This book argues for a new approach to the intellectual history of the Hellenistic world. Despite the intense cross-cultural interactions which characterised the period after Alexander, studies of 'Hellenistic' intellectual life have tended to focus on Greek scholars and institutions. Where cross-cultural connections have been drawn, it is through borrowing: the Greek adoption of Babylonian astrology; the Egyptian scholar Manetho deploying Greek historiographical models. In this book, however, Kathryn Stevens advances a 'Hellenistic intellectual history' which is cross-cultural in scope and goes beyond borrowing and influence. Drawing on a wide range of Greek and Akkadian sources, she argues that intellectual life in the Greek world and Babylonia can be linked not just through occasional contact and influence, but also by deeper parallels in intellectual culture that reflect their integration into the same overarching imperial system. Tracing such parallels yields intellectual history
Here are the thrills, grandeur, and unabashed fun of the Greek myths, stylishly retold by Stephen Fry. The legendary writer, actor, and comedian breathes life into ancient tales, from Pandora's box to
A comprehensive account of how the Athenian constitution was created-with lessons for contemporary constitution-buildingWe live in an era of constitution-making. More than half of the world's constitu
Starting with the most meagre resources, Philip made his kingdom the greatest power in EuropeThe Greek historian Diodorus of Sicily is one of our most valuable sources from ancient times. His history,
Since the time of the ancient Greeks we have been fascinated by accounts of the Amazons, an elusive tribe of hard-fighting, horse-riding female warriors. Equal to men in battle, legends claimed they c
A history of the world's first democracy from its beginnings in Athens circa fifth century B.C. to its downfall 200 years later The first democracy, established in ancient Greece more than 2,500 years
Greek 'local histories', better called polis and island histories, have usually been seen as the poor relation of mainstream 'great' Greek historiography, and yet they were demonstrably popular and extremely numerous from the late Classical period into the Hellenistic. The extensive fragments and testimonia were collected by Felix Jacoby and have been supplemented since with recent finds and inscriptions. Yet while the Athenian histories have received considerable attention, those of other cities have not: this is the first book to consider the polis and island histories as a whole, and as an important cultural and political phenomenon. It challenges the common label of 'antiquarianism' and argues that their role in helping to create 'imagined communities' must be seen partly as a response to fragile and changing status in a changing and expanding Greek world. Important themes are discussed alongside case studies of particular places (including Samos, Miletus, Erythrai, Megara, Athens)
This volume provides readers with a new translation and up to date historical and rhetorical commentary on the only extant speech of the Athenian leader Lycurgus (390s/380s-324 BCE), one of Athens' mo
This volume showcases for the first time in the Clarendon Ancient History Series one of the best-known prose authors of classical Athens: Xenophon. Poroi (or, Revenue-Sources) was the final work of hi
