This book has chapters on methodology, on the writing of the first decrees and laws of the years ca. 515 to 450 B.C., on unique examples of writing of ca. 450 to 400, on the inscribers of the Lapis Primus and Lapis Secundus (IG I3 259-280), and on those of the Attic Stelai (IG I3 421-430). These are followed by studies of 11 individual cutters arranged in chronological order. This study brings order to the study of hands of the fifth century by setting out a methodology and by discussing the attempts of others to identify hands. Another aim is to bring out the individuality of the writing of these early inscribers. It shows that from the beginning the writing on Athenian inscriptions on stone was very idiosyncratic, for all intents and purposes individual writing. It identifies the inscribing of the sacred inventories of Athena beginning about 450 B.C. as the genesis of the professional letter cutter in Athens and traces the trajectory of the profession. While the dating of many inscriptions will remain a matter for scholarly discussion, the present study narrows the dates of many texts. It also pinpoints the origin of the mistaken idea that three-bar sigma did not occur on public documents after the year 446 in order to make those who are not expert more aware that this is not a reliable means of dating.

Revision of the author's thesis, Harvard, 1967.

Athenian Power in the Fifth Century BC provides a new analysis of the fifth-century BC Athenian empire, a central topic in ancient Greek history. Challenging orthodox approaches, which have been mostly empirical, monolithic and focused on Athens, the book argues that Athenian power was flexible and a matter of negotiation between the Athenians and their allies. It brings the allies to centre stage as active agents, and considers how the Athenian empire operated in different regions. The first three chapters focus on political, fiscal and religious interactions between the Athenians and their allies in Athenian contexts. The subsequent three chapters then offer studies of the empire in three different regions - the North Aegean, Rhodes, and the straits between the Aegean and the Black Sea - showing how the empire employed overlapping but differentiated regional strategies. This book is distinct from previous contributions in three key ways. First, it offers new perspectives on well-known Athenian epigraphic and literary sources, while also utilising different categories of non-Athenian evidence, including varied forms of material culture. Second, it provides sophisticated economic analysis. Third, the monograph makes use of critical historical comparison: with other imperial powers, with later Athenian power, and with the operation of fifth-century Athenian power in different regions.

The inscriptions are studied after autopsy of the stones and the restorations proposed by the previous editors are reexamined. New restorations for which ample documentation is given find in most cases their way in the apparatus criticus along with the earlier ones; it is the author's belief that only the safe restorations should be inserted into the text. Four long inscriptions are fully republished; three are of major importance for the Athenian history of the second half of the fifth century: the assessment decree (IG I3 71), the Cleinias decree (IG I3 34) and the Cleonymos decree (IG I3 68); the fourth is the treaty of the Athenians with the Argives (IG I3 86). The thesis focuses on the language and the grammar of the texts examined with the author's belief that the thorough and meticulous study of the language of Attic inscriptions is absolutely necessary in order to understand their content and put them in their correct context.

In this volume, Ceccarelli offers a history of the development of letter writing in ancient Greece from the archaic to the early Hellenistic period. Highlighting the specificity of letter-writing, as opposed to other forms of communication and writing, the volume looks at documentary letters, but also traces the role of embedded letters in the texts of the ancient historians, in drama, and in the speeches of the orators. While a letter is in itself the transcription of an oral message and, as such, can be either truthful or deceitful, letters acquired negative connotations in the fifth century, especially when used for transactions concerning the public and not the private sphere. Viewed as the instrument of tyrants or near eastern kings, these negative connotations were evident especially in Athens where comedy and tragedy testified to an underlying concern with epistolary communication. In other areas of the Greek world, such as Sparta or Crete, the letter may have been seen as an unproblematic instrument for managing public policies, with inscriptions documenting the official use of letters not only by the Hellenistic kings, but also by some poleis.

The first full study of the relationship between literacy and democracy in fifth-century Athens. Through a close analysis of key democratic institutions, such as ostracism, the Council of 500, and the demes and tribes, Missiou argues that literacy was widespread among the common citizens of Athens.