Thebes

Cartledge Paul Cartledge

Description

The riveting, definitive account of the ancient Greek city of Thebes, by the acclaimed author of The Spartans-now in paperback Among the extensive writing available about the history of ancient Greece, there is precious little about the city-state of Thebes. At one point the most powerful city in ancient Greece, Thebes has been long overshadowed by its better-known rivals, Athens and Sparta. In Thebes: The Forgotten City of Ancient Greece, acclaimed classicist and historian Paul Cartledge brings the city vividly to life and argues that it is central to our understanding of the ancient Greeks' achievements-whether politically or culturally-and thus to the wider politico-cultural traditions of western Europe, the Americas, and indeed the world. From its role as an ancient political power, to its destruction at the hands of Alexander the Great as punishment for a failed revolt, to its eventual restoration by Alexander's successor, Cartledge deftly chronicles the rise and fall of the ancient city. He recounts the history with deep clarity and mastery for the subject and makes clear both the di?erences and the interconnections between the Thebes of myth and the Thebes of history. Written in clear prose and illustrated with images in two color inserts, Thebes is a gripping read for students of ancient history and those looking to experience the real city behind the myths of Cadmus, Hercules, and Oedipus.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Ancient Rome
• Classical antiquity
• Ancient Greece
• History
• Greece

Informations

• Publié par: ABRAMS BOOKS
• Date de parution: 22 septembre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781468316070
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Also by Paul Cartledge
THE SPARTANS
ALEXANDER THE GREAT
THERMOPYLAE

Copyright 2020 Paul Cartledge
Cover 2020 Abrams
The epigraph in the Preface is from Mouth Full of Blood: Essays, Speeches, Meditations by Toni Morrison (Chatto Windus, 2019).
Published in 2020 by Abrams Press, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020932371
ISBN: 978-1-4683-1606-3
eISBN: 978-1-46831-607-0
Abrams books are available at special discounts when purchased in quantity for premiums and promotions as well as fundraising or educational use. Special editions can also be created to specification. For details, contact [e-mail] or the address below.
Abrams Press is a registered trademark of Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
ABRAMS The Art of Books 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007 abramsbooks.com
T O THE M EMORY OF P ETER M AYER (1936-2018)
Contents
Acknowledgements
Note on Spelling
Timeline
List of Illustrations
Maps
Preface
PART I PRE-HISTORY
Chapter 1. Introduction: From Myth to History
Chapter 2. City of Myth: The Theban Cycle
Chapter 3. City of Prehistory and Protohistory: Archaeology, the Linear B Tablets and Homer
PART II ARCHAIC THEBES
Chapter 4. Religion
Chapter 5. Politics
PART III CLASSICAL THEBES
Chapter 6. Foreign Affairs
Chapter 7. City of Song: Pindar and Athenian Tragedy
Chapter 8. The Peloponnesian and Corinthian Wars
Chapter 9. Theban Heyday: City of Epaminondas and Pelopidas
PART IV DOWNFALL
Chapter 10. Battle of Chaeronea, 338
Chapter 11. The Destruction of Thebes, 335
PART V AFTERLIFE: THE PERSISTENCE OF OEDIPUS
Chapter 12. Thebes Rebuilt
Chapter 13. Mythic Revivals: the pigs bite back
Chapter 14: Conclusion
Afterword: A Tribute to Peter Mayer
Sources and Further Reading (a selection)
Index of Searchable Terms
Acknowledgements
Julian Alexander, my agent, and Georgina Morley, at Picador, my UK publisher/editor, are jointly most responsible for making this book happen. I am greatly in their debt, once again. The late great publisher Peter Mayer, to whom this book is dedicated (see Afterword ), was also key to its conception and development, and acceptance by its US publisher. And it has also been a pleasure to work again with Tracy Carns (formerly with Overlook, now Abrams).
Dr Carol Atack (Newnham College, Cambridge) most generously volunteered to read the whole in draft. She proved yet again to be a quite seriously demanding critic, in all the best senses. Professor Robert Garland (Colgate University), my good friend of over twenty years, at very short notice read an early, very imperfect draft of the whole book and helped me clear up many unclarities and infelicities as well as eliminate many niggling slips, all with his usual tact. Dr Daisy Dunn (editor of the Hellenic Society s ARGO magazine) likewise kindly read all at a later stage and made several helpful corrections. Professor Fiona Macintosh (St Hilda s College, Oxford) helped greatly with the tragedy section and made some most helpful observations at a late stage. Professor Edith Hall (King s College London), another dear friend and colleague of long standing, unwittingly helped me fill a couple of major gaps by showing me the manuscript of her magnificent forthcoming work (with Dr Henry Stead, Open University, UK) on Classics and class in Britain and Ireland since the late eighteenth century. My Cambridge colleague Dr Yannis Galanakis was exceptionally helpful in discussing with me his exciting excavation at Prosilio, Boeotia. Paul Lay (editor of History Today magazine) put me on to Enescu s Oedipe late in the day. Finally, I have profited immeasurably from my collaboration over the past half dozen years with Professor Paul Christesen (Dartmouth College), with whom I co-direct and co-edit the Oxford History of the Archaic Greek World project.
Many years ago, I toured most of Boeotia by car with my late friend and former colleague (at the then New University of Ulster), Dr David Hardy (an alumnus of Clare College, Cambridge, at which I hold an A. G. Leventis Senior Research Fellowship). I have visited Boeotia and Thebes many times since, but that tour has stayed in my mind the most vividly.
Note on Spelling
I have generally used Latinized forms of Greek proper names, hence Cadmea rather than Kadmeia, but there are exceptions. There are always exceptions.
Timeline
(All dates down to 508/7 BCE are approximate and/or traditional.)
( B ) CE = (Before) Common Era
BCE
Bronze Age
3000 (to 1000)
Minoan (Cretan) civilization
1600 (to 1150)
Mycenaean (or Late Bronze Age) period
1400
Destruction of Cnossus, Crete
1300
Palace of Thebes and Fortification of Cadmea (Kadmeia) acropolis
1200
Destruction of mainland Greek palaces: Mycenae, Pylus, Thebes
1150
Upheavals in eastern Mediterranean: marauding of the Sea Peoples
Early Iron age
1100 (to 700)
Era of migrations (Dorian migration, Asia Minor settlements)
Archaic Age
800-700
Emergence of the polis state-form
776
Foundation of Olympic Games
750/720
Greek alphabet invented
700-650
Homer, Hesiod ( Theogony, Works and Days )
750-
Greek Diaspora colonization begins: southern Italy, Sicily, Black Sea, North Africa, southern France, eastern Spain (Thebes not a colonizer)
700
Introduction of hoplite fighting
550
Achaemenid Persian Empire founded by Cyrus II
525
First Boeotian federation, Boeotian coinage
508/7
Cleisthenes introduces democratic reforms in Athens
506
Boeotians defeated by democratic Athens
505 (-366)
Sparta s Peloponnesian League formed
Classical Age
490
Battle of Marathon: Athens and Plataea defeat Persian invaders under Datis and Artaphernes
480-479
Second Persian invasion, under Xerxes, defeated: Salamis 480; Plataea 479. Thebes fights with Persia against loyalist Greeks and serves as main Persian base
477 (-404)
Athens founds anti-Persian Delian League
467
Aeschylus ( c . 525-456), Seven Against Thebes
463
Aeschylus, Suppliant Women
460-446/5
First (Atheno-)Peloponnesian War: Sparta and allies v. Athens and allies
457
Battle of Oenophyta: Athens conquers Boeotia
449
Peace of Callias (between Athens and Persia; existence disputed)
447
Thebes defeats Athens at Coronea, establishes oligarchic federal state (-386)
446/5
Thirty Years Truce between Sparta and Athens (broken 431)
442, 430/29, 402/1
Sophocles s (497-406) Theban trilogy (so-called): Antigone, Oedipus Tyrannus, Oedipus at Colonus
431 (-404, with interruptions)
Atheno-Peloponnesian War: begins with attack by Thebes (Sparta s ally) on Plataea (Athens s ally)
429 (-427)
Siege of Plataea by Sparta
426
Destruction of Plataea by Sparta
424
Battle of Delium: Thebes defeats Athens; Thebes destroys Thespiae
423
Euripides ( c . 485-406), Suppliant Women
421 (-414)
Peace of Nicias
421
Alliance between Sparta and Athens; Thebes remains loyal to Sparta when other Peloponnesian League allies defect
418
Battle of Mantinea: Spartan victory over Athens and defected allies
415-413
Athenian expedition to Sicily: Syracusan victory
413
Sparta occupies Decelea in Attica; flight of slaves to Boeotia; booty raids on Attica by Thebes
405
Dionysius (I) becomes tyrant of Syracuse
404
Sparta, with Persian aid, wins Atheno-Peloponnesian War; rejects Thebans (and Corinthians ) call for destruction of Athens, imposes Thirty Tyrants oligarchic junta backed by garrison of ex-Helots
404(-371)
Spartan hegemony
403
Thebes aids Athenian exiles to defeat and overthrow Thirty Tyrants; democracy restored in Athens
401/400
Proxenus of Thebes among the 10,000 mercenaries recruited by Cyrus the Younger
395 (-386)
Corinthian War: Sparta defeats Quadruple Alliance (Boeotia led by Theban Hismenias allied with Athens, Argos, Corinth)
386
King s/Common Peace: sponsored by Artaxerxes II of Persia and Agesilaus II of Sparta; Boeotian federal state dismantled; oligarchy maintained in Thebes; Thespiae occupied by Spartan garrison
382
Thebes occupied and garrisoned by Sparta; extreme oligarchy established; anti-oligarchic Theban exiles harboured in Athens
379/8
Thebes liberated by exiles led by Pelopidas; new, democratic polis founded
378
Thebes establishes democratic Boeotian federal state; Gorgidas founds Sacred Band
378 (-338)
Athens founds anti-Spartan Second Sea-League: liberated, democratic Thebes a founder member
375
Battle of Tegyra: Thebes beats a Spartan force; Common Peace (of 386) renewed under Theban leadership
371
Battle of Leuctra: Thebans defeat Spartans; Theban ascendancy in mainland Greece (to 362), Common Peace renewed in Thebes
370
Athens allies with Sparta against Thebes
368 (-365)
Philip of Macedon held hostage in Thebes in house of Pammenes
367
Death of Dionysius I of Syracuse
366
End of Sparta s Peloponnesian League
364
Battle of Cynoscephalae, Thessaly; death of Pelopidas
362
Second Battle of Mantinea: Theban victory, death of Epaminondas; Common Peace (of 386, 375, 371) again renewed
361
Theban intervention in Peloponnese to shore up Arcadian federation
359 (-336)
Accession of Philip II of Macedon
357
Thebes advocates punishment of Phocians and Spartans within Delphic Amphictyony; Philip takes over Amphipolis
356 (-346)
Third Sacred War: Thebes and allies v. Phocians; Phocians defeated by Thebes s ally Philip
355
Battle near Neon, Boeotia: Thebans defeat Phocians. Pammenes in Asia Minor supports rebel Persian satrap
354/2
Thebes records funds received for war on Phocians
352-1
Invasions and counter-invasions of Phocis and Boeotia
351
Theban Cephision aids Megalopolis against Sparta
350
Thebes receives Persian subsidy from Artaxerxes III
346
Athenian Peace of Philocrates with Philip II;