An interview with Marc Domingo Gygax, author of Benefaction and Rewards in the Ancient Greek City: The Origins of Euergetism

Today we are delighted to bring you the first in a series of interviews with this year’s shortlisted authors. Marc Domingo Gygax, author of Benefaction and Rewards in the Ancient Greek City: The Origins of Euergetism, took the time to answer our long list of questions. Thank you, Marc! Your book is entitled Benefaction and … Read more

Marc Domingo Gygax

An excerpt from Marc Domingo Gygax’s entry, Benefaction and Rewards in the Ancient Greek City: The Origins of Euergetism

3. Proleptic Honors

Let us return to our initial question: how is it possible that at Hippucome and other Greek poleis significant honors were granted to individuals who had only promised contributions to public projects and had not yet accomplished them? Put another way: How can we explain the paradox of public subscriptions? An initial answer is that euergetism was a form of gift-exchange, and that in this typically Greek practice it was normal to outdo oneself, whether intentionally or not, in the counter-gift, to the extent of indebting the initial giver and forcing him to reciprocate with a new gift.

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And the winner is…

Rural Lives and Landscapes in Late ByzantiumSharon Gerstel won the 2016 Runciman Award at a ceremony held at the Hellenic Centre on 14 June, for her book Rural Lives and Landscapes in Late Byzantium, published by Cambridge University Press.

Gerald Cadogan, Chairman of the Anglo-Hellenic League congratulated the winner, Professor Gerstel, and the authors of the four other short-listed books in his address to a large audience of book lovers, philhellenes and members of the League.

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