Poverty in Athenian Public Discourse
From the Eve of the Peloponnesian War to the Rise of Macedonia
By (author) Lucia Cecchet
Hardback (Published)
(November 2015)
ISBN: 9783515111607
6.69 x 9.49 inches
Price: $105.00
In stock
While previous research has focused on the public discourse of wealth, little attention has thus far been paid to the perception of poverty and attitudes toward it in classical Athens. This book argues that a public discourse of poverty in Athens can be reconstructed from sources dating from the 430s to the 330s BC. Athenian democracy promoted ideas about poverty that could substantially contribute to the stability of the political system, while simultaneously differentiating between destitution and “good poverty” – the latter being a legitimate condition for a citizen and beneficial to the polis. After a preliminary discussion of the debate over the definition of poverty in the social sciences, Lucia Cecchet explores the web of beliefs and the collective imaginary of poverty that emerge from classical Athenian sources addressed to large audiences: drama and oratory. The frequency with which images and ideas about “the poor” occur in these sources testifies to an ongoing discussion of the causes and effects of poverty and even possible solutions to this social problem. These sources allow us to investigate how these topics were used in drama, in the Assembly and in the jury courts to arouse emotions and influence public decisions.
While previous research has focused on the public discourse of wealth, little attention has thus far been paid to the perception of poverty and attitudes toward it in classical Athens. This book argues that a public discourse of poverty in Athens can be reconstructed from sources dating from the 430s to the 330s BC. Athenian democracy promoted ideas about poverty that could substantially contribute to the stability of the political system, while simultaneously differentiating between destitution and “good poverty” – the latter being a legitimate condition for a citizen and beneficial to the polis. After a preliminary discussion of the debate over the definition of poverty in the social sciences, Lucia Cecchet explores the web of beliefs and the collective imaginary of poverty that emerge from classical Athenian sources addressed to large audiences: drama and oratory. The frequency with which images and ideas about “the poor” occur in these sources testifies to an ongoing discussion of the causes and effects of poverty and even possible solutions to this social problem. These sources allow us to investigate how these topics were used in drama, in the Assembly and in the jury courts to arouse emotions and influence public decisions.
- By (author) Lucia Cecchet
Other Titles in this Series
Der makedonische König und die ägyptischen Priester
Studien zur Geschichte des ptolemaiischen Ägypten
Variationen über Latinus
Erzählungen über die Ursprünge der Latiner von Hesiod bis ins 3. Jahrhundert v. Chr.
Psychopathen in Purpur
Julisch-claudischer Caesarenwahnsinn und die Konstruktion historischer Realität
Politikos archein
Zum Regierungsstil der senatorischen Statthalter in den kaiserzeitlichen griechischen Provinzen
Reinstating the Hoplite
Arms, Armour and Phalanx Fighting in Archaic and Classical Greece
Volume 207
Die wirtschaftlichen Auswirkungen der römischen Eroberung
Vergleichende Untersuchungen der Provinzen Hispania Tarraconensis, Africa Proconsularis und Syria
L’aristocrazia senatoria e l’egemonia del Mediterraneo
Uno studio sulle forme dell’imperialismo romano nel II secolo a.C.
Koinè symmachía
Untersuchungen zum Hellenenbund Antigonos' III. Doson und Philipps V. (224-197 v. Chr.)
Governare l’impero
La "praefectura fabrum" fra legami personali e azione politica (II sec. a.C. – III sec. d.C.)
“Wir aber sind damals und jetzt immer die gleichen”
Vergangenheitsbezüge in der polisübergreifenden Kommunikation der klassischen Zeit
Biographie und Prosopographie
Internationales Kolloquium zum 65. Geburtstag von Anthony R. Birley, 28. September 2002, Schloß Mickeln, Düsseldorf
Bürger und Soldaten
Aspekte der politischen und militärischen Rolle athenischer Bürger im Kriegswesen des 4. Jahrhunderts v. Chr.
Polis und Arché
Kleine Schriften zu Gesellschafts- und Herrschaftsstrukturen in der griechischen Welt
Similar Books
Contesting Labeled Identities
The Sociology of Gentilics in Biblical and Northwest Semitic Literature
Drunk the Potion, No Whit Charmed
The Doctrine of Pure and Perfect Souls from Iamblichus to Damascius
Epigraphic “Shades” from Hellenistic Thrace
Contextualizing Inscriptions in Greek from Thracian Tombs
Epiphanies of the Divine in the Septuagint and the New Testament
Fifth International Symposium of the Corpus Judaeo-Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti (CJHNT), 14-17 May 2015, Nottingham
Gold, Silver and Glass: Power Networks, Cultural Identities, Technology Transfers and Agency across the Old World (7th Century BC – 1st Century AD)
Proceedings of a Conference Held at the British Museum, 16–18 June 2023
Language and Power in the Roman Empire and Early India
Hierarchy, Ambiguity, and the Art of Reading the Signs in Cosmopolitan Cultures
Late Antique villae in the Balkans (3rd–7th c. AD): Current Research Questions and Perspectives
HAEMUS Companion to the Late Antique Balkans 1
Volume 4
Nurturing the Elite
Representations of Drinking, Eating, and Religious Vessels in Palmyrene Funerary Iconography
Volume 13
Roman Copies, Collecting, and Culture in the Bay of Naples and Beyond
Papers in Honor of Eugene J. Dwyer
The Compositional History of the Book of Kings
An Analysis of the Evaluative Frameworks in 1 Kings 14–2 Kings 25
Zooarchaeology of Ancient Greek Sanctuaries in Southwestern Sicily
Faunal Analysis from Selinus and Akragas as Evidence of Differences in the Treatment of Animals for Ritual Purposes
