Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of contributors
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction: reading Herodotus, reading Book 5
- Chapter 1 ‘What's in a name?’ and exploring the comparable: onomastics, ethnography, and kratos in Thrace, (5.1–2 and 3–10)
- Chapter 2 The Paeonians (5.11–16)
- Chapter 3 Narrating ambiguity: murder and Macedonian allegiance (5.17–22)
- Chapter 4 Bridging the narrative (5.23–7)
- Chapter 5 The trouble with the Ionians: Herodotus and the beginning of the Ionian Revolt (5.28–38.1)
- Chapter 6 The Dorieus episode and the Ionian Revolt (5.42–8)
- Chapter 7 Aristagoras (5.49–55, 97)
- Chapter 8 Structure and significance (5.55–69)
- Chapter 9 Athens and Aegina (5.82–9)
- Chapter 10 ‘Saving’ Greece from the ‘ignominy’ of tyranny? The ‘famous’ and ‘wonderful’ speech of Socles (5.92)
- Chapter 11 Cyprus and Onesilus: an interlude of freedom (5.104, 108–16)
- Chapter 12 ‘The Fourth Dorian Invasion’ and ‘The Ionian Revolt’ (5.76–126)
- Bibliography
- Index locorum
- General index
Chapter 8 - Structure and significance (5.55–69)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of contributors
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction: reading Herodotus, reading Book 5
- Chapter 1 ‘What's in a name?’ and exploring the comparable: onomastics, ethnography, and kratos in Thrace, (5.1–2 and 3–10)
- Chapter 2 The Paeonians (5.11–16)
- Chapter 3 Narrating ambiguity: murder and Macedonian allegiance (5.17–22)
- Chapter 4 Bridging the narrative (5.23–7)
- Chapter 5 The trouble with the Ionians: Herodotus and the beginning of the Ionian Revolt (5.28–38.1)
- Chapter 6 The Dorieus episode and the Ionian Revolt (5.42–8)
- Chapter 7 Aristagoras (5.49–55, 97)
- Chapter 8 Structure and significance (5.55–69)
- Chapter 9 Athens and Aegina (5.82–9)
- Chapter 10 ‘Saving’ Greece from the ‘ignominy’ of tyranny? The ‘famous’ and ‘wonderful’ speech of Socles (5.92)
- Chapter 11 Cyprus and Onesilus: an interlude of freedom (5.104, 108–16)
- Chapter 12 ‘The Fourth Dorian Invasion’ and ‘The Ionian Revolt’ (5.76–126)
- Bibliography
- Index locorum
- General index
Summary
Herodotus 5.55–95 deals with events that laid the foundation for Athens' greatness in the fifth century, namely her liberation from the tyranny that Peisistratus established and his sons Hippias and Hipparchus continued after his death, and the reforms of Cleisthenes. Most of the history of Greece arises in the earlier books of Herodotus' Histories as digressions from the main account of the rise and expansion of eastern power; for example, the story of the acquisition of the tyranny at Athens by Peisistratus arises out of Croesus' search for the strongest allies among the Greeks (1.56–64). Herodotus 5.55–95 is another such digression. It takes the form of a flashback (analepsis). The arrival of Aristagoras at Athens with his appeal for assistance against the Persians generates it (5.55.1), and the decision of the Athenians to accept his appeal and send ships and troops for the liberation of Ionia closes it (5.97.1–3). Within the digression Herodotus seems to choose material that charts the increase in the strength of the Athenians – presumably because her strength is why Aristagoras chooses to approach her after the Spartans refused him. He says famously at 5.78: isēgoriē is an excellent thing, since under tyranny, the Athenians played the coward since they were working for a master, but once liberated they worked for themselves and became far more militarily powerful than before.
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- Reading HerodotusA Study of the Logoi in Book 5 of Herodotus' Histories, pp. 202 - 225Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007
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