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"Sears, Matthew A"
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Athens, Thrace, and the Shaping of Athenian Leadership
From the mid-sixth to the mid-fourth century BCE a nexus of connections to Thrace defined the careers of several of Athens' most prominent figures, including Pisistratus, Miltiades, Alcibiades and Iphicrates. This book explores the importance of Thrace to these individuals and its resulting significance in the political, cultural and social history of Athens. Thrace was vitally important for Athens thanks to its natural resources and access to strategic waterways, which were essential to a maritime empire, and connections to the area conferred wealth and military influence on certain Athenians and offered them a refuge if they faced political persecution at home. However, Thrace's importance to prominent individuals transcended politics: its culture was also an important draw. Thrace was a world free of Athenian political, social and cultural constraints – one that bore a striking resemblance to the world of Homeric epic.
eBook
The Camps of Brutus and Cassius at Philippi, 42 B.C
The traditional interpretation of the Battle of Philippi (42 B.C.) locates the camps of Brutus and Cassius to the west of the city of Philippi. This article proposes a new location for the camps based on three key arguments: (1) there are no hills in the traditional location corresponding to the hills mentioned in the ancient sources; (2) there are two hills in the southeastern section of the plain, near modern Amygdaleonas, that fit the ancient descriptions much more closely; and (3) an alternate route into the plain, south of Mount Pangaion, renders the traditional location strategically unfeasible.
Journal Article
Brasidas and the Un-Spartan Spartan
While Brasidas is often singled out as a particularly un-Spartan Spartan and is clearly presented as such by Thucydides, there were many other Spartans, including in the pages of Thucydides, who matched Brasidas' innovation, energy and ambitious foreign policy. Thucydides overemphasizes Brasidas' un-Spartan characteristics and downplays his similarities to other Spartans such as Gylippus in order to make Brasidas the exception that proves the rule. Thucydides' treatment of Brasidas is therefore another important element in the historian's methods of characterizing states and individuals.
Journal Article
Thucydides, Rousseau, and Forced Freedom: Brasidas' Speech at Acanthus
This paper examines the Spartan general Brasidas' speech at Acanthus, a subject of Athens, in 424b.c.e. (Thuc. 4.84–87). Brasidas presents himself as Acanthus' liberator while simultaneously threatening the city with military action. While many see Brasidas as a cynical agent of imperialism, his speech can best be understood in light of the concept ofeunoia, or goodwill. Rousseau's ideas of the General Will and forced freedom shed further light on Brasidas' rhetoric and actions.
Journal Article
Thucydides, Rousseau, and Forced Freedom: Brasidas' Speech at Acanthus
[...]Brasidas was led by the Chalcideans to Acanthus in order to win the city over to the Spartan cause and thus secure the integrity of the mission as a whole. Left implied is that no other Greeks, not even the Spartans, have been in such a position for any sustained period of time.6 In short, during the decades between the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars, Athens became the leader of an empire, and justified its novel position through the propaganda of freedom. Because Athens had won the Greeks their freedom in the first place, it was within its rights to deprive them of some of that freedom in order to advance its own position.\\n Reaching the very summit of his heroic portrayal at the hands of Thucydides, Brasidas demonstrates that he is a worthy member of the alliance and a true champion of freedom by practicing what he preached and rushing boldly into the fray (5.9.9).
Journal Article
Alexander and Ada Reconsidered
There are numerous sources of the remarkable encounter between Alexander the Great and Ada, deposed Queen of Caria, at the fortress of Alinda in 334 B.C.E. With the advent of Alexander, Ada seized her chance and embraced the conquering Macedonian, even adopting him as her son. Alexander accepted her overtures and reinstated her as the legitimate queen of Caria. As a consequence of this alliance, several Carian cities quickly came over to Alexander of their own accord. Here, Sears proposes another possible motivation behind the relationship between Ada and Alexander. Beyond presenting himself as a figure of continuity for the native Carians, and beyond merely not offending the Macedonians by refusing to take a local Asian bride, Alexander embraced Ada because she consciously and concertedly affected Greekness, as had several of her predecessors in the Hecatomnid dynasty.
Journal Article
