The Drawbacks of the Polis Model

The polis as the first model of a “state” society in western history was not, however, a perfect one. In fact, it was saddled by a major geographical disadvantage, as it was only able to govern and administrate the relatively small area of the city.

The Greek polises sometimes united into coalitions, but they never managed to establish an organized model which would make territorial expansion possible. When a population increase rendered the economic survival of its inhabitants impossible, the polis organized expeditions to found colonies elsewhere. This settlement, however, did not form part of the founding polis, but became an independent city-state (Meier 2011, 146-149).

2.5.1 The Division of Hellas

Coalitions of polises were forged, of course, though these were of an ad hoc nature. Thus did the Greeks unite against the threat of the Persian invasion (the Persian Wars). After the victory against the Persians, however, each polis went back to defending its own interests.

Athens launched an imperialist policy championed by Themistocles, an ambi­tious character who would end up being exiled in an official act of ostracism, but not before he managed for Athens to become a military power, heading up a federation bringing together most of the cities on the Cyclades: the Delian League (an island located in the geographical center of the archipelago), a volunteer association of a military nature which became mandatory when the Athenians, after forbidding the allies from leaving the League, transferred the federal treasury from Delos to Athens itself.

Pericles died in 429 bc, but not before delivering his famous Funeral Oration for the first victims of the Peloponnesian Wars (431-404 bc). In this clash between Greeks, two leagues of cities, led by Athens and Sparta squared off. Sparta would ultimately win the war, with Athens surrendering in 404 bc, ephemerally marking the end of democracy upon the provisional restoration of the oligarchic regime (The Tyranny of the Thirty) following Alcibiades’ victory.

Athens was subjugated by the Spartans until they, in turn, were defeated at the Battle of Leuctra (371) by the army of the city-state Thebes, led by two great generals (strategos): Epaminondas and Pelopidas. The battle featured a decisive role played by the famous “Sacred Band of Thebes” composed of an elite 300 hop­lites. It was their strategy upon which Alexander the Great would model his invincible Macedonian phalanx.^[46] Although Theban hegemony would last only 10 years (until the death of Epaminondas in 362), Sparta would never again be a major power, after the Romans occupied the city in 146 bc.

2.5.2 Attempts to Improve Upon the Polis Model

The polises tended towards separation and, though there were some attempts at union, they were symbolic and ephemeral. Among the cooperative efforts were the Olympic Games.^[47] Institutionalized in the year 776 bc, they constituted one of the rare occasions on which all the Greek cities gathered peacefully to compete in athletic events. Initially imbued with a religious dimension, they soon served to augment the prestige and fame of the victors’ home cities. In fact, they would become so prestigious that in ancient Greece time came to be measured with reference to the Olympics.^[48]

The other attempt to unite all the Greeks appeared in northern Greece, in Macedonia, beginning with the reign of Philip II (359-336 bc), who was able to establish a dynasty, subduing nobles and lesser kings as he created an all-powerful military monarchy. Philip built a modern polis, issued high-quality coins and established an excellent government administration, all leading to an era of splen­did artistic and cultural development, including the work of Aristotle. He was, above all, a great military leader who, after dominating northern Greece, occupied Thessaly and the sanctuary at Delphi, and conquered the Greek cities of the south. His feats were met with resistance and rejection by the democratic polises, includ­ing Athens, where Demosthenes vehemently repudiated Macedonian policy in his famous Philippics.

Though Philip was assassinated in 336, his son, Alexander the Great, continued his policy in the most brilliant fashion. Once he had wiped out the Theban resistance, in the space of 11 years Alexander would occupy the entire Persian Empire, reaching as far as India, thanks to his forging of an extremely effective army. Alexander wished to establish a synthesis of the Greek and Persian worlds; though he founded a dozen Greek cities bearing his name, at the end of his life he sought to become a Near Eastern-style monarch, which sparked resentment among many Greeks. His early death (323 bc) prevented the consolidation of his empire, which fragmented into a series of monarchies led by his generals (the Diadochi),^[50] such as that of the Ptolemies in Egypt or the Seleucids in Asia Minor. They all end up being conquered by Rome during the second century BC.

TIMELINE

Origin of the Earth

4.6 billion years ago

2.0

570 million years ago

300

230

150

65

4

Formation of the Earth. Earliest plant species. First vertebrates. Reptiles appear.

First mammals.

Birds.

Primates.

First hominids.

The Appearance of Man

Prehistory

The Great Near Eastern Civilizations

Indus Valley

2500-1500 bc Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro civilizations

Egypt

Mesopotamia

China

Greece

Pre-Hellenic Cultures

Hellenic Stage 776 Foundation of the Olympic Games.

750 First Greek colonies outside Greece.

750-675 Colonization of Sicily Sicilia (Magna Graecia).

650 Foundation of Byzantium by the Greeks of Megara.

600 The Phocian Greeks found Massalia (Marseille).

560 The Greeks reach Egypt (foundation of Naucratis).

535 The Battle of Alalia (Corsica).

ca. 720 Writing of the Homeric poems.

ca. 690 Birth of Hesiod.

594 Solon, Athenian lawgiver.

561 The Athenian tyrant Pisistratus (also in 556 and 542).

508 Cleisthenes founds a democratic regime in Athens.

490 First Medic War (Marathon).

480 Start of the Second Medic War (Thermopylae).

479 Greek naval victory over the Persians at Salamis.

461-429 Government of Pericles (495-429) in Athens.

460-451 First Peloponnesian War.

457 Hegemony of Athens in central Greece.

448 Foundation of the Athenian Empire.

446 Signing of the Thirty Years’ Peace between Athens and Sparta.

431 Beginning of the Second Peloponnesian War.

429 Death of Pericles.

405 Decisive Spartan naval victory at Aigos Potamos.

404 Surrender of Athens. End of the Peloponnesian Wars.

401 Anabasis, or The March of the 10,000 (Xenophon).

Hellenistic Stage 399 Trial and execution of Socrates.

371 Sparta is defeated by Thebes (Battle of Leuctra). 359-336 Reign of Philip of Macedon.

338 All Greece brought under the king of Macedonia.

336- 323 Reign of Alexander the Great.

334 Annexation of Ionia.

333 Incorporation of Phoenicia.

332 Conquest of Syria and Egypt. Founding of Alexandria.

The Origins of Carthage

1550 bc First apogee of Tyre.

1300 Appearance of the 22-letter alphabet, adopted by the peoples of the Western Mediterranean, replacing cuneiform script.

1100 Invasion of the Sea Peoples Tyre becomes independent of Egypt.

814 Founding of Carthage by the Tyrians.

573 After the capture of Tyre by the Babylonians, Carthage becomes independent.

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