Kayden Book Prize Symposium: Peter Hunt, 'War, Peace and Alliance in Demosthenes' Athens'
Friday, February 24, 2012
HUMN 1B80, University of Colorado at Boulder
3:15 J. E. Lendon, University of Virginia: "The Significance of Peter Hunt's War, Peace, and Alliance in Demosthenes' Athens."
4:30 Kurt Raaflaub, Brown University: "Athens between war and peace: a conflict of necessities, traditions, desires, and ideals."
6:15 Josiah Ober, Stanford University: "How can a demos ever make good choices? Aristotle, experts, and epistemic democracy.”
All sessions are open to the public.
Sponsored by the Eugene M. Kayden Endowment and the Department of Classics
Further Information:
War, Peace, and Alliance in Demosthenes’ Athens: Every Athenian alliance, every declaration of war, and every peace treaty was instituted by a decision of the assembly, where citizens voted after listening to speeches that presented varied and often opposing arguments about the best course of action. The fifteen preserved assembly speeches of the mid-fourth century BC thus provide an unparalleled body of evidence for the way that Athenians thought and felt about interstate relations: to understand this body of oratory is to understand how the Athenians of that period made decisions about war and peace. This is the first book to provide a comprehensive treatment of this subject. It deploys insights from a range of fields, from anthropology to international relations theory, in order not only to describe Athenian thinking, but also to explain it. Athenian thinking turns out to have been complex, sophisticated, and surprisingly familiar both in its virtues and its flaws.
J. E. Lendon, Professor in the Corcoran Department of History at the University of Virginia, works on diverse topics in both Greek and Roman history, society, and historiography. His special interests include the cultural history of warfare, ancient conceptions of honor, and their historical importance. He has published many articles, chapters, and three books: Empire of Honour: The Art of Government in the Roman World (1997); Soldiers and Ghosts: A History of Battle in Classical Antiquity (2005); and Song of Wrath: The Peloponnesian War Begins (2010).
Kurt Raaflaub, Professor Emeritus of Classics and History at Brown University, studies the social and political history of the Roman republic; the social, political, and intellectual history of archaic and classical Greece; and the comparative history of the ancient world. Recently, his research has focused on the society and politics of Homer's epics, on the origins and workings of Athenian democracy, on war and peace in the ancient world, on the purpose of writing history in Greece and Rome, and on the origin and function of Greek political thinking. His many publications include around 120 articles, ten edited books, and The Discovery of Freedom in Ancient Greece (originally1985; revised translation 2004). He is a former president of the American Philological Association.
Josiah Ober is chairman of the Department of Political Science at Stanford University and holds the Constantine Mitsotakis chair. He specializes in the areas of ancient and modern political theory and historical institutionalism. His ongoing work focuses on the theory and practice of democracy and the politics of knowledge and innovation. He is sole author of about 60 articles and chapters and several books, including Fortress Attica (1985), Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens (1989), The Athenian Revolution (1996), Political Dissent in Democratic Athens (1998), and Athenian Legacies (2005). He is a former president of the American Philological Association.
J. E. Lendon, Professor in the Corcoran Department of History at the University of Virginia, works on diverse topics in both Greek and Roman history, society, and historiography. His special interests include the cultural history of warfare, ancient conceptions of honor, and their historical importance. He has published many articles, chapters, and three books: Empire of Honour: The Art of Government in the Roman World (1997); Soldiers and Ghosts: A History of Battle in Classical Antiquity (2005); and Song of Wrath: The Peloponnesian War Begins (2010).
Kurt Raaflaub, Professor Emeritus of Classics and History at Brown University, studies the social and political history of the Roman republic; the social, political, and intellectual history of archaic and classical Greece; and the comparative history of the ancient world. Recently, his research has focused on the society and politics of Homer's epics, on the origins and workings of Athenian democracy, on war and peace in the ancient world, on the purpose of writing history in Greece and Rome, and on the origin and function of Greek political thinking. His many publications include around 120 articles, ten edited books, and The Discovery of Freedom in Ancient Greece (originally1985; revised translation 2004). He is a former president of the American Philological Association.
Josiah Ober is chairman of the Department of Political Science at Stanford University and holds the Constantine Mitsotakis chair. He specializes in the areas of ancient and modern political theory and historical institutionalism. His ongoing work focuses on the theory and practice of democracy and the politics of knowledge and innovation. He is sole author of about 60 articles and chapters and several books, including Fortress Attica (1985), Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens (1989), The Athenian Revolution (1996), Political Dissent in Democratic Athens (1998), and Athenian Legacies (2005). He is a former president of the American Philological Association.
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