A Hellenic Society panel asking whether the Melian Dialogue still describes how power works, with Paul Cartledge among the speakers and Margaret Mountford in the chair.
The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies was founded in 1879 to advance the study of Greek language, literature, history, art and archaeology across the ancient, Byzantine and modern periods, and it has been doing exactly that for close to a hundred and fifty years. It publishes, funds fieldwork and keeps the subject connected to people outside universities, which is what an evening like this one is for. This evening is the field turned on a live question.
The bluntest sentence in Thucydides holds that the strong do what they have the power to do and the weak fall into line. The panel asks how much of international life that still accounts for, and works forward from the ancient evidence rather than reaching back to it for decoration. Paul Cartledge of Clare College, Cambridge and Polly Low of Durham take whether the view in fact governed antiquity; Valentina Arena of Brasenose College, Oxford takes the Roman inheritance; Patrick Porter of Birmingham and Chris Preble of the Stimson Center take the legal, ethical and institutional constraints later ages have tried to place on raw power.
Michael Cox of the LSE completes the table and Margaret Mountford chairs. It is at the Hellenic Centre on Tuesday 22 September 2026, the first date in the Centre’s autumn programme. Admission is free, booked through the Society rather than the venue.