The Athenian Nation

by Edward Cohen

Overview

Challenging the modern assumption that ancient Athens is best understood as a polis, Edward Cohen boldly recasts our understanding of Athenian political and social life. Cohen demonstrates that ancient sources referred to Athens not only as a polis, but also as a "nation" (ethnos), and that Athens did encompass the characteristics now used to identify a "nation." He argues that in Athens economic, religious, sexual, and social dimensions were no less significant than political and juridical considerations, and accordingly rejects prevailing scholarship's equation of Athens with its male citizen body.


In fact, Cohen shows that the categories of "citizen" and "noncitizen" were much more fluid than is often assumed, and that some noncitizens exercised considerable power. He explores such subjects as the economic importance of businesswomen and wealthy slaves; the authority exercised by enslaved public functionaries; the practical egalitarianism of erotic relations and the broad and meaningful protections against sexual abuse of both free persons and slaves, and especially of children; the wide involvement of all sectors of the population in significant religious and local activities. All this emerges from the use of fresh legal, economic, and archaeological evidence and analysis that reveal the social complexity of Athens, and the demographic and geographic factors giving rise to personal anonymity and limiting personal contacts—leading to the creation of an "imagined community" with a mutually conceptualized identity, a unified economy, and national "myths" set in historical fabrication.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691094908
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	12/01/2002
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Edward Cohen is Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Resource America, Inc., a specialty-finance company based in Philadelphia. He is the author of Ancient Athenian Maritime Courts and Athenian Economy and Society: A Banking Perspective, both published by Princeton University Press.

Table of Contents

	Preface	ix
	Acknowledgments	xvii
	List of Abbreviations	xix
	Introduction: Athens as Paradox--Athens as Nation	3
Chapter 1	Anomalous Athens	11
	An Anomalous Polis	11
	An Anomalous Ethnos	22
	Women in an Anomalous Democracy	30
Chapter 2	The Local Residents of Attika	49
	Astoi and Politai	50
	New, Old, and Former Athenians: The Historical Context	63
	Attikismos: Becoming Part of Attika	70
Chapter 3	An Ancient Construct: The Athenian Nation	79
	Motherland and Myth	82
	Fatherland and Nationalism	91
Chapter 4	A Modern Myth: The Athenian Village	104
	"Not Knowing One Another" in Attika	106
	Anonymity and Mobility: The Reality of Deme Life	112
Chapter 5	Wealthy Slaves in a "Slave Society"	130
	Unfree Wealth and Power: Slave Entrepreneurs and Civil Servants	132
	"Corrective Interpretations": Evidence Rejected, Preconceptions Maintained	137
	An Athenian Explanation for the Athenian Slave Economy	141
Chapter 6	The Social Contract: Sexual Abuse and Sexual Profit	155
	An Academic Fantasy: Sexual Exploitation as Political Entitlement	159
	Equal Employment Opportunity: Prostitution Not "the Special Preserve of Foreigners"	167
	Consensual Sex: "Prostitution by Contract," Not Status	177
	Works Cited	193
	General Index	229
	Index of Passages Cited	235

Editorial Reviews

"A most interesting book and a thoroughly stimulating read. . . . It is a highly welcome contribution."—-Balbina Bäbler, Bryn Mawr Classical Reviews

From the Publisher

A most interesting book and a thoroughly stimulating read. . . . It is a highly welcome contribution.

Bryn Mawr Classical Reviews - Balbina Bbler

A most interesting book and a thoroughly stimulating read. . . . It is a highly welcome contribution.
— Balbina Bbler

Bryn Mawr Classical Reviews

A most interesting book and a thoroughly stimulating read. . . . It is a highly welcome contribution.
— Balbina Bbler

Bryn Mawr Classical Review