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muffinworry · 1 year

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Roman Republic Reading List

@hortensius : Hope this is helpful!

Comprehensive Exam, Major Field: Roman History, c. 400-100

Preliminary Reading List--Updated

General

Rosenstein, Rome and the Mediterranean (2012) [general survey]

Steel, End of the Roman Republic (2012) [general survey]

Flower, Roman Republics (2010)

Lomas, Roman Italy 338 BC-AD 200 (this is a sourcebook with introductory discussions)

Farney/Bradley, Peoples of Ancient Italy (2017) (a reference handbook)

Early Republic

Cornell, Beginnings of Rome (1996)

Forsythe, A Critical History of Early Rome (2006)

Armstrong, War and Society in Early Rome (2016)

Lomas, Rise of Rome (2018)

Smith, The Roman Clan (2009)

Armstrong, War and Society in Early Rome: From Warlords to Generals (2016)

Raaflaub (ed), Social Struggle in Archaic Rome, 2nd ed. (2008)* [edited volume with a lot of good chapters, especially Raaflaub, Cornell, Richard, Mitchell, Lindferski]

Terrenato, The early Roman expansion into Italy. Elite negotiation and family agendas (2019)

Middle Republic: Imperialism

Earlier period

Hölkeskamp, “Conquest, competition and consensus: Roman expansion in Italy and the rise of the nobilitas,” Historia 42 (1993) 12-39

Raaflaub, "Born to be Wolves? Origins of Roman Imperialism," in E. Harris & R. W. Wallace (eds.), Transitions to Empire in the Graeco-Roman World, 360-146 B.C. (1996) 273-314.

Terrenato, Early Roman Expansion into Italy (2019)

Fronda, Between Rome and Carthage (2011)

Motives, nature of Roman Expansion (the “Harris debate”)

Harris, War and Imperialism in Republican Rome (1979)

North, Development of Roman Imperialism (review of Harris), JRS 71 (1981) 1-9

Sherwin-White, Rome the Aggressor? (review of Harris), JRS 70 (1980) 177-181

Rich, Fear Greed and Glory: the Causes of Roman War Making in the Middle Republic, in Rich/Shipley, War and Society in the Roman World (1995) 38-68

Eckstein, Senate and General (1987)

Eckstein, Mediterranean Anarchy, Interstate War, and the Rise of Rome (2007)

Griffin, “Iure Plectimur. The Roman Critique of Roman Imperialism.” In Brennan and Flower (eds) East & West. Papers in Ancient History Presented to Glenn W. Bowersock (2008) [gives insight into why Roman historians give speeches to enemies of Rome, which could tie into presentation of captives]

Riggsby, Caesar in Gaul and Rome: War of Words (2021)

Provincialization, also response to Harris

Richardson, Hispaniae (1989)

Gruen, Hellenistic World and Coming of Rome (1986)

Kallett-Marx, Hegemony to Empire (1996)

Diaz Fernandez, Provinces and Provincial Command in republican Rome (2021)

Roman Political Culture (middle and late RP, and the democracy question)

Feig Vishnia, State, Society, and Popular Leaders in Mid-Republican Rome (2011) [possibly get rid of one of the older Gracchi treatments]

Hölkeskamp, Reconstructing the Roman Republic (2010)

Hölkeskamp, “The Roman Republic : government of the people, by the people, for the people ?,” Scripta Classical Israeilica 19 (2000) 203-223

Munzer, Roman Aristocratic Parties and Families (trans. 1999, orig. 1920)

Hopkins, Death and Renewal (1985) pp. 31-119

Lintott, Democracy in the Middle Republic

North, “Democratic Politics in Republican Rome,” Past & Present 126 (1990) 3-21

Millar, Crowd in Republican Rome (2002)

Millar, Political Character of the Classical Roman Republic, JRS 74 (1984) 1-19

Morstein-Marx, Mass Oratory and Political Power in the Late Roman Republican (2007)

North, Politics and Aristocracy in the Roman Republic, Classical Philology 85 (1990) 277-287

Lintott, Violence in Republican Rome (1999)

Wiseman, New Men in the Roman Senate (1972)

Archaeology/Topography and politics:

Davies, Architecture and Politics in Republican Rome (2017)

Russell, The Politics of Public Space in Republican Rome (2015)

Roman magistracies

Brennan Praetorship in the Republic (2000)

Beck, Duplá, jehnem Pina Polo (eds), Consuls and Res Publica: Holding High Office in the Roman Republic (2011)

Pina Polo, Quaestorship, Quaesorship in the Roman Republic (2019)

Wilson, Dictator: Evolutionof the Roman Dictatorship (2021)

Roman Religion/Religion and Politics

Beard, North and Price, Religions of Rome v. 1 and v. 2

Orlin, Temples, Religion and Politics

Rosenstein, Imperatores Victi

Gruen, Studies in Greek Culture and Roman Policy (various chapters on Magna Mater an Bacchanalia)

Stek, Cult Places and Cultural Change in Republican Italy

Beard, Roman Triumph (??)

Pedilla Peralta, Divine Institutions: Religions and Community in the Middle Republic (2020)

J. Mackay, Belief and Cult: Rethinking Roman Religion (2022)

Glinister, “Reconsidering ‘Religious Romanization’” YClS 33 (2006) 10-33

Diluzio, A Place at the Altar (2017) [on priestesses]

Middle Republic: Second Century/Lead-up to the Gracchi

Hopkins, Conquerors and Slaves (1981), esp. pp. 1-95

Rosenstein, Rome at War (2004)

Cornell, Hannibal’s Legacy: the effect of the Hannibal War on Italy, in Cornell/Rankov/Sabin, Second Punic War: a Reappraisal (1996)

Stockton, the Gracchi (1979) [older, “standard” treatment]

Earl, Tiberius Gracchus a Study in Politics (1963) [another old one; consult some of the reviews, e.g Brunt in Gnomon, Scullard in JRS, Crake in Phoenix)

Toynbee, Hannibal’s Legacy: the Hannibalic War’s Effects of Roman Life (1965) [very long; minimally understand the arguments and read reviews]

Brunt, Roman Manpower 225BC-AD14 (1971, republ. 1987) [very long]

There is a fair amount of archaeological work on second-century BC Italy.

Roman Italy, Romanization, Roman conquest of Italy:

Keay/Terrenato, Italy and the West (2001), just part 1 on the republic

Dench, From barbarians to new men: Greek, Roman, and modern perceptions of peoples from the central Apennines (1995)

Lomas, Rome and the Western Greeks (1993)

Bradley, Ancient Umbria: Stated Culture and Identity (2001)

Terrenato, Romanization of Italy: Global Acculturation or Cultural Bricolage, in Theoretical Roman Archaeology (1997) 20-27

Terrenato, Tam Firmum Municipium: the Romanization of Volaterrae and its Cultural Implications, JRS 88 (1998) 94-114

Terrenato, Early Roman Expansion into Italy (2019) [listed above]

Fronda, Between Rome and Carthage (2010) (intro section only)

Roselaar (ed), Processes of Integration and Identity Formation in the Roman Republic (2012) [lots of great chapters, especially by Roth, Rosenstein, Roselaar, Lomas, Patterson]

De Giorgi, Cosa and the Colonial Landscape of Colonial Italy (2019)

David, La Romanisation de l’Italie (1994) [= The Roman Conquest of Italy (1996)]

Glinister, “Reconsidering ‘Religious Romanization’” YClS 33 (2006) 10-33

Roth, Styling Romanization (2007) 

Salmon, The Making of Roman Italy (1982)

Roman-Italian elite connections

Patterson, “Contact, Cooperation and Conflict in Pre-Social War Italy,” in Roselaar, 215-226

Patterson, “The Relationship of the Italian ruling Classes with Rome,” in Jehne/Pfeilschifter, Herrschaft und Integration? Rom und Italien in republikanischer Zeit (2006) 139-153.

Terrenato, "Tam firmum municipium: the Romanization of Volaterrae and its cultural implication" JRS 99 (1998) 94-114.

Wiseman, New Men in the Roman Senate

Late Republic: the Italian Question and the Social War

Brunt, “Italian Aims at the Time of the Social War,” JRS 55 (1965) 90-109

Dart, The 'Italian Constitution' in the Social War: A Reassessment (91 to 88 BCE) Historia 58 (2009), 215-224

Pobjoy, “The First Italia,” in Herring and Lomas, The Emergence of State Identities in Italy 187-211

Mouritsen, Italian Unification (1998)

Keaveney, Rome and the Unification of Italy, 2nd ed. (2005)

Howarth, Rome, the Italians, and the Land, Historia 48 (1999) 282-300

Nagle, “An Allied View of the Social War,” AJA 77 (1973) 367-78 

Dart, The Social War, 91 to 88 BCE: A History of the Italian Insurgency against the Roman Republic (2014)

Late Republic: From Sulla to the Fall of Republic

Gruen, Last Generation of the Roman Republic, revised (1995) plus read reviews since this was not well received.

Piacentin, Financial Penalties in the Roman Republic (2022)

Taylor, Party Politics in the Age of Caesar (outdated: find reviews to understand the main arguments)

Morstein-Marx, Mass Oratory and Political power in the Late Republic (2008)

Rosillo Lopez, Political conversations in Late Republican Rome (2021)

Rosenblitt, Rome after Sulla (2019)

Pina Polo, The triumviral period: civil war, political crisis and socioeconomic transformations (2020)

Lintott, Violence in Republican Rome (1999)

Kelly, A History of Exile in the Roman Republic (2006)

Riggsby, Crime and Community in Ciceronian Rome (1999)

Augustus’ ‘Revolution’

Syme, Roman Revolution (1939) (a classic)

Raflaub/Toher (eds), Between Republic and Empire (1993)* [edited volume, excellent introductory chapter by Galsterer, plus other good historical chapters: Meier, Eder, Luce, Gruen]

Zanker, Power of Images in the Age of Augustus (1990)* (another classic)

Roman Military

Pfeilschifter, “The allies in the Republican army and the Romanization of Italy,” in Roth and Keller, Roman by Integration: Dimensions of Group Identity in Material Culture and Text (2007) 27-42

Jessica Clark. Triumph in Defeat: Military Loss and the Roman Republic. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2014

Rosenstein, Imperatores Victi: Military Defeat and Aristocratic Competition in the Middle and Late Republic (1990)

Keppie, Making of the Roman Army: from Republic to Empire (1998) [survey introduction]

Goldsworthy, Roman Army at War 100BC-AD 200 (1998)

Armstrong and Fronda (eds), Romans at War: Soldiers, Citizens and Society in Republican Rome (2020)

Daly, Cannae: Experience of battle in the Second Punic War (2003)

Slavery and Captives (starter bibliography)

Hopkins, Conquerers and Slaves (1981)

S. Joshel, Slavery in the Roman World (2010)

K. Bradley, Slavery and Rebellion in the Roman World, 140-70BC (1989)

K. Bradley, Slaves and masters in the Roman empire. A study in social control (1989)

K. Bradley, Slavery and society at Rome (1994)

K. Huemoeller, “Captivity for all ?: slave status and prisoners of war in the Roman Republic,” TAPA 115 (2021)

Henige, “He came, He Saw, We counted: the Historiography and Demography of Caesar's Gallic Numbers,” Annales de démographie historique (1998)

Lowe, "Prisoners, Guards, and Chains in Plautus, Captivi" AJP (1991)

Marshall, The Stagecraft and Performance of Roman Comedy (2006)

Richlin, Slave Theater in the Roman Republic (2017)

Scheidel, "Human Mobility in Roman Italy II: the Slave Population,” JRS (2005)

Scheidel and Harper, "Roman Slavery and the Idea of Slave Society" in Lenski/Cameron (eds) What Is a Slave Society (2018)

Scheidel, "The Roman Slave Supply" in Bradley/Cartledge (eds) Cambridge World History of Slavery (2011)

Thalmann, "Versions of Slavery in the Captivi of Plautus" Ramus (1996)

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crosseyedcricketart · 11 months

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Ancient Aegean - Art History Notes

Original post link / Original post date: October 2 2023

Timeline: 3000-2000 BCE – [Aegean] – Early Cycladic Art 2000-1700 BCE – [Aegean] – Old Palace Period (Crete) 1700-1400 BCE – [Aegean] – New Palace Period (Crete) 1400-1200 BCE – [Aegean] – Mycenaean occupation of Crete 900-600 BCE – [Greece] – Geometric & Orientalizing 600-480 BCE – [Greece] – Archaic 480-400 BCE – [Greece] – Early & High Classical 400-323 BCE – [Greece] – Late Classical 323-30 BCE – [Greece] – Hellenistic

Vocabulary: Cycladic – of the islands of the Aegean Sea, including Syros, Paros, Delos, Naxos, Keros, Melos, and Thera. This excludes Crete. Minoan – art of the island of Crete. Helladic – of the mainland of Greek.

Early Cycladic Art – 2600-2300 BCE

Cycladic Art is titled as such for the Cyclades in the Aegean Sea, which includes Syros, Paros, Delos, Naxos, Keros, Melos, and Thera, among other islands. They are named the Cyclades as the other islands seem to circle around Delos. This excludes Crete. Marble was found in the Aegean islands, which gave way to the beginnings of marble statues in Ancient Greece. The Cycladic art that we still have now consists of marble statuettes, which have a distinctive abstract style to them. Two of these art pieces are the Syros Woman and Keros Musician, both of which follow a similar style of great abstraction of the human form.

Minoan Art – Crete – 1700-1500 BCE

In this period, Cretan art is referred to as Minoan Art. There are two periods of Minoan art: Old Palace and New Palace. The “Palace” in question were large structures, of multiple rooms, on the island of Crete. These were most likely centers for religion, administration, and commercial works as opposed to residents for royalty- though, we are not sure. In cases like this, we have more evidence for one idea than another, so the one with more evidence is used more. The Old Palace period ended abruptly at 1700 BCE, most likely from an earthquake, which lead into the New Palace period as reconstruction immediately began. The largest palace complexes were at Knossos, Phaistos, Malia, Kato Zakro, and Khania. These were where Minoan life took place. The largest of these palaces was at Knossos, where it was named to be the home of King Minos, labeling this palace as the home of the labyrinth of the Minotaur. It should be noted that this was given to the palace as a story as opposed to this myth happening. The English word labyrinth, however, comes from this type of floor plan used in this palace, with the intricate planning and scores of rooms. This layout, a “double ax” labrys, is reoccurring in Minoan architecture and art, representing a sacrificial slaughter. Many Greek myths were taken down generations orally and many of these stories pointed to the glory days of the times evermore ancient to the ancient Greeks; this myth is probably connected to the Minoans and their palaces while remaining a myth. These palaces were constructed very well, made of sturdy stones embedded in clay, while sporting multiple stories. As true with most Mediterranean areas surrounded by water, Crete is mountainous and rocky, so these palaces accommodated building on top of this with multiple stories that made up for the depth of the slope. Meaning, there were parts of these palaces that were four-to-five stories tall. These palaces hosted drain systems for rain water, ventilation areas to fresh air, columns to hold the weight of the structure, and light wells to bring in natural light. Their columns were notably different than Greek or Egyptian columns of the time as they tapered from top to bottom, wide to narrower. The top was wide while the base was narrower.

Frescos were used to decorate these palaces, featuring nature paintings and aspects of Minoan life. These were achieved differently than Egyptian frescos, which was fresco secco, as the Minoan frescos were the first true buon fresco. To achieve this, they covered the rougher walls in white, fine lime plaster and painted onto the plaster as it was still wet. This means that the painting became a part of the wall, but the painters had a shorter amount of time to achieve the paintings. These paintings do not follow a strict canon, as the Egyptians did, but instead featured a very lively depiction of Minoan life with a freshness in the artworks.

Cycladic Art – 1600 BCE

Other frescos have been discovered, notably on the island of Thera, in Akrotiri, in the Cyclades. These were preserved by a volcanic eruption, with the area being buried in volcanic ash and pumice, similarly to how Pompeii was preserved. These frescos, as opposed to a palace/complex, decorated the walls of shrines and houses, making their number greater. These give us a better insight to how they once could have looked and their full compositions.

Minoan Art – 1800-1500 BCE

Minoan art also featured pottery which depicted nature, particularly the sea and its creatures. These pottery pieces were the first breaths of the style that the Greeks would adopt, morphing into red-figure and black-figure pottery. The Minoans did not have life-size statues or depictions of people or pieces of mythos, having a few smaller pieces remaining. We do not know of any mythos before the Ancient Greeks. A notable art piece is the Harvesters Vase, featuring relief sculptures, while being one of the first evidences of this area of the Mediterranean having an interest in the human body and further anatomy. It’s not well known when the full decline happened of the Minoan society, but we do know that the palaces were destroyed around 1200 BCE, with the Mycenaeans occupying the area before then. The cultural significance of these palaces faded around 1400 BCE.

Mycenaeans – 1600-1200 BCE

The Mycenaeans came to the Greek mainland at about 2000 BCE, being known as warriors who might have brought their wealth from the spoils of their victories. After Cretan palaces were destroyed, the Mycenaeans were left being the surviving Greek civilization. Mycenaean is the label placed on these people, but their fortifications were found at Mycenae, Tiryns, Orchomenos, Pylos, and other areas of Greece. These people became the silent subject of Greek mythos, as their fortifications were explained by later Greeks as being made by giants. The elite in this society were buried in bee-hive shaped tombs. The burial chamber, known as a tholos, consisted of a serious of stone, corbeled courses, laid on a circular base to form a dome. They created masks and daggers for their burials. They also produced one of the only life-size sculptures of this time on the Greek mainland. They had a distinctive illustration style on their pottery, separated from the Minoans.

———

This was a way to force me to write down notes about the greater ancient Greek world. So hopefully this was a nice little overview of the world before the Greeks.

I hope you enjoyed this little overview; make sure to make time for yourself today and drink some water-

Happy travels – Annie, the crosseyed cricket.

#art #art history #greek art #aegean art #ancient greece #ancient greek art #ancient aegean art #art education #art academia #academia #dark academia #greek

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deathlessathanasia · 1 year

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“While some traces of evidence suggesting Aphrodite’s link with militarism do indeed surface in her ancient Greek cultic, artistic and literary appearances, needless to say, these clues tend to be ambiguous and even contradictory, and thus prone to academic speculation, debate and controversy. Questions regarding her martial character focus on whether Aphrodite herself is portrayed as a warrior engaged in active combat or whether she serves as an inspiration for other fighters or possibly leads them into battle; also, it is a challenge to identify the probable origins or underlying source for these warlike aspects in her divine character. Some scholars believe that Aphrodite’s martial persona, if indeed she has one, is most likely a remnant of the early or lingering influence on her origins of the Near Eastern goddesses associated with both sexuality and warfare, such as Ishtar (Flemberg 1991); later, according to these scholars, Aphrodite was “stripped” of this militaristic component and became solely a goddess of love. Still other scholars argue that Aphrodite’s associations with militarism emerge directly out of her developed Greek persona as the goddess of violent sexuality who presides over the clashing together of bodies in erotic mixis (Pironti 2007). Thus, just as problems abound in determining Aphrodite’s geographic, ethnic and chronological origins, it is no easy task to establish an ultimate derivation for any martial attributes apparent in her character.

Some evidence points to possible militaristic elements in Aphrodite’s cults and shrines, though most of these attestations are rather late (most recently, with thorough survey of data and scholarship: Budin 2009). For example, the travel writer Pausanias, working in the second century ad, mentions three times the existence of “armed” (hoplismene¯) Aphrodite statues in Greece: at Cythera (Description of Greece 3.23.1), Corinth (2.5.1) and Sparta (3.15.10). While Pausanias follows Herodotus (The Histories 1.105) in asserting that Cythera was a major center for the worship of Aphrodite from very early antiquity, he doesn’t provide any more detailed information about the cult statue he simply describes as an armed xoanon or wooden statue of the goddess. At Corinth, which was completely razed by the Romans in 146 bc and rebuilt by Julius Caesar in 44 bc, what Pausanias likely saw was a statue of the Roman goddess and Caesar’s divine forebear, Venus Victrix, “She who Conquers,” rather than an image of the Greek Aphrodite.

Of all her early cults, it is most probable that Aphrodite may have manifested a military persona in archaic and classical Sparta. In addition to Pausanias’ report of a xoanon of Aphrodite Hoplismene¯ housed in an ancient temple there (3.15.10), a few Hellenistic epigrams from the third century bc (and later) depict the specifically martial aspect of the Spartan Aphrodite (e.g. Greek Anthology 9.320, 16.176). Even more interesting is Pausanias’ description of another temple in Sparta dedicated to Aphrodite Areia (3.17.5). This cult, supported by independent epigraphical data from the late Archaic period, suggests Aphrodite was worshipped at Sparta as a female Ares, “Areia.” But it is not clear whether Aphrodite Areia herself bore arms as a warrior or was revered in a joint cult with her more warlike paramour, Ares. Such joint cults of Aphrodite and Ares are found elsewhere in Greece and Crete, yet nowhere in these cults does Aphrodite display a distinctly martial aspect. Indeed, scholars note that the joint cults of Aphrodite and Ares most likely celebrate the gods as conflicting yet connected forces, love and war, linked by the notion of mixis, the intensely physical merging of bodies (Pirenne-Delforge 1994; Pironti 2007). Aphrodite engages in war to the extent that the divine lovers perform mixis in their mythological and cultic appearances.

Thus, a handful of evidence suggests Aphrodite may have had some militaristic aspects to her persona at a few early sites in Greece: for example, the description of her sacred statues as “armed” or her cult at Sparta as “Areia.” And while we grant that some ancient Greeks may have recognized warlike elements in Aphrodite’s divine nature, it seems that her military attributes, if any, were eventually downplayed when she emerged as a fully developed Olympian goddess. In book 5 of the Iliad, Zeus tells her “war isn’t your specialty,” but we have also seen that Aphrodite doesn’t avoid the battlefield. Yet whatever hints of the warrior Aphrodite may surface in the ancient archaeological and literary records, most scholars agree that the image of a militaristic Aphrodite does not represent the prevailing or traditional Greek portrayal of the great goddess of love and sexuality.”

- Monica S. Cyrino, Aphrodite

#aphrodite #quotes #excerpts

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lxdymaria · 1 year

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hi!! I hope this isn't too random ☺️ your video game gifs have crossed my dash many times (especially your sdv ones! i always wish my game looked as pretty as yours 😭) but i only just realised you're a classics major!! I am too!! If you don't mind me asking, which are your favourite areas of study/periods? I studied both Greece and Rome, but am slightly more Greek leaning asdfgh anyway I just wanted to say hi to a fellow classicist!! hope you have a great day <3<3

hello! first of all, thank u for the compliment! that's very sweet of you! :> and it's always nice to meet another classics major! my area of study is in art and architecture and my primary interest is in greece (i'd say it's probably a 60-40 for greece vs rome) for favourite periods are Hellenistic greece (im a big alexander girl) and late antiquity-early medieval (i also have a big interest in medieval Christianity and the byzantine empire) thank you for the ask, i hope you have a good day as well!

#asks #<3 #it's hard to pick a period tbh bc my interest in art takes me across so many different periods and locals #i love early bronze age art but i also love classical and hellenistic art #i love Etruscan art and early roman portraiture #~~art~~!!

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aboutanancientenquiry · 2 years

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An important article of Pr. Robert Karl Gnuse about the possible influence of the ancient Greek Classics on the Hebrew Bible (with Herodotus playing a major role in it)

“ Greek Literature and the Primary History

See Also: Hellenism and the Primary History. September, 2020 Forthcoming by Routledge.

By Robert Karl Gnuse Chair of the Department of Religious Studies Loyola University New Orleans June 2020

Comentators have observed for years how biblical authors might have used Greek texts or reflected Greek thought in their writings. Generally, these observations were connected with biblical works authored after 300 BCE. One thinks especially of the Wisdom of Solomon, dated around 50 BCE, which was loosely connected to the Middle Platonic philosophical tradition and often compared to the writings of the Jewish author Philo, who wrote in Greek. The two books of Maccabees were occasionally compared with historiography generated by the Greeks. Various Jewish novels were sometimes discussed in connection with Greek novels. Koheleth was associated with Greek stoicism and epicureanism.

In recent years, however, a number of scholars have dated the biblical books in the Primary History (Genesis through 2 Kings) very late. Thus, they have raised the possibility that the authors of these books might have been very familiar with Classical Greek texts down to 300 BCE and Hellenistic Greek texts after 300 BCE, and perhaps they even used some Greek texts to craft plot-line and imagery in the books of the Primary History. They are often called “minimalists” for dating the biblical texts so late, and they usually believe that most of the biblical narrative does not reflect the actual history that happened in the pre-exilic period down to 586 BCE. These “minimalists” have been called the “Copenhagen School” because leading authors come from the University of Copenhagen, although sometimes faculty from England (including Sheffield University) are included with them. “Minimalists” also fall into two groups. Some suggest that Genesis through 2 Kings arose primarily in the Persian period (540-330 BCE), while others stress the Hellenistic era, after 300 BCE, as the time of origin for most or all of the Primary History.

The possibility for such an interface between Greek and biblical texts late in the post-exilic period was raised by several authors. Significant works have been written by authors who raise the larger questions of a later date for biblical literature: the likelihood that the texts are fictional narratives driven by theological perspectives and the influence of Greek literature upon the texts.

Very early in the discussion, Giovanni Garbini suggested that the Primary History arose in the second century BCE slightly before the translation of the Greek Septuagint. The biblical text was fiction; the historiography was inspired by contemporary literature in the Hellenistic world (1988; 2003).

Nies Peter Lemche, the most well known advocate for the Hellenistic origins of the Primary History, maintained that only in the Hellenistic era could Jews produce such a significant historiographical work with an eye to the writings of Herodotus and other Greek historians. The literature was mostly fictional and highly ideological. The origin of this literature could have been in Seleucia of Syria during the second century BCE (1993; 1994: 174-87; 2000; 2001; 2008; 2011; 2015). His seminal article for the later discussion of Greek influence was “The Old Testament—A Hellenistic Book?” (1993).

Of equal significance in the debate was Thomas L. Thompson, who also located the Primary History in the second century BCE. He viewed some biblical narrative as reflections of Greek myths and history. Of his many examples, he suggested that Abraham’s travels are inspired by the wandering of the Greek hero Aeneas; David, Hezekiah, and Josiah are allegories of the Maccabean king John Hyrcanus; and Solomon symbolizes Alexander the Great (1999: 66, 77-78, 207-08, 273). He has written massively on the ideology of history writing and placed it in the context of Greek historiography. Lemche, Thompson, and Philip Davies of Sheffield University were the leading representatives of the Copenhagen School of minimalists.

Some scholars wrote comprehensive volumes covering a wide range of literature seeking to demonstate the dependence of bbilical literature in the Primary History upon Greek literature.

Russel Gmirkin believed that the Hebrew Bible and the Greek Septuagint were produced by Jewish intelligentsia in the library of Alexandria in the third century BCE at the request of Ptolemy II. Genesis 1-11 was inspired by the Babyloniaca of Berosus in 278 BCE, not Mesopotamian stories like the Enuma Elish, as we often taught in the past. The account of the exodus and Moses was designed to counter the Greek writings of Manetho (History of Egypt) in the early third century BCE about the Jews (2006: 91-239; 2014). The laws in the Pentateuch were inspired by Plato’s Laws (2017: 77-139, 183- 234).

Lukasz Niesiolowski-Spano described parallels between narratives in the Primary History and stories throughout Greek Classical and Hellenistic Literature. He suggested a Maccabean monarch authorized the creation of this literature in the second century BCE. His work focused closely upon the accounts of the shrines in the Old Testament (2011). He also believed that Genesis 1-11 reflected influence from the writings of Plato (2007).

Philippe Wajdenbaum produced a massive volume tracing the connections between hundreds of biblical narratives and a host of Greek Classical and Hellenistic texts (2011). That all these Greek authors knew the Bible, written by obscure Jews, is not possible, but that Jews would be familiar with the writings of the Greeks, whose culture overshadowed the world at this time, is much more likely. He also sought to demonstrate a connection between biblical laws and Plato’s Laws (2010). If only one-tenth of Wajdenbaum’s observations are correct, he has marshalled a tremendous amount of evidence for Greek influence in the Primary History.

Some scholars have focused upon the Deuteronomistic History, a significant part of the Primary History, and they maintain that this corpus of literature shows dependence upon the writings of Herodotus (Histories) in the fifth century BCE. This would locate the biblical material at least in the late Persian period, if not the Hellenistic era after 300 BCE.

Flemming Nielsen believed that Herodotus imparted to the Deuteronomistic historian an emphasis upon the tragic dimension in history. By tragic, Nielsen meant that both authors emphasized the distance between people and the divine, the need for humans to keep their place in the order of life, and how pride and overstepping one’s boundaries brings punishment or destruction. Though his arguments might suggest a late Persian period origin, he suggested that the biblical materials were generated in the Hellenistic era after 300 BCE, for in his opinion, this was the only logical era when a biblical author had access to the writings of Herodotus.

Jan-Wim Wesselius wrote a monograph demonstrating how the books of Genesis and Exodus reflect the writings of Herodotus, especially the latter’s narration of the lives of Persian kings. He compared in great detail the similarities between Joseph and Cyrus, and especially between Moses and Xerxes. Joseph and Cyrus both have dreams, are exposed to die, go into foreign exile, are hidden for a time, and become ascendant when their identity is revealed. Moses and Xerxes go forth to conquer either Canaan or Greece and cross water with their people. Many other details are mentioned, as well as comparisons between Terah and Phraortes (a Median king), Abraham and Cyaxares (a Median king), Isaac and Astyges (a Median king), and Jacob and Mandane (mother of Cyrus) (Wesselius 1999: 24-77; 2002: 6-47). Though Wesselius theorized these books were crafted in Nehemiah’s Jerusalem in the late fifth century BCE and placed the origin of the Primary History between 425 BCE and 300 BCE, later minimalist authors have referred to his detailed research as evidence that these books more likely were written in the Hellenistic era after 300 BCE.

A number of authors have written articles that focus upon a more limited range of biblical texts. Often these segments of literature come from the Deuteronomistic History with its clear composition from the diverse corpora of literature.

Philippe Guillaume maintained that scribes during the second century BCE in Alexandria inserted Judges into the Deuteronomistic History, reflecting the ideological needs of the Hasmonean rulers in Palestine. Judges was inspired by Hesiod’s Works and Days, especially the section on the heroes, which Hesiod inserted into the four ages of metal. This parallels how Judges was inserted into the Deuteronomistic History. Stories about heroic judges before David and Solomon undermine the claims of the Davidic Dynasty, which, in turn, helped the Hasmonean dynasts who had no Davidic ancestry behind their claims of messianic rule (147-64).

Katherine Stott observed that the rise of David, as depicted in 1 Samuel 16-31 and 2 Samuel 1-8, might be inspired by the narrative that describes the ascendancy of Cyrus to the throne of Persia and Media in the text of Herodotus’ Histories. She saw the following parallels: 1) Cyrus and David have humble beginnings, 2) they enter the court of the previous king, 3) that king is jealous of both young men, 4) they are threatened with death by that king, 5) they flee the court, 6) they become leaders, 7) there is a defection of an ally, 8) they usurp rule of the kingdom, 9) they succeed due their military prowess, 10) the old king’s life is spared for a time, 11) there is a tragic element in the fall of the previous king, and 12) the result is the formation of a new political entity. Stott noted that only in the Hellenistic era would this Greek text have been available for the biblical author (62-71, 77-78).

Daniel Hawk noted that the Orestia of Aeschylus and 1 Samuel 8 through 2 Kings 8 share similar structure and characters. Both have a tripartite scheme and use metaphors to reflect the transition from a kinship society to a civic society. Agamemnon and Saul reflect the old order, Orestes and David show the transition, and Athena and Solomon inaugurate the new order. The Deuteronomistic Historian used the Orestia as a model for his “received traditions concerning the Israelite monarchy.” Hawk believed the Hellenistic era would have been the time when the biblical author had access to the writings of Aeschylus.

Articles have been written by some scholars which speak in general terms of how Hellenistic literature shaped the Primary History after 300 BCE or even after 200 BCE in the Maccabean era.

Gerhard Larsson observes that there are great similarities between Berossus (Babyloniaca) and the biblical narratives about the creation of humanity, the flood, and ancient rulers with great longevity. Manetho (History of Egypt) divides history into significant eras, as does the biblical history. Larsson concluded that the biblical accounts were created in Ptolemaic Egypt during the second century BCE and influenced by significant third century BCE Greek historians such as Berossus, Manetho, and Eratosthenes.

Emanuel Pfoh believed that though the Primary History was created in the Hellenistic era, some traditions did come from the Assyrian and Persian eras and were developed by scribes over the years. But essentially the text was shaped under Hellenistic influence (23, 33-35).

Etienne Nodet affirmed that the Pentateuch arose in the early third century BCE, but the Prophets and some of the Writings were created in the second century BCE. These texts were generated in Alexandria under Hellenistic influence.

Finally, there are articles which focus on individual texts, or shorter segments of biblical literature. These studies are able to compare more closely biblical texts with classical texts in greater detail, and provide some concrete examples for the more general theories of authors just mentioned.

Hesiod’s Theogony and Catalogue of Women, in part, were influential sources respectively for the creation account in Genesis 1 and the geneaologies found throughout Genesis 1-11 (Gnuse 2017c).

Narratives in Genesis 1-11 can also be shown to have significant parallels with acounts recorded in Greek Historians, such as Hecateus of Miletus (Periegesis and Genealogies) and Herodotus of Halicarnassus (Histories), including references to human accomplishments (Gen 4: 20-22), the three sons of a flood hero who are ancestors of humanity (Gen 9:18-19; 10:1-32), and the planting of a vineyard (Gen 9:20-27) (Gnuse 2019a).

Older Latin traditions which lie behind the accounts in Ovid’s Fasti 5, 493-544 and Metamorphoses 8, 625-725 may have inspired the narratives of the messengers who tell Abraham of his coming son and the messengers who warn Lot to leave Sodom in Genesis 18:1-15; 19:12-26 (Gnuse 2017b).

A narrative about Democedes of Croton in Histories 3,125-132 of Herodotus may have given rise to the narrative about Joseph interpreting the dreams of the pharaoh in Gen 41:1-36, which in turn inspired the dream reports in the book of Daniel (Gnuse 2010a).

The short narrative about the noble talking horses of the great warrior Achilles in the Iliad 19, 395-424 may be loosely spoofed by the account of Balaam’s donkey in Num 22: 22-35, wherein a simple donkey shames a foolish prophet. Talking animals are far more common in Greek literature than the Bible (Gnuse 2017d).

The sacrifice of Iphigenia in two plays by Euripides around 400 BCE, Iphigenia among the Taurians and Iphigenia in Aulis, might have inspired the account of Jephthah’s sacrifice of his daughter in Judges 11:30, 34-40, which appears to be inserted into the account of Jephthah’s battles (Gnuse 2019b).

A great number of diverse Greek legends about Heracles appear to have influenced the Samson narratives in Judges 13-16, at a late date, most likely the Hellenistic era. There are far too many Greek parallels within these four chapters than can be dismissed as mere folkloristic coincidences (Gnuse 2018).

“The Rape of the Sabine Women” as an old tale recalled by Livy (History I, 9,1-16) and Plutarch (Lives: Romulus XIV, 2-8) may be the template for the abducted girls in Judg 21:1-24 (Gnuse 2007).

Arrian’s account of Alexander the Great and the spilt water in the Anabasis of Alexander 6.26.1-3 may have inspired a similar story of David in 2 Sam 23:15-17. David’s action of pouring out the water that his brave soldiers retrieved from behind enemy lines does not make a sensible story as does Alexander’s action in the Gedrosian desert where thirst is truly an issue (Gnuse 1998).

The narratives about Joseph, Balaam, and Jephthah may have been placed in the biblical text during the Persian period shortly after 400 BCE, as well as biblical texts in Genesis 1-11 with Hesiod, Hecateus, and Herodotus as sources of inspiration. but the other four narratives more likely seem to have a Hellenistic era origin. Ultimately, one might argue that all these texts arose in the Hellenistic era. Wajdenbaum discussed all of these same accounts, making many of the same observations and suggesting Hellenistic origins, but Gnuse provided greater detail in the analysis of the passages. These essays by Gnuse have collected together in a single volume (Gnuse 2020).

As we reflect on the evaluation of individual accounts that have received special attention by critical scholars, especially by Wajdenbaum and Gnuse, certain patterns seem to emerge as to which particular accounts might have been late and heavily influenced by Greek classical and Hellenistic narratives. There are those accounts found at the end of biblical books that appear to have been attached to the book with only a loose connection to the rest of the book. This is especially true in the book of Judges, where the Samson narratives of Judges 13-16 appear to have a completely different style than the rest of the book of Judges. Then the chapters that follow in Judges 17-21 have the appearance of an appendix to the rest of the book, and there we find the account of the women kidnapped from Shiloh. 2 Samuel 21-23 also appears to be an appendix, and herein we find David pouring out the water received from his warriors. Judges 13-21 and 2 Samuel 21-23 could have been added to the Deuteronomistic History at a very late date. The Joseph Novella in Genesis 39-50 is often seen as a late addition to the book of Genesis around 400 BCE or thereafter (consider, for example, the reference to coinage), so that the influence of Herodotus upon Joseph’s dream interpretation is likely. Other accounts also have the appearance of having been inserted somewhat unevenly into their narrative context. This is most evident with the account of Jephthah’s sacrifice of his daughter, which appears inserted into the middle of Jephthah’s battles in the Transjordan, and the narrative about Balaam and his donkey, which totally portrays Balaam with a different persona than is found in the rest of Numbers 22-24. The story of the three angels who visit Abraham and suddenly become only two in number when they visit Lot begs us to look at parallel Roman accounts in which there are three and two angels respectively in the narratives from Ovid. Furthermore, the nuanced details of the dialogue in Genesis 18-19 also betoken the writing style of a later age. Thus, the influence of Classical and Greek accounts seems most plausible in stories that appear to be later additions and insertions into the narrative sequence in the Primary History.

Where this scholarly research will go in the future is difficult to say. Will these minimalist conclusions become the future consensus of the scholarly guild or will these observations be forever connected to a few members of the Copenhagen School and be ultimately relegated to obscurity? Only time will tell.

Bibliography

Garbini, Giovanni. 1988. History and Ideology in Ancient Israel. Translated by John Bowden. New York: Crossroads.

———. 2003. Myth and History in the Bible. Translated by Chiara Paul. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 362. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.

Gmirken, Russell. 2006. Berossus and Genesis, Manetho and Exodus: Hellenistic Histories and the Date of the Pentateuch. Library of the Hebrew Bible 433. Copenhagen International Seminar 15. London: T & T Clark.

———. 2014. “Greek Evidence for the Hebrew Bible.” Pages 56-88 in The Bible and Hellenism: Greek Influence on Jewish and Early Christian Literature. Edited by Thomas Thompson and Philippe Wajdenbaum. Copenhagen International Seminar. New York: Routledge.

———. 2017. Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible. New York: Routledge.

Gnuse, Robert. 1998. “Spilt Water: Tales of David (II Sam 23:13-17) and Alexander the Great (Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander 6.26.1-3).” Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament 12: 233-48.

———. 2007. “Abducted Wives: A Hellenistic Narrative in the Book of Judges?” Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament 22: 272-85.

———. 2010a. “From Prison to Prestige: The Hero who helps a King in Jewish and Greek Literature.” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 72: 31-45.

———. 2017b. “Divine Messengers in Genesis 18-19 and Ovid.” Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament 31: 66-79.

———. 2017c. “Greek Connections: Genesis 1-11 and the Poetry of Hesiod.” Biblical Theology Bulletin 47: 131-43.

———. 2017d. “Heed Your Steeds: Achilles’ Horses and Balaam’s Donkey.” International Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Sciences 4 (6): 1-5.

———. 2018. “Samson and Heracles Revisited.” Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament 32: 1-19.

———. 2019a. “Greek Historians and the Primeval History.” International Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Sciences 6 (1): 20-25.

———. 2019b. “Jephthah’s Daughter and Iphigenia in the Plays of Euripides.” International Journal of the Arts and Humanities 5 (1): 16-23.

———. 2020. Hellenism and the Primary History: The Imprint of Greek Sources in Genesis-2 Kings. Copenhagen International Seminar. London: Routledge.

Guillaume, Philippe. 2014. “Hesiod’s heroic age and the biblical period of the Judges.” Pages 146-64 in The Bible and Hellenism: Greek Influence on Jewish and Early Christian Literature. Edited by Thomas Thompson and Philippe Wajdenbaum. Copenhagen International Seminar. New York: Routledge.

Hawk, Daniel. 2003. “Violent Grace: Tragedy and Transformation in the Orestia and the Deuteronomistic History.” Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament 18: 73-88.

Larsson, Gerhard. 2004. “Possible Hellenistic Influence in the Historical Parts of the Old Testament.” Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament 18: 296-311.

Lemche, Niels Peter. 1993. “The Old Testament—A Hellenistic Book.” Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament 7: 163-93.

———. 1994. “Is It Still Possible to Write a History of Ancient Israel?” Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament 8: 163-88.

———. 2000. “Good and Bad in History: The Greek Connection.” Pages 127-40 in Rethinking the Foundations: Historiography in the Ancient World and in the Bible. Essays in Honour of John Van Seters. Edited by Steven McKenzie and Thomas Römer. Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die altestamentliche Wissenschaft 294. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

———. 2001. “How Does One Date an Expression of Mental History?” Pages 200-224 in Did Moses Speak Attic? Jewish Historiography and Scripture in the Hellenistic Period. Edited by Lester Grabbe. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 317/European Seminar on Historical Methodology 3. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.

———. 2008. The Old Testament between Theology and History. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox.

———2011. “Does the Idea of the Old Testament as a Hellenistic Book Prevent Source Criticism of the Pentateuch?” Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament 25: 75-92.

———. 2015. “When the End is the Beginning: Creating a National History?” Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament 29: 22-32.

Nielsen, Flemming. 1997. The Tragedy in History: Herodotus and the Deuteronomistic History. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 251. Copenhagen International Seminar 4. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.

Niesiolowski-Spano, Lukasz. 2007. “Primeval History in the Persian Period?” Scandinavian Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 21: 106-26.

———. 2011. Origin Myths and Holy Places in the Old Testament. Translated by Jacek Laskowski. London: Equinox.

Nodet, Etienee. 2014. “Editing the Bible: Alexandria or Babylon?” Pages 36-55 in The Bible and Hellenism: Greek Influence on Jewish and Early Christian Literature. Edited by Thomas Thompson and Philippe Wajdenbaum. Copenhagen International Seminar. New York: Routledge.

Pfoh, Emanuel. 2014. “Ancient historiography, biblical stories and Hellenism.” Pages 19-35 in The Bible and Hellenism: Greek Influence on Jewish and Early Christian Literature. Edited by Thomas Thompson and Philippe Wajdenbaum. Copenhagen International Seminar. New York: Routledge.

Stott, Katherine. 2002. “Herodotus and the Old Testament: A Comparative Reading of the Ascendancy Stories of King Cyrus and David.” Scandinavian Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 16: 52-78.

Thompson, Thomas. 1999. The Bible in History: How Writers Create a Past. London: Jonathan Cape.

———. 1999. The Mythic Past: Biblical Archaeology and the Myth of Israel. New York: Basic Books.

Wajdenbaum, Philippe. 2010. “Is the Bible a Platonic Book?” Scandinavian Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 24: 129-42.

———. 2011. Argonauts of the Desert. Structural Analysis of the Hebrew Bible. Copenhagen International Seminar. Sheffield: Equinox.

Wesselius, Jan-Wim. 1999. “Discontinuity, Congruence and the Making of the Hebrew Bible.” Scandinavian Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 13: 24-77.

———. 2002. The Origin of the History of Israel: Herodotus’ Histories as Blueprint for the First Books of the Bible. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 345. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.”

https://bibleinterp.arizona.edu/articles/greek-literature-and-primary-history

Robert Karl Gnuse Chair of the Department of Religious Studies Loyola University New Orleans

Dr. Robert Gnuse is the James C. Carter, S.J./Bank One Distinguished Professor of the Humanities in the Religious Studies Department. He received his Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in the area of Old Testament, and he is the author of 12 books and approximately 80 articles in the field of biblical studies. He has been at Loyola since 1980. Courses taught by him include Introduction to World Religions and various courses in the Bible.

Source: http://cas.loyno.edu/religious-studies/bios/robert-k-gnuse

So, as I see there is a whole school of academics who believe that the Old Testament as we know it today was composed at least partially during the Hellenistic times and under Greek influence, with Herodotus having a major role in this influence. Personally I am still rather inclined toward the more traditional point of view, which sees and understands the Bible mostly in a Near Eastern context. However, although of course I am not a Biblical scholar, I see with much interest the “Greek” approach of Pr. Gnuse and of the other authors of the same school of thought.

#the bible #ancient greek classics #herodotus #robert karl gnuse

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myrtaceaae · 1 month

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Actually that classics class was probably the most fun I had at school. Me, another bloke, and Gazza (the teacher (a woman in her 50s who toasted our sandwiches in the staffroom for us))

Like it was genuinely fun to explore ideas and discuss the language used and the ideas being conveyed, and because there was only two of us in the class we could really get into things (it was technically distance education, Gazza wasn't the teacher marking our homework, but she was the one teaching us)

And also I'm shithouse at writing anything so Gazza let me write like dozens of practice essays, marked each one and went over them for me in preparation for the final exam, and I did so well on it I was able to study ancient greek as a uni subject for my final yeah of secondary school.

We also studied sculpture from late Archaeic to early Hellenistic period, which fucked severely and I still have the poster I made to memorise those sculptures. Do revision for them was SO much fun because we had a little chant that me and the other bloke in the class made up

(also reading trojan women was an EXPERIENCE, that I should probably reread. (reading the apology was also an experience that I would prefer to forget))

#about me #i don't know that i would still want a classics degree. given i live in australia and I'd want to also have a degree in archaeology.#but studying classics and ancient greek was a beautiful thing in an extremely hard time of my life #if i WERE to go back to uni i would do archaeology focusing on australian water uses (pre-colonial & 19C goldmining)

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fmpnalogirlypop · 6 months

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Greek mythology part 2

Hellenistic Greece

The period from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 until the death of Cleopatra, the last Macedonian ruler of Egypt, is known as the Hellenistic period. In the early part of this period, a new form of kingship developed based on Macedonian and Near Eastern traditions. The first Hellenistic kings were previously Alexander's generals, and took power in the period following his death, though they were not part of existing royal lineages and lacked historic claims to the territories they controlled. The most important of these rulers in the decades after Alexander's death were Antigonus I and his son Demetrius in Macedonia and the rest of Greece, Ptolemy in Egypt, and Seleucus I in Syria and the former Persian empire; smaller Hellenistic kingdoms included the Attalids in Anatolia and the Greco-Bactrian kingdom.

During the Hellenistic period, the importance of "Greece proper" (the territory of modern Greece) within the Greek-speaking world declined sharply. The great capitals of Hellenistic culture were Alexandria in the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Antioch in the Seleucid Empire.

The conquests of Alexander had numerous consequences for the Greek city-states. It greatly widened the horizons of the Greeks and led to a steady emigration of the young and ambitious to the new Greek empires in the east. Many Greeks migrated to Alexandria, Antioch and the many other new Hellenistic cities founded in Alexander's wake, as far away as present-day Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and the Indo-Greek Kingdom survived until the end of the first century BC.

The Antigonid Kingdom became involved in a war with the Roman Republic in the late 3rd century. Although the First Macedonian War was inconclusive, the Romans, in typical fashion, continued to fight Macedon until it was completely absorbed into the Roman Republic (by 149 BC). In the east, the unwieldy Seleucid Empire gradually disintegrated, although a rump survived until 64 BC, whilst the Ptolemaic Kingdom continued in Egypt until 30 BC when it too was conquered by the Romans. The Aetolian league grew wary of Roman involvement in Greece, and sided with the Seleucids in the Roman–Seleucid War; when the Romans were victorious, the league was effectively absorbed into the Republic. Although the Achaean league outlasted both the Aetolian league and Macedon, it was also soon defeated and absorbed by the Romans in 146 BC, bringing Greek independence to an end.

Politics and society

Ancient Greece consisted of several hundred relatively independent city-states (poleis). This was a situation unlike that in most other contemporary societies, which were either tribal or kingdoms ruling over relatively large territories. Undoubtedly, the geography of Greece—divided and sub-divided by hills, mountains, and rivers—contributed to the fragmentary nature of ancient Greece. On the one hand, the ancient Greeks had no doubt that they were "one people"; they had the same religion, same basic culture, and same language. Furthermore, the Greeks were very aware of their tribal origins; Herodotus was able to extensively categorise the city-states by tribe. Yet, although these higher-level relationships existed, they seem to have rarely had a major role in Greek politics. The independence of the poleis was fiercely defended; unification was something rarely contemplated by the ancient Greeks. Even when, during the second Persian invasion of Greece, a group of city-states allied themselves to defend Greece, the vast majority of poleis remained neutral, and after the Persian defeat, the allies quickly returned to infighting.

Inevitably smaller poleis might be dominated by larger neighbors, but conquest or direct rule by another city-state appears to have been quite rare. Instead the poleis grouped themselves into leagues, membership of which was in a constant state of flux. Later in the Classical period, the leagues would become fewer and larger, be dominated by one city (particularly Athens, Sparta and Thebes); and often poleis would be compelled to join under threat of war (or as part of a peace treaty). Even after Philip II of Macedon "conquered" the heartlands of ancient Greece, he did not attempt to annex the territory or unify it into a new province, but compelled most of the poleis to join his own Corinthian League.

Government and law

Initially many Greek city-states seem to have been petty kingdoms; there was often a city official carrying some residual, ceremonial functions of the king (basileus), e.g., the archon basileus in Athens. However, by the Archaic period and the first historical consciousness, most had already become aristocratic oligarchies. It is unclear exactly how this change occurred. For instance, in Athens, the kingship had been reduced to a hereditary, lifelong chief magistracy (archon) by c. 1050 BC; by 753 BC this had become a decennial, elected archonship; and finally by 683 BC an annually elected archonship. Through each stage, more power would have been transferred to the aristocracy as a whole, and away from a single individual.

Athens fell under a tyranny in the second half of the 6th century BC. When this tyranny was ended, the Athenians founded the world's first democracy as a radical solution to prevent the aristocracy regaining power. A citizens' assembly (the Ecclesia), for the discussion of city policy, had existed since the reforms of Draco in 621 BC; all citizens were permitted to attend after the reforms of Solon (early 6th century), but the poorest citizens could not address the assembly or run for office. With the establishment of the democracy, the assembly became the de jure mechanism of government; all citizens had equal privileges in the assembly. However, non-citizens, such as metics (foreigners living in Athens) or slaves, had no political rights at all.

Social structure

Only free, land-owning, native-born men could be citizens entitled to the full protection of the law in a city-state. In most city-states, unlike the situation in Rome, social prominence did not allow special rights. Sometimes families controlled public religious functions, but this ordinarily did not give any extra power in the government. In Athens, the population was divided into four social classes based on wealth. People could change classes if they made more money. In Sparta, all male citizens were called homoioi, meaning "peers". However, Spartan kings, who served as the city-state's dual military and religious leaders, came from two families.

Religion

Religion was a central part of ancient Greek life. Though the Greeks of different cities and tribes worshipped similar gods, religious practices were not uniform and the gods were thought of differently in different places. The Greeks were polytheistic, worshipping many gods, but as early as the sixth century BC a pantheon of twelve Olympians began to develop. Greek religion was influenced by the practices of the Greeks' near eastern neighbours at least as early as the archaic period, and by the Hellenistic period this influence was seen in both directions.

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