Aegean Interactions: Delos and its Networks in the Third Century
ISBN: 9780191829345
Platform/Publisher: Oxford Academic / Oxford University Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Unlimited; Download: Unlimited
Subjects: Classical Studies;

The third century BC was a particularly troubled period of ancient Greek history, when the Aegean sea became the main stage for power struggles between various royal circles and dynasties, including the Antigonids and the Ptolemies. This volume addresses the history of interaction in the Aegean world during this time by focusing on the island of Delos, which housed one of its most important regional sanctuaries. It draws on contemporary network theory and approaches to regionalism, as well as thorough investigation of the Delian epigraphic and material evidence, to explore how and to what degree the islands of the southern Aegean formed active networks of political, religious, and cultural interaction. Four case studies examine different types of networks on and around Delos, covering the federal organisation of islands into the so-called 'Islanders' League', the participation of Delian and other agents in the processes of monumentalisation of the Delian landscape, the network of honours of the Delian community, and the social dynamics of dedication through the record of dedicants in the Delian inventories. They reveal not only that these kinds of regional interaction in the southern Aegean were pervasive, but also that they had a significant impact on the creation of a regional identity; one that persisted despite the political changes of the age.


Christy Constantakopoulou, Senior Lecturer in Ancient History, Birkbeck College, University of London

Christy Constantakopoulou received her doctorate from the University of Oxford, having completed a BA in History and Archaeology at the University of Athens and an MA in Ancient History at UCL. She has been teaching at Birkbeck since 2002 and became a Senior Lecturer in 2010. Her research interests focus on the cultural, religious, political, and economic history of the ancient Greek world from the archaic to the early Hellenistic periods.

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