Oath and State in Ancient Greece

Description

The oath was an institution of fundamental importance across a wide range of social interactions throughout the ancient Greek world, making a crucial contribution to social stability and harmony; yet there has been no comprehensive, dedicated scholarly study of the subject for over a century. This volume of a two-volume study explores how oaths functioned in the working of the Greek city-state (polis) and in relations between different states as well as between Greeks and non-Greeks. Preface Abbreviations PART ONE: OATHS IN THE POLIS 1 Introduction 2 Oaths and citizenship 2.1 Initial considerations 2.2 Oaths as stepping-stones to citizenship at Athens 2.3 The Athenian ephebic oath 2.4 The oath of the Spartan sworn bands (enōmotiai) 2.5 Citizenship oaths in new states 2.6 Oaths in synoecisms 3 Oaths of office 3.1 Royal oaths 3.2 High officials: archons and generals 3.3 The Athenian bouleutic oath 3.4 Minor officials 3.5 The exōmosia for office(s) 4 Assemblies 5 The judicial sphere 5.1 Homer and Hesiod 5.2 Archaic practices and their survival; Gortyn 5.3 Athens: introduction 5.4 The dicastic oath 5.5 Litigants’ preliminary oaths 5.6 Excusing absence 5.7 Oath to avoid irrelevance? 5.8 Oaths and oath-offers during court speeches 5.9 Did witnesses swear? 5.10 Refusing to testify: the exōmosia 5.11 Oath-challenges 5.12 The antidosis 5.13 Arbitrators 5.14 Homicide and the Areopagus 5.15 Nomothetai 5.16 Judges of festival competitions 6 Sunōmosiai (conspiracies) 7 (Re)uniting the citizen body PART TWO: OATHS AND INTERSTATE RELATIONS Introduction 8 The formulation and procedure of interstate oaths 8.1 Rituals 8.2 Gods invoked 8.3 Divine punishment 8.4 Giving and receiving oaths: who swears? 9 Oaths in alliances 9.1 “We will fight together” 9.2 The Oath at Plataea 9.3 Anti-deceit clauses 9.4 Mutual-defence clauses 9.5 Oaths to have the same enemies and friends: the Delian League oaths 9.6 “The Lacedaemonians and their allies” — the oaths of the Peloponnesian League 9.6.1 The origins of the Bündnissystem: “I will follow whithersoever the Spartans may lead” 9.6.2 Sparta and her allies between the Persian Wars and the Thirty Years’ Peace 9.6.3 Sparta and her allies finally defined — the Thirty Years’ Peace 9.6.4 The power of the “full” oath 9.7 Oaths between multiple equals 9.8 “Old” oaths of alliance 10 Oaths in peace treaties 10.1 Pouring the peace libations 10.2 The historical origins of sworn peace treaties 10.3 The first sworn peace treaties 10.4 The Thirty Years’ Peace of 446/5: Sparta’s fear of Athens or fear of the gods? 10.5 The Peace of Nicias 10.6 The King’s Peace of 387/6: reconsidering Sparta’s alleged violation of her oaths 10.7 The Peace of Philocrates: debunking Philip’s reputation as a perjurer 11 Battlefield truces 11.1 Truces for collecting the dead — spondai peri nekrōn 11.2 Other sworn truces 12 Oaths and “the barbarian” 12.1 The Trojan War 12.2 Ritual and manipulation of language 12.3 Persians: politics, perjury, approbation 12.4 Conclusions 13 Conclusion: the efficacy of oaths Bibliography Index of names and topics Index locorum