Politics in Classical Greece: The Nature of the Polis and the Origins of the Rule of Law

Sacred Heart University Review Volume 9 Issue 2 The Greeks Institute Article 4 Spring 1989 Politics in Classical Greece: The Nature of the Polis and the Origins of the Rule of Law Thomas D. Curran Ph.D. Sacred Heart University, Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/shureview Recommended Citation Curran, Thomas D. Ph.D. (1989) "Politics in Classical Greece: The Nature of the Polis and the Origins of the Rule of Law," Sacred Heart University Review: Vol. 9 : Iss. 2 , Article 4. Available at: http://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/shureview/vol9/iss2/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the SHU Press Publications at DigitalCommons@SHU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Sacred Heart University Review by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@SHU. For more information, please contact . Politics in Classical Greece: The Nature of the Polis and the Origins of the Rule of Law Cover Page Footnote This article is based on a lecture delivered at the The Greeks Institute, a series of lectures presented to secondary school teachers in the Bridgeport Public Schools during the spring of 1989. Co-sponsored by the Connecticut Humanities Council, Sacred Heart University, and the Bridgeport Public Schools, the purpose of the institute has been to provide teachers with an interdisciplinary exploration of classical Greece for the purposes of professional enrichment and curriculum development. This article is available in Sacred Heart University Review: http://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/shureview/vol9/iss2/4 Curran: Politics in Classical Greece T H O M A S D. C U R R A N Politics in Classical Greece: The Nature and the Origins of the Rule of of the Polis Law Most historians of classical Greece consider the characteristic feature of Greek political life to have been the city-state or polis. Finley Hooper in his introduction to Greek history and culture emphasizes the cellular nature of the Greek world, composed as it was not of a unified people with a common political tradition but, rather, of a "family of small independent states" which shared a common language, religion and literature but which remained essentially autonomous.'.Others have cited the fragmentation of the peninsula into a multitude of sovereign states, which tended to vent their tempers at one another rather than to cooperate in the face of a threat to them all, as a significant factor leading to the ultimate collapse of Greek freedom before the might of Alexander the Great in the fourth century, B.C.2 So cherished was the independence of a typical Greek city-state, and so jealously was it guarded, that the political history of classical Greece might easily be viewed in a series of parallel columns, one for eachpolis, rather than as a continuous narrative that attempts to weave together the threads of a single story. To give the termpolis itself too precise a definition is thus to risk losing sight of the city-states'great diversity. There were roughly 700 city-states in Greece, ranging in size from small towns claiming no more than a few hundred citizens to metropolises offering citizenship to tens of thousands. In some city-states, such as Sparta, which possessed large amounts of fertile land, agriculture remained the basis of the economy and ownership of the land was a key factor in the evolution of political structures. Others, such as Corinth and Aegina, that were less well endowed with farm land found themselves dependent upon manufacturing and trade for the necessities of life. In such places, political power might be exercised in much the same way as in a more land-based power but its source would be control of commercial wealth and the objects of political struggle would more likely be trade and commercial policy. Meanwhile, Athens, which boasted both a large rural hinterland (approximately 1,000 sq. miles) and a strong trading economy, developed a panoply of institutions Published by DigitalCommons@SHU, 1989 1 Sacred Heart University Review, Vol. 9, Iss. 2 [1989], Art. 4 THOMAS D. CURRAN 29 which can only'be considered, in the phrase of historian Malcolm McGregor, "a full and direct democracy." 3 The point is not that one can not generalize safely about politics in classical Greece, but that aspects of social, economic and political life in the Greek city-states were sufficiently various to require caution. What, then, were the common features of the political life of the Greek city-states? The first thing that comes to mind is the physical orientation of the Greek community toward ah urban center, the city proper, which was fortified, provided a market (agora) and a place of assembly, and served as the seat of justice and government. This should not be taken to mean that the polis was a strictly' urban institution. In fact, in most-cases the majority of the citizenry was composed of inhabitants of rural areas outside the city walls. It has been estimated, for example, that roughly two thirds of the citizens of Athens lived in rural districts at the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War in 431.4 Nor was it the case that the city ruled the countryside, since citizens were citizens whether they resided in the city proper or in the countryside. It is true, however, that the political and economic life of agricultural districts occupied by farmhouses and villages was normally oriented toward a focal point, usually a city, that performed a number of crucial religious, political and administrative functions. Perhaps symbolic of the urban roots of Greek community life were the festivals and religious celebrations that city-states held on traditional dates in honor of the gods. In Athens, for example, the city held an annual three-day festival in honor of Dionysus, the god of fertility and wine. Each day the city sponsored a dramatic arts competition in which five comedies and three tragedies involving more that one thousand participants were performed before an audience of some 14,000 citizens. The whole affair was a great communarcelebration, both solemn and festive, in which the entire citizenry was invited to participate. It was organized and administered by priests who were city officials, and the religious and patriotic character of the occasion acted to reinforce the solidarity of the entire community. As important as the urban base of the polis was" in establishing the identity of the city-state, an even more salient feature of its political culture was the sense of community that was shared by its members. More than anything else, a polis was a body of citizens whose status was to a substantial degree defined .by their position http://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/shureview/vol9/iss2/4 2 Curran: Politics in Classical Greece 30 SACRED HEART UNIVERSITY REVIEW within a corporate community and who, in theory, were expected to regard participation in the political life of the city-state to be both a privilege and an obli (...truncated)