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and Greek Interstate Relations
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 May 2015
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The ways of emotions are difficult to track, and yet positive affects, such as goodwill and affection, play an important part in both self-definition and social interactions. In western societies popular conception generally considers emotions to be universal spontaneous reactions, but in fact the nature of emotion is an issue debated by both psychologists and cultural theorists. In this paper I wish to investigate the role of positive affects (encapsulated to some degree in the Greek term , which could range in meaning from benevolence and goodwill to affection, and for which a more precise translation depends on context) in Greek interstate relations. I will argue that was a socially constructed emotion which was implicated in -relationships, and therefore that the terminology of contained the expectation of an affective content (whether or not any given -relation in reality contained any positive emotion).
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References
1 See esp. Rosaldo, M.Z., ‘Toward an anthropology of self and feeling’, in Shweder, R.A. and LeVine, R. (eds), Culture Theory: Essays on Mind, Self and Emotion (Cambridge 1984) 137-57Google Scholar.
2 I am using the term ‘positive affect’ throughout in its technical sense of a positive emotional response, whether this was as strong an emotion as ‘affection’ suggests, or something weaker like ‘goodwill’. It should be noted that an ‘affective’ relationship is not necessarily an affectionate one, but that it is simply a relationship which gives rise to emotions of one kind or another. I prefer to use this term instead of other more cumbersome phrases, firstly, because it is a convenient shorthand and, secondly, because it has a legitimate technical usage in the anthropological/psychological literature on this subject.
3 Any study of this kind must be prefaced with a warning: the range of emotions and relationships encapsulating loving, liking, and befriending are very ill-defined within our own culture and as a consequence the problem of trying to pin down Greek concepts such as friendship and affection is exacerbated by the endemic looseness of terminology within our own conceptual frameworks. What, for instance, do we mean by the term ‘affection’? Is it more than liking, but less than love (which are another two terms we have difficulty defining)? Is it something between the two (or both, but at different times) or something else entirely? As a result we are using what is in itself an unstable vocabulary (and there are layers upon layers of difficulties here) to try to locate terms from another language and culture which do not equate exactly with our own concepts, let alone vocabulary. The case is by no means hopeless, but great care must be exercised throughout to ensure that when moving between languages one is not also distorting concepts to fit words with unstable, or at least shifting, meaning.
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23 I wish to thank Dr I.G. Spence for drawing my attention to this passage, and Prof. R.G. Osborne for discussing it with me.
24 This looks very much like patronage, although not exactly the formal patronus/cliens relationship known from the Roman world. Recent anthropology has tended to disassociate patronage from friendship (contra Pitt-Rivers, J., The People of the Sierra2 [Chicago and London 1971] 140Google Scholar, who described patronage as ‘lop-sided friendship’), since, it is claimed, the essence of patronage is power, not exchange (Gellner, E., ‘Patrons and clients’, in Gellner, E. and Waterbury, J. [eds], Patrons and Clients [London 1977] 1–6Google Scholar; cf. Davis, J., People of the Mediterranean [London 1977] 147-8Google Scholar; Weingrod, A., ‘Patrons and polities’, in Gellner, E. and Waterbury, J. [eds], op. cit. 42Google Scholar). Nevertheless, in this passage Xenophon is clearly using the language of and exchange to describe this relationship, and some very interesting points can be made about the way in which Xenophon describes the relationship and how he shifts between the language of equality and the language of subordination. As already noted, the relationship is described in terms of , which in itself implies a power balance and equality (cf. Arist, . Nie. Eth. 8.1157b33-1158a1, 1158b1Google Scholar), and the suggestion is made, whatever the real situation, that Diodorus and Hermogenes are social equals (which is not surprising given the democratic ideology of equality in Athens: see Brock, R., ‘The emergence of democratic ideology’, Historia 40 [1991] 160-9Google Scholar). This is reinforced by the attributes of such . He will be willing, well disposed, steadfast, and will search out ways to help his , all qualities one would look for in any ‘companionable’ (compare the relationship between Orestes and Pylades: e.g., Eur. Or. 802-6). And yet, despite all the indications that this is at least a notionally equal relationship, this kind of is described as a (unequivocally indicating his subordination), who will do as he is told (although this is immediately qualified with the statement that he will also be able to think for himself and act independently), and who can be ‘bought’ (and cheap at half the price!). This is indeed a relationship about power—Diodorus does go out and ‘buy’ Hermogenes—but the ideology and rhetoric of also seek to conceal this power relation (compare also the use of amicus and amicitia to disguise patronage relationships: see Brunt [n.20] 361, and esp. id., ‘Clientela’, in The Fall of the Roman Republic and Related Essays [Oxford 1988] 394-5)Google Scholar.
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35 See, e.g., [Dem.] 58.39-40.
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39 For the award of citizenship to Satyrus and Leucon (which was passed on as a gift to Spartocus and Paerisades: Dem. 20.29-35 [where the granting of citizenship is again described as the giving of ]): Tod 167; Osborne (n.38) 3.41-4.
40 Hornblower, S., Commentary on Thucydides (Oxford 1991–1996) 1.306-7Google Scholar.
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42 Giovaninni, A., ‘Greek cities and their commonwealth’, in Bulloch, A., Gruen, E.S., Long, A.A. and Stewart, A. (eds), Images and Ideologies: Self-definition in the Hellenistic World (Berkeley 1993) 274Google Scholar.
43 See esp. Homblower (n.40) 2.61-80.
44 On in Isocrates, see de Romilly, J., ‘Eunoia in Isocrates or the political importance of creating good will’, JHS 78 (1958) 92–101CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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47 = Tod 178; Osborne (n.38) D16 (in vol. 1); the grant was probably renewed for fighting with the Athenians at Chaeronea (Aeschin. 3.98, 256: see also Osborne [n.38] 2.84).
48 Although not all were hereditary; for the kinds of and the methods of appointment, see Mitchell (n.16) 28-37.
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50 Xen, . Hell. 6.4.24.Google Scholar His father had also been a to the Thebans. For Jason's motives, see Tuplin, C.J., The Failings of Empire. A Reading of Xenophon Bellenica 2.3.11-7.5.27 [Historia Einzelschriften, 76] (Stuttgart 1993) 118Google Scholar.
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52 = ML 47.
53 = Tod 68.
54 [Arist] Ath. Pol. 23.5.Google Scholar
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56 Cf. Dem. 23.114; [Dem.] 12.8-9. Note also that although Demosthenes suggests that those granted Athenian citizenship ought to move to Athens, this was not practical for a number of honorands (such as the Thracian kings). Nevertheless, as part of his rhetoric, it is effective, since one of the expectations inherent in the naturalisation process was that new citizens would participate in the Athenian state, whether in fact they did or not: see Mitchell (n.16) 37-9.
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