Thomas Figueira - Böcker

Ancient Greece, the culture that brought us democracy, philosophy, comedy and tragedy, and the Olympic Games, and ancient Rome, best known for its military prowess, technological achievements, and imperial administration, are justly renowned for their contributions to Western civilization. Wisdom from the Ancients brings alive for today's managers the timeless insights of such larger-than-life figures as Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Trajan, Pericles, and dozens of other colourful and enigmatic leaders. Through direct quotations of ancient texts, engaging commentary, and period art, the authors illuminate the strategies and tactics that have withstood the test of time-from leadership and delegation to managing conflict to effective and persuasive communication.

Was Athens an imperialistic state, deserving all the reputation for exploitation that adjective can imply, or was the Athenian alliance, even at its most unequal, still characterized by a convergence of interests?The Power of Money explores monetary and metrological policy at Athens as a way of discerning the character of Athenian hegemony in midfifth-century Greece. It begins with the Athenian Coinage Decree, which, after decades of scholarly attention, still presents unresolved questions for Greek historians about content, intent, date, and effect. Was the Decree an act of commercial imperialism or simply the codification of what was already current practice?Figueira interprets the Decree as one in a series concerned with financial matters affecting the Athenian city-state and emerging from the way the collection of tribute functioned in the alliance that we call the Athenian empire. He contends that the Decree served primarily to legislate the status quo ante.

Herodotus is the epochal authority who inaugurated the European and Western consciousness of collective identity, whether in an awareness of other societies and of the nature of cultural variation itself or in the fashioning of Greek self-awareness – and necessarily that of later civilizations in¿uenced by the ancient Greeks – which was perpetually in dialogue and tension with other ways of living in groups.In this book, 14 contributors explore ethnicity – the very self-understanding of belonging to a separate body of human beings – and how it evolves and consolidates (or ethnogenesis). This inquiry is focussed through the lens of Herodotus as our earliest master of ethnography, in this instance not only as the stylized portrayal of other societies, but also as an exegesis on how ethnocultural di¿erentiation may a¿ect the lives, and even the very existence, of one’s own people.Ethnicity and Identity in Herodotus is one facet of a project that intends to bring Portuguese and English-speaking scholars of antiquity into closer cooperation. It has united a cross-section of North American classicists with a distinguished cohort of Portuguese and Brazilian experts on Greek literature and history writing in English.

Herodotus is the epochal authority who inaugurated the European and Western consciousness of collective identity, whether in an awareness of other societies and of the nature of cultural variation itself or in the fashioning of Greek self-awareness – and necessarily that of later civilizations influenced by the ancient Greeks – which was perpetually in dialogue and tension with other ways of living in groups.In this book, 14 contributors explore ethnicity – the very self-understanding of belonging to a separate body of human beings – and how it evolves and consolidates (or ethnogenesis). This inquiry is focussed through the lens of Herodotus as our earliest master of ethnography, in this instance not only as the stylized portrayal of other societies, but also as an exegesis on how ethnocultural differentiation may affect the lives, and even the very existence, of one’s own people.Ethnicity and Identity in Herodotus is one facet of a project that intends to bring Portuguese and English-speaking scholars of antiquity into closer cooperation. It has united a cross-section of North American classicists with a distinguished cohort of Portuguese and Brazilian experts on Greek literature and history writing in English.Chapters 8 and 9 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons (CC-BY) 4.0 license.

Mindful of the present state of discourse on ancient Greek historiography, this edited volume explores the major themes of pursuing factuality, managing witness/source bias, falling into historical error and creating or confronting propaganda. Even the greatest ancient historians, striving for factuality and truthfulness, must commence from subjectivity. Their works, when studied closely, reveal biases and conceptual or ideological distortions – their own and others’. For this reason, Misinformation, Disinformation and Propaganda in Greek Historiography strives to evaluate the issues which stand in the way of factuality in historical texts and records.The contributors, all experts in the field, explore and question the accuracy of the historiography in question; the ancient author’s fidelity to their sources; and the evidence presented in relation to inherited oral traditions. In this way, an ancient author’s methodology is evaluated in terms of its probability, the awareness of its cultural variation and the influences which we can deduce within the texts. This volume presents an important contribution to the study of what constitutes fact and fiction within ancient Greek historiography.

Mindful of the present state of discourse on ancient Greek historiography, this edited volume explores the major themes of pursuing factuality, managing witness/source bias, falling into historical error and creating or confronting propaganda. Even the greatest ancient historians, striving for factuality and truthfulness, must commence from subjectivity. Their works, when studied closely, reveal biases and conceptual or ideological distortions – their own and others’. For this reason, Misinformation, Disinformation and Propaganda in Greek Historiography strives to evaluate the issues which stand in the way of factuality in historical texts and records.The contributors, all experts in the field, explore and question the accuracy of the historiography in question; the ancient author’s fidelity to their sources; and the evidence presented in relation to inherited oral traditions. In this way, an ancient author’s methodology is evaluated in terms of its probability, the awareness of its cultural variation and the influences which we can deduce within the texts. This volume presents an important contribution to the study of what constitutes fact and fiction within ancient Greek historiography.