The development of local history is discussed by Momigliano, Studies, ch. 1; for the local Athenian
historians there is the masterly book of Jacoby, Atthis (Oxford, 1949), and his commentary in English on
them in FGH III b Supplement; see also P.J. Rhodes, A Commentary on the Aristotelian Athenaion
Politeia (Oxford, 1981). Three books on Thucydides stand out for their different strengths: F. M.
Cornford, Thucydides Mythistoricus (London, 1907), J. De Romilly, Thucydides and Athenian
Imperialism (Oxford, 1963), and G. E. M. de Sainte Croix, The Origins of the Peloponnesian War
(London, 1972). Thucydides is also the subject of a great commentary in five volumes (Oxford, 1945-
81), begun and planned by A. W. Gomme, and finished by A. Andrewes and K.J. Dover.
For Xenophon see J.K. Anderson, Xenophon (London, 1974), and the introductions by G. L. Cawkwell
to the two Penguin volumes. For Ephorus see G. L. Barber, The Historian Ephorus (London, 1935); for
Theopompus, Gilbert Murray, Greek Studies (Oxford, 1946), ch. 8, and W.R. Connor, Theopompus and
Fifth Century Athens (Washington, DC, 1968). All studies of Alexander the Great devote much time to
the historical sources for his career; the most complete survey is L. Pearson, The Lost Histories of
Alexander the Great (New York, i960); the studies by W. W. Tarn, Alexander the Great Volume II:
Sources and Studies (Cambridge, 1950), are controversial. For Arrian, see Brunt's Loeb (above); P. A.
Stadter, Arrian of Nicomedia (North Carolina, 1980); A. B. Bosworth, A Historical Commentary on
Arrian's History of Alexander, vol. I (Oxford, 1980).
Jane Hornblower, Hieronymus of Cardia (Oxford, 1981) is a brilliant recreation of that lost masterpiece,
and the best general account of the working methods of Diodorus. For other early Hellenistic historians
in the ethnographic tradition, see O. Murray, 'Herodotus and Hellenistic Culture', Classical Quarterly 22
(1972), 207 ff. For Josephus see T. Rajak, Josephus (London, 1983).
- Life And Society In Classical Greece (By Oswyn Murray)
The various authors mentioned are available in the Loeb Classical Library; the most interesting
individual texts are Xenophon's Symposium and Oeconomicus, the first book of Aristotle's Politics, the
murder trial in Lysias, Oration I, and Demosthenes, Oration 59 (against Neaera). The Gortyn Law-code
is discussed in R. F. Willetts, Aristocratic Society in Ancient Crete (London, 1955). For the evidence of
Aristophanes see V. Ehrenberg, The People of Aristophanes (2nd edn. London, 1951). The death of
Socrates and the evidence for the effects of hemlock are discussed in C.J. Gill, 'The death of Socrates',
Classical Quarterly 23 (1973), 25-8.
There is a lively general account of Athenian Culture and Society (London, 1973) by T. B. L. Webster.
For Spartan society the best discussion is W. Den Boer, Laconian Studies (Amsterdam, 1954), part III;
see also E. Rawson, The Spartan Tradition in European Thought (Oxford, 1969).
H. W. Parke, Festivals of the Athenians (London, 1977), describes the Athenian religious year; D. M.
Macdowell, The Law of Classical Athens (London, 1978), is the best introduction to the complexities of