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188 BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS
cause of such a relationship. Interesting is the author's statement that
oratory played an important role in the formation of the concept of a
democratic polis.
The ancient readings for Chapter Six "Limiting Democracy: The political
exclusion of women and slaves" come from Thucydides, pseudo­
Xenophon. Aristophanes' Assemblywomen and passages from Aristotle's
Politics. sources not very useful to the authors of the essays. who
mostly rely on epigraphic and other literary sources, certainly a noticeable
omission here. On issues of women and slaves. the nature of the
ancient sources is such that they often lead modern scholars to disagreements
and wild assumptions.
For this reason. the essayists in this chapter question these assumptions
and offer a more balanced approach. Robin Osborne, in his "The
economics and politics of slavery at Athens," after a painstaking review
of the ancient sources. takes issue with the traditional view that slavery
was economically irrational and argues that Athenians of the hoplite
class and above owned slaves whose work. not necessarily always profitable.
made it possible for the citizens to discharge their democratic
duties. Michael Jameson in "Women and democracy in fourth-century
Athens" challenges the belief commonly held by modern historians that
Greek democratic ideology exacerbated the division between men and
women. citizen and non-citizen. contra statements made by misogynist
intellectuals like Plato and Aristotle that democracy granted so much
freedom to women and slaves that group distinctions became quite
blurred. Jameson's conclusion: certainly women fared better in a democratic
polis where class divisions were not so rigid as we have been
led to believe. In "Women and democracy in ancient Greece" Marilyn
Katz finds that the explanations modern scholars commonly offer for
the exclusion of women from Greek civic society are based on eighteenth-century
European ideology and practice where women's domesticity
was the result of the distinction between the public and private
sectors. Katz. relying on Aristotle's definition of the polis as a "community
of families" (Politics I289 b 33). concludes that "the topic of women's
exclusion from political rights remains inadequately theorized" (306)
and obviously needs further study.
All in all. Professor Robinson has produced a volume of essays that
challenge long held views about Greek democracy and offer fresh perspectives
on issues so vital for a deeper understanding of the democratic
process and society. There is. however, a caveat for those who intend
to use this book in their courses: the book will most benefit
graduate and upper-year undergraduate students with a sufficient
background in ancient Greek politics and society. It is a volume con-