The origins and development of Greek historiography cannot be properly understood unless early historical writings are situated in the framework of late archaic and early classical Greek culture and society. Contextualization opens up new perspectives on the subject in The Historian''s Craft in the Age of Herodotus. At the same time, such writings offer significant insights into how works of Herodotus reflect the attitude of fifth-century Greeks towards the transmission and manipulation of knowledge about the past. Essays by an international range of experts explore all aspects of the topic and, at the same time, make a thought-provoking contribution to the ongoing debates concerning literacy and oral culture.

The origins and development of Greek historiography cannot be properly understood unless early historical writings are situated in the framework of late archaic and early classical Greek culture and society. Contextualization opens up new perspectives on the subject in The Historian's Craft in the Age of Herodotus. At the same time, such writings offer significant insights into how works of Herodotus reflect the attitude of fifth-century Greeks towards the transmission and manipulation of knowledge about the past. Essays by an international range of experts explore all aspects of the topic and, at the same time, make a thought-provoking contribution to the ongoing debates concerning literacy and oral culture.

The origins and development of Greek historiography cannot be properly understood unless early historical writings are situated in the framework of late archaic and early classical Greek culture and society. Contextualization opens up new perspectives on the subject in The Historian's Craft in the Age of Herodotus. At the same time, such writings offer significant insights into how works of Herodotus reflect the attitude of fifth-century Greeks towards the transmission and manipulation of knowledge about the past. Essays by an international range of experts explore all aspects of the topic and, at the same time, make a thought-provoking contribution to the ongoing debates concerning literacy and oral culture.

Early in the archaic period of Greek history, Messenia was annexed and partially settled by its powerful neighbour, Sparta. Achieving independence in the fourth century BC, the inhabitants of Messenia set about trying to forge an identity for themselves separate from their previous identity as Spartan subjects, refunctionalising or simply erasing their Spartan heritage. Professor Luraghi provides a thorough examination of the history of Messenian identity and consequently addresses a range of questions and issues whose interest and importance have only been widely recognised by ancient historians during the last decade. By a detailed scrutiny of the ancient written sources and the archaeological evidence, the book reconstructs how the Messenians perceived and constructed their own ethnicity at different points in time, by applying to Messenian ethnicity insights developed by anthropologists and early medieval historians.

Early in the archaic period of Greek history, Messenia was annexed and partially settled by its powerful neighbour, Sparta. Achieving independence in the fourth century BC, the inhabitants of Messenia set about trying to forge an identity for themselves separate from their previous identity as Spartan subjects, refunctionalising or simply erasing their Spartan heritage. Professor Luraghi provides a thorough examination of the history of Messenian identity and consequently addresses a range of questions and issues whose interest and importance have only been widely recognised by ancient historians during the last decade. By a detailed scrutiny of the ancient written sources and the archaeological evidence, the book reconstructs how the Messenians perceived and constructed their own ethnicity at different points in time, by applying to Messenian ethnicity insights developed by anthropologists and early medieval historians.

The name “Helots” evokes one of the most famous peculiarities of ancient Sparta, the system of dependent labor that guaranteed the livelihood of the free citizens. The Helots fulfilled all the functions that slaves carried out elsewhere in the Greek world, allowing their masters the leisure to be full-time warriors. Yet, despite their crucial role, Helots remain essentially invisible in our ancient sources and peripheral and enigmatic in modern scholarship.This book is devoted to a much-needed reassessment of Helotry and of its place in the history and sociology of unfree labor. The essays deal with the origins and historical development of Helotry, with its sociological, economic, and demographic aspects, with its ideological construction and negotiation.

Volume 104 of Harvard Studies in Classical Philology includes: Jeremy Rau, “Δ 384 Τυδῆ, Ο 339 Μηκιστῆ, and τ 136 Ὀδυσῆ”; Naomi Rood, “Craft Similes and the Construction of Heroes in the Iliad”; Yoav Rinon, “The Tragic Pattern of the Iliad”; Catherine Rubincam, “Herodotus and His Descendants: Numbers in Ancient and Modern Narratives of Xerxes’ Campaigns”; Chiara Thumiger, “Personal Pronouns as Identity Terms in Ancient Greek: The Surviving Tragedies and Euripides’ Bacchae”; Luis Andrés Bredlow Wenda, “Epicurus’ Letter to Herodotus: Some Textual Notes”; Ulrich Gotter, “Cultural Differences and Cross-Cultural Contact: Greek and Roman Concepts of Power”; Christopher Krebs, “Hebescere virtus (Sallust BC 12.1): Metaphorical Ambiguity”; Alexei A. Grishin, “Ludus in undis: An Acrostic in Eclogue 9”; Jackie Elliott, “Aeneas’ Generic Wandering and the Construction of the Latin Literary Past: Ennian Epic vs. Ennian Tragedy in the Language of the Aeneid”; Luis Rivero García, “Virgil Aeneid 6.445–446: A Critical Note”; Monika Asztalos, “The Poet’s Mirror: Horace’s Carmen 4.10”; Denis Rousset, “The City and Its Territory in the Province of Achaea and ‘Roman Greece’”; and Alexander Kirichenko, “Satire, Propaganda, and the Pleasure of Reading: Apuleius’ Stories of Curiosity in Context.”

The crisis of Spartan power in the first half of the fourth century has been connected to Spartan inability to manage the hegemony built on the ruins of the Athenian Empire, or interpreted as a result of the unexpected annihilation of the Spartan army by the Boeotians at Leuktra. The present book offers a new perspective, suggesting that the crisis that finally brought down Sparta was in important ways a result of centrifugal impulses within the Peloponnesian League, accompanied by a general awakening of ethnicity in various areas of the Peloponnese. A series of regional case studies is combined with thematic contributions focusing on topics such as the relationship of religious cults and ethnicity and of democracy and ethnicity, the use of archaeological evidence for ethnic phenomena, and comparative approaches based on social anthropology.

Monarchy, that is, a political order characterized by a single ruler, is an understudied aspect of Greek politics and culture. The contributors to this e-book provide a unified scholarly framework in which to interpret the sociological as well as the ideological side of monarchic regimes from archaic Greek tyranny to Hellenistic monarchy in Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean. Taking their cue from Hans-Joachim Gehrke's essay on the victorious king, published here in an updated English translation, the contributors bring to the surface common trends and features that make it possible to sketch an integrated history of monarchic rule in ancient Greece from the Archaic to the Hellenistic age. Topics of contributions include the image of the archaic tyrant as legitimate and illegitimate ruler, the rhetoric of Hellenistic monarchy outlined in philosophical treatises on monarchy, the impact of the rise of Hellenistic monarchy on pre-existing political orders such as tyranny in Sicily and dual monarchy in Sparta, and the influence of this ideological model on political traditions in Anatolia and Palestine in the Late Hellenistic period.

The contributions assembled in this volume study the social function and functioning of notions and ideas about the past held by groups and individuals, with a special focus on ancient Greece but including comparative contributions on early China and on the function of the classical past in modern European culture. Special attention is devoted to the past as a foundation for collective identities and to the ways in which the goals and needs of specific groups impacted its representation and transmission. Contributions range in time from the archaic age to the Roman Empire, covering aspects such as the representation of the past in visual arts, the function of myth and its representation in literary and visual genres, the relationship of historiography to social memory, and the way that the past features in Greek religion. Monuments, literary texts, inscriptions are investigated in order to reconstruct the rich texture of Greek social memory and its development over time.

After having been for decades the province of a relatively small group of scholars, the Hellenistic polis has become central to the research agenda of Ancient historians more broadly. This development can be traced from the early nineties of the last century, and has picked up pace in a sustained fashion at the turn of the millennium. Recent research has started approaching the Greek polis of the centuries between Alexander and Cleopatra as a specific historical phenomenon, striving to define its most peculiar aspects from as many angles as possible, and to point to new avenues of interpretation that might contribute to recognizing its historical role. In this general framework, this volume attempts to explore new lines of thought, to question established ways of reading the evidence, and to take stock of recent developments. The contributors do not subscribe to any particular shared approach; on the contrary, their approaches and questions stem from many different scholarly traditions and methodologies. Rather than seeking to achieve a complete coverage, the volume provides a selection of current research agendas, in many cases offering glimpses of ongoing projects.

The origins and development of Greek historiography cannot be properly understood unless early historical writings are situated in the framework of late archaic and early classical Greek culture and society. Contextualization opens up new perspectives on the subject in The Historian''s Craft in the Age of Herodotus. At the same time, such writings offer significant insights into how works of Herodotus reflect the attitude of fifth-century Greeks towards the transmission and manipulation of knowledge about the past. Essays by an international range of experts explore all aspects of the topic and, at the same time, make a thought-provoking contribution to the ongoing debates concerning literacy and oral culture.

The origins and development of Greek historiography cannot be properly understood unless early historical writings are situated in the framework of late archaic and early classical Greek culture and society. Contextualization opens up new perspectives on the subject in The Historian's Craft in the Age of Herodotus. At the same time, such writings offer significant insights into how works of Herodotus reflect the attitude of fifth-century Greeks towards the transmission and manipulation of knowledge about the past. Essays by an international range of experts explore all aspects of the topic and, at the same time, make a thought-provoking contribution to the ongoing debates concerning literacy and oral culture.

The origins and development of Greek historiography cannot be properly understood unless early historical writings are situated in the framework of late archaic and early classical Greek culture and society. Contextualization opens up new perspectives on the subject in The Historian's Craft in the Age of Herodotus. At the same time, such writings offer significant insights into how works of Herodotus reflect the attitude of fifth-century Greeks towards the transmission and manipulation of knowledge about the past. Essays by an international range of experts explore all aspects of the topic and, at the same time, make a thought-provoking contribution to the ongoing debates concerning literacy and oral culture.

Early in the archaic period of Greek history, Messenia was annexed and partially settled by its powerful neighbour, Sparta. Achieving independence in the fourth century BC, the inhabitants of Messenia set about trying to forge an identity for themselves separate from their previous identity as Spartan subjects, refunctionalising or simply erasing their Spartan heritage. Professor Luraghi provides a thorough examination of the history of Messenian identity and consequently addresses a range of questions and issues whose interest and importance have only been widely recognised by ancient historians during the last decade. By a detailed scrutiny of the ancient written sources and the archaeological evidence, the book reconstructs how the Messenians perceived and constructed their own ethnicity at different points in time, by applying to Messenian ethnicity insights developed by anthropologists and early medieval historians.

Early in the archaic period of Greek history, Messenia was annexed and partially settled by its powerful neighbour, Sparta. Achieving independence in the fourth century BC, the inhabitants of Messenia set about trying to forge an identity for themselves separate from their previous identity as Spartan subjects, refunctionalising or simply erasing their Spartan heritage. Professor Luraghi provides a thorough examination of the history of Messenian identity and consequently addresses a range of questions and issues whose interest and importance have only been widely recognised by ancient historians during the last decade. By a detailed scrutiny of the ancient written sources and the archaeological evidence, the book reconstructs how the Messenians perceived and constructed their own ethnicity at different points in time, by applying to Messenian ethnicity insights developed by anthropologists and early medieval historians.

The name “Helots” evokes one of the most famous peculiarities of ancient Sparta, the system of dependent labor that guaranteed the livelihood of the free citizens. The Helots fulfilled all the functions that slaves carried out elsewhere in the Greek world, allowing their masters the leisure to be full-time warriors. Yet, despite their crucial role, Helots remain essentially invisible in our ancient sources and peripheral and enigmatic in modern scholarship.This book is devoted to a much-needed reassessment of Helotry and of its place in the history and sociology of unfree labor. The essays deal with the origins and historical development of Helotry, with its sociological, economic, and demographic aspects, with its ideological construction and negotiation.

Volume 104 of Harvard Studies in Classical Philology includes: Jeremy Rau, “Δ 384 Τυδῆ, Ο 339 Μηκιστῆ, and τ 136 Ὀδυσῆ”; Naomi Rood, “Craft Similes and the Construction of Heroes in the Iliad”; Yoav Rinon, “The Tragic Pattern of the Iliad”; Catherine Rubincam, “Herodotus and His Descendants: Numbers in Ancient and Modern Narratives of Xerxes’ Campaigns”; Chiara Thumiger, “Personal Pronouns as Identity Terms in Ancient Greek: The Surviving Tragedies and Euripides’ Bacchae”; Luis Andrés Bredlow Wenda, “Epicurus’ Letter to Herodotus: Some Textual Notes”; Ulrich Gotter, “Cultural Differences and Cross-Cultural Contact: Greek and Roman Concepts of Power”; Christopher Krebs, “Hebescere virtus (Sallust BC 12.1): Metaphorical Ambiguity”; Alexei A. Grishin, “Ludus in undis: An Acrostic in Eclogue 9”; Jackie Elliott, “Aeneas’ Generic Wandering and the Construction of the Latin Literary Past: Ennian Epic vs. Ennian Tragedy in the Language of the Aeneid”; Luis Rivero García, “Virgil Aeneid 6.445–446: A Critical Note”; Monika Asztalos, “The Poet’s Mirror: Horace’s Carmen 4.10”; Denis Rousset, “The City and Its Territory in the Province of Achaea and ‘Roman Greece’”; and Alexander Kirichenko, “Satire, Propaganda, and the Pleasure of Reading: Apuleius’ Stories of Curiosity in Context.”

The crisis of Spartan power in the first half of the fourth century has been connected to Spartan inability to manage the hegemony built on the ruins of the Athenian Empire, or interpreted as a result of the unexpected annihilation of the Spartan army by the Boeotians at Leuktra. The present book offers a new perspective, suggesting that the crisis that finally brought down Sparta was in important ways a result of centrifugal impulses within the Peloponnesian League, accompanied by a general awakening of ethnicity in various areas of the Peloponnese. A series of regional case studies is combined with thematic contributions focusing on topics such as the relationship of religious cults and ethnicity and of democracy and ethnicity, the use of archaeological evidence for ethnic phenomena, and comparative approaches based on social anthropology.

Monarchy, that is, a political order characterized by a single ruler, is an understudied aspect of Greek politics and culture. The contributors to this e-book provide a unified scholarly framework in which to interpret the sociological as well as the ideological side of monarchic regimes from archaic Greek tyranny to Hellenistic monarchy in Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean. Taking their cue from Hans-Joachim Gehrke's essay on the victorious king, published here in an updated English translation, the contributors bring to the surface common trends and features that make it possible to sketch an integrated history of monarchic rule in ancient Greece from the Archaic to the Hellenistic age. Topics of contributions include the image of the archaic tyrant as legitimate and illegitimate ruler, the rhetoric of Hellenistic monarchy outlined in philosophical treatises on monarchy, the impact of the rise of Hellenistic monarchy on pre-existing political orders such as tyranny in Sicily and dual monarchy in Sparta, and the influence of this ideological model on political traditions in Anatolia and Palestine in the Late Hellenistic period.

The contributions assembled in this volume study the social function and functioning of notions and ideas about the past held by groups and individuals, with a special focus on ancient Greece but including comparative contributions on early China and on the function of the classical past in modern European culture. Special attention is devoted to the past as a foundation for collective identities and to the ways in which the goals and needs of specific groups impacted its representation and transmission. Contributions range in time from the archaic age to the Roman Empire, covering aspects such as the representation of the past in visual arts, the function of myth and its representation in literary and visual genres, the relationship of historiography to social memory, and the way that the past features in Greek religion. Monuments, literary texts, inscriptions are investigated in order to reconstruct the rich texture of Greek social memory and its development over time.

After having been for decades the province of a relatively small group of scholars, the Hellenistic polis has become central to the research agenda of Ancient historians more broadly. This development can be traced from the early nineties of the last century, and has picked up pace in a sustained fashion at the turn of the millennium. Recent research has started approaching the Greek polis of the centuries between Alexander and Cleopatra as a specific historical phenomenon, striving to define its most peculiar aspects from as many angles as possible, and to point to new avenues of interpretation that might contribute to recognizing its historical role. In this general framework, this volume attempts to explore new lines of thought, to question established ways of reading the evidence, and to take stock of recent developments. The contributors do not subscribe to any particular shared approach; on the contrary, their approaches and questions stem from many different scholarly traditions and methodologies. Rather than seeking to achieve a complete coverage, the volume provides a selection of current research agendas, in many cases offering glimpses of ongoing projects.