Benjamin D. Keim

Associate Professor of Classics; On leave for the 2023-2024 academic year
With Pomona Since: 2011
  • Expertise

    Expertise

    Benjamin Keim's research explores the nature and negotiation of honor by individuals and their communities across the ancient Greek world. His current monograph project, City of Honor: The Politics of Honor in Democratic Athens, provides the first systematic study of the fundamental Greek concept of τιμή (‘honor’) and its discourses within the classical Athenian democracy. Drawing on the entire range of the surviving Athenian sources, from the tragedies of Aeschylus and oratory of Demosthenes to the fragmentary remains of Assembly decrees, Professor Keim's research examines, first, the institutional and ideological development of Athenian honor and, second, the lessons that Athens’ successful management of civic and individual honor(s) offer for students of democracies both ancient and modern.

    Research Interests

    • Ancient and Modern Concepts of Honor
    • Ancient Democracy
    • The Attic Orators
    • Greek Historiography
    • Xenophon

     

    Areas of Expertise

    CLASSICS

    • Ancient History
    • Greek History
    • Mediterranean History
    • Attic Oratory
    • Greek Historiography
    • Concepts of Honor
  • Work

    Work

    2019: “Lysias and the Rhetoric of Citizen Honour,” in B. Griffith-Williams, J. Kucharski, and J. Filonik (eds.) The Making of Identities in Athenian Oratory. New York: Routledge, pp. 102-121.

    2018: “Communities of Honor in Herodotus’ Histories,” in Ancient History Bulletin 32.3-4: 129-147.

    2018: “Xenophon’s Hipparchikos and the Athenian Embrace of Citizen Philotimia,” in Polis: The Journal for Ancient Greek Political Thought 35.2: pp. 499-522.

    2017: Review of D. Pritchard, Public Spending and Democracy in Classical Athens (University of Texas Press, 2015), in Classical Review 67.2: 441-2.

    2016: “Non-material but not Immaterial: Demosthenes’ Reassessment of the Wealth of Athens,” in E. Bissa and F. Santangelo (edd.) Studies on Wealth in the Ancient World, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies Supplement: 133, 7-20.

    2016: “Honour and the Art of Xenophontic Leadership,” in R.F. Buxton (ed.) Aspects of Leadership in Xenophon, Histos Supplement: 5, 121-162.

    2016: “Harmodius’ Sister, or, Rethinking Women and Honor in Classical Athens,” in Politica Antica: 6, 1-24.

    2016: Review of J. Ober, The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece (Princeton University Press, 2015), in Classical Review 66.1: 159-61.

    2014: Review of A. Gottesman, Politics and the Street in Democratic Athens(Cambridge University Press, 2014), in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2015.04.40

    2013: Review of D.T. Engen, Honor and Profit: Athenian Trade Policy and the Economy and Society of Greece, 415-307 B.C.E. (University of Michigan Press, 2010), in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2013.07.45

    2013: Review of N. Fisher & H. van Wees (edd.) Competition in the Ancient World (Classical Press of Wales, 2011), in Journal of Hellenic Studies 133: 232-3

  • Education

    Education

    Ph.D., Classics
    University of Cambridge

    Master of Philosophy, Classics
    University of Cambridge

    Master of Arts, Ancient History
    University College London

    B.A., Classics
    University of Virginia

    Recent Courses Taught

    • Introductory Classical Greek
    • Readings in Koinê Greek
    • Achilles to Alexander
    • The Ancient Mediterranean
    • The Politics of Persuasion in Democratic Athens
  • Awards & Honors

    Awards & Honors

    Arnold L. and Lois S. Graves Award in the Humanities, American Council of Learned Societies, 2018-2019.

    Loeb Classical Library Fellowship, Department of Classics (Harvard), 2014-2015.

    J.E. Sandys Studentship, Faculty of Classics (Cambridge), 2008.

    A.G. Leventis Scholarship in Hellenic Studies, Clare College (Cambridge), 2006-2010.