The discourse of political freedom in ancient Greek historiograpy

Abstract

This thesis examines the discourse of political freedom in ancient Greek historical texts. In Chapter One, I examine evidence for 'freedom' from the Near East and Greece before the outbreak of the Persian Wars. Although most scholars agree that political 'freedom' and 'slavery' did not exist in the past, and that it did not emerge in Greece until the fifth century , in this chapter I conclude that the Cyrus Cylinder and poem 36 of Solon provide evidence demonstrating that the language of 'freedom' and 'slavery' had been used in a political context before the Persian Wars.