Beyond the Fifth Century brings together 13 scholars from various disciplines (Classics, Ancient History, Mediaeval Studies) to explore interactions with Greek tragedy from the 4th century BCE up to the Middle Ages. The volume breaks new ground in several ways. Its chronological scope encompasses periods that are not usually part of research on tragedy reception, especially the Hellenistic period, late antiquity and the Middle Ages. The volume also considers not just performance reception but various other modes of reception, between different literary genres and media (inscriptions, vase paintings, recording technology). There is a pervasive interest in interactions between tragedy and society-at-large, such as festival culture and entertainment (both public and private), education, religious practice, even life-style. Finally, the volume features studies of a comparative nature which focus less on genealogical connections (although such may be present) but rather on the study of equivalences.

Athenian Power in the Fifth Century BC offers a new study of a canonical topic in ancient Greek history, the fifth-century BC Athenian empire. While previous studies have largely focused on Athens and Athenian narrative history, this book brings the Athenians' imperial subjects to centre stage.

What happened to Greek tragedy after the death of Euripides? This book provides some answers, and a broad historical overview.

A unique collection of papers looking at how the Gallo-Romans reacted to barbarian invasion.

Chapter 1 A BENIGN INTRODUCTION -- chapter 2 A PLACE OF EXCEPTIONAL UNIVERSAL VALUE -- chapter 3 A TALE OF TWO HISTORIES -- chapter 4 THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF ENLIGHTENMENT -- chapter 5 WHAT DO GODS HAVE TO DO WITH ENLIGHTENMENT? -- chapter 6 A BAROQUE CONCLUSION.

The first full study of the relationship between literacy and democracy in fifth-century Athens. Through a close analysis of key democratic institutions, such as ostracism, the Council of 500, and the demes and tribes, Missiou argues that literacy was widespread among the common citizens of Athens.

In the fifth century BC Thebes, faced with the challenges presented by defeat and disgrace in the Persian Wars – it had sided with the invaders – succeeded not only in regaining its former prominence, but also in laying the groundwork for its hegemony of Greece in the early part of the fourth century. In Thebes in the Fifth Century, first published in 1982, Nancy Demand examines the political and military history of this renowned city, as well as a number of other aspects of Theban culture and society: its physical layout, religious cults, poetry and music, arts, crafts and philosophy. Other topics of special interest include a chapter on Pythagoreanism in Thebes, an appendix on the evidence for the participation of women in Pythagoreanism, and an investigation, extending throughout the book, of the role of women in Theban society.

As distinct from the extant studies of ancient canonical texts, which focus either on literary (Greco-Roman) or religious (Judeo-Christian) canons, the present volume aims at bridging between these two fields by proposing the first comparative study of canon. An international team of experts discusses the processes of canon-formation in societies of the ancient world, addressing such issues as canon and the articulation of identity; the hermeneutical attitude toward canonical texts; textual fixity and openness; oral and written canons; methods of transmission, and more. Among the topics discussed are Mesopotamian canons; Zoroastrianism; the Bible; Homer; literary and philosophical canons in ancient Greece and Rome; the New Testament; the Roman law; Rabbinic Judaism and Kabbalistic literature. The future of the so-called Western Canon is one of the most hotly debated issues of the day. There is reason to believe that what is perceived today as a unique crisis, can be put into perspective by students of ancient societies, for the simple reason that the ancient world offers us the historical perspective of civilizations as a whole and allows us to study cultural phenomena in the longue durée.

The Plight of Rome in the Fifth Century AD argues that the fall of the western Roman Empire was rooted in a significant drop in war booty, agricultural productivity, and mineral resources. Drawing on literary and archaeological data, this volume establishes a correspondence between booty (in the form of slaves and precious metals) from foreign campaigns and public building programmes, and how this equilibrium was upset after the Empire reached its full expansion and began to contract in the third century. Merrony explores how Rome was weakened and divided, unable to pay its army, feed its people, or support the imperial bureaucracy - and how this contributed to its administrative collapse.

Francis M. Dunn's Present Shock in Late Fifth-Century Greece examines the widespread social and cultural disorientation experienced by Athenians in a period that witnessed the revolution of 411 B.C.E. and the military misadventures in 413 and 404---a disturbance as powerful as that described in Alvin Toffler's Future Shock. The late fifth century was a time of vast cultural and intellectual change, ultimately leading to a shift away from Athenians' traditional tendency to seek authority in the past toward a greater reliance on the authority of the present. At the same time, Dunn argues, writers and thinkers not only registered the shock but explored ways to adjust to living with this new sense of uncertainty. Using literary case studies from this period, Dunn shows how narrative techniques changed to focus on depicting a world in which events were no longer wholly predetermined by the past, impressing upon readers the rewards and challenges of struggling to find their own way forward. Although Present Shock in Late Fifth-Century Greece concentrates upon the late fifth century, this book's interdisciplinary approach will be of broad interest to scholars and students of ancient Greece, as well as anyone fascinated by the remarkably flexible human understanding of time. Francis M. Dunn is Professor of Classics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is author of Tragedy's End: Closure and Innovation in Euripidean Drama (Oxford, 1996), and coeditor of Beginnings in Classical Literature (Cambridge, 1992) and Classical Closure: Reading the End in Greek and Latin Literature (Princeton, 1997). "In this fascinating study, Francis Dunn argues that in late fifth-century Athens, life became focused on the present---that moving instant between past and future. Time itself changed: new clocks and calendars were developed, and narratives were full of suspense, accident, and uncertainty about things to come. Suddenly, future shock was now." ---David Konstan, John Rowe Workman Distinguished Professor of Classics and the Humanistic Tradition and Professor of Comparative Literature, Brown University "In this fascinating work, Dunn examines the ways in which the Greeks constructed time and then shows how these can shed new light on various philosophical, dramatic, historical, scientific and rhetorical texts of the late fifth century. An original and most interesting study." ---Michael Gagarin, James R. Dougherty, Jr., Centennial Professor of Classics, the University of Texas at Austin "Interesting, clear, and compelling, Present Shock in Late Fifth-Century Greece analyzes attitudes toward time in ancient Greece, focusing in particular on what Dunn terms 'present shock,' in which rapid cultural change undermined the authority of the past and submerged individuals in a disorienting present in late fifth-century Athens. Dunn offers smart and lucid analyses of a variety of complex texts, including pre-Socratic and sophistic philosophy, Euripidean tragedy, Thucydides, and medical texts, making an important contribution to discussions about classical Athenian thought that will be widely read and cited by scholars working on Greek cultural history and historiography." ---Victoria Wohl, Associate Professor, Department of Classics, University of Toronto