Greece: An introduction...
Time Period
1000BC-700BC Stabilization
In 500BC Greece had a population of about 2million with about 700 settlements and
200 cities. 15%-30% of the population lived in urban areas; therefore between
300,000-600,000 urban dwellers.
Athens was the greatest Greek city at the time, though even during the ‘Golden Era’
population in the city did not exceed 140,000. Argos and Sparta were among the 2nd
largest cities, and their population never exceeded 40,000.
“Athens suffered greatly during the Imperial Epoch (480-431BC) with an adult male
population of 35,000. The Plague of 430BC and the Peloponnesian War led to a loss of
tribute, economic distress; and emigration reduced their numbers to 21,000 by the 4th
century. Sparta also suffered from impoverishment” (Southall, 1998).
Cities: From the Greeks to Globalisation
Greek cities were the cultural, bureaucratic and trading centres of a POLIS (city-state)
The factors limiting the growth of Greek cities in the Middle-Ages were:
“It is strategically placed for maritime trade between the earlier mainland urban
economies in the north, east and south. It therefore offers a wide variety of
opportunities for agriculture and settlement between rich lowland grain farming;
easily defended mountains, pasturing goats and nurturing olives, grapes, figs and
chestnuts. Rich coastal fisheries and many harbours suitable for their small, shallow
draft vessels” (Southall, 1998).
“The city states concentrated on maritime trade, enriched by highly skilled craft
production, symbolically emphasized in the myth of Daedalus, especially in the metal
works. It was an open civilization with little sign of fortification” (Faure, 1973).
• Male
• Free Born
• Pure Born
1/6 of the Greek population were citizens, where only citizens could vote and not all
citizens had a share of power; the citizenry itself was divided.
Pericles was a leading Greek citizen who believed democracy was worth dying for
(died 429BC): “Unlike its enemies, in Athens ‘Power is in the hands of not the minority
but of the whole people...everyone is equal before the law’ (Funeral Oratory 431BC)
Can anyone be a ruler? Has any citizen the right to govern even without specialized
training?
“Notoriously based upon a slave majority of workers, with women largely confined to
domestic roles, the productive forces in the Greek city still remained too weak to
provide a higher standard of living and thinking, for any bit a small minority. Greek
democracy can therefore be seen as a superlative achievement, or a shame, from
different angles” (Southhall, 1998).
Cities: From the Greeks to Globalisation
*THE GREEK MIRACLE: “For the Greeks added a new component to the city, all but
unknown to earlier cultures, dangerous to any system of arbitrary power or secret
authority: they brought forth the free citizen [...] Whatever the city possessed the
citizen considered his own by birthright: between friends as between citizens there
were no secrets, no professional walls, no presumption of inequality. The freeborn
citizen owed nothing to princely or to his economic or official function [...] That at least
was the ideal; and it is by its capacity to formulate that ideal – not by its failure to
achieve it – that we still properly measure the Greek Polis” (Mumford, 1969).
For the Greeks the Polis was seen as the city, the state and a citizenry:
“The Greeks identified the city and state linguistically, with one term (Polis) for both”
(Southall, 1998)
“As Thucydides put it: ‘it is the men that are the Polis’ [...] The citizens were the state
[...] There are no contrasting meanings for city and state; they are one and the same”
(Hall, 1999)
The Polis has had several definitions which have grown with its activity through
Ancient Greece’s timeline:
1. In the ‘Dark’ Ages it refers to the defensible high ground; a rallying point
2. Overtime these places became sacred sites, serving as spiritual sites for the
community; now known as the ‘Acropolis’
3. Eventually the Polis just came to mean ‘the city-state’
The land surrounding the Polis was common or public land on which an Agora could be
found. Agora comes from a Greek word which means ‘to assemble’ and was used for
citizen meetings (AM) and trade (PM).
Many changes in power were inspired by the fall of the aristocracy in Ancient Greece.
The aristocracy had previously ruled by symbolic power, control of grain and control of
debit.
Before 600BC it was ran by male adults, sons of citizens from parents of Polis, citizen.
Only citizens were allowed to hold official posts such as being a general or a judge.
When there was an aristocratic fall, however, Athens moved towards a naval base –
not only slaves – the citizens did as well, as it was a citizen’s duty to protect the Polis.
(By 600BC crops failed, non-nobles were appointed with power; it was illegal to have
slaves, each citizen could vote and any one citizen was allowed power for a limited
time)
• The Lottery - All public posts (except highest military and finance) were decided
by lottery. Those selected formed the council of the 500, who took care of the
administration of Athens and the Polis
• Jury Duty – Juries were selected through an intricate series of lots and were paid
for the time spent serving
• The Assembly – The assembly met at the Pynx where any one meeting could be
composed of thousands of citizens
• The Vote – Voting was done be a show of hands and occasionally by a secret
ballot (i.e. Ostracism)
By 500BC the geography of power had shifted from the Acropolis to the flat ground of
the Agora and the Pynx.
Women in the Ancient Greek society were legally property of their father or husband.
They were not considered citizens and could not, therefore, hold an official post; nor
could they own land.
“Ancient Greece was a patriarchal society and the polis was a male club” (Katz, 1998)
Cities: From the Greeks to Globalisation
The Public Spheres (and spaces) were dominated by Men; women were expected to
remain in the Private Sphere (and spaces). This in practice referred to low status city
jobs: Priestesses, Courtesans (Hetairai) and Prostitutes.
Business Domestic
Rational Irrational
Political Personal
Slaves
• They were acquired by conquest debt or birth and were not necessarily due to
racial conflicts, the Greeks could have slaves of Greek origin.
“It was their work that allowed others to be free for the leisure and politics that
constituted the best life of the citizen” (Riesenberg, 1992)
Population Demography
Cities: From the Greeks to Globalisation
At the start of the Peloponnesian War 432BC Athens had a population of about
215,000-300,000; which was compromised of:
K = 1,000
Citizens
Citizen's Families
Metics
Metics Families
Slaves
***
SUMMARY
“[with his reforms] Cleisthenes “The paradox which every school child
submerged all other affiliations, family or knows, is that all this democracy, all this
religious, and left the territorial efflorescence of high culture, depend on
paramount” (Reisenberg, 1992) the labour of slaves” (Hall, 1999)
“The people, that is, all free males, were “The elite were highly motivated to
the sovereign power. They took all secure their own position through binding
political decisions, sat on juries, held all citizens in loyalty to them and the city,
public office, and had a right to free by lightening their burdens and increasing
speech untrammelled by considerations their privileges in access to justice and
of public security or laws of libel. This political participation” (Southall, 1998)
democracy was not representative but
Cities: From the Greeks to Globalisation
“In reality … a minority group of the relatively wealthy and privileged citizens
monopolized power and leisure, ignoring women and despising the disenfranchised
merchants who generated most of the wealth, collectively oppressing and taxing the
peasants who grew the food and standing on the necks of the slaves who did the
menial jobs. The fact that most citizens had to work to earn their living, that slaves
could be humanely treated or that the elite could joke about the difficulty of
distinguishing slave from free by dress cannot alter the basic economic reality”
(Southall 1998 p.64).