Title: Legitimising the present through the past : some observations on the use of the past in territorial disputes
Source document: Graeco-Latina Brunensia. 2017, vol. 22, iss. 2, pp. 241-253
Extent
241-253
-
ISSN1803-7402 (print)2336-4424 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/GLB2017-2-14
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/137634
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
One of the most common expedients for preventing conflicts, especially from the Hellenistic period onwards, was the recourse to interstate arbitrations. The phenomenon was not restricted only to the great powers of the day; smaller states would often resort to the process in order to pursue their own interests through less demanding, in militaristic and financial, terms. From the Archaic period to the Hellenistic and Roman periods, and from prominent poleis like Athens and Sparta to smaller ones, the past was prominently used in the context of interstate arbitrations to legitimise claims or actual possession of territories. A favourable verdict would offer direct and tangible benefits for the winning side. However, much like its use in the political discourse, the past played a central role in the arbitrating courts. More so, a positive verdict was not only the outcome of compelling argumentation, but it was supported by historical evidence both in the form of mythical and/or historical accounts and of historical memories. Thus, alongside the many practical benefits, there are other, at least equally, important advantages; namely, the effective alteration of the modes of self-representation and the ability to mould civic identities. This paper will discuss various instances of the use of the past within the interstate arbitration corpus and will examine its central position in yet another aspect of the political life of Ancient Greece, especially from the Hellenistic period onwards.
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[2] Assmann, J. (2011). Cultural Memory and Early Civilization: Writing, Remembrance, and Political Imagination. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[3] Bagnall, R. S., & Derow, P. S. (Eds.). (2004). The Hellenistic Period: Historical Sources in Translation. Oxford: Blackwell.
[4] Carr, H. E. (2015). Τι είναι Ιστορία; Σκέψεις για τη θεωρία της Ιστορίας και τον ρόλο του ιστο-ρικού. Athens: Patakis.
[5] Chaniotis, A. (2004). Justifying Territorial Claims in Classical and Hellenistic Greece: The Beginning of International Law. In E. M. Harris, & J. S. Rubenstein (Eds.), The Law and the Courts in Ancient Greece (pp. 185‒213). London: Bloomsbury.
[6] Clarke, K. (2008). Making Time for the Past: Local History and the Polis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[7] Curty, O. (1989). L'historiographie hellénistique et l'inscription no. 37 des Inschriften von Priene. In M. Piérart, & O. Curty (Eds.), Historia Testis: mélanges d'épigraphie, d’histoire ancienne et de philologie offerts à Tadeusz Zawadzki (pp. 21‒35). Fribourg: Editions Universitaires Fribourg.
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[9] Flower, M. (2002). The Invention of Tradition in Classical and Hellenistic Sparta. In A. Powell, & S. Hodkinson (Eds.), Sparta: Beyond the Mirage (pp. 191‒217). Swansea ‒ London: The Classical Press of Wales; Duckworth.
[10] Foxhall, L., Gehrke, H.-J., & Luraghi, N. (Eds.). (2010). Intentional History: Spinning Time in Ancient Greece. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.
[11] Gehrke, H.-J. (2001). Myth, History, and Collective Identity: Uses of the Past in Ancient Greece and Beyond. In N. Luraghi (Ed.), The Historian’s Craft in the Age of Herodotus (pp. 286‒313). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[12] Gehrke, H.-J. (2014). Geschichte als Element antiker Kultur: Die Griechen und ihre Geschichte(n). Berlin: De Gruyter.
[13] Gibson, B. (2014). The Representation of Greek Diplomacy in Tacitus. In J. M. Madsen, & R. Rees (Eds.), Roman Rule in Greek and Latin Writing: Double Vision (pp. 124‒143). Leiden: Brill.
[14] Giovannini, A. (2007). Les relations entre états dans la Grèce antique: du temps d'Homère à l’intervention romaine (ca. 700–200 av. J.-C.). Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.
[15] Higbie, C. (1997). The Bone of a Hero, the Ashes of a Politician: Athens, Salamis, and the Usable Past. Classical Antiquity, 16(2), 278‒307. | DOI 10.2307/25011066
[16] Hobsbawm, E., & Ranger, T. (Eds.). (2000). The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[17] Kinneavy, J. L. (2002). Kairos in Classical and Modern Rhetorical Theory. In P. Sipiora, & J. S. Baumlin (Eds.), Rhetoric and Kairos: Essays in History, Theory, and Praxis (pp. 58‒76). New York: State University of New York Press.
[18] Kinneavy, J. L., & Eskin, C. R. (2000). Kairos in Aristotle's Rhetoric. Written Communication, 17(3), 432‒444. | DOI 10.1177/0741088300017003005
[19] Liakos, A. (2007). Πώς το παρελθόν γίνεται ιστορία. Athens: Polis.
[20] Lund, H. S. (1992). Lysimachus: A Study in Early Hellenistic Kingship. London ‒ New York: Routledge.
[21] Luraghi, N. (2002). Becoming Messenian. The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 122, 45‒69. | DOI 10.2307/3246204
[22] Luraghi, N. (2008). The Ancient Messenians: Constructions of Ethnicity and Memory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[23] Luraghi, N. (2009). Messenian Ethnicity and the Free Messenians. In P. Funke, & N. Luraghi, (Eds.), The Politics of Ethnicity and the Crisis of the Peloponnesian League. Washington: Harvard University Press.
[24] Mac Sweeney, N. (2013). Foundation Myths and Politics in Ancient Ionia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[25] Mac Sweeney, N. (Ed.). (2015). Foundation Myths in Ancient Societies: Dialogues and Discourses. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
[26] Magnetto, A. (1997). Gli arbitrati interstatali greci. Volume 2: dal 337 al 196 A.C. Pisa: Scuola Normale Superiore.
[27] Magnetto, A. (2008). L'arbitrato di Rodi fra Samo e Priene. Edizione critica, commento e indici. Pisa: Edizioni della Normale.
[28] Magnetto, A. (2009). La querelle territoriale entre Samos et Priène: propositions pour un débat. Topoi, 16(1), 7‒17. | DOI 10.3406/topoi.2009.2288
[29] Magnetto, A. (2016). Interstate Arbitration and Foreign Judges. In E. M. Harris, & M. Canevaro (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[30] Patronos, S. (2002). Public Architecture and Civic Identity in Classical and Hellenistic Ionia. Diss., University of Oxford.
[31] Patterson, L. E. (2010). Kinship Myth in Ancient Greece, Austin: University of Texas Press.
[32] Piccirilli, L. (1973). Gli arbitrati interstatali greci. Volume 1: dalle origini al 338 A.C. Pisa: Edizioni Marlin.
[33] Roebuck, D. (2001). Ancient Greek Arbitration. Oxford: Holo Books.
[34] Sherwin-White, S. M. (1985). The Edict of Alexander to Priene, a Reappraisal. The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 105, 69‒89. | DOI 10.2307/631523
[35] Shipley, D. G. J. (1987). A History of Samos, 800‒188 BC. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[36] Shipley, D. G. J. (2013). Afterword: Hellenistic Oratory in Context. In C. Kremmydas, & K. Tempest (Eds.), Hellenistic Oratory: Change and Continuity (pp. 361‒368). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[37] Stafford, E. (2012). Herakles. Abingdon: Routledge.
[38] Tod, M. N. (1913). International Arbitration Amongst the Greeks. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[39] Walsh, W. H. (1960). Philosophy of History: An Introduction. New York: Harper Torchbooks.
[40] Welles, B. C. (1934). Royal Correspondence in the Hellenistic Period: A Study in Greek Epigraphy. New Haven: Yale University Press.