Ritual, Finance, Politics: Athenian Democratic Accounts Presented to David Lewis - Tapa dura

The subtitle of the book refers felicitously to a trio of papers at its core... All three are fresh, perceptive and realistic treatments of the subject. (The Times Literary Supplement)

...although this is a volume aimed chiefly at specialist scholars in the first instance, its ramifications and implications extend far beyond the sheltered groves of academe. (The Times Higher Education Supplement)

this is a worthy tribute to David Lewis, and a Stakhanovite effort by the joint editors Robin Osborne and Simon Hornblower, who have ensured very speedy publication. (Greece and Rome Reviews 42)

a fitting tribute to this great scholar ... let me say that O. and H. have produced a meticulously edited book, and that everyone interested in Greek society, politics, religion, economics, indeed every aspect of ancient Greek society, will use this book at some time: it stands as a tribute to a great scholar and a complex and great civilization. (Ian Worthington, University of Tasmania, Classical Review, Vol. XLVI, No. 1 1996)

This book is a celebration of two thousand five hundred years of democracy. At the same time it is a collection of essays to honour the sixty-fifth birthday of David Lewis, Professor of Ancient History at the University of Oxford. The book brings together contributions from twenty two leading scholars from Britain, Continental Europe, Israel, and America; its central themes are ritual (both in the religious and extended anthropological sense); finance, including the accountability principle which was basic to Athenian democracy; and politics. All represent significant new contributions in the field. The contributors pay especial attention to epigraphy (the editing and interpretation of inscriptions on stone), which is David Lewis' speciality. They have made full use of the newest epigraphic evidence, and discuss topics such as the purposes (including symbolic and monumental motives) for which democratic inscriptions were set up. The introduction locates individual contributions within the overall study of classical Athens and relates them to Lewis' own published work.