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    Ehrenberg When Did The Polis Rise PDF

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    When Did the Polis Rise? Victor Ehrenberg The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 57, Part 2. (1937), pp. 147-159. Stable URL: fip:flinks jstor-org/sic sici=007S-4269% 28193792957 %3C147%3 AWD TPR G3E2.0.COGAB2-F The Journal of Hellenic Studies is currently published by The Society for dhe Promotion of Hellenic Studies, Your use of the ISTOR archive indicates your acceptance of ISTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at flip: feworwjtor org/aboutterms.htmal. ISTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in par, that unless you fave obtained pcior permission, you may not dowaload an cnt isus of @ journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content inthe ISTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial uss. Please contact the publisher cegarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at bhupsferwe,jstor.orp/jounals/bellenic.html. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transtnission. ISTOR is an independent not-for-profit organization dedicated to creating and preserving a digital archive of scholarly journals. For more information regarding ISTOR, please contact support @jstor.org- hup:therww jstor.orgy Fri Aug 4 11:21:52 2006 WHEN DID THE POLIS RISE? Ir is to-day a known and undisputed fact that the Polis was not only the characteristic and historically important type of Greek State, but that 33.2 religious and political community it was for centuries the fandation and the support of Greck culture. But so far a true ‘history of the Polis* has not been written.! A reason for this may be that the Polis stands as the abstract representative of an enormous number of concrete independent States widely differing in form and development and known to us through traditions widely differing in quality. We must try, and the attcmpt has already been made, to define the main lines of this historical phenomenon and its evolution, and before all else to obtain a clearer view of the beginning, climax, and end of this evolution in time and manner. To do this it is not sufficient to study only the external historical facts, In like manner we cannot be content merely to observe, for instance, under the Empire of Alexander or in the Hellenistic State-world the political insignificance of the Polis, and hence to conclude its downfall; or in the perfection of political leading, and the splendour of Empire ‘and culture, in Periclean Athens to sce the perfection of the Polis. “Only from the testimony of the life of the Polis itself, from its internal problems, from the history of the Polis-institutions and the Polis-spirit can we obtain the true perspective for judgment. Who studies the Polis for what it is— that is, as 2 community—will quickly reach the conclusion. that this very age of Pericles, which is also the age of Anaxagoras and the older generation of Sophists, is to be regarded as the period initiating the internal dissolution of the Polis, and will necessarily set its ¢iax at a much carlier date. Naturally, exact dates cannot be given at all, and the problem of the rise of the Polis must be approached in full consciousness that the Polis was the product of long evolution. ‘ Rise’ can be taken only in the sense of tne origin, and to place this long before the sixth or fifth century would as a rule be accepted as a matter of course. If this view is once again upheld here, it is for the reason that some strange pronouncements in a contrary sense have provoked reply.* Yet, as will appear, our purpose is not polemical, but rather to set in clearer light the early days of the “Tn opposition to the aniquarian system, in vogue along dime, or > 2 construction, however ingenious, Tike tat of Furel de Coulanges, the next stp at to show the Poietype under ts hisorzal eopdidons. ‘This was atempted, og by Glatz (La cid greque, tga but cf. Gnome, r929, 1) and in my Ground Helenict Stas! GerckeNowden, II, 1932). On the fundemencal problems se so Heiceebicin, Busine Jabvaber f. Atari 250 Suppl}. in paticular, the essay of Herve, Phe Hear der Redo Prine (Die Ante, ih 1088, 1 #), followed mare recently by kis book, Méliader luge). Berve ban exller work (Gr. Gc. 1.196) fet the formation of che Greak State abaut the eon SF the seventh to aiuh senses 2 Ine dating Aagsine which I protested (Gr Stout, 0). According (o his cect view, he Polis aroke out of the confit, with the a al leaders rosnd 500 B (Out of mass af satanahing statements, L may select the followings, in the generation of Pisdar and ‘Simonides tie * growing epi ofthe Polis is seareely yet apparent "Not under Cimon but under uae 48 V. EHRENBERG Polis, for which our sources of information are but few. It will be worth while to let them speak, and to confine ourselves to contemporary sources. ‘They speak, it seems to me clearly and unambiguously. Perhaps we shall best clarify the issue if we begin with the fmiliar period of the Persian wars and work backwards. In the Suppliants, composed before 480, perhaps as early as 490, Aeschylus depicts the’ Polis as the obvious State-form of mythical Argos} not only 28 the scene and background, but asthe great pover from which all Jaw springs. From it in the poct’s mind arose the problem of the responsibility “of the individual, which first acquires significance, and indeed possibility, through the fact that there was a decisive will on the part of the Polis? Here, then, is no Polis coming into being and in process Sf formation, but one Jong complete, with its own internal problem, For Aeschylus the world of the Polis is one of Six, and its opposition to individual ¢Pos—nowhere more definitely and more variously displayed than in the Seven against Thebes—is the constant essence of his creed. In general, every expression of devout reflection, as well as the simple popular tradition, points 0 the recognition of the Polis as the obviously true and venerable form of ail holy and common life. ‘Again, Pindar the poet of the aristocracy,* little love as he a Boeotian had for Athens, could find no better beginning in 486 n.c. for his short hymn of victory for the Alemaeonid Megacles (P7) than the praise of mighty Athens: x&%uctoy ai peyakondhies Ava mpooluioy *ArxuaiBay sipvo6isi yned. It was undoubtedly Marathon which raised Athens above the Polis-world in Pindar's eyes; no other State seemed émoaviotspov. Yet the circumstances were singularly unpropitions for such praise of the Athenian State. Only a few months earlier Megacles had been ostracised, and while we know that ostracism implied no harm to reputation or property, yet a rift had arisen between State and individual or, better, between State and family. ‘The poet hints at this at the end of the poem, mentioning envy of xeaé tpya. But these circumstances, any more than the fact that himself is no friend to any Demos, do not hinder him from deliberately including ‘ the far-ruling family” within the Athenian Polis, froma raising family and State together. Pindar’s tone becomes warmer when Pevieles, the dynastic rm af rle is dsslved tally fn che el accomplishment ofthe Pola Recording 40 Barve, the Pols taken sts ree touarda the end of the sith exntury, around gq0€ i stil im process of formation, and the evolution is not complete bere digo. When we thing of the carly symprams af internal decay fog, Thue. HI, 8 #2), follows that ‘he Poli is limites oughly tothe peri? of Pevclea Athens; nay, if we were camsiiendy speculadg forthe, ceuns therich of beg reduced toa phantor. which "would owe te exitence pethaps. tthe {peculstion of pilotophers and rietrs of the fur Thin paper, wetsen eae [a auramer 196, was delivered ta the Jownal about December 1996 1 wich to emphasize that there are na references to any Laer publication, Se was + oieult task 0 tennadate omy paper, and 1 owe sincerest gratitude @ Me. Peyee ard to Dr, Cy GE dhe aller ansiyas in my Cat, Went 27 © + Tis epithet is mich les suitabe co Simanides. Thave ied (ep. 1 ft) co explain dhe wel-knosen linge on the ari dyasés (lrg. 4,1 AE) a8 a depareare from the anstorratic deal.” In any case the poet wands within the Polisy cf Las fff the same poem, where he defends hiewelt aa St semoriounest, declaring. that Gradawsor daar "y domotteh Sans, anne aaa ‘Thies the pure spiro te Pout aa the phrase hs tips te (eg. 545 cl aso Ce. 0). WHEN DID THE POLIS RISE? 9 he speaks of aristocratic States: éaBia AcxeBadyav, udxenper Qesoadia (Pra), in both of which Heraclids rule. But even in this, the earliest of his poems to be preserved (498 n.c. !), it is important for Pindar that the Aleuadae reigning in Thessaly ‘ hold high and foster the vépos of the Thessalians; to the nobles is committed the hereditary well-ruling of the Poleis.’> The tule of nobles the poet praises bas been banded down from their ancestors as the true form of conducting the affairs of the State. The praise is not to the nobility, the dyoéol, for rank and fellowship, but for its union with, the State it controls, and its sovereignty and service to the State. ‘The véyes, which the lords protect and foster, is not only custom and usage; it is law formally laid down, teéués, the ruling principle of the State. ' It might almost be translated by ‘constitution,’ just as in a later poern (Ps, 61 fF, 470 2.6.) the vouet “YAAIB0s aré8uas are used just like zebuol Alyulou to denote the Dorie ordering of the State. Aeschylus and Pindar belong to a generation which was formed before the Persian War. But the State which conquered at Marathon was the Athenian Polis, though the leader Miltiades as a Thracian prince may have ‘outgrown the status of a folites. The Athenian Polis: that is, the State which the reform and organisation of Cleisthenes had moulded.” Now, this organisation tells a plain tale, and in considering its rational character we must not forget the exemplary and organic manner in which it continued the levelling of social distinctions which the Age of the Tyrants began, and, further, that it paved the way, and initiated the struggles, for the equality of the following age. It continued a tradition and formed tradition. Here I shall not discuss the Cleisthenic organisation in detail, holding to my principle of citing only authentic contemporary sources. One such source at least we possess for Cleisthenes—the final introduction of the Athena-coins, iz., the State symbol replacing the family insignia, It is known that in this point Cleisthenes expressly returned to” the Peisistratid practice, and therefore this record of the unambiguous will of the State holds good also for the founder of the Athenian Tyranny. Characteristic of the latter—a parallel to the coinage—is the story, despite ies legendary character, of how he was led to the Acropolis by the goddess” as the accepted and rationally directed medium of the religious and political will of the people. Tn any case the Tyranny, as auich'in Athens as in other States,” remains a phenomenon explicable in so many different ways that it will be better for us to return to actual records. For sixth-century Athens we have only a single inscription extant + pst glpnen wines nsashie afew’ te yea, seamen mop as wr nace mesputos (of. 2 politcal character than hat ie indicated the Centplesguardian, ‘Thus Acaces became a. pirate "Seloman, Aten, 1924.98 4 Here a seferance may nat be oat of place ro the dedication of Acnces, fther of Balgkeates of Saran (Diutenb. 112 10; Tod, Gr. Hist Ine. 9) for whic Babel has receely proposed another interpretation than was previously current (Neue Heel, Jhb 1934, 193). Im his view Aeaces dedicates the mermodal of him who carted piracy for Hera in the time of his peesideney.” Te ls mone probable that this fice had iesaly, with the consent of tee goddevs and while ft ip tee magiseacy; whieh is no cause. for surptie, for he who oh suk Expnoey named. hie second soa Sylanen (Het Il, 39 ea). ‘The father's combination of personal power and desite for ‘enrichment widh the cooperation af the State deity ed the State's concent routed in the ranny of Polyceates, whose name also is significant 150 Y. EHRENBERG which has anything to say about political affairs—the well-known but unfortunately much injured Psephisma on Salamis.* Its exact dating Gepends on its restoration and interpretation, which has been attempted with widely varying results, Yet, whether the decree belongs ta the Peisistratid age or to the end of the century, whether it deals with cleruchs or with the native inhabitants of Salamis, this much is clear, that in it the Athenian Polis expresses its own claim, economic as well as military. ‘This is all the more evident since the subject is an island which has been incorporated into the State territory only a comparatively short time previously. The taxes which are specified in detail are to be paid & Beudoroy, the Archon is to see to the éwalzav of the people; and the prescript runs: ®oxow 7 Blixwy. Swoboda has already observed? that the omission of the Council here docs not imply that ic had then no significance or no existence. More probably an old decree-formula is used, Of which there are other instances; and. this formula asserts, no. Tess weightily than the latter double formula coupiing Probouleuma and Psephisma (@6ofe xf Poukij xal 1S Siwy), that the Demos decrees as holder of the State sovereignty and as a community of citizens, that the State spcais as a unity. The identification of Demos and State, confirmed also in the above-quoted mame for the treasury (xé Seydo.ey), is farther not uncommon to the undemocratic Polis, as I have shown, for instance, in the case of archaic Sparta” Only we must of course presume that Demos does not mean a people in the sense of the lower classes, the populace, but a people as 4 political organisation and community, How the word came 9 possess this older significance can be seen from Homer; in him we see already the opposition of the Demos to rulers and nobles, but Bfuos also means ‘the land belonging to the coramunity’ and, arising out of that, the people. Land and people are identical, an expression of political unity. ‘The characteristic feature of the Polis, that it is a community of citizens, no abstract State-ideal as the ses publica, but at the same time no mere sule of privilege or the like, is best displayed in the manner in which the Polis accepts new citizens. As an eatly exampie we may cite the decree of Elean Chaladrion which still belongs ta the sixth century. A ‘Rhetra’ js concluded between the Chaladrians and Deucalion, that he and his descendants ‘may be Chaladrians.’ This old formula,! which as yet is ignorant of the abstract concept of rehteie, opposes, a8 partners in a bangainy ie whole of the members of the community to the newly-reccived in- dividual. In a form almost recalling a private lawsuit, the many recognise the one as their equal and possessed of equal rights, and he thereby receives Jand. This equality finds formal expression inthe somewhat doubtful © 1641, 4. Alternative restorations SEG TIT. 1; ter. ‘Tod ses 11 The readings of Sll2 15 SU GE Boks, Dit, dm ra, and my Retide Nachiaagsem, fit, At feet, are of date. 12 19h. WG, Vaktbisy, 25, "Blackman, Gr. dnl. sera. Sleaenknd, 33 — BFeames, 163.8 CL the inscription of CaserSehin2et, 495 ctgarchic Elis, tobe ser before 380 mc (Caser- "9 Cl. Szanto, Gr. Barger, 0, Scheryeer, 4s6he which knows the pola and 254 WHEN DID THE POLIS RISE? 1st donble phrase Fioompé§voy FisoSauiopyév. This can hardly mean that ‘Deucalian is promised the right to exercise the two offices of Proxenia (here an office) and of Demiurgia,’ 4 for the simple reason that Proxenia is never an office. But also it can scarcely imply a differentiation in the rights of citizens,'® for no group of citizens could normally be termed xpéfevor. Rather, Deucalion, who obviously is being especially honoured, receives all rights of the péEeves, the privileged alien (e.g. évékaa), and also all those of the Souicpyés, i2., of the prominent citizen; for the Ecuiopyés was surely one of the most important men, probably the principal official of the little community. Thus in its inner organisation, as well as in its dealings with the outer world (fraxenia), little Chaladrion was a completely formed State, a perfected Polis. Naturally it would be an oligarchy; the circle ence, fs Souoayat could be elected was surely confined to an upper stratum of society, Yet this upper stratum (not only those of it who had been admitted to the Damiorgia) was, politically speaking, the people, the State. The last sentence of the decree brings the threatened religious ban for anybody who would injure Deucalion, and this ban can be put out of efficiency only by a motion of the ios. ‘Thus, in spite of the privileged person, the ban leaves untouched the State's free dom of will and sovereignty of law. ‘The State's existence in the face of the outer world is naturally manifested and confirmed through treaties between two States, such as that between Elis and Heraea, of approximately the same period and dealing with the same district’ as the former example.* The alliance concluded for a hundred years between the two States provides for a peacefull settlement and discussion of all disputes. The State which does not comply is bound to pay 2 heavy sum to Olympian Zeus. From the fact that in the two Elean decrees we have cited the God appears as in some measure a Court of Appeal, we may presume, and we may dare to draw the general conclusion, that by this period the great ‘ international * sanctuaries—we knew this of Delphi without this evidence—were exercising active and positive influence in the pacification and consolidation of internal and external political conditions, firstly in their own areas, but certainly soon beyond these limits. ‘The ‘ame penalty is ordained for the treaty-breaker and for him who injures the State, whether simple citizen or official or the Demos itself. ‘The community and individuals, and these again divided according as they are in communal office or not:2” we could not desire a plainer statement that the whole stands for the one, the one for the whole; and the private person is so little private that his penalty is as heavy as that of the citizen in office. Significant here is the word used to denote the simple citizen: tras (Févas). In the same sense, as opposed to Ruler or Demos, it recurs later oceasionaily, ¢.g., in Aeschylus. But originally, as we know from Homer, of frat are the kindred, and also {already weakening) neighbours and friends. Thus in its history this > Taus Seanto, 25. bot sith centary) ef Baie REVIT, 41a. 2 Beckmann fllowing Kirchhof, Arch. Zig. 95, 1" sewerse: chy 28 a, ek he 146, 1 Ch Bois, tapers Liddell Seo, ste B Su 9: Tod, ness. On che date (uncertain, THs-VOL. Lvl, ue 1s2. V. EHRENBERG word mirrors the evolution from the tic of pure blood-relation to that of the Polis. In sixth-century Blis the citizen still bears the name and with it surely the still strong social binding force of ‘kinsman’; yet he is not only, as in Od. 4, 16, yelvovss #8 frat, the neighbour, the man bound in the same cominunity of land, he is also the member of the Polis, equated with the official and the State itself, responsible together with and for the State, the wertrns# ‘An honorary decrce of Cyzicus® brings us even more clearly into the carly decades of the sixth century. The children of Medices and Aesepus and their descendants are granted écttsia, with the exception of certain amed taxes, and meals in the Prytancion, “The formula sf compact used in Chaladrion could not be used here, for it is no question of grantin citizen-rights, but of honouring the offspring of two specifically name citizens who had presumably died for the State. ‘Therefore in this decree of favours to citizens the words run simply, dds Sexe 2; and the Bios swears io the privileges. Here, on the advanced soil of Ionia— Cyzicus is a Milesian colony—the concept of the réais could appear at an carly date as replacing the individual names of States elsewhere revalent. The colonial community is inclined rather to rationalise the Biate than to continue in its looser (as compared with the Motherland) tradition of race and people." All the more certainly was it that very State which had existed complete and had been taken for granted since long before. 8 iso from Ionia comes the oldest record, to be placed round 600, a record which, despite its fragmentary condition, informs us with astonishing force of the development of the Polis possible at that date—the law of Chios. Te speaks first of guarding the Siu0(u) Pipa, doubtless the laws, and especially such as accord with the democratic tend we can deduce from the inscription. As magistrate the Demarch appears next to the Basileus, which may correspond to Spxav and Baws in Athens, but more probably gives the contrast of magistrates of people and nobility. For the Povai Snucan is also mentioned, which (as its name implies) sands at the side of a Council of Nobles, and which, itself composed of fifty members from cach Phyle, owes its number to democratic principle and its constitation to an obviously strongly rationalised organisation. Next, various measures are proposed in the event of a failure of Demarch 1 The objection may erased thac these exarneles ave besise the polnt Uecause the cammmuniten of Eis fd Ateadia in the eoth century weee Blo oF tier evidence, for then eae villages Inave aready ssnamed the form and standing ofthe ore In any case, the idea of the“ poideally Independent won! a8 asorsed foe this very acta by Svoboda (RE Supe. TV, 950 4 of. Strato VIIE, 290 |esesns to mie aut of date, since we know tolay hac 2 wih ie nee conaitured. by synoeciam and comewall, bot by its paliieal Formation. Tee AtGe ‘Tetrapais, fr instance, illusrates the proces. le 43 cf SBC T, no. 45. 1 comider the punctuation of Volgral, Mrnasna, L, 37 fr, 10 be corects, according to it, fllipieal wah. rene nal pcremioy stands Ft, followed ly the restretion eer Top! For the ercetion of the stele by the State ‘expresso formal

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