Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations, translations, and inscriptions
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Economics
- 3 Militarism
- 4 The unequal treatment of states
- 5 Household metaphors
- 6 Defense and attack
- 7 Calculations of interest
- 8 Reciprocity
- 9 Legalism
- 10 Peace
- 11 Conclusion
- Appendix 1 Speeches and texts
- Appendix 2 Plato and Aristotle on the causes of war
- Appendix 3 Claims of service
- References
- Index
3 - Militarism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations, translations, and inscriptions
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Economics
- 3 Militarism
- 4 The unequal treatment of states
- 5 Household metaphors
- 6 Defense and attack
- 7 Calculations of interest
- 8 Reciprocity
- 9 Legalism
- 10 Peace
- 11 Conclusion
- Appendix 1 Speeches and texts
- Appendix 2 Plato and Aristotle on the causes of war
- Appendix 3 Claims of service
- References
- Index
Summary
Various scholars have proposed cultural rather than economic explanations for Athenian and Greek warfare. Such theories have, in fact, been more popular in recent years than the economic theories discussed in the previous chapter. They can be divided into two types. Some scholars, Kurt Raaflaub for example, emphasize the high value that Athenian culture placed on waging war. The resulting militaristic culture made warfare important to the advancement of ambitious individuals and to the political clout of those groups whose military participation could be invoked to justify their prerogatives. According to this type of explanation, such individuals and groups were predisposed to favor war because it was the arena in which prestige could be gained or rights ensured. Other historians argue that the Athenians thought about and judged the action of states in terms of analogies with individuals and that these analogies tended to encourage competitiveness and intransigence among states and thus warfare. The application of individual analogies to the actions of states will be an ongoing concern of this book, but this chapter will focus on the first of these two types of cultural explanation. Two crucial points will emerge. First, Athenian militarism had mainly external causes and thus had the potential to contribute to a vicious cycle: war and the threat of war made Athens militaristic; this militarism made Athens more likely to go to war.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- War, Peace, and Alliance in Demosthenes' Athens , pp. 51 - 71Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010