The Greek Polis

1
The Greek Polis
GEN 2112 The Characteristics of Western Culture
2
References on Athens

• A.H.M. Jones, Athenian Democracy
• Frank Frost, Democracy and the Athenians
• ??? ?????????
• ????????????????
• Donald Kagan, Pericles of Athens and the birth of
  Democracy

3
The Greek Polis

• polis (s.)
• poleis (pl.)
• city-states (Kitto )
• a self-governing state
• an independent autonomous political unit
• a political structure
• an advanced or a degenerate form of tribalism
• small
• exclusiveness (oneness) (wholeness)
• small

4
The Size of the Greek Polis

• There were more than 200 poleis in ancient Greece
• The biggest Sparta 3,300sq.m.
• Athens 1,000sq.m.
• Most poleis less than 400sq.m.
• e.g. Corinth 340 m2
• Geographically, a polis covered a very small
  area, usually much less than a modern country
• e.g. Platos Republic
• Ideal polis 5,000citizens
• Aristotles Politics
• Each citizen should be able to know all the
  others by sight

5
The Citizens of a Polis

• The citizens of a polis felt themselves tightly
  bound together separated from the citizens of
  any other state.
• Each polis had its own distinctive customs its
  own gods, was an object of intense
  religious-patriotic devotion
• As a result, a Greek polis could not easily
  expand its territory or admit foreigners to
  citizenship. Its jealous local pride made it
  ready to fight with its neighbors for the
  slightest causes.
• But, polis was more than a mere region, it was a
  community of citizens enjoyed political rights
  played a role in govt.

6
Participation??

• Man is a creature (an animal) who lives in
  (belongs to) a polis Aristotles Politics
• The chief political virtue participation
• Its everyones duty to participate in the polis
• ?Greek culture creative
• all-roundedness

7
The Political Development of Athens

• polis of Athens Attica (peninsula)
• 7thc. B.C. aristocrats
• Solon (594 B.C.)
• If there was injustice anywhere in the state, it
  directly or indirectly affected everyone, even
  though he went inside his house locked the
  door.
• Solon rewrote law code judges were chosen by
  lot from among the entire citizenry without
  regard to wealth

8
Clisthenes (508 B.C.)

• (Until the time of Clisthenes reforms, loyalty to
  clans tribes had remained strong)
• Clisthenes appealed to the common citizens
• ?Athens democracy or the rule of the people
• Clisthenes called it isonomia the system of
  equal rights
• abolished the ancient clans replacing them
  with 10 new tribes by regions (territorial
  districts)
• ?members of every class (commercial, industrial,
  rural)
• evenly divided (distributed) among 10 tribes

9
The Athenian Empire

• The evolution of democracy at home was intimately
  connected with the increasing imperialism of
  Athens abroad.
• democracy
• Athens
• Imperialism

10
Pericles (495-429 B.C.)

• (Age of Pericles 461-429 B.C.)
• dignified
• well-educated
• an hypnotized orator
• a practical statesman (yet idealistic)
• Pericles saw what a polis might do for their
  citizens and what the citizens might do for
  their polis.
• Compare with John F. Kennedy
• Ask not what the country can do for you ask
  what you can do for the country!

11
Thucydides (???)

• Pericles was persuasive!

12
Pericles, Funeral Oration (Winter, 431 B.C.)

• Our constitutionIts administration favors the
  majority instead of the few, this is why it is
  called a democracy. If we look to the laws, they
  afford equal justice to all in their private
  disputes our public opinion welcomes honors
  talents in every branch of achievement, on the
  grounds of excellence alone.
• Pericles introduced state pay for service on
  the Council of 500 (or as )
• Therefore, even poor citizens could take part in
  public life.

13
Pericles Political Aims

• to develop an equal balance the individual
  the polis
• to make duty a delight, service an honor.
• to recognize benefits to the community as the
  only ground of civic distinction.
• Pericles far-sighted
• d. 429 B.C.
• was afraid of Athenss mistakes than of Spartas
  designs
•     proved to be well-founded 404B.C.
  SpartagtAthens

14
The Situation After Pericles

• According to Finley, Pericleshad 4
  characteristics he could see expound what was
  necessary, he was patriotic above money.
• Athens misfortune the essential cause of her
  ruin was that none of his successors combined all
  his 4 characteristics.
• Nicias, who was honest but inactive, had the last
  2.
• Alcibiades, who was able but utterly
  self-interested, only had the first 2.

15
Time Chart

• Athens
• 594 B.C. Solon
• 546 B.C. Cyrus the Great (Persia) conquered Lydia
  (Asia Minor)?499 B.C.
• Ionian Rebellion
• Athens 20 ships to aid
• Ionian?Pericles
• 508 B.C. Clisthenes
• 490, 480, 479 B.C. Persian Wars
• ?Delian League
• 461-429 B.C. Age of Pericles
• 447-438 B.C. Parthenon?????
• 431-404B.C. Peloponnesian War Athens Sparta
• 429 B.C. d. of Pericles

16
Questions

• The spirit and characteristics of ancient Greek
  poleis (Athens, Sparta, etc.)
• Athens democracy and imperialism
• Compare and contrast Athens and Sparta

17
References on Sparta

• Forrest, W.G. A History of Sparta
• Barrow, Robin. Sparta
• Jones, A.H.M. Sparta
• Frost, Frank.  Greek Society

18
Sparta

• Frank Frost, Greek Society.  5th ed., 1997
• Sparta an Experiment in Elitist Communism, pp.
  44-49.
• Military obedience paramount virtue tough
  life
• Thus, producing strong, courageous, highly
  disciplined soldiers
• (infants were abandoned to die of exposure, if
  they were not qualified) elitist

19
Life in Sparta

•  At the age of 7, a Spartan boy would be owned by
  the polis, 13 years of military training
  physical, endurance of hardship, and unquestion
  of devotion to the polis.
• At the age of 20, a soldier/warrior in a barrack
  (for 10 more years)
• At 30, full-fledged citizen (may go home)

20
Sparta

• terrible food/meal
• Now I understand why the Spartan do not fear
  death.
• No individual existence (body soul) the
  ultimate in self-denial
• dedicated to the polis (complete loyalty to the
  polis was demanded of every Spartan)
• Virtue obedience, courage, and participation

21
Sparta

• The Greeks admired ordered life, and nowhere
  was life more ordered than in Sparta!
• Spartan slaves (helots) life was hard, because
  they had to
• Spartan citizens life was hard, too, because
  they chose to
• Plutarchs story of an old man in the Olympic
  Games
• All Greeks know what is right, but only the
  Spartans do it. that is courage!

22
Sparta

• To the Spartans, Honor to win in battles
• The story of a mother to her son who was a
  soldier going to battle
• Giving him a shield with it or on it!
• They asked not how many enemies there were, only
  where they were.

23
Sparta

• Spartan art silent?
• Spartan art is creation, and Sparta created
  not things in words (no drama tragedy, comedy,
  fables nor philosophy) or stone (no sculpture)
  BUT men

24
Sparta

• Sparta is a small community of warriors who have
  little interest in material comfort
• Sparta has an enormous slave (helots) population
  (1 10)
• All Spartans are full-time professional soldiers

25
Spartans Good Fighters

• 480 B.C.  Xerxes, King of Persia, led an army of
  250,000 men seeking revenge for his fathers
  defeat 10 yeas ago (at the battle of Marathon)
• Xerxes, Which of the Greeks will dare resist
  me? (It seems that even if all the Greeks joined
  together, they would stand no chance against my
  army)
•  
• Demaratus answered,   -- the Spartans!

26
Sparta

• In single combat, the Spartans are as good as
  any soldiers on earth.  Fighting together, they
  are the best in the world.
• They will fight, .. And do not ask me whether
  they have enough men to fight you.  If only a
  thousand of them march into the battle field,
  then that thousand will fight you. 
• Xerxes laughed, Are the Spartans free?  (Do you
  really imagine that so few would freely choose to
  fight?)
• Yes, free but they do have a master the
  law (eunomia), whatever the law demands, they
  do.  And the law always demands the same thing
  never retreat in battle, whatever the odds. 
  Always stand your ground.  Win or die.
  (Herodotus, The Histories of the Persian Wars. 
  7.101)

27
Sparta

• Common life, food, wealth, even family shared
• Thus, Frank Frost, Greek Society
• Sparta elitist communism

28
Plato on Sparta

• Plato admired Sparta
• the idea of an equal community in which all
  citizens share things among themselves, and
  cooperate rather than compete with each other
• the discipline and order of the Spartan system
• strong sense of loyalty and duty to each other,
  and the life of the community

29
Battle of Thermopolae

•  In the Battle of Thermopolae,
• (a narrow pass)
• less than a thousand Spartans fought against a
  few thousand (250,000) Persians
• The Spartans chose to die.  They were killed to
  the last men and buried where they fell.  Over
  their graves was written, Passer-by, go and tell
  the Spartans at home that we lie here in
  obedience to the law.
• Prefer death to dishonor and military glory to
  everything else
• Weakness
• Spartans were brought up to understand only one
  way of life, thus, inflexible (to survive)
• helots (slaves) outnumbered x 10!

30
The Decline of the Polis

• Definition
• The political form of polis has disappeared in
  reality in ancient Greek history.
• Even though polis has not disappeared, the
  characteristics and spirit of the polis have
  disappeared or it was different from (or even
  opposite to) the original ideal, or it has been
  replaced by other ideals/concepts

31
Essence of the Polis

• participation (in the political/ cultural life
  of the community)
• e.g. Pericles statesman, administrator, orator,
  general, etc.
• polis at its best
• a community of well-rounded me
• ????
• (Because life was simple)
• equilibrium polis individual

32

• BUT then,
• Life became complicated
• Military tactics ?complex
• ?division of labor
• (?army ?mercenary)
• Progress broke the polis
• Kitto, The Greeks, p. 161
• (irony progress was a fundamental ingredient of
  the way of life that the polis created.)

33
Factors Leading to the Decline of the Polis

• Externally
• The Peloponnesian War (431-404B.C.)
• between Athens Sparta
• end of polis as a creative force
• Politically
• Wars had exhausted Greece
• materially spiritually
• Therefore, confused, wearisome, depressing
• (e.g. 20th c. Europe WWI, WWII suicidal wars)
• Internally
• Groeth of individualism in art, philosophy, in
  life (new ways of thought of life)
• e.g. sculpture, drama (tragedy), etc.

34
The Rise of Individualism

• No more Pericles (well-rounded)
• (Statesmen no longer excel at a number of other
  activities)
• No longer would people be impressed with the
  well-rounded amateur.
• ( its quite impossible)

35

• By 3rd c. B.C.,
• Generals professionals
• Actors ..
• Athlets ..
•  
• The 4th c. B.C. philosophers deplored the growing
  professionalism
• To the philosophers,
• Professionalism was a symptom of malaise
  decline
• Because, professionalism by hiring ()
• And no direct participation of the citizens

36
Loss of faith

• Sophists rhetoric (art of persuasion)
• Plato?
• ?
• 1.  Teaching people not knowledge of wisdom BUT
  how to take either side of any argument
• 2.  Accepting money for teaching (intellectual
  prostitute)
• Yet, sophists rhetoric popular among the rich/
  wealthy
• ( The Greeks saw the wicked prosper, the good
  perish!)

37
Loss of Faith

• I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race
  is not to the swift, nor the battle to the
  strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet
  riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to
  men of skill,
• BUT time chance
• happenth to them all.
• Ecclesiates
• late 3rd c. B.C.

38
Loss of Faith

• Yet, some historians propound the belief that
  there is no reason to regret the gradual
  disappearance of the independent polis.
• In an expanding economy a society that was
  becoming sophisticated cosmopolitan, the ideal
  of the polis was a luxury.

39

• Nevertheless, even in philosophy, there was a
  growing spirit of individualism
• e.g. Protagoras of Abdera (c. 481-411)
• Man is the measure of all things
• (???????)