Category: History

Concerns regarding the untrustworthy nature of merchants and craftsmen commonly expressed by classical authors, who instead championed agriculture for its security and as a pursuit conducive to developing proper decorum, have helped frame our understanding of the ancient economy. Cicero’s often quoted opinions on craftsmen, merchants, and acceptable economic activity outlined in the first book of his De Officiis have proven particularly influential. Moses Finley considered the elite ideology espoused in these texts as the correct framework through which to understand and interpret economic activity at all levels of society. Comments Cicero made in the second book of De Officiis that acknowledged the fact that despite stereotypes, members of lowly trades, and even thieves and pirates, understood that a sense of justice, equity, and establishing trust with colleagues was necessary, have received somewhat less attention. Trust, reputation, and esteem are vital to economic activity. Brennan and Pettit have dubbed esteem… more

Citation with persistent identifier: Modanez de Sant Anna, Henrique. “Domination and Legitimacy in Early Hellenistic Basileia: The Rise of Self-Proclaimed Kings.” CHS Research Bulletin 1, no. 2 (2013). http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hlnc.essay:ModanezdeSantAnnaH.Domination_and_Legitimacy_in_Early_Hellenistic_Basileia.2013 Introduction In principle, one might be reluctant to apply Weberian theory to understanding the ancient world since that would mean putting more emphasis on modern ideal categories than on ancient evidence. Such a “sociological approach” would also be problematic due to Weber’s well-known theory of ancient oriental monarchies. Max Weber is the reference point for consolidating what appears to be a topos in earlier German academic thought: the dilemma between Asian monarchies and democratic states. The former would always include, among other things, the presence of an absolute ruler and a static society. The latter would be characterized as the last stage in the evolution of freedom. For Hegel, writing nearly a hundred years before Weber, the progression in freedom consciousness had… more

When I first started this research I was thinking about identifying different ideal types of Hellenistic kings based on the way they exercised power. It soon became clear that they should all be treated as “charismatic leaders” in a Weberian sense, as suggested by Gehrke in his Der siegreiche König (1982). Moreover, Gehrke’s idea of the existence in Hellenistic kingship of a charisma inheritable through the establishment of a dynastic principle allowed me to understand that inherited charisma was in some regions connected to the adoption of more ancient monarchical traditions (mainly Egyptian and Mesopotamian). This paper aims to briefly discuss the charismatic nature of early Hellenistic monarchical power (from the Successors to the so-called period of stability) emphasizing both the army (military commanders and to a less extent part of the troops) as one of the main intended audiences of a self-proclaimed king the kings’ identification with more ancient… more

This paper examines the organization of athletic history in Philostratus’ Gymnasticus. In the introduction to the Gymnasticus, Philostratus presents a diachronic model of physical decline in athletes and athletic training, from Greek mythic heroes such as Herakles to the poor performance and appearance of athletes in Philostratus’ own time (Gymnasticus 1 [K261.15-262.2]). Philostratus’ history, however, is not just an expression of nostalgic desire for a bygone era. Rather, this diachronic model of decline has a didactic purpose. In order to understand this purpose, I suggest we consider Philostratus’ model of decline in relation to Archaic Greek poetry. In fact, as I will argue, Philostratus’ history of athletes follows a logic that parallels the story of the ages of man in Hesiod’s Works and Days. Just as Hesiod’s ages of man is organized into antithetical pairs that ultimately present a contrast between dikê and hubris, so Philostratus’ “ages of athletes” also… more