Cities: From the Greeks to Globalisation

Roots of the Polis: Ancient Athens

What does it mean to be a citizen?

The ‘Greek Miracle’

The Emergence of the Polis

Who ran the Polis? – From the citadel to the Agora

The place(s) of women in Athens

Greece: An introduction...

Time Period

Before 1000BC The ‘Dark’ Ages

1000BC-700BC Stabilization

700BC-500BC Aristocratic rule and Tyranny in Athens

“The struggle to retain privilege or

build citizen solidarity as reform was
sought to prevent polarization from
destroying the fundamental unity of
rich and poor citizens as a slave-
controlling class. The rich wanted
power and privileges, the masses
wanted better living and justice;
competing factions wanted both”
(Southall, 1998)

500BC-300BC The ‘Golden Era’

300BC-146BC The Rule of Tyrants

146BC Annexation by Rome

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:

• ECONOMIC – Mainly subsistence economies, however growing trade and

imported skills changed this.
• ENVIRONMENTAL – Poor soils with mountainous landscapes and lack of open
space. The coasts were the most vulnerable and were very limiting in the
possibility of urban sprawl.
• POLITICAL – The constant threat of invasion and wide spread piracy and
banditry.

“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).

What does it mean to be a citizen?

Who is a citizen? Is it a right or a privilege? How is a citizenship gained or lost?

In Ancient Greece being a citizen meant you were:

• 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.

The ‘Greek Miracle’

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)

*DEMOCRACY = ‘Demos’: The People ‘Kratos’: Are the Power

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).

“The dream of total citizen participation in electoral decision making processes

already excluded the majority of the population of non-citizens and the whole female
population. By the 5th century (when the male population was below 10,000) the
theory wore thin, despite the huge open air assemblies; and Athens was inevitable run
by shifting factions and coalitions of closely interlocking wealthy families etc”
(Southall, 1998).

The emergence of the Polis

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).

Who ran the Polis?: from the Acropolis to the Agora

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.

The crisis of 600BC and Solon’s decrees

Cities: From the Greeks to Globalisation

“Before Solon no clear conception of citizenship existed” (Riesenberg, 1992)

• The state independent from any single faction or group.

• Broadened the political base of Athens away from the Aristocrats by setting up
a new council (Helacea)
• Encouraged the formation of an urban, trading ‘middle-class’
• Encouraged the practice of Liturgy

(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)

Democracy post 500BC: Clesithenes’ Constitution of Athens

• 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.

The place(s) of women in Athens

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.

Public (Men) Private

(Women)

Business Domestic

Rational Irrational

Political Personal

Metics (Immigrant traders)

• They are highly valued and often wealthy

• They are subject to special tax
• They are not entitled to citizenship and therefore cannot own land

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:

• Citizens (35k-45k); with families (110k-180k)

• Metics (10k-15k); with families (25k-40k)
• Slaves (80k-100k)

K = 1,000

Citizens
Citizen's Families
Metics
Metics Families
Slaves

***

SUMMARY

Celebratory Narratives Critical Narratives

From Kinship to Kingship to Cult-ship to Inclusion and Exclusion: citizens, metics,

(occidental) Citizenship slaves & women

“[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)

Participatory democracy in the Polis Citizenship as a ruling class strategy

“The people, that is, all free males, were
the sovereign power. They took all
political decisions, sat on juries, held
public office, and had a right to free
speech untrammelled by considerations
of public security or laws of libel. This
democracy was not representative but
“The elite were highly motivated to
secure their own position through binding
all citizens in loyalty to them and the city,
by lightening their burdens and increasing
their privileges in access to justice and
political participation” (Southall, 1998)
Cities: From the Greeks to Globalisation

complete. It did not members to some

assembly, but the people really met
together, discussed, and decided what
should be done” (Bowra, 1969)

“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).