Related Papers
Erskine & Llewellyn-Jones (eds.), Creating a Hellenistic World
The Significance of Plataia for Greek Eleutheria in the Early Hellenistic Period
2011 •
Shane Wallace
" This paper looks at the importance of Plataia as a lieu de mémoire for Greek freedom (eleutheria) in the early Hellenistic Period. Focusing on the memory and commemoration of the Persian Wars, it explores how Plataia’s historical importance was manipulated by both Philip and Alexander in advance of their invasion of the Persian empire. Both kings used the site’s connections with the Persian wars to portray their own campaigns against Persia as a manifestation of their wish to defend Greek freedom. This pro-Macedonian use of the memory of Plataia and the Persian wars is then contrasted with the pro-Athenian invocation of Plataia during the Chremonidean War, when it was presented as the archetypal manifestation of the defence of Greek freedom by Athens and Sparta together. Persia is assimilated to Macedon (under Antigonos Gonatas) and the historical precedents of the Persian Wars are used by Athens to authorise its own hegemony during the Chremonidean War. I am concerned throughout with tracing the physicality of remembrance. That is, the ways in which the addition or alteration of monuments exemplifies the shifting balance of memory, at once emphasising a Macedonian appropriation and later an Athenian one. Monuments such as the honorary decree for Glaukon, erected by the altar of Zeus Eleutherios and hom*onoia, were integrated into a physical landscape that commemorated the Persian Wars and conveyed complicated and inter-reacting ideologies. "
Hans Beck and Philip J. Smith (eds), Megarian Moments. The Local World of an Ancient Greek City-State (2018)
Hans Beck, Alex McAuley, Kevin Solez, Jonathan Reeves, Philip Smith, Fabienne Marchand
"The Thessalian League", in H. Beck, P. Funke (ed.), Federalism in greek Antiquity, 2015, p.231-249
richard bouchon
Athens, Thebes and Plataia and the end of the sixth century BCE
Athens, Thebes and Plataia and the end of the sixth century BCE
2017 •
Roy van Wijk
One of the key events in the relations between the Athenians and Thebans was the Plataian decision to align themselves with the Athenians at the end of the sixth century BCE. This decision shook up the contemporary political landscape and proved to be a source of hostility between the two neighbouring polities throughout the fifth and fourth centuries. The orthodox view holds that the original alignment took place in 519 during the Peisistratid tyranny, based on the date given by Thucydides 3.68.5. This date, in the mind of some scholars, seems contradictory with the story of the Plataian alignment as given by Herodotus (6.108.1-6.). This inconsistency resulted in a search for alternatives that fit the Herodotean narrative better. To accommodate this change, they relied on emendating the Thucydidean text, but there is no sign of corruption in this part. Emendation of a text is best avoided, although the controversy merits attention. Therefore, in this article it will be argued that the two narratives – the Thucydidean and the Herodotean – need to be separated. What follows is a renewed chronology of Plataian-Athenian relations. The orthodox date (519) was the date of an original Peisistratid-Plataian alliance that did not lead to hostilities with Thebes. Instead, it is in the context of the foundation of the Athenian democracy and the subsequent clashes with Thebes after 507/6 that the Herodotean narrative should be placed. * First and foremost I would like express my gratitude to Albert Schachter, who made invaluable suggestions to improve this article. Another note goes out to Fabienne Marchand, who pointed to numerous mistakes in the article. A further acknowledgement is to professor Nikolaos Papazarkadas, who suggested the similarities between sympoliteia and the Eleutherai inscription mentioned later on. I would also to thank the audience at Durham, where an earlier version of this paper has been given, for their comments. A last note of gratitude goes to the anonymous reviewer, whose advice radically improved this article. Finally, I would like to thank the Swiss National Science Foundation for generously supporting me to carry out research on Athenian-Boiotian relations.
in War and Diplomacy in Ancient Times: Eskiçağda Savaş ve Diplomasi. Istanbul: Zero Books, pp. 163-198.
The Western Greek Slogan of Freedom
2021 •
Chris de L'isle
In this paper, I argue that the western Greek adoption and adaptation of a key Greek diplomatic slogan – the ‘freedom of the Greeks’ – is central to understanding how that slogan developed from the fifth century BC to the Roman conquest. The western Greeks developed their own version of this idea, which remained connected to the mainland Greek discourse, but developed unique features that had a particularly significant influence on the Romans and their diplomatic interactions with the Greeks. Scholars such as K. A. Raaflaub and S. Dmitriev have produced excellent studies of the development of the discourse about freedom in mainland Greece, but the western Greek dimension of this discourse has been neglected. This western dimension is part of the same discourse: as in the mainland, so in the west, non-Greeks were portrayed as enemies of ‘freedom’ and the defence of ‘freedom’ against them was used to justify the construction of empires. The crucial difference was that from the start, the western Greek slogan placed stress on the role of the individual military leader as the protector of Greek freedom, which was used by Sicilian tyrants to justify autocratic rule. The importance of the individual military leader for the defence of freedom encouraged non-autocratic regimes in the West to import temporary autocrats to lead them. In the Punic Wars, Roman generals successfully assumed this role as imported defender of freedom. The impact of this western experience can be seen, finally, in the way the general Flamininus deployed the slogan of freedom during the Roman conquest of mainland Greece.
The Ancient Greek Economy
Choosing and Changing Monetary Standards in the Greek World during the Archaic and the Classical Periods
Selene Psoma
Julian Degen, Alexander and the Oathbreakers. IG II/III2 1, 318 and the Punishment of Greek Mercenary Service, in: Eos 109 (2022-23), 55–75.
2022 •
Julian Degen
This paper provides new insights into Alexander's attitude towards the Greek mercenaries he met on his campaign against the Achaemenid Empire. It is argued that Alexander punished the Greeks fighting for the Great King as oathbreakers based on the League of Corinth's constitution to which its members swore an oath, being under divine protection. The argumentation focuses on the last line of the oath IG II/III 2 1, 318, in which the clause οὐκ ἐνκαταλείψω prohibits desertion from the League of Corinth, which is devoid of context. The argumentation is based on restoring the clause's original context, which is achieved by its contextualisation against the backdrop of Greek legal thinking and the Macedonian execution of hegemony. The result is that, while Alexander may have used the constitutional framework set by his father as a moral argument to punish Greek mercenaries, he also took the liberty to modify it to create a non-negotiable military atmosphere of allegiance that suited his campaign needs.
Ministry of Culture and Sports Archaeological Resources Fund
Wanda Papaefthimiou The impact of the Persian Wars in the Hellenistic and Roman Period
2020 •
Wanda Papaefthimiou
The impact of the Persian Wars in the Hellenistic and Roman Period
Boiotian games : festivals, agōnes, and the development of Boiotian identity
2017 •
Paul Grigsby
Hans Beck and Angela Ganter, Boiotia and the Boiotian Leagues
Hans Beck
