About the Book
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.
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: The World of Homer
Ancient Sources
Homer, Iliad 1.1-303
Homer, Iliad 2.53-278
Homer, Iliad 18.478-508
Homer, Odyssey 1.365-424
Homer, Iliad 6.440-502
Homer, Iliad 9.307-429
Homer, Iliad 12.310-328
Opinions of Modern Scholars
From Moses Finley, The World of Odysseus
From Anthony Snodgrass, “An Historical Homeric Society?”
From Barry Strauss, The Trojan War: a New History
Chapter 2: Hoplite Warfare in Archaic Greek Society
Ancient Sources
Homer, Iliad, 11.17-46
Homer, Iliad, 13.125-168
Homer, Iliad, 7.219-312
Tyrtaeus (Fragments)
Herodotus, Histories 7.9
Thucydides 1.15
Thucydides 5.69-73
Polybius 13.3.4
Opinions of Modern Scholars
From Victor Davis Hanson, Western Way of War: infantry battle in classical Greece
From Hans van Wees, “The Development of the Hoplite Phalanx: Iconography and reality in the seventh century”
Chapter 3: The Spartan Revolution
Ancient Sources
Herodotus, Histories 1.65-6
Plutarch, Life of Lycurgus 5-10; 13-18; 24-29
Tyrtaeus (Fragments)
Xenophon, Constitution of the Lacedaemonians (abridged)
Aristotle, Politics 1269a-1271b
Thucydides 4.80
Thucydides 5.23.3
Xenophon, Hellenica
Opinions of Modern Scholars
From Paul Cartledge, “Rebels and Sambos in Classical Greece: A Comparative View”
From Richard Talbert, “The role of the Helots in the class struggle at Sparta”
Chapter 4: Solon’s Constitution
Ancient Sources
Solon (Selections)
Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians, 5-12
Aristotle, Politics 1273b35-1274a22; 1296a1-22
Plutarch, Life of Solon, 13-18
Opinions of Modern Scholars
From C. Hignett, A History of the Athenian Constitution to the End of the Fifth Century B.C.
From G.E.M. de Ste. Croix, Athenian Democratic Origins: and other essays
Chapter 5: Greek Strategy in the Persian War
Ancient Sources
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
The Themistocles Decree
Plutarch, Life of Themistocles, 9-10
Opinions of Modern Scholars
From Peter Green, The Greco-Persian Wars
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
Xenophon, Memorabilia 2.8.1-5
Xenophon, Memorabilia 2.7.1-4
Demosthenes, 27.9
Demosthenes 36.4-5, 11
Aeschines, Against Timarchus1.97
Lysias, For Callias 5
Thucydides 7.27
Xenophon, Ways and Means (Poroi) 4.14
“Old Oligarch” (Pseudo-Xenophon), Constitution of the Athenians 1.10-12
Plato, Republic, 562b-563b
Aristotle, Politics 1252b-1255a
Isocrates, Panegyricus 4.150-152, 181-182
Opinions of Modern Scholars
A.H.M. Jones, The Economic Basis of the Athenian Empire
Bruce Thornton, Greek Ways
Chapter 7: The Role of Women in Ancient Greece
Ancient Sources
Hesiod, Theogony 560-615; Works and Days 44-105
Semonides, “Pedigree of Women”
Sophocles, Antigone 445-525
Euripides, Medea 230-250
Thucydides 2.45.2
Plato, Menexenus 234a-249e
Lysias I, On the Murder of Eratosthenes, 6-27, translated by W.R.M. Lamb
Xenophon, Oeconomicus, 3.10-15; 7.22-31
Plato, Republic
Aristotle, Politics
Opinions of Modern Scholars
A.W. Gomme, “The Position of Women in Athens in the Fifth Fourth Centuries B.C.”
John Gould, “Law, Custom and Myth: Aspects of the Social Position of Women in Classical Athens”
Joan Breton Connelly, Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece
Chapter 8: Periclean Athens
Ancient Sources
Thucydides, 2.35-46
Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians, 26-28
Pseudo-Xenophon, Constitution of the Athenians, 1-3
Plato, Gorgias, 515-517
Plutarch, Pericles, 9, 11-12, 14-16, 31-35, 37
Opinions of Modern Scholars
From Georg Busolt, Griechische Geschichte, translated by Donald Kagan
From Malcolm McGregor, “The Politics of the Historian Thucydides”
From Paul A. Rahe, Republics Ancient and Modern
Chapter 9: The Unpopularity of the Athenian Empire
Ancient Sources
Thucydides 1.88-101; 112-117
Thucydides 3.10
Thucydides 6.82
Thucydides 1.75-76
Thucydides 2.63
Diodorus 11.70
Pseudo-Xenophon, The Constitution of the Athenians, 1, 3
Thucydides, 3.26-28; 35-50
Thucydides, 8.1-2
Thucydides, 8.68
Thucydides, 1.22.1
Thucydides, 8.97.2
Opinions of Modern Scholars
From G.E.M. de Ste. Croix, “The Character of the Athenian Empire”
From Donald W. Bradeen, “The Popularity of the Athenian Empire”
Chapter 10: The Causes of the Peloponnesian war
Ancient Sources
Thucydides 1.18-19; 23
Thucydides 1.31-44
Thucydides 1.66-67; 86-88
Plutarch, Pericles 29-32
Diodorus Siculus 12.38-40
Opinions of Modern Scholars
From Victor Davis Hanson, A War Like No Other
From G.E.M. de Ste. Croix, The Origins of the Peloponnesian War
From Donald Kagan, The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War
Chapter 11: Was Socrates Guilty?
Ancient Sources
Aristophanes, Clouds 86-153
Plato, Apology of Socrates [abridged]
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
From Mogens Herman Hansen, The Trial of Sokrates — From the Athenian Point of View
Paul Cartledge — Democracy Reaffirmed
Chapter 12: Demosthenes versus Philip of Macedon
Ancients Sources
Plutarch, Demosthenes, 12-21
Demosthenes, Third Philippic Oration, translated by A.W. Pickard-Cambridge
Opinions of Modern Scholars
J. G. Droysen, Geschichte des Hellenismus,Vol.1, pp.31-34,translated by Donald Kagan
A.W. Pickard-Cambridge, Demosthenes
George Cawkwell, Philip of Macedon
Chapter 13: Alexander the Great
Ancient Sources
Arrian: History of Alexander 4.9-19
Arrian: History of Alexander 7.4.4-7.6.5
Arrian: History of Alexander 7.8.1-3; 7.10.5; 7.11.1-7.12.4
Plutarch: Moralia, 329A-D
Fragments of the Lost Alexander Historians
Opinions of Modern Scholars
From W. W. Tarn, “Alexander the Great and the Unity of Mankind”
From W. W. Tarn, Alexander the Great 1
From A. B. Bosworth, “Alexander and the Iranians”
From Peter Green, Alexander of Macedon, 356-323 B.C.: A Historical Biography
From Paul Cartledge, “Alexander the Man”
About the 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.
