The World of Athens - Cambridge University Pressassets.cambridge.org/97805216/98535/frontmatter/9780521698535... · The World of Athens Classical Athens boasted some of the most original

The World of Athens

Classical Athens boasted some of the most original and influential achievements inliterature, art, philosophy, medicine and politics. This best-selling book, now issued in asecond edition, provides a comprehensive and highly illustrated introduction to itshistory, society, culture and values aimed at the student and the general reader. The texthas been extensively revised from the first edition and the bibliography updated. A widerange of topics is discussed, but the book refuses to divide up the Athenian world neatlyinto separate compartments, insisting that sense can only be made of the society bymaking connections between its history, institutions, values and environment. The bookcan be used either on its own or as an accompaniment to students learning Greek withthe Reading Greek course.

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Cambridge University Press978-0-521-69853-5 - The World of Athens: An Introduction to Classical Athenian Culture: Second editionRobin OsborneFrontmatterMore information

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’

The World of AthensAn Introduction to Classical Athenian Culture

SECOND EDITION

Revised by Robin Osborne






www.cambridge.orgInformation on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521698535

© Cambridge University Press 1984, 2008

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 1984

Printed in the United Kingdom by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall

A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-0-521-69853-5 Paperback

Second Edition 2008

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University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom

Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge.

It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence.

11th printing 2015






Contents

Preface vii

Notes viii

Maps ix

1 An outline history of Athens to the death of Alexander the Great 1

2 Environment and settlement of Athens and Attike 58

3 Gods and festivals 84

4 Human obligations, values and concerns 127

5 Athenian society 146

6 Athenian democracy and imperialism 200

7 Athens at war 248

8 The culture of Athens 281

9 Postscript: the world of Athens and other worlds 355

Glossary of terms (with Greek alphabet) 365

Suggestions for further reading 378

Bibliography 390

Acknowledgements for photographs and drawings 406

Index 412

v











Preface

The World of Athens is an introduction to the history, culture, values andachievements of classical Athens. It requires no knowledge of ancientGreek, but was designed to be used with profit by those learning Greek usingReading Greek (Text and Grammar, 2nd edition, Cambridge UniversityPress, 2007). It begins with a sketch of the history of Athens from earliesttimes till the destruction of Athenian democracy in 322 BC. There are thenseven chapters on different aspects of the Athenian world, and the main textcloses with a chapter on the way in which the Athenians situated themselveswith regard to other worlds and the way in which they themselves picturedtheir own world. The main text is followed by a Greek alphabet with asimplified English transliteration and pronunciation guide, a glossary ofterms used, suggestions for further reading keyed in to chapters and para-graphs of the text, a bibliography of the works referred to, and an index.

The first edition of this book was produced by a scholarly team presided overby Peter Jones and including Paul Cartledge, George Cawkwell, John Gould,Desmond Lee, Jeremy Paterson, Brian Sparkes, Virginia Webb and JohnWilkins. The revisions for the second edition have been entirely my responsi-bility. I have reviewed the whole original text, substantially rewriting the his-torical introduction and some sections of other chapters, but leaving intactboth the original structure of the book and substantial discussions. I havereplaced the very brief suggestions of ‘Further Reading’ in the first edition witha bibliography keyed to the numbered paragraphs of each chapter. The illus-trations have also been reviewed, and various changes made. I am very gratefulto the ancient history graduate students reading the M.Phil. in Classics in theUniversity of Cambridge in 2001–2, who offered detailed views of what theythought needed changing, to the JACT Greek Committee for its initiative andsupport, and to Michael Sharp of Cambridge University Press, without whoseassistance with the pictures my job would have been a great deal more tedious.

Passages from the Iliad are taken from the translation by E.V. Rieu, revisedand updated by Peter Jones (Penguin, 2003). The passage from the Odysseyis taken from the translation by Richmond Lattimore, copyright 1951 and1965 University of Chicago. Acknowledgement is due to the late RichmondLattimore and the University of Chicago Press for the use of this material.

Robin Osborne, King’s College, Cambridge, August 2006

vii






Director’s note

Professor Osborne is due all our thanks for his superb updating of what hasso far been a very successful complement to the Reading Greek series, and isnow set fair to become even more so. My thanks also to Dr Janet Watson forthe Index.

Peter Jones, Director, JACT Reading Greek Course, January 2007

Notes

1 The usual messy-ish compromise has been made in turning Greek wordsinto English, opting sometimes for the traditional form, sometimes for thestrict transliteration. Macra have been added where the transliteration isliteral (but not in the maps). Note that ‘Attica’ and ‘Sparta’ are theRomanised forms of the Greek; we have opted for the Greek transliteratedforms ‘Attike’ and ‘Sparte’. But we have kept e.g. Roman ‘Persia’ ratherthan Greek ‘Persike’. We have also used ‘z’ in transliteration in place of thetechnically more correct ‘sd’, producing e.g. ‘Zeus’ instead of ‘Sdeus’, etc.For the traditional Romanisation of Greek words in English, see p. 365 andReading Greek (Grammar and Exercises), pp. 494–5, or Peter Jones, AnIntelligent Person’s Guide to Classics (London, 1999), pp. 138–9.

2 All dates are BC unless stated otherwise. 3 All writers quoted are given a brief pen-sketch in the Glossary. Where

inscriptions are quoted, the references are as follows: IG i3 = Inscriptiones Graecae (3rd edn.).ML = Meiggs and Lewis A Selection of Greek Historical Inscriptions to theEnd of the Fifth Century. Oxford, 1969.LACTOR 14 = Osborne, R. ed. The Athenian Empire. LACTOR 1, 4th edn.London, 2000.RO = Rhodes R. and Osborne, P.J. Greek Historical Inscriptions 404–323BC. Oxford, 2003.

4 Numbers in brackets in the text indicate chapters and paragraphs of thisbook (e.g. (4.23)).

viii Preface






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The World of Athens - Cambridge University Pressassets.cambridge.org/97805216/98535/frontmatter/9780521698535... · The World of Athens Classical Athens boasted some of the most original