Hans Van Wees
Biographic Data
| ID | 1421776 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Hans Van Wees |
| GIVEN NAMES | Hans |
| FAMILY NAME | Van Wees |
| SIGNATURE | VAN WEES H |
| AFFILIATIONS | University College London |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 48 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 226 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 39 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 9 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1920 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
The Athenian Working Class
This chapter looks at those Athenians who were ‘working-class’ in the sense that they derived part or all of their livelihood by performing wage labour. It argues that that about 90 per cent of Athenians were in this category around 600 bce, and that most of them worked under highly exploitative conditions for a wage of only one-sixth of the crops they cultivated on their employers’ farms. Economic growth and social reform in the sixth century me…
The Archaic Period
The Greek world from ca. 750 onwards saw the establishment of wealthy elites, the widespread use of chattel and other slaves, and the occupation of new territories across the Mediterranean, all of which laid the groundwork for later developments. Elite property owners exploited the labour of the free poor, thereby adding to their own surpluses while keeping levels of consumption in the wider community minimal and archaeologically invisible. Only …
Slaving Practices in the Early Greek World
The Greek world contained many slave societies from the beginning of the archaic age. By the time of Homer and Hesiod, ownership of numerous non-Greek slaves was an integral part of elite status. Despite earlier views to the contrary, imported ‘barbarian’ slaves did not replace an older spectrum of ‘dependent’ native Greek workers but if anything preceded the forms of slavery imposed on indigenous populations. Debt-bondage emerged only in the lat…
Heroic Benefactors?
Against the common view that the creation of obligations through generosity in gift-giving and hospitality is a pervasive feature of the Homeric world and an antecedent of the classical and later culture of euergetism and benefactions, a survey of the epic evidence shows that this type of generosity is in effect confined to ‘international’ relations. Within Homeric communities, ‘gifts’ are almost always forms of payment for services rendered or t…
Agesilaos' Abandoned Babies
Xenophon attributes to the Spartan king Agesilaos II a humane attitude to those who were taken captive by his army (Agesilaos 1.21-22). Modern translations and discussions of Xenophon’s claim generally assume that Agesilaos prevented children and the elderly from being abandoned and ending up as wandering refugees. A closer look at the text shows that Agesilaos’ intervention amounted to far less far than this, and the fact that he was nevertheles…
Rivalry in History
Citizens and Soldiers in Archaic Athens
A reconsideration of the precise nature and extent of the military obligations of citizens in classical Athens reveals that under Athens’ democratic regime these obligations were relatively limited and not systematically enforced. The relevant classical legislation, later historical tradition, and some contemporary archaic evidence are combined to show that in archaic Athens, by contrast, formal military obligations were more extensive and more s…
Thucydides on Early Greek History
This chapter studies Thucydides’ account of early Greek history in the “Archaeology” (1.1.2–1.21.2). It shows that Thucydides’ criteria of development and his reconstruction of history are heavily influenced by power relations in Greece during the early stages of the Peloponnesian War. Comparison with other sources for both the legendary and the historical past reveals the extent to which Thucydides, by means of omission, selective emphasis, and …
Aristocracy in Antiquity
Farmers and Hoplites
This chapter critiques the grand narrative of Hanson's The Other Greeks and argues that it is wrong in important respects. The chapter presents the social and economic changes in the eighth century that took place with the rise of the independent yeoman farmer and his culture of agrarianism as the driving force behind the political and military history of Greece. From the middle of the eighth century there was a class of elite leisured landowners…
Ships and Silver, Taxes and Tribute
Historians since Herodotus and Thucydides have claimed that the year 483 BCE marked a turning point in the history of Athens. For it was then that Themistocles mobilized the revenues from the city's highly productive silver mines to build an enormous war fleet. This income stream is thought to have become the basis of Athenian imperial power, the driving force behind its democracy and the centre of its system of public finance. But in his groundb…
Shield
Archaic Age
Archaic Age From about 750 BCE onwards, the Greek world developed and expanded at a rapid rate: city-states with republican governments, militia armies, and a distinctive material and intellectual culture emerged, and Greeks began to travel and settle all over the Mediterranean. The composition of the ILIAD and ODYSSEY is most often dated near the start of these developments, 750-650 BCE, though some would argue that the epics remained fluid unti…
Aristocracy
Boudeion
Homeric Warfare
Kingship
Warfare
Competition in the Ancient World
The Economy
This chapter contains sections titled: Economic Ethics in Hesiod's Works and Days Land and Labor: The Agricultural Regime Craftsmen and Other Specialists Traveling Farmers, Adventurers, and Merchants: Forms of Exchange Markets, Coins, Laws, and Wars: The Economy and the State Conclusion: The Nature and Development of the Archaic Economy
A Companion to Archaic Greece
From Kings to Demigods
Brill's Companion to Herodotus
General Index
Megara’s Mafiosi
This chapter draws comparisons between the worlds of Theognis and the Mafia to highlight the culture of violent competition which they have in common. If Mafiosi, all engaged in fierce struggles for power and wealth can see themselves as paragons of virtue while accusing their rivals of unprincipled greed and violence. We need to look beyond Theognis' black-and-white imagery, and give full weight to the evidence which suggests that in his communi…
Brill's Companion to Herodotus
Herodotus’ Histories can be read in many ways. Their literary qualities, never in dispute, can be more fully appreciated in the light of recent developments in the study of pragmatics, narratology, and orality. Their intellectual status has been radically reassessed: no longer regarded as naïve and ‘archaic’, the Histories are now seen as very much a product of the intellectual climate of their own day - not only subject to contemporary literary,…
Status Warriors
A Companion to Archaic Greece
Kings in Combat
What decides the outcome of a Homeric battle? This may sound like one of those arcane problems only a devoted Homer-specialist would care to raise, but in fact the question strikes at the root of major issues in archaic Greek history. The orthodox answer is that Homeric battles were decided by single combats between champions, with the rest of the warriors only marginally influencing the fighting. It is added that these champions were aristocrats…
Leaders of Men? Military Organisation in the Iliad
At a time when the Greek army is on the verge of annihilation, the Iliad tells us, two warriors have detached themselves from the fight. Idomeneus, having accompanied a wounded man back to the ships, and Mērionēs, on his way to fetch himself a new spear, meet at the former's hut. They stand and talk for a while, assuring one another that they are afraid of nothing and no-one, and finally decide to plunge into battle again, though only after discu…
Citizens and Soldiers in Archaic Athens
A reconsideration of the precise nature and extent of the military obligations of citizens in classical Athens reveals that under Athens’ democratic regime these obligations were relatively limited and not systematically enforced. The relevant classical legislation, later historical tradition, and some contemporary archaic evidence are combined to show that in archaic Athens, by contrast, formal military obligations were more extensive and more s…
Thucydides on Early Greek History
This chapter studies Thucydides’ account of early Greek history in the “Archaeology” (1.1.2–1.21.2). It shows that Thucydides’ criteria of development and his reconstruction of history are heavily influenced by power relations in Greece during the early stages of the Peloponnesian War. Comparison with other sources for both the legendary and the historical past reveals the extent to which Thucydides, by means of omission, selective emphasis, and …
War and society
A defining feature of Greek society was the distinction between those who could afford to live off the labour of others, 'the rich' or leisured classes, and those who had to earn a livelihood, 'the poor' or working classes. A second defining feature of Greek society was pervasive competitiveness. Competition for wealth within a community aggravated the pressure on resources created by the leisure-class aspirations of its citizens. Aristotle noted…
The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Warfare
Warfare was the single biggest preoccupation of historians in antiquity. In recent decades fresh textual interpretations, numerous new archaeological discoveries and a much broader analytical focus emphasising social, economic, political and cultural approaches have transformed our understanding of ancient warfare. Volume II of this two-volume History reflects these developments and provides a systematic account, written by a distinguished cast o…
The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Warfare
Warfare was the single biggest preoccupation of historians in antiquity. In recent decades fresh textual interpretations, numerous new archaeological discoveries and a much broader analytical focus emphasising social, economic, political and cultural approaches have transformed our understanding of ancient warfare. Volume I of this two-volume History reflects these developments and provides a systematic account, written by a distinguished cast of…
Leaders of Men? Military Organisation in the Iliad
At a time when the Greek army is on the verge of annihilation, the Iliad tells us, two warriors have detached themselves from the fight. Idomeneus, having accompanied a wounded man back to the ships, and Mērionēs, on his way to fetch himself a new spear, meet at the former's hut. They stand and talk for a while, assuring one another that they are afraid of nothing and no-one, and finally decide to plunge into battle again, though only after discu…
Kings in Combat
What decides the outcome of a Homeric battle? This may sound like one of those arcane problems only a devoted Homer-specialist would care to raise, but in fact the question strikes at the root of major issues in archaic Greek history. The orthodox answer is that Homeric battles were decided by single combats between champions, with the rest of the warriors only marginally influencing the fighting. It is added that these champions were aristocrats…
Towns and Townsfolk
History in Poetry
Notes to the Preface
The Importance of Being Angry
Preliminary Material
Pillage and Destruction
Life in Town
Conclusion
Status Warriors
Status Warriors
Archaic Greece
Achilles in Vietnam. Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character
War and Violence in Ancient Greece
The study of Greek warfare should involve much more than reconstructing the experience of combat or revisiting the great wars of the classical period. Here, a distinguished cast of international scholars explores beyond the usual thematic and chronological boundaries. Ranging from the heroes of Homer to the kings and cities of the hellenistic age, the contributors set war in the context of other forms of Greek violence, private and public. At eve…
General Index
Megara’s Mafiosi
This chapter draws comparisons between the worlds of Theognis and the Mafia to highlight the culture of violent competition which they have in common. If Mafiosi, all engaged in fierce struggles for power and wealth can see themselves as paragons of virtue while accusing their rivals of unprincipled greed and violence. We need to look beyond Theognis' black-and-white imagery, and give full weight to the evidence which suggests that in his communi…
Index of Passages
Preliminary Material
Herodotus and the Past
Herodotus' interest in the past knew no limits. An interest in origins is perhaps the most obvious motive for investigating the distant past, and Greeks had been reciting genealogies and telling migration stories long before Herodotus. Herodotus lived in a time when intellectuals were challenging the validity of all forms of knowledge, and he applied the radically critical attitude of his contemporaries to his chosen field of study: the past. It …
Classical Greece 500-323
Brill's Companion to Herodotus
Herodotus’ Histories can be read in many ways. Their literary qualities, never in dispute, can be more fully appreciated in the light of recent developments in the study of pragmatics, narratology, and orality. Their intellectual status has been radically reassessed: no longer regarded as naïve and ‘archaic’, the Histories are now seen as very much a product of the intellectual climate of their own day - not only subject to contemporary literary,…
History (31 works) · Classical Antiquity Studies (30 works) · Political science (18 works) · Geography (15 works) · Art (14 works) · History (14 works) · Ancient history (13 works) · History (13 works) · Literature (13 works) · Law (12 works)