Localism in Hellenistic Greece

Overview

Title: Localism in Hellenistic Greece

Editors: Dr. Sheila L. Ager (University of Waterloo); Dr. Hans Beck (University of Münster / McGill University)

Imprint: University of Toronto Press

Series: Phoenix Supplementary Volumes

Extent: 400 pages

Formats / ISBNs

  • EPUB: 9781487548377
  • PDF: 9781487548384
  • Hardcover: 9781487548315

Resources

Summary

Localism in Hellenistic Greece explores, in exemplary fashion, how ancient societies positioned themselves in a swiftly expanding world. The Hellenistic age witnessed a dynamic increase of cultural fusion and entanglement across the Mediterranean and Eurasian worlds; amid these seismic changes, the regions of central Greece and the Peloponnese have often been treated as a cultural space left behind. This volume instead asks how large-scale transformations were experienced, interpreted, and negotiated in countless small-scale communities across the Greek mainland.

Drawing on notions of locality, localism, local tradition, and boundedness in place, Sheila L. Ager and Hans Beck (with their contributors) examine key hubs of Hellenistic Greece—from Thessaly to Cape Tainaron—and the meaning-making force of the local. Across a wide range of case studies, the essays reveal how local discourses could be energized by local sentiments and how civic narratives, institutions, environments, and memories shaped communal orientation. Engaging with debates about cultural connectivity and convergence, the volume offers fresh insight into lived experience and identity formation in Hellenistic Greece.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction: Localism in Hellenistic Greece — Hans Beck (pp. 2–35)
  2. Localism and Environmental History in the Hellenistic Kopaic Basin — Ruben Post (pp. 36–67)
  3. Healing a Battlefield: The Local World of Hellenistic Chaironeia — Chandra Giroux (pp. 68–107)
  4. The Other Side of the Stone: Local Proxenia in the Hellenistic Euboian Gulf — Alex McAuley (pp. 108–131)
  5. Notes on Matrimonial Strategies in Civic Contexts — Sara Saba (pp. 132–145)
  6. Local Horizons for the Thessalian Eleutheria — Denver Graninger (pp. 145–178)
  7. The Problematic Localism of the Hellenistic Aitolians — Joseph B. Scholten (pp. 180–199)
  8. Aligning the Dots: Local Self-Assertion in a Politically Expanding World — Peter Funke (pp. 200–215)
  9. The Local Voice of Enmity: Kleomenes III, Sparta, and Argos — Elena Franchi (pp. 216–245)
  10. “Sparta is my country”: Competitive Localism in Hellenistic Sparta — Sebastian Scharff (pp. 245–277)
  11. Shaping and Reshaping Local Memories in Megalopolis: The Case of the Tyrants Aristodamos and Lydiadas — James Roy (pp. 278–297)
  12. Global Activities in a Localized Context: Mercenaries, Proxeny, and the Small Local World of Hellenistic Mani — Chelsea A. M. Gardner (pp. 298–325)
  13. Being Syracusan in the Hellenistic World — Mark Thatcher (pp. 326–349)
  14. Between the Local and the Global: Intersectional Elites at Antiochia ad Cragum in Roman Rough Cilicia — Timothy Howe (pp. 350–365)
  15. Afterword: Reflections on Hellenistic Localism — Sheila L. Ager (pp. 366–380)

Back Matter

  • Contributors (pp. 381–382)
  • Index (pp. 383–398)

About the Editors

  • Sheila L. Ager is a professor of ancient history and Dean of Arts at the University of Waterloo.
  • Hans Beck is professor and chair of Greek history at Münster University and adjunct professor in the Department of History and Classical Studies at McGill University.

Bibliographic Data

  • Imprint: University of Toronto Press
  • Pages: 400
  • EPUB: 9781487548377
  • PDF: 9781487548384
  • Hardcover: 9781487548315