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This paper examines the multifaceted nature of Athenian politics during the "Golden Age," particularly during the Peloponnesian War, and its enduring influence on modern political thought. While democracy is commonly associated with ancient Athens, this study reveals that Athens' political landscape was characterized by a triad of interwoven ideologies, including democracy, imperialism, and a quest for Hellenic unity, each comprising various sub-ideologies. The research draws from ancient literary and epigraphic sources as well as modern scholarship to deconstruct the Athenian statecraft of the time. It argues that Athens employed a citizen-based democracy alongside economic exploitation, military imperialism, and a search for unity in classical Greece. The paper also provides a historical review of scholarship spanning from the 18 th century to the 20 th century, followed by an exploration of Athens' political policies and relations within the Delian League. By highlighting the complex coexistence of democratic ideals and imperialistic actions, this paper underscores the importance of reevaluating historical and modern concepts of governance. It suggests that the intricate dynamics of Athens during this period offer valuable insights for contemporary historians engaged in discussions regarding democracy, empire, and neo-colonialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the fortune of Geoffrey de Ste. Croix's famous article 'The Character of the Athenian Empire', and reassesses its basic thesis that the Athenian Empire was popular among the lower classes of the allied cities in the light of recent developments in the field. After surveying the article's immediate and more recent reception, and discussing its relation with The Origins of the Peloponnesian War and The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World , it isolates four key new trends in Greek history that, while going against some of Ste. Croix's basic convictions, end up reinforcing his overall case. These are: a renewed attention to the mass and elite dichotomy, with recent work interpreting Greek oligarchy as a fundamentally reactive and anti-demotic regime; the recognition of the continued relevance of Persian meddling in the later fifth-century; a sea-change in Attic epigraphy which has led to the post-dating of several 'imperial' decrees; the new recognition of the dynamism of the Greek economy, and of the economic function of the Athenian Empire itself. Finally, the article addresses the paradigm of class struggle and stresses how democracy and economic dynamism, to which the Athenian Empire contributed, fostered the growth of slave markets and worsened the exploitation of 'marginal' regions as slave suppliers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the impact on Spartan historiography of Chapter IV of de Ste. Croix's Origins of the Peloponnesian War , focusing on his discussions of Spartan politics and society in Sections v–vi. These sections fit oddly within the overall chapter, but they blew a breath of fresh air into Spartan studies through their revisionist approach, intimations of the socio-economic bases of policy-making, and extended accounts of 'real-life' political episodes across the classical period. Along with Moses Finley's near-contemporary article on Sparta, OPW significantly influenced the following generation of British historians (including the author), although they often adopted different interpretations or developed new perspectives on Spartan society only hinted at by de Ste. Croix. OPW also had an important impact on Western European historiography on Spartan politics. Its combination of constitutional and societal approaches gives it an enduring currency in the context of developing Historical Institutionalist approaches to political studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses G.E.M. de Ste. Croix's contentions about the effect of Helotage on Spartan foreign policy articulated in chapter IV of Origins of the Peloponnesian War , namely that Sparta's Helot population was uniquely dangerous, constraining Sparta's ability to send large numbers of citizen hoplites abroad lest it be exposed to the threat within. It shows that while certain arguments advanced by Ste. Croix are no longer tenable in light of subsequent research, others still stand up to critical scrutiny fifty years on; furthermore, other points neglected by Ste. Croix reinforce his overall claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the disconnect between, on the one hand, the insistence on the part of multiple characters in Thucydides' first book on the need for the Peloponnesians to invest in naval power to defeat Athens, and, on the other, the failure to act on this in the narrative of books 2–7. It then analyses the numismatic evidence for the way in which Sparta does then act upon this advice in the course of the Ionian War, and suggests that Thucydides' view that this was done primarily with Persian support may be missing a (brief) Spartan attempt to create a fiscally self-supporting empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the theoretical assumptions and implications of de Ste. Croix's approach to interstate politics in The Origins of the Peloponnesian War. It suggests that two approaches can be identified in the work: one which sees a fundamental connection between political systems within a state and that state's conduct of interstate politics, and another, closer to conventional 'Realist' theories, which sees a clear dividing line between domestic and interstate politics, and in which interstate relations need to be understood according to a distinct analytical framework. Although this tension was probably not a particular concern to de Ste. Croix himself, it does have a bearing on ongoing debates in International Theory; the final part of the article briefly explores the possibility that the concept of 'compulsion', important to both Thucydides' and de Ste. Croix's understanding of the causes of the Peloponnesian War, might provide a way of reconciling these two approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This survey, by a pupil of Geoffrey de Ste. Croix and eventual successor in his Oxford job, combines personal recollections of de Ste. Croix's horizons and intellectual range with a penetrating study of his Origins of the Peloponnesian War , its underlying debts and detailed contentions. It addresses his, and Thucydides', engagement with origins and causes, his central contention about votes by the Spartans and their allies on whether to go to war, the roles of Corinth, Megara and the much-discussed Megarian decree. It also presents a close reading of an Athenian involvement in Macedon and the north and its relevance to de Ste. Croix's views on Athenian imperialism. It then sets the book's conclusions in a wider context, ranging from modern writings on the origins of war to its concluding echo of Lenin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This short preface is meant to explain the purpose of the present volume and point to the diverse approaches and lines of argument pursued by the contributors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aristophanic parabases regularly pose an interpretive challenge due to the competing objectives of historical inquiry and literary sensitivity, with the former often taking precedence. This article seeks a more balanced analysis in appraising Aristophanes' representation of his early career in the parabases of Knights , Clouds , and Wasps. Attention to Aristophanes' representational strategies in these passages reveals his concentration on the same details of his career activity, above all his reliance on didaskaloi to produce his plays; differences of detail that have been taken to point to a more complex picture of his professional development are attributable to differences of rhetorical interest and emphasis in each of these passages, determined further by the metaphors chosen to enliven the discussions. Particular effort is made to explain the unifying rhetorical framework of the Wasps parabasis and show how elements of the poet's biography are enmeshed in features of the dramatic plot. All of which argues for a need for consistent literary contextualization in analyzing details of Aristophanic comedies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines Lorenzo Valla's 1452 Latin translation of Thucydides's "History of the Peloponnesian War," highlighting its significance as the first rendition of this Greek classic into a language accessible to Western European readers. It also discusses the indirect translations sparked by Valla's work in the early sixteenth century, exploring the complex roles of translators and patrons in shaping the reception and dissemination of Thucydides's texts across various European vernaculars.

The crux at Thucydides 4.121.1 has recently come under renewed scrutiny from scholars, but decisive conclusions were not reached. This article argues that commentators have not yet taken into account all relevant considerations, and that as a result the passage still remains incompletely understood. The verb προσήρχοντο is derived from προσέρχομαι , not προσάρχομαι. The unusual imperfect form προσήρχοντο (instead of expected Attic προσῇσαν) can perhaps be regarded as an instance of poetic verbal inflection (compare Pi. O. 9.93 διήρχετο), a type of diction suitable in the context of Thucydides' heroic-poetic depiction of Brasidas. Modern scholars' focus on the textual criticism of this one word has in general caused them to neglect matters of verbal interpretation. As a consequence, some important aspects of Thucydides' language and the cultural context of the scene remain underappreciated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article informs on Melian Dialogue, which revolves around the Athenian demand that the inhabitants of Melos abandon their alliance with Sparta and throw in their lot with Athens. It mentions events that might confront the U.S. Navy during a maritime crisis in the Western Pacific, with implications for American foreign policy in general and for U.S. naval strategists in particular as they contemplate deterrence strategies.

The article presents the discussion on historical interpretation of the Peloponnesian War becoming the basis for a framework. Topics include US and China being destined for war at exactly the time of another great plague where COVID-19 being a major global pandemic in 2019–2020; and showing age of globalization when new interconnectivities and synergies clearly not simple linear cases of causation.

Copyright of Historia 396 is the property of Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso, Instituto de Historia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Historia 396 is the property of Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso, Instituto de Historia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Historia 396 is the property of Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso, Instituto de Historia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Historia 396 is the property of Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso, Instituto de Historia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Historia 396 is the property of Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso, Instituto de Historia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In his History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides waits until he has passed the midpoint of Book 1 to introduce an individual speaking 'character' into his narrative. He does not do so until the scene of the Congress at Sparta (1.67–88), where it is first 'the Corinthians' and then 'the Athenians' who plead their cases before the Spartan assembly. One of the functions of this scene is to illustrate the internal division of opinion among the Spartans, and Thucydides now brings two distinct, elite Spartans onstage to voice their conflicting perspectives: King Archidamus addresses his countrymen urging caution (1.80–5), while the ephor Sthenelaidas makes suitably laconic remarks pressing for war (1.86). Before this turning point, Thucydides had carried out his analysis of the war's causes exclusively with reference to foreign rulers and Greek polis-populations ('the Athenians', 'the Spartans', etc.)—and not to any individual actors or leaders of those poleis, such as Archidamus and Sthenelaidas of Sparta. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does the Republic depict a conspiracy? The ostensible impetus for discussing profound political change behind closed doors is a desire to discuss the meaning of justice, not to replace a political order with a new one. But the dialogue takes place during the Peloponnesian War, when fears of plots sporadically consumed an eroding Athenian democracy. Arguments about political instability and instances of plotting reverberate throughout dialogue that takes shape in this suspicious climate. Whether Socrates makes us privy to a conversation about a political world that does not exist or presents us with a strategy for talking about revolution undetected remains unresolved. I argue that Athenian fears of secret power and revolution express themselves in the style and arguments of the Republic and suggest that already at the origins of democratic practice, critics like Plato were concerned with theorizing the subtleties of democratic erosion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thucydides depicts the flow of the Assinarus River entangling desperate Athenians (Th. 7.84). This envelopment caps two interrelated themes that have been developed throughout Thucydides' History : the destructiveness of liquids and the Athenians' increasing fluidity. Two earlier scenes, the Battle of Prosopitis (Th. 1.109) and the plague narrative (Th. 2.48-54), showcase these themes and foreshadow the Battle at the Assinarus. Thucydides' Assinarus draws from Homer's Scamander and various Herodotean rivers, tapping into a long tradition of destructive liquidity. Together these themes undermine the argument that Thucydides supports Athenian naval imperialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses Thucydides' literary evidence to argue that elevated terrain was prevalent in the battles of the Peloponnesian War, contrary to the orthodox view of the Classical Greek battlefield. This argument has four parts. First, Thucydides' battles are defined and listed. Second, the references to terrain in these battle accounts are catalogued. Third, this collated data is analysed to demonstrate that elevated terrain was indeed prevalent on the battlefields of the Peloponnesian War. And, fourth, some of the military effects of this elevated terrain are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Historische Zeitschrift is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article argues that Thucydides represents the story of the Eurypontid Spartan kings, Archidamus and Agis, as a coherent, meaningful narrative spanning his text. Early on, Archidamus worries that his generation might leave war to their children as a kind of inheritance. His son Agis then does inherit the war, more literally than any other figure. The consequences of this malign bequest become clear as Agis comes to violate the traditional value system represented by his father. Formal naming of both men throughout their stories encourages the reader to view their appearances not as a series of isolated events but as a single narrative depicting the corruption of their family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This note proposes new interpretations of Hera's bribe offered in Cratinus' Dionysalexandros. While Hera's τυραννὶς ἀκίνητος is usually interpreted as an offer of permanent demagoguery in light of the play's mockery of Pericles, I argue that τυραννíς also recalls contemporary debates about the Athenian empire and that ἀκίνητος puns on the obscene meaning of κινεῖν. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the Peloponnesian War that was a war fought in ancient Greece between Athens and Sparta, the two most powerful city-states in ancient Greece from 431 to 404 B.C.E. The war ended in the defeat of Athens and the dislocation of its maritime empire. Long marginalized, the Athenian oligarchs took advantage of the debacle to take their revenge in the city.

This article explores the virtues of daring and measuredness in the character of Brasidas in Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War. These two virtues prove to be necessary for Brasidas to fulfill his role as a general. However, they are incomplete for a statesman concerned with the domestic affairs of a regime. In emphasizing these two virtues and displaying Brasidas only in his position as a general, Thucydides makes an important statement about the relationship between generalship and statesmanship, and to what degree the former is subordinated to the latter. Brasidas' virtues become especially clear when contrasted with two other generals from the Peloponnesian War, Pausanias and Nicias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently we are witnesses at a situation conditioned by the presence of COVID-19 virus which has repercussions both at the moment and over the entire world of international relations in general, and at the behavior of the States in particular. This is precisely why, and because the new virus is developing dynamically over time and space, the research is needed upon the impact of the new virus not only from a biogenic perspective but also from a other perspective, including from the perspective of the field of international relations. The events we are currently witnessing are challenges to keep pace with the changes taking place on the international arena, especially those in the virological field. As the epidemics over time, the viruses causing them will change and occur one thing remains constant: they will always influence not only interhuman relations, but will condition new realities in the international relations system. This article aims to highlight the main repercussions of the new CoviD-19 virus on the international relations system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1452, Lorenzo Valla finished the first ever Latin translation of Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War, in which he introduced Thucydides' version of the political phenomenon of democracy to fifteenth-century readers. This article examines and discusses how Valla, by changing the sense of belonging on which the Greek original builds to one of othering, in his translation offered his audience a new understanding of democracy: one that differed both from the cultural memory of Thucydides' fourth-century BC audience and from that of Valla's own fifteenth-century AD readers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A truism of military history is the supremacy of the Athenian navy during the Classical Period of ancient Greek history. Yet during the final phase of the Peloponnesian War of 431 to 404 BCE, the Spartans surpassed the Athenians in naval performance. This paper argues that Spartan performance benefited from improvements in Sparta's cadre of naval officers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main disciples of Socrates criticise the use of city walls. However, their attacks are less grounded in a deep strategic reflexion than related to the traumatic consequences of Pericles' strategy at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war. The Lacedemonians' opposition to the erection of surrounding walls is more likely linked to their aristocratic ideology and interests than to moral imperatives. Though Plato and Xenophon's motives are to avoid political divisions in the city, their positions on fortifications reveal their aristocratic bias and the question of the walls appears to be part of a more general questioning on the spatial and political organisation of the city. On that issue, Aristotle criticises Plato from a pragmatic point of view and defends the use of walls, but under strict conditions only. The Spartan and Socratic critique of the building of the walls, as well as Aristotle reluctance to fully accept them, could be traced back to a common Greek archaic ideal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the language used to describe the plague, and more specifically on the oscillation of its vocabulary between literal and figurative meaning, in Homer's Iliad (1.1–487), Sophocles' Oedipus the King (1–215), and Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War (esp. 2.47.3–2.54). It is argued that the plague spreads in the language of the three narratives by association or contiguity, exploiting existing links with related words, most notably the broader vocabulary of disease and calamity, but it also spreads by analogy, comparison, or similarity, establishing links with other domains such as famine, blight, war and destruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are the United States (US) and China destined to fall into a 'Thucydides trap' of power transitions leading to great power conflict? This study explores how the intersubjective perception of media-disseminated narratives of US–China interdependence may shape the likelihood of war. In two randomized online experiments, we manipulated ordinary Americans' perceptions of US–China relations with real CNN video clips that narrated a US–China power transition as either positive or zero sum. Across both experiments, more zero-sum narratives boosted perceived US–China competition, increasing intergroup mistrust, anger and subsequent desires for a tougher China policy. The second study also revealed that individual differences in nationalism and uncertainty avoidance moderated the effects of the perception of media narratives on mistrust and anger. Viewers actively interpret media they are exposed to. These findings empirically demonstrate the power of narratives: specifically, they reveal the psychological mechanisms linking structural changes in the balance of power to the individual-level processes that may determine great power war and peace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article evaluates on the analysis of the play "The Acharnians" of Aristophanes that presented early in 425 BCE at the Athenian religious-dramatic festival called the Lenaea. It mentions the play's performance, by 425 the Peloponnesian War noted by the lead character of the Acharnians, Dicaeopolis through which Aristophanes tried to encourage peace and also highlights the urban rural population center of Athens that controlled the seas with its dominant navy.

Popular rendition of the so-called Thucydides' Trap focuses excessively on only one possible explanation of interstate wars to the exclusion of others. It also commits various acts of commission and omission that threaten the validity of its central proposition. This essay reviews some of the major problems pertaining to the logic of inquiry characteristic to this genre of analysis, its interpretation of historical evidence, and its neglect of alternative explanations of war - even those that Thucydides had written about in his account. There is a danger of self-fulfilling prophecy to the extent that leaders in Beijing and Washington are inclined to believe in an analogy to an ancient war that happened some 2500 years ago. Conventional invocations of Thucydides' Trap fail to recognize that there are several possible pathways to war. Because they offer only a structural explanation based on interstate power shifts, they give short shrift to the role of human agency and fail to attend sufficiently to what leaders can do to avoid conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Peloponnesian War, a conflict between the Greek city-states of Athens and Sparta and their respective allies, is held to be a classic example of war between a hegemon and a rising power. Graham Allison has recently coined the term "Thucydides' Trap" to emphasize how structural forces are leading to instability in U.S.-China relations. This interpretation of history is inaccurate and reflects the influence of misleading translations. Drawing on the original Greek text of Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War, I argue that the concept of Thucydides' Trap does not find support even in the case that has given it its name. Thucydides' famous attribution of the war to "the growth of the power of Athens" actually refers to the expansion of the Athenian Empire rather than a shift in the distribution of capabilities. Structural arguments do offer valuable insights about potential sources of conflict in U.S.-China relations, but the causal mechanism has little to do with the analogy of Athens and Sparta. As exemplified by the flashpoint in the Strait of Taiwan, structural change has aggravated long-standing differences between the United States and the PRC. Beijing's growing economic and military power has resulted in a growing threat to Taipei, which has led the United States to affirm its commitment to Taiwan's security in ways that are inconsistent with the One-China policy. If this trend continues, it will raise the potential for a military confrontation between the great powers in East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current paper examines issues of diachronic life quality and mobility in Boeotia, central Greece. Boeotia is a region with a tumultuous history as its strategic location facilitated its active involvement in major socio‐political events, such as the Peloponnesian war, the Third Sacred War, Roman invasions, and civil conflicts, to list just a few. The bioarchaeological study of 293 skeletons from the Akraiphia cemetery aimed at testing whether the Hellenistic period and early Roman era were more stressful than preceding time periods, as attested by historical evidence, as well as whether the Roman era was characterised by increased human mobility, as expected on the basis of isotopic studies from other parts of the Roman Empire. The combination of palaeopathological lesions, nonspecific stress markers, and dental wear supported increased hardship for the Akraiphia population during the Hellenistic, Roman, and post‐Roman periods, as well as similar living conditions for men and women diachronically. Finally, biodistances calculated on the basis of dental nonmetric traits suggested a phenetic divergence between the Hellenistic period and the Roman era, likely linked with increased human mobility within the Roman Empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Socioloski Pregled is the property of Srpsko Sociolosko Drustvo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)