Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- 1 Philia
- 2 Philia and the polis
- 3 Philia and political activity
- 4 Magisterial appointments: Sparta
- 5 Magisterial appointments: Athens
- 6 Persia and the Greeks
- 7 Athenians and Thracians
- 8 Philip and the Greeks
- 9 Alexander
- 10 Friendship and ideology
- Appendix I Magistrates with connections
- Appendix II Notes on magistrates for the years 435–323 BC
- Bibliography
- Indexes
6 - Persia and the Greeks
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- 1 Philia
- 2 Philia and the polis
- 3 Philia and political activity
- 4 Magisterial appointments: Sparta
- 5 Magisterial appointments: Athens
- 6 Persia and the Greeks
- 7 Athenians and Thracians
- 8 Philip and the Greeks
- 9 Alexander
- 10 Friendship and ideology
- Appendix I Magistrates with connections
- Appendix II Notes on magistrates for the years 435–323 BC
- Bibliography
- Indexes
Summary
Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon.
Daniel 2.48Up to this point, we have concentrated mainly on Greek relations with other Greeks, but, despite their deeply entrenched insularity, the Greeks did live in a world peopled by non-Greeks as well, and were often brought face to face with cultures with quite different cultural assumptions from their own. This often complicated political relations as the Greeks were forced to grapple, with limited success, with new kinds of relations based as they were on different types of exchange, and different exchange repertoires from their own.
In this chapter we shall look specifically at relations between Greeks and Persians, to consider why they were successful when they were, but more particularly why they so often failed, and the role of different repertoires of exchange in contributing to this failure.
Persian gift-giving
Diplomatic activity between Greece and Persia in the hundred or so years we are considering was dominated by the interaction of individuals, and not just any individuals, but men who were in a personal relationship with each other. Persia was a monarchy in which the King, although not divine, ranked far above his subjects.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Greeks Bearing GiftsThe Public Use of Private Relationships in the Greek World, 435–323 BC, pp. 111 - 133Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998
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