The Greek Middle Ages: c. 1125 - c.700 BC
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The Greek City States
Generally, the regions of Greece were not unified - the exceptions being Attica under Athens and Laconia under Sparta. Each region was divided into city-states or poleis. For example, there were twelve city-states in Achaia, and up to thirty in Phokis. In Boiotia there were fourteen cities each with a population of around 10,000 inhabitants. They formed themselves into a loose federation, but this did not prevent them from occasionally fighting wars among themselves. Greece at that time was more forested than now, and the plains were fertile. Subsequently, inhabitants were forced to farm marginal land owing to pressure of population expansion, and it is because of this that Greece has the reputation for being "thin soiled"; but the plains themselves did not deserve this description. Thus every plain contained at least one city that was a wall fortification in a good defensive spot close to water; citadels were often cited on mountain spurs. The Greek city state (polis) was a community made of adult male citizens, women and children linked to these who were citizens without political rights, and non-citizens such as slaves and resident foreigners. All of these occupied a region with a defined or undefined constitution. The city would have a market place (agora) and a place of assembly, which was often also the agora. The citizens were bound together by a sense of community and as a whole of autonomy. There would be frequent wars arising over border disputes or cattle raids. The importance of chariots and horses was that these could convey armed men quickly to border lands in order to meet a raid. Because of the strength of the citadels it was very difficult for one city to conduct a successful siege against another - the time and expense involved being prohibitive, so even small and relatively weak city states could survive. Distances between cities were also not easily covered. Kingship disappeared in most cities by 700 BC. The Mycenaean kingships were sustained by trade; without this, kings lacked the means to maintain retainers. In most cities the government took the form of a Council of the aristoi, which would appoint executive officers, originally for life but later for shorter period, usually of one year. In the citadels, where there used to be a palace, there was instead usually a temple dedicated to the city's patron deity. The "best people" or aristoi were those who owned the richer and more fertile land in the plains closer to city walls. Less well-off people farmed more remote and more marginal land and because they would not always be able to return to the city every night, they became know as perioikoi or "dwellers round about". Because the aristoi were much better situated the gap between rich and poor in these communities widened. The landed aristocracy had more power and prestige within the city-state than the trader; Syracuse, for example, was founded by farmers from an inland village near Corinth and the expedition was headed by a member of the ruling family of Corinth.
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Contents of
The Greek Middle Ages: c. 1125 - c.700 BC
1 Population growth and land hunger
2 Economic expansion and the rising "middle class"
3 Cultural developments in Greece during the period of tyrannies
4 Hoplite tactics
5 Factional politics
6 Ethnic tensions
7 The downfall of tyrants in archaic Greece
8 The Dorian and Ionic migrations
9 The Dorians
10 Greek Dark age
11 The Greek City States
12 Greek colonization of the C8th BC
13 Greek colonization of the Aegean and East
14 Greek settlers in the Euxine
15 Causes of the Greek colonization
16 Archaeological evidence for Greek population expansion in C8th BC
17 Foundation of Cyrene
18 Corcyra
19 Olbia
20 The Lelantine war
21 Relations with Egypt
22 Greek Culture during the Greek Middle Ages
23 Introduction of phonetic script
24 Homer
25 Hesiod
26 Foundation of the Olympic Games
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