Daniel Lee Baumgartner Sr.
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It is the intent of this text to allow a more in-depth study to be made by the student of Greek history by having the essential data more readily available in this spreadsheet format. The pursuit of one’s objective can be much more easily and quickly carried out if the student’s train of thought can be maintained until the time that his final conclusions can be reached. The intent is not to give a thoroughly complete encyclopedic source of information about Greek history as that type of data is readily available in any public library. Once the names of the character, his point of fame, his family relationships and his place of birth, etc. are known, it will be much easier to find source material from virtually hundreds, if not thousands, of texts that have a treasure-trove of information that is not always being used because of the complexity involved in finding it. What this writer is doing in this text is giving the reader an introduction to the important characters of Greek history in much the same way we find out about a person we might meet at a party, exchanging general personal information like, “What Do You Do For a Living?” or “Are You Married?” and so forth. In addition, he has taken the liberty to assess the relative importance of each notable ancient Greek so that the reader’s effort might be spent in a more beneficial way.
Latitude has been left for some healthy controversy. Since Heinrich Schliemann discovered the site of ancient Troy, the academic community has taken criticism for their doubting of the factual nature of ancient Greek history. That has gone too far. The last century and a quarter has proven that the modern archaeologist is up to the task, giving open and accurate analysis of the finds that they have made without regards to pressure to misrepresent data so preconceived theories can be allowed to stand. The modern historians have also exonerated themselves by accepting their error and by moving in the direction of open-mindedness in the light of the revelations science has made in that same time-frame.
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This document consists of a listing of the more famous ancient Greek characters with associated data including:
rk their ranking of importance in the Greek world in one of 20 categories
p.o. birth their place of birth
p.o. fame the place that they gained their fame
p.o. death their place of death
d.o.b. their approximate year of birth
d.o.d. their approximate year of death
point of fame the reason or reasons for their fame
parent their parents ( if available)
child their child or children (if available)
spouse their husband or wife (if available)
teacher their teacher or tutor (if available)
student their student or pupil (if available)
associate their associate or friend (if available)
comments commentary about the character
The listing has been developed by consolidating a six-page-wide spreadsheet that goes by the title of “Agonal Arete” into a two-page one. That name refers to the competitive nature of the Greeks and the degree of excellence that they held themselves to within their areas of expertise. It was competition that drove them to that high level of achievement. The rankings extend from five-star-gold down to one-star-bronze, fifteen categories of “1000 Great Greeks”, through three categories of Other Honorable Greeks, gold, silver and bronze, a category for notables that includes important individuals that may have been relatives of a “Great Greek”, or that for some other reason were worthy of inclusion in the listing and a category for mythological figures, who may or may not have been real people, but although that uncertainty exists, have been included with the Greeks. Places shown can be found in an historical atlas or geographical dictionary. All dates included herein are B.C.E. The contents are set in a table form with 15 fields defined across the top of the page. The records are vertically defined with an alphabetical listing of the characters along the left margin. The characters may have one or more additional lines with asterism in the left column to allow additional information about the character to be presented. When an asterisk is used in the body of the text, the information is either unknown or unavailable. Generalized categories of definition, for point of fame, have been employed to maintain a consistency within the text. A category for queen has been used in identifying a group of women of royal status. When that category has, for instance, been so defined, it can be assumed that she is the queen where her place of fame is given. It has been an effort of the author to limit redundancy within the text. A basic assumption has been made by the writer of this text to include all Greeks in order to maintain the perfect whole. No preference has been given to any individual on the basis of whether that individual was a historic figure or a non-historic one. The advent of writing in Greece should not be a factor, it is believed, in determining the importance of a character, but that only those skills, attributes and achievements they acquired should be used to measure an individual’s ranking. Further judgment had to be applied with regards to cultural differences between the different eras of the almost 2 millennium history covered. In the Appendix, the several categories of the ranking of the characters are given to assist the reader in determining where he or she may want to begin their study. Most of us know the characters in 5G, and we might even know many of the characters in 5B. For the more serious students of Greek history, many of the 3-Star series have come to their attention. For the expert in the field of Greek history, all five series are familiar and many of the notable characters as well. The intent of the writer is to provide, within the contents of this study, a way to help anyone interested in the subject of Greek history to find out general information without the laborious search that has been a problem for those of us with time constraints.
