Origins and DevelopmentThe Ancient Greek Polis

Synoecism

Or

Nuclear Expansion?

What Is A Polis?

“Without a clear conception of what the polis was, and what it meant to the Greeks, it is quite impossible to understand properly Greek history, the Greek mind, or the Greek achievement.” H.D.F. Kitto

Poleis may have peculiar calendars, deities, foundation myths, magistrates, currency, etc.

Some Ancient Views on the Polis

“And because people need many things, and because one person calls on a second out of one need and on a third out of a different need,

many people gather in a single place to live together as partners and helpers. And such a settlement is called a polis. Isn’t that so?” ~

Plato, Republic, 369 b-c

“I think…that they should let it [the state] grow so long as in its growth it consents to remain a unity, but no further.” ~ Plato,

Republic, 423 b

“[A] polis could not consist of ten men, and one composed of 100,000 men would no longer be a polis.” ~ Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics,

1170 b 31

Inadequacy of the Term “City-State”

Ideal Population around 5,000 Sparta, Athens, Syracuse, and Acragas as

“Abnormal States”--populations exceeding 20,000

Ideal of Autonomy and Sovereignty of the Polis in International Relations

The Embryonic Greek Polis

Old Smyrna in Asia Minor (ca. 850 BCE): circuit of mud-wall and brick; bottom courses of stone; houses on rectangular plan

Geography of Mainland Greece: Greek Polis Overdetermined?

Homer’s Cities (“Shield of Achilles”): “On it he wrought in all their beauty two cities of mortal men…there were marriages in one, and festivals….around the other city were lying forces of armed men shining in their war gear” (Iliad, 18, lines 490-510)

Economic Base for the Development of the Greek Polis: Adoption of coinage ca. 600 BCE at latest (stamped with symbol and sometimes the name of the polis)

Priene--Hippodamian Town Planning

The Extra-Urban Temple: Bassae

Physical Characteristics of the Polis

Quickened Pace of Architectural Development in the Sixth Century BCE (with parallel developments at religious sanctuaries--e.g. Temple of Apollo at Corinth; Temple of Artemis at Ephesus; Temple of Aphaia at Aegina; Temple of Hera at Samos

Assembly Place; Market (Agora); Temple; Acropolis; Gymnasium

Plan of the Athenian Agora

Theater at Hieropolis-Pamukkale, Turkey

Temple at Hieropolis-Pamukkale, Turkey

Spiritual Universe of the Polis

Variety of Constitutional Forms: Limited Monarchy (Sparta); Aristocracy (Corinth); Radical Democracy (Athens)

Some Degree of Participatory Self-Government J.P. Vernant: community over individual (es to

meson); cf. idiotes, with P. Rahe, American Historical Review 89 (1984) pp. 265-93

Hoplite Revolution

Thucydides, Histories, 2.40

“Here each individual is interested not only in his own affairs but in the affairs of the state as well: even those who are mostly occupied with

their own business are extremely well informed on general politics…we do not say

that a man who takes no interest in politics is a man who minds his own business; we say that

he has no business here at all.”

Greek Poleis as an International System

Greek Poleis and International Relations

Inter-polis warfare endemic Polis as atomistic unit Ceaseless struggles for power and security Absence of Effective International Peace-Keeping

Agencies Conflict Resolutions Usually Ineffective From multipolarity to bipolarity (Athens/Sparta)

Greek Poleis and the “Realist” Perspective

“Zero-Sum” Competition Power Ultimately the Final Arbiter International “System” of Anarchy the Rule “The problem is this: how to conceive of an order

without an orderer and of organizational effects where formal organization is lacking.” (Kenneth Waltz, Theory of International Politics (89))

Correctives to Monolithic View of the Polis

Ancient Greek Ideas on Political Equality

Numbers in Equations represent relative degree of political power and influence; numbers in parentheses represent degree of wealth and property in relation to the first element:

Arithmetical: 1+1(2)+1(4)=Political Equality (Justice) Geometrical: 1+2(2)+4(4)=Political Equality (Justice) “[T]he popular principle of justice is to have equality according to

number, not worth, and if this is the principle of justice prevailing, the multitude must of necessity be sovereign and the decision of the majority must be final and must constitute justice, for they say that each of the citizens ought to have an equal share; so that it results that in democracies the poor are more powerful than the rich, because there are more of them and whatever is decided by the majority is sovereign. This then is one mark of liberty which all democrats set down as a principle of the constitution.” (Aristotle, Politics 6.1317b)

“Equality itself is unjust” (On Greek-style egalitarianism, which does not consider sufficiently socio-economic gradations and aristocratic ancestral privilege) ~ Cicero, Republic, 1.27.43

Unity and Divisions

Citizen = Adult Males with Citizen Father Non-Citizens: Resident Aliens, Slaves, Women,

Children City as Parasite (?): Astu and Rural Countryside Class Struggle and Stasis