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Sian Lewis explores the role of news and information in shaping Greek society from the sixth to the fourth centuries, b.c. Applying ideas from the study of modern media to her analysis of the functions of gossip, travel, messengers, inscriptions, and inst
A series of new Papers from the Copenhagen Polis Centre. Among other things, these important papers discuss the role and function of theatres in the Greek world, the nature of early Cretan laws, how Greeks and indigenous peoples interacted on Sicily and in Magna Graecia, and whether or not the modern concept of 'the stateless society' applies to the ancient Greek polis.
The Greek Polis and the Invention of Democracy presents a series of essays that trace the Greeks’ path to democracy and examine the connection between the Greek polis as a citizen state and democracy as well as the interaction between democracy and various forms of cultural expression from a comparative historical perspective and with special attention to the place of Greek democracy in political thought and debates about democracy throughout the centuries. Presents an original combination of a close synchronic and long diachronic examination of the Greek polis - city-states that gave rise to the first democratic system of government Offers a detailed study of the close interactionbetween democracy, society, and the arts in ancient Greece Places the invention of democracy in fifth-century bce Athens both in its broad social and cultural context and in the context of the re-emergence of democracy in the modern world Reveals the role Greek democracy played in the political and intellectual traditions that shaped modern democracy, and in the debates about democracy in modern social, political, and philosophical thought Written collaboratively by an international team of leading scholars in classics, ancient history, sociology, and political science
A fourth collection of Papers from the Copenhagen Polis Centre, a collective whose "ulimate aim is to present a new analysis of the Archaic and Classical Greek polis ", through various wide-ranging and thematically specific investigations. This volume and the others in the series are released in advance of the publication of a general synthesis of findings, hence the thematic incoherence of the titles contained herein: Polis as the Generic Term for State, Hekataios' Use of the Word Polis in His Periegesis , and A Typology of Dependent Poleis (Mogens Herman Hansen) ; A Survey of the Major Urban Settlements in the Kimmerian Bosphoros (With a Discussion of Their Status as Poleis ) (Gocha R. Tsetskhladze) ; Emporion . A Study of the Use and Meaning of the Term in the Archaic and Classical Periods (Mogens Herman Hansen) ; Colonies and Ports-of-Tradee on the Northern Shores of the Black Sea: Borysthenes, Kremnoi and the "Other Pontic Emporia in Herodotos (John Hind) ; Some Problems in Polis Identification in the Chalkidic Peninsula (Pernille Flensted-Jensen) ; Triphylia . An Experiment in Ethnic Construction adn Political Organisation (Thomas Heine Nielsen) ; The Polis of Asea. A Case-Study of How Archaeology Can expand Our Knowlege of the History of a Polis (Jeanette Fors�n and Bj�rn Fors�n) .
A definitive new history of the origins, evolution, and scope of the ancient Greek city-state The Greek polis, or city-state, was a resilient and adaptable political institution founded on the principles of citizenship, freedom, and equality. Emerging around 650 BCE and enduring to 350 CE, it offered a means for collaboration among fellow city-states and social bargaining between a community and its elites—but at what cost? Polis proposes a panoramic account of the ancient Greek city-state, its diverse forms, and enduring characteristics over the span of a millennium. In this landmark book, John Ma provides a new history of the polis, charting its spread and development into a common denominator for hundreds of communities from the Black Sea to North Africa and from the Near East to Italy. He explores its remarkable achievements as a political form offering community, autonomy, prosperity, public goods, and spaces of social justice for its members. He also reminds us that behind the successes of civic ideology and institutions lie entanglements with domination, empire, and enslavement. Ma’s sweeping and multifaceted narrative draws widely on a rich store of historical evidence while weighing in on lively scholarly debates and offering new readings of Aristotle as the great theoretician of the polis. A monumental work of scholarship, Polis transforms our understanding of antiquity while challenging us to grapple with the moral legacy of an idea whose very success centered on the inclusion of some and the exclusion of others.
A Greek historian investigates the importance of local identity in the Mediterranean world in a “rare, genuinely original book . . . Highly recommended” (Choice). Much as our modern world is interconnected through global networks, the ancient Greek city-states were a dynamic part of the wider Mediterranean landscape. In Localism and the Ancient Greek World, historian Hans Beck argues that local shifts in politics, religion and culture had a pervasive influence in a world of fast-paced change. Citizens in these communities were deeply concerned with maintaining local identity, commercial freedom, distinct religious cults, and much more. Beyond these cultural identifiers, there lay a deeper concept of the local that guided polis societies in their contact with a rapidly expanding world. Drawing on a staggering range of materials—including texts by both known and obscure writers, numismatics, pottery analysis, and archeological records—Beck develops fine-grained case studies that illustrate the significance of the local experience. Localism and the Ancient Greek City-State builds bridges across disciplines and ideas within the humanities. It highlights the importance of localism not only in the archaeology of the ancient Mediterranean, but also in today’s conversations about globalism, networks, and migration.
Using material dating from up to 5,000 years ago, but concentrating on the past 200 years, this book studies messengers and newsmen, focusing on news agency journalists. Informed by North American and European scholarship, and considering the interplay between British English and American English and the products of wordsmiths since the 16th century, the book will appeal to historians, social scientists, linguists, globalization specialists, media professionals and “news addicts”.
During the fourth century BC the number of Greeks who did not live as citizens in the city-states of southern mainland Greece increased considerably: mercenaries, pirates, itinerant artisans and traders, their origins differed widely. It has been argued that this increase was caused by the destruction of many Greek cities in the wars of the fourth century, accompanied by the large programme of settlement begun by Alexander in the East and Timoleon in the West. Although this was an important factor, argues Dr McKechnie, more crucial was an ideological deterioration of loyalties to the city: the polis was no longer absolutely normative in the fourth century and Hellenistic periods. With so many outsiders with specialist skills, Alexander and his successors were able to recruit the armies and colonists needed to conquer and maintain empires many times larger than any single polis had ever controlled.
The Greek polis has been arousing interest as a subject for study for a long time, but recent approaches have shown that it is a subject on which there are still important questions to be asked and worthwhile things to be said. This book contains a selection of essays which embody the results of the latest research, yet are presented so as to be accessible to non-specialist readers. Beyond the historical development of the Greek polis, the authors ask questions about the civic institutions of ancient Greece as a whole, and their relationships to each other. Questions of power, or the significance of a written code of law are discussed as well as the nature of Greek overseas settlements. The Development of the Greek Polis presents up-to-date research and asks up-to-date questions on various aspects of an important topic. It will be essential reading for all students and teachers of early Greek history and of the institutions of the ancient world.
Contains 35 articles devoted to different aspects of the Greek polis and is intended not only as a present for Mogens Herman Hansen on his sixtieth birthday, but also as a way of thanking him for his significant contributions to the field of Greek history over the past three decades.
