca. 175 B.C.) ; 2. Abolition of Jewish Law (167 B.C.) ; 3. Armed Jewish Resistance Begins (167 B.C.) ; 4. The Purification of the Temple and the Restoration of Jewish Law (165 B.C.) ; F. Jewish Life in the Diaspora ; 1. The Synagogue of Alexandria ; 2. The Origin of the Sabbath Ritual ; G. Opportunities and Social Roles in the Hellenistic Period ; 1. An Athenian in Ptolemaic Service: The Life of Kallias, Ptolemaic Governor of Halicarnassus (Athens, 270-269 B.C.) ; 2. The Dangerous Life of a Soldier of Fortune ; 3. Recommendation for a Government Job (Egypt, 255 B.C.) ; 4. A Political Woman: Phyle, Wife of Thessalos (Priene, First Century B.C.) ; 5. A Woman Philosopher: The Life of Hipparchia ; 6. A Professional Woman: Phanostrate, Midwife and Doctor (Athens, Fourth Century B.C.) ; 7. A Professional Woman: The Theban Harpist Polygnota, Daughter of Socrates (Delphi, 86 B.C.) ; 8. The Romance of Prince Antiochus and Queen Stratonice ; 9. The Marriage Contract of Heracleides and Demetria (311 B.C.) ; H. The Coming of Rome ; 1. T. Quinctius Flamininus and Greek Freedom (196 B.C.) ; 2. The Reality of Roman Power: The Letter of King Eumenes II (156 B.C.) ; 3. Roman Expansion in the Eastern Mediterranean: A Cynical View ; Glossary