No CrossRef data available.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
This review commences with two important recent books on archaic Greek history. Hans van Wees sees fiscality as a main aspect of the development of Greek communities in the archaic period. He explores the trajectory of Greek, and more specifically Athenian, fiscality in the course of the archaic period from personal to institutional power, from informal to formal procedures, and from undifferentiated to specialized offices and activities. Van Wees argues convincingly that navies based on publicly built and funded triremes appeared from 530s onwards as a Greek reaction to the emergence of the Persian Empire; the resources for maintaining such navies revolutionized Greek fiscality. This means that the Athenian navy emerged decades before its traditional attribution to the Themistoclean programme of the 480s; but this revolution would have been impossible without the gradual transformation of Athenian fiscality in the previous decades from Solon onwards, as regards the delimitation of institutional and specialized fiscal offices, such as the naukraroi and kolakretai, and the creation of formal procedures of taxation like the eisphora. This is a very important book that should have significant repercussions on the wider study of archaic Greece and Athenian history; but it also raises the major issue of the nature of our written sources for archaic Athens. While van Wees's use of the sources is plausible, there does not seem to be any wider principle of selection than what suits the argument (very sceptical on the tradition about Solon's fiscal measures, or Themistocles’ mines and navy policy; accepting of traditions about Hippias’ and Cleisthenes’ fiscal measures). We urgently need a focused methodological discussion of the full range of sources and the ways in which tradition, anachronism, ideology, and debate have shaped what we actually have.
1 Ships and Silver, Taxes and Tribute. A Fiscal History of Archaic Athens. By van Wees, Hans. London and New York, I. B. Tauris, 2013. Pp. x + 213. Hardback £58, ISBN: 978-1-78076-686-7Google Scholar.
2 The Rise of the Greek Aristocratic Banquet. By Wecowski, Marek. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2014. Pp. xxvi + 400. 23 images, 2 maps. Hardback £90, ISBN: 978-0-19-968401-4CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
3 Reflections on Aristotle's Politics. By Hansen, Mogens Herman. Copenhagen, Museum Tusculanum Press, 2013. Pp. viii + 127. Hardback £24.50, ISBN: 978-87-635-4062-9Google Scholar.
4 The Heroic Rulers of Archaic and Classical Greece. By Mitchell, Lynette. London, Bloomsbury Academic, 2013. Pp. xii + 207. Hardback £65, ISBN: 978-1-4725-0596-5; paperback £21.99, ISBN: 978-1-4725-1067-9Google Scholar.
5 Alexander the Great. Themes and Issues. By Anson, Edward M.. London, Bloomsbury Academic, 2013. Pp. xiii + 226. 2 maps. Hardback £60, ISBN: 978-1-4411-1390-0; paperback £19.99, ISBN: 978-1-4411-9379-7Google Scholar.
6 By the Spear. Philip II, Alexander the Great, and the Rise and Fall of the Macedonian Empire. By Worthington, Ian. Ancient Warfare and Civilization. New York, Oxford University Press, 2014. Pp. xxi + 388. 10 maps, 24 figures. Hardback £25, ISBN: 978-0-19-992986-3Google Scholar.
7 Army and Society in Ptolemaic Egypt. By Fischer-Bovet, Christelle. Armies of the Ancient World. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2014. Pp. xxvi + 447. 34 figures, 4 maps. Hardback £75, ISBN: 978-1-107-00775-8CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
8 Arsinoë of Egypt and Macedon. A Royal Life. By Carney, Elizabeth Donnelly. Women in Antiquity. New York, Oxford University Press, 2013. Pp. xx + 215. 1 map, 12 figures. Hardback £64, ISBN: 978-0-19-536552-8; paperback £18.99, ISBN: 978-0-19-536551-1Google Scholar.
9 Hellenism in the East. Studies on Greek Intellectuals in Palestine. By Geiger, Joseph. Historia Einzelschriften 229. Stuttgart, Franz Steiner Verlag, 2014. Pp. 177. Hardback £47.60, ISBN: 978-3-515-10617-7Google Scholar.
10 Thucydides. The War of the Peloponnesians and the Athenians. Edited by Mynott, Jeremy. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2013. Pp. lxiv + 690. 30 maps. Hardback £54.99, ISBN: 978-0-521-84774-2; paperback £17.99, ISBN: 978-0-521-61258-6Google Scholar.
11 Herodotus. Histories Book V. Edited by Hornblower, Simon. Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2013. Pp. xxii + 351. 5 maps. Hardback £60, ISBN: 978-0-521-87871-5; paperback £22.99, ISBN: 978-0-521-70340-6Google Scholar.
12 Plutarch. Lives that Made Greek History. Edited, with introductions and notes, by Romm, James. Translated by Mensch, Pamela. Indianapolis, IN, Hackett Publishing Company, 2012. Pp. xvi + 295. 1 figure, 3 maps. Hardback $40, ISBN: 978-1-60384-847-3; paperback $13, ISBN: 978-1-60384-846-6Google Scholar.
13 Herodotus. Histories. Edited, with introductions and notes, by Romm, James. Translated by Mensch, Pamela. Indianapolis, IN, Hackett Publishing Company, 2014. Pp. xxviii + 540. 13 maps. Hardback $47, ISBN: 978-1-62466-114-3; paperback $16, ISBN: 978-1-62466-113-6Google Scholar.
14 Demosthenes. Selected Speeches. Translated by Waterfield, Robin. Introduction and comments by Carey, Chris. Oxford World's Classics. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2014. Pp. xxxvi + 528. 3 maps. Paperback £11.99, ISBN: 978-0-19-959377-4Google Scholar.