1
1. Polis: A definition
In ancient Greece, the polis (city-state) was a community, a territory and a political organization. According to Aristotle the polis is first and foremost a ‘partnership’ (koinonia): human beings are social animals, and are naturally driven to form increasingly complex social groups to satisfy their increasingly complex needs. The household (oikia) is the most elementary form of social organization and serves the purpose of satisfying the most essential necessities: to provide for the daily needs of its members and continue the species. The next stage is for a group of households to form a choma (‘village’, ‘settlement’), and move together beyond daily survival. Freed from the urge to provide for their elementary necessities, men were naturally driven to seek the means not only to live, but to live well, and so began to merge groups of chomai to create larger and more complex communities. The polis is therefore a community formed from a group of pre-existing chomai with the purpose of improving the life standards of its members. If all men, as Aristotle famously says, are political animals, the Greeks have developed the natural instinct to live in society into an elaborate science, and perhaps an art [a-c]. As the philosopher proudly states, the polis was the quintessentially Greek form of political organization, as well as the most perfect of them all. Just as the territory of Greece was conveniently located in a milder, temperate region between Europe and Asia, the Greek nation combined the sense of liberty of those living north of them and the intellectual disposition of those living south. The polis was the most excellent product of this perfect blend: a well-organized society where citizens could live in freedom [d].
If the polis is a community, the politeia is the set of norms regulating the life of this community. Now, since not all residents of a polis are members of it at the same degree, the most important norms of a politeia concern who is entitled to be a citizen (polites) and to partake of the juridical and political functions provided for by the politeia [e]. The study of the various politeiai of the Greek city-states was one of the most important activities of the Lyceum, the philosophical school of Aristotle. Unfortunately, the Constitution of the Athenians traditionally attributed to him is all that remains of this work. Drawing on this meticulous research, Aristotle devoted the final years of his life to the composition of a great treaty of political science (Politika, or Politics). Unlike Plato’s Republic, this work does not set out to describe a utopian state. Instead, it aims to offer a comprehensive analysis of the different kinds of constitution operating in the Greek world. According to Aristotle, a well-organized polis should be neither too big nor too small in terms of both population and territory. It should have enough citizens to constitute a self-sufficient political community, and an efficient army. As a norm, the territory of a polis was made up of an urban centre (asty) and the depending countryside (chora). Ideally the size and morphology of the polis territory should make it easy to defend and difficult to attack. The polis should have easy access to the sea; the asty should be conveniently located to be easily accessible from all its regions and close to the harbour.
[a] Arist. Pol. 1.1.1: The polis is the supreme community
Every polis is a form of community and every community is established to achieve some good, because all men always act to obtain what they consider good. Since all communities aim at some good, it is clear that the community which aims at the supreme good is the one which is supreme and includes all of the others: this is the so-called polis or political community.
[b] Arist. Pol. 1.1.6–9: From the household to the polis; man as a political animal
The household is a partnership that comes together by nature for the satisfaction of daily needs […]. The first form of community formed by a number of households not for the sake of daily needs is the village. The most natural form of village seems to have been that of a colony from a household, formed, as some people say, by ‘sons and grandsons’ who were ‘suckled with the same milk’. Now, since the constituent parts of a polis were ruled by monarchs, the poleis were monarchies in origin, as barbarian nations still are. For the eldest member of a household ruled over it like a monarch, and the same happened in the colonies of the household because the inhabitants came from the same blood. As Homer says of the Cyclops,
Each one gives laws
To his sons and consorts.1
For the Cyclops lived dispersedly, as people did in ancient times. Likewise, people say that the gods are ruled by a monarch either because they are still so ruled, or used to be in the past. For people make up the forms of the gods to be like their own, and so do with their lives. The polis comes into existence when a number of villages come together in a single community which is completely or nearly self-sufficient. Therefore we might say that the polis originates to satisfy the basic needs of life and exists to achieve the good life. Equally, since the first forms of society exist by nature, so does the polis, because the polis is the end of all of them, and the nature of something is its end, because we call the end of something the form that it reaches when its development is complete, be it a man, a horse or a household. Furthermore, the final cause and end of each thing is the best, and self-sufficiency is an end and a supreme good. Hence it is clear that the polis exists by nature and that man is by nature a political animal. A man who does not belong to any polis by nature and not by an accident is either of inferior rank or in fact above humanity, like the man ‘without relations, law or soul’2 disparaged by Homer. For the man who by nature does not belong to a polis is also a lover of war, he is like an isolated piece at draughts.
[c] Arist. Pol. 7.4.2–6.7: What the ideal polis must look like
In order to realize the best constitution it is necessary to provide the best equipment. Therefore we should presuppose the presence of certain ideal conditions, in relation for example to the size of the population and the territory, which however should not be impossible to attain. Just as a weaver or a shipwright, or any other craftsman, needs to be supplied with material in the ideal conditions for their trade (for the better this material has been prepared, the finer the product of their craft will necessarily be), so the statesman and the lawgiver should also be supplied with the material suitably prepared for their trade. The primary material for making a polis is population, its quantity and quality. Similarly, as concerns the territory one should consider its size and nature. Most people believe that a prosperous polis is a big one. Now, although this is true, these people ignore what makes a city big or small. For they judge a polis to be big in relation to the number of its inhabitants, while what they should really consider is its efficiency, not the size. For a polis has a task to perform, and the best polis is the one which performs this task best: the fact that someone is taller than Hippocrates does not make him a greater physician. And even assuming that a polis should be judged on the size of the population, the esteem should take into account not the undistinguished mass of its inhabitants (for in such a big polis there must necessarily be a considerable number of slaves, metics and foreigners), but only those who actually have a share in the polis, and are parts of it. A superior number of these men is a sign of the greatness of a polis, while a polis that fields an army of many petty craftsmen but few hoplites cannot be a great one. For one thing is a great polis and another is a crowded polis. Experience clearly demonstrates that it is difficult and perhaps impossible for a crowded polis to have good laws: if one looks at the cities considered to be well governed, they all have some limit to the size of the population. This is also demonstrated by theoretical evidence. For law is order, and good laws necessarily imply a good order, but what is unlimited and excessive cannot be kept in order if not by the divine power which keeps the universe together. Therefore, the polis where magnitude is combined with certain limits, as we have said, is necessarily the most beautiful. Beauty comes along with size and number, but there is a limit to the size of a polis, just like anything else, animals, plants, instruments. For all of these maintain their own efficiency when they are not too small or too big, but when they are too small they lose their genuine nature and when they are too big they no longer perform their job. For example, a ship a span long is not a ship at all, nor one which is two stadia long. Then there may be a ship of a certain size which is still a ship, but cannot sail either because it is either too small or too big. The same principle applies to cities. A polis with too small a population would not be self-sufficient, and a polis is supposed to be self-sufficient. On the other hand, a polis composed of too many people would be self-sufficient for its basic needs, but more in the manner of a tribal nation than a proper political community, because it would be impossible to give it a constitutional government: who will be the commander of its oversized army? Who will be the herald, if not someone with the voice of a Stentor?3 It follows that a polis should consist at least of enough men to make it self-sufficient for the purpose of living a good life in compliance with the principles of a constitutional community. As we have said, it is possible also for a polis exceeding this limit to be greater, but only up to a limit. What this limit should be can be easily ascertained from experience: the affairs of a city are the affairs of the people who rule and the people who are ruled. The task of those who rule is to administer government and justice, and in order to judge the lawsuits and distribute the magistracies according to merit it is necessary that the citizens know each other. When this does not occur it follows that the administration of justice and the distribution of offices go wrong. To act unadvisedly in both these matters is unjust. This is especially evident in the poleis where the population is too large, and foreigners and metics are more likely to usurp the right of citizenship, because the excessive size of the population makes it easier to evade controls. Therefore, it is clear that a polis reaches the ideal size when it has the largest population which can be self-sufficient and taken in with one view.
This is what I had to say about the size of a polis.
The same considerations apply to its territory. As concerns its quality, everybody would certainly agree in approving of the territory which is most-self sufficing: this will be the one which offers the widest variety of produce, because self-sufficiency means to have everything at hand and to lack nothing. In terms of size and magnitude, a polis should be big enough to allow its inhabitants to live a life of liberal and temperate leisure.
The ideal configuration of the territory is easy to describe (but there are certain issues upon which one should consult the expert of military strategy): the territory should be difficult for the enemies to invade and easy for the inhabitants to march from.
What we have said about the size of the population also holds true for the size of the territory: it should be easily taken in with one view, for a city which can be easily seen is a city which can be easily defended.
As for the ideal site of the city, it should be conveniently placed in relation to both the sea and the countryside. One important principle is the one which we mentioned above: the city should be in communication to all the areas of the polis for the dispatch of military aid. The other is that the city should be easy to reach for the transport of agricultural produce, timber-wood and any other such goods which the land happens to supply.
It is often asked whether access to the sea is a good thing or not for a well governed polis. Some people say that a large presence of foreigners brought up under different laws is detrimental to good order, and so is a large population growing out of maritime trades, which is contrary to sensible government. However, it is not difficult to see that if these excesses are avoided, it is in the interest of security and the supply of the necessary goods that the city and the country have access to the sea. When it comes to war, the defenders of a country who are to be kept safe from the enemy should be easily defended by both land and sea, and even if they cannot attack by land and sea simultaneously, they would still cause damage on either element if they have access to both. Furthermore, a community needs to be able to import those goods which are not available in their territory and to export those of which they have a surplus. A polis should practise commerce for its own advantage, not for that of foreigners. There are cities that open up their markets to everybody for the sake of revenue, but a city which does not want to partake of this greed does not need a large commercial harbour. Now we see many countries and cities with a harbour conveniently located in proximity to the city, just outside of it, but not too far off, linked to it by walls and other such fortifications. It is therefore clear that if any benefit results from the connection between town and port, the polis will enjoy it. If it is an inconvenience, it will be easy to guard against it by means of laws regulating who should or should not mingle with one another.
On the matter of naval forces, it is obviously a good thing to have a fleet of a certain size, because a polis should be fearsome to its citizens as well as some of the neighbours, and capable of defending them by sea as well as by land. As for the number and size of this fleet, it should be commensurate to the way of life of the city. If it is a life of international relations and trades, the fleet should be in scale with this activity. It is however not necessary to increase the size of citizen body by including in it the crowd of the sailors, for these do not need to be citizens, because the marines are free and belong to the infantry, and it is they who take charge of and give orders to the sailors, and wherever there is a mass of villagers and dwellers present, there will always be an abundance of sailors. We can see examples of this still today. The city of Heraclaea for instance is small compared to other poleis, but it still able to man many triremes.
[d] Arist. Pol. 7.7.1–2 The Greeks and other nations
Having discussed above the right size of population, let us now consider what its character should be. Anybody can understand this by looking at the famous poleis of Greece and considering the distribution of races in the inhabited world. The races living in the cold regions and in Europe are full of spirit, but lacking in theoretical and practical intelligence. For this reason they live in relative freedom, but have no any political organization and so are unable to rule over their neighbours.
The nations of Asia on the other hand are of a speculative and skilful nature, but completely lacking in spirit: for this reason they live in a state of subjugation and slavery. As fort the nation of the Greeks, just as they live between these two, they partake of both their natures and are at the same time intelligent and full of spirit. For this reason, they live in freedom and under the best constitutions, and if the whole world were united under the same government, they would rule over it. Similar differences also exist between the different Greek nations: some of them are one-sided by nature, while others are made of a good blend of intelligence and high spirit. It is clear that the people whom the lawgiver will most easily lead towards virtue are those who are both intelligent and high-spirited.
[e] Arist. Pol. 3.1.2: Who is a citizen?
A constitution is a form of organization of the residents of a polis. The polis is a composite body, like any other thing which consists of a number of parts, and the parts that make up a polis are its citizens. Therefore we should first investigate who is a citizen, who is entitled to the title of citizen and what is the nature of a citizen. There is some discrepancy on this point, because someone who is a citizen in a democracy will often not be a citizen under an oligarchy. In this enquiry, we do not need to consider the number of those who acquire the title of citizen in extraordinary circumstances, like those who become citizens by adoption. Citizenship is not determined by residence in a given place, for metics and slaves also share residence with citizens. Citizenship is not determined by the capacity to sue and be sued under a certain legal system, for this right also belongs to the signatories of a commercial treaty, who are also entitled to bring or defend a legal action. Often metics do not have this entitlement, but are required to have a patron, and therefore do not have a full share in the citizenship. In fact, they are citizens in the same limited way as children who are too young to be enrolled in the draft register, or old men who have been discharged. These are citizens in a way, but not completely, because the former have the added qualification of ‘under age’, and the latter of ‘superannuated’, or some other title of that kind. Similar observations might also be raised and solved about citizens who have been disfranchised or exiled, but we have set out to define a citizen in the purest sense without need for any other specific qualifications. Now, a citizen pure and simple is defined by nothing but the right to participate in judicial functions and hold public offices.
2. Origins of polis: Homer
The poems which we now read as the Iliad and the Odyssey were put together in the early decades of the eighth century drawing on a long tradition of oral poetry celebrating the deeds of the mythical heroes who had fought at Troy. The two poems are the most precious source for studying the development of Greece’s society and culture during the so-called Greek ‘dark age’. This is the name traditionally attributed to the long period of apparent decline and silence in the Greek world between the collapse of the Mycenaean civilization and the earliest signs of Greek archaism (roughly 1100–800). The different uses and meanings of the noun polis in the two works reflect their composite and diachronic nature.
The noun polis probably stems from the Mycenaean po-te-ri-jo, ‘stronghold’, or ‘citadel’. In one passage of the Odyssey, the term interestingly refers to the ancient palace-city of Cnossos [a]. The noun is occasionally used as a synonym of ‘acropolis’, to indicate the highest part of a city, that is the old seat of power, which had lost its social and political functions to become a purely religious space [b]. In the two poems, polis therefore indicates an urban space, and the circle of walls surrounding it. Communities and individuals are now identified by reference to their polis: Troy is the polis of Priamus and of the Trojans; Telemachus visits the courts of Greece in his search for his father Odysseus, and the question that regularly greets him is: ‘where is your polis and who are your parents?’ Nausicaa, as she takes the shipwrecked Odysseus to the palace of her father Alcinous, uses the term polis to designate a specific social space, opposed to that of the countryside: first she takes him through the fields, where farmers are working, but as they walk through the gates of the polis, a new world opens up before them; the polis is the space of public activities, trades, and the administration of the community [c].
The narrative of the Homeric poems is set in the declining phase of a legendary past, the age of godlike heroes, which only Nestor, the eldest of Agamemnon’s companions, witnessed in its full flourishing (Hom., Il. 1.259–70). Some of the attributes of the Homeric heroes seem to refer to the Mycenaean world. For instance, Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek expedition, is dubbed anax (Hom., Il. 1.7), the term which in the Linear B tablets indicates the sovereign. Chariots are used in battle, as they were in the Mycenaean world, but the poet does not seem to know exactly how they were used, and so they are simply employed as a mean of transportation or at least to reach the battlefield. However, the world described by Homer, bears very little resemblance to the society emerging from the Linear B tablets and the archaeological evidence. Who are these ‘heroes’ then? As Moses Finley noted, in the Odyssey the word ‘hero’ acquires a peculiar social connotation: it indicates the whole aristocracy, and sometimes may also refer to all the free men. Achilles, Odysseus, and Agamemnon are first and foremost emblems of those distinctive virtues and abilities recognized as their own by the aristocratic clans of the various regions of the Greek world in the long centuries following the destruction of the Mycenaean palaces.
The world of Homer is a pre-political environment, still dominated by kinship links and the power of the clan, where authority over a group is not completely formalized and is easily challenged. Achilles calls into question the role of Agamemnon as the leader of the coalition of Greeks chiefs besieging Troy. When Odysseus returns to Ithaca after ten years of travels and troubles, he finds his home occupied by 108 men, the proci, who are suitors of his wife Penelope, and claimants to Ithaca’s throne.
In Homer we can see an epochal transition take place: power moves from its safe sanctuary on the citadel-acropolis down to the most open and public of spaces: the agora, which is becoming the centre of the public life of the community. The city of Alcinous is a good example of this important transformation [d]. In the Homeric poems, kings often summon assemblies of their noble counsellors, or of the people. These assemblies have no formal consultative or deliberative function, if not that of letting the king ‘how sentiment lay’ regarding a specific matter. Yet, as observed by Moses Finley, the noble advisers of the king and the larger community have a right to be heard (Finley, pp. 78–80).
One of these assemblies is summoned to discuss the return of Odysseus to Ithaca. The proceedings do not appear to follow any formal protocol: in this society there are no written norms, Alcinous leads the community by virtue of his superior wisdom. His power is god-given. In the exercise of power he is assisted by a council of elderly advisers, called basileis (‘kings’). Authority is in the hands of few, but it is exercised in the most public of spaces, the agora.
Two other polis scenes dominate the narrative of Book XVIII of the Iliad. This is an important turning-point of the poem, because Achilles, devastated by the death of his beloved Patroclus, is about to resume fighting, and his mother Thetis has had a new, stunning armour made for him by the divine Hephaestus.
The shield is a true masterpiece as sturdy in its construction as it is beautifully and ambitiously decorated. Its circular shape and vast dimensions make for a representation of the whole universe, an ideal image of what the Greeks called kosmos. At the centre of the scene there are two cities, one in war, besieged by a foreign army, and one in peace. Outside the city at war, the besieging army is holding a sort of war council, while on the walls of the city all those who are not fit to fight – women, children, and the elderly – are following the events. The city at peace is bustling with activity: the works of the fields, a wedding party, and an assembly being held in the agora. The council of the elderly has been called up to judge the case of two men, two litigants who are arguing over the compensation for the killing of a man. The elders sit in sacred circle, holding in their hands the stave of the herald as they spring up to give their judgement in turn, with geometrical precision, while the commoners gathered around them in the agora shout their support for either of the litigants. Homer calls the people demos.
Such involvement of the demos makes it necessary for authority to become more clearly identifiable and institutionalized, and to make its voice heard. Between the demos and the council thus stand the city’s heralds, whose duties are those of maintaining order and passing the staff, symbol of authority, to each councillor as they give their judgment [e].
[a] Hom. Od. 19.178–9: Cnossus, polis of Minos
Cnossus is one of the cities of the Achaeans, the great city where Minos reigned when he was nine years old.
[b] Hom. Il. 4.514–16: Polis as acropolis
So spoke the fearsome god from the city, while the daughter of Zeus, the most glorious Athena Tritogeneia, advanced through the crowd of the Achaeans and spurred them to fight wherever she saw them being lukewarm.
[c] Hom. Od. 6.255–70: Odysseus and the city of the Phaeacians
Get up, stranger, and let’s go to the city. I’ll take you to the palace of my wise father. There, I tell you, we’ll meet the noblest of the Phaeacians. This must be done, and you don’t seem to lack understanding. While we pass through the country and the tilled fields of men, proceed swiftly with my maidens behind the chariot and the mule. I will lead the way. But then we’ll come to the city encircled by high walls. A beautiful harbour lies on either side, the entrance to the city is narrow, curved ships are dragged along the road, for everyone there has a shed for his ship. There you’ll see the agora with the beautiful temple of Poseidon at its centre, paved with enormous stones fitted in the ground. Here, they are busy with the halyards, ropes and sails of the black ships. Here they sharpen the oars.
[d] Hom. Od. 8.1–61: The assembly of the Phaeacians
As soon as the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared, the divine and mighty Alcinous rose from his couch, and so did the son of Zeus, Odysseus destroyer of cities. The divine and mighty Alcinous led the way to the assembly square of the Phaeacians, which had been built for them near the ships. When they arrived there, they sat side by side on the polished stones. Pallas Athena, who had taken the form of a herald of the wise Alcinous, went throughout the city, planning a return home for the great-hearted Odysseus. So she came up to each man, and said these words: ‘Come hither, all you chiefs and advisers of the Phaeacians, come to the assembly and listen to this foreigner who has arrived at the palace of the wise Alcinous after long wandering about the sea. Indeed he resembles the immortal gods in his aspect.’
By speaking these words she raised the spirit and soul of each man. Immediately the square and the seats were all filled with the assemblymen. Many were astounded at the sight of the wise son of Laertes, for Athena had poured divine grace upon his head and shoulders, and made him taller and stouter to behold, so that he might win the friendship, esteem and reverence of all the Phaeacians, and succeed in the many trials which the Phaeacians had prepared for Odysseus.
When they were all gathered in the assembly square, Alcinous addressed them and said:
‘Listen, chiefs and advisers of the Phaeacians, that I might say what my heart orders me to tell you. This stranger, I do not know who he is, has come to my palace, coming either from the men of the East or of the West. He wants an escort to take him home, and implores for a reassurance. Let us then arrange an escort promptly, as we have done in the past; for no man who comes to my house will ever remain long here in sorrow for want of an escort. So, let us draw a black ship into the bright sea, one that has never sailed before, and let us select Fifty-two young men from our people, those known to be the best. Then, when you have all securely fastened the oars each by his own bench, come ashore, proceed to my house and prepare for a banquet: I will attend appropriately to everyone. These are the dispositions which I give to the youth. As for you, sceptred kings, come to my beautiful residence and let us entertain our guest in the palace. Let nobody refuse. Let us go and call Demodocus, the divine bard. For the god has made him skilled in singing above all the others, bringing delight to the hearts whatever his soul prompts him to sing’.
So he spoke. Then he led the way, and the sceptred men followed him, while a herald was sent after the divine minstrel. Fifty-two chosen youths went to the shore of the barren sea according to Alcinous’ orders. When they got there, they dragged a black ship into the deep sea, placed the mast and the sails in the black ship, installed the oars in the leather straps and then spread the white sail on the mast. Everything was in order. They moored the ship high in the roadstead, then they went to the vast palace of wise Alcinous. The porticoes, the hedges and the chambers were filled with the men who had gathered there. There were many of them, young and old. Alicinous made a sacrifice for them of twelve sheep and eight white-tusked boars and two oxen with rolling gait. These were flayed and dressed, and made for a magnificent banquet.
[e] Hom. Il. 18.478–608: The shield of Achilles
First he made a large and strong shield, and decorated it all over. He placed around it a splendid rim made up of three layers, and the baldric was made of silver. The shield had five layers, and the cunning hand of Hephaestus embellished it with many decorations. On this shield he engraved the earth, the sky, the seas, and the untiring sun. He engraved the full moon, and the constellations crowning the sky: the Pleiades, the Hyades, the strength of Orion, and the Bear, which men also call the Wain, always turning around in one place. The Bear watches Orion, and alone never partakes of the baths in the Ocean.
Hephaestus also engraved two beautiful cities of mortal men. In one city there were weddings and banquets taking place. They were guiding the virgins from their chambers throughout the city by the gleaming light of the torches, while the wedding song rose loud. Dancer boys were whirling at the sound of flutes and lyres, and the women were standing in awe in front of their doors. The people were gathered in the square, where a quarrel had arisen: for two men were arguing about the compensation for the killing of a man: one vowed that he had paid the compensation in full, and declared it to the people. The other said that he had not received anything. Both were eager to win the case on the judgment of a wise man. The people were applauding both, voicing their support for one or the other, while the heralds were keeping them back. The elders were seated on polished stones in a holy circle, holding in their hands the staffs of the loud-voiced heralds. Then they rose, and each in his turn gave their judgement. Two talents of gold were lying at the centre, to be given to the one who would give the fairest judgement
Two armies of men were encamped around the other city. The men gleamed in their armour, but were divided whether they should lay waste that fine city or to take half of the properties which it contained. However, the men of the besieged army were not ready to surrender yet, and were secretly arming themselves for an ambush. Their beloved wives and the speechless children were standing on guard upon the walls, and the men who could not go into the field owing to their old age were with them. The other men were moving forward with Ares and Pallas Athena, both made of gold, wearing golden garments. They were beautiful and majestic in their armours, as befitting two gods, while the men who followed them were smaller. Then they arrived at the place where they would lay the ambush, on a river, a watering-place for all animals. There they sat down, covered in fiery-looking bronze. At a distance from them sat two scouts, waiting till the sheep and the curved cows would appear. These soon arrived, and two shepherds were following them, playing on the flute. They knew nothing of the impending ruse. When the ambushers saw this, they ran upon them, quickly cut off the herds of cows and the beautiful flocks, and then killed the shepherds. The besieged army were sitting at the assembly when they heard noise coming from the cows. So they immediately rushed to their horses and ran after them and at once reached the place of the ambush. Once they got there, the two armies engaged battle by the banks of the river, throwing bronze spears at each other. Strife and Riot were among them. Destructive Death was also there, holding one man who had just been wounded, and another one who was unwounded. Another one, dead, she dragged by the heel through the tumult. The shoulders of her tunic were dark of the blood of mortal men. They joined battle with one another as mortal men, and fought, dragging away one another’s dead.
He also engraved a soft, rich field. It was broad and fallow, and had been ploughed three times. There were many ploughmen, who were turning the drive of the yoke here and there. Every time that they reached the headland and turned the plough, a man would come over to offer them a cup of honey-sweet wine. Then they would turn back to the furrows, eager to come again to the headland. The land behind them was dark and really looked like it was being ploughed, because it was made of gold. The sight of it was astonishing indeed.
He also engraved a field of corn, where reapers were mowing, holding sharp sickles in their hands. Handfuls and handfuls of corn were falling upon the ground in rows, and the binders bound them with twisted bands of straw. There were three binders, and behind them young boys were gathering armfuls of corn. They were going to and fro, carrying the corn on their bent arms and bringing it to the binders. The master was standing in silence among them, holding the sceptre, and was glad in his heart. At some distance from them, the servants were preparing the meal under an oak. They had sacrificed an ox and were cutting him up, while the women were preparing the mid-day meal for the reapers: a porridge with plenty of white barley.
He also engraved a golden vineyard. It was beautiful and the vines were laden with grapes. The grapes were black, and the vines were held up by silver poles. He also drew a dark ditch of cyanus and a fence of tin around it. There was only one path to the vineyard, by which the carriers went to gather the vintage. Maidens and young boys, full of fresh thoughts, were carrying the sweet fruit on twisted baskets. There was a boy among them, who played a sweet music with his lyre and sang the song of Linus with his young voice.
3. Origins of polis: The earliest uses of polis as ‘political community’
The Iliad and Odyssey were composed in a period of great social and cultural transformations for the Greek world. These transformations were engendered by a general improvement of life conditions, which encouraged the Greeks to travel and engage with other cultures. Archaeological evidence reveals a profound change in the tastes and consumption habits throughout the Greek world, particularly among the elites. Inspired by the artifacts coming form Syria, Egypt and Phoenicia, Greek craftsmen began to develop a new style of pottery decorations. The old geometric motifs became obsolete, and were replaced by new, more vivid and naturalistic themes. Four centuries after the disappearance of the Linear B, the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet and readapted it to the needs of their own language. The Greeks had begun to write again; the ‘Dark Ages’ were over.
The two cities depicted on the shield of Achilles are a very important document of the crucial transition between the old world of the ‘dark ages’ and the archaic age. The crowd gathered in the agora of the city at peace is not yet one of citizens, active members of the polis. They are still spectators of decisions taken by others, a body of superior and wiser men, sitting ‘in holy circle’ so as to set themselves apart from the rest of the community. Yet the demos strive to make their voice heard.
The tumultuous growth of the 8th and 7th centuries would undermine the basis of the established order: the steady increase of the population compelled many to seek for new land overseas; new cities were settled. The authority of the traditional nobility was called into question, and perceived as arbitrary, while the development of hoplite warfare changed the nature of how the Greeks fought: gone were the days when wars were decided by the clash between two super-human warriors, heroes like Hector and Achilles. The burden of fighting was now borne by the phalanx, the tight, disciplined formation of heavily armed soldiers, who wanted their role to be recognized and rewarded. The earliest written law codes were produced as a response to these tensions. Ambitious individuals, posing as advocates of the people, used their popular support to overthrow the established regime and established themselves as tyrants.
The two epigraphic texts which are presented here belong to the earliest group of documents where the word demos refers to an active political community, and the polis is an eminently political environment. The first document [a] is a decree from the town of Dreros, on the island of Crete. The document is dated to the second half of the seventh century, and contains norms meant to prevent the concentration of power at the hands of a single individual by limiting the tenure of the highest office of the city, that of kosmos, to one term every ten years. These restrictive norms were essential to enforce the democratic principle that all citizens have to rule and be ruled in turn, as stated by Aristotle (see introduction). The Athenians would take them particularly seriously. As we have seen, the vast majority of political magistracies could be held only once in a lifetime, with the exception of a handful of very important offices such as the strategia, while it was possible to serve for two terms in the boule, but not in consecutive years.
The second document [b] is taken from a fourth-century stele containing the text of a much earlier decree establishing the colony of Cyrene, one of the Greek poleis of Northern Africa. The colony of Cyrene was founded on the coast of Lybia in 630 by a group of settlers from Thera (modern Santorini). The operation of founding a colony had a strong political character. The colonists act as a political community: they constitute the assembly of the new polis and their first act is to define who is entitled to partake of citizenship in the new polis and in what terms. The new colony is a community of households, whose members enjoy political rights on an equal footing. This text is particularly interesting for observing the implications of the double meaning of polis as a territory and as a political community: the settlers might have fled their native city of Thera, but they are still a polis, and in the new city they will continue to enjoy the entitlements of politeia in liberty and equality as they did in Thera. If the expedition does not meet with success, the settlers are allowed to return to Thera, where they would enjoy full political and civic rights as they did before setting sail to Cyrene.
[a] Fornara 11 = M&L 2 = SEG XXVII.620: A decree from Dreros, Crete, 650–600
May the gods be kind. This is what the city has decided: when a man has held the office of kosmos, he shall not be kosmos again for ten years. If he becomes kosmos again, whatever deliberations he takes he shall owe the double, and he shall no longer be eligible for office for as long as he lives. Whatever deliberations he will take as kosmos, these will have no validity. The swearers are: the college of the kosmoi, the people and the twenty councillors of the city.
[b] SEG XXVIII.1565 = Fornara 18 = M&L 5: The colony of Cyrene
Decree of the Assembly: since Apollo spontaneously ordered Battos and the Therans to settle a colony in Cyrene, the Therans have decided to dispatch Battos to Libya as an archegetes and king, and the Therans to sail with him as his companions. They are to sail on fair and equal terms, arranged by households, one son to be chosen [from each family?] from those who are in the prime of life; and from the rest of Therans the free men [who so wish] may sail. If the settlers establish the colony, any of their kinsmen who sail later to Libya is to share in the citizenship and honours of Cyrene, and to be given a lot of unoccupied land. If they do not establish the settlement, and the Therans are not able to help them, and they are pressed by hardship for five years, let them return from the land without fear to Thera, to their own property and to partake of the citizenship. Any man who has been sent to the city but refuses to sail will be liable to the death penalty, and his property shall be made public; and whoever offers him hiding or protection, whether a father to his son, or a brother to his brother, shall be inflicted the same penalty as the person who is unwilling to sail.