A Small Greek World - Networks in the Ancient Mediterranean (Hardcover, New)

Greek civilization and identity crystallized not when Greeks were close together but when they came to be far apart. It emerged during the Archaic period when Greeks founded coastal city states and trading stations in ever-widening horizons from the Ukraine to Spain. No center directed their diffusion: mother cities were numerous and the new settlements ("colonies") would often engender more settlements. The "Greek center" was at sea; it was formed through back-ripple effects of cultural convergence, following the physical divergence of independent settlements. "The shores of Greece are like hems stitched onto the lands of Barbarian peoples" (Cicero). Overall, and regardless of distance, settlement practices became Greek in the making and Greek communities far more resembled each other than any of their particular neighbors like the Etruscans, Iberians, Scythians, or Libyans. The contrast between "center and periphery" hardly mattered (all was peri-, "around"), nor was a bi-polar contrast with Barbarians of much significance.
Should we admire the Greeks for having created their civilization in spite of the enormous distances and discontinuous territories separating their independent communities? Or did the salient aspects of their civilization form and crystallize because of its architecture as a de-centralized network? This book claims that the answer lies in network attributes shaping a "Small Greek World," where separation is measured by degrees of contact rather than by physical dimensions.

General

Imprint:	Oxford UniversityPress
Country of origin:	United States
Series:	Greeks Overseas
Release date:	November 2011
First published:	November 2011
Authors:	Irad Malkin (Cummings Chair for Mediterranean History and Culture and Professor of Ancient Greek History)
Dimensions:	240 x 163 x 33mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover
Pages:	304
Edition:	New
ISBN-13:	978-0-19-973481-8
Categories:	Books > Humanities > History > World history > BCE to 500 CE Books > Humanities > History > European history > General Books > History > European history > General Books > History > World history > BCE to 500 CE Promotions
LSN:	0-19-973481-X
Barcode:	9780199734818

Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate? Let us know about it.

Does this product have an incorrect or missing image? Send us a new image.

Is this product missing categories? Add more categories.

Review This Product

No reviews yet - be the first to create one!