The Athenian Citizen: Democracy in the Athenian Agora: 4 (Agora Picture Book) - Softcover

Lang, Mabel; McK.Camp II, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0876616422 ISBN 13: 9780876616420

Publisher: American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 2004

Synopsis

The artifacts and monuments of the Athenian Agora provide our best evidence for the workings of ancient democracy. As a concise introduction to these physical traces, this book has been a bestseller since it was first published almost 20 years ago. Showing how tribal identity was central to all aspects of civic life, the text guides the reader through the duties of citizenship; as soldier in times of war and as juror during the peace. The checks and balances that protected Athenian society from tyrants, such as legal assassination and ostracism, are described. Selected inscriptions are illustrated and discussed, as are ingenious devices such as allotment machines and water clocks, which ensured fairness in the courts. The book ends with some of the lasting products of classical administration; the silver coins accepted around the known world, and the standard weights and measures that continue to protect the consumer from unscrupulous merchants. Now illustrated entirely in color, with updates and revisions by the current director of excavations at the Agora, this new edition of an acknowledged classic will inform and fascinate visitors and students for many years to come.

About this title

About the Author

Mabel Lang (1917-2010) was the Katharine E. McBride Professor Emeritus and Paul Shorey Professor Emeritus of Greek at Bryn Mawr College. She authored or coauthored nine books published by the ASCSA.

John McK. Camp II is Director of Excavations at the Athenian Agora and Professor of Classics at Randolph-Macon College.

Edition details

• Publisher: American School of Classical Studies at Athens
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0876616422
• ISBN 13: 9780876616420
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 32