Political Obligation in Ancient Greece and the Modern World by Mogens Herman Hansen

Abstract

202 PHOENIX adopted the language and institutions of the polis, including assemblies and officials with familiar titles such as tamias, grammateus, and epistates. Constantakopoulou concludes that there were assemblies “not exclusively composed by the citizens of the place” (230) and that these engaged in important decision-making processes that went beyond issuing honorary decrees and included resolving acute crises within communities. Intriguingly, Constantakopoulou suggests that these island koina of the Hellenistic period took their inspiration from private associations of the classical polis (discussed by Taylor and Ismard in this volume and elsewhere) that were similarly inclusive of non-citizens and even slaves. The volume ends with an essay by John Davies (“Retrospect and Prospect”), assessing the value of network analysis as a “tool for understanding the dynamics of ancient cultures” (247). While Davies celebrates the positive achievements of the volume in bringing to light an array of relationships within and beyond the polis, he sees some gaps and areas for further work. First he stresses the difference between applying network analysis at the level of the polis (as in most of the studies in this volume) and across the wider Mediterranean (as in Irad Malkin’s initial applications of this approach).4 In addition, he urges future scholars to give more thought to whether a network is hierarchical or not, as well as to the question of power. It matters, for example, that certain nodes in a network have more power than others. Furthermore, centers of power external to networks may circumscribe the scope of activity of such networks and therefore should not be ignored. Consideration of networks beyond the civic institutions of polis and, in particular, interest in the experience of slaves, is not wholly new in ancient studies.5 Nevertheless, this volume provides a useful synthesis of some of the results of network studies and the “subaltern turn” in ancient history. Moreover, these essays draw on a wide variety of theoretical models in the social sciences and many contain a heavy dose of theory and conceptual work compared to a relatively modest amount of empirical evidence. This balance will not please all, but I believe that it is a healthy counter-response to a field (ancient history) that has often sacrificed conceptual clarity and broad insights to the positivistic quest for “the facts.” University of Michigan Sara Forsdyke Political Obligation in Ancient Greece and the Modern World. By Mogens Herman Hansen. Copenhagen: The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters (Scientia Danica. Series H, Humanistica, 8, vol. 10). 2015. Pp. 75. Plato's CRITO captures “political obligation” perhaps as well as any text, ancient or modern, and it serves as a constant point of reference for Mogens Hansen’s introduction to the problem. What compels Socrates to obey the Laws even when the command of the 4 I. Malkin et al. (eds.), Greek and Roman Networks in the Mediterranean (London 2009); id., A Small Greek World: Networks in the Ancient Mediterranean (Oxford 2011). 5 On networks and associations, see N. Jones, The Associations of Classical Athens: The Response to Democracy (Oxford 1999); J. Ober, Democracy and Knowledge: Innovation and Learning in Classical Athens (Princeton 2008); P. Ismard, La cité des réseaux: Athènes et ses associations, VIe –Ier siècle av. J.-C. (Paris 2010); and the works by Malkin (above, n. 1). On slaves, see, for example, S. Forsdyke, Slaves Tell Tales: And Other Episodes in the Politics of Popular Culture in Ancient Greece (Princeton 2012) and K. Vlassopoulos, “Slavery, Freedom and Citizenship in Classical Athens: Beyond a Legalistic Approach,” European Review of History: Revue européenne d’histoire 16 (2009) 347–363. BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 203 sovereign people is misguided and easily evaded? And how well does that dialogue help us to understand the conflicted loyalty that modern thinkers have wrestled with, from Hobbes to Rawls? Hansen’s monograph consists of two parts, a brief review of modern theory and a survey of citizen oaths that articulated political obligation in ancient Greece, all in a form concise enough for a seminar session or two. Both parts are useful in their way, though the connection between the oaths and the obligation is problematic. After all...