Classical Greek Oligarchy thoroughly reassesses an important but neglected form of ancient Greek government, the “rule of the few.” Matthew Simonton challenges scholarly orthodoxy by showing that oligarchy was not the default mode of politics from time immemorial, but instead emerged alongside, and in reaction to, democracy. He establishes for the first time how oligarchies maintained power in the face of potential citizen resistance. The book argues that oligarchs designed distinctive political institutions—such as intra-oligarchic power sharing, targeted repression, and rewards for informants—to prevent collective action among the majority population while sustaining cooperation within their own ranks.
To clarify the workings of oligarchic institutions, Simonton draws on recent social science research on authoritarianism. Like modern authoritarian regimes, ancient Greek oligarchies had to balance coercion with co-optation in order to keep their subjects disorganized and powerless. The book investigates topics such as control of public space, the manipulation of information, and the establishment of patron-client relations, frequently citing parallels with contemporary nondemocratic regimes. Simonton also traces changes over time in antiquity, revealing the processes through which oligarchy lost the ideological battle with democracy for legitimacy.
Classical Greek Oligarchy represents a major new development in the study of ancient politics. It fills a longstanding gap in our knowledge of nondemocratic government while greatly improving our understanding of forms of power that continue to affect us today.
Awards and Recognition
- Co-Winner of the 2018 Runciman Award, The Anglo-Hellenic League
"A valuable exploration of the means by which Greek oligarchic régimes sought to maintain themselves in power."—P. J. Rhodes, Sehepunkte
"[A] fascinating and insightful book."—Ganesh Sitaraman, Guardian
"Meticulous, accessible, and insightful, Simonton presents a fresh and much-needed account of oligarchy and how it worked during antiquity. . . . Classical Greek Oligarchy is a masterful book."—Lee Trepanier, voegelview.com
"Stimulating and thought-provoking. . . . I would happily recommend this book to scholars of Classical history and politics."—Daniel B. Unruh, Classical Review
"Remarkable and innovative. . . . This book is a major contribution to the political history of the classical antiquity and to classical scholarship at large. There is no doubt it will soon become a must-read for all students of ancient Greek history and ancient Greek political thought . . . [and] will most likely prove engaging far beyond the field of classical scholarship."—Marek Węcowski, Ancient History Bulletin
"Highly recommended."—Choice
"Well-researched, clearly written, and vigorously argued."—Greg Anderson, American Historical Review
"An important and pioneering book."—Alex Gottesman, Classical World
"A densely argued and challenging book. . . . All serious students of ancient political history will need to engage with it."—Philip Harding, Phoenix Journal
"Simonton’s social science perspective provides a highly productive theoretical framework: by drawing on New Institutionalism he is able to shed new light on patchy evidence and make a major contribution to ancient political history. This theoretical framework is well integrated into the discussion of the ancient source material so that it has genuine explanatory power rather than being alienating to the reader unfamiliar with this literature."—Claire Taylor, Polis, The Journal for Ancient Greek and Roman Political Thought (AGPT)
"This engaging monograph provides thoughtful and persuasive treatment of oligarchic government in the Greek world ca. 500–300 BC. . . . One of the pleasures of this book is the fact that [Simonton] manages to offer radically new and
highly persuasive readings of well-known texts, in addition to offering to readers a wide gamma of texts . . . that have been consistently overlooked in modern discussions."—Richard Westall, Ancient West and East
"In contrast to the huge amount of work done on ancient and modern democracy and democrats, there is a yawning absence of work on ancient—or modern—oligarchs and oligarchy. That gap is now triumphantly filled by Matthew Simonton's brilliant book on oligarchy in the ancient Greek world."—Paul Cartledge, author of Democracy: A Life
"This is the first full-length study of Greek oligarchy as a regime type in more than a century. Well-crafted and multilayered, this important book does much more than situate oligarchy within the spectrum of Greek and Aristotelian regimes; it argues the provocative new thesis that oligarchy came into existence in the early fifth century BCE as a reaction to democracy, and it seeks to understand how, despite being unpopular and authoritarian, oligarchies thrived throughout the fifth and fourth centuries."—Peter van Alfen, Margaret Thompson Curator of Ancient Greek Coins, American Numismatic Society
