The Greek Polis-Sparta

The classical polis (plural: poleis) was a political, social, and cultural entity. Over the next several lectures, we will look at it from each of these points of view. First, we address some preliminary considerations. The physical characteristics of a polis may be expressed by a formula: asty + chora = polis. Asty is the Greek word for the city proper, the core of the polis. Chora means region or district; in our formula, it refers to the agricultural hinterland around a polis. A polis, therefore, is always an urban core and a rural zone: Athens + Attica = Athenian polis; Sparta + Laconia = Spartan polis.

The urban area usually had an agora (market area), temples, a building or area where public decisions were reached, and entertainment facilities, such as theaters and stadiums. Some poleis had natural fortifications: acropolis. 

Aristotle believed that people “naturally” lived in poleis. He and his pupils studied more than 100 Greek poleis. The amount of variation from one to another could be considerable. We shall look in detail at only two.

Sparta

Sparta’s early development is shrouded in legend. Supposedly, Lycurgus, a mythical law-giver, on the command of the gods, gave Sparta a constitution all at once circa 750 B.C. In fact, the Spartan system emerged piecemeal after the conquest of the Messenians circa 725 B.C.

One outstanding feature of the Spartan system was the social classes. The homoioi (equals) were adult male Spartan citizens over the age of 18. They had substantial rights of political participation, which was unusual at so early a date. The periokoi (dwellers about) were what we would call “resident aliens.” These people were not citizens but enjoyed basic protection. There are many theories about just who they were. The helots (state slaves) were, essentially, the conquered Messenians; the helots belonged to Sparta and not to individual Spartans.

There were two kings, drawn from the same two families, who had veto power over each other. One was usually at home, and one away with the army. And there were two deliberative councils. All equals belonged to the assembly. This body could propose laws, wars, or treaties but could not legislate by itself. Real power was vested in a council consisting of the kings, the ephors (whom we will discuss in a moment), and equals over the age of 60. This body could ignore or act on suggestions from the assembly

of equals.

There were five ephors (overseers) whose job it was to ensure that any law passed by the council or

any verdict passed by a court was in accordance with Spartan tradition. They were always old and

wealthy equals. Krypteia (secret police) were young men between 18 and 20 who primarily spied on the

helots but also snooped on ordinary equals.

The Spartan constitution depended on the social system, the agoge (the training, or upbringing). Babies were inspected at birth, and the healthy ones were returned to their parents until age seven. At age seven, boys were enrolled in military brotherhoods to which they belonged the rest of their lives. From 7 to 18, they underwent rigorous physical and military training. From 18 to 20, many served in secret service, then entered a regular army unit until age 60.

Marriage was not companionate; its sole function was the production of more equals. The system aimed to create military excellence, discipline, and loyalty. Spartan life was austere and simple. Spartans believed that book-learning made men effeminate. Spartans used iron money to make hoarding unattractive.

The Spartan system aimed to hold the helots in check (their labor made the life of the equals possible) and to ward off any threat of attack. By about 550, Sparta had formed the Peloponnesian League, which gave it the opportunity to control the constitutions of member states. Sparta tried to prevent democracies and social turmoil. The Spartan system was still in place when Rome conquered Greece in the 2nd century B.C., but there were only a few equals left by then. Contemporaries admired Sparta’s strength, simplicity, and stability.

Dark Age and Archaic Greece

Greek civilization did not grow to glory in a straight line from the Myceneans. Between 1200 and 1100 B.C., there is evidence for widespread destruction of the major Mycenean sites, some of which—not least Mycenae itself!—were never reinhabited. These invasions were traditionally associated with the Dorians, a people from northern Greece who pushed south and settled primarily in the Peloponnesus with Sparta as their key city. But the Dorians were not alone in disrupting Mycenean Greece; they were alone in being remembered.

Introducing the Dorians provides an opportunity to clarify some terms. We speak of Greeks, oddly, because the Romans called them Graeci. The “Greeks” called themselves Hellenes and their land, Hellas. There were four major groupings of Greeks with modest ethnic and linguistic differences: Attic, Ionic, Aeolic, and Doric. The Dorian invasions ushered in a period traditionally called the Dark Ages. This was a time of small, illiterate communities. The Greeks forgot how to write! This period also saw depopulation, de-urbanization, and scant construction.

Between 800 and 700 B.C., the Greek world began to show signs of life and energy. Historians speak of the transition to the Archaic period (c. 750–550). The great achievement of this period was the polis, the city-state that was the key Greek political institution. We will take a detailed look at Athens and Sparta in the next lectures. For now, we will look at origins. Dark Age Greece was relatively peaceful, and after about 900, the population began to grow. This gradually produced fierce competition for resources in a

poor land.

Also around 900 or 800 B.C., the commercial exploits of the Phoenicians were a spur to at least some Greeks. Wealth generated by trade also upset the delicate balance in modest agricultural communities. Beginning in around 750 B.C., various Greek cities displayed one or more of three responses to the tensions of the age.

1. Conquest: Sparta conquered and enslaved their neighbors to the west, the Messenians.

2. Trade: Athens, but also Corinth and other cities, entered into widespread commercial ventures. The Athenians and others may have been emulating the Phoenician example.

3. Colonization: Corinth above all, along with many other Greek cities, exported surplus population to colonies that maintained emotional, political, and economic relations with their “mothercities” (literally, metropoleis).

Of these processes, the commercial and, especially, the colonial, were of immense historical significance. Greek cities, language, culture, art, architecture, literature, and political institutions were scattered all over the Mediterranean world. But the Greeks learned, too. For example, they got their alphabet from the Phoenicians.

The later Dark Ages and the Archaic period give evidence for the emergence of some of the most familiar aspects of Greek culture. Decorations on pottery are revealing. Geometric designs show

rationalism but also a sense of order, balance, and harmony. Figured pottery shows a tendency to abstraction, an attempt to discern behind what is visible to what is really “more” true. Aesthetic tastes and technical virtuosity are also on display.

Sculpture shows a steady progression that may have owed much to Egyptian styles but that also advanced the Greek quest to explore the particularities of the human condition. A return to Homer’s poems also opens up a vista on the values and ideologies of the age and hints at some of that age’s changes.

Intense competition, both verbal and physical, is portrayed in the poems. Compare the athletic

contests. The poems evidence reflections on brains (Nestor) versus brawn (Achilles). The poems address respective obligations of the individual and the community. They examine the nature of authority: kings and great advisers versus the ordinary man. We also see changes in warfare in Homer’s poems, from the single combat of the heroes to the hoplite phalanx featuring the ordinary soldier. This formative period, then, brought into view, albeit in embryonic form, many of the features of Greece’s

“classical” period

Wide-Ruling Agamemnon

Minoans

Civilization in the Greek world began on the Mediterranean island of Crete about 2000 B.C. The civilization there has been long called the Minoan, from the mythical King Minos. We do not yet know exactly who these people were. Examples of their writing have been discovered, but the language is unknown. It is not Greek (referred to as Linear A).

The massive palace complex at Knossos, which covers 5 acres and has a central courtyard that is 55 meters by 25 meters, provides clues about the Minoans. The size, beauty, and decorations of the complex suggest wealth, leisure, and a developed aesthetic sense. Storehouses and Linear A documents suggest bureaucracy. Artistic motifs and, perhaps, architectural forms suggest contacts with the Near East and Egypt. The complete lack of fortifications suggests that the people were peaceful and nonaggressive.

Minoan civilization flourished from 1800 to 1550 B.C. In 1626 B.C., a volcanic eruption on Thera (Santorini), 70 miles away, caused heavy damage and may have initiated the decline of the Minoans. Much of the island was devastated by conquest circa 1550 B.C. The conquerors almost certainly came from mainland Greece. Civilization took hold slowly in Greece. The land is rocky; the soil, poor; and the climate, especially in the north, harsh. By 6500 B.C., villages showed signs of the Neolithic Revolution. Around 3000 and again around 2300 (or, to some, c. 1700), the Balkans saw impressive migrations. By 2600–2200, we see the first signs of urban development and the “Mediterranean triad” of crops: cereal grains, grapes, and olives. 

Myceneans

From about 2000 B.C., we can discern Mycenean civilization—named for the great citadel at Mycenae. Almost certainly, the Myceneans conquered the Minoans. Apparently, they had been learning from, and grew jealous of, the Minoans. The highpoint of Mycenean civilization was from 1400 to 1200 B.C.

The sources of our knowledge of the Myceneans are three.

1. Linear B documents: Linear B documents were found in profusion. These were deciphered by Michael Ventris and others in the early 1950s. They revealed a world of bureaucratic regulation.

2. Archaeology: Impressive remains have been found at several major sites, such as Mycenae, Sparta, Pylos, Corinth, and so on. Large fortified sites with strong defensive works and imposing royal residences suggest strong kingship and military rule. Tomb complexes suggest historical memory and dynastic continuity.

3. Homeric poems: Homeric poems, especially the Iliad, are the most important sources, but also difficult and controversial. The Homeric poems were put into something like their current shape after 800 and probably around 725 B.C., then written down about 550. How can they tell us much about the period from 1400 to 1200 B.C.?

After World War II, Milman Parry and Albert Lord studied poetic bards in Yugoslavia and discovered that they could recite up to 500,000 lines of material. Think of Alex Haley and Roots. Or of performers today with scripts and lyrics! Therefore, it is legitimate to think that much authentic material was transmitted over a long time to “Homer.”

The Mycenean elements in the story are the basic and concrete details: names of key places and, perhaps, people; some aspects of warfare in the “old” days; a vague sense of the diplomatic structure of the time. The Trojan War (traditional date 1194 B.C.) was probably a trade dispute and may have been
a Mycenean inheritance from the Minoans. The ethical teachings of the Iliad relate more precisely to the period when the poems were put into coherent form, our next subject. 

Sparknotes: The Iliad