About our staff
Professor Mirko Canevaro
BA, MA, PhD, FHEA, MAE, FRSE
Professor of Greek History; Greek History
- Tel: +44 (0)131 651 1256
- Email: mirko.canevaro@ed.ac.uk
- Room 10.16, David Hume Tower, George Square
Office hours
Roles
Treasurer of the Classical Association of Scotland
Biography
I was born in Alessandria, Italy, where I first became acquainted with Greek and Roman history attending the local Liceo Classico.
I took BA (2006) and MA (2008) degrees in Classics at the Università degli Studi di Torino (studying at the Collegio Einaudi), after which I moved to Durham University for three years. There I received a PhD in Classics and Ancient History (awarded in January 2012).
After my viva in 2011 I moved to Athens for a few months, as School Student at the British School at Athens, before taking up an Alexander von Humboldt Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Mannheim in 2012. I moved to Edinburgh in 2013 to take up a Chancellor’s Fellowship in Classics, and I was made a Reader in Greek History in 2017.
In 2014 I was appointed Member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Young Academy of Scotland and I was, from January to june 2018, Co-Chair of the Arts and Humanities in Society Working Group. In 2015 I was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize in recognition of my research achievements. I was, in spring 2017, Visiting Professor of Greek History at the Università degli Studi di Cagliari. In later 2017 I was appointed Fellow of the Young Academy of Europe, and awarded both the Royal Society of Edinburgh's Thomas Reid Medal for Excellence in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, and the University of Edinburgh Chancellor’s Rising Star Award, in recognition of my research on Greek politics and law. I have been awarded (as Co-I, with Douglas Cairns PI) an ERC grant for the project on 'Honour in Classical Greece'. In 2019 I was appointed a Member of Academia Europaea, and in 2022 Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. I was elected Professeur Invité at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris in 2022, and will be Visiting Professor of Historical Anthropology of the Ancient World at the Università degli Studi di Siena in 2023.
I have long been contributing columns on politics, culture and higher education for newspapers and magazines, most prominently for Il Fatto Quotidiano, an Italian national newspaper, and MicroMega, an Italian cultural magazine.
For my full profile, click here.
For the website of the ERC project Honour in Classical Greece, click here.
I am co-founder, with Lilah Grace Canevaro, of the Network for Working-Class Classicists, coming myself from a working-class background. For the website of the NWCC click here.
External appointments
Co-editor of the Edinburgh University Press series New Approaches to Ancient Greek Institutional History
Member of the editorial committee of L'Incidenza dell'antico. Dialoghi di Storia Greca
Member of the editorial committee of the Rivista di Diritto Ellenico
Member of the editorial committee of I Quaderni del Ramo d'Oro
Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Member of Academia Europaea
Member (Emeritus) of the Young Academy of Europe
Member (Emeritus) of the RSE Young Academy of Scotland
Treasurer of the Classical Association of Scotland
Useful Links
Summary of research interests
Places:- Europe
- Mediterranean
- Ancient Civilisations
- Economic History
- Labour
- Language & Literature
- Politics
- Society
- Antiquity
Research interests
Athenian lawcourt ballots [Sharon Mollerus]
My early research, culminated in the publication of my first monograph (The Documents in the Attic Orators, OUP 2013), was on key documents about Athenian law and institutions. This work was the necessary underpinning for my wider work on Greek political, legal and economic institutions, particularly on the impact of political decision making and legislation on society more broadly. My commentary of Demosthenes’ Against Leptines (De Gruyter 2016) sheds new light on Athenian politics, law and public economy. The study of the social and economic underpinnings of political institutions is also matched in my work by research into ancient philosophical reflections on these topics, culminated in co-authored commentaries of book IV (2014) and books VII-VIII of Aristotle’s Politics. I have also co-edited a number of volumes which make contributions to the study of Ancient Greek law, of the legacy of Classical Athenian democracy and thought in Hellenistic democratic culture and reflection, to intedisciplinary work in Greek history and the social sciences, to Archaic Greek history, and to ancient political thought. I have written chapters and articles on a variety of topics, from the status of slaves and freedmen in Athens all the way to the development of polis institutions in the Archaic period, ideologies and practices of law-making vis-à-vis democratization, deliberation and consensus in Greek democracies, and issues of honour, respect, recognition and subjective rights in the ancient world (on which see below).
Current research activities
I am at the working with Douglas Cairns on a major project about honour (and inequality) in ancient Greece, funded by a grant of the European Research Council. My interest in these topics stems from research on the Athenian honour system and public economy for my commentary on Demosthenes’ Against Leptines. We aim to break new ground in ancient Greek social, political, and intellectual history by bringing recent findings on the links between economic inequality and its psycho-social effects to bear on the society, culture, and economy of classical Greece. Our aim is to understand how the Greeks poleis, Greek society, and Greek authors responded to inequalities of wealth and their corresponding inequalities of status in the way that they lived their lives, developed their political and cultural institutions, and thought about issues of justice, equality, and social cohesion. This project aims to relate what can be gleaned about the economic realities of the classical polis to the exploration of the interpersonal, social, and political tensions that such inequality will have created, with particular reference to Greek conceptions of honour and their role in Greek law, life, politics, and thought.
Undergraduate teaching
- Greek World 1A
- Greek World 1B
- Ancient History 2A
- Ancient History 2B
- Athenian Law and Economy
- Sparta and Crete
- Archaic Athens: Renaissance and Revolution
- Greek Prose Texts: Thucydides
Postgraduate teaching
- Greek Text Seminar: Demosthenes Against Leptines
- Hellenistic Court and Society
- Classics Methodology Seminars
- Athenian Democracy and Modern Preoccupations
Current Students:
| Name | Degree | Thesis topic | Supervision type | Link | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zizzari, Oliver | PhD | Dokimasia in the Greek poleis: institutions, practices, concepts, and ideology.. | Primary | ||||||
| Demartis, Matteo | PhD | Democracy under the spotlight. Political Participation in Hellenistic Democratic Decision-Making | Primary | ||||||
| Mazzinghi Gori, Bianca | PhD | Honour in the Oikos | Co-supervisor | ||||||
| Ghiringhelli, Ambra | PhD | Slave Religion in Greece and Rome | Secondary | | |||||
| Sakeshima, Kyohei | PhD | The Greeks and their Reception of the Persian Wars in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods (323 B.C. - A.D. 250) | Secondary | ||||||
| Terlexi, Natasha | PhD | Slaves and Women : Parallel lives in the formation of the Athenian Polis | Secondary | ||||||
| Anastasiadis,Marios | PhD | Slavery, social mobility, and competency in Athenian society | Secondary |
Past Students:
| Name | Degree | Thesis topic | Supervision type | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rocchi, Linda | PhD | Honour and Atimia in Athenian Law and Society | Co-Supervisor | |
| Iacoviello, Antonio | PhD | The Text as Political Weapon: The Legacy of the Attic Orators in Early Hellenistic Athens (322-270 BCE) | Primary | |
| Li, Mengyang | PhD | Men and (as) Gods in Greek Literature | Secondary | |
| Falco, Giacinto | PhD | A Historical Commentary of Demosthenes, Against Timarchus | Co-Supervisor | |
| Ellis, Sam | PhD | Sole rulership and its justification in the Greek poleis | Primary | |
| Barbato, Matteo | PhD | Reading ideology through myth: a study on rhetoric and Athenian collective memory | Primary | |
| Esu, Alberto | PhD | Divided Power in Ancient Greece: Decision-Making and Institutions in the Classical and Hellenistic Polis | Primary | |
| Zanovello, Sara | PhD | Slavery and Manumission in the Greek World | Primary | |
| Zilong, Guo | PhD | A Commentary on the Pseudonymous Letters of Aeschines | Primary |
Books - Authored
Bertelli, L. and Canevaro, M. (2022) Aristotele, La politica, Libro VII-VIII. Roma: L'Erma di Bretschneider
Canevaro, M. (2016) Demostene, Contro Leptine: Introduzione, Traduzione e Commento Storico. Berlin: De GruyterDOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110497267
Canevaro, M., Besso, G. and Pezzoli, F. (2014) Aristotele, La Politica: Libro IV. Rome: L'Erma di Bretschneider
Canevaro, M. (2013) The Documents in the Attic Orators: Laws and Decrees in the Public Speeches of the Demosthenic Corpus. Oxford University Press
Books - Edited
Bernhadt, J. and Canevaro, M. (eds.) (2022) From Homer to Solon: Continuity and Change in Archaic Greece. BrillDOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004513631
Canevaro, M. and Viano, C. (eds.) (2021) Aitia. Le cause del conflitto tra storiografia e pensiero politico. Rome: Morcelliana
Canevaro, M., Erskine, A., Gray, B. and Ober, J. (eds.) (2018) Ancient Greek History and Contemporary Social Science. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University PressDOI: https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474421775.001.0001
Canevaro, M. and Gray, B. (eds.) (2018) The Hellenistic Reception of Classical Athenian Democracy and Political Thought. Oxford: Oxford University PressDOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198748472.001.0001
Canevaro, M., Poddighe, E., Bearzot, C. and Gargiulo, T. (eds.) (2018) Athenaion Politeiai Tra Storia, Politica e Sociologia: Aristotele e Pseudo-Senoforte. LED
Articles
Harris, E. and Canevaro, M. (forthcoming) Towards a new text of Draco's law on homicide. Revue des Études Grecques
Cairns, D., Canevaro, M. and Mantzouranis, K. (2022) Recognition and redistribution in Aristotle’s account of stasis. Polis: The Journal for Ancient Greek and Roman Political Thought, 39(1), pp. 1-34DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/20512996-12340354
Canevaro, M. (2021) Learning the classical languages: Elitism and inclusion. Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica, 129(3), pp. 191-200DOI: https://doi.org/10.19272/202106403014
Cairns, D., Canevaro, M. and Mantzouranis, K. (2021) Aristotle on the causes of civil strife: Subjective dispositions, proportional justice and the ‘occasions’ of stasis. MAIA: Rivista di Letterature Classiche, LXXII(3), pp. 551-570
Canevaro, M. (2021) L’accusa pubblica di hybris contro gli schiavi: L’onore della vittima e l’onore dell’hybristes. Rivista di Diritto Ellenico, 9(2019), pp. 43-90
Canevaro, M. and Harris, E. (2021) The Authenticity of the Document at Demosth., In Mid. XXI.47. Rivista di Diritto Ellenico, 9(2019), pp. 91-108
Canevaro, M. (2020) On Dem. 24.20–23 and the so-called ἐπιχειροτονία τῶν νόμων: Some final clarifications in response to M. H. Hansen. Klio, 102(1), pp. 26-35DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/klio-2020-0002
Canevaro, M. (2020) Ripensare da sinistra l’identità nazionale. MicroMega, 2020, pp. 180-196
Canevaro, M. (2020) Nomothesia e amministrazione finanziaria: Frammenti epigrafici di ‘costituzionalizzazione’ e sviluppo istituzionale nell’Atene di IV secolo. Historikà, 9, pp. 485-523
Canevaro, M. (2019) La délibération démocratique à l’Assemblée athénienne: Procédures et stratégies de légitimation. Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales, 74(2), pp. 339-381DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/ahss.2020.8
Canevaro, M. (2018) What was the law of Leptines’ really about? Reflections on Athenian public economy and legislation in the fourth century BCE. Constitutional Political Economy, 29(4), pp. 440–464DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10602-018-9260-7
Canevaro, M. (2018) I diritti come spazio di socialità. La lezione ateniese. MicroMega
Canevaro, M. (2018) The authenticity of the document at Demosth. 24.20-3, the procedures of nomothesia and the so-called ἐπιχɛιροτονία τῶν νόμων. Klio, 100(1), pp. 70-124DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/klio-2018-0003
Canevaro, M. (2018) The public charge for hubris against slaves: The honour of the victim and the honour of the hubristēs. The Journal of Hellenic Studies (JHS), 138, pp. 100-126DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0075426918000071
Canevaro, M. (2017) El imperio de la ley como criterio para la legitimidad política en las ciudades-Estado griegas. Revista Jurídica de Buenos Aires, 42(94), pp. 159-194
Canevaro, M. and Harris, E. (2017) The authenticity of the documents at Andocides' On the Mysteries 77-79 and 83-84. Dike, 19, pp. 9-49DOI: https://doi.org/10.13130/1128-8221/10645
Canevaro, M. (2017) The rule of law as the measure of political legitimacy in the Greek city states. Hague Journal on the Rule of Law, 9(2), pp. 211-236DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40803-017-0054-1
Canevaro, M. (2016) The procedure of Demosthenes’ Against Leptines: How to repeal (and replace) an existing law. The Journal of Hellenic Studies (JHS), 136, pp. 39-58DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0075426916000045
Canevaro, M. and Lewis, D. (2014) Khôris oikountes and the obligations of freedmen in late-Classical and early-Hellenistic Athens. Incidenza dell’Antico: Dialoghi di Storia Greca, 12, pp. 91-121
Canevaro, M. and Rutter, K. (2014) Silver for Syracuse: The Athenian defeat and the “Signing Artists”. Schweizerische Numismatische Rundschau, 93, pp. 5-20
Canevaro, M. (2013) Nomothesia in classical Athens: what sources should we believe?. The Classical Quarterly, 63(1), pp. 139-160DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009838812000560
Canevaro, M. (2013) Thieves, Parent Abusers, Draft Dodgers... and Homicides?: The authenticity of Dem. 24.105. Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, 62(1), pp. 25-47
Canevaro, M. and Harris, E. (2012) The documents in Andocides' On the Mysteries. The Classical Quarterly, 62(1), pp. 98-129DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009838811000413
Canevaro, M. (2011) The twilight of nomothesia: legislation in early-Hellenistic Athens (322-301). Dike, 14(n/a), pp. 55-85
Canevaro, M. (2010) The Decree Awarding Citizenship to the Plataeans ([Dem.] 59.104). Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 50(3), pp. 337-369
Chapters
Canevaro, M. (forthcoming) Institutions and variations in Greek democracy. In: Arena, V. and Robinson, E. (eds.) The Cambridge History of Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Canevaro, M. (forthcoming) La sovranità della legge come criterio di giudizio costituzionale – tra democrazia e oligarchia. Risposta a Robert Wallace. In: Scheibelreiter, P. (ed.) Symposion 2022: Vorträge zur griechischen und hellenistischen Rechtsgeschichte (Gmunden, 21.–25 August 2022). VERLAG DER ÖSTERREICHISCHEN AKADEMIE DER WISSENSCHAFTEN
Canevaro, M. (forthcoming) Nativism vs. class denigration: Athenian autochthony between exclusion and inclusion. In: Bellomo, M., Cimino, A. and Saldutti, V. (eds.) Class and Classics: Subalterns and the Production of Classical Culture. Berlin: De Gruyter
Canevaro, M. and Lewis, D. (forthcoming) Poverty, Race, and Ethnicity. In: Taylor, C. (ed.) A Cultural History of Poverty in Antiquity (500 BCE – 800 AD). Bloomsbury
Canevaro, M. and Lewis, D. (forthcoming) The rites, rituals, and sites of business. In: Davies, J. and Adams, C. (eds.) A Cultural History of Business in Antiquity. London: Bloomsbury
Canevaro, M. (2023) Politica, diritto e giustizia tra oralità e scrittura. In: Bettalli, M. and Giangiulio, M. (eds.) Atene, vivere in una città antica. Roma: Carocci
Bernhadt, J. and Canevaro, M. (2022) Introduction. In: Bernhardt, J. and Canevaro, M. (eds.) From Homer to Solon: Continuity and Change in Archaic Greece. BrillDOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004513631
Canevaro, M. (2022) Social mobility vs. societal stability. Once again on the aims and meaning of Solon's reforms. In: Bernhardt, J. and Canevaro, M. (eds.) From Homer to Solon: Continuity and Change in Archaic Greece. BrillDOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004513631
Canevaro, M. (2021) Upside-down hegemony? Ideology and power in ancient Athens. In: Zucchetti, E. and Cimino, A. (eds.) Antonio Gramsci and the Ancient World. London: Routledge, pp. 63-85DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429201684
Canevaro, M. (2021) Demostene e la libertà greca, da Democare a Treves. In: Magnetto, A. (ed.) Piero Treves. Tra storia ellenistica e storia della cultura. Pisa: Edizioni della Normale, pp. 83-114
Canevaro, M. (2020) I diritti come spazio di socialità: La timē tra diritto e dovere. In: Camerotto, A. and Pontani, F. (eds.) Dike. Ovvero della giustizia tra l'Olimpo e la terra. Milano-Udine: Mimesis Edizioni, pp. 157-177
Canevaro, M. (2020) Mnemones. In: Brodersen, K., Erskine, A. and Hollander, D. (eds.) Encyclopedia of Ancient History. Wiley-BlackwellDOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah30466
Canevaro, M. (2020) The documents in the Attic orators from antiquity to early-modern scholarship: Early antiquarians and unintentional forgers. In: Gielen, E. and Papy, J. (eds.) Falsifications and Authority in Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Brussels: Brepols, pp. 21-54DOI: https://doi.org/10.1484/M.LECTIO-EB.5.119642
Canevaro, M. (2019) Courage in war and the courage of the war dead: Ancient and modern reflections. In: Giangiulio, M., Proietti, G. and Franchi, E. (eds.) Commemorating War and War Dead: Ancient and Modern. Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag
Canevaro, M. (2019) Honorary decrees and νόμοι ἐπ᾽ ἀνδρί: On IG II3 1 327; 355; 452. In: Pepe, L. and Gagliardi, L. (eds.) Dike: Essays on Greek Law in Honour of Alberto Maffi. Milan: Giuffre Editore Milano, pp. 71-86
Canevaro, M. (2019) Athenian constitutionalism: Nomothesia and the graphe nomon me epitedeion theinai. In: Thür, G. and Yiftach-Firanko, U. (eds.) Symposion 2017: Vortrage Zur Griechischen Und Hellenistischen Rechtsgeschichte (Tel Aviv, 20.-23. August 2017). Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, pp. 65-98DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvd7w7mm
Canevaro, M. (2019) Conclusive remarks. In: Giangiulio, M., Franchi, E. and Proetti, G. (eds.) Commemorating War and War Dead: Ancient and Modern. Steiner Verlag
Canevaro, M. (2019) Memory, the orators and the public in fourth-century BC Athens. In: Castagnoli, L. and Ceccarelli, P. (eds.) Greek Memories: Theories and Practices. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 136-157DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108559157
Canevaro, M. (2018) Law and justice. In: Martin, G. (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Demosthenes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 73-85
Canevaro, M. (2018) Laws against laws: The Athenian ideology of legislation. In: Carey, C., Giannadaki, I. and Griffith-Williams, B. (eds.) Use and Abuse of Law in Athenian Courts. Leiden: Brill, pp. 271-292DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004377899_017
Canevaro, M. (2018) Majority rule vs. consensus: The practice of democratic deliberation in the Greek Poleis. In: Canevaro, M., Erksine, A., Gray, B. and Ober, J. (eds.) Ancient Greek History and Contemporary Social Science. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 101-156DOI: https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474421775.001.0001
Canevaro, M. (2018) Demosthenic influences in early rhetorical education: Hellenistic rhetores and Athenian imagination. In: Canevaro, M. and Gray, B. (eds.) The Hellenistic Reception of Classical Athenian Democracy and Political Thought. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 3-91DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198748472.003.0004
Canevaro, M. and Gray, B. (2018) Introduction. In: Canevaro, M. and Gray, B. (eds.) The Hellenistic Reception of Classical Athenian Democracy and Political Thought. Oxford University Press
Canevaro, M. and Esu, A. (2018) Extreme democracy and mixed constitution in theory and practice: Nomophylakia and fourth-century nomothesia in the Aristotelian Athenaion Politeia. In: Athenaion Politeiai, tra Storia, Politica e Sociologia. LED, pp. 105-145DOI: https://doi.org/10.7359/852-2018-cane
Canevaro, M., Poddighe, E., Bearzot, C. and Gargiulo, T. (2018) Introduzione. In: Canevaro, M., Poddighe, E., Bearzot, C. and Gargiulo, T. (eds.) Athenaion Politeiai tra storia, politica e sociologia: Aristotele e Pseudo-Senofonte. LED, pp. 7-17
Canevaro, M. (2017) How to cast a criminal out of Athens: Law and territory in archaic Attica. In: Xydopoulos, I., Vlassopoulos, K. and Tounta, E. (eds.) Violence and Community: Law, Space and Identity in the Ancient Eastern Mediterranean World. Ashgate Publishing, pp. 50-71
Canevaro, M. (2017) La memoria, gli oratori e il pubblico nell’Atene del IV secolo a.C. In: Franchi, E. and Proietti, G. (eds.) Conflict in Communities. Forward-looking Memories in Classical Athens. Universita di Trento, pp. 171-212
Canevaro, M. (2016) Legislation (nomothesia). In: Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University PressDOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.8020
Canevaro, M. (2016) The popular culture of the Athenian institutions: ‘authorized’ popular culture and ‘unauthorized’ elite culture in classical Athens. In: Grig, L. (ed.) Locating Popular Culture in the Ancient World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Canevaro, M. (2015) Making and changing laws in ancient Athens. In: Canevaro, M. and Harris, E. (eds.) Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Law. Oxford: Oxford University PressDOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199599257.013.4
Canevaro, M. (2009) L'accusa contro Leptine: Crisi economica e consenso post-bellico. In: Quaderni del Dipartimento di filologia linguistica e tradizione classica. Patron, pp. 117-141