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    Scepticism about community: Polybius on Peloponnesian exiles, good faith (pistis) and the Achaian League

    Gray, Benjamin (2013) Scepticism about community: Polybius on Peloponnesian exiles, good faith (pistis) and the Achaian League. Historia 62 (3), pp. 323-360. ISSN 0018-2311.

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    Abstract

    This article examines the ethical foundations of Polybius' political thought, taking as a case study Polybius' ideological representations of groups of Peloponnesian exiles. It argues that relevant passages belong to a wider Greek tradition of paradigmatic representations of exile groups. When considered alongside that tradition and the rest of Polybius' work, these passages show Polybius to be self-consciously sceptical of traditional Greek community-oriented ethical and political notions. They show him to be offering an alternative, less idealistic 'limited' conception of good political organisation, which gives special weight to punctilious respect for law, contracts, procedures, fair play and strict reciprocity.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Historical Studies
    Depositing User: Benjamin Gray
    Date Deposited: 18 Nov 2020 10:43
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 18:05
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/41586

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