Athenian Power in the Fifth Century BC

Author: Leah Lazar Series: Oxford Classical Monographs

Athenian Power in the Fifth Century BC offers a new study of a canonical topic in ancient Greek history, the fifth-century BC Athenian empire. While previous studies have largely focused on Athens and Athenian narrative history, this book brings the Athenians' imperial subjects to centre stage.

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Athenian Power in the Fifth Century BC provides a new analysis of the fifth-century BC Athenian empire, a central topic in ancient Greek history. Challenging orthodox approaches, which have been mostly empirical, monolithic and focused on Athens, the book argues that Athenian power was flexible and a matter of negotiation between the Athenians and their allies. It brings the allies to centre stage as active agents, and considers how the Athenian empireoperated in different regions. The first three chapters focus on political, fiscal and religious interactions between the Athenians and their allies in Athenian contexts. The subsequent three chapters then offerstudies of the empire in three different regions - the North Aegean, Rhodes, and the straits between the Aegean and the Black Sea - showing how the empire employed overlapping but differentiated regional strategies. This book is distinct from previous contributions in three key ways. First, it offers new perspectives on well-known Athenian epigraphic and literary sources, while also utilising different categories of non-Athenian evidence, including varied forms of material culture. Second, itprovides sophisticated economic analysis. Third, the monograph makes use of critical historical comparison: with other imperial powers, with later Athenian power, and with the operation of fifth-centuryAthenian power in different regions.

About the Author

Leah Lazar is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents in the Classics Faculty, Oxford. Originally from London, she completed her doctoral thesis at New College, Oxford in 2019. She has taught at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and lectured at the Faculty of Classics, Cambridge. Her research focuses on the political and economic history of the Greek world, and she is particularly interested in Greek inscriptions and coinage.