Bulletin

Issue: August 2005

News

'tis men, not walls, a city make

Another visitor during July was Professor June Allison, from Ohio State University and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. She gave a public lecture on the Narrative Construction: The Siege Walls at Troy and at Syracuse.

Focusing on Thucydides' story of Athens' disastrous expedition against Syracuse in 415-413BC, which makes extensive use of Homeric elements, Professor Allison examined similarities between the camp Athenians built on the plain outside Syracuse and the walls constructed by Achaeans around their ships outside Troy.

She said both authors created a 'reversal' whereby the invaders, the Achaeans and the Athenians, become 'besieged' by the very people they came to invade: the Trojans and the Syracusans. At the close of their desperate retreat Thucydides manages to undermine the meanings Athenians had come to associate with their ships and self-confidence: it is men that make a city, not walls! Professor Allison's visit was hosted by the University's National Centre for Hellenic Studies and Research, and the Australian Institute of Archaeology.