Origins and Development
The 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
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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
 Conflict Resolutions Usually Ineffective
 From multipolarity to bipolarity (Athens/Sparta)
Greek Poleis and the “Realist” Perspective
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“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