Archaic Greek History

Abstract

In using earlier history to throw light on later history Herodotus was reproducing the very mechanism by which fifth-century Greeks passed on knowledge of their past. Herodotus plunged into the Greek past in order to explain how the clash with Persia happened and why it turned out as it did. It is important that archaic Greek history offered a dynamic, not a static, template for Herodotus to use. Political events dominated fifth-century accounts of earlier history and were held to have made most difference to the prosperity of a Greek city because it was politics which those who told stories of the past could hope directly to influence. Herodotus' last word is that even when it comes to matters of conquest and the effects of conquest, the decision that determines economic conditions is a political decision. Keywords: archaic Greek history; economic conditions; Herodotus; Persia; political events

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