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Coinage played a central role in the history of the Athenian naval
empire of the fifth century BC. It made possible the rise of the
empire itself, which was financed through tribute in coinage
collected annually from the empire's approximately 200 cities. The
empire's downfall was brought about by the wealth in Persian
coinage that financed its enemies. This book surveys and
illustrates, with nearly 200 examples, the extraordinary variety of
silver and gold coinages that were employed in the history of the
period, minted by cities within the empire and by those cities and
rulers that came into contact with it. It also examines how coins
supplement the literary sources and even attest to developments in
the monetary history of the period that would otherwise be unknown.
This is an accessible introduction to both the history of the
Athenian empire and to the use of coins as evidence.
Thucydides has been found guilty of indifference toward financial
matters without a consideration of all the evidence. Lisa
Kallet-Marx redirects the approach to Thucydides' treatment of
financial resources by studying his comments on finance in the
context of the whole work and scrutinizes other, chiefly
epigraphic, evidence as well. Her comprehensive inspection of the
Archaeology, Pentekontaetia, and history of the Archidamian War
demonstrates that the role of financial resources is central to
Thucydides' ideas about naval power and figures prominently in his
speeches and narrative. The accumulation of chremata, or money, and
its relationship to nautikon, or the fleet, provide a key for
analysis. Kallet-Marx's research reveals an important stage in the
historical development of thought about state power, wealth, and
imperialism. Her book will greatly interest classicists as well as
scholars of ancient economics. This title is part of UC Press's
Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California
Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and
give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to
1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship
accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title
was originally published in 1993.
Coinage played a central role in the history of the Athenian naval
empire of the fifth century BC. It made possible the rise of the
empire itself, which was financed through tribute in coinage
collected annually from the empire's approximately 200 cities. The
empire's downfall was brought about by the wealth in Persian
coinage that financed its enemies. This book surveys and
illustrates, with nearly 200 examples, the extraordinary variety of
silver and gold coinages that were employed in the history of the
period, minted by cities within the empire and by those cities and
rulers that came into contact with it. It also examines how coins
supplement the literary sources and even attest to developments in
the monetary history of the period that would otherwise be unknown.
This is an accessible introduction to both the history of the
Athenian empire and to the use of coins as evidence.
Wealth and power are themes that preoccupy much of Greek literature
from Homer on, and this book unravels the significance of these
subjects in one of the most famous pieces of narrative writing from
classical antiquity. Lisa Kallet brilliantly reshapes our literary
and historical understanding of Thucydides' account of the
disastrous Sicilian expedition of 415-413 b.c., a pivotal event in
the Peloponnesian War. She shows that the second half of
Thucydides' "History" contains a damning critique of Athens and its
leaders for becoming corrupted by money and for failing to
appropriately use their financial strength on military power.
Focusing especially on the narrative techniques Thucydides used to
build his argument, Kallet gives a close examination of the
subjects of wealth and power in this account of naval war and its
aftermath and locates Thucydides' writings on these themes within a
broad intellectual context.
Among other topics, Kallet discusses Thucydides' use of metaphor,
his numerous intertextual references to Herodotus and Homer, and
thematic links he makes among the topics of money, emotion, and
sight. Overall, she shows that the subject of money constitutes a
continuous thematic thread in books six through eight of the
"History." In addition, this book takes a fresh look at familiar
epigraphic evidence. Kallet's ability to combine sophisticated
literary analysis with a firm grasp of Attic inscriptions sheds new
light on an important work of antiquity and provides a model
example of how to unravel a dense historical text to reveal its
underlying literary principles of construction.
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