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Boiotia in Antiquity: Selected Papers by Albert Schachter

2017; Classical Association of Canada; Volume: 71; Issue: 3-4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/phx.2017.0024

1929-4883

Yannis Kalliontzis,

Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History

402 PHOENIX them with their own. Chapter Six, “Processes of Regime Breakdown,” examines all the reasons why oligarchies failed, which were, in essence, failure to control the procedures outlined in the previous chapters. In the Afterword, “The Eclipse of Oligarchia,” the author cites recent studies that claim that Hellenistic Greek cities were democracies . This is a densely argued and challenging book that promotes many controversial positions. It will undoubtedly stimulate strong reactions, both positive and negative. Either way, all serious students of ancient political history will need to engage with it. University of British Columbia Phillip Harding Boiotia in Antiquity: Selected Papers. By Albert Schachter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2016. Pp. xiv, 440. Since the 1960s A. Schachter has published extensively on Boiotian history, epigraphy, archaeology, and philology. His best known publication, Cults of Boiotia, remains an important tool for research, not only on Boiotian religion, but for a wide range of topics concerning Boiotia.1 He has further contributed to scholarship on Boiotia by editing the online periodical Teiresias, in which a complete bibliography of all things Boiotian is published.2 This book, divided into six parts, represents a broad selection of Schachter’s papers published from the 1980s to 2000s. The introduction (constituting both Part I and Chapter One) discusses the ethnic origins of Boiotians; Parts II and III focus on Boiotian history; Part IV covers Boiotian institutions; Part V Boiotian literature; and Part VI Boiotian cults. The first two chapters are dedicated to the mythical and historical beginnings of the Boiotian ethnos and the founding myth of Kadmos. In Chapter Three we find a presentation of the early history of Boiotia in the sixth century b.c. based on all the available philological, epigraphic, and numismatic testimonia. Chapter Four treats the first steps of a major Boiotian institution, the Koinon. Presenting the most important phases in the development of a federation in Boiotia, Schachter adheres to the theory that already at the end of the sixth century the nucleus of the Koinon existed under Theban guidance. In Chapter Five Schachter presents the role of the Boiotian elites during the fifth and fourth centuries b.c., discussing their different political alignments. Then follows a chapter (Six) about the geography and history of the city of Tanagra in eastern Boiotia in which Schachter analyzes the philological and epigraphical testimonia about archaic and classical Tanagra. In Chapter Seven Schachter examines a less wellstudied period of Boiotian history extending from the battle of Mantinea at 362 b.c. to the destruction of Thebes by Alexander in 335 b.c. He shows that Theban hegemony remained intact after the battle of Mantinea and ended definitively only due to the effects of the Third Sacred War and the rise of Macedon. Chapter Eight is a useful presentation on Pausanias’ work on Boiotia, particularly important as a source for Boiotian cults and topography. This subject is currently being studied also by D. Knoepfler, who has dedicated three years of his teaching in the 1 A. Schachter, Cults of Boiotia 1–4 (London 1981–1994). 2 http://www.teiresias-journal.org/locations/. BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 403 Collège de France to this area. The annual reports of his courses on Pausanias in Boiotia, published in the Annuaire du Collège de France, should have been mentioned in the addenda to this chapter.3 Another bibliographical omission is the most current edition of Pausanias’ Book 9 by M. Moggi and M. Osanna.4 Chapter Nine presents the early history of the sanctuary of Apollo Ptoios in Akraiphia. The sanctuary was very important during the archaic and the early classical periods, proof of which is found in the dedications of Alkmeonides, son of Alkmeon, and of Hipparchos, son of Pisistratos. Schachter analyses the political motivations behind these dedications and the ambiguous relationship between the sanctuary of Apollo Ptoios and Delphi. Schachter mentions (163) an unpublished dedication to the Hero Ptoios that could be identified with SEG 60, 498, a dedication on a bronze handle which is on display at the new museum of Thebes. Chapter Ten is a study on Teisamenos, who was the seer of the Greek allies in the battle of Plataia. Schachter proposes...