INTRODUCTION: POLITICAL CULTURE IN THE GREEK CITY PRE-PUB VERSION SUMMER 2009 1

Political culture in the Greek city after the classical age: introduction and preview
Onno M. van Nijf and Richard Alston

Traditionally the history of politics is thought to begin with the Greek polis. All societies
have their politics, of course but there is an established Western trope that sees a continuity
in political thought from Ancient Greece and Rome to that of the Modern world. Classical
politics has thus had a special place in the Western political tradition, and has been
especially important for the abstractions of politics that have gone to make up political
philosophy since the late Medieval period. Greece in particular still exerts a fascination
with historians and laymen alike. Western politicians on visits to Modern Greece can rarely
resist the temptation to reflect on the fact ‘that there it all began’, an assumption that the
Modern Greek state has every interest in supporting. But historians know all too well that
the Athenian democracy was not a direct ancestor of modern political systems. Neither can
modern non-democratic governmental systems plausibly claim linear descent from the
models of classical antiquity. Further, although there are similarities between classical
federations of states and, for instance, the European Union, and constitutional lawyers
might work with the concept of a balance of powers between elements of the state which
would not be altogether foreign to Polybius, the conceptions and institutions of modern
political life would seem remote from much of its ancient equivalent. Indeed, we may
wonder whether, when we talk about politics in this modern globalised environment, we
are discussing anything that would be remotely recognisable to politicians and
philosophers of politics two millennia ago.
Why then study ancient politics? Some answers might seem self-evident. ‘Everybody
knows’ that Greek and Roman politics has had a profound influence on political ideas. The
vocabulary of western political science has been drawn (sometimes directly) from the world
of the Greek polis or the Roman republic. Democracy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and
monarchy are all terms that initially coined and defined by ancient political thinkers, and
all are still in wide use. They also have meanings beyond the technical: we all know what is
meant by ‘oligarchs’, by ‘tyrants’, by ‘monarchs’ and ‘aristocrats’, and although they all have
a straightforward definition, they also have an emotional and political resonance that gives
them a moral force. The chances of people taking to the streets in support of oligarchy or
tyranny are, it seems, slim. Yet, seemingly every week people are killed in fighting tyranny
and dictatorships. But all these words reflect perfectly legitimate, if sometimes somewhat
debased forms of classical governance. In a perhaps more neutral but structurally
significant borrowing, the terms for citizens and citizenship in several European languages
were derived from ancient political discourse – which was the first in world history to
conceptualise citizenship.1
Many of these terms entered western political vocabulary in the early modern period.
The Latin tradition was especially influential with Greek political ideas transmitted through
Cicero, Livy, and Sallust. On the Greek side, the philosopher and historian Plutarch (c. 46-
127) was compulsory reading for aristocrats and the emerging bourgeois elites.2 Polybius,
Plato and Aristotle eventually found their way onto the reading lists of political thinkers of
the early Modern period. Such was their influence that a knowledge of Greek and Roman
political literature is a necessary prerequisite of the study of (early) modern Republicanism.

1
Cartledge 2000, see also his recent survey in Cartledge 2009. Although citizenship is now seen as a
self-evident concept and fairly political neutral for non-immigrant populations, one might argue
that the collective Renaissance move to think of the individual as a citizen rather than a subject was
the most radical transformation in the political thought of the period.
2
See for an overview of the impact of Plutarch’s work the various articles in de Blois, et al. 2004.
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Yet, such readings were not always positive, and although we may prefer to take our
inspiration from an Athenian democratic past, the popularity of the Athenian experiment is
a relatively new phenomenon. Until the French and American revolutions, western political
elites tended to look back at Athenian democracy without much enthusiasm, and regarded
the supposed popularism of some Athenian and, indeed, Roman politicians of the late
Republic with distaste and fear.3
Political historians and other experts in the history of political ideas are still to some
extent engaged in a debate with ancient predecessors like Plato, Aristotle or Cicero, if
sometimes through their sixteenth to nineteenth century ‘intermediaries’. Although the
direct use of ancient political thinkers (with the possible exception of Plato) ceased to be
quite so central to political philosophy from the late nineteenth century, recently we have
seen that modern authors still engage in debate with ancient ideas about republicanism or
political freedom.4 Moreover, the recent debate about globalisation has also made
comparisons with the ‘archaic globalisation’ of classical antiquity. The ancient historian
Polybius was among the first to connect the idea of ecumenical or world history with the
Roman domination of the Mediterranean, and indeed of the civilised world.5
The history of Greek and Roman politics is not only of interest to historians of ideas and
political scientists, but also to historians of politics of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern
period. A comparative approach to the history of politics in Medieval and Early Modern
Europe – or of other pre-modern societies- can only benefit from a systematic comparison
with the more than 1,000 years of experience with political systems that Greek and Roman
antiquity has to offer.6 This comparative approach has already proven very fruitful with
respect to the study of the city state, or of the rituals that supported pre-modern kingship,
but could easily be extended.7 Other possible comparisons suggest themselves, for example,
in the field of political communication. The popular metaphor of politics as theatre has very
ancient roots: the assemblies of ancient Greek city poleis often took place in the theatre. And
the old Attic comedy of Aristophanes, which depicts political life as a ‘democratic spectacle’,
can be considered as a classical Greek predecessor of the political sketch writers.8 High
culture as a producer of royal power was a fact of life in Ancien Régime Europe, but it had a
similar function for the Hellenistic monarchs and Roman emperors.9 The political function
of festivals and ceremonial life was no less important in antiquity than in medieval or early
modern Europe: a comparison of the ritual and ceremonial languages in the respective
periods may shed light on the possibilities and limitations of this mode of political
communication.10 Another fruitful field for comparison would be ancient styles of political
leadership. Early modern aristocratic or bourgeois elites developed a style that was derived
from the models formulated by authors such as Quintilian and Plutarch for the urban and
imperial elites of the Roman empire. A comparison with antiquity can also be useful when
political style rests on physical comportment. Citizenship in classical Greece also had a
physical dimension: an ideal citizen was supposed to have an ideal body, that was trained in

3
European ideas on Athens are discussed in Vidal-Naquet 2000, esp. part II.
4
See Alston in this volume.
5
Inglis and Robertson 2004; van Nijf 2006 suggests to speak of ‘ancient globalisation.’ Salmeri and
Forsen prefer ‘mondialisation’, Forsén and Salmeri 2008.
6
The work of the Copenhagen Polis Centre has done much to make such a comparison possible, Hansen
and Nielsen 2004.
7
Molho, et al. 1991; Cannadine and Price 1987, Spawforth 2007.
8
Goldhill 2000.
9
Blanning 2002; van Nijf 2006.
10
For an introduction to rituals in early modern Europe, see Muir 1997; a successful application of
the theoretical framework behind the work of Muir et al. can be found in Rogers 1991a.
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the public gymnasium and put on public display in urban festivals, or represented through
the many statues that were set up for athletes in public space. 11

Politics and the polis after Chaeroneia

In the late Roman Empire the Greek polis could look back on a history of more than 1200
years, which makes it one of the most successful forms of political organisation in world
history. Traditionally, the demise of the polis model is seen to begin only in late Antiquity,
when the elites increasingly earned symbolic and political capital in the service of emperor
and the Church and finally turned their back on the cities.12 The final outcome –the decline
and fall of the ancient city- is perhaps clear, but there is no general agreement about the
pace and the route along which this decline took place, and, indeed, the level of
disagreement is radical. When and how did the polis really disappear?
Once this was not felt to be a problem. In 1944, when British and German cities had been
suffering destruction brought by bombing raids and V2’s, Frank Walbank quotes with
approval the Latin author Servius Sulpicius (first century BC) on his visit to Attica:13

“ ‘Behind me was Aegina, in front of me on the right the Piraeus, on the left Corinth,
cities which had once been prosperous, but now lay shattered ruins before my sight.’
Oppidum cadavera he goes on to call them- corpses of cities! ... But it was based upon
an essential truth. The Saronic Gulf, once the centre of the world, was now, for all that
Greece meant, a dead lake lapping about the foundations of dead cities.”

Walbank echoes here the sentiments of many modern scholars who have argued –or
assumed– that the polis, and hence politics, had died at the hands of Philip II in 338 BCE at
the battle of Chaeroneia. Erich Gruen has recently compiled a list of the conventional
clichés surrounding the demise of the polis. French scholarship refers back to a formulation
by Gustave Glotz, but similar sentiments were also found in the work of the German emigré
Ehrenberg in Oxford, who argued that the Greek polis was alien to the Hellenistic state.14
Within this tradition there has been debate on the question whether the polis was
brutally murdered, or whether Chaeroneia had been a case of mercy killing for a terminally
ill patient. In an important article with the ominous title ‘Doomed to extinction. The polis as an
evolutionary dead end’ the sociologist Runciman clearly defends the latter view.15 With or
without the rise of Macedon, the polis would have been unable to survive. Even the excellent
and up-to-date survey of Greek political thought in action by Cartledge sticks to the view
that polis politics had come to an end by the age of Plutarch – or to be precise he argues that
the polis had become outdated, and that political thought had advanced ‘beyond the
relatively narrow confines of the polis’ to Hellenistic monarchies and ultimately to Rome.16
Most scholars who have taken this view and have primarily been interested in ancient
politics as an element in the history of ideas, and their main point of reference has been the
‘democratic experiment’ in classical Athens and its subsequent influences. The literature of
that democracy has long been seen to set a classical standard whose influence resonates
through Western culture and is in itself a reason to study the period. The exceptionality of

11
Roodenburg: 2004; van Nijf 2002.
12
The standard work on the history of the postclassical polis remains Jones 1940. Cf. Ma 2003, 33.
13
Walbank 1944, 10. The quotation appears in Cicero Fam.4.5.4.
14
Gruen 1993, 339 for the references.
15
Runciman 1990.
16
Cartledge 2009, 134.
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classical Athens both justifies the focus on its history and divides it from the rest of Greek
political history. As soon as one moves away from this classicizing perspective, however, a
different view of the later Greek polis presents itself. 17 It has become increasingly accepted
that Chaeroneia may have caused the loss of power of the great poleis, such as Athens or
Sparta, but that the independent polis did not disappear as a form of political or social
organization. Moreover, for most of the smaller poleis the changes in the ‘international’
political climate may not have amounted to a radical change in their political position, as
full independence (as opposed to relative autonomy) had never been within their reach. We
only need to ask how much manoeuvring space would have been allowed to the subject
cities in the Delian or the Peloponnesian leagues to demonstrate the illusory nature of
‘freedom’ for many of the poleis of classical Greece 18
Perhaps no one has done more to establish this new orthodoxy than the great French
epigraphist Louis Robert, who has not only repeatedly argued that the city did not die at
Chaeroneia, but whose numerous epigraphic publications have made the Hellenistic polis
come to life. Robert’s revisionism has become so prevalent that it is almost an orthodoxy
that the polis continued to flourish after Chaeroneia. Historians are now arguing for the
continuation and further development of the model of the polis ‘as an important form of
human organization and political experience’ in the years after 338 BCE.19 The Hellenistic
and Roman periods saw urbanization grow to a level that would not be equalled in the
history of the region or indeed in the history of pre-industrial Europe. The Hellenistic
period even witnessed something like a ‘second rise of the polis’, when after Alexander’s
conquests, new poleis were founded in Anatolia, Syria and the Near East between the
Euphrates and the Indus. These new Greek cities resembled the classical poleis not only
architecturally, but also in terms of institutions and organisation. In this way, the form of
the polis was exported across the Hellenistic and later Roman East to the very extremes of
Greek and Roman geographical knowledge. The new Greek foundation of Alexandria on the
Oxus, now known as Aï Khanum, near present day Kandahar, became in the Hellenistic
period a polis that resembled in many respect the age-old poleis on the Aegean shores. Old
and new poleis had to adapt themselves to the claims to power of territorial rulers, but they
maintained an intensive diplomacy based on mutual recognition as ‘peer polities.’20 Some
poleis, such as Rhodes, were relatively free, others opted for experiments with federalism,
ranging from federal citizenship to complete political union of individual poleis.21
Institutionally most of these poleis were democracies, moderate democracies perhaps, but
still recognisably conforming to a model that could be extracted from the study of classical
Athens, with rotation of offices, and popular control exercised by the assembly of citizens.
In absolute numbers more poleis were democratic in the Hellenistic than in the classical
period!22
Moreover, scholars are increasingly aware of the fact that democracy still mattered:
citizenship and civic identity were far from meaningless categories. People were fully
scrutinised before being admitted as new citizens, and care was taken to allot them a tribe

17
Cf. Pleket 1998, 205 and Salmeri in this volume. This applies less to Frank Walbank who was of
course an expert on Polybius and Hellenistic history, but in the quoted article his perspective was
undoubtedly in the old classicist mould.
18
Gruen 1993, 341. The exchange of oaths between Chalkis and Athens of 446-445 BCE is a good
example of the limitated autonomy left to the allies, ML 52.
19
Ma 2000, 108.
20
Ma 2003 applies the model of ‘peer politiy interaction’, which was developed by Colin Renfrew in
the context of Greek prehistory, to the Hellenistic world.
21
Walbank 1976-1977.
22
Gruen 1993, Gauthier 1985, Gauthier 1993.
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and to ensure their equal participation in all the collective activities that had always been
the privilege of the polis-citizen.23 Inscriptions present us with oaths of loyalty that were
sworn by all (new) citizens or by the ephebes.24 Civic spirit does not seem to have declined,
judging by the rise in number of the honorific decrees for wealthy benefactors, as well as of
the epidosis inscriptions that painstakingly list even relatively minor financial
contributions by individual politai to their polis. 25 By all accounts the polis continued to hold
its place as the main focus for loyalty and affection of its citizens.

‘La basse époque hellénistique’

Although Robert covered all aspects of the Greek polis between the classical period and the
end of the Roman period, he has made a particularly important contribution to the history
of the later Hellenistic polis. In coining the phrase la basse époque hellénistique to describe the
late Hellenistic period he identified the rise of a new kind of social and political
organisation in the poleis, which has become known as the ‘régime of the notables.’26 This
development can be illustrated with the figure of the public benefactor who came to
dominate the later polis, as is amply demonstrated in the study of Paul Veyne.27 This unified
picture was crucially nuanced by Robert’s pupil Philippe Gauthier. 28 Against received
opinion Gauthier argues that the benefactors of the early Hellenistic period still operated
largely within a traditional polis framework:29

“[L]es grands bienfaiteurs sont honorés plus pour leur dévouement que pour leur
génerosité. Ce ne sont pas des nababs, qui recherchent la popularité à travers le
paternalisme, mais des citoyens zélés, qui assument, avec d’autres, des ambassades ou
des charges importantes et qui accomplissent des bienfait dans le cadre de leurs
fonctions (archai). Élus par le peuple, il lui rendent des comptes et obtiennent les
honneurs appropriés. Peu différents des prostatai tou démou qu’évoquent les auteurs
athéniens de la période classique, ils obtiennent, grâce à leur talents d’orateurs et à
leur situations sociale, la confiance de l’Assemblée. Ils représentent ou guident la cité,
sans la dominer; la communauté leur manifeste sa reconnaissance, mais garde un
pouvoir de contrôle. A la qualité des services rendus correspond le style des décrets.
Les considérants insistent sur le dévouement à la cité ... non sur les qualités
personnelles ou familiales des évergètes.”

It is only in the later Hellenistic period that we see a fundamental change in the political
culture. In the view of Robert and his followers, the running of the cities was now
increasingly left to a small hereditary minority, the ‘notables’, who used their personal
fortunes to run state services, receiving increasingly conspicuous forms of honour in
exchange. The new urban aristocracy of the cities was well-educated, steeped in Greek

23
Gruen 1993, 346 for the procedures involved in grants of citizenship. The notion of ‘collective
activities’ was developed for the archaic polis by Schmitt-Pantel 1990.
24
E.g. SIG (3), 526 (Itanos); Staatsverträge 545 (Kos).
25
Gauthier 1985. See Harter-Uibopuu in this volume.
26
Robert 1960.
27
Veyne 1976, but see already Tarn and Griffith 1966, 108-111. Tarn’s discussion of the Greek city is
couched in terms of decline: private generosity was in his eyes a sign of public crisis.
28
Gauthier 1985. For euergetism in in the Roman period, see now Zuiderhoek 2009.
29
Gauthier 1984, 88.
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paideia, and rhetoric played an ever increasing role in the formation of elite youth.30 Later
studies have sharpened this periodisation, and refined our understanding of this crucial
period of the later Hellenistic cities. The basse époque hellénistique is now widely seen as a
new stage in the history of the later Greek polis. Important questions have recently been
asked concerning the pace of development over different geographic areas.31 Others have
begun to question the distinctive character of the later Hellenistic city per se. Christian
Habicht in particular has raised the question whether a Honoratiorenregime was indeed
typical for the later Hellenistic period, as he argued that the position of the elite in the later
Hellenistic period did not differ essentially from that in the late classical period.32 Yet other
historians have questioned the opposing chronological limit, and have suggested that there
is a continuity of institutions and offices until well into the Roman era.33 Although a good
case can be made for institutional continuity as we shall see, it is also important to be alert
to the changes in the historical context and the wider political culture of this age. Recently
the debate about the cut-off point for the history of the Greek city has begun to shift again.
A watershed now tends to be associated with the arrival of the Romans, and in particular
with the institution of the Principate.34 It could perhaps be said that Actium is starting to
replace Chaeroneia as representing the beginning of the end for the Greek polis. Yet, we
have good reason to nuance this view.

The Imperial Greek city

Even after Actium there are few signs of an immediate decline of the polis. We may even say
that the Greek polis reached its acme in the Roman Imperial period. Under the Roman
emperors the Greek polis flourished as never before. This was not simply a case of old cities
surviving against all odds; rather Roman emperors themselves promoted the polis as the
dominant model of social and political organisation throughout the Greek-speaking
provinces.35 To millions of people the polis was not just a place of residence, but seems to
have to continued as the prime focus for political and social identification.36 Even Roman
colonies in Greece, as for example Patras or Corinth, ultimately presented a fully Hellenised
appearance.37
Greek cities were numerous, they enjoyed a rich material culture, and public life and
civic spirit were thriving, as is evidenced in the tens of thousands of inscriptions and
archaeological monuments that survive until this day. These are often the remains of
buildings that were deemed essential to a Greek polis. The periegete Pausanias (second
century CE) famously wrote that a community without public buildings, gymnasion, theatre

30
“De plus en plus l’évolution de la société enlève les affaires des cités à l’action souveraine de
l’assemblee du peuple et de la démocratie et les met aux mains d’une minorité, plus ou moins
héréditaire, de notables, qui assurent de leur fortune bien de s services essentiles de l’État et
reçoivent en retour des honneurs de plus en plus nombreux et éclatants. Cette nouvelle aristocratie
des cités possède une éducation soignée, elle honore et cultive la παιδεία; la rhétorique prend de
plus en plus de place dans la formation de la jeunesse et des élites ...”
31
Vial 1995, 251. This refinement of his periodisation was accepted by Gauthier 2005.
32
Habicht 1995.
33
E.g. Quaß 1993, with the important review by Gauthier in BE 1994, no. 194; cf. Dmitriev 2005.
34
This was already the thesis of De Ste. Croix 1983; see now the excellent programmatic article by
Heller 2009 for a thorough critique of this view.
35
Perhaps no emperor has done more in this respect than Hadrian, but the imperial support for the
(Greek) city was certainly not limited to him, Boatwright 2000.
36
Millar 2006.
37
Millar 1999; Katsari and Mitchell 2008.
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or agora could not be considered as a real polis.38 This second-century usage of polis suggests
that at this point a certain material and civic culture was necessary for polis status, but
there is every reason to believe that this association was not peculiar to the Roman period.
In material terms the Greek city of the Roman era was recognisable as a polis and would
have been recognisable as such to Greeks of the Hellenistic age, but it seems also that the
ideological and institutional framework of polis society was maintained, with some
accommodations, into the Roman and late Roman periods.
Under Roman rule, we find a striking continuity of the institutions and political concepts
that had already marked out the public sphere in the classical polis. Plutarch thought it self-
evident that popular assemblies were still the main arena for local politics.39 Epigraphic
documentation indicates that the boule and the demos were still deciding on the kinds of
issues that had already been on the agenda centuries earlier. There were only slight
differences in style and formulation compared to the decrees of the classical poleis.40
Political activity in the boule continued to be thought of as important by contemporaries,
and recent studies have urged us to take the role of assemblies seriously as well: at least
until the third century AD.41
Yet, to focus on all this marked institutional continuity should not be to obscure what
appears to have been an equally notable change in the wider political culture. Political
activity in the assembly took place not in a spirit of isonomia (equality among citizens) but
against a background of an increasing emphasis on rank and hierarchy.42 ‘Democracy’ could
be applied to political regimes that were dominated by their wealthiest citizens, the
notables. Most scholars agree that in the Roman period these notables had become a
hereditary group, who dominated public life in the cities. Roman policy as far back as 196
BC appears to have encouraged the development of this hierarchy. Livy makes the Spartan
Nabis tell T. Quinctius Flamininus that it is the Romans’ obvious wish: “that a few excel in
wealth, and that the common people be subjected to them.”43 Yet this oligarchic emergence
was not just the result of Roman policy and the rise of the notables was already observable
in the Hellenistic period, as we saw above.44 Rome probably did not impose a uniform
regime on the Greek poleis, but we find evidence for provincial laws, such as the Lex
Pompeia in Bithynia, where a census was introduced, complete with new magistrates (timetai
and boulographoi), which limited entry into the boule to a handful of families.45 Performance
of civic office may have come to be accompanied by the payment of a summa honoraria,
which would have effectively limited access to office to the wealthy. Nevertheless, although
these innovations must have affected the character of the council, such developments were
not universal and did not lead to a full-scale Romanisation of Greek local politics. There

38
Pausanias 10.4.
39
Plutarch, Praecepta gerendae rei publicae (798a-825f).
40
For the development of the formulae see Rhodes and Lewis 1997.
41
On the boule see Hamon 2005 and Tacoma (this volume). The importance of the assemblies is
defended e.g. by Rogers 1991b. Recently Arjan Zuiderhoek has made a powerful case for the
continuing importance of popular participation in politics in the imperial Greek city, Zuiderhoek
2008.
42
Pleket 1998 offers a perceptive (and brief) analysis of the most important developments.
43
Livy 34.31.17.
44
The case for a deliberate anti-democratic policy pursued by Rome was made most forcefully by
De Ste. Croix 1983, 300 ff. and 518 ff.
45
Such closed castes would require new blood (and new money) regularly. On the demographic
pressures on the boulai, Zuiderhoek and van Nijf in this volume.
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always remained considerable distance between the Greek polis and the cities of Imperial
Italy.46
Political life continued therefore, but in the hands of the notables the assembly was not
so much a forum for open discussion among fellow-citizens, as a stage on which only the
leading members of society were to shine. Plutarch instructs his young readers that
important decisions were best settled before matters reached the assembly. 47 Yet, there had
to be a public debate, if only to prevent popular unrest. Later in the same text, Plutarch
reminds his readership that the boot of the Roman governor –who would expect them to
keep the populace quiet– was always looming above their heads. In this political climate,
the demos was supposed to remain dormant, its voice only to be heard during carefully
orchestrated acclamations that testified to local patriotism, admiration for the local elite,
and loyalty to the emperor. 48 Yet dormancy is more easily wished for than attained. Until
the end of antiquity we read of slogan chanting factions, and assemblies of various forms
that ended in often violent political clashes. It is not easy to tell whether these were some
vestigial democratic reflexes, or that they resulted from factionalism and in-fighting among
the elite and its supporters, but the ultimate origins of such disputes hardly matter: they
were manifestations of the popular political muscle.49
Politics were not limited to formal institutional channels. A striking feature of the later
Greek city, which became particularly prominent under Roman rule, was the politicisation
of aspects of city life that most political historians have neglected. These can be seen as core
elements of a shared political culture, defined as ‘the values, expectations, and implicit
rules that expressed and shaped collective intentions and actions’.50 The organisation of
public space, literary high culture, mortuary practices and even representations of family
life were equally rooted in a shared political culture, and should be studied alongside the
traditional political institutions.51 We may single out here the work that has been done on
ceremonial and ritual practices that syncopated civic life everywhere.52 There is ample
evidence for an ever increasing number of processions, civic banquets and distributions,
and religiously based games and festivals. These events tapped into a festive tradition that
had always been a core element of Greek polis culture, but they also proved sensitive to the
wider political and social changes that had taken place. One important aspect was that
through festive life polis communities adapted themselves to new political realities,
integrating themselves symbolically into the Roman oikoumene. Imperial images were
carried round in processions by specially appointed sebastophoroi, Roman officials received
seats of honour during civic banquets, and athletic contests were now celebrated in honour
of the imperial Gods. It has even been argued that the imperial cult was the most important
factors behind the rising tide of new agonistic festivals in the second and third centuries
AD.53

46
Heller 2009. ‘Political Transfer’ was first used as a sensitizing concept to study the migration of
political practices across national (mainly Franco-German) borders in modern history; te Velde
2005. It was first applied to ancient history by Couvenhes and Legras 2006.
47
Plutarch, Praecepta gerendae rei publicae (813e).
48
Weiss 1991.
49
See Tacoma in this volume; Zuiderhoek 2008.
50
Hunt 1984 10.
51
Public space, Yegül 2000, Parrish 2001; the display of statues, Smith 1999; van Nijf 2000. The
representation of women, Bremen 1996 and Eule 2001. Literary high culture, Schmitz 1997; Borg
2004. Mortuary practices, Cormack 2004; and van Nijf In press.
52
Rogers 1991a, is an exemplary study of a civic procession in Roman Ephesos. Wörrle 1988 gives a
detailed study of the political ramifications of a civic festival.
53
Mitchell 1990 esp. 189-190.
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Historical and anthropological comparisons make clear that public ceremonial is a often
a way of performing politics. Rituals are seen as eloquent, though not always unambiguous
constituent elements of political order.54 The (mainly epigraphical) evidence for Greek
festive life allows us to recover some of the political meanings it developed under Roman
rule. Many texts, not least those inscriptions that record the foundation of new festivals,
show that ceremonial life was strictly regulated. The notables who founded these events
took care to impose their sense of order on their fellow citizens when they organised the
procession, banquets and contests, Even the seating arrangements in the stadia and
theatres at games, and spectacles became hierarchised as places were assigned to spectators
based on their membership of recognised status groups.55 Public ceremonial in the imperial
Greek city served as a symbolic expression of civic order and was used to reinforce a
conception of society that was rooted in a hierarchy of status groups. These groups were as
effectively and symbolically integrated into both the urban and an imperial framework.
This system of recognition and integration was both flexible and disciplinary. The status
groups included, of course, the boule itself, but also privileged residents without citizenship
(Roman traders), and often age groups, such as the neoi or the gerousia.56 These age groups
were given an appearance within the hierarchical display, but they appear to have been
socially mixed. A membership list of the gerousia in Sidyma shows that roughly half the
members were ‘bouleutai, the others were ‘demotai.’57 There can be little doubt that latter
belonged to the upper strata of the demos: respectable men, who were relatively wealthy,
and may have had relations with the higher echelons of the city. Such groups provided a
necessary pool of recruits for the large boulai of the imperial Greek cities and their inclusion
in public ritual both recognised their importance and integrated them within the
disciplines of the hierarchy.58 The notables used the language of spectacle to ‘put their
world in order’, to use Robert Darnton’s expression.59 The representation of society was
thus hierarchical, but also collective with the lower strata included in this representation –
most explicitly under the banner of professional associations, or collegia.60 The
transformation of political culture did not imply a depoliticisation of the masses, but
alternative forms of collective activity became relatively more important as structures of
(popular) participation in political life. So, even if traditional political institutions
continued, the growing visibility of politically based rituals demonstrates that political
culture was changing.
One result of approaching the imperial Greek city via its wider political culture is that it
brings out more clearly the importance of political style. The focus on style as a component
of political culture has the advantage that it allows us to trace changes in the codes of
conduct in the public sphere that are visible to contemporary observers, but are not
reflected (immediately) in the long-term formal political institutions. When it is said for
example of the British or the Dutch prime minister that he adopts a ‘presidential style’, we
should not expect to find evidence for a formal overhaul of the constitution, or of the major

54
Important contributions to this debate are Muir 1981, Darnton 1984 and Muir 1997. For an
anthropologist’s view, Geertz 1980.
55
Small 1987; Roueché 1995; van Nijf 1997, ch. 6.
56
There is no recent monograph on the place of Roman traders in imperial Greek cities, Hatzfeld
1919; cf. the collection of articles, Müller and Hasenohr 2002; youth groups, Kleijwegt 1991.
57
TAM II.1, 176.
58
The gerousia, van Rossum 1988; and Giannakopoulos 2008.
59
Darnton 1984.
60
van Nijf 1997.
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political institutions, but it is clear that there have been significant changes in the
respective political cultures of these countries.61
The evidence we have for the style of leadership of the Greek notables in the Roman
period shows clearly that they positioned themselves as a superior ‘class’.62 Their image can
be derived from literature as well as from art –notably portrait statues– and the very
numerous inscriptions that record the names and deeds of the families of the notables.
These monuments highlighted in exemplary fashion the patriotic qualities of the notables
as they performed as civic magistrates, caring benefactors, or pious priests. Their sons were
represented as cultural prodigies or victorious athletes, and their wives and daughters as
paragons of female virtue, and traditional family values. Such imagery helped to create a
social distance that differentiated the notables within their communities. 63 This political
style would also seem to imply a particular sense of audience. In the Antonine and Severan
age the intended audience seems still to have been the polis community, the demos, of
course, whose support still mattered, but also their own peer group. Many honorands will
have maintained the hope that the other notables would be forced to ‘look upon [their]
statue with emulous eyes.’64 This competitive style continued: John Chrysostom in a fine
description of a fourth century congregation in a theatre refers to the envy felt by the other
councillors for their colleague who had organised the event: “ Then he sits down amid the
congratulations of his admiring peers, each of whom prays that he himself may attain the
same eminence.”65 The urban elites remained internally competitive and it is extremely
difficult to judge when and if that internal competition came to an end.
The overall image of the imperial Greek city shows signs of both continuity and change.
There is ample evidence that the political structures and the political institutions of the
Greek polis continued well into the third century, but the political culture, in which they
were embedded, had been transformed. Alternative modes of political communication and
structures of participation had gained in importance, and the style of political leadership
offered by the notables was strikingly hierarchical. Yet, the polis was not diminished by
these changes. As Peter Brown put it:66

“To create a culture where highly competitive men were, nonetheless, made
constantly aware of what they shared with their peers and with their local
communities, was the singular achievement of the Antonine age.”

When in the course of the third centuries the epigraphic habit dies down, this particular
window on the Greek polis begin to close. The processes behind this closure may have
varied, but it is clear that the political culture of the Greek polis took again a decisive turn.

61
The issue of style is taken seriously by political opponents and commentators, Grice 2004. For a
study of the political styles of Dutch prime-ministers, te Velde 2002.
62
Anna Heller argues that this does not mean that they constituted an ‘ordo’ in the full Roman sense,
Heller 2009. Nevertheless, it can still be argued that the notables engaged in a process that we may
describe as ‘ordo-making’, i.e. a process of collective self-representation, that represented them as
though they were an ‘ordo.’ This partial translation of Roman practice is fitting with the concept of
political transfer that she employs to good effect. See van Nijf 1997 for the notion of ordo-making
applied to the self-representation of social groups outside the elite.
63
For a perceptive study of the messages of honorific statues, Smith 1998. Paul Veyne has famously
argued that euergetism contributed to the creation of ‘social distance’, Veyne 1976. See now also
Zuiderhoek 2009.
64
SEG 44 (1994) 1182.
65
John Chrysostom De inani gloria 5 (quoted from Brown 1992, 83).
66
Brown 1978, 38.
INTRODUCTION: POLITICAL CULTURE IN THE GREEK CITY PRE-PUB VERSION SUMMER 2009 11

The Greek city in Late Antiquity

Traditionally the third century is thought to have inaugurated a period of urban decline and
contraction throughout the empire, but recent research has urged us to nuance this view.67
It is generally accepted that the polis persisted longer in the East. The cities remained the
main residence for the elites; urban councils continued to meet. Some cities, in particular
the larger ones, such as Ephesos and Antioch, as well as the (new) provincial capitals, such
as Aphrodisias and Caesarea, retained important administrative roles. Although the
evidence for smaller cities declines, the papyrological data suggests that local
administration continued to be based around the metropoleis of Egypt and was not
concentrated in larger regional centres. Yet, the very fact that the ‘epigraphic habit’ of the
notables changes in late antiquity suggests a shift in the outlook of the cities, and the self-
presentation of the local notables. Traditionally, it has been argued that public benefactions
ceased and that a reduction in the number of new buildings can be used to provide an index
for this change. Legal evidence had been used to suggest that councillors came under
increasing pressure, and that many tried to evade their ‘duties’.68 A decline of civic spirit
had also been deduced from the disappearance of ‘Greek provincial coinage’, which had
been the proud symbol of the imperial Greek city’s place in an imperial framework.69 The
death of the Greek city under the heavy hand of the late imperial state, became a trope of
analysis, most notably with A.H.M. Jones’ hugely influential work, but also is a significant
element with Liebeschuetz’s more recent and extremely detailed compilation of the
evidence.70
Yet, it is also clear that this picture has been too heavily drawn.71 Notions of style and
political culture are particularly important here in understanding patterns of continuity
and change in the archaeological record. Whereas archaeologists and historians have
tended to expect the polis to have certain institutional and architectural features, there
features reflect a particular style of presentation. But in late antiquity, that style changed.
The changes reflect, of course, the Christianisation of the city, but also changing notions of
public space, the emergence of different institutions of public assembly (the emergence of
the hippodrome as a major public stage), and new institutions which formed ‘bridges’
between the notables and the population (institutions of Christian charity for example). The
building of churches and other Christian institutions largely replaced the construction of
‘classical’ public buildings, and euergetistic activities which appear to have focused more on
the hippodrome, Church, and baths, left a very different epigraphic record. The relative
silence of the inscriptions implies not so much urban decline, as a change in representation,
and in the sense of audience, as ‘traditional’ epigraphic representations seem to focus more
on the imperial court. Local politicians appear to have become increasingly integrated into
imperial politics, but, as Tuck (this volume) shows, that integration should not be seen as a

67
Alston 2002; general surveys in Liebeschuetz 1992; Ward-Perkins 1998.
68
See Tacoma (this volume). The ‘plight’ of the councillors is still tangible in the Codex
Theodosianus, C.Th. XII.1, 'De decurionibus'. Of the 192 laws, most deal with decurions evading their
curial duties. This need not in itself be a sign of crisis, they may have been the unlucky ones who did
not manage to secure an immunity; see on the rise of immunities Millar 1983.
69
On coinage and civic identity, Harl 1987.
70
Jones 1964,Jones 1966, Liebeschuetz 2001.
71
In addition to Mazza and Tuck (this volume), and Alston 2002, there are numerous surveys of the
archaeological evidence from the late Roman period, much of which is inconclusive on issues of
decline. See, exempli gratia Christie and Loseby 1996; Lepelley 1996; Lavan and Bowden 2001; Lavan
and Bowden 2003.
INTRODUCTION: POLITICAL CULTURE IN THE GREEK CITY PRE-PUB VERSION SUMMER 2009 12

lessening of local autonomy, nor, as Mazza (this volume) demonstrates, a weakening of the
power of the notables. On the contrary, the development of the great houses in the fifth
century and beyond would appear to reflect a further institutionalisation of notable power
and concomitant chances in political style. Contrary to Banaji’s suggestions, this ‘elite’ does
not appear to be new, and seems to have sprung from the notables of the early Roman
empire.72
Many Later Roman poleis appear to have flourished economically; their architectural
glories were now the urban palaces of the local potentes, the Churches and the hippodromes.
In many places, private buildings began to encroach on the squares and colonnaded
avenues that had provided the imperial Greek city with its urban armature.73 This clearly
reflects a change in culture, but equally suggests a vibrancy in urban life that makes words
such as ‘decline’, ‘impoverishment’ or ‘decay’ seem grossly inappropriate. When cities like
Aphrodisias erected honorific monuments to the elite, it was mostly to praise them as
imperial officials or administrators, which would seem at first to reflect a decline of the
influence of the polis in the face of imperial power.74 Yet, many of these imperial officials
seem to have been local leaders who had made good, and returned the favours and fortunes
bestowed upon them to their city. That these officials sought the approval of their local
communities should not be underestimated and the tradition by which acclamations were
reported to the imperial court suggest that even the popular voice had not been quietened.
Instead of seeing in these inscriptions a decline of the polis, we might see them as further
examples of the integration of imperial and local power structures, and of the local notables
playing the imperial political game with continuing skill and success.75
This leaves open the question of the end of the ancient city. There is no doubt that the
polis and its politics disappeared from the Mediterranean world in the early medieval
period, but there is considerable difficulty in identifying the particular moment or the
particular significant elements that would allow us to firmly close the chapter on the polis.
Historians have been prone to identify changes in the nature of the evidence with the
‘death of the polis’, and yet any institution which has longevity measured in centuries rather
than decades, and the geographical spread that we associate with the polis, will of necessity
have required adaptability. Attempting to capture the ‘essence’ of such an institution would
appear a fool’s errand, bound to fail. Instead, in our focus on the culture of the polis, we
hope to provide a more flexible and nuanced, and indeed accurate, portrayal of Greek urban
life; one that reflects and accounts for changes and continuities without obsessing on a
fixed paradigm for the polis.

Preview

In the articles that follow, we approach the post-classical city through its political culture.
For scholars of antiquity, one of the advantages of approaching politics through culture lies

72
Banaji 2001. It would seem that Tacoma is also arguing for a change in the nature of the
aristocracy in the fourth century, and in so doing follows an established historiographical line,
Tacoma 2006. Cf. Browns judgment: “In the third century the life of the upper classes of the Roman
world did not collapse under pressure from outside, it exploded”, Brown 1978, 46-47. His
characterisation of this period as an ‘Age of Ambition’ captures the political culture of this age
brilliantly.
73
Lavan, et al. 2007; Leone 2007.
74
Aphrodisias is one of the few cities for which there is a rich epigraphic corpus for Late Antiquity,
Roueché 1989. She is careful to put matters into perspective: the 250 or so late antique inscriptions,
should be compared to the more than 1500 inscriptions for the earlier period.
75
See for the transformation of Imperial ceremony, MacCormack 1981.
INTRODUCTION: POLITICAL CULTURE IN THE GREEK CITY PRE-PUB VERSION SUMMER 2009 13

in the evidence we have at our disposal. Although much of the everyday business of politics
within the poleis remains obscure for us, the poleis of the Eastern Mediterranean abound
with evidence of this powerful political culture. The very formality of many of our sources,
the statues and inscription recording the voted honours, the buildings, the eulogistic
memorials, can seem almost courtly, representing an agreed and stable political form that
would seem drained of conflict. And yet, as our contributors point out, politics was a zone of
conflict, in which individuals disputed their positions, and sought to assert themselves
within the civic frame.
This ‘vibrancy’ of politics is a feature of several contributions. Tacoma argues that
proceedings in councils were far from formulaic, and that the acclamations preserved in the
various ‘minutes’ of council meetings do not reflect business drained of meaning and
conflict. Indeed, although there might be problems from time to time in finding candidates
for particular offices, Tacoma suggests that competition for posts within the council might
have been fierce and the rewards of social status were probably considerable. The council
was engaged in the distribution of political power across a fairly wide sector of polis society,
and competition for power could lead to violence. Zuiderhoek also points to the agonistic
nature of the polis, suggesting that the fragility and openness of the ruling order required
individuals who had attained prominence to record it, to differentiate themselves before
those slightly lower down the social and political spectrum.
Van der Vliet tackles the issue of how we might talk about these politics, arguing
strongly that a reliance on constitutional forms misleads. While many of the poleis may have
had democratic constitutions, the tendency of politics as represented in the epigraphic
monuments of the city was towards an increased oligarchization, and the cities appears to
have been ruled by the few. Van der Vliet places emphasis on political ‘style’. The
presentation of political power and the differentiation of the elite meant that they became
representative of the ‘good citizen’, suited for power, and thus returned to office. This
contrast between constitution and political behaviour leaves open the Aristotelian question
of category, but, Van der Vliet argues, the involvement of the whole citizen body was a
crucial element within the presentation of the city.
Van Nijf makes a very similar observation in discussing Termessos. Here we seem to have
a polis which refers to itself as a democracy, but in its display of itself (largely one assumes
to a citizen audience), it is a relatively narrow and coherent elite that is continuously and
repeatedly represented. It is the notables who dominated the landscape, and in their public
virtues their rights to power are recognised. Additionally, Termessos illustrates two other
aspects of the political culture. The monuments to women and the honouring of virtues
which we would conventionally class as private show that ‘political culture’ crossed the
boundary from public space to private space and that what one did ‘in private’ was of public
importance. Thus, the women of the family were not just the producers of the next
generation and the keepers of the home, but were themselves political figures, in spite of
their lack of office. Further, the honours granted to Atalante from a society of technitai
illustrate the bonds of mutuality which bound together the citizen body. The technitai
recognised Atalante (and her family) and Atalante recognised them. They were thus placed
in a relationship of mutual obligation, but a relationship in which there was a clear
hierarchy. That very process of social location was political, establishing a network of
power, control, and representation.
Thompson and Trümper develop similar themes of recognition. Thompson shows how
the ‘ethnic’ communities of the ‘poleis’ of Hellenistic Egypt achieved recognition. A formal
series of constitutions established their legal existence within a civic framework. Although
the kings themselves may have had very little interest in establishing these groups as
formal communities, requiring just peace and the supply of soldiers, but the constitutions
INTRODUCTION: POLITICAL CULTURE IN THE GREEK CITY PRE-PUB VERSION SUMMER 2009 14

established a social and political fixity which allowed the location of immigrant groups
within the dominant culture. Trümper provides illustration of the same process from the
highly unusual community at Delos, though one must assume that what happened at Delos
was merely an extreme example of processes that occurred elsewhere. At Delos, the various
trade and immigrant communities built themselves into the cityscape, creating ‘houses’
which provided an institutional base for the traders. Arnaoutoglou follows a similar path,
but looking at the much smaller religious associations of Athens which integrated citizens
and non-citizens into the wider political community. In these instances, the ‘middle ground’
of polis society, those below the level of the notables, can be seen to leave their mark,
demonstrating that the culture of the polis was not just a matter for remote elites, but
crossed the social and economic spectrum.
This process of integration also emerges from Harter-Uibopuu’s analysis of the
administrative arrangements for donations to the city. She shows that there was a variety
of mechanisms employed for the supervision of donated funds. These mechanisms bound
together three elements within the transaction, the donor, the beneficiaries, and the polis,
represented in different ways. Thus the relationship between donor and beneficiary was
mediated through the polis, and that mediation was displayed in the public space of the city.
The values of citizenship were thus represented not only through the donation, but through
the management of the donation, and the display of that management, and also in the
reception of the donation.
Strootman, Salmeri, Tuck, and Mazza tackle the relationship between the city and the
‘imperial state’. Strootman argues that far from marking an end to the polis, the polis existed
in what might be termed a dialectical relationship with the Hellenistic kings. The exchange
of honours between city and kings represented a ‘real’ political communication and
recognition of inter-dependence. Salmeri considers the relative absence of Rome from
many of the political-literary treatments of the politics of the Roman-period poleis. He
argues that for Plutarch and Dio the vibrancy of political life in the poleis existed in tension
with a desire not to see direct Roman intervention. The preservation of political order was
represented as a ‘rational’ requirement of the city, since disorder would bring the boot of
the Roman soldier to bear on the city. The intermeshing of imperial and local politics
operated not so much in an explicit intervention from the imperial sphere, but in a
requirement that the city be disciplined, and in the disciplining of the citizens, the order
that maintained city and empire was preserved. For Tuck, taking us right to the end of the
period, the dichotomy between Empire and polis is also an artificial construct of modern
analysis. He argues that the development of the great estates in the fifth and sixth centuries
should not be seen as erosion of local government; if anything local government was
strengthened by the inclusion of these powerful families in the ruling group. Tuck argues
that the great families rose from local power bases to take on positions at court, and could
be seen as reflecting the continued economic and political vitality of the cities rather than
their subordination to the imperial court. Mazza argues that we should see these great
houses as ‘firms’ existing beyond a particular generation of notables, but also operating as
intermediaries between the city and the imperial state. The firms become micro-
communities within the polis, ordered and ordering, employing significant numbers of
individuals and managing the city. As such, they reflect an institutionalisation of the
dominance of the notables, and cannot be seen as either an imperial imposition on polis
society or as a feudalisation of the ancient world. Mazza and Tuck see continuities more
than changes as being crucial to our understanding of the sixth-century Egyptian polis.
The volume is conclude by Alston, who investigates the resonance of the polis. He discusses
the relationship between polis and empire, which he argues were not in contradiction. He
INTRODUCTION: POLITICAL CULTURE IN THE GREEK CITY PRE-PUB VERSION SUMMER 2009 15

extends the discussion to what the polis can mean for contemporary discourse, and shows
that the Greek city after the classical age is indeed ‘good to think with.’

It is only through looking at the political culture of the poleis that we can appreciate their
pivotal role in the post-classical period. Beyond the constitutions and legal frameworks,
beyond issues of sovereignty, the cities were ‘structuring structures’. They divided power
within the citizen body, recognising and socially locating individuals and groups within the
polis. They represented and naturalised hierarchies between the citizens. The rationalised
various elements of a political order, and represented that order through buildings, rituals,
texts, and festivals. The polis was thus a strongly ideological environment, central to and
enmeshed with the imperial political systems in which they were located.
The history of the post-classical polis can be seen as an important stage in the structural
transformation of western political culture from the age of the classical polis –when there
had been a public sphere as a locus for political debate– to the Roman empire, when the
political culture came to be dominated by the representation of political elites and the
emperor. It is this new political culture that culminates in the Byzantine empire, but which
was also left as an inheritance to the West.
The Greek city did not die at Chaeroneia: new evidence and the re-interpretation of long-
known texts have caused this orthodoxy to be challenged, but so far no new paradigm has
arisen in its place. The history of politics in the Hellenistic and Roman polis is ridden with
paradoxes and ambiguities. New research is needed to chart these ambiguities and place
them in a new interpretative framework. This volume represents an attempt to identify
some of the paths that this research might follow.

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