Federalism in Greek Antiquity
How Greek federal states tried to reconcile the forces of integration and independence
An anthology by ancient historians Prof. Dr. Hans Beck from McGill University, Montreal and Prof. Dr. Peter Funke from the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” in Münster provides the first comprehensive reassessment of federalism in Greek antiquity. The world of ancient Greece witnessed some of the most sophisticated and varied experiments with federalism in the pre-modern era. In the volatile interstate environment of Greece, federalism was a creative response to the challenge of establishing regional unity, while at the same time preserving a degree of local autonomy. To reconcile the forces of integration and independence, Greek federal states introduced, for example, the stratification of legal practice, a federal grammar of religious festivals and cults and the notion of proportional representation. Federalism in Greek Antiquity provides the first comprehensive reassessment of the topic. It comprises detailed contributions on all federal states in Aegean Greece and its periphery. With every chapter written by a leading expert in the field, the book also incorporates thematic sections that place the topic in a broader historical and social-scientific context. Identity and Integration (Preliminary works cf. P. Funke - M. Haake (eds.), Greek Federal States and Their Sanctuaries [2013]). This first comprehensive study for half a century integrates all the available bodies of evidence into an accessible account. The book combines scholarly trends and approaches from diverse fields including classics, history, religion and cult, political science and law.
Literature: Beck, Hans, and Peter Funke (eds.), Federalism in Greek Antiquity, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2015.