In the case of the Ancestral Constitution, its champions looked back from the time of 400 and 300 to the early period of the Athenian polis, i. e., back to the late seventh and early sixth centuries, and even to a remote mythical age. This demonstrates that certain features of Greek history and culture in the Classical Period did not begin and end with it. One of these features was the citizen-state as the cardinal form of Greek community life in all of its various aspects. The beginnings of the polis are already perceptible in the Homeric epics, while the federal states enjoyed their best days in the third century (see above). Stasis (civil strife) and striving for hegemony over other states, as Sparta began to organize along these lines in the Peloponnesian League from the middle of the sixth century, were also features of this continuity.
In an impressive example, albeit in a completely different sphere, Hornblower underscores the importance of such phenomena, i. e., overlapping epochs, which represent a structure in the sense of Braudel’s longue duree, but are at the same time subject to changes:
No treatment of the main period of Greek civilization should end without emphasizing the continuity both with what went before and with what came after. Continuity is clearest in the sphere of religion, which may be said to have been ‘embedded’ in Greek life. Some of the gods alleged to have been relatively late imports into Greece can in fact be shown to have Mycenaean origins. For instance, one Athenian myth held that Dionysus was a latecomer, having been introduced into Attica from Eleutherae in the 6th century. There is reference to Dionysus (or di-wo-no-so-jo), however, on Linear B tablets from the 2nd millennium BC. Looking forward, Dionysus’ statue was to be depicted in a grand procession staged in Alexandreia in the 3rd century bc by King Ptolemy II Philadelphus. (The iconographic significance of the king’s espousal of Dionysus becomes clear in light of the good evidence that in some sense Alexander the Great had identified himself with Dionysus in Carmania.) Nor was classical Dionysus confined to royal exploitation: it has been shown that the festivals of the City Dionysia at Athens and the deme festival of the Rural Dionysia were closely woven into the life of the Athenian empire and the Athenian state. Another Athenian, Euripides, represented Dionysus in a less tame and ‘official’ aspect in the Bacchae; this Euripidean Dionysus has more in common with the liberating Dionysus of Carmania or with the socially disruptive Dionysus whose worship the Romans in 186 bc were to regulate in a famous edict. The longevity and multifaceted character of Dionysus symbolizes the tenacity of the Greek civilization, which Alexander had taken to the banks of the Oxus but which in many respects still carried the marks of its Archaic and even prehistoric origins. (Encyclopedia Britannica (Deluxe Edition CD-ROM 2001): entry ‘Ancient Greek Civilisation’)
As an epoch, the Classical Period - not surprisingly - bears the image of a Janus figure, for it is an integral component in the continuum of Greek history. What began in the Archaic Period, e. g., the citizen-state or the panhellenic games at Olympia and elsewhere, continued in the Classical Period, when it also acquired its definitive form. What was later to become the hallmark of Hellenism, i. e., the spread of Greek culture into many non-Greek regions, would not have become possible without the sense of identity and the general awareness which had developed hitherto. There still remains the question of what was by definition Classical. In conclusion, I should like to formulate a clear position. Deconstruction and inversion, whether motivated by political correctness or by the desire to be intellectually avant-garde, do not bring a clearer focus - rather they breed indifference and a callous attitude to the question of what it is in the Greek heritage that is worth being studied and internalized by us in today’s world.
Further reading
Only the more general books are mentioned here. Davies (1993) is a good introduction, although its main focus is Athens. Different in design is Hornblower (2002), where equal weight is given to the most important regions and to the Persian empire; it is rich in detail, with many ideas, and so more suited for the advanced student. Indispensable are CAH2 5 and 6; the latter volume, covering the fourth century, is much more comprehensive and also more modern. Although the ‘classical’ works of Grote (1846-56/1907) and Burckhardt (1898-1902/1998) are distinctly dated, they are still worth reading.
When approaching the history of Classical Greece, readers with some knowledge of German will find Heufi (1963: 214-400) particularly stimulating, thanks to its profound intellectual level. Schulz (2003) deserves to be translated into English, especially because of its clear presentation and style; this little volume also compellingly dispenses with a number of current theories. The same holds true for Stahl (2003b), which concentrates solely on Athens. The thoughtful book by Meier (1998) has been translated into English; it covers Athens from Solon to 404, and is particularly strong on the correlation between politics and culture. On Sparta, Cartledge (1987) is much broader in scope than the title implies. Buckler (2003) meticulously depicts the multipolar world of the fourth century - an ‘Iron Age’, as it were, compared to the ‘Golden Age’ of the fifth century.
The recent debate on the quality of Classical Greece is reflected in Heilmeyer (2002): it contains a wealth of material and many perspectives, but is heavily influenced by the destructive approach criticized above. Therefore, older works such as those by Jaeger (1954-61), Langlotz (1956) and Schefold (1967) are still indispensable as a corrective to the new orthodoxy; for the American context see Knox (1993).
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