Ancient Greek Political Thought in Practice

Ancient Greece was a place of tremendous political experiment and innovation, and it was here too that the first serious political thinkers emerged. Using carefully selected case-studies, Professor Cartledge investigates the dynamic interaction between ancient Greek political thought and practice from early historic times to the early Roman Empire. Of concern throughout are three major issues: first, the relationship of political thought and practice; second, the relevance of class and status to explaining political behaviour and thinking; third, democracy - its invention, development and expansion, and extinction, prior to its recent resuscitation and even apotheosis. In addition, monarchy in various forms and at different periods and the peculiar political structures of Sparta are treated in detail over a chronological range extending from Homer to Plutarch. The book provides an introduction to the topic for all students and non-specialists who appreciate the continued relevance of ancient Greece to political theory and practice today.

Paul Cartledge is A. G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at Cambridge University and a Fellow of Clare College. He has published extensively on Greek history over several decades, including The Cambridge Illustrated History of Ancient Greece (1997, new edition 2002), Sparta and Lakonia: A Regional History 1300-362 BC (new edition 2001) and Alexander the Great: The Hunt for a New Past (2004, revised edition 2005).

Timeline; 1. Meaning in context: how to write a history of Greek political thought; 2. The Greek invention of the polis, of politics and of the political; Narrative I. The Prehistoric and Protohistoric Greek World c. 1300 BCEc. 750 BCE: 3. Rule by one: the politics of Homer, c. 750 BCE; Narrative II. The Archaic Greek World, c. 750500 BCE: 4. Rule by some: the politics of Solon, c. 600 BCE; 5. Rule by all: the Athenian revolution, c. 500 BCE; Narrative III. The Classical Greek World I: c. 500400 BCE: 6. The human measure: the Greek invention of political theory, c. 500400 BCE; 7. The trial of Socrates, 399 BCE; Narrative IV. The Classical Greek World II: c. 400300 BCE: 8. Rule by one revisited: the politics of Xenophon, Plato, Isocrates, Aristotle - and Alexander the Great, c. 400330 BCE; Narrative V. The Hellenistic Greek World c. 30030 BCE: 9. (E)utopianism by design: the Spartan revolution, 244221 BCE; Narrative VI. 'Graecia Capta' (Greece Conquered) c. 146 BCECE 120: 10. The end of politics? The world of Plutarch, c. CE 100; 11. The Greek legacy and democracy today; Appendix I. Selected texts and documents: Appendix II. The 'Old Oligarch': a close reading.