Lending and borrowing were commonplace in Athens during the fourth century BC and could involve interest rates, security and banks, but the part played by credit was very different from its familiar role in capitalist society. Using a combination of sources, but concentrating on the law-court speeches of the Attic orators, Dr Millett shows that it is possible to see how lending and borrowing were a way of ordering social relations between Athenian citizens. Although debt could be disruptive, it had as its more positive side the strengthening of ties between individuals. That was, in turn, an...

The relationship between law, politics and society in democratic Athens is a central but neglected aspect of ancient Greek history that is beginning to attract increasing interest. Nomos brings together ten essays by a group of British and American scholars who aim to explore ways in which Athenian legal texts can be read in their social and cultural context. The focus is on classical Athens, since that is where the evidence is fullest, but the range of sources examined is broad, including the whole spectrum of literary and epigraphical texts, with special reference to the corpus of Athenian...

This book examines how the various groups of people of which the polis of Classical Athens was composed got on together--or failed to do so. The authors collectively bring out what was distinctive about life in an ancient Greek city that was unusual both in its size and social complexity and in the extent of the democracy it practiced. The emphasis is broadly on the great success of the Athenians' communal experiment but tensions and fissures arising from religious, sexual, economic and political differences are not elided or glossed over.

Lending and borrowing were commonplace in Athens during the fourth century BC and could involve interest rates, security and banks, but the part played by credit was very different from its familiar role in capitalist society. Using a combination of sources, but concentrating on the law-court speeches of the Attic orators, Dr Millett shows that it is possible to see how lending and borrowing were a way of ordering social relations between Athenian citizens. Although debt could be disruptive, it had as its more positive side the strengthening of ties between individuals. That was, in turn, an...

Since 1966, when James Diggle was elected to his Fellowship at Queen's College, Cambridge, his teaching and scholarly example have inspired many of his pupils to embark on their own academic careers. In this volume fourteen former pupils have contributed essays to mark his retirement. The contributions cover many of the diverse disciplines of Classics: Greek literature, Greek language, Latin literature, Textual Criticism, Greek and Roman Culture and the History of Scholarship. James Diggle has always excelled in the teaching of Greek and Latin composition and included are two offerings in...

How to Do Things with History is a collection of essays that explores current and future approaches to the study of ancient Greek cultural history. The essays in this volume demonstrate how particular methodologies for studying ancient Greece can be employed to illuminate a range of different kinds of subject matter.