CLASSICAL GREECEii- Polis

ii- Polis

PRINCIPAL TOPICS

I.Η ΔΙΚΗ (Justice personified)

II. Physical Picture of the Polis

III. Agrarian Revolution

IV. Political Revolution

V. Hoplite Revolution

Η ΔΙΚΗ(JUSTICE)

Η ΔΙΚΗ(JUSTICE)

1915 was a time when people still

made classicalallusions

“[the] Justice.“What [is] it?”

Η ΔικαιοσὖνηΤό τί;

Plato, Republic

Let me read you something, as we move to the fullest claims that will be made for the role of the polis. Aristotle in his Politics says this: "as man is the best of the animals when perfected, so he is the worst of all when he is divided away from the law and justice." But he tells us, human justice can be found only in the polis, because he says, man is by nature a politicon zoon, an animal of the polis, and as I told you, a man who is without a polis by nature is above or below the category of man.

Kagan, op. cit.

JUSTICE IN MYTH

Dikē was the daughter of Zeus, along with her two sisters, Eunomia (good laws) and Eirene (peace-f., cf.,Irene)

She ruled over human justice, while her mother Themis ruled over divine justice. Her opposite was adikia ("injustice"): in reliefs on the archaic Chest of Cypselus preserved at Olympia, a comely Dikē throttled an ugly Adikia and beat her with a stick

one of her epithets was Astraea (starry), referring to her appearance as the constellation Virgo

Dike lived upon earth during the Golden and Silver Ages, when there were no wars or diseases, men did not yet know how to sail, they raised fine crops. They grew greedy, however, and Dikē was sickened

she left earth for sky. After her departure, the human race declined into the Brazen (Bronze) Age, when diseases arose

An 1886 base-relief figure of Dikē Astraea in the Old Supreme Court Chamber at the Vermont State House.

THE FIVE AGES OF MANACCORDING TO HESIOD

Golden -men lived among the gods. Peace and harmony. Humans didn’t have to work to feed themselves, earth provided in abundance. They lived to a very old age in youthful bodies, died peacefully

Silver -Zeus replaces Chronos. Men lived for one hundred years under dominion of their mothers. After death,

humans of this age became "blessed spirits" of the underworld

Brazen -Men of the Bronze Age were hard. War was their purpose and passion. Not only arms and tools, but their very homes were forged of bronze. The men of this age were undone by their own violent ways and left no named spirits but dwell in the "dank house of Hades"

Heroic -”the fourth age was brazen too, but nobler and more generous, being begotten by the gods on mortal mothers. They fought gloriously in the siege of Thebes, the expedition of the Argonauts, and the Trojan War. They became heroes, and dwell in the Elysian Fields”--Graves, The Greek Myths

Iron -Hesiod finds himself in the Iron Age. During this age humans live an existence of toil and misery. Children dishonor their parents, brother fights with brother and the social contract between guest and host is forgotten. During this age might makes right, and bad men use lies to be thought good

Wikipedia

Justice ... is an element of the polis. The administration of justice, which means deciding what is just, is the regulation of the partnership which is the polis. Man can't live without the polis, justice exists only in the polis, the polis is something more than a place, it's more than the walls, it's more than the ships, it is some kind of a thing that is spiritual it seems to me.

Kagan

VALUES

individualism

áρετή (aretē, manly excellence)

κλέος (kleos, glory)

τιµή (timē, honor, respect)

ἄγον (āgon; struggle, competition)

group loyalty

δική (dikē, justice)

all the heroic values

but subordinated

HOMER’S HEROES AGE OF THE POLIS

THE PHYSICAL PICTURE OF THE

POLIS

THE PHYSICAL PICTURE OF THE

POLIS

[The Athenian] Acropolis, Leo von Klenze

the largest--1,000 mi2--about the size of Rhode Island

unlike most poleis, Athens had gained control of the whole region of Attica

all who lived there, even in villages 60 miles from Athens, were Athenian citizens [subject to qualifications, of course!]

this was the famous συνοικισµóς (synoicism--literally, “together in the same household”) of Attica, accomplished during the 8th and 7th centuries

all told, there are between 1,000 and 1,500 poleis, most of them much tinier

Athens’ population? “at full bloom, 40-50,000 men, human beings, 125,-300,000”

ATHENS--THE UNTYPICAL POLIS

συνοικισµóς (synoecism)

The Athenians ascribed the unification of Attica to their greatest hero, Theseus….In the Athenian account of synoecism, Theseus created a political unity by proclamation, abol ishing the governments of the other towns and villages and forging a single government in Athens. Later on, the unification of Attica was celebrated in a festival called the Synoikia, believed to have been instituted by Theseus. In making Theseus the founder of the polis, the Athenians followed the common Greek practice of attributing important

events of the preliterate period to some great figure from the legendary past….the inhabitants of Attica cherished a belief that they were autochthonous (sprung from the land) and thus had always lived in Attica and shared a common kinship.

Pomeroy & al. Ancient Greece; A Political, Social and Cultural History. 2008. pp. 181-182

a place where all the male adult citizens could come to a central place and hear a speaker (about 5,000)--Aristotle

Plato chose the “magical” number of 5,040 (factorial 7!)

Plato also took notice of the fact that 5040 can be divided by 12 twice over. Indeed, Plato's repeated insistence on the use of 5040 for various state purposes is so evident that it is written, "Plato, writing under Pythagorean influences, seems really to have supposed that the well-being of the city depended almost as much on the number 5040 as on justice and moderation."

most poleis were well under 5,000 adult males--Kagan

THE IDEAL POLIS

“FROGS AROUND A POND”-- SOCRATES, IN THE PHAEDO

DATING THE CREATION OF THE POLIS

there are no written records from the time when towns and villages evolved into poleis

but it is easier to date the foundation of overseas Greek colonies

the Greeks had traditional dates for their foundation in the 8th & 7th centuries

archaeological evidence roughly supports these legendary dates

and every colony was organized along the lines of a polis

so the surmise is that they followed the patterns of their mainland µήτηρ πολις (mētēr polis mother state) who must have so developed in the 8th & 7th centuries

AGRARIANREVOLUTION

AGRARIANREVOLUTION

former Classics prof at CA Central State, author of a critical book on the Academy, Who Killed Homer? (2001) & many others

“...he is also a farmer and he was, I think, in the fifth generation that had farmed the same piece of farmland in California, in the Central Valley of California

“that climate, that whole scene is very similar to the Mediterranean climate that the Greek farmers were engaged in; so it had...proper analogous possibilities

“… he came to the conclusion that much could be learned about the development of the polis if one looked at the business of how one farms in these kinds of environments

“And I think that turns out to be a great key to understanding what's happening, and everything you hear from me on this subject I learned from Hanson.”--Donald Kagan

Victor Davis Hanson(1953-)

Now, at some time in...the Dark Ages, and Hanson would suggest...probably around the eighth century is the greatest transition. Somehow the oikos [household, family] obtains a chunk of land that is understood to belong to it. The Greek word for that is a kleros, and...now the family knows that it has this land: it has it now, it will have it next year, the family will be able to pass it on from father to son…. and that changes everything! That kind of stability gives promise and is a basis for making every...necessary investment in the soil...in order to make it better and more profitable for you.... As Hanson says, thus arose the kleros, or the idea of a privately held plot attached not [only] to any one person, but rather in perpetuity to a single farm family or oikos.

Kagan

Now, at some time in...the Dark Ages, and Hanson would suggest...probably around the eighth century is the greatest transition. Somehow the oikos [household, family] obtains a chunk of land that is understood to belong to it. The Greek word for that is a kleros, and...now the family knows that it has this land: it has it now, it will have it next year, the family will be able to pass it on from father to son…. and that changes everything! That kind of stability gives promise and is a basis for making every...necessary investment in the soil...in order to make it better and more profitable for you.... As Hanson says, thus arose the kleros, or the idea of a privately held plot attached not [only] to any one person, but rather in perpetuity to a single farm family or oikos.

Kagan

As Hanson points out, look at the difference between this and previous [types of land tenure]. People either rented the land from a large landowner or they were hired help who got nothing except a salary or a piece of what they did. Serfs were compelled to work the land, or in some places even slaves. Well, they have no incentive, [let alone the] capacity, to invest capital for the purpose of improving the [amount] and quality of the their crops, their trees, their vines. They would not be willing to take the risk without clear title to the land. That is the critical thing. Once they have it, and they plant permanent crops, that changes the whole basis of society and the values, and the attitudes that go with it. In short, according to Hanson, it is the invention of the family farm that is the critical [event] in this very, very important moment in the history of the human race and there certainly is no example of it that I know of, apart from Greece, when it happens right about this period. [Of course,] none of this happens overnight.

[These changes are taking place from about 900 to 700 BC] I would... guess at an increasing pace as [time progressed]. Then...the population grows. For this the archaeological evidence is very strong. There are...more and more people living on the land of Greece…. The more people you have, up to a point, that's good. There are more people who can work to increase the production. But beyond that point there are more people to feed than the [farming] can produce, and that leads to a [need to expand] of the land available for cultivation.

Kagan

As Hanson points out, look at the difference between this and previous [types of land tenure]. People either rented the land from a large landowner or they were hired help who got nothing except a salary or a piece of what they did. Serfs were compelled to work the land, or in some places even slaves. Well, they have no incentive, [let alone the] capacity, to invest capital for the purpose of improving the [amount] and quality of the their crops, their trees, their vines. They would not be willing to take the risk without clear title to the land. That is the critical thing. Once they have it, and they plant permanent crops, that changes the whole basis of society and the values, and the attitudes that go with it. In short, according to Hanson, it is the invention of the family farm that is the critical [event] in this very, very important moment in the history of the human race and there certainly is no example of it that I know of, apart from Greece, when it happens right about this period. [Of course,] none of this happens overnight.

[These changes are taking place from about 900 to 700 BC] I would... guess at an increasing pace as [time progressed]. Then...the population grows. For this the archaeological evidence is very strong. There are...more and more people living on the land of Greece…. The more people you have, up to a point, that's good. There are more people who can work to increase the production. But beyond that point there are more people to feed than the [farming] can produce, and that leads to a [need to expand] of the land available for cultivation.

Kagan

the olive tree is native to the Mediterranean basin; wild olives were collected by Neolithic peoples as early as the 8th millennium BC

first cultivation took place on the island of Crete. Archeological evidence suggest that olives were being grown in Crete as long ago as 2,500 BC

Homer called it "liquid gold." In ancient Greece, athletes ritually rubbed it all over their bodies. Olive oil has been more than mere food to the peoples of the Mediterranean: it has been medicinal, magical, an endless source of fascination and wonder and the fountain of great wealth and power

indeed the importance of the olive industry in ancient economies cannot be overstated

the tree is extremely hardy and its useful lifespan can be measured in centuries. Its wide and deep root system ensures its survival without additional watering, even in the water-sparse Mediterranean

Olive oil production in Klazomenai, an ancient city of Ionia( now, near Urla, Izmir, Turkey)

Poseidon is greedy of earthly kingdoms and once claimed possession of Attica by thrusting his trident into the Acropolis at Athens, where a well of sea-water immediately gushed out and is still to be seen; when the South Wind blows you may hear the sound of the surf far below. Later, during the reign of Cecrops, Athene came and took possession in a gentler manner, by planting the first olive tree beside the well. Poseidon, in a fury, challenged her to single combat, and hadnot Zeus interposed and ordered them to submit the dispute to arbitration, Athene would have accepted the challenge. Presently, then, they appeared before a divine court, consisting of their fellow-deities, who called upon Cecrops to give evidence. Zeus himself expressed no opinion, but while the other gods supported Poseidon, all the goddesses supported Athene. Thus, by a majority of one, the court decided that Athene had the better right to the land, because she had given the better gift….

Whereupon she took up her abode in Athens, and called that city after herself. However, to appease Poseidon’s wrath, the women of Athens were deprived of the vote, and the men to bear their mother’s name as hitherto.

Robert Graves, The Greek Myths. 1992. pp. 59-60

Now, there are a couple of ways that can go; one that was...important and again it's something that Hanson emphasizes, is what he calls internal colonization. When you are engaged in agriculture, it's natural to go first to...the most fertile soil. But now, when you need more, you can't just say I only want the best bottom land there is. You move out to someplace that nobody bothered to farm before, because it wasn't profitable enough. So, marginal land is brought into play with hard work and ingenuity, and this is one of the things that Hanson emphasizes that is so helpful. You must be a farmer to understand these things — not everything that you try works. I think the picture he paints of farming reminds us of the picture that Homer paints of human condition: [the image of] the two jars of Zeus. Most of the luck is bad; it's hard to succeed, and with some combination of luck, skill, determination and hard work all of that will decide which of these farmers will be successful and which will not.

There will be success and there will be failure. Hanson says, "[this was] the real beginning in the West of individual property holding on a large scale.” Hanson himself has a farm that specializes in grapes for the purpose of producing raisins…. He points out that the knowledge of how to do this, of how to grow the kind of grapes you want, viticulture, and also arboriculture, both of these, are learned from Asia. The Asians were ahead and the end of the isolation of Greece made possible [this cultural diffusion]....

Kagan

...There are getting to be more and more people living on the land of Greece…. and that leads to a desire for expansion of the land available for cultivation.

Chapter 5. The New Farm [00:42:26]

Everything is farmed in a new way...intensive farming. It's not extensive...you [don’t]scatter your stuff over wide fields.... Every piece of soil is necessary. A lot of it can't produce the crop you would most like to grow. So, you find another crop that will grow there that can be useful.... So, you have varied crops...the ones that are [native to] a Mediterranean climate. Everybody needs grain; bread is the stuff of life.... So ...you grow it where you can, if not, you have to get it elsewhere. Olives, for the purposes that I mentioned to you the other day that is a very important one. Vegetables can be grown many times in places where you could never grow wheat or grain. Fruits from the trees...

Now, observe several things about them. [These crops] together will make up everything you need to live. All the food groups are represented there. I have left out meat and fish, of course, neither of them very [widely consumed] in this part of the world, … there were sheep and there were goats, even [though] beef would have been very [costly]. But what you need to understand about the Greeks is that they don't eat a lot of meat. Now, you might say, how come no fish? I mean, they're surrounded by water.... Well, guess what, it turns out fish don't live everywhere in the water and they don't live very much around Greece as it turns out. I don't mean no fish, but no sort of major schools of fish. This is not the banks of Newfoundland and the Greeks do eat fish, but not a lot. So, their diet is a little bit of that — some of their protein from that, then bread, olive oil, fruit, vegetables, cheese, milk, those kinds of things they can [manage].

Kagan

Well, one of the things farmers in history discovered is that it's very hard to do well as a farmer if all you do is grow the crops, because people normally don't use what you grow in the form in which you grow it. I'm thinking again of grapes and olives; they made mostly olive oil and wine….

Now, if you're a poor farmer, you don't know what else to do. So, you send it off to a middleman who does the turning of the grapes and the olives into the liquids that are necessary, and he takes a good bit of the profit. But these farmers didn't do that. They acquired the equipment necessary; grape and olive presses which allowed them to purify and to make the final product, and that made for more success than they otherwise would have had….

Kagan

At the end of the 5th century BC, the Greek historian Thucydides wrote:

“The people of the Mediterranean began to emerge from barbarism when they learnt to cultivate the olive and the vine.”

The time period to which Thucydides was most likely referring was between 3000 BC and 2000 BC [before the period we’ve just been considering] when viticulture emerged in force in the areas of Asia Minor, Crete, Greece and the Cyclades of the Aegean Sea. It was during this period that grape cultivation moved from being just an aspect of local consumption to an important component of local economies and trade.

Wikipedia

As the result of its relative durability, pottery is a large part of the archaeological record of Ancient Greece, and because there is so much of it (some 100,000 vases are recorded in the Corpus vasorum antiquorum) it has exerted a disproportionately large influence on our understanding of Greek society.…the shards of pots discarded or buried in the first millennium BC are still the best guide we have to the customary life and mind of the ancient Greeks.

Wikipedia

...if you're going to succeed as a farmer, you have to have places to store what you produce, so that you will have it for next year when you need it.... if you have a surplus...you can sell it. Probably in the early days, this was largely a question of barter. You could trade it in for those things that you didn't make yourself and needed. But in any case, it is a profit, but it's no good if it's going to spoil. So it's important to realize the role of ceramics; they need to make storage jars that could be sealed very well and preserve the stuff for a very long time, and indeed, they did that.

Kagan

domestic amphora

transport amphora

As the result of its relative durability, pottery is a large part of the archaeological record of Ancient Greece, and because there is so much of it (some 100,000 vases are recorded in the Corpus vasorum antiquorum) it has exerted a disproportionately large influence on our understanding of Greek society.…the shards of pots discarded or buried in the first millennium BC are still the best guide we have to the customary life and mind of the ancient Greeks.

Wikipedia

...if you're going to succeed as a farmer, you have to have places to store what you produce, so that you will have it for next year when you need it.... if you have a surplus...you can sell it. Probably in the early days, this was largely a question of barter. You could trade it in for those things that you didn't make yourself and needed. But in any case, it is a profit, but it's no good if it's going to spoil. So it's important to realize the role of ceramics; they need to make storage jars that could be sealed very well and preserve the stuff for a very long time, and indeed, they did that.

Kagan

domestic amphora

transport amphora

Another thing that you need to understand about these farms...is that they are...really small. Maybe a typical farm is ten acres; that is a very small farm. We are talking not about the e m e r g e n c e o f a n a g r i c u l t u r a l aristocracy, we are talking about the e m e r g e n c e o f a n a g r i c u l t u r a l community of small family farms.

One of the things that come with the d e v e l o p m e n t o f t h i s k i n d o f agriculture as the polis is coming into being is slavery.

Phlyax scene: a master and his slave. From a Silician red-figured calyx-krater

ca. 350 BC–340 BC

Now, of course, slavery is as old almost as the human race, it certainly was already present in the world of Homer, but it [seems] in the Dark Ages there were few slaves because owning slaves requires wealth. You can't have slaves without wealth, because you must feed them at the very least, …dead slaves are no good to you. If a slave dies you must buy a new [one], and while he's alive you must feed him. So, [in] a very poor society, you're not going to see much slavery, but it is true, that as the family farm I've been describing comes into being, a way is found to use slaves [profitably].

The reason is, if you are just engaged in a single crop farming, well you plant it, you take care of it, and then when the time comes, you reap it. What do you do in between? Well, there's not much to do. So, you have to feed the slave all year round to work only a small part of the time, that's not very profitable. But [at] Hanson's farm, as I like to think of it, there is work to do all year round, because different crops need attention at different times...and some of them need very hard work, so there's plenty of work to be done. At these small farms, you should imagine [the family] had one or two slaves. [Only at the silver mines of Laurium or the shipyards do you see large gangs of slaves]

Kagan

Now, of course, slavery is as old almost as the human race, it certainly was already present in the world of Homer, but it [seems] in the Dark Ages there were few slaves because owning slaves requires wealth. You can't have slaves without wealth, because you must feed them at the very least, …dead slaves are no good to you. If a slave dies you must buy a new [one], and while he's alive you must feed him. So, [in] a very poor society, you're not going to see much slavery, but it is true, that as the family farm I've been describing comes into being, a way is found to use slaves [profitably].

The reason is, if you are just engaged in a single crop farming, well you plant it, you take care of it, and then when the time comes, you reap it. What do you do in between? Well, there's not much to do. So, you have to feed the slave all year round to work only a small part of the time, that's not very profitable. But [at] Hanson's farm, as I like to think of it, there is work to do all year round, because different crops need attention at different times...and some of them need very hard work, so there's plenty of work to be done. At these small farms, you should imagine [the family] had one or two slaves. [Only at the silver mines of Laurium or the shipyards do you see large gangs of slaves]

Kagan

...when you only have one or two slaves, the master is working right alongside them, doing exactly the same work that they are doing, and also instructing them and telling them what's what. If you want to really understand this in a practical sense, it's more as though these guys are hired hands. I mean, they live in the house, they get fed, probably with everybody else, they work with the master; the difference being that they are slaves rather than free men.

One of the funny things is that the emergence of this family farm gives rise to the polis' character as a land in which there is a citizenry, which is to say free men who rule themselves. So, the polis will see the invention of freedom in this way, and oddly enough, it is accompanied by the growth of slavery at the same time. Both slavery and freedom come along at the same time in the Greek world….

As Hanson points out, only in early Greece did independent agrarians have free title to their land, own slaves, and ultimately...come to have control of their own communities. Although the political development came late in the process, it did come.

Kagan

As Hanson says, the new farmer is not just a different kind of farmer, but a different kind of person. He is a citizen in his political role, he is a soldier but he is a soldier not in the pay or the hire of a king, or of an aristocracy; he is a citizen soldier who has participated in the decision that says it is time to go to war and who will play an active role in making decisions about his state's policy and behavior. He is independent in a way that nobody who was not a king or an aristocrat in the past has ever been — a new kind of man, the backbone of the polis as it emerges. I don't want to overstate this. There is still an aristocracy made up of the old guys and they don't just disappear and there will be a long stretch in which there will be some degree of conflict between these new independent farmers and the old established aristocracy, and never does that aristocracy go away, that's old. I'm simply emphasizing what's new in the situation and it's very new indeed.

Kagan

POLITICALREVOLUTION

POLITICALREVOLUTION

Chapter 6. Politics [00:57:09]

Now, I've talked to you essentially about the economic aspect of this phenomenon….The next point is... politics.

In the world of Mycenae there was a despotism of sorts, some kind of a lord, a king, for lack of a better name, a monarch who fundamentally rules and everybody is subject to him. He has an aristocracy around him, he has a lot of helpers, but he's the boss and that's what you see in the world everywhere else.

After that, if you examine as best we can the cities of the Dark Ages and ask what kind of government...would these communities have had, you probably wouldn't do badly if you looked at the Odyssey for the best clues you could find. Of course, they won't be perfect, there's a mixed character of the world of Homer, but still, if you look at the world of Odysseus, his home, what's going on in Ithaca, there are some valuable clues.

Kagan

Chapter 6. Politics [00:57:09]

Now, I've talked to you essentially about the economic aspect of this phenomenon….The next point is... politics.

In the world of Mycenae there was a despotism of sorts, some kind of a lord, a king, for lack of a better name, a monarch who fundamentally rules and everybody is subject to him. He has an aristocracy around him, he has a lot of helpers, but he's the boss and that's what you see in the world everywhere else.

After that, if you examine as best we can the cities of the Dark Ages and ask what kind of government...would these communities have had, you probably wouldn't do badly if you looked at the Odyssey for the best clues you could find. Of course, they won't be perfect, there's a mixed character of the world of Homer, but still, if you look at the world of Odysseus, his home, what's going on in Ithaca, there are some valuable clues.

Kagan

There is somebody in that world called a basileus, a single individual who is understood to be superior in some way to everybody else. However, he's not very superior to everybody else. He has all of these noblemen around him, all of whom claim to be basileis. A fairer way to put this would be that this is largely an aristocratic society. That was our conclusion after we looked at the poems of Homer, and that's what continues, even after the world of Mycenae.

People who had power by virtue of their wealth, by virtue of their personal physical strength maybe, by virtue of their descent, birth always was a critical criterion in the days of the aristocracies. You would have aristocracies who would have the practical, the de facto control of things.

Kagan

By definition, an aristocracy is plural not singular, so how do you make decisions in an aristocracy? The answer, typically, is a council. I use the word council, the Greek word is boulē (βουλή), and not assembly, which in Greek comes to be called ecclesia (εκκλησια) , because an ecclesia is understood to be a gathering of the entire adult male population, and a boulē is understood to be not a gathering of the whole, but rather a smaller group who has some degree of authority, and I suggest that in the earliest days they had all the authority that mattered.

Kagan

By definition, an aristocracy is plural not singular, so how do you make decisions in an aristocracy? The answer, typically, is a council. I use the word council, the Greek word is boulē (βουλή), and not assembly, which in Greek comes to be called ecclesia (εκκλησια) , because an ecclesia is understood to be a gathering of the entire adult male population, and a boulē is understood to be not a gathering of the whole, but rather a smaller group who has some degree of authority, and I suggest that in the earliest days they had all the authority that mattered.

Kagan

However, it's interesting that these Greek communities from a very early time seem to have been different from the Mycenaean by virtue of the fact that the men who fought in the army always seemed to have had to be consulted when it came to a question of war, and so you always had an assembly, even in an aristocratic state. But decisions in general were made by aristocrats. Moreover, the law was interpreted, spoken, and to the degree it had to be enforced by the aristocrats working through a council in their community. These councils might have been elective from within the aristocracy or they could have been simply the whole aristocracy, depending on the size of the community. You can't have a functioning council if it gets to be too big.

Kagan

That's where you start; that's the Dark Ages….the results will be different in every state.

Sometimes the old aristocracy will be able to hold on for a very long time and to suppress any attempt to change things. Other times, and this will be...very significant, the dissatisfied people in the society, mainly these farmers I'm talking about, will get together...and engage in what amounts to a kind of a revolution or at least a coup, and bring about a different kind of a monarchy which the Greeks called a tyranny.

When these tyrannies take place, they last for different periods of time, but when the tyrant is removed, what follows after that...is never again in that town a one-man rule of any kind. Either what is established after the tyranny is an oligarchy [but notice I didn't say an aristocracy]. An oligarchy means “rule of the few”, but what changes is it is no longer the rule of those few who are born in the right place, it will be based upon the wealth of those people and that means that the newly wealthy, or the newly...reasonably well-off will participate in their government and the form of government which is oligarchy will be throughout the classical period the most characteristic form of government in Greek city states. [emphasis added, jbp]

Kagan

That's where you start; that's the Dark Ages….the results will be different in every state.

Sometimes the old aristocracy will be able to hold on for a very long time and to suppress any attempt to change things. Other times, and this will be...very significant, the dissatisfied people in the society, mainly these farmers I'm talking about, will get together...and engage in what amounts to a kind of a revolution or at least a coup, and bring about a different kind of a monarchy which the Greeks called a tyranny.

When these tyrannies take place, they last for different periods of time, but when the tyrant is removed, what follows after that...is never again in that town a one-man rule of any kind. Either what is established after the tyranny is an oligarchy [but notice I didn't say an aristocracy]. An oligarchy means “rule of the few”, but what changes is it is no longer the rule of those few who are born in the right place, it will be based upon the wealth of those people and that means that the newly wealthy, or the newly...reasonably well-off will participate in their government and the form of government which is oligarchy will be throughout the classical period the most characteristic form of government in Greek city states. [emphasis added, jbp]

Kagan

Harmodius & Aristogeton kill the tyrant Hipparchus

That's where you start; that's the Dark Ages….the results will be different in every state.

Sometimes the old aristocracy will be able to hold on for a very long time and to suppress any attempt to change things. Other times, and this will be...very significant, the dissatisfied people in the society, mainly these farmers I'm talking about, will get together...and engage in what amounts to a kind of a revolution or at least a coup, and bring about a different kind of a monarchy which the Greeks called a tyranny.

When these tyrannies take place, they last for different periods of time, but when the tyrant is removed, what follows after that...is never again in that town a one-man rule of any kind. Either what is established after the tyranny is an oligarchy [but notice I didn't say an aristocracy]. An oligarchy means “rule of the few”, but what changes is it is no longer the rule of those few who are born in the right place, it will be based upon the wealth of those people and that means that the newly wealthy, or the newly...reasonably well-off will participate in their government and the form of government which is oligarchy will be throughout the classical period the most characteristic form of government in Greek city states. [emphasis added, jbp]

Kagan

When democracy is invented it will have its moment and it will spread, and there will be numerous democracies but they will never be the majority of the poleis. The typical polis will be a kind of a Hanson farmer outfit, where people from that class and up, will participate in politics, will be the governing bodies in their state. They will be the ones who continue to fight in that infantry that is decisive for the state, and they will be the ones who make decisions, and the people poorer than them will be excluded. So, it's very important to realize that these family farmers, who are successful, do not necessarily lead to democracy. Indeed it is an unusual outcome when they end up with democracy.

Kagan

HOPLITE REVOLUTION

HOPLITE REVOLUTION

The hoplite phalanx of the Archaic and Classical periods in Greece (ca. 750–350 BC) was a formation in which the hoplites would line up in ranks in close order. The hoplites would lock their shields together, and the first few ranks of soldiers would project their spears out over the first rank of shields. The phalanx therefore presented a shield wall and a mass of spear points to the enemy, making frontal assaults much more difficult. It also allowed a higher proportion of the soldiers to be actively engaged in combat at a given time (rather than just those in the front rank).

Wikipedia

The hoplite phalanx of the Archaic and Classical periods in Greece (ca. 750–350 BC) was a formation in which the hoplites would line up in ranks in close order. The hoplites would lock their shields together, and the first few ranks of soldiers would project their spears out over the first rank of shields. The phalanx therefore presented a shield wall and a mass of spear points to the enemy, making frontal assaults much more difficult. It also allowed a higher proportion of the soldiers to be actively engaged in combat at a given time (rather than just those in the front rank).

Wikipedia

a classical Greek hoplite is an infantryman who carries a hoplon

The word "hoplite" (Greek: ὁπλίτης hoplitēs; pl. ὁπλίται hoplitai) derives from "hoplon" (ὅπλον, plural hopla ὅπλα), the type of the shield used by the soldiers

this type of warfare develops contemporaneously with the rise of the polis and the formation known as the phalanx

‘όπλονHoplon

...these successful farmers, who also will be the fighting men who fight for their polis as infantrymen when the infantry becomes the critically important part of the army. These men, the combination of their independence, their wealth — they do have wealth, they amount to something -- and their role as soldiers makes them demand a larger voice in the government of the state, in the decisions that affect them so closely. They will be finding different ways to insist on their inclusion and the results will be different in every state.

Kagan

...these successful farmers, who also will be the fighting men who fight for their polis as infantrymen when the infantry becomes the critically important part of the army. These men, the combination of their independence, their wealth — they do have wealth, they amount to something -- and their role as soldiers makes them demand a larger voice in the government of the state, in the decisions that affect them so closely. They will be finding different ways to insist on their inclusion and the results will be different in every state.

Kagan

ὁπλίτηςhoplite

Defensive equipment

πανοπλια

shield

helmet

shield

helmet

shield

helmet

shield

helmet

shield

helmet

shield

helmet

breastplate

greaves

offensive weapons

offensive weaponsδόρυdory

spear

ξίφοςxiphossword

iron tip

bronze butt spike

correct

Positioning the hoplon

wrong!

Positioning the hoplon

why?anybody...anybody...

the auxiliaries

CLASS & SOLDIER TYPES

the polis never supplied panoplies so only those wealthy enough to buy the bronze armor and shield could fight as hoplites

the poorer men came to war as peltasts (slingers), archers, or javelin throwers; or else they served as servants. They also were the most likely to be the scavengers of the battle field, looking for booty among the fallen

CLASS & SOLDIER TYPES

the polis never supplied panoplies so only those wealthy enough to buy the bronze armor and shield could fight as hoplites

the poorer men came to war as peltasts (slingers), archers, or javelin throwers; or else they served as servants. They also were the most likely to be the scavengers of the battle field, looking for booty among the fallen

Funerary loutrophoros; on the right a bearded slave carries his master's shield and helm,

380–370 BC, National Archaeological Museum of Athens

CLASS & SOLDIER TYPES

the polis never supplied panoplies so only those wealthy enough to buy the bronze armor and shield could fight as hoplites

the poorer men came to war as peltasts (slingers), archers, or javelin throwers; or else they served as servants. They also were the most likely to be the scavengers of the battle field, looking for booty among the fallen

the wealthiest came as cavalry

CLASS, SOLDIER TYPES & POLIS TYPE

the polis never supplied panoplies so only those wealthy enough to buy the bronze armor and shield could fight as hoplites

the poorer men came to war as peltasts (slingers), archers, or javelin throwers; or else they served as servants. They also were the most likely to be the scavengers of the battle field, looking for booty among the fallen

the wealthiest came as cavalry

Aristotle, in the Politics, remarked that if the predominant arm of the polis was cavalry it was most likely an aristocratic state; hoplites, an oligarchy; a navy, democracy

offensive weapons

the right side

φάλαγξPhalanx

PHALANGE FACTA CAESAR IMPETUM IN HOSTES FECIT--DE BELLO GALLICO

traditionalphalanx

Epaminondasphalanx

at Leuctra, 371 BC

THE ADVANCE

παιάνpaean

STAGES OF A HOPLITE BATTLE

formal declaration of war & explicit abrogation of existing truces & treaties

pre-battle ritual

selection of appropriate site

public sacrifice of a domesticated animal and brief harangue by the commander

shock collision between phalanxes until one or the other breaks

cessation of the killing

post mortem accordcombination of Hanson & Kagan

If anything, the sheer terror of hoplite battle, the courage needed to stare at a

wall of spears across the plain, and the urgency for group solidarity in the confines

of the phalanx gave positive momentum to ideas of civic responsibility and

egalitarianism, and formed the emotional and spiritual substructure of much of

archaic Greek sculpture, painting and literature.

Hanson, The Wars of the Ancient Greeks, p. 55

If anything, the sheer terror of hoplite battle, the courage needed to stare at a

wall of spears across the plain, and the urgency for group solidarity in the confines

of the phalanx gave positive momentum to ideas of civic responsibility and

egalitarianism, and formed the emotional and spiritual substructure of much of

archaic Greek sculpture, painting and literature.

Hanson, The Wars of the Ancient Greeks, p. 55

Φόβοςterror

inbattle

If anything, the sheer terror of hoplite battle, the courage needed to stare at a

wall of spears across the plain, and the urgency for group solidarity in the confines

of the phalanx gave positive momentum to ideas of civic responsibility and

egalitarianism, and formed the emotional and spiritual substructure of much of

archaic Greek sculpture, painting and literature.

Hanson, The Wars of the Ancient Greeks, p. 55

Φόβος

If anything, the sheer terror of hoplite battle, the courage needed to stare at a

wall of spears across the plain, and the urgency for group solidarity in the confines

of the phalanx gave positive momentum to ideas of civic responsibility and

egalitarianism, and formed the emotional and spiritual substructure of much of

archaic Greek sculpture, painting and literature.

Hanson, The Wars of the Ancient Greeks, p. 55

Nearly every major Greek author, philosopher or statesman, despite their

education and often élite status, served their fellow citizens in the front line of

battle: Archilochus, Tyrtaeus, Aeschylus, Miltiades, Themistocles, Aristides,

Sophocles, Pericles, Socrates, Thucydides, Alcibiades, Xenophon, Demosthenes

and others too numerous to mention at some time wore a breastplate and killed

another human--something historians and literary critics should always keep in

mind when they assess the character and ideology of Greek politics, art,

philosophy and literature.

Hanson, The Wars of the Ancient Greeks, pp. 55-56

EpilogueΕΠΙΛΟΓΟΣ

EpilogueΕΠΙΛΟΓΟΣ

Question from one of Kagan’s students:

If the hoplite phalanx was so stunningly successful against

the armies of other nations, why didn’t they simply adopt

the tactic instead of hiring Greek mercenaries?

ΕΠΙΛΟΓΟΣ

So the Greeks of the Archaic period began to venture forth

along the coasts of the Mediterranean and Black Seas. Their

poleis often experimented with the political form which they

called τυραννεια (tyranny).

But, that’s another story...