Aware of these myths, Robin Waterfield has examined the actual Greek sources and presents here a new Socrates, in which he separates the legend from the man himself. As Waterfield recounts the story, the charges of impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens were already enough for a death sentence, but the prosecutors accused him of more. They asserted that Socrates was not just an atheist and the guru of a weird sect but also an elitist who surrounded himself with politically undesirable characters and had mentored those responsible for defeat in the Peloponnesian War. Their claims were not...

This volume provides a complete translation of, and historical and historiographical commentary on, the lives of the ten Attic orators given by Pseudo-Plutarch, Photius, and the Suda.
Assessing these works as important historical sources for the individual lives and careers of the orators whose works have survived, this systematic study explores how these literary biographies were constructed, the information they provide, and their veracity. In-depth commentary notes offer contextual information, explain references and examine individual rhetorical phrases, and a glossary of technical...

"We Greeks are one in blood and one in language; we have temples to the gods and religious rites in common, and a common way of life." So the fifth-century historian Herodotus has some Athenians declare, in explanation of why they would never betray their fellow Greeks to the enemy, the "barbarian" Persians. And he might have added further common features, such as clothing, foodways, and political institutions. But if the Greeks knew that they were kin, why did many of them side with the Persians against fellow Greeks, and why, more generally, is ancient Greek history so often the history of...