Philosophers

From the fourth century we have a large body of material in the works of Plato and Aristotle. Their significance as philosophers is discussed in Chapter 21, but a little should be said here about their significance as historical sources.

In Plato’s dialogues there are a few allusions to historical events, presumably based not on research but on what Plato thought he knew. One point has attracted some attention. In Laws 692D, 698D-E, it is claimed that the Spartans delayed going to Marathon in 490 because they were fighting the Messenians, whereas according to Hdt. 6.106.3 they delayed for religious reasons. Some scholars have been inclined to believe Plato; but more probably the explanation which had been acceptable in the early fifth century seemed less credible in the less religious fourth, and so an alternative was invented. Plato was an Athenian, but his one attempt to involve himself in public life was not in Athens but in Syracuse, in the time of Dionysios I and Dionysios II. Letters 3, 7 and 8, if not by Plato himself (which some but not all believe), are certainly by a well-informed writer, and they are an important source for the history of Syracuse in the early fourth century.

Aristotle was from Stagira, in Chalkidike, but spent much of his life and established a school in Athens, covering a wide range of subjects. Politics contains a great many allusions to particular historical events, to illustrate Aristotle’s general points, and so too does Rhetoric; not all the allusions can be linked securely with episodes which we know from other sources. As with Plato, it is likely that many of these allusions were based simply on what Aristotle thought he knew, or remembered from one of the detailed works compiled in the school. For that reason, in the notorious disagreement between Politics 1273b35-1274a17, 1281b25-34, and Athenian Constitution 8.1 on Solon’s provisions for the appointment of the Athenian archons, I believe we should follow the Athenian Constitution, which had a detailed source on Solon, rather than the Politics.

Further reading and bibliography In general

There are Loeb translations (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press) of nearly all continuous texts, and Penguin Classics (Harmondsworth: Penguin); and other translations of many.

Pelling, C. (1999) Literary texts and the Greek historian (London: Routledge 1999)

Historians

Rhodes, P. J. (1994) ‘In defence of the Greek historians’ in: G&R ns 41: 156-71 - moderate defence against extreme doubts as to reliability Gould, J. (1989) Herodotus (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson)

Hornblower, S. (1994) Thucydides (corrected repr.; originally publ. 1987) (London: Duckworth) Gray, V. (1989) The character of Xenophon’s Hellenica (London: Duckworth)

Dillery, J. (1995) Xenophon and the history of his times (London: Routledge)

Harding, P. (1994) Androtion and the Atthis: the fragments trans. with intro, and commentary (Oxford: Clarendon)

Russell, D. A. (1973) Plutarch (London: Duckworth)

Drama

Pelling, C. (ed.) (1997) Greek tragedy and the historian (Oxford: Oxford University Press) Podlecki, A. J. (1999) The political background of Aeschylean tragedy (London: Bristol Classical Press 21999)

MacDowell, D. M. (1995) Aristophanes and Athens (Oxford: Oxford University Press)

Inscriptions

Fornara - English translations IG; IG 13; IG 22 - Greek texts

ILS - Dessau, H. (ed.) (1892-1916) InscriptionesLatinae selectae, 3 vols (Berlin: Weidmann) - Latin texts

LACTOR 8 - Miller, S. J. (1971) Inscriptions of the Roman empire, a. d. 14-117 (London: London Association of Classical Teachers) (Lactor 8) - English translations

M&L - Greek texts, with commentary

R&O - Greek texts, with trans. and commentary

Smallwood, Gaius, Claudius and Nero - Smallwood, E. M. (1967) Documents illustrating the principates of Gaius, Claudius and Nero (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) - Greek and Latin texts

Herodotos

Fornara, C. W. (1971) ‘Evidence for the date of Herodotus’ publication’ in: JHS 91: 25-34 - later date

Evans, J. A. S. (1979) ‘Herodotus’ publication date’ in: Athenaeum ns 57:145-9 - orthodox date

Shimron, B. (1973) ‘pQ(Vtob t(~n t)met? L0Smsv’ in: Eranos 71: 45-51 - prehistoric and historical periods

Armayor, O. K. (1978) ‘Did Herodotus ever go the Black Sea?’ in: HSPh 82: 45-62 - doubts about travels

Fehling, D. (1989) Herodotus and his ‘sources’ (trans. J. G. Howie) (Leeds: F. Cairns) (originally published in German as Die Quellenangaben bei Herodot: Studien zur Erzahlkunst Herodots (Berlin: de Gruyter 1971)) - doubts about source attributions

Moles, J. L. (1996) ‘Herodotus warns the Athenians’ in: Cairns, F., & M. Heath (eds) (1996) Papers of the Leeds International Latin Seminar 9: Roman poetry and prose, Greek poetry, etymology, historiography (Leeds: Cairns) 259-84 (ARCA Classical and Medieval Texts, Papers and Monographs 34)

Thucydides

Woodman, A. J. (1988) Rhetoric in classical historiography (London: Croom Helm) 1-69 (ch. 1) - Thucydides a writer of historical literature rather than recorder of truth

Badian, E. (1993) From Plataea to Potidaea: studies in the history and historiography of the pentecontaetia (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press) 125-62 with 223-36 (ch. 4) - Thucydides a dishonest journalist

Xenophon

Cawkwell, G. L. (1979) in: Xenophon: A history of my times (trans. R. Warner) (Harmonds-worth: Penguin, revised 1979) 22-8 - Hellenika memoirs

Tuplin, C. (1993) The failings of empire: a reading of Xenophon Hellenica 2.3.11-7.5.27 (Stuttgart: Steiner) (Historia Einzelschriften 76) - Hellenika didactic

Aristotelian Athenian Constitution (Athenaion politeia)

Rhodes, P. J. (1981) A commentary on the Aristotelian Athenaion Politeia (rev. ed.; originally publ. 1981) (Oxford: Oxford University Press) 58-63 - Aristotelian authorship rejected

[Andokides] 4 (Against Alkibiades)

Rhodes, P. J. (1994) ‘The ostracism of Hyperbolus’ in: Osborne, R., & S. Hornblower (eds) (1994) Ritual, finance, politics: Athenian democratic accounts presented to David Lewis (Oxford: Clarendon) 85-98 (ch. 5) at 88-91 - rhetorical exercise

Antiphon the orator and Antiphon the sophist

Gagarin, M. (2002) Antiphon the Athenian: oratory, law, and justice in the age of the sophists (Austin: University of Texas Press) - same man

Pendrick, G. J. (2002) Antiphon the sophist: the fragments (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) (Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries 39) - different men

Isokrates

Mathieu, G. (1925) Les ideespolitiques d’lsocrate (Paris: Belles Lettres) - Isokrates a thinker

Baynes, N. H. (1955) ‘Isocrates’ in: Baynes, N. H. (ed.) (1955) Byzantine studies and other essays (London: Athlone) 144-67 (ch. 8) - Isokrates not a thinker

‘Old Oligarch’

Bowersock, G. W. (1966) ‘Pseudo-Xenophon’ in: HSPh: 71 33-46 - 440s

Forrest, W. G. (1970) ‘The date of the pseudo-Xenophontic Athenaion Politeia’ in: Klio 52: 107-16 - 431-424, and probably 424

Hornblower, S. (2000) ‘The Old Oligarch (Pseudo-Xenophon’s Athenaion Politeia) and Thucydides’ in: Flensted-Jensen, P., T. H. Nielsen, L. Rubinstein (eds) Polis and politics: studies in ancient Greek history, presented to Mogens Herman Hansen on his sixtieth birthday, August 20, 2000 (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum) 362-84 - fourth century

Civic interpretation of Athenian drama

Griffin, J. (1998) ‘The social function of Attic tragedy’ in: CQ ns 48: 39-61, esp. 47-50 - opposed to civic interpretation

Goldhill, S. (2000) ‘Civic ideology and the problem of difference: the politics of Aeschylean tragedy, once again’ in: JHS 120: 34-56, esp. 34-41 - democratic interpretation

Rhodes, P. J. (2003) ‘Nothing to do with democracy: Athenian drama and the polid in: JHS 123: 104-19 - polis in general rather than Athenian democracy in particular

Aischylos

Scullion, S. (2002) ‘Tragic dates’ in: CQns 52: 81-101 at 87-101 - Suppliant Women earlier than 463

Dover, K. J. (1957) ‘The political aspect of Aeschylus’ Eumenides' in: JHS 77: 230-7 = idem Greek and the Greeks (Oxford: Blackwell 1988) 161-75 - Eumenides favours reform

Dodds, E. R. (1960) ‘Morals and politics in the ‘‘Oresteia’’ ’ in: PCPhS ns 6: 19-31 - Eumenides at any rate hostile to further reform

Sommerstein, A. H. (1996) Aeschylean tragedy (Bari: Levante) 391-421 (ch. 12) (Le rane, Studi 15) - Eumenides deliberately ambiguous

Euripides

Bowie, A. M. (1997 ) ‘Tragic filters for history: Euripides’ Supplices and Sophocles’ Philoctetes’ in: Pelling, C. (ed.) Greek tragedy and the historian (Oxford: Oxford University Press) 39-62 (ch. 3) at 45-56 - Suppliant Women and battle of Delion

Aristophanes

Murray, G. (1933) Aristophanes: a study (Oxford: Oxford University Press) - characters speaking for poet

Gomme, A. W. (1938) ‘Aristophanes and politics’ in: CR 52: 97-109 = Gomme, More essays in Greek history and literature (Oxford: Blackwell 1962) 70-91 - political interpretation illegitimate

Sommerstein, A. H. (1996) ‘How to avoid being a komodoumenos’ in: CQns 46: 327-56 - Aristophanes kinder to upper-class politicians

Plato on the Spartans and Marathon

Wallace, W. P. (1954) ‘Kleomenes, Marathon, the helots and Arkadia’ in: JHS 74: 32-5 - believing

Den Boer, W. (1956) ‘Political propaganda in Greek chronology’ in: Historia 5: 162-77 - disbelieving

Aristotle’s Politics and the Athenian Constitution on Solon