A study of the conditions which led to the Athenian and Spartan tyrannies, and the effect of those tyrannies on the foreign policy of other states

Wason, Margaret Ogilvie (1946) A study of the conditions which led to the Athenian and Spartan tyrannies, and the effect of those tyrannies on the foreign policy of other states. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Many causes, material and ideological, helped to produce the Greek tyrannies. The historian must pick the fundamental ones and arrange them in such a pattern that the essential characteristics of the period leap to the eye and present a coherent picture. In this thesis, as a result of the emphasis of new points, the pattern presented is rather different from the usual ones. The series of events which had the most profound effect in creating the tyrannies was the economic revolution involved in the revival of trade and manufacture and the revolutionising, therefore, of agriculture. This affected all aspects of men's lives, brought into being new professions and new ideas and so mobilised sections of the population to demand new social and political conditions, which would favour and suit themselves as representatives of the new life, in place of constitutions and customs representing the old aristocratic way of life. Such an approach not only underlines the essential features of the period so that they act as signposts for the student, but it also gives a comprehensive picture of man's history, in which all the richly varied complexity and diversity of man’s interests finds its place. Attempts to interpret history according to only one factor, whether economics, law, or any other, must be deprecated. Man’s activities are complex and varied and his history, therefore, equally so. Only an approach which will embrace all his activities and interests in one coherent whole, can be regarded as adequate. For economic conditions in Greece the works especially of Glotz, Guiraud, Francotte, Toutain, Heichelhein and Rostovtseff have been used, but these conditions have not been allowed to remain isolated from other activities and developments.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Subjects: P Language and Literature > PA Classical philology
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities
• Supervisor's Name: Supervisor, not known
• Date of Award: 1946
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:1946-83680
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 07 Jun 2023 15:30
• Last Modified: 07 Jun 2023 15:32
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.83680
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/83680