Sources for, and dating, Greek history

Testing a source’s reliability

• Temporal proximity

• Contextual fit• Intentionality

Contextualfit

Intentionality

Temporalproximity

[1] With reference to the speeches in this history,some were delivered before the war began, others while it was going on; some I heard myself, others I got from various quarters; it was in all cases difficult to carry them word for word in one's memory, so my habit has been to make the speakers say what was in my opinion demanded of them by the various occasions, of course adhering as closely as possible to the general sense of what they really said.

[2] And with reference to the narrative of events, far from permitting myself to derive it from the first source that came to hand, I did not even trust my own impressions, but it rests partly on what I saw myself, partly on what others saw for me, the accuracy of the report being always tried by the most severe and detailed tests possible. [3] My conclusions have cost me some labor from the want of coincidence between accounts of the same occurrences by different eye-witnesses, arising sometimes from imperfect memory, sometimes from undue partiality for one side or the other.

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War 1.22

Testing a source’s reliability

• Temporal proximity

• Contextual fit• Intentionality

Contextualfit

Intentionality

Temporalproximity

Literary sources for Greek history

(f=focus; b=breadth; c=composition)• Historians: extant works– Herodotus’ Histories (f.: 499-479; b.: 600-479; c.: ca. 431)– Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War (f.: 432-

411; b.: 432-404; c.: ca. 400)– Xenophon’s Hellenica (f.: 411-362; b.: same; c.: 362-354)– Aristotle’s Athenian Constitution (f.: 500-400 and 4th

century; b.: 700-4th century; c.: 350-323)

Literary sources for Greek history

(f=focus; b=breadth; c=composition)• Historians: non-extant works except fragments– Atthidographers (f.: 5th-4th centuries; b.:

origins-4th century; c.: 4th century)– Ephorus’ Universal History (f.: post-Trojan

War-4th century; b.: same; c.: 4th century)– Diodorus Siculus’ Historical Library (f.:

universal history; b.: same: c.: 1st century)

• Epic poets– Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey

(f.: heroic age: b.: same; c.: 750-700? later?) – one poet?

– Hesiod’s Theogony (f.: origins; b.: same; c.: 750-700? later?)

– Hesiod’s Works and Days (f.: 750-700?; b.: same: c.: same)

– Homeric Cycle and Homeric Hymns (f.: heroic age; b.: same; c.: 7th-6th centuries)

Literary sources for Greek history

(f=focus; b=breadth; c=composition)

• Lyric (sung to the lyre), epigrammatic(short, witty) and elegiac (mournful) poets– Theognis, Alcaeus, Solon,

Simonides, Anacreon, Archilochus, Bacchylides, Phocylides, Pindar, Sappho, Xenophanes (f.: contemporary life; b: same; c.: 7th-5th centuries)

• Orators – 5th & 4th centuries

– e.g., Aeschines, Andocides, Antiphon, Isocrates, Lysias, Demosthenes

Literary sources for Greek history

(f=focus; b=breadth; c=composition)

Literary sources for Greek history

(f=focus; b=breadth; c=composition)• Tragic poets (3 compete annually, each

with 4 plays – 3 tragedies, one satyr play)– Aeschylus: 525/4-456/5 (7 of 90 extant)– Sophocles: 496/5-406/5 (7 of 123 extant)– Euripides: 491/0-406/5 (19 of 91 extant)

• Comic poets (3-5compete annually, eachwith one play)– Aristophanes:

460-386(11 of 40 extant)

Dating sources

• Internal evidence– references to events and social customs

dated by other means (e.g., emergence of the polis, events in a war)

– anachronisms – i.e., temporal dislocation (e.g., chariots in the Iliad)

• External evidence– archaeological evidence

Material sources for Greek history:

archaeological evidence: inscriptions• Epigraphy: inscriptions on stone,

metal, terracotta – durable materials– typically contemporary– often fragmentary– nearly useless if not dated

• Genres– poetry, laws, decrees, votes– treaties, dedications, honors

Material sources for Greek history:

archaeological evidence: papyri• Primary medium for …

day-to-day activities– correspondence– petitions– edicts– receipts

• Limited survival of texts– Aristotle’s Athenian Constitution– Oxyrhynchos Historian– many fragments of (un)known works

Material sources for Greek history:

archaeological evidence: coins• Field of numismatics (<νομίζειν, to

use according to νόμος – “law” or “custom”)– post 550 BCE, so not applicable earlier– limited use as propaganda, so little

internal evidence– long periods of usage, so broad range of

dates

Material sources for Greek history:

archaeological evidence: architecture, sculpture, vase painting• Architecture

– often can be dated– internal ideologies– evidence of wealth– evidence of skill

•Sculpture, vase painting-can be dated stylistically-reveals social customs-high level of sophistication

Material sources for Greek history:

archaeological evidence: field data• Pollen analysis, petrology, animal

bones– trade– economics– social customs– settlement patterns– public vs. private space– diet– environmental conditions

All sources for Greek history:literary and material

• Context is key• Congruence is rare• Historians must

draw upon all sources to complete the picture

Archaeology Epigraphy

Literature

Congruence

Dating schemes: caveat emptor• Each polis used different systems (&

calendars)– Athens: eponymous archon lists: 683/2, reliable

p.425/4

• Panhellenic festivals– Olympiads: 766– reliable post 600

• Religious offices– priestess of Hera at Argos

Dating schemes: putting it all together• Synchronisms between

– Olympiads and Biblicalevents

– Olympiads and Romanemperors

– Squaring with the Gregorian calendar

• Archaeological evidence– pottery, architecture, sculpture

• often based on stylistics – development varies widely– Thucydides’ colonial foundations in Sicily, southern Italy

• dates are relative; are they reliable?– destruction level of 480 in Athens: all material predates

480– confirmation from other cultures: Near Eastern

destruction levels, Egyptian Pharoaonic dates

Periodization of Greek history

Ancient history according to Herodotus & Thucydides

• Hdt. 1 prooimion– conflict between East and West – great men, great deeds

• Thuc. 1.1-12– conflict between Peloponnesians

& Athenians– greatest war in history– pre-history

• impoverished, isolated, under attack• factionalism• Athenian autochthony (“native to the soil”)• Trojan War = 1st common action among Greeks• Minoan thalassocracy in the Aegean / Cyclades; piracy• peace engendered prosperity and growth, communities• Agamemnon, Mycenae & the Trojan War• survival of material culture ≠indication of power, influence (Athens

v. Sparta)• post-Trojan War disruptions, invasion of Dorians/Heraclids in

Peloponnese

Greece: topography & resources

High

Low

Altitude

Greece: topography & resources

Topography• mountains, rocky soil, jagged coasts, few large fluvial plains; Aegean

Sea; islands. Result regarding communities and communication?• result: relative isolation; communication by seaClimate• hot, dry summers; mild, rainy winters. Result regarding agriculture?• result: agriculture difficult, unpredictableResources: food• flocks: goats, sheep, pigs; cattle rare, horses (expensive, used for

warfare, travel)• crop diversification: oil (cooking), grapes (wine), some vegetables,

barley (primary foodstuff). Result regarding diet?• result: proteins: fish; beans; other goods (e.g., wheat) importedResources: minerals, timber• durable: bronze: copper (plentiful), tin (non-existent); iron (plentiful)• luxury: gold (rare), silver (mines in Attica south of Athens)• stone: limestone (plentiful), marble (Paros, Attica)• timber: northern Aegean / Thrace (structures, shipbuilding)• obsidian (volcanic glass): islands – e.g., Melos. Result regarding access?• result: control of sea for food, travel, commerce

Natural resources in archaic Greece