A Preliminary Study On The Ancient Greek Captives In 5th Century BC

Within the ancient Greek city-state system, population was a prerequisite for the existence of a polis. In the world of Greek city-states, prisoners of war, and also war itself, were permanent and major events which concerned to all city-states. So the study of ancient Greek prisoners can contribute to a further understanding of the relations between Greek political sphere and war.This article mainly focuses on the topic of Greek prisoners of war in the fifth century BC. One of the reasons is that the fifth century BC can be regarded as the golden age of the development of Greek society, and also the maturity of the Greek city-state system; the other one is that, in the history of war of Greece, there have been two major war, namely the Persian war between the Greeks and Persians, the Greeks and the Peloponnesian war between the Greeks. In the period of city-state system development, these two important events had a profound impact on Greek politics. So the author plan to analysts the problem of the disposal of Greek prisoners of war at this background.Firstly, the paper starts with the different definitions of prisoners of war on ancient and modern time, which help to lead to define the concept of the prisoners of war in the ancient Greek world. Secondly, based on the background of Persian War and the Peloponnesian War in fifth century BC, I analyze the diversity or uncertainty of prisoners'fates. I also give examples to illustrate the reasons which produces this kind of diversity. The conclusions are as follows:the diversities of Greek prisoners'fates are closely connected with the practical needs of Greek politics, at the same time, it also was influenced by the established traditional customs of antiquity; the overall trend of the prisoners' fate in the fifth century BC was even bad and terrible. Finally, I elaborate on the interaction between the prisoners'fate and the Greek political and social life, in order to show the impacts of dealing with the problem of prisoners of war on the development of polis.