Descripción

Aus der Bibliothek von Prof. Wolfgang Haase, langj�igem Herausgeber der ANRW und des International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT) / From the library of Prof. Wolfgang Haase, long-time editor of ANRW and the International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT). - Schutzumschlag minimal angeschmutzt, sonst ein tadelloses Exemplar / dust jacket minimally soiled, otherwise a pristine copy. - The East/West divide seems to be as old as history itself, the roots of Orientalism and anti-Semitism lying far beyond the origins of modern Western imperialism. The very project of Western classical republicanism had its darker side: to purloin the legacy of the Greeks, distancing them from Eastern systems deemed �despotic� and �other.� Western Republicanism and the Oriental Prince is a thoroughly revisionist book, challenging both the West�s comfortable view of its own political evolution and its negative stereotypes of non-Western systems. Not only did these stereotypes serve to legitimate early modem European nation-states struggling for an identity, but they also served to justify slavery and other forms of domination over subject peoples. Drawing upon archaeological and epigraphic evidence, Springborg discusses the Mesopotamian and ancient Egyptian contribution of political forms and cultic institutions to classical Greco-Roman civilization, an Eastern legacy to the West that has long been obscured for political reasons. A different reading of the foundation myths of Athens and Rome and of certain texts of Plato and Aristotle, as well as the writings of Herodotus, Isocrates, Plutarch, and Diodorus Siculus, permits us to restore possible lines of affiliation. Springborg demonstrates that Renaissance thought, long believed to have ushered in the Western classical republican tradition, demonstrates a curious ambivalence toward powerful Eastern systems, which it viewed with fascination as much as fear. The great divide between Western democracy and Oriental despotism, which post- Reformation thought has set in stone, was not yet sedimented in the Renaissance. This major new study will be of interest to students of political history and theory, Middle Eastern studies, and East-West relations. Western Republicanism and the Oriental Prince is a copublication with Polity Press of Great Britain. Author Patricia Springborg is a senior lecturer in the department of government at the University of Sydney, Australia. / Contents Acknowledgements Introduction Part I The Greek Polis versus the �Great King� 1 Greeks and Barbarians, Freedom and Slavery 2 Ionian Historia and Kulturgeschichte 3 Polybius on Democracy, Freedom and Tyranny 4 Patronage, Magnificence and Title to Rule 5 Polybius, Stoicism and the Benefactor King 6 Plato and the Egyptian Story 7 Hesiod and Oriental Cosmogonies 8 Foundation Myths and their Modes 9 Philological Evidence: Gods, Goddesses and Place Names 10 Herodotus, Diodorus, Isocrates and the Historical Record Part II Renaissance Republicanism and the Eastern Marcher Lord 11 Republic and Empire 12 Aristotelian Republicanism or Renaissance Platonism? 13 The Roman Legacy: Justice, Peace, Harmony and Grandezza 14 Machiavelli on Hellenistic Expansionism and Economic Needs 15 Machiavelli, the Marcher Lords and War 16 Machiavelli and Polybius on the Predatory and Personalistic State 17 Polybius and Machiavelli on Patronage and Corruption 18 The Islamic Mirror of Princes 19 Ibn Khaldun and the Cycle of Regimes 20 La Serenissima and the Sublime Porte Conclusion Bibliography Index. ISBN 9780292776647