Sailing gifts. On the ships that Seleucus IV and Ptolomeus V offered to the Achaean Leage (185-180 BCE) and their parallels to Rhodes
Abstract
This paper addresses the offer of warships as diplomatic gifts to the Achaean League by two Hellenistic kings at the beginning of the Second century BCE. These diplomatic initiatives are analysed attending to multifaceted character of the gift when it comes to the international relations. It is concluded that, despite the relatively low value of ships (compared with other usual gifts), their concomitant usefulness as weapon, as a symbol of power and as social instrument —which is the very essence of the gift— jointed making of them suitable diplomatic gifts, not usual ones but of huge political potential.
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