Description

This collection of contested problems in the history of Ancient Greece aims to enhance and deepen the experience of any college student.

 

Each chapter within Problems in the History of Ancient Greece is a self-contained unit that presents a key problem of continuing interest among historians.  In each case there is a selection of pertinent ancient sources in translation, with a number of modern viewpoints also presented.  In this way, students may experience the nature of weighing and evaluating sources; the problem of posing mean­ingful and enlightening questions; the need to change hypotheses in the light of new evidence or new insights; and the necessity, in some cases, of suspending judgment.

 

Note: The problems selected for this collection span the chronological period usually covered in ancient Greek courses.  Second, they were selected because they have been the subject of relatively recent study.  Finally, they are meant to be sufficiently varied in topic and approach; in order to expose the student to a variety of historical methods and techniques. 

Features

A wide range of problems in ancient Greek history–social, cultural, and political–are explored and presented in an interactive, clash of opinions format

Combines both ancient sources and the opinions of modern scholars to present students with a rich, contextualized environment for interpreting ancient Greek history

Ideal as a stand-alone text or as supplement in courses in the history of Ancient Greece .

 

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The World of Homer

Ancient Sources                                                                                                                

1. Homer, Iliad 1.1-303
2. Homer, Iliad 2.53-278
3. Homer, Iliad 18.478-508
4. Homer, Odyssey 1.365-424
5. Homer, Iliad 6.440-502
6. Homer, Iliad 9.307-429
7. Homer, Iliad 12.310-328

Opinions of Modern Scholars                                                                                                      

1. From Moses Finley, The World of Odysseus
2. From Anthony Snodgrass, “An Historical Homeric Society?”
3. From Barry Strauss, The Trojan War: a New History

 

Chapter 2:   Hoplite Warfare in Archaic Greek Society

Ancient Sources                                                                                                                                                

1. Homer, Iliad, 11.17-46
2. Homer, Iliad, 13.125-168
3. Homer, Iliad, 7.219-312
4. Tyrtaeus (Fragments)
5. Herodotus, Histories 7.9
6. Thucydides 1.15
7. Thucydides 5.69-73
8. Polybius 13.3.4

Opinions of Modern Scholars                                                                                                                      

1. From Victor Davis Hanson, Western Way of War: infantry battle in classical Greece
2. From Hans van Wees, “The Development of the Hoplite Phalanx: Iconography and reality in the seventh century”

 

Chapter 3:   The Spartan Revolution

Ancient Sources                                                                                                                                                

1. Herodotus, Histories 1.65-6
2. Plutarch, Life of Lycurgus 5-10; 13-18; 24-29
3. Tyrtaeus (Fragments)
4. Xenophon, Constitution of the Lacedaemonians (abridged)
5. Aristotle, Politics 1269a-1271b
6. Thucydides 4.80
7. Thucydides 5.23.3
8. Xenophon, Hellenica

Opinions of Modern Scholars                                                                                                                      

1. From Paul Cartledge, “Rebels and Sambos in Classical Greece: A Comparative View”
2. From Richard Talbert, “The role of the Helots in the class struggle at Sparta”

 

Chapter 4:   Solon’s Constitution

Ancient Sources                                                                                                                                                

1. Solon (Selections)
2. Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians, 5-12
3. Aristotle, Politics 1273b35-1274a22; 1296a1-22
4. Plutarch, Life of Solon, 13-18

Opinions of Modern Scholars                                                                                                                      

1. From C. Hignett, A History of the Athenian Constitution to the End of the Fifth Century B.C.
2. From G.E.M. de Ste. Croix, Athenian Democratic Origins: and other essays

 

Chapter 5:   Greek Strategy in the Persian War

Ancient Sources                                                                                                                                                

1. Herodotus, Histories, 7.138-45, 175, 182-4; 207, 213, 217-19; 222-25; 228; 8.4-15, 18, 21,40-2; 49-  52; 56-63; 71-76, 78-83
2. The Themistocles Decree
3. Plutarch, Life of Themistocles, 9-10

Opinions of Modern Scholars                                                                                                                      

1. From Peter Green, The Greco-Persian Wars
2. From J. F. Lazenby, The Defence of Greece 490-479 B.C.

 

Chapter 6:   What was the Nature and Importance of Greek Slavery

 Ancient Sources                                                                                                                                                               

1. Xenophon, Memorabilia 2.8.1-5
2. Xenophon, Memorabilia 2.7.1-4
3. Demosthenes, 27.9
4. Demosthenes 36.4-5, 11
5. Aeschines, Against Timarchus1.97
6. Lysias, For Callias 5
7. Thucydides 7.27               
8. Xenophon, Ways and Means (Poroi) 4.14
9. “Old Oligarch” (Pseudo-Xenophon), Constitution of the Athenians 1.10-12
10. Plato, Republic, 562b-563b
11. Aristotle, Politics 1252b-1255a
12. Isocrates, Panegyricus 4.150-152, 181-182

Opinions of Modern Scholars                                                                                                                      

1. A.H.M. Jones, The Economic Basis of the Athenian Empire
2. Bruce Thornton, Greek Ways

 

Chapter 7:  The Role of Women in Ancient Greece

Ancient Sources                                                                                                                                                

1. Hesiod, Theogony 560-615; Works and Days 44-105
2. Semonides, “Pedigree of Women”
3. Sophocles, Antigone 445-525
4. Euripides, Medea 230-250
5. Thucydides 2.45.2
6. Plato, Menexenus 234a-249e
7. Lysias I, On the Murder of Eratosthenes, 6-27, translated by W.R.M. Lamb
8. Xenophon, Oeconomicus, 3.10-15; 7.22-31
9. Plato, Republic
10. Aristotle, Politics

Opinions of Modern Scholars                                                                                                      

1. A.W. Gomme, “The Position of Women in Athens in the Fifth Fourth Centuries B.C.”
2. John Gould, “Law, Custom and Myth: Aspects of the Social Position of Women in Classical Athens”
3. Joan Breton Connelly, Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece 

 

Chapter 8:   Periclean Athens

Ancient Sources                                                                                                                                                

1. Thucydides, 2.35-46
2. Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians, 26-28
3. Pseudo-Xenophon, Constitution of the Athenians, 1-3
4. Plato, Gorgias, 515-517
5. Plutarch, Pericles, 9, 11-12, 14-16, 31-35, 37

Opinions of Modern Scholars                                                                                                                      

1. From Georg Busolt, Griechische Geschichte, translated by Donald Kagan
2. From Malcolm McGregor, “The Politics of the Historian Thucydides”
3. From Paul A. Rahe, Republics Ancient and Modern

 

Chapter 9:  The Unpopularity of the Athenian Empire

Ancient Sources                                                                                                                                                

1. Thucydides 1.88-101; 112-117
2. Thucydides 3.10
3. Thucydides 6.82
4. Thucydides 1.75-76
5. Thucydides 2.63
6. Diodorus 11.70
7. Pseudo-Xenophon, The Constitution of the Athenians, 1, 3
8. Thucydides, 3.26-28; 35-50
9. Thucydides, 8.1-2
10. Thucydides, 8.68
11. Thucydides, 1.22.1
12. Thucydides, 8.97.2

Opinions of Modern Scholars                                                                                                                      

1. From G.E.M. de Ste. Croix, “The Character of the Athenian Empire”
2. From Donald W. Bradeen, “The Popularity of the Athenian Empire”

 

Chapter 10:  The Causes of the Peloponnesian war

Ancient Sources                                                                                                                                                

1. Thucydides 1.18-19; 23
2. Thucydides 1.31-44
3. Thucydides 1.66-67; 86-88
4. Plutarch, Pericles 29-32
5. Diodorus Siculus 12.38-40

Opinions of Modern Scholars                                                                                                                      

1. From Victor Davis Hanson, A War Like No Other
2. From G.E.M. de Ste. Croix, The Origins of the Peloponnesian War
3. From Donald Kagan, The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War

 

Chapter 11:  Was Socrates Guilty?

Ancient Sources                                                                                                                                                

1. Aristophanes, Clouds 86-153
2. Plato, Apology of Socrates [abridged]
3. Xenophon, Memorabilia 1.1-3; 1.2.1-2; 1.2.6-7; 1.29, 12-16; 1.2.24; 1.2.29-33; 4.7.6; 4.8.4-11

 Opinions of Modern Scholars                                                                                                                      

1. From Mogens Herman Hansen, The Trial of Sokrates — From the Athenian Point of View
2. Paul Cartledge — Democracy Reaffirmed

 

Chapter 12:  Demosthenes versus Philip of Macedon

Ancients Sources                                                                                                                                                              

1. Plutarch, Demosthenes, 12-21
2. Demosthenes, Third Philippic Oration, translated by A.W. Pickard-Cambridge

Opinions of Modern Scholars                                                                                                      

1. J. G. Droysen, Geschichte des Hellenismus,Vol.1, pp.31-34,translated by Donald Kagan
2. A.W. Pickard-Cambridge, Demosthenes
3. George Cawkwell, Philip of Macedon

 

Chapter 13:  Alexander the Great

Ancient Sources                                                                                                                                                

1. Arrian: History of Alexander 4.9-19
2. Arrian: History of Alexander 7.4.4-7.6.5
3. Arrian: History of Alexander 7.8.1-3; 7.10.5; 7.11.1-7.12.4
4. Plutarch: Moralia, 329A-D
5. Fragments of the Lost Alexander Historians

Opinions of Modern Scholars                                                                                                                      

1. From W. W. Tarn, “Alexander the Great and the Unity of Mankind”
2. From W. W. Tarn, Alexander the Great 1
3. From A. B. Bosworth, “Alexander and the Iranians”
4. From Peter Green, Alexander of Macedon, 356-323 B.C.: A Historical Biography
5. From Paul Cartledge, “Alexander the Man”

Author

DONALD KAGAN is Sterling Professor of History and Classics at Yale University, where he has taught since 1969. He received the A.B. degree in history from Brooklyn College, the M.A. in classics from Brown University, and the Ph.D. in history from Ohio State University. During 1958 to 1959 he studied at the American School of Classical Studies as a Fulbright Scholar. He has received three awards for undergraduate teaching at Cornell and Yale. He is the author of a history of Greek political thought, The Great Dialogue (1965); a four volume history of the Peloponnesian war, TheOrigins of the Peloponnesian War (1969); The Archidamian War (1974); The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition (1981); The Fall of the Athenian Empire (1987); and a biography of Pericles, Pericles of Athens and the Birth of Democracy (1991); On the Origins of War (1995) and The Peloponnesian War (2003). He is coauthor, with Frederick W. Kagan of While America Sleeps (2000). With Brian Tierney and L. Pearce Williams, he is the editor of Great Issues in Western Civilization, a collection of readings. He was awarded the National Humanities Medal for 2002 and was chosen by the National Endowment for the Humanities to deliver the Jefferson Lecture in 2004.

 

GREGORY VIGGIANO received his Ph.D. in Classics from Yale University. He is an Assistant Professor in the history department at Sacred Heart University, where he teaches courses on ancient Greece and Rome, and Western Civilization. He is currently co-editing a book on Ancient Greek Hoplite Warfare with Donald Kagan.