Old and Forgotten Ways

Paul Cartledge notes that the Greeks had an “ideological habit of polarization that was a hallmark of their mentality and culture.” [1] Peter Hunt explores the effects of this habit on the accuracy of the Greek historians in reporting the role of slaves in Classical Era Greek warfare.   He argues that the existence of a Free/Slave dichotomy in the minds of the Classical Greek historians caused them to misrepresent the critical role the “unfree” played in the warfare of that era. [2] I have attempted in this work to extend Hunt’s argument for distortion and suppression of the non-Free/Male/Greek “other” in terms of a Greek/Barbarian dichotomy, with a specific focus on the Achaemanid Persians.   While Hunt restricts his study to the Classical Era historians, I have broadened my focus to include the genres of epic, drama, history, and biography/autobiography, and sought to give an analysis of the origin of this dichotomy and its transmission from the works of Homer.   M...

Xenophon (420-350’s B.C.), comes a generation removed from Aeschylus and overlaps with Herodotus.   His work, the Anabasis , brings this discussion into the world of autobiography/biography.   This is distinguished from Herodotus’s Persian Wars in that Xenophon’s Anabasis is a record of what the author saw, without an inquiry into causes, and his Cyropaedia is a complex work of fiction. [1]   We must remember that while Xenophon does not seek to lay bare the deep causes beneath events after the manner of Herodotus or Thucydides, his works were not therefore considered less “valid” in the minds of his audience.   As Hartog states, the “seeing eye was the means of knowledge valued above all others.” [2] While modern readers may note that Xenophon lacks the wit and polish of a Thucydides or a Plato, and appears a practical writer, Hunt asserts that this “practicalizing” tendency affords us a much closer view to what the average “Greek on the street” thought. [3] ...

Our next author, Herodotus (circa 425 B.C.), was not present at the battle of Salamis, but he gives his own account of it in his Persian Wars .   As the third text in my analysis, The Persian Wars represents almost 50 years of development for the Greek/Barbarian dichotomy since Aeschylus’ Persians .   Indeed, Herodotus is separated by about a generation from the events he narrates.   Moving away from the “genres” of epic and drama, Herodotus presents an example of the “genre” of history. [1]   No longer is the author’s purpose to retell ancient legends or celebrate a crucial victory.   Herodotus is specifically concerned with a factual inquiry into the people, places, events, and most importantly, causes that fall within the scope of his work. [2] Herodotus, unlike Aeschylus the Athenian, lived in Persian-dominated Anatolia and one might expect this to produce a very different picture of the Persians at Salamis from that of Aeschylus the Athenian patriot. ...