Classical World

With this issue Classical World introduces a new department, Special Essays. These essays will, we hope, treat important topics broadly and synthetically; that is, they will offer an overview of a topic that extends over several subdisciplines of classical studies, and they will gather threads of disputed points within this topic into a coherent fabric of argument. They will look at forests in the broad realm of classics, not at trees. Readers who think of themselves as specialists in Pindar or papyrology, or who pass busy days teaching middle-school Latin or mythology in a college, should find something of value in a Special Essay. More than that, they should learn something from a Special Essay that will help them engage with scholars and teachers from outside the world of classics, and with their friends, neighbors, and fellow citizens. Special Essays will appear occasionally.

Kurt Raaflaub’s “Ancient Greece: The Historical Needle’s Eye of Modern Politics and Political Thought” appropriately inaugurates this new department. It addresses an important topic: nothing less than the origins of political thought in the Western world. It floats on an impressive sea of learning, steers clear of simplistic claims about “Greece as the cradle of democracy” or the “Greek miracle,” and avoids mere Eurocentrism. A look below the surface into the notes reveals a gathering of scholarship on Greece, the ancient Near East, Egypt, and China, and on history, literature, and political philosophy. The essay synthesizes the achievements of Solon, Cleisthenes, and Pericles into a single narrative of incremental reform and development. Finally, it never loses sight of the connection between its subject and modern debates over the rule of law, citizenship, voting rights, and other essential aspects of democratic government.

Kurt Raaflaub has set the bar high, but we hope that others will want to clear it. The editors of Classical World invite contributions for [End Page 1] our new Special Essays department: broadly synthetic, deeply learned treatments of large topics in classics that are also of importance to the world of the twenty-first century. [End Page 2]