Hellenistic Ethical Lexicon

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A01=Doron Mendels
aristeias
Author_Doron Mendels
bible
Category=N
Category=NHC
Category=QRJF
christianity
empire
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
ethics
first century
greek
hellenistic
history
international
interstate relations
judaism
law
polybius
ptolomey

Product details

  • ISBN 9780567718273
  • Weight: 400g
  • Dimensions: 158 x 236mm
  • Publication Date: 10 Jul 2025
  • Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Hardback
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Building on his previous work on Hellenistic Interstate Political Ethics (T&T Clark, 2022) leading historian Doron Mendels presents three hundred interstate ethical rules of conduct which he has discovered within three reconstructed Hellenistic codes. These codes appear in the work of three major Hellenistic historical writers, with Mendels also adding remarks that appear in The Letter of Aristeas.

Mendels has formulated these – probably originally oral – rules embedded within the historical narratives using a mixture of statements by rulers and other actors concerning interstate relationships, historical events which point to ethical behaviour of states and/or their breach, as well as related thoughts of the historians themselves regarding interstate encounters. The result is a comprehensive catalogue of ethical rules referring to behaviour on the international scene, which include not only rules but also a lexicon of moral terms borrowed from the individual ethical scenarios. The volume constitutes a significant addition to knowledge of the Hellenistic era in the 3rd-1st centuries BC, the universe against which Judaism and early Christianity operated.

Doron Mendels is Max and Sophie Mydans Professor in the Humanities at the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.

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