Athenian Democratic Origins and other essays [Hardcover]

This is a defense of the Athenian democracy by a great radical historian. Geoffrey de Ste. Croix shows how even its oddest features made sense, and illustrates the different factors influencing Athenian politics--for instance, trade and commercial interests mattered very little. Though written in the 1960s, these hitherto unpublished essays remain fresh and innovative.

Editors' Introduction
1. The Solonian Census Classes and the Qualifications for Cavalry and Hoplite Service
2. Five Notes on Solon's Constitution
3. Solon, theHoroiand theHektemoroi
4. Cleisthenes I: The Constitution
5. Cleisthenes II: Ostracism, Archons, andStrategoi
6. The Athenian Citizenship Laws
7. Aristotle'sAthenaion Politeiaand Early Athenian History
8. TheMetrain Aristotle,Eth. Nic.V.vii.1134b 35-35a3
9. How Far was Trade a Cause of Early Greek Colonization?
10. But What About Aegina?
11. Herodotus and King Cleomenes of Sparta
Index

No serious reader, converted or not, could emerge unimpressed by the sheer command of evidence and calibre of argument on display here. --Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Geoffrey de Ste. Croixwas Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History at New College, Oxford from 1953 until 1977. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1972. He publishedOrigins of the Peloponnesian Warin 1972 andThe Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek Worldin 1981; the latter book was translated into Spanish and Greek, and won the Isaac Deutscher Memorial prize for 1982.