Rural Athens Under the Democracy [Hardcover]

Nicholas F. Jones (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 20, 2004

Much of the evidence—literary, historical, documentary, and pictorial—from ancient Athens is urban in authorship, subject matter, and intended audience. The result has been the assertion of an undifferentiated monolithic "Athenian" citizen regime as often as not identifiably urban in its lifestyle, preoccupations, and attitude. In Rural Athens Under the Democracy, however, Nicholas F. Jones undertakes the first comprehensive attempt to reconstruct on its own terms the world of rural Attica outside the walls during the "classical" fifth and fourth centuries B.C. What he finds is a distinctly nonurban (and nonurbane) order dominated by a traditional, predominantly agrarian society and culture.

Jones relies heavily upon the relatively neglected epigraphic record from the rural countryside and villages, as well as posing new questions of the well-known urban writings of Athenian historians, essayists, and philosophers and occasionally following the lead of Hesiod's agrarian poem Works and Days. From these sources he gleans new findings regarding settlement patterns, argues for a heretofore unrecognized system of personal patronage, explores relations between villages and the town of Athens, reconstructs the "Agrarian" Dionysia in several of its more important dimensions, and contrasts the realities of rural Attic culture with their various representations in contemporary literary and philosophical writings by Aristophanes, Xenophon, Plato, and others.

Building on Jones's previous publications on the ancient Greek city-state, Rural Athens Under the Democracy presents the first holistic examination of classical extramural Attica. He challenges the received view that ancient Athens in its heyday was marked by a uniform cultural, ideological, and conspicuously citified order and, in place of the perception of things rural as mere deficits in urbanity, proposes that we look at Attica outside the walls in its own right and in positive terms.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This superb work belongs in the libraries of all universities. Essential."—Choice

From the Publisher

Nicholas F. Jones is Professor of Classics at the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of Public Organization in Ancient Greece, Ancient Greece: State and Society, and The Associations of Classical Athens: The Response to Democracy.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 344 pages
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press (January 20, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812237749
• ISBN-13: 978-0812237740
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,227,760 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Material of interest but disappointing, September 5, 2005

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James Jan Sullivan - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rural Athens Under the Democracy (Hardcover)

Nicholas Jones' new book is rather frustrating in a number of ways. He sets out, in his introduction, to challenge the scholarly assumption of "an undifferentiated 'state', 'city', or 'people' of Athens" and to show that there was a "fundamental cleft between town and country" (pp. 12-13). Neither of these goals is really achieved by the end of the book. In fact, they are not even really discussed toward the end of the book; Jones seems to have lost sight of his argument. Additionally, Jones' language sometimes gets in the way of his argument and the editing is truly subpar for a university press.

These points notwithstanding, there is some interesting material in the book. Jones first chapter, arguing for the existence of homestead farms in rural Attica, is quite convincing and demonstrates the effective combined use of literary and epigraphic evidence nicely. Chapter two on rural society is also well done, arguing for the existence of patronage relationships in rural Athenian society not unlike those more familiar to us from Roman society. Jones does not quite convince, but the argument is interesting. Chapter three presents some evidence from specific demes. It is superfluous. Chapter four argues that the "Rural Dionysia" was in origin an agrarian institution. Chapters five on realities, six on images and seven on philosophy discuss rural life in regard to the respective chapters' subject. At this point the book devolves into a bland examination of the urban "gaze" and re-construction of the rural "other". There is little new or interesting here and no sign of the argument that Jones set out to prove.

Overall, the book is of marginal usefullness. Those looking for a better work on the subject should consult David Whitehead's "The Demes of Attica: 508/7-ca. 250 B.C." to which Jones is largely indebted anyway. Lastly, the book is not designed for the general reader.