In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Lexicographica Graeca: Contributions to Greek LexicographyGregory R. CraneJohn Chadwick. Lexicographica Graeca: Contributions to Greek Lexicography. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996. vi 1 343 pp. Cloth, $85.This books constitutes, as the opening sentence of the introduction states, “the product of a lifetime of Greek studies,” and every Hellenist is aware of John Chadwick’s work on Linear B. Less conspicuous but immensely important have been his lexicographic efforts, the influence that (...) he has had upon the new [End Page 636] supplement to LSJ, and the impact that he promises to have upon the desperately needed revision to the Liddell-Scott Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon. His Lexicographica Graeca allows us to assess many of his ideas and reveals to an audience beyond the committees, memos, and private presentations of scholarly production the directions in which he would like future work to proceed. The majority of the book consists of notes and analyses on individual entries in LSJ—one could describe Lexicographica Graeca as a three-hundred-page referee’s report that found its way into print. In many cases, the comments assume that readers will have first familiarized themselves with the LSJ entry. Few without strong lexicographic interests may find this exercise appealing, but anyone seriously concerned with the ways in which we write about Greek language will find plenty to consider in this publication. The thirty-page introduction, however, is well written and engaging, and I imagine that this section of the book will be much photocopied and much more widely read. In itself it is a document of great historical importance and should be scrutinized carefully by any subsequent historian of the study of Greek, for Chadwick articulates a succinct but broad-minded view of where Greek lexicography stands as the twentieth century comes to an end.Yet there is a central irony to this publication. Chadwick’s introduction dwells quite engagingly on the length of his career, but he makes it clear towards the end that he still sees himself as the bright young man who began more than forty years ago to challenge a hidebound establishment. He prophesies “with assurance” (and, it might be added, with obvious relish) “that many of the new ideas to be found in these pages will be attacked and rejected simply because they are not what everyone expects to find” (25). While I can see much that is new and can imagine outraged philologists shaking their heads at Chadwick’s presumption (if anyone of his distinction and seniority can be said to be presumptuous), I find the book itself to be significant precisely because it takes traditional lexicography about as far as it can go. It stands at—and, I suspect, marks—the end of a tradition of lexicographic practice that Liddell and Scott began more than a century and a half ago.All of our assumptions about what a lexicon can and might be must take into account the physical media at our disposal. The limitations and strengths of LSJ are inextricably intermeshed with the limitations and strengths of the printed codex. Chadwick is acutely aware of this: he prints (19) a formula that equates the “efficiency” of a lexicon to “usefulness” divided by “weight”: in other words, a 2 kilogram lexicon is half as efficient as a 1 kilogram lexicon. He agonizes over the fact that any enlargement would have to be justified in terms of the added weight (29). He is not unaware of electronic tools and offers the commonplace assertion (28) that “whatever the future of personal computers, it is hard to imagine that we shall ever be able to dispense with the printed book.” He then goes on to make a subtly perceptive statement: “For most purposes small-scale dictionaries will always be needed” (emphasis mine). The qualification [End Page 637] is significant in that he makes no attempt to argue explicitly for the value of massive print lexicons, instead shifting his ground to much more defensible smaller publications.The codex is a horrible medium for the publication of massive reference works in which readers look up small bits of information at a time and which ought to be updated on a regular basis... (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:American Journal of Philology 124.1 (2003) 150-153 [Access article in PDF] Lisa Kallet. Money and the Corrosion of Power in Thucydides: The Sicilian Expedition and Its Aftermath. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2001. xiv + 347 pp. Cloth, $55. Jonathan J. Price. Thucydides and Internal War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. xii + 410 pp. Cloth, $70. These two new contributions to Thucydidean studies are similar (...) in scope and execution. Each pursues a thesis so well defined that dust jacket summaries do them justice. Kallet argues that "the second half of Thucydides' history contains a damning critique of Athens and its leaders for becoming corrupted by money and for failing to appropriately use their financial strength to support military power." Price contends that "Thucydides consciously viewed and presented the Peloponnesian War in terms of a condition of civil strife—or stasis, in Greek." Many, if not most students of Thucydides would find each of these propositions reasonable, and some might argue that book-length narratives are not needed to establish these basic theses one way or another.Nevertheless, Thucydides requires careful study, and each of these books contains strong analyses of many key sections and themes from the History. Both studies shed a great deal of light on Thucydidean historiography beyond their immediate topics. Thucydides, however, enjoys the mixed blessing of popularity among more learned policy makers who trot him out from to time as a founder of realist thinking. In such contexts, tendentious remarks from the Melian dialogue or similarly complex contexts appear as aphorisms, and Thucydides is reduced to a sound bite. Those who are students of Greek culture, political philosophy, international relations, or some related field can easily skim these books for their core arguments but would benefit from closer readings of the particular discussions within them, many of which exhibit considerable insight and originality.Kallet's book builds on the foundations of her earlier research on Money, Expense and Naval Power in Thucydides 1-5.24 (California, 1993). Kallet begins her new work with the Melian dialogue but largely skips over the remainder of Book 5 and concentrates here on Books 6-8. The introductory chapter on the Melian dialogue introduces a core theme, which the Sicilian narrative will extend: where proper strategy uses imperialism as an investment to acquire more tangible revenue or to maintain existing sources of income, the conquest of Melos as a display of power cannot possibly yield enough revenue to justify the initial expense. The Athenians pursue this adventure not because it will improve their financial base but because they wish to demonstrate their power for third parties to observe. The radical realism of the Melian dialogue thus becomes an exercise in traditional (and by Thucydides' standards, wasteful) display of wealth and power. Thus, even as Thucydides' Athenians see themselves as progressive thinkers untrammeled by illusion, they let their illusion of sophistication blind them to the regressive policy that they are actually pursuing. [End Page 150]The following four chapters comprise a fairly discrete monograph on the Sicilian expedition. The analyses of the speeches and major actions in this section of Thucydides constitute a significant contribution to our understanding of Thucydidean narrative. Kallet's discussion of the debate between Nikias and Alkibiades at the opening of Book 6 (31-48) traces issues of public/private, community/individual, and archaic/contemporary in a clear fashion that would make it a useful reading in an introductory class on Thucydides. She traces the language of display and seduction, articulating the means whereby the Athenians succumb to problematic strategic judgments.I particularly enjoyed chapter 2, which explores the relationship between the Ionian revolt in Herodotus and the Sicilian Expedition in Thucydides. I remain uncertain in my own mind as to how much Thucydides has Herodotus in particular in mind and the degree to which Herodotus and Thucydides shared cognitive models that were almost invisible elements of Greek ideology. Given the limited sample of Greek source materials, we may never achieve any certainty, but even... (shrink)

Thucydides, the patron saint of Realpolitik, continues to be read in many fields outside of classics. Why did his History succeed in setting the pattern for future scholars where Hereodotus's earlier Histories failed? In this fascinating study of the construction of intellectual authority, Gregory Crane argues that Thucydides was successful for two reasons. First, he refined the language of administration: Who was in charge? How much money was spent? How many people were killed? Second, he drew upon the abstract philosophical (...) rhetoric developing in the fifth century, one in which the state and the public, rather than the family and the individual, stand at the center of the world. Ironically, it was through deeply personal alliances that aristocratic Greeks had defined themselves and exerted power. Thucydides's discursive practice was therefore fundamentally incompatible with his ideological goals. (shrink)