The beginning of the polis as city-state and citizen community is generally agreed to belong in the 8th century BCE, with the rise of complex nucleated societies with
institutionalised decision-making bodies throughout Greece. These societies are held to have developed out of the homesteads and village societies in the post-Mycenaean period of the Iron Age known as the Dark Age.301 The archaic polis can be defined as
a community as well as a town or city. However, scholars tend to emphasise social organisation rather than urban features in defining the polis. Archaeologists agree that the urbanisation of Greece was a slow process and not very wide-spread until the 6th century BCE. City-walls are attested quite late in Greece, after a long hiatus from the Mycenaean period to the 6th century.302 This has led to a debate whether the polis should be called a city-state, or if it was first and foremost a community of citizens, regardless of urban features of the settlement where the citizens lived. Mogens Herman Hansen puts a terminus ante quem about 650 BCE for the polis as a community of citizens and as a city. He argues that from 650 onwards, there are written sources to the polis in the sense of city-state, i.e. a city that is the centre of a state with its own constitution and citizen-body. From the middle of the 7th century,
archaic poets refer to polis both as a political community of citizens and as an urban centre.303 This is a reasonable argument that makes good sense of the available
written sources for the archaic period. Archaic poets refer to their native poleis as cities as well as citizen-communities.304 However, it should be pointed out that the 7th century is rather late compared to the cities of the Homeric epics and the earliest
301 Morris, “The early polis as city and state,” 1991, 42
302 Morris, “The early polis as city and state,” 1991, 40; Whitley, The archaeology of ancient Greece, 2001, 173-174 303 Hansen, “The Hellenic polis,” 2000, 146
colonies on Sicily. When did Dark Age communities become poleis? What can archaeology contribute to the dating of the polis?
After the collapse of the Mycenaean palaces, centralised settlement is attested from archaeological finds at several places in Greece in the 11th century BCE. This
evidence for early centralised communities creates problems for archaeologists regarding the date of the polis. Anthony Snodgrass attempts to find the point in time when centralised settlements of Dark Age Greece became centres of poleis, admitting that it is uncertain whether archaeology can determine when a settlement may be called a polis: the classic example is Sparta that never had a centralised urban core, but nevertheless was called a polis.305 However, Snodgrass argues that there are indications of significant changes from the Dark Age to the archaic period: some sites in Greece had centralised settlement and walls in the 11th century BCE, but these settlements were abandoned around 700 BCE. Snodgrass suggests that the reason why these strongholds were abandoned was a new political order towards the 7th century, when the city-state and its citizen army provided security, replacing the old
fortifications.306
Snodgrass’ hypothesis fits the view of Hansen that archaic poetry indicates a date around 650 BCE for nucleated and urbanised settlements of citizen communities in Greece. I agree with this date for the urbanised polis and find it convincing that literary evidence as well as archaeology suggests that the polis as city-state and citizen community can be placed in the 7th century. However, this date is not unproblematic:
305 Snodgrass, “Archaeology and the study of the Greek city,” 1991, 6; cf. Thuc. 1.10 306 Snodgrass, “Archaeology and the study of the Greek city,” 1991, 9
there were poleis in Sicily that were reputably founded in the 8th century.307 It is hotly debated whether these poleis were planned settlements from the start, established by organised expeditions dispatched by their home poleis and led by an official founder, known as the oikist, or represent the results of settlements by improvised ventures.308 However, the exact date of the founding of these poleis and the establishment of their urban features do not concern the present discussion of the politics of archaic poleis. Suffice it to say that in the course of the 7th century, poleis appear to have become
city-states with urban features throughout Greece and to become recognized as such in the use of the word polis in the sense of citizen-state and city-state.
The rather late dating at 650 BCE might seem strange compared to the conventional dating of epic literature, the 8th century, and the presence of fortified cities that are
called poleis in the Iliad. Does this mean that the epics are pure fantasy, irrelevant for the study of archaic Greece? As will be discussed below (3.3), there are good reasons for including the epics in a discussion of the archaic polis. As will be seen, the most important communal institution of the polis, the agora, is present in the society of the Homeric epics. At any rate, any dating of the polis should allow for a development over time from isolated homesteads and small hamlets into city-states. More importantly for the present discussion, as will be argued, is that the social struggles typical of the archaic poleis can be seen in epic literature (3.3.1). I turn now to the typical institutions of the archaic polis and the main social divisions of archaic polis societies.
307 Cf. Thuc. 6.3-6
308 Improvised ventures: Wilson, “The nature of Greek overseas settlement in the archaic period,” 1997, 206; Osborne, “Early Greek colonization?” 1998, 260-261. Planned expeditions: Malkin, Religion and colonization in ancient Greece, 1987, 183-186; Snodgrass, “The nature and standing of the early western colonies,” 2004, 9
The town square, agora, is first attested archaeologically as part of the planned layout of a Greek settlement at the colony Megara Hyblaia in the 7th century BCE. No
equally clear evidence for urban planning has been found for such an early period in mainland Greece.309 The development of a formally planned agora was an important
part of the establishment of poleis as urbanised citizen communities. The main political centre of any polis was the agora. It was a demarcated public place where meetings were held and official business was carried out. The polis can be said to be centred on its agora. However, the public nature and mass appeal of such an open political space was countered by the private symposia, the drinking clubs of the élite. These meetings had connotations of debauchery, luxury and secrecy. Oswyn Murray points out that the symposia had a certain cosmopolitan flair, as the place to receive guest friends from abroad.310 The private gatherings of the élite could also be suspected of having a political nature as hotbeds for conspiracy. The symposion is therefore a contrast to the agora, and the two institutions, the one private and élite, the other public and egalitarian, are good illustrations of the conflicting worlds of the few and the masses in archaic poleis. As will be seen from the poetry of Alkaios and Theognis (3.4.4; 3.4.5), the symposia were an important part of aristocratic ideology. Thus, from the earliest attestations to their social fabric, archaic poleis were
characterised by public assemblies as well as restricted gatherings. The élite were not confined to symposia, however. More importantly, several archaic poleis were ruled by councils where only the élite had access. The dynamics of council and assembly were important in the social struggles in archaic poleis. The dominance of the council over the assembly is also evident in epic poetry, as will be argued below (3.3.1).
309 Snodgrass, “Archaeology and the study of the Greek city,” 1991, 10-11 310 Murray, “Nestor’s cup and the origins of the Greek symposion,” 1994, 47-54
In the archaic poleis, the masses and the élite have their separate spheres, but there are dynamic relations between the rich and the poor. In some poleis, the assembly
attained a superior position. However, there is a tendency with classical scholars to downplay these dynamics and argue that polis societies were fundamentally egalitarian (cf. 1.5.2). Underpinning this view is the theory of the so-called hoplite reform, which I will discuss in the following.
According to the theory of a hoplite reform, the polis community is first and foremost defined through the citizen army of hoplites. Hoplites, soldiers with heavy equipment including shield and spears, are traceable from finds in burials from the 8th century.
Hoplites provided their own equipment and thus only farmers with a certain amount of property could qualify for participation. Hoplite equipment has been claimed as the best a posteriori indication for the polis.311 An army of hoplites is regarded as
essential for the development of the polis.312 The so-called hoplite reform is frequently evoked to argue that Greek poleis were fundamentally egalitarian citizen- collectives where only those who contributed to defending the polis had a part in its politics.313 As I will argue in the following, the emphasis on hoplites as fundamental to Greek city-state politics gives a false impression of the polis as an egalitarian citizen community of soldiers. The idea of a close correlation between military prowess and political participation stands in the way of a proper analysis of the dynamics of power in archaic poleis between rich and poor citizens, the élite and the masses.
311 Snodgrass, “Archaeology and the study of the Greek city,” 1991, 19 312 Hansen, The Athenian democracy in the age of Demosthenes, 1991, 32
313 Nilsson, “The introduction of hoplite tactics at Rome,” 1929, 1-11; Detienne, “La phalange,” 1968, 119-142; Hammond, The city in the ancient world, 1972, 192-193; Finley, Politics in the ancient world, 1983, 53; Polignac, Cults, territory and the origins of the Greek city-state, 1995, 58; Bleicken, Die athenische Demokratie, 1995, 570; Osborne, Greece in the making, 1996, 176; Fantalkin, “Identity in the making,” 2006, 204
The theory of a hoplite reform involves a change from heroic warfare of individual warriors, as seen in the Homeric epics, to a style of fighting where the citizens defended the city and their land as hoplites with mass tactics, the phalanx. In the phalanx, the fighters stood on line and covered each their neighbour with their shields. This is interpreted as the very image of the new citizen communities in Greece in the 7th century. To Max Weber, the polis was originally a warrior’s guild.314 If this was correct, however, it should be possible to establish correlating dates for the hoplites and the poleis they defended, either archaeologically or from texts. This correlation is not easily established. Snodgrass points out that there is no
archaeological confirmation of a hoplite reform from finds of equipment: rather, the development of the hoplite panoply was a piecemeal process.315 This may seem self-
evident, but the floating date of the hoplite reform is quite significant: if the introduction of hoplite equipment cannot be dated, the claim that hoplites promoted the establishment of poleis as citizen communities cannot be established
archaeologically.
Chronology is also problematic regarding the emergence of phalanx tactics as an alternative to the heroic fighting of epic poetry. Joachim Latacz has demonstrated that tactics quite close to that of the phalanx are found in Homer.316 If the establishment of the polis as a citizen community is regarded as a departure from the aristocratic world of the Homeric heroes, the basileis, the presence of phalanx tactics in the 8th century world of Homer makes it difficult to argue that the introduction of the phalanx was
314 Weber, The city, 1966 [1921], 220
315 Snodgrass, “The hoplite reform and history,” 1965, 110 316 Latacz, Kampfparanäse, 1977, 66-67
important for the establishment of a new political order of a citizen community by the middle of the 7th century.
Recently, scholars have expressed their doubts concerning correlations between the emergence of hoplites and a specific Greek form of city-state with broad citizen participation in politics. Peter Krentz argues that no definite military reform can be established archaeologically and therefore, no hoplite-driven political reforms can be argued for the archaic period. Rather, Krentz points out that hoplites must be regarded as a stable feature of Greek communities, and not the result of military reform.317 This
view is also argued by Kurt A. Raaflaub, who assigns land-owning farmers an important place in the military and political structure of the archaic period, without assuming that the hoplites are indicative of a new egalitarian collective of citizens.318
I agree with these assessments. The idea that the polis was an egalitarian community of warriors that emerged in the 7th century cannot be maintained. The correlation between shields, spears, tactics, and the polis as a citizen community is doubtful. This means that the polis should not be regarded as primarily a community of equal, self- owning farmer hoplites. Rather, archaic poleis were city-states with a composite community of citizens, rich and poor, with complex dynamics of strategies for power. The archaic poleis were not egalitarian guilds of warriors, but they were not early states with insuperable divisions between the élite and the masses, either (cf. 2.2). This is a widely debated question, however, and I will return to it further on in this chapter: problems concerning supposed egalitarian relations between warriors in the Homeric epics and the social structure of the archaic polis will be discussed below (3.3.1). The role of hoplites in the reforms of Solon and Kleisthenes will be discussed in sections 3.4.2 and 3.4.3 respectively.
317 Krentz, “Warfare and hoplites,” 2007, 79-80
To conclude this section, it should be made clear that there is no such thing as the archaic Greek polis; there were great differences between them. Some general remarks on the archaic Greek polis can be made, however. The polis can be said to be attested as a political community and city-state from lyric and elegiac poetry of the 7th century BCE. Urban features including an agora and public sanctuaries are attested from the same period onwards. In archaic poleis, the citizen community had internal divisions between different socio-economic groups. There were collective organs of decision-making such as the assembly, but there were also more restricted councils, and the relations of power between these institutions could vary significantly between
poleis and in each polis over time. The dynamics between the socio-economic groups
and the broad or narrow collective decision-making bodies of archaic Greek poleis will be explored from the evidence provided by archaic poets in section 3.4 below. As will be argued, the Homeric epics were an important part of the ideology of élite social groups in archaic poleis. I now turn to the epic evidence, predominantly the
Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, in order to investigate the earliest written evidence to the
dynamics of archaic poleis.