Violence, Civil Strife and Revolution in the Classical City: 750-330 BC

Description

Violent conflict between individuals and groups was as common in the ancient world as it has been in more recent history. Detested in theory, it nevertheless became as frequent as war between sovereign states. The importance of such 'stasis' was recognised by political thinkers of the time, especially Thucydides and Aristotle, both of whom tried to analyse its causes. Violence, Civil Strife and Revolution in the Classical City, first published in 1982, gives a conspectus of stasis in the societies of Greek antiquity, and traces the development of civil strife as city-states grew in political, social and economic sophistication. Aristocratic rivalry, tensions between rich and poor, imperialism and constitutional crisis are all discussed, while special consideration is given to the attitudes of the participants and the theoretical explanations offered at the time. In conclusion, civil strife in the ancient world is compared to more recent conflicts, both domestic and international. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Original Title Page Original Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Preface Abbreviations of Modern Works Used in the Notes Introduction Note 1. Violence in Archaic Society and its Legacy Community Defence – 'Hue and Cry' The Individual Calls for Help Parallel Developments in Roman Society The Importance of the Family Group Popular Justice Self-help by the Individual Was Archaic Society Dominated by Violence? Notes 2. Political Conflicts in the Growing City-States The First Tyrants The Tyrant and the Hoplite Class Conflict in the Age of the First Tyrants Conflicts Among the Aristocracy Peisistratus Alcaeus The Tyrant-Slayers Cleisthenes and the Demos The Aegean and Ionia before the Persian Wars Tyranny in Ionia The Ionian Revolt The Greeks in the West Gelon Aristodemus The Suppression of Revolution Sparta Early Rome Herodotus and Stasis Notes 3. Imperialism and the Conflict over Constitutions The First Steps Sparta, Argos and the Peloponnese Thucydides and Stasis Thucydides and the Athenian Empire Stasis and the Athenian Empire Stasis in the Peloponnesian War Mytilene Corcyra Megara, Boeotia and Chalkidike After the Peace of Nicias Notes 4. Democracy and Oligarchy in Athens From Cleisthenes to Ephialtes Periclean Democracy and the Reaction The Revolution of 411 The Four Hundred: An Analysis The Five Thousand and the Return to Democracy The Last Years of the War The Second Fall of the Democracy The Thirty Thrasyboulos and the Democratic Counter-revolution The Philosophical Background to the Oligarchic Movement Violence and the Law Code Athenian Politics after the Revolutions Notes 5. Syracuse – Democracy and Tyranny The Struggles of Democracy Hermokrates and Dionysius The Causes of Dionysius' Success Dynastic Struggles in Syracuse after Dionysius Timoleon Notes 6. Greece and the Aegean in the Fourth Century BC Corinth Boeotia Arcadia and Elis Sicyon, Achaia and Phleious The Allies of Athens Notes 7. The Philosophers and Civil Conflict – Aristotle's Politics Notes 8. The Importance of Civil Strife in the Classical City Notes Appendix I: Problems in the Oligarchic Revolutions 1. The Colonos Assembly 2. The Second Oligarchic Conspiracy 3. The Constitution of the Thirty Appendix II: Herakleia on the Pontos Note Appendix III: Thessaly Notes Appendix IV: Professor Ruschenbusch's View of Greek Civil Strife Bibliography Index