Thucydides is widely seen as the most dispassionate and reliable contemporary source for the history of classical Sparta. But, compared with partisan authors such as Xenophon and Plutarch, his information on the subject is more scattered and implicit. Scholars in recent decades have made progress in teasing out the sense of Thucydides' often lapidary remarks on Sparta. This book takes the process further. Its eight new studies by international specialists aim to reveal coherent structures both in Thucydidean thought and in Spartan reality. This volume is the second of a series in which the Classical Press of Wales applies to Spartan history the approach it is already using for the history of Rome's revolutionary era: focusing in turn on each of the main sources on which historians depend, and analysing with a combination of historical and literary methods.
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Scholars may agree: on the subject of secretive Sparta, a state richly productive of myth and wishful thinking, Thucydides stands supreme as a source.
In Memoriam Thomas J. Figueira and Ellen Millender Introduction and Acknowledgements Paula Debnar 1 Thucydides’ general attitude to Sparta Emily Greenwood 2 Spartan slowness in Thucydides’ History Paula Debnar 3 The Presence of Sparta in the Funeral Oration of Perikles Jean Ducat 4 Thucydides’ alienation of Spartan kingship Ellen Millender 5 Thucydides, ethnic solidarity, and Messenian ethnogenesis Thomas J. Figueira 6 Xenia and proxenia in Thucydides’ Sparta Polly Low 7 The mytho-politial map of Spartan colonisation in Thucydides: the ‘Spartan colonial triangle’ vs. the ‘Spartan Mediterranean’ Maria Fragoulaki 8 Information from Sparta: a trap for Thucydides? Anton Powell Index
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New articles, by distinguished international specialists, on the most respected source for Classical Sparta, Thucydides: his biases concerning Sparta, his access to Sparta's secret world, and his (un)reliability for Spartan history.
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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781910589755
Publisert
2021-02-18
Utgiver
Vendor
Classical Press of Wales
Vekt
680 gr
Aldersnivå
UP, 05
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
270

Om bidragsyterne

Anton Powell has published extensively on the history of Sparta, Athens – and the literature of the Roman Revolution. He is the author of an introduction to source-criticism in Greek history, Athens and Sparta (3rd edition 2014), the editor of Wiley Blackwell's Companion to Sparta (2 volumes, 2018), and co-editor (with Nicolas Richer) of Xenophon and Sparta (2020). His monograph Virgil the Partisan (2008) was awarded the prize of the American Vergilian Society for `the book that makes the greatest contribution toward our understanding and appreciation of Vergil'. He has twice been Invited Professor at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, in 2006 for Greek history and in 2008 for Latin literature. Paula Debnar, Professor of Classics at Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts, is a distinguished analyst of both Thucydides and Sparta. Her monograph Speaking the Same Language: Speech and audience in Thucydides' Spartan debates (2001) studies the role of rhetoric in creating a sense of ethnic identity (and difference). Among her numerous other publications is `Sparta and Spartans in Thucydides', a joint study with Paul Cartledge in Brill's Companion to Thucydides (2006).