An Inventory of Archaic and Classical PoleisThis is the first ever documented study of the 1,035 identifiable Greek city states (poleis) of the Archaic and Classical periods (c.650-325 BC). Previous studies of the Greek polis have focused on Athens and Sparta, and the result has been a view of Greek society dominated by Sophokles', Plato's, and Demosthenes' view of what the polis was. This study includes descriptions of Athens and Sparta, but its main purpose is to explore the history and organization of the thousand other city states. The main part of the book is a regionally organized inventory of all identifiable poleis covering the Greek world from Spain to the Caucasus and from the Crimea to Libya. This inventory is the work of 47 specialists, and is divided into 46 chapters, each covering a region. Each chapter contains an account of the region, a list of second-order settlements, and an alphabetically ordered description of the poleis. This description covers such topics as polis status, territory, settlement pattern, urban centre, city walls and monumental architecture, population, military strength, constitution, alliance membership, colonization, coinage, and Panhellenic victors. The first part of the book is a description of the method and principles applied in the construction of the inventory and an analysis of some of the results to be obtained by a comparative study of the 1,035 poleis included in it. The ancient Greek concept of polis is distinguished from the modern term `city state', which historians use to cover many other historic civilizations, from ancient Sumeria to the West African cultures absorbed by the nineteenth-century colonializing powers. The focus of this project is what the Greeks themselves considered a polis to be. |
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An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis Mogens Herman Hansen,Thomas Heine Nielsen No preview available - 2004 |
Common terms and phrases
According Achaian acropolis ancient Apollo archaeological Archaic Archaic and Classical Arist Athenian Athens attested Barr Boiotian bronze called centre circuit citizens city-ethnic city-state Classical period coinage coins collective colony connection constitution cult decree Delphi dependent described Diod early ethnic evidence example existence external Federation FGrHist fortified foundation Greek Hansen head Hell Hellenistic identified important included indicates individual infra inscription internal island issue Italy known later least legend located mentioned origin Paus perhaps Phokian poleis polis political political sense population possibly presumably probably Ps.-Skylax recorded reference region remains river Rutter sanctuary seems sense settlement Sicily situated SNG Cop sometimes sources status Steph Strabo struck suggests supra Sybaris Syracuse temple term territory Thuc Timaios tion toponym town urban urban sense wall