Wow! eBook
Leadership in the Ancient World: Concepts, Models, Theories
Author(s): Melina Tamiolaki
- Publisher: Cambridge University Press
- Publication Date: October 16, 2025
- Language: English
- Print length: 248 pages
- ISBN-10: 1009493841
- ISBN-13: 9781009493840
Book Description
Leaders abounded in the ancient world, from kings, pharaohs, emperors, tyrants, politicians, and orators to generals, minor officials and intellectuals. This book opens fresh perspectives on leadership by examining under-explored topics, posing new questions and revisiting old concepts. In particular, it seeks to shift attention from constitutional issues stricto sensu (such as kingship, monarchy, tyranny, etc.) or, more productively, to prompt a re-examination of these issues through the lens of leadership. The volume includes chapters on a range of cultures from across the ancient world in order to promote comparative reflection. Key questions include whether some models of good and bad leadership were universal among ancient cultures or exhibited differences? Why did a certain culture emphasise one leadership quality while another insisted on another? Why did only some cultures develop a theoretical discourse on leadership? How did each culture appropriate, define, redefine (or react) to existing concepts of leadership?
Editorial Reviews
Book Description
A cross-cultural examination of ancient leadership, from concepts, theories, vocabulary and models to comparisons with the present.
About the Author
Melina Tamiolaki is Professor of Ancient Greek Literature in the Department of Philology at the University of Crete, and a Collaborating Faculty Member at IMS/FORTH. She is the author of Liberté et esclavage chez les historiens grecs classiques (2010; Zappas Award of the Association des Etudes Grecques 2011) and the editor/co-editor of several collective volumes, of which the most recent is (with Tim Rood), Xenophon’s Anabasis and its Legacy (2022). As of September 2024, she serves as Vice-Rector of Development, International Relations and Outlook of the University of Crete.
