|
|
|
Keeping Up with the Classics
David Hood
California State University, Long Beach
|
THE ASSOCIATION OF ANCIENT HISTORIANS has sponsored a unique series of monographs on ancient history. Beginning in 1987 with Chester Starr's Past and Future in Ancient History, new volumes have appeared at two-year intervals. The first three volumes were published by the University Press of America, the last four by Regina Press. The series seeks to fulfill one of the principal aims of the Association, to further the teaching of, and research in, Ancient History in Canada and the United States. The volumes in this series are designed to summarize the most recent scholarship in the field of ancient history, and the intended audience includes both specialists as well as teachers of ancient history. Indeed, this series is a most accessible way to learn about current scholarship and recent research. |
1
|
Myth Becomes History: Pre-Classical Greece. Publications of the Association of Ancient Historians 4, by Carol G. Thomas. (Claremont, CA: Regina Books, 1993) 96 pages. $14.95, paper. |
|
One of the most rapidly-changing areas in studies of the entire ancient world is preclassical Greece. The transformation from the Mycenaean to the Classical era is fraught with controversy as constantly-discovered archaeological evidence challenges existing explanations of this metamorphosis. |
2
|
|
Professor Thomas begins the survey with a metaphorical examination of the Trojan War that summarizes the traditional scholarship on preclassical Greece. In the chapter entitled "Tools," a methodological discussion of archaeological techniques is complemented by a technical discussion of dating techniques. Thomas follows her discussion of scholarly tools and techniques with a summary of our current knowledge of the verbal evidence, nicely subdivided into writing and dialects, and the oral tradition. Building on this foundation, in two well-crafted chapters Thomas reconstructs the Mycenaean Age and the Dark Age; in so doing, she employs the tools of modern scholarship as well as summarizing the current state of the scholarly debate. The reader of these two concluding chapters is left with a succinct and masterful summation of the current state of our knowledge about both Mycenaean and Dark Age Greece. |
3
|
Ancient History: Recent Work and New Directions. Publications of the Association of Ancient Historians 5, by Stanley M. Burstein, Ramsey MacMullen, Kurt A. Raaflaub, and Allen M. Ward. (Claremont, CA: Regina Books, 1997) 120 pages. $24.95, cloth. $15.95, paper. |
|
The four distinguished contributors to the fifth volume of the Publications of the Association of Ancient Historians write on the four major areas of classical ancient history, archaic and classical Greece, the Hellenistic age, the Roman Republic, and the Roman Empire. |
4
|
|
Kurt Raaflaub begins by noting efforts to understand Greek history as it relates to Near Eastern and Egyptian History. After a brief summary of Greece in the Bronze Age, Raaflaub devotes his longest section to the archaic age of Greece, with appropriate attention to the rise of the Greek polis. A lucid discussion of the fifth and fourth centuries is divided into the sources—including historiography, Greece other than Athens,"the polar opposites, Sparta and Athens"(p. 23), the"fields of economic and social history"(p. 27), and the fourth century. In his final section, Raaflaub notes that"the differences separating the classics (including Old World archaeology and ancient history), for example, from political science or New World archaeology/anthropology are still profound, hampering fruitful communication and collaboration"(p. 34), and he urges the development of a true interdisciplinary approach to the classical world. |
5
|
|
Stanley Burstein prefaces his essay with a brief and cogent analysis of the state of Hellenistic scholarship before examining its various components: Alexander the Great, the Diadochoi, Macedon and Greece, Seleucid Asia and Ptolomaic Egypt. In addition to identifying new scholarship and discussing emerging trends, Burstein relates these new efforts to the overarching corpus of Hellenistic historiography. In assessing the needs and deficiencies of recent Hellenistic scholarship, he notes that there has been"no satisfactory new general framework for Hellenistic history...to replace the old mixed civilization model" (p. 54) and urges scholars to emphasize the commonalities of the Hellenistic world rather than the regional and cultural diversity of that epoch. |
6
|
|
Alan Ward provides an overview of recent research on the Roman Republic, discussing early Rome as part of a broader Mediterranean world before summarizing the quickly-moving developments in the study of Rome's regal period. The Struggle of the Orders has always been a subject of contention, and Ward threads his way through the controversies surrounding this epoch, assessing recent research and discussing major issues. The remainder of Ward's essay analyzes theories about the creation of and political competition among the Roman nobility, the latest views of Roman imperialism in the early Republic, developments in the study of ethnic and economic history, and work on Hellenization and social history. |
7
|
|
Ramsay MacMullen describes the rapidly-changing approaches to the study of the Roman Empire. The prominence of social history as well as the attention paid to private life underlines how quickly this field is evolving. When writing imperial biographies, historians are employing archaeological and artistic evidence just as readily as the written word. Even more importantly, economic history has become an essential tool for understanding the ancient world. In addition, frontier studies as well as religious history are both being used to understand the complex epoch known to us as the Roman Empire. |
8
|
|
All four contributors to this volume have described a mature field of study that is actively debating how to incorporate interdisciplinary perspectives such as economic development, social and family history, ethnicity and gender, religious history, and archaeology. There is no better source for understanding the rapid evolution of ancient history and the intense debates among ancient historians than this book. It provides a roadmap for students, teachers and specialists alike as they grapple with recent studies and current debates about the ancient world. |
9
|
Before Alexander: Constructing Early Macedonia. Publications of the Association of Ancient Historians 6, by Eugene N. Borza. (Claremont, CA: Regina Books, 2000) 96 pages. $14.95, paper. |
|
Eugene Borza, a lifelong scholar of ancient Macedon, has produced a well-balanced survey of Macedonian scholarship through the death of Philip II in 336 B.C. He divides his work into three main chapters ("Sources and Interpretations," "Origins, Ethnicity and Institutions," and "Philip II"), with a brief"Afterward" and bibliography at the end of the volume. |
10
|
|
Borza opens with a discussion of the ancient written evidence; since Macedonians wrote nothing themselves that has survived, we are dependent upon descriptions written by others. Nonetheless, Borza summarizes the ancient evidence as well as some modern interpretations, including some recent numismatic studies as well. Evidence from inscriptions is also sparse, but Borza again summarizes the most recent research, as he does with the more plentiful archaeological record. He concludes his discussion of the sources with an overview of the most recent narrative histories of Macedon. |
11
|
|
"Origins, Ethnicity and Interpretations" forms the heart of Borza's work. The seething cauldron of the contemporary Balkans has set the stage for nationalistic archaeology designed to"prove" the ethnicity of the Macedonians and to associate them with modern nationalities. Borza is unequivocal in his conclusions: "Whatever the value of nationalistic archaeology...it is not science" (35). Throughout this section, he urges caution, maintaining that "attempts to define a people's ethnicity on the basis of a scant archaeological and literary record are fraught with danger" (38). Tailoring conclusions to fit one's politics should be eschewed. |
12
|
|
The final chapter,"Philip II," is devoted to Alexander's father whose epoch-making reign transformed his country just as his son would transform the Hellenic world. Borza cites the most recent studies of Macedon under Philip's rule, many of which were stimulated by Andronikos' discovery of royal tombs at Vergina in 1977 and 1978. The identities of those buried in the three tombs is a subject of lively debate, and Borza sides with those who believe that the unlooted Tomb II was the burial place of Philip III Arrhidaeus and his wife Eurydice, and not the tomb of Philip II. Borza has produced a brief and masterful discussion of recent scholarship about early Macedonia and Philip II. There is no finer survey of this subject. |
13
|
Current Issues and the Study of Ancient History. Publications of the Association of Ancient Historians 7, by Stanley M. Burstein, Nancy Demand, Ian Morris & Lawrence Tritle. (Claremont, CA: Regina Books, 2002) 96 pages. $14.95, paper. |
|
This book focuses on four topics, afrocentrism, gender issues, archaeology and psychology, that are currently being debated by ancient historians. The four contributors appeared together in a panel presentation at the January 2000 meeting of the American Historical Association, and these essays are the results of that presentation. |
14
|
|
Burstein leads off with a discussion of the afrocentrist debate originally sparked by the appearance of Martin Bernal's Black Athena, but he does far more than review the debate surrounding Bernal's thesis. Carefully considering and citing all sides of the complex Afrocentrist argument, Burstein assesses the relative importance of African contributions to Greek culture as well as how Greek culture adapted and adopted these contributions. His conclusion is well worth quoting:"In studies of the relationships between cultures, it is not enough simply to catalogue borrowed traits and their source; one must also explain if possible why these traits were borrowed and how they were transformed to fit the needs of the new cultural setting.... Explaining the reasons for...differences is fully as important to understanding the origins of Greek civilization as identifying their sources, and that is a task that has hardly begun." (p. 30) |
15
|
|
Nancy Demand traces the study of women in antiquity in the light of the anti-feminist backlash of the 1990s, carefully noting the transformation of Women's Studies to Gender Studies. Stressing the need for an interdisciplinary approach, Demand summarizes recent efforts to apply "a closer and more sophisticated analysis of the evidence, including an increased awareness of the cultural context in which it was produced." Her conclusion is optimistic: "For the vast majority of women...it seems that the evidence can sometimes be refined by new methodologies to offer a more nuanced picture of the realities of their lives." (p. 42) |
16
|
|
Ian Morris discusses archaeology as it applies—or should apply—to ancient history. Indeed, Morris makes a strong plea for cross-disciplinary approaches to ancient history, decrying the strict separation of those who study the verbal evidence from those who study the physical evidence. Morris carefully distinguishes the subfields in which archaeology can make significant contributions (cultural, economic and social archaeological history) from political history where archaeology has little to contribute. Morris explains the lack of archaeological history by the early disciplinary separation of ancient history from classical archaeology. To get good archaeological history, some of the traditional disciplinary skills will have to be given up and, as Morris states, some classicists may think that price is too high. Finally, Morris asks for interdisciplinary cooperation: "If we stop worrying about the boundaries between fields and concentrate instead on using every technique we can think of to answer the questions that we think are important, archaeological history will take care of itself." (p. 67.) |
17
|
|
Larry Tritle discusses the contributions that modern psychology can make to the study of ancient history, particularly to the examination of soldiers in combat. Drawing on his own experiences in Viet Nam, as well as on a wide-ranging analysis of medical sources, Tritle draws convincing parallels between combat situations in the Peloponnesian War and those in Vietnam. Tritle suggests that soldiers in all ages are subjected to similar stresses."It may also be argued that consideration of the psychological imperative argues for a certain constancy of both human nature and text.... An understanding of the human condition, both its physiology and psychology, enables the historian to interpret more fully how people react to the events and world around them." (p. 89.) |
18
|
|
This book presents a fine preview of the disciplinary convergences currently underway in the field of ancient history. |
19
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Association of Ancient Historians has made significant contributions to historical scholarship by sponsoring these four volumes, which offer an incredible breadth of scope and richness of detail. They provide elegant opportunities for anyone—graduate student, teacher and specialist alike—to keep up with the rapidly-evolving field of classical scholarship. |
20
|
|
|
Content in the History Cooperative database is intended for personal, noncommercial use only. You may not reproduce, publish, distribute, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, modify, create derivative works from, display, or in any way exploit the History Cooperative database in whole or in part without the written permission of the copyright holder.
|