Abstract & Overview
The aim of this thesis is to define and explore the role of natural resources and the strategic value of geography for Athenian foreign policy, focussing particularly on the fifth and fourth centuries. In spite of the established position of natural resources in studies of Greek economic and political history, there remains no comprehensive treatment of the interrelationship between natural resources and the formulation of Athenian foreign policy. The thesis exploits the approaches established by previous scholarship, advances in epigraphy, modern studies of geography and classical philology to examine these two aspects, focussing primarily on the role of timber, grain, precious metals, red ochre, sea-routes and islands within Athenian foreign policy.\n\nChapter One examines the above resources, always with an eye on their strategic utility for the Athenian state, and identifies a number of regions of Athenian interest. Chapter Two explores the public political discourse within the Athenian polity regarding the nexus between strategic natural resources and foreign policy. Chapter Three continues this theme, considering acquisition through war and diplomacy as methods of access to natural resources. Chapter Four focuses on the ways in which Athens ensured that the necessary cargo did reach safely its harbours. Chapter Five shifts emphasis from natural resources to geography and strategy. Taking Rhodes as a case study it aims to explain how these elements affected the way in which natural resources came into Athens and what this could mean to foreign policy. Chapter Six puts together the various factors discussed in the previous chapters, and examines them within a set period of time.