Marek Wecowski

University of Warsaw, Institute of History, Department of Ancient History, Faculty Member

Harvard University, Center for Hellenic Studies, Alumnus

EHESS-Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales, Histoire et Civilisations, Alumnus

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Address: Department of Ancient History
Institute of History
University of Warsaw
Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28
00-927 Warsaw
Poland

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Books by Marek Wecowski

This is Hellas! Antiquity now (Warsaw, 2023) [in Polish]: Chapter One, TOC, and Chapter 13

Tu jest Grecja! Antyk na nasze czasy, 2023

Wielka, groźna historia wróciła. Katastrofa ekologiczna, światowy krach gospodarczy, pandemia, ci... more Wielka, groźna historia wróciła. Katastrofa ekologiczna, światowy krach gospodarczy, pandemia, cierpienie mas uchodźców, okrutna wojna w Europie, kryzys liberalnej demokracji. Ta książka powstała z przekonania, że razem ze starożytnymi Grekami możemy lepiej zrozumieć nasz świat. To z ich cywilizacji wyrosła nasza. Przyjrzyjmy się z bliska ich kulturze, religii, teatrowi, rozrywkom, a także wojnom, polityce, demokracji. Od Homera do Aleksandra Wielkiego. Poznajmy sposoby radzenia sobie Greków z kryzysami i… uczmy się na ich błędach.

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Athenian Ostracism and its Original Purpose. A Prisoner's Dilemma (Oxford, 2022): TOC, Preface, front matter

Oxford University Press, 2022

Ostracism is by far the most emblematic institution of ancient Athenian democracy. This volume o... more Ostracism is by far the most emblematic institution of ancient Athenian democracy.
This volume offers a reassessment of recently published ostraka (or potsherds, on
which the names of the ‘candidates’ for exile were inscribed by citizens) from several
Greek cities outside Athens, a thorough reconstruction of the history and of the
procedure of ostracism in Athens, and a comprehensive account of the political
circumstances of the introduction of the law on ostracism by Cleisthenes in 508/507
bce. Marek Węcowski’s original study focuses not only on the final stage, the day of
the vote,but on the entire operation and procedure of ostracisation. Tracing the
logic of the political play in Athens between the opening and final stages of
ostracism, Węcowski argues that Athenian ostracism was a mechanism devised
to impose compromise on the main players in Athenian political life, thereby
avoiding the punishment of political elites by exile of leading politicians resulting
from unpredictable votes by the citizenry. To support this hypothesis, Węcowski
turns to the theory of the ‘evolution of cooperation’ as formulated by the American
mathematician and political scientist Robert Axelrod based on the iterated
prisoner’s dilemma in game theory, applied here as a probabilistic analogy to
the dynamics of Athenian political life under democracy.

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Politeia and Koinōnia. Studies in Ancient Greek History in Honour of Josine Blok

Politeia and Koinōnia are forms of government and citizenship, community and participation, from ... more Politeia and Koinōnia are forms of government and citizenship, community and participation, from Sappho's social and political status to the economic and religious activity of women, from the reforms of Solon to the French Revolution. This book by leading scholars in ancient Greek history explores the most important aspects of Greek civilization and those that stirred the most our modern curiosity and our modern perceptions of Greek antiquity. The reason to organize this unique international exchange of ideas was to celebrate the outstanding scholarly achievement of Professor Josine Blok on the occasion of her retirement in 2019.

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Change, Continuity, and Connectivity. North-Eastern Mediterranean at the turn of the Bronze Age and in the early Iron Age; eds. Ł. Niesiołowski-Spanò, M. Węcowski; (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag 2018)

by Łukasz Niesiołowski-Spanò and Marek Wecowski

Series: Philippika - Altertumskundliche Abhandlungen 118; 468 pages;, 2018

The end of the Bronze Age and beginning of the Iron Age was the period of a historical turning po... more The end of the Bronze Age and beginning of the Iron Age was the period of a historical turning point for the relationship of the Aegean and the Levant. The two regions were closely related to each other and benefited mutually in this period. The transmission of the alphabet from the East to Greece and the appearance of Mycenaean-style pottery in the East illustrate the cultural borrowings in both directions.
The volume presents updated studies on both regions and questions of bilateral relationships regarding archaeological, historical and linguistic aspects. These studies shed light on the pivotal periods of both regions: when Greek poleis were formed, with the culture related to it, and when the political and social situation in the Levant took its form, influencing the entire first millennium BCE.
In the linguistic part, the volume includes papers showing possible linguistic relations and mutual borrowings in the triangle of Semitic, Greek and Anatolian languages. In the archaeological and historical parts, the studies deal both with case studies from Anatolia, Greece and Palestine and the synthetic issues regarding the ‘big’ questions. The book also presents the possible benefits of the usage of scientific methods in historical reconstruction – analysis of isotopes and ancient DNA samples. These new techniques offer a useful tool, expanding our way of exploring the past.

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A Prisoner’s Dilemma. Athenian Ostracism and its Original Purpose (Toruń 2018): English Summary, TOC and Introduction in Polish

In modern thought, there is hardly an issue more emblematic of Athenian democracy -viewed as a hi... more In modern thought, there is hardly an issue more emblematic of Athenian democracy -viewed as a historical paradigm of our contemporary liberal democracies and a possible model for any conceivable "direct democracy" of the high-technological era in future -than ostracism. Was ostracism an efficient means of defending democracy against its internal enemies and thus securing the power of the people? Or was it an irrational way of tyrannizing its élites by the Athenian demos envious of the better off and obsessed with a peculiar persecution complex that accounts for the constitutional possibility of ostracising one political leader every year? Or perhaps it was a special case of collaboration and compromise between traditional political élites and masses of citizenry? What is at stake in this debate is the (relative, of course) rationality of Athenian democracy and, eventually, the possibility of a rational demos in politics or at least that of an efficient mediation or an enduring compromise in a full-blown democracy. Somewhat unexpectedly, this issue seems to be a hot political subject nowadays when the validity and the rationality of democratic government is being questioned not only its external enemies, but also by certain politicians and even some groups of voters in the democratic process. Therefore, to some extent, reassessing the true purposes of ostracism in ancient Athens, apart from answering a pertinent historical question, may prove instructive far beyond the field of classical scholarship, e.g. in political theory and political sciences, eagerly referring to the ancient Athenian model for centuries.

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The Rise of the Greek Aristocratic Banquet (Oxford, 2014): Introduction and TOC

In The Rise of the Greek Aristocratic Banquet, Wecowski offers a comprehensive account of the ori... more In The Rise of the Greek Aristocratic Banquet, Wecowski offers a comprehensive account of the origins of the symposion and its close relationship with the rise of the Greek city-state or polis. Broadly defined as a culture-oriented aristocratic banquet, the symposion—which literally means 'drinking together'—was a nocturnal wine party held by Greek aristocrats from Homer to Alexander the Great. Its distinctive feature was the crucial importance of diverse cultural competitions, including improvising convivial poetry, among the guests. Cultural skills and abilities were a prerequisite in order for one to be included in elite drinking circles, and, as such, the symposion served as a forum for the natural selection of Greek aristocracy.

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Symposion, or drinking together. The rise of the Greek aristocratic banquet (9th to 7th century B.C.) [in Polish, with a summary in English] (Warszawa 2011), XXII p. + 402 p.

M. Węcowski, Athenian democracy in the classical period (in Polish) [przed korektą]

B. Bravo, M. Węcowski, E. Wipszycka, A. Wolicki, Historia starożytnych Greków, t. II: Okres klasyczny, 2009

Reformy Klejsthenesa z 508/7 r., kłada ˛ce podwaliny aten ´skiej demokracji, w zamierzeniu swoich... more

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T. Derda & J. Urbanik, M. Wecowski (eds), "Euergesias charin. Studies Presented to Benedetto Bravo and Ewa Wipszycka by Their Disciples" (Warszawa 2002)

Papers by Marek Wecowski

Hippias of Elis

Brill’s New Jacoby, Second Edition, Nov 23, 2021

Pierre Vidal-Naquet (1930–2006), Un Historien Entre Deux Mondes

Review: GREECE IN THE MAKING AND THE POLIS

The ‘Cup of Nestor’, the Near East, and the Early Archaic Symposion

Oxford University Press eBooks, Feb 13, 2014

Ancient Greek Aristocracy as a Historical Problem

Routledge eBooks, Jun 8, 2022

The So-called " Buleutic Ostracism " and the Ekphyllophoria: Vaticanus Graecus 1144 and Other Late Byzantine Nonsensical Reports on the Athenian Ostracism [FINAL PROOFS]

In 1894, Leon Sternbach (1864-1940) published the editio princeps of the concluding part of the f... more In 1894, Leon Sternbach (1864-1940) published the editio princeps of the concluding part of the fifteenth-century Byzantine manuscript known as Vaticanus Graecus 1144 (ff. 215v-225v), which contains an interesting collection of excerpts. Excerptum 213 reached the wider scholarly world only after being reprinted and interpreted in 1972 by John J. Keaney and Antony E. Raubitschek. Ever since the Vaticanus has occupied a very special place in scholarly debates about the law of ostracism in Athens, and it seems that in recent decades some scholars tend to take it as somehow trustworthy and hence attesting the existence of a law or custom predating the attested law of ostracism. Accordingly, the notion of the so-called 'bouleutic ostracism' has become increasingly popular. On this theory, Athenian ostracism was originally voted on by the Boule and only later transferred to the Athenian people at large. In my paper, I intend to show that Excerptum no. 213 on ostracism is a worthless (albeit highly interesting) mix of known pieces of information from other Roman and Byzantine sources and that it was conceived at some point in late Byzantine scholarship by misinterpreting, ingeniously manipulating, or conflating, well-known elements of the ancient lexicographical traditions. If I am right, the phantom of the “buleutic ostracism” should be laid to rest

When Did the Symposion Die? On the Decline of the Greek Aristocratic Banquet

1 Herodotus in Thucydides: A Hypothesis

Athenian Ostracism and its Original Purpose

Oxford University Press eBooks, Dec 1, 2022

Athenian Ostracism and its Original Purpose. A Prisoner’s Dilemma is the first book in English ab... more Athenian Ostracism and its Original Purpose. A Prisoner’s Dilemma is the first book in English about Athenian ostracism, by far the most emblematic institution of Athenian democracy, in many decades. It offers a reassessment of ostraka (or potsherds, on which the names of the ‘candidates’ for exile were inscribed by citizens) from several Greek cities outside Athens, a reconstruction of the history and of the procedure of ostracism in Athens, and a comprehensive account of the political circumstances of the introduction of the law about ostracism by Cleisthenes in 508/507 bc. The novelty of the book is its focus on the entire operation procedure of this institution, whereas earlier scholarship concentrated mainly on its last step, i.e., on the day of the vote of ostraka. Following the logic of the political play in Athens between the first and the last stage of ostracism, it is argued that Athenian ostracism was a mechanism devised to impose compromise on the main political players of the Athenian political life. Otherwise, the entire political elite of Athens would be randomly punished by the Athenian people, by exiling one of the leading politicians in an unpredictable vote by huge masses of citizenry. To support this hypothesis, the author turns to the theory of the ‘evolution of cooperation’ as formulated by the American mathematician and political scientist Robert Axelrod based on the ‘iteratated prisoner’s dilemma’ in game theory—as a probabilistic analogy to the dynamics of Athenian political life under democracy.

Ostracism before Ostracism?

Oxford University Press eBooks, Dec 1, 2022

The So-Called “Buleutic Ostracism” and the Ekphyllophoria: Vaticanus Graecus 1144 and Other Late Byzantine Nonsensical Reports on the Athenian Ostracism

Scripta classica israelica, 2018

Marek Wecowski

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