Description
Book SynopsisWe tend to think of numbers as inherently objective and precise. Yet the diverse ways in which ancient Greeks used numbers illustrates that counting is actually shaped by context-specific and culturally-dependent choices: what should be counted and how, who should count, and how should the results be shared? This volume is the first to focus on the generation and use of numbers in the polis to quantify, communicate and persuade. Its papers demonstrate the rich insights that can be gained into ancient Greek societies by reappraising seemingly straightforward examples of quantification as reflections of daily life and cultural understandings.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of Illustrations and Tables Abbreviations Notes on Contributors Introduction Robin Osborne, Robert Sing, Tazuko Angela van Berkel Part 1 Numbers in Society 1 A Counting People: Valuing Numeracy in Democratic Athens Lisa Kallet 2 The Appearance of Numbers Robin Osborne 3 Punishing and Valuing Steve Johnstone 4 Ten Thousand: Fines, Numbers and Institutional Change in Fifth-Century Athens Josine Blok 5 Numeric Communication in the Greek Historians: Quantification and Qualification Catherine Rubincam Part 2 Communicating with Numbers 6 Creative Accounting? Strategies of Enumeration in Epinician Texts Daniel Mahendra Jan Sicka 7 Hidden Judgments and Failing Figures: Nicias’ Number Rhetoric Tazuko Angela van Berkel 8 Performing Numbers in the Attic Orator Robert Sing Part 3 Conceptualising Number 9 Numbers, Ontologically Speaking: Plato on Numerosity George Florin Calian 10 Doing Geometry without Numbers: Re-reading Euclid’s Elements Eunsoo Lee Index
