Noboru SATO

I specialise in ancient Greek history and have researched the political and social history of Athens during the Classical period (approximately the 5th–4th centuries BCE), as well as the history of international relations in the eastern Mediterranean from the Classical to the Hellenistic period. In recent years, I have expanded my interests to include myth, historiography, and rhetoric in the Greek world from the Classical period to the Roman era.

More specifically, my research interests include the following:

1. How contemporary ideology, social conditions, and international affairs in the Greek world influenced the use of institutions within city-states, and how these factors contributed to institutional transformations.

2. The development of rhetorical techniques used to persuade citizens in the democracy of Classical Athens. How it influenced people’s behaviour.

3. How narratives concerning myth and the past in the ancient Greek world evolved in response to changing historical circumstances.

My principal publications include Bribery Discourse in Democratic Athens (single-authored book, Yamakawa Shuppan Publisher, 2008); Viewpoints of Historical Studies 2 (edited volume, Yamakawa Shuppan Publisher, 2023); a Japanese translation of Léopold Migeotte’s L'économie des cités grecques de l'archaïsme au Haut-Empire romain (single translation, Tosui Shobō, 2025); and “Character Portrayal of Corona: People around the Athenian Law Court,” Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies (single-authored article, 2026), among others