Origins and Development
Ancient Greek Polis
From Warrior to Citizen
What is a Polis?
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“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, The Greeks
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Poleis may have peculiar calendars, deities, foundation
myths, magistrates, currency, etc.
Some Ancient Views
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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
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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
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[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
Dark Age (1150-700 BCE) Oikoi
to Archaic Age Poleis (700-500 BCE)
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Homeric hero (basileus) controls extended oikos
(household); becomes leader of coalitions of oikoi
Tension: Achilles/Hector. A.W. Adkins’ “competitive
excellences of the warrior” vs. “communal excellences of
the citizen”
Tensions between classes: Hesiod, Works and Days (“giftdevouring basileis”)
Formation of the Polis (ca. 800-750 BCE): synoikismos
(synoecism)
Homeric Chieftain Hut
Kleros: “Shares of Land” (Oikos)
Basileis: Greater Kleros (and Temenos)
Shift from Pasturage to Agricultural Lots
Land Hunger
Homer, Iliad 12.310-321:
Homeric Aristocratic Arete
“Glaucus, why is it you and I are honored before others with
pride of place, choice meats and filled wine cups in Lycia, and all
men look at us as if we were gods, and we are given a large tract
of land by the banks of the Xanthos river, good land, orchard
and vineyard, and ploughland for planting wheat? It is our duty
to stand in the front-line of the Lycians, and bear our part in
raging battle, so that a man of the close-armored Lycians may
say of us: ‘Indeed, these are not ignoble men who are Lycia’s
lords, these basileis of ours, who feed on the fat sheep and drink
the best sweet wine, since they have the strength of valor, since
they fight in the front-line of the Lycians’.”
Inadequacy of Term “City-State”
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Ideal Population around 5,000
Sparta, Athens, Syracuse, and Acragas as “Abnormal
States”--populations exceeding 20,000
Ideal of Autonomy and Sovereignty of Polis in
International Relations
Embryonic Greek Polis
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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)
Extra-Urban Temple: Bassae
Physical Characteristics of Polis
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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
Theater at Hieropolis-Pamukkale, Turkey
Priene: Hippodamian Town Planning
Spiritual Universe of Polis
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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 and International Relations
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Inter-polis warfare endemic
Polis as atomistic unit
Ceaseless struggles for Power and Security
Absence of effective International Peace-Keeping
Agencies
Attempts at Conflict Resolutions usually ineffective
From Multipolarity to Bipolarity (Athens/Sparta)
Greek Poleis and “Realist” Perspective:
Homeric Legacy?
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“Zero-Sum” Competition
Power as Final Arbiter
International “System” of Anarchy
“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))