Athens, Thrace, and the Shaping of Athenian Leadership [Hardcover]

This book explores the social, political and cultural importance of Thrace to prominent Athenian individuals from the mid-sixth to the mid-fourth century BCE.This book explores the social, political, and cultural importance of Thrace to prominent Athenian individuals from the mid-sixth to the mid-fourth century BCE. It examines the unique opportunities that ties with Thrace afforded these important men, and the resulting significance of Thrace to the political, cultural, and social history of Athens.This book explores the social, political, and cultural importance of Thrace to prominent Athenian individuals from the mid-sixth to the mid-fourth century BCE. It examines the unique opportunities that ties with Thrace afforded these important men, and the resulting significance of Thrace to the political, cultural, and social history of Athens.From the mid-sixth to the mid-fourth century BCE a nexus of connections to Thrace defined the careers of several of Athens' most prominent figures, including Pisistratus, Miltiades, Alcibiades, and Iphicrates. This book explores the importance of Thrace to these individuals and its resulting significance in the political, cultural, and social history of Athens. Thrace was vitally important for Athens thanks to its natural resources and access to strategic waterways, which were essential to a maritime empire, and connections to the area conferred wealth and military influence on certain Athenians and offered them a refuge if they faced political persecution at home. However, Thrace's importance to prominent individuals transcended politics: its culture was also an important draw. Thrace was a world free of Athenian political, social, and cultural constraints  one that bore a striking resemblance to the world of Homeric epic.1. Introduction: egalitarianism, ambition, and the disciples of Thrace; 2. Thrace as resource and refuge I: the Pisistratids to Thucydides; 3. Thrace as resource and refuge II: Alcibiades to Iphicrates; 4. Athelă5