Ephraim ‘Freddy’ David − Professor Emeritus in the Department of History. His research work is focused on the history and culture of Classical Greece. He taught ancient history at the University of Haifa for over 40 years.
Research areas
History of Classical Greece, with special focus on Sparta and the Athenian Democracy – inter alia social and economic history, systems of government, revolutions and patterns of political thought; mentalities, semiotics of communication and political propaganda; the relationship between history and literature.
Past teaching
Archaic Greece and the Rise of the Polis
The Athenian Democracy
Sparta: Society, Polity, and the Spartan Myth
Revolutions in Ancient Greece
The Family in Classical Greece
Political Propaganda in the Classical World
The Athenian Democracy and the Roman Republic
Greek and Roman Law
The Institutions of the Roman Republic
The Decline of the Roman Republic
Methodological Seminar for Advanced Doctorands (School of History)
Publications
- Sparta between Empire and Revolution ( 404-243 B.C.), New York: Arno Press, 1981.
- Aristophanes and Athenian Society of the Early Fourth Century B.C., Leiden: Brill, 1984.
- Old Age in Sparta, Amsterdam: Hakkert, 1991.
- Classical Democracy: Emergence, Principles and Pitfalls in Athens, Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 2003 (Hebrew)
- 'The Pamphlet of Pausanias', La Parola del Passato 34 (1979), 94-116.
- 'Aristotle and Sparta', Ancient Society 13-14 (1982-83), 67-103.
- 'Solon, Neutrality and Partisan Literature of Late Fifth-Century Athens', Museum Helveticum 41 (1984), 129-138.
- 'The Oligarchic Revolution at Rhodes, 391-89 B.C.', Classical Philology 79 (1984), 271-284.
- 'A Preliminary Stage of Cleisthenes' Reforms', Classical Antiquity 5 (1986), pp. 1-13.
- 'Laughter in Spartan Society', in A. Powell (ed.), Classical Sparta, London: Routledge, 1989, 1-25.
- 'Dress in Spartan Society', The Ancient World 19 (1989), 3-13.
- 'Sparta's Social Hair', Eranos 90 (1992), 11-21.
- 'Hunting in Spartan Society and Consciousness', Echos du Monde Classique/Classical Views 12 (1993), 393-413.
- ‘Sparta’s Kosmos of Silence', in A. Powell and S. Hodkinson (eds.), Sparta: New Perspectives, London and Cardiff: Duckworth with the Classical Press of Wales, 1999, 117-146.
- 'Suicide in Spartan Society', in T. Figueira (ed.), Spartan Society, London and Cardiff: Classical Press of Wales, 2004, 25-46.
- 'Myth and Historiography: Lykourgos', in G. Herman and I. Shatzman (eds.), Greeks between East and West, Jerusalem: The Israeli Academy, 2007, 115-135.
- ‘Sparta and the Politics of Nudity', in A. Powell and S. Hodkinson (eds), Sparta: The Body Politic, Swansea: Classical Press of Wales, 2010, 137-163.
- ‘An Oligarchic Democracy: Manipulation of Democratic Ideals by Athenian Oligarchs in 411 BC’, Eirene 50 (2014), 11-38.
- ‘Xenophon and the Myth of Lykourgos’, in A. Powell and N. Richer (eds.), Xenophon and Sparta, Swansea: Classical Press of Wales, 2020, 203-221.
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