This is the first commentary in any language on Aeschines' Against Timarchos, the prosecution speech in the politically crucial trial of 346/5BC. The case was that Timarchos was forbidden to hold public office and disenfranchised because he had engaged in improper homosexual relationships in the past and had wasted his inheritance on debauchery. The speech is our most important source for Athenian legal sanctions and moral attitudes concerning same-sex relations, and has been the focus of intense recent debates on the nature of Greek sexualities and on the relationship between sex, politics,...

This is the first commentary in any language on Aeschines' Against Timarchos, the prosecution speech in the politically crucial trial of 346/5BC. The case was that Timarchos was forbidden to hold public office and disenfranchised because he had engaged in improper homosexual relationships in the past and had wasted his inheritance on debauchery. The speech is our most important source for Athenian legal sanctions and moral attitudes concerning same-sex relations, and has been the focus of intense recent debates on the nature of Greek sexualities and on the relationship between sex, politics,...

Ancient peoples, like modern, spent much of their lives engaged in and thinking about competitions: both organised competitions with rules, audiences and winners, such as Olympic and gladiatorial games, and informal, indefinite, often violent, competition for fundamental goals such as power, wealth and honour. The varied papers in this book form a case for viewing competition for superiority as a major force in ancient history, including the earliest human societies and the Assyrian and Aztec empires. Papers on Greek history explore the idea of competitiveness as peculiarly Greek, the intense...

The words 'aristocrats', 'aristocracy' and 'aristocratic values' appear in many a study of ancient history and culture. Sometimes these terms are used with a precise meaning. More often they are casual shorthand for 'upper class', 'ruling elite' and 'high standards'. This book brings together 12 new studies by an impressive international cast of specialists. It demonstrates not only that true aristocracies were rare in the ancient world, but also that the modern use of 'aristocracy' in a looser sense is misleading. The word comes with connotations derived from medieval and modern history....