Athenian power in the fifth century B.C.

Thesis

The aim of this thesis is to provide a distinctive study of fifth-century BC Athenian power. I argue that Athenian power was composed of multi-directional and heterogenous interactions between the Athenians and allied communities, including assertions of allied agency and negotiation.

Studies of other ancient Mediterranean empires have benefitted from the fresh perspectives provided by awareness of scholarship on imperial and hegemonic powers of other periods and geographies. Approaches to the fifth century, however, are to a significant extent dominated by diachronic, narrative historiography, and hierarchical and centralised examinations of Athenian power, both rooted in close study of Thucydides. Understanding of the ancient economy has not been sufficiently integrated into analysis of political development. Some recent scholarly contributions have begun to break with these approaches, but there is scope for a new examination of Athenian power.

This thesis differs from previous contributions in three key ways: through engagement with a comparative framework; through new analysis of Athenian sources, inscribed documents and Old Comedy in particular; and through comparison of Athenian power in the context of regional dynamics. After demonstrating in the first half of the thesis that Athenian power, particularly its fiscal aspect, was flexible and negotiated - but that this negotiation was increasingly controlled in the final decades of the fifth century - I consider in the second half how local conditions determined the operation of Athenian power in three contested and peripheral Aegean regions, resulting in similar but opportunistically differentiated strategies.

Authors: Lazar, L

• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Greek history; Athens; Epigraphy; Empire
• Subjects: Ancient history