The Greek City States
A Source Book

Political activity and political thinking began in the cities and other states of ancient Greece, and terms such as tyranny, aristocracy, oligarchy, democracy and politics itself are Greek words for concepts first discussed in Greece. Rhodes presents in translation a selection of texts illustrating the formal mechanisms and informal workings of the Greek states in all their variety. From the states described by Homer out of which the classical Greeks believed their states had developed, through the archaic period which saw the rise and fall of tyrants and the gradual broadening of citizen bodies, to the classical period of the fifth and fourth centuries, Rhodes also looks beyond that to the Hellenistic and Roman periods in which the Greeks tried to preserve their way of life in a world of great powers. For this second edition the book has been thoroughly revised and three new chapters added.

Reviews & endorsements

"One of the greatest challenges for the instructor of Greek social history courses is to distill and present the disparate primary sources to the novice undergraduate student. And so a new edition of The Greek City States: A Source Book is welcome indeed. An eminent scholar of Greek social history, Rhodes has culled and organized the most pertinent sources from Greek literature and various corpora of inscriptions. This second edition of The Greek City States is superior to its predecessor. Each source is now numbered individually and Rhodes' editorial commentary has been made clearly distinct at the beginning of each passage. These changes only serve to highlight Rhodes' excellent choice of texts. Sources are presented in a clear and logical order. Indeed, the presentation is so effective that sources naturally segue into the next and the student can easily read through an entire section on a given topic (e.g. tyranny, nos. 48-62). ... The Greek City States remains an excellent resource for the Greek history instructor. Indeed, it is superior in content, form and design to the comparable sourcebooks by Crawford and Whitehead,[[2]] and the volumes by Fornara and Harding in the Translated Documents of Greece & Rome series.[[3]] It is a welcome addition to any class concerning Greek social history of the Archaic and Classical periods. --Bryn Mawr Classical Review 1/31/2008

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Product details

• Edition: 2nd Edition
• Date Published: May 2007
• format: Paperback
• isbn: 9780521615563
• length: 356 pages

• dimensions: 229 x 152 x 20 mm
• weight: 0.574kg
• contains: 2 maps
• availability: Available