"The Limits of Altruism in Democratic Athens" by Matthew Robert Christ
CamUni Press | 2012 | ISBN: 1107029775 9781107029774 | 228 pages | PDF | 6 MB
This book argues that Athenians felt little pressure as individuals to help fellow citizens whom they did not know. Democratic ideology called on citizens to refrain from harming one another rather than to engage in mutual support, and emphasized the importance of the helping relationship between citizen and city rather than among individual citizens. If the obligation of Athenians to help fellow citizens was fairly tenuous, all the more so was their responsibility to intervene to assist the peoples of other states; a distinct pragmatism prevailed in the city's decisions concerning intervention abroad.
This book argues that, contrary to how Athenians idealized themselves, they felt little pressure as individuals to help fellow citizens and did not feel strongly obliged as a group to help peoples of other states
Contents Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Philanthropic Athenian?
I Helping Behavior in Classical Athens
Helping Fellow Soldiers
Aiding the Poor
Nursing the Sick
Bystander Intervention
Lysias, Against Teisis, fr. 279 Carey (before ca. 380 b.c.)
Demosthenes 47: Against Euergus and Mnesibulus (after 356 b.c.)
Aeschines 1: Against Timarchus (345 b.c.)
Demosthenes 54: Against Conon (355 or 341 b.c.?)
[Demosthenes] 53: Against Nicostratus (after 368 b.c.)
Lysias 3: Against Simon (after 394 b.c.)
Helping in Litigation
Volunteer Prosecution
Sun¯egoroi
II Helping and Democratic Citizenship
Democratic Citizenship and the Ideal of Homonoia
Helping as a Civic Virtue
Citizens Help the City
Military Service
Financial Service
Political Service: Rhetores
Public Prosecution
The City Helps Citizens
III Helping and Community in the Athenian Law Courts
Courts as Venues for Helping
Case Studies in Communal Helping
A Community of Kindred Avengers
A Community of Reciprocal Helpers
Community, Solidarity, and Security
The Fragility of Helping
IV “Helping Others” in Athenian Interstate Relations
Athenian Interstate Relations
“Helping the Wronged” in Athenian Civic Ideology
Athenian Helping in the Greek Historians
Helping the Ionians
Helping the Plataeans
Helping Former Enemies
Demosthenes and the Rhetoric of Athenian Helping
Deliberative Speeches
On the Crown: Rewriting the Past
Conclusion: Helping and the Athenian Experience
Bibliography
Index of Ancient Citations
General Index
with TOC BookMarkLinks
Download File Size:5.22 MB
|
