Ancient Greek History Gift Guide (Part 1): The Greek World
By Owain Williams
Seeing as though we are nearing the Christmas period, a time when many of our readers will likely be giving gifts to their families and friends, I thought I would offer a kind of guide to some books about ancient Greek history that are available.
Buying books can be very difficult. You must account for the recipient’s personal taste and, in this case, their level of familiarity with the subject matter. In order to properly offer readers a gift guide, these reviews examine these books not just through a historical lens but also through a consumer’s lens, looking at the price and quality of the book, so you can tailor your choice to fit whoever it is you’re getting a gift for, whether that is for someone on their way to study it at university or an enthusiast. The first book we will be looking at is The Greek World, 479–323 BC by Simon Hornblower.
Readers who have studied Ancient History at university will certainly be aware of this book. Ever since the first edition was published in 1983, The Greek World has been used as a textbook in many courses – and it still is. The fourth – and final, as explicitly stated by Hornblower – edition was published in 2011, making it the oldest book that we will be looking at in this series. Since the first edition, the book has been updated several times, with minor corrections in the second (or ‘revised’) edition, the inclusion of a chapter on Argos in the third edition, and a discussion of the Aegean islands in this latest edition. The publisher also stresses that The Greek World has “a completely updated bibliography”.
As the title of the book suggests, The Greek World, 479–323 BC focuses on the Classical period of ancient Greek history – although the applicability of the traditional dating this book adheres to has been subsequently questioned. Hornblower takes the reader on a long, detailed examination of the developments and main events of this period, from the aftermath of the Persian Wars and the creation of the Athenian Empire to the Rise of Macedon and Alexander the Great’s conquests, along with chapters offering more regional focuses on various parts of the Greek world, including Magna Graecia, North Africa, and Thessaly and Macedon, as well as the aforementioned chapter on Argos. At only 432 pages, the scope of this book may seem ambitious, but it is meant only as a general overview of the period, introducing readers to the study of Classical Greece.
Despite being a general overview, Hornblower does go into some significant depth on certain topics. However, other topics feel underdeveloped or are omitted entirely. Athens, for instance, receives the lion’s share of attention in The Greek World. This is hardly surprising, given the overwhelming Athenocentricity of much of the source material commonly described as ancient ‘Greek’, but when compared to the detail other parts of the Greek world are given, this weighting feels intentional. Athens not only receives its own chapter (pp. 129–154), it is also, naturally, the centre of the discussion on the Athenian Empire, including a discussion on the Ephialtic reforms of the mid-fifth century BC (pp. 18–43). The chapter on Athens alone is greater than those on Sparta, Corinth, and Argos combined – Sparta, the other best attested of Greek poleis, only receives nine pages, although later, fourth-century developments are interwoven into the book’s main discussion of the fourth century BC. Yet even with the emphasis on Athens, Hornblower’s discussion of which is generally enlightening, some details are not included, such as the murder of Ephialtes, despite Hornblower’s emphasis on the political rivalries in Athens at the time. This is hardly surprising for a book that attempts to cover poleis, regions, and events that entire books, sometimes more, have been dedicated to, but it can be frustrating.
Moreover, despite Hornblower admirably claiming that the “Greek world means Greek world” (p. xvii), whole regions of the Greek world go undiscussed in any significant detail. The most obvious example of this is the poleis of the Black Sea region. This is hardly due to a lack of sources, ancient or modern, since a great deal of work has been done on these poleis, especially Olbia, much of it published long before the fourth edition of The Greek World was published, yet it makes no appearance in any great detail. Rather, this exclusion may be based on the region’s connection to the central narrative of the Greek world in the Classical period – that is the First and Second Peloponnesian Wars and the rise of Macedon. For instance, Hornblower writes how Argos was “more important than the poor state of the sources suggests” (p. 82), and it was certainly an important player in period. The Black Sea was not that closely involved in these conflicts. Yet it also had a close relationship to Athens, being the source of its grain supply – something Hornblower repeatedly asserts – as well as close social and political connections (see, for example, Mattingly, 1996; Burnstein, 2006; Braund, 2007; and Moreno, 2007). The focus on regions and poleis in accordance to their importance to political developments of the Classical period is supported by the fact that, ultimately, The Greek World is a political narrative history of the period, with little exploration of cultural developments – there is no in-depth discussion of slavery and the slave trade, the theatre, nor the position of women in ancient Greece. Alternatively, the Greeks of the Black Sea may not have been included simply due to concerns of space, an argument Hornblower gives to explain the absence of other poleis from the Argolid, such as Epidaurus, from his chapter on Argos (p. 335, n. 6).
While such an omission is lamentable and the framing of the book as “not Athens-dominated" (p. xvii) is somewhat misleading, The Greek World offers a rich exploration of the main narratives of the Classical period which most readers will be familiar with. Hornblower even includes notes that readers familiar with ancient Greece might find surprising, such as his claim that “there is nothing distinctly democratic about Kleisthenes’ tribal changes” (p. 119) or how Pericles is “the greatest demagogue of them all” (p. 153). These claims are part of a wider critique of the sources, which Hornblower, an expert on Thucydides, having written a commentary on his history, excels at, and are accompanied by a comprehensive bibliography. Although just how much the bibliography has been updated, despite the publisher’s claim (above), is debatable. Most of the bibliographic entries to have been published prior to 2002, when the third edition of The Greek World was published. Given the fourth edition of The Greek World is now almost fifteen years old and is not going to be updated, this is something to bear in mind.
At £46.99 for the paperback, this is a pricey book – certainly quite the investment for a gift. Moreover, The Greek World is ambitious for its length, attempting to account for the events of the period and the cultures of the Greeks involved, meaning, ultimately, important regions and events are not properly accounted for or are entirely omitted. As such, you’ll probably want to buy it for someone who is not toying with exploring the ancient Greek world but set on seriously studying it, like a student-to-be. This also has the added benefit of them likely accounting for gaps in this book during their studies. There is a reason why The Greek World has been reissued several times since it was first published and continues to be recommended for undergraduates at universities – it is an engaging and academic narrative political history – but its age is showing.
References:
Braund, D., "Black Sea Grain for Athens? From Herodotus to Demosthenes." In The Black Sea in Antiquity: Regional and Interregional Economic Exchanges, edited by V. Gabrielsen and J. Lund, 39-68. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 2007.
Burnstein, S.M., "The Greek Cities of the Black Sea." In A Companion to the Classical Greek World, edited by K.H. Kinzl, 137-152. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2006.
Moreno, A. "Athenian Wheat-Tsars: Black Sea Grain and Elite Culture." In The Black Sea in Antiquity: Regional and Interregional Economic Exchanges, edited by V. Gabrielsen and J. Lund, 69-84. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 2007.
Mattingly, H.B. "Athens and the Black Sea in the Fifth Century B.C." Collection de l'Institut des Sciences et Techniques de l'Antiquité 613 (1996): 151-158.
The Greek World, 479–323 BC by Simon Hornblower (ISBN: 9780415602921) is available from Routledge.