Dorians and Ionians

Abstract

In his ‘Essay on the value of applying the ethnic criterion to the study of Greek history and civilisation’, Edouard Will examined the two most numerous and politically important ethnic divisions of the Greek race in Classical times, the Dorians and the Ionians, and came to the conclusion that they inspired no true ethnic feeling amongst the Greeks. Other historians have tended towards a similar view. Although some writers have felt unconvinced of the thesis, no one has analysed the sources used by Will and his supporters to suggest why they may not after all imply the conclusions which Will drew. This article will attempt to do so. In particular I shall try to show first that there is good evidence for the importance of ethnic feeling at the time of the Peloponnesian war, and, secondly, that we should not regard Peloponnesian war propaganda as the sole cause of this feeling. The article will concentrate upon the treatment of this subject by Thucydides and Herodotus, the interpretation of which is, I think, most in need of revaluation. Their evidence seems to me most important because they frequently document and in some cases give their own analysis of occasions where ethnic feeling seems to play a part, many of which are either contemporaneous with them or lie in the fairly recent past. I shall, however, also consider to what extent their evidence is supported by other sources.