Class Struggle in Ancient Greek Democracy: A New Approach

This lecture outlines the new ERC/UKRI project on ‘Class Struggle in Ancient Greek Democracy’ starting in Edinburgh in September 2024, led by Prof. Mirko Canevaro.

This project aims to put class at the centre of our understanding of the emergence, nature, and development of ancient Greek democracy. Its starting point is that class dynamics, rooted in the economic and occupational structures of Greek cities and manifested in social, political, and cultural oppositions, are crucial for comprehending Greek democracies. This perspective finds much support in the ancient sources, yet modern scholars have largely abandoned class as a fruitful explanatory concept. The project proposes that a more flexible notion of class, integrating Marxist historiography with recent sociological work, can restore the concept to its rightful place at the heart of analysing ancient Greek politics and society. The project will investigate the economic foundations of class relations, the cultural tastes and social lives of different groups, and how these class oppositions coalesced into political preferences and specific ideological and institutional options, ultimately aiming to revolutionize our understanding of the society and the politics of the ancient Greek city-states.

Speaker | Mirko Canevaro (University of Edinburgh)

Research Cycle | Slavery, ethnicity and race in the Mediterranean. Ideas and attitudes from Homer to Columbus

Director of Studies | Nino Luraghi (University of Oxford)

In-person THP Seminar will be in Palazzo d’Azeglio (via Principe Amedeo 34, Torino) with live streaming on Fondazione 1563 YouTube channel