Whibley, Greek Oligarchies

Greek Oligarchies: Their Character and Organisation by Leonard Whibley (1896)

Whibley’s Greek Oligarchies investigates oligarchic government in Classical Greece. Although oligarchy, the “rule of the few,” was a major presence from the archaic age to the fourth century and beyond, it remains elusive, stymied by a paucity of sources. Nor has the topic attracted much modern attention. In his review of the Martin Oswald’s Oligarchia. The Development of a Constitutional Form in Ancient Greece (BMCR 6/2002) William S. Morison describes Whibley’s Greek Oligarchies as still “the only full-length work on oligarchic government in Classical Greece.”

The table of contents includes:

1. The Classification of Constitutions
2. The Causes of Constitutional Change
3. The Historical Development of Constitutions
4. Varieties of Oligarchy
5. Organization of Oligarchic Goverment

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