IAS Fellow at Hatfield College, Durham University (January – March 2015)
David Pritchard is an historian of ancient democratic Athens. In classical times this state was Greece’s largest and most important. The major public activities of its numerous citizens were the conducting of politics, the waging of war and the staging of festivals. In each activity Athens was a runaway success. It developed democracy to a far higher level than any other state before the modern period. It transformed war and became one of the ancient world’s greatest military powers. It staged more festivals than any other Greek state. The games which were part of these festivals helped Athens to lay foundations for the arts and the literatures of the ancient and modern worlds.
Dr Pritchard’s research has significantly advanced knowledge of the politics, wars and festivals of ancient democratic Athens. He deepened understanding of how these three major public activities impacted on each other. Thus Dr Pritchard conducted the first systematic studies of how the Athenians conceived of their armed forces and how much money they spent on them. He investigated how the conception of sport and war with a common set of concepts impacted on the public standing of both activities. He has published the most detailed analysis of the participation of Athenian citizens in their festivals. Dr Pritchard has shown how their military and cultural innovations were direct products of their democracy.
Dr Pritchard is Senior Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Queensland. He has held research fellowships at Macquarie University, the University of Copenhagen and the University of Sydney. In 2013 Dr Pritchard was the Charles Gordon Mackay Lecturer in Greek at the University of Edinburgh. He has authored Sport, Democracy and War in Classical Athens (Cambridge University Press: 2013) and Public Spending and Democracy in Classical Athens (University of Texas Press: 2015), edited War, Democracy and Culture in Classical Athens (Cambridge University Press: 2010), and co-edited Sport and Festival in the Ancient Greek World (Classical Press of Wales: 2003). At the Institute for Advanced Study he is writing for Cambridge University Press a monograph on the armed forces of ancient democratic Athens. Dr Pritchard is the founder of the Sydney Democracy Forum and regularly writes opinion pieces for, among other newspapers, Kathimerini, Neos Kosmos and The Sydney Morning Herald.