Polis to Cosmopolis:
From Greeks to the Romans
EFFECTS OF PELOPONNESIAN WAR
HELLENISTIC CULTURE
DECLINE OF THE POLIS
Sources:
http://www.usu.edu/markdamen/ClasDram/chapters/05
1clasgk.htm
http://www.historyguide.org/ancient/ancient.html#table
Effects of Peloponnesian War on Greece
 Throughout the 5th and 4th centuries, the political history
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of the Greek world degenerated into oligarchy
Athens lost its leadership in the Greek world after its
defeat at the hands of the Spartans
Sparta found itself engaged in war after war, pride and
arrogance consumed it
Real center of Greek power in the first half of the
4th century Greek world came from the Macedonian
kingdom
Greeks had disdain for this region- they called the
Macedonians barbaroi
Alexander’s Empire
 When Alexander gained the throne he had just reached his 20th birthday.
 Within fifteen months he stamped out rebellions
 marched into various Greek cities demanding submission, sent his armies as far north
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as the Danube River
destroyed the city of Thebes
In 334, and with 37,000 men under his command, he marched into Asia, still
conquering lands for his empire.
Consolidated his conquests, leaving behind thousands to inhabit and operate new
cities in new lands
Called himself the Great King
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Alexander wore Persian clothes, took a Persian wife, encouraged his men to marry Persians, used
Persian administrators in the cities he founded or captured
 Alexander wanted to fuse the cultures, East and West (This is known as Hellinization)
 The cultural legacy of Alexander was that Hellenic art, drama, philosophy, architecture, literature,
and language was diffused throughout the Near East
 His vision of empire no doubt appealed to the Romans- who would conquer lands on a
scale that will eventually surpass that of Alexander
 Classical Greece died with Alexander’s death; something different will take its place
Hellenistic Age
From Polis to Cosmopolis
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Immediate collapse of the Polis comes from a century of warfare
The city-state could no longer supply a tolerable way of life for its citizens
Intellectuals began to turn away from the principles of direct democracy
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On a spiritual level, the 4th century witnessed a permanent change in the attitudes of all Greeks
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In the classical world of the polis, public and private lives were fused
Duty to the city-state was considered virtuous
But in the Hellenistic world, public and private lives were made separate, and the individual's only duty was to
himself
Universal principles of truth were rejected
Greeks were encouraged to think for themselves and make their own selves better
People began to think about their individual lives, rather than the what was good or bad for the city-state
What accounts for this change? Was direct democracy destined to fail?
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Plato embraced the idea of a Philospher-King
The intelligent, the schooled should be allowed to govern for the betterment of all people
The ideal of the polis was that every individual was to take a direct role in political, economic, spiritual and social
affairs (this was meant for the amateur, not the professional)
Socrates spent his entire life asking these questions: what is virtue? what is justice? what is beauty? what is the best
form of government? what is the good life?
He asked because he could find no viable answer; answers led to more questions
Faith in the polis was shattered for how could the polis train its citizens to be virtuous if no one
knew what it meant to be virtuous
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In The Republic, Plato argued that training of citizens in virtue should be left to those who understand the universal
meaning of virtue
Cosmopolis
 Hellenistic Greece was a predominately urban culture
 The cities founded by Alexander were centers of government and trade as
well as culture
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Alexandria had upwards to 500,000 people
The Greeks brought their temples, their theatres and schools to other cities, thus exporting
their culture and Greek culture became a way of life
Wealthy sent their children to Greek schools and the Greek language (Koine) became a
common international language (similar to Latin for 1500 centuries and French in the 19th
century)
 Cultures once foreign to the Hellenic world now became more Greek-like:
they were Hellenized
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An influential and vital shift took place: the shift from the world of the polis to the new world
of the cosmopolis
The world of the polis had clearly given way to the world of the cosmopolis
The immensity of the world view changed how cities operated
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The city-state was no longer run by citizens, citizens whose private and public duties were
identical
It was now run by bureaucrats and officials; citizens lost the feeling of importance and influence
From face-to-face contact and debate, citizens became numbers and faceless individuals
Bibliotheca Alexandrina
Roman Amphitheatre in Alexandria
(Romans emulated many of the Hellenistic elements of
culture and design)
Theatre in Gerasa
(modern day Jordan)
From Greeks to Romans
 History of Greece is a tale of glory and folly; Conquest and defeat; success and
waste
 Human strength and courage may come from the fear of failure; continued
success in spite of fears can lead to arrogance
 Maybe we become convinced our way is the best way, thus arrogance can lead
to folly, folly leads to loss
 Maybe the Greeks insatiable quest to find answers to human questions and
phenomena also drove them away from the appreciation that stood in front of
them: humanization
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Greeks humanized themselves; they humanized their Gods; they humanized their buildings;
they demanded answers and greatness from one another- all things a successful civilization
should do
Yet… they refused to believe others could achieve the same pinnacle of civilization
For all the questions and therapy and cynicism that existed in Hellenistic Greece, why would
they think only they, themselves, are capable of achieving such heights as a people?
 There was one distinct culture that knew the Greeks most intimately – the
Romans
 Romans had built a stable political and social order in central Italy while the
Greeks were witnessing the decline of the city-state during the Hellenistic Age
 A major difference of the Romans: they successfully created the kind of
cosmopolitan world order- and Empire- that Hellenists fell short of