Note on the Peace of Nikias

1957 ◽  
Vol 77 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Andrewes ◽  
D. M. Lewis

In the early part of the fourth century it was the regular practice for Athenian treaties to specify the authorities who were to swear the oath on either side, and, although the fifth-century material is more scanty, three clear instances suggest that the habit was already established by 425. The notable exception is the Peace of Nikias, and with it the Spartan alliance of 421, in which not the quality but the number is prescribed, seventeen from each city. Kirchhoff suggested that this odd number might be built up, on the Spartan side, from the two kings (who in fact head the list), the five ephors (the eponymous ephor Pleistolas comes third and the next four might be his colleagues; cf. Tod, GHI 99), and a board of ten. Kirchhoff refused to speculate about these ten beyond saying that it was a normal number, but this gap in his argument can perhaps be filled from a passage in Diodorus (below) which has received no satisfactory explanation. Normal Athenian practice would not oblige Athens to conform to the Spartan number, and if Kirchhoff is right we should perhaps suppose that Sparta asked for numerical parity. The next question will be, how the Athenians made up their seventeen.

1961 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 59-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. Mosley

Treaties of course did not come into force by the appendage of signatures to documents, but after each of the contracting parties had sent envoys to administer the oaths of ratification to the authorities of the other state. In the Journal of Hellenic Studies for 1957 Andrewes and Lewis in an illuminating article on the Peace of Nicias wrote that in the early part of the fourth century B.C. it was the regular practice for Athenian treaties to specify the authorities who were to swear the oath on either side, and that although the fifth-century evidence is more scanty three clear instances suggested the habit was already established by 425.


1944 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
pp. 67-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annie D. Ure

In Volume LVI of this Journal I published a series of. Attic stemless kylikes with red-figure painting outside and stamped or incised patterns inside. These run from about the middle to the end of the fifth century. Characteristic of the early part of the fourth century, though the earliest examples are to be dated before the end of the fifth, is a series of cup-kotylai with similar decoration which forms the subject of this paper.The cups range in size from a height of 0·09 m. with a diameter of 0·165 m. to a height of 0·06 m. with a diameter of 0·12 m. Their deep and comparatively narrow bowls presented more difficulties to the stamper than the shallow kylikes and restricted his designs to smaller and simpler patterns.The earliest group consists of a pair of cups from the same hand. The stamped pattern shows five or six separate palmettes set closely round a small incised central circle and surrounded by a pair of incised circles.


Author(s):  
Daniele Miano

This chapter considers the relationship between Fortuna and Tyche as one of translatability. The first half of the chapter focuses on Tyche, with the aim of determining semantic and structural elements common with Fortuna. The second part of the chapter looks at instances in which Fortuna is translated in Greek. The appearance of bronze strigils bearing the epithet soteira from Praeneste in the fourth century BC seems to presuppose this translation, and also points to the salvific meanings of Fortuna as a base for the process of translation. This process of translation had probably occurred through early contacts between Latium, Sicily, and Magna Graecia, where Tyche seems to be associated with salvation already from the fifth century BC. Other instances of translations of Fortuna and Tyche are studied across the Aegean.


1971 ◽  
Vol 66 ◽  
pp. 189-228
Author(s):  
J. R. Green

The following notes are an attempt to classify on the basis of shape some of the Attic red-figured choes of the later part of the fifth century B.C. and a few sundries of the early part of the fourth. The connection of these vases with the festival of the Anthesteria has given them a prominent place in the study of religion and of children's pastimes. Their scenes have been considered by several scholars, the foremost of whom are Frickenhaus, Deubner, van Hoorn, S. karouzou, and Metzger. Metzger, though taking a less extreme position than Rumpf who challenged the validity of much of the earlier work, has given a refreshingly sane view of several aspects of the iconography. Mrs. karouzou has confined herself in her published work to particular pieces and particular aspects of the festival.


1927 ◽  
Vol 21 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 142-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. W. Gomme

There is still something to be said about these figures for the Athenian hoplite force, the more so as the most reasonable discussion of them, Meyer's, is spoilt by some unsound inferences and has in consequence not found support. Their difficulty is apparent: a muster πανσημει in 338 meant calling up all classes up to the age of 50 (Lycurg. c. Leocr. 39), and since Socrates fought at Delion and Amphipolis when he was in his late forties, and not at Mantineia when he was over 50, we may assume that it meant the same in the fifth century; we also assume (though this is by no means proved) that ‘the youngest’ are those in their nineteenth and twentieth years, as in the fourth century, certainly after the reform of the Ephebeia, perhaps earlier (Aeschin. II. 167); military service ceased at 60. But how could the number of men in these twelve classes, 19-20 and 51-60, stand in the proportion of 13: 17 (16,000 less 3,000 metics, 13,000 plus 1,000 cavalry and 3,000 metics) to the men between 21 and 50 ? They could not be more than a third, and might be less. (Beloch, 1923, tries to make the problem more difficult by the arbitrary assumption that the 13,000 citizen hoplites are all the men of 21-60, instead of 21-50. Meyer, who accepts Thucydides’ figures, forgets that there must have been ‘oldest and youngest’ metics, besides the 3,000 who marched into Megara. Busolt and Meyer also argue that the classes 51-60 will have suffered specially heavy losses in the battles of 459-445, while the eight youngest classes would have seen no fighting;


Traditio ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 1-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Gillett

Olympiodorus of Thebes is an important figure for the history of late antiquity. The few details of his life preserved as anecdotes in hisHistorygive glimpses of a career which embraced the skills of poet, philosopher, and diplomat. A native of Egypt, he had influence at the imperial court of Constantinople, among the sophists of Athens, and even outside the borders of the empire. HisHistory(more correctly, his “materials for history”) is lost, surviving only as fragments in the narratives of Zosimus, Sozomen, and Philostorgius, and in the rich summary given by the ninth-century Byzantine patriarch Photius. These remains comprise the most substantial narrative sources for events in the western Roman Empire in the early fifth century. Besides its value as a source, theHistoryis important as a monument to the vitality of the belief in the unity of the Roman Empire under the Theodosian dynasty. Olympiodorus wrote in Greek, and knowledge of his work is attested only in Constantinople, yet his political narrative, from 407 to 425, concerns only events in the western half of the empire. To understand the significance of these facts, it is necessary to set the composition of Olympiodorus's work in its proper context. Clarifying the date of publication is the first step toward this goal. Internal and external evidence suggests that the work was written in 440 or soon after, more than a decade later than the date of composition usually accepted. Taken with thematic emphases evident in the structure of theHistory, this revised dating explains why an eastern writer should have written a detailed account of western events in the early part of the century. Olympiodorus's account is a characteristic product of the highly literate class of eastern imperial civil servants, and of their genuine preoccupation with the relationship between the eastern and western halves of the Roman Empire at a time when both were threatened by the rise of the new Carthaginian power of the Vandals.


Author(s):  
Lowell Edmunds

This chapter explores the fifth-century strands of reception of Helen. The Helens discussed in this chapter are a selection made to illustrate the postepic narrative as presupposed by various writers in various media. In addition to these fifth-century strands, the chapter also turns to the fourth century, which is another important strand of reception. The fourth century traces a strand which begins with the Pythagoreans in Croton in southern Italy and leads on to Goethe by way of Simon Magus. Another strand begins with the first fictional Helen, which can be found in Ovid. The chapter accompanies this discussion with an introduction into the concept of fiction. Finally, this chapter provides an example of the parallel phenomenon in Greek literature.


Author(s):  
Lucy C. M. M. Jackson
Keyword(s):  

Chapter 1 brings together the evidence for when and where dramatic choruses danced in the fourth century, providing an historical base for the later discussions of fourth-century dramatic choral activity. After establishing the certain and likely locations for dramatic performances in Athens, Attica, and the wider ancient Mediterranean (and beyond), the chapter considers the question of who the choral performers were, and what their choral training might have involved. Through this focus on the choral performer, and the practicalities of producing so many dramatic productions in each year, the chapter can begin to draw together a new picture of choral industry in the fourth century, an industry that clearly had its roots in the fifth century. Considering the theory that ‘local’, ‘amateur’ choruses would be recruited for travelling groups of actors, it suggests that the evidence supports, instead, a class of skilled choral performers in line with the industry’s professionalizing turn.


Author(s):  
Dwayne A. Meisner

The third chapter is about a theogony that had been known to the philosopher Eudemus (fourth century BC), and all of the other fragments that modern scholars have associated with this theogony. The Neoplatonist Damascius (fifth century AD) says that the theogony started with Night, but modern scholars have tried to link this to other early fragments of Orphic poetry. This chapter discusses Aristophanes in the first section, and Plato and Aristotle in the second section, arguing that their scattered references to Orphic poems might not have been from the same theogony. The third section introduces the Orphic Hymn(s) to Zeus that appear in different variations, the earliest of which are from around the same time as these other fragments. The fourth section suggests that early Orphic fragments about Demeter and Dionysus are not from the Eudemian theogony.


Author(s):  
Lawrence J. Bliquez

The chapter looks at Greek and Roman surgical instruments. The survival of Greco-Roman surgical instruments falls into two divisions: tools available in Hippocratic times (fifth to fourth century bce), and instruments at the disposal of surgeons, mostly Greek, from the late Republic through the Empire (first century bce to fifth century ce). From the former, most survivals are cupping vessels from graves. The texts suggest the Hippocratic physician often created his tool on the spot or had a tool prepared for an immediate need, whereas most of an Imperial surgeon’s repertoire consisted of instruments professionally made and sold by smiths. The various kinds of instruments are described, explained, and illustrated: cupping vessels, scalpels, phlebotomes (for phlebotomy), lithotomes (for bladder stones), needles, probes, cauteries, hooks, forceps, saws, drills, chisels, files, levers, tubes, douches, specula, and abortives.


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