Hans van Wees - Böcker

Warfare was the single biggest preoccupation of historians in antiquity. In recent decades fresh textual interpretations, numerous new archaeological discoveries and a much broader analytical focus emphasising social, economic, political and cultural approaches have transformed our understanding of ancient warfare. Volume I of this two-volume History reflects these developments and provides a systematic account, written by a distinguished cast of contributors, of the various themes underlying the warfare of the Greek world from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period and of Early and Middle Republican Rome. For each broad period developments in troop-types, equipment, strategy and tactics are discussed. These are placed in the broader context of developments in international relations and the relationship of warfare to both the state and wider society. Numerous illustrations, a glossary and chronology, and information about the authors mentioned supplement the text. This will become the primary reference work for specialists and non-specialists alike.

Warfare was the single biggest preoccupation of historians in antiquity. In recent decades fresh textual interpretations, numerous new archaeological discoveries and a much broader analytical focus emphasising social, economic, political and cultural approaches have transformed our understanding of ancient warfare. Volume II of this two-volume History reflects these developments and provides a systematic account, written by a distinguished cast of contributors, of the various themes underlying the warfare of the Roman world from the Late Republic to the sixth-century empire of Justinian and his successors. For each broad period developments in troop-types, equipment, strategy and tactics are discussed. These are placed in the broader context of developments in international relations and the relationship of warfare to both the state and wider society. Numerous illustrations, a glossary and chronology, and information about the authors mentioned supplement the text. This will become the primary reference work for specialists and non-specialists alike.

A systematic survey of archaic Greek society and culture which introduces the reader to a wide range of new approaches to the period. The first comprehensive and accessible survey of developments in the study of archaic GreecePlaces Greek society of c.750-480 BCE in its chronological and geographical contextGives equal emphasis to established topics such as tyranny and political reform and newer subjects like gender and ethnicityCombines accounts of historical developments with regional surveys of archaeological evidence and in-depth treatments of selected themesExplores the impact of Eastern and other non-Greek cultures in the development of GreeceUses archaeological and literary evidence to reconstruct broad patterns of social and cultural development

From the soldier's-eye view of combat to the broad social and economic structures which shaped campaigns and wars, ancient Greek warfare in all its aspects has been studied more intensively in the last few decades than ever before. This book ranges from the concrete details of conducting raids, battles and sieges to more theoretical questions about the causes, costs, and consequences of warfare in archaic and classical Greece. It argues that the Greek sources present a highly selective and idealised picture, too easily accepted by most modern scholars, and that a more critical study of the evidence leads to radically different conclusions about the Greek way of war.

A systematic survey of archaic Greek society and culture which introduces the reader to a wide range of new approaches to the period. The first comprehensive and accessible survey of developments in the study of archaic GreecePlaces Greek society of c.750-480 BCE in its chronological and geographical contextGives equal emphasis to established topics such as tyranny and political reform and newer subjects like gender and ethnicityCombines accounts of historical developments with regional surveys of archaeological evidence and in-depth treatments of selected themesExplores the impact of Eastern and other non-Greek cultures in the development of GreeceUses archaeological and literary evidence to reconstruct broad patterns of social and cultural development

Historians since Herodotus and Thucydides have claimed that the year 483 BCE marked a turning point in the history of Athens. For it was then that Themistocles mobilized the revenues from the city's highly productive silver mines to build an enormous war fleet. This income stream is thought to have become the basis of Athenian imperial power, the driving force behind its democracy and the centre of its system of public finance. But in his groundbreaking new book, Hans van Wees argues otherwise. He shows that Themistocles did not transform Athens, but merely expanded a navy-centred system of public finance that had already existed at least a generation before the general's own time, and had important precursors at least a century earlier. The author reconstructs the scattered evidence for all aspects of public finance, in archaic Greece at large and early Athens in particular, to reveal that a complex machinery of public funding and spending was in place as early as the reforms of Solon in 594 BCE. Public finance was in fact a key factor in the rise of the early Athenian state - long before Themistocles, the empire and democracy.

The study of Greek warfare should involve much more than reconstructing the experience of combat or revisiting the great wars of the classical period. Here, a distinguished cast of international scholars explores beyond the usual thematic and chronological boundaries. Ranging from the heroes of Homer to the kings and cities of the hellenistic age, the contributors set war in the context of other forms of Greek violence, private and public. At every turn they challenge received ideas about the causes and conduct of war, its development and its place in Greek society and culture.

Ancient peoples, like modern, spent much of their lives engaged in and thinking about competitions: both organised competitions with rules, audiences and winners, such as Olympic and gladiatorial games, and informal, indefinite, often violent, competition for fundamental goals such as power, wealth and honour. The varied papers in this book form a case for viewing competition for superiority as a major force in ancient history, including the earliest human societies and the Assyrian and Aztec empires. Papers on Greek history explore the idea of competitiveness as peculiarly Greek, the intense and complex quarrel at the heart of Homer's Iliad, and the importance of formal competitions in the creation of new political and social identities in archaic Sicyon and classical Athens. Papers on the Roman world shed fresh light on Republican elections, through a telling parallel from Renaissance Venice, on modes of competitive display of wealth and power evident in elite villas in Italy in the imperial period, and on the ambiguities in the competitive self-representations of athletes, sophists and emperors.

The words 'aristocrats', 'aristocracy' and 'aristocratic values' appear in many a study of ancient history and culture. Sometimes these terms are used with a precise meaning. More often they are casual shorthand for 'upper class', 'ruling elite' and 'high standards'. This book brings together 12 new studies by an impressive international cast of specialists. It demonstrates not only that true aristocracies were rare in the ancient world, but also that the modern use of 'aristocracy' in a looser sense is misleading. The word comes with connotations derived from medieval and modern history. Antiquity, it is here argued, was different. Aristocracy in Antiquity explores and challenges the common assumption that hereditary 'aristocrats' who derive much of their status, privilege and power from their ancestors are identifiable at most times and places in the ancient world. They question, too, the related notion that deep ideological divisions existed between 'aristocratic values', such as hospitality, generosity and a disdain for commerce or trade, and the norms and ideals of lower or 'middling' classes. They do so by detailed analysis of archaeological and literary evidence for the rise and nature of elites and leisure classes, diverse elite strategies, and political conflicts in a variety of states across the Mediterranean. Chapters deal with archaic and classical Athens, Samos, Aigina and Crete; the Greek 'colonial' settlements such as Sicily; archaic Rome and central Italy; and the Roman Empire under the Principate.

The study of archaic Greece (c. 750-480 BC) is being transformed by exciting discoveries and interpretations. In fourteen original studies from a distinguished international cast, this book explores many aspects of a rapidly changing Greek world. Detailed re-interpretation of archaeological material reveals diversity in patterns of settlement, sanctuaries and burial practices, and shows motivations underlying the expanding exchange of goods and the settlement of new communities. Local studies of archaeology and iconography revise our image of the peculiarity of Spartan society and East Greek cult. Texts, from Homer and Hesiod to a newly-found poem of Simonides, are given fresh interpretations. And there are new studies of developments in maritime warfare, the roles of literacy and law-making in Crete, the emergence of a less violent Greek life-style, and the articulation of political thought.

Herodotus’ Histories can be read in many ways. Their literary qualities, never in dispute, can be more fully appreciated in the light of recent developments in the study of pragmatics, narratology, and orality. Their intellectual status has been radically reassessed: no longer regarded as naïve and ‘archaic’, the Histories are now seen as very much a product of the intellectual climate of their own day - not only subject to contemporary literary, religious, moral and social influences, but actively contributing to the great debates of their time. Their reliability as historical and ethnographic accounts, a matter of controversy even in antiquity, is being debated with renewed vigour and increasing sophistication. This Companion offers an up-to-date and in-depth overview of all these current approaches to Herodotus’ remarkable work.