The Early Greek World and Herodotus' Histories: 650 to 479 BC

I.1. The Early Greek World and Herodotus' Histories: 650 to 479 BC

Our knowledge of Greek History down to the great war with Persia is based on historical allusions in the works of archaic poets, traditions handed down largely by oral transmission and preserved in Herodotus or later writers, and on the archaeological record (on which Greats paper IV.1, The Greeks and the Mediterranean World, concentrates more). This paper emphasizes the literary evidence and in particular the oral and written traditions preserved in Herodotus and the evidence of earlier texts and attitudes to earlier history preserved in the Aristotelian Constitution of the Athenians.

This was a crucial period in the development of Greek culture. The great phase of Greek expansion overseas (‘colonisation’) continued during it. But in the sixth century the Greeks themselves came under pressure from their eastern neighbours, first the Lydians and then the great new power of Persia. The city-state established itself firmly as the dominant form of social organisation. Lawgivers wrote comprehensive codes – or so later Greeks believed. In many places the leisured classes developed a luxurious life-style centred on the symposium, though Sparta went the other way in the direction of austerity. Exploitation took new forms, with chattel-slavery apparently growing greatly in importance. Many cities were under the rule of ‘tyrants’ (not necessarily the hate-figures they later became), but by the end of the period democracy had been established in Athens by Cleisthenes, and the first tragedies were being performed. The delight of studying the period is greatly increased by the charm of two of the main literary sources for it, Herodotus and the early lyric poets.

If you offer this period as a text-based subject, passages for compulsory comment and translation will be set from: Herodotus I. 141-177, III.39-60, V.28-VI end; Aristotle, Athenaion Politeia i-xxiv. A document on WebLearn (‘Documents Greek HistoryI.1.doc’) lists key documents, some of which will be set (with a translation) among the optional gobbets (qu. 16).

 It has been decided that (where possible) tutorials for this period of Greek History will take place in Trinity and the first half of Michaelmas Terms, and Lectures on this subject will normally take place in Trinity and Michaelmas.

Choosing your combinations - this period makes a natural pair with the following one, and makes the Greek world of the fifth century B.C. much easier to understand. It has an extremely fertile relationship with archaeology paper IV.1 The Greeks and the Mediterranean world. This subject would also go admirably with Literature subjects III.4, Lyric poetry, and III.5, Early Greek Hexameter Poetry.