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  1. Home
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  3. The Cambridge Ancient History
  • Cited by 36
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
March 2008
Print publication year:
1988
Online ISBN:
9781139054317
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521228046
Subjects:
Ancient History, Classical Studies
Collection:
Cambridge Histories - Ancient History & Classics
Series:
The Cambridge Ancient History
Information

Book description

The years covered by this volume saw events and developments of major significance in the Mediterranean world. The first section of the book examines the Persian empire, the regions it comprised and its expansion during the reigns of Cyrus, Darius and Xerxes. In Greece, Sparta was attending maturity as the leader of a military coalition and Athens passed through a period of enlightened tyranny to a moderate democracy of dynamic energy and clear-sighted intelligence. Given the contrast between Greek ideas and Persian absolutism a clash between Greece and Persia became inevitable, and important chapters deal with the revolt of the Ionian Greeks against the Persians, and the two Persian invasions of Greece including the epic battles of Marathon, Thermopylae and Salamis. The third part of the volume turns to the Western Mediterranean. Italy now becomes a significant factor in the history of the area and this section covers the Italic peoples and their languages from the Bronze to the Iron age, and examines the Etruscans and their culture. Sicily is the subject of the final chapter. There the Greek city-states under Gelon of Syracuse and Theron ruler of Acragas repelled a Carthaginian onslaught at the battle of Himera. This new edition has been completely replanned and rewritten in order to reflect the advances in scholarship and changes in perspective which have been taking place in the sixty years since the publication of its predecessor.

Reviews

"CAH IV fulfills its function: it sets forth the state of the questions, clarifies controversies, suggests new approaches. It will be found useful by graduate students reviewing for comprehensive examinations and by professors wishing to update lectures in survey courses." Paul MacKendrick, Classical World

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Contents

Page 2 of 2

Contents
  • 11 - The liberation of Greece
    pp 592-622
    • By J. P. Barron, University of London, at King's College, London
  • View abstract

    Summary

    The campaigning season of 479 opened to a sense of uneasy calm for the Persians a continuing drain of resources or a secure frontier in the west. The first forces to move were the naval on either side. The Egyptian marines had been left with Mardonius and the land forces. A high proportion of Greek vessels and their crews have been drawn from Asiatic Greece. On Alexander's empty-handed return, Mardonius at once determined to march south, urged on by his Thessalian friends, especially the Aleuadae of Larissa whose regime depended on him. In Boeotia the Thebans urged him to make his base among them, and to try what bribery could do. For the Athenians, Xanthippus proposed to remain and liberate the Chersonese. In the end the force divided, the Peloponnesians sailing home as they desired, while Xanthippus crossed to the Chersonese and began the siege of Sestus.
  • 12 - Italy from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age
    pp 623-633
  • View abstract

    Summary

    In approximately 740 BC, an amphora of Greek type bearing various inscriptions was deposited in the cemetery of the Euboean establishment at Pithecusa on the Bay of Naples. 'Apennine', 'Sub-Apennine' and 'Proto-Villanovan' are among the adjectives that describe certain cultural features of the Middle, Recent and Final Bronze Ages in Italy; pottery and other cultural material may thus, for example, be defined as 'Proto-Villanovan' in appearance but not in date. The cultural term 'Villanovan' was coined in the mid-nineteenth century to describe certain Iron Age funerary material excavated in the first instance near Bologna, and, later in the same century, south of the Apennines in southern Etruria as well. There are, however, a number of cases of Proto-Villanovan objects in Villanovan graves at certain coastal and mainstream centres of southern Etruria. At Vetulonia, one Proto-Villanovan ossuary is apparently associated with an Early Iron Age fibula in the Poggio alia Guardia cemetery.
  • 13 - The Etruscans
    pp 634-675
  • View abstract

    Summary

    As far as the literary sources for Etruscan history are concerned, it must be realized that Greek and Roman historical writers were concerned exclusively with the Greek and Roman views of the episodes. These episodes brought Etruria into contact with the Greek states and with the growing power of Rome. The geographical distribution of the Villanovan culture covers southern Etruria and Tuscany south of the Apennines, central Emilia and the eastern Romagna to the north, Fermo in the Marche, and parts of Campania. The exchanges between Etruria and the outside world that had begun during the first half of the eighth century were subsequently put on a more solid footing by the activities of the second generation of Western Greeks. The monumental tumuli, erected in the Orientalizing period over multiple chamber tombs containing exotic luxury goods, are replaced by more numerous and more modest single-family chambers.
  • 14 - The Iron Age: the peoples of Italy
    pp 676-719
  • View abstract

    Summary

    The trend towards more permanent settlements and diversified economies continued unabated in the Iron Age and led to the development of distinct and stable regional cultures. The most characteristic of Apulian craft products, the pottery, brightly illustrates the strength and independent taste of the local culture. Traditional, conservative and selective in their use of Greek models, the Apulian potters produced types and designs largely of their own invention. Geographical proximity made it very easy for Apulian traders and craftsmen to import and often imitate the products of the Greek world. From the ninth century, there were close contacts and frequent exchanges between the Mid-Adriatic region and the Liburnian and Istrian zones across the Adriatic. The rivers that traverse the Mid-Adriatic region served as arteries of communication with Tyrrhenian Italy. The Roman tradition about the Umbri being the most ancient people of Italy becomes understandable, and the more innovatory and evolved character of their language as compared with Oscan.
  • 15 - The languages of Italy
    pp 720-738
  • View abstract

    Summary

    Identification and classification of the various languages may contribute to the identification of the peoples of ancient Italy and their connexions, while the best evidence for the indigenous institutions of these peoples is often to be found in the inscriptions. The study of these dead languages through inscriptions necessarily involves consideration of the alphabets in which the inscriptions are written, and the diffusion of writing in itself constitutes an important part of the cultural history of early Italy. There are some 10,000 Etruscan inscriptions, the earliest dated to the beginning of the seventh century, the most recent to the end of the first century. Contact with the Etruscans brought literacy to the peoples of northern Italy, whose languages are known from inscriptions written in the so called north Etruscan alphabets. The principal remains of Umbrian are the Iguvine Tables, seven bronze tablets containing over 4,000 words.
  • 16 - Carthaginians and Greeks
    pp 739-790
  • View abstract

    Summary

    In the fifth century, Motya developed into a strongly-walled town, half of whose population was Greek and which conducted flourishing commerce with Elymians and Greeks. It became one of the key points of Carthaginian control over the narrow passage between Africa and Sicily, and the main naval base for Carthaginians in their wars against the Sicilians. The striking prosperity of sixth-century Selinus and Acragas speaks eloquently against the assumption that Malchus' 'long wars' in Sicily were waged against the Greeks. For this reason it has been very plausibly argued that his enemy may in fact have been Punics from Motya and elsewhere who tried to resist their mother-city's attempts to dominate them. Some frontier clashes between pro-Punic Selinus and the Acragantines may have served as a pretext for Gelon's propaganda. There is no better evidence of the vitality of Sicilian civilization in the first quarter of the fifth century than the swift rise of Acragas and Syracuse.

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