pp. 99 - 104(6)
p. 103 Lycurgan Reforms

World History, Comprehensive Volume, 3^rd Edition, by William J. Duiker & Jackson J. Spielvogel.

The World of the Greek City-states

(C. 750-c.500 B.C.E)

In the eighth century B.C.E., Greek civilization burst forth with new energies. Two major developments stand out in this era: the evolution of the polis as the central institution in Greek life and the Greek’s colonization of the Mediterranean and Black Seas.

The Polis

By the eighth century B.C.E., the Greek polis (plural, poleis) had emerged as a truly unique and fundamental institution in Greek society. In the most basic sense, a polis could be defined as a small but autonomous political unit in which all major political, social and religious activities were carried out at one central location.

In a physical sense, the polis encompassed a town or a city or even a village and its surrounding countryside. But the town or city or village served as the focus or central point where the citizens of the polis could assemble for political, social, and religious activities. In some poleis, this central meeting point was a hill, like the Acropolis at Athens, which could serve as a place of refuge during an attack and later in some sites came to be the religious center on which temples and public monuments were erected. Below the acropolis would be an agora, an open space that served both as a place where the citizens could assemble and as a market. Citizens resided in town and country alike, but the worn remained the center of political activity.

Poleis could vary greatly in size, from a few square miles to a few hundred square miles. The larger ones were the product of consolidation. The territory of Attica, for examples, had once had twelve poleis but eventually it became a single polis (Athens) through a process of amalgamation. Athens grew to have a population of more than 300,000 by the fifth century B.C.E., with an adult male citizen body of about 43,000. Most poleis were considerably smaller than Athens, however.

Although our word politics is derived from the Greek term polis itself was much more than just a political institution. It was, above all, a community of citizens in which all political, social, cultural and religious activities were focused. As a community, the polis consisted of citizens with political rights (adult males), citizens with no political rights (woman and children) and non-citizens (slaves and resident aliens). All citizens of a polis possessed fundamental rights, but these rights were coupled with responsibilities. The Greek philosopher Aristotle argued that the citizen did not just belong to himself: “we must rather regard every citizen as belonging to the state. However, the loyalty that citizens had to their city-states also had a negative side. City-states distrusted one another, and the division on Greece into fiercely patriotic independent units helped bring about its ruin.

The development of the polis was paralleled by the emergence of a new military system. Greek fighting had previously been dominated by aristocratic cavalrymen, who reveled in individual duels with enemy soldiers. But by the end of the eighth century and beginning of the seventh century B.C.E., the hoplite infantry formation – the phalanx- came into being. Hoplites were heavily armed infantrymen, who wore bronze or leather helmets, breastplates and greaves (shin guards). Each carried a round shield, a short sword and a thrusting spear about nine feet long. Hoplites advanced into the battle as a unit, forming a phalanx (a rectangular formation) in tight order, usually eight ranks deep. As long as the hoplites kept their order, were not outflanked and did not break, the either secured victory or, at the very least suffered no harm. The phalanx was easily routed, however, if it broke its order. The safety of the phalanx depended, above all, on the solidarity and discipline of its members. As one seventh-century B.C.E poet noted, a good hoplite was “a short man firmly placed upon his legs, with a courageous heart, not to be uprooted from the spot where he planted his legs.”

The hoplite force had political as well as military repercussions. The aristocratic cavalry was now outdated. Since each hoplite provided his own armor, men of property, both aristocrats and small farmers made up the new phalanx. Those who could become hoplites and fight for the state could also challenge aristocratic control.

Colonization and the Rise of the Tyrants

Between 750 and 550 B.C.E., the Greek people left their homeland in large numbers to settle in distant lands. Poverty and hunger created by the growing gulf between the rich and the poor, overpopulation, and the development of trade were all factors that led to the establishment of colonies. Each colony was founded as a polis and was usually independent of the mother polis (hence the word metropolis) that had established it. Invariably the colony saw itself as an independent entity whose links to the mother city were not political but were based on sharing common social economic and especially religious practices.

In the western Mediterranean, new Greek settlements were established along the coastline of southern Italy, southern France, eastern Spain, and northern Africa west of Egypt. To the north, the Greeks set up colonies in Thrace, where they sought good agricultural lands to grow grains. Greeks also settled along the shores of the Black Sea and secured the approaches to it with cities on the Hellespont and Bosphorus, most notably Byzantium, site of the later Constantinople (Istanbul). By establishing these settlements, the Greeks spread their culture throughout the Mediterranean basin. Colonization also led to increased trade and industry. The Greeks sent their pottery, wine and olive oil to the colonies; in return they received grains and metals from the west and fish, timber, wheat, metals and slaves from the Black Sea region. In many poleis, the expansion of trade and industry created a new group of rich men who desired political privileges commensurate with their wealth but found such privileges impossible to gain because of the power of the ruling aristocrats.

The aspirations of the newly rising industrial and commercial groups opened the door to the rise of tyrants in the seventh and sixteenth centuries B.C.E. they were not necessarily oppressive or wicked as our word tyrant connotes. Greek tyrants were rulers who came to power in an unconstitutional way; a tyrant was not a subject to the law. Many tyrants were actually aristocrats who opposed the control of the ruling aristocratic faction in their cities. The support for the tyrants came from the new rich who made their money in trade an industry as well as from poor peasants who were becoming increasingly indebted to landholding aristocrats. Both groups were opposed to the domination of political power by aristocratic oligarchies.

 Tyrants usually achieved power by a local coup d’etat and maintained it by using mercenary soldiers. Once in power, they promoted public works projects, such as the construction of new marketplaces, temples, and walls not that only glorified the city but also enhanced their own popularity. Tyrants also favored the interests of merchants and traders. Despites these achievements, however, tyranny was largely extinguished by the sixth century B.C.E Its very nature as a system outside the law seemed contradictory to the ideal of law in Greek history by the ending of rule of narrow aristocratic oligarchies. Once the tyrants were eliminated, the door was opened to the participation of new and more people in governing the affairs of the community. Although this trend culminated in the development of democracy in some communities, in other states expanded oligarchies of one kind or another managed to remain in power. Greek states exhibited considerable variety in their governmental structures; this can perhaps be seen by examining the two most famous and most powerful Greek city-states, Sparta and Athens.

Sparta

Located in the southwestern Peloponnesus, in an area known as Laconia, the Spartans had originally occupied four small villages that eventually became unified into a single polis. This unification made Sparta a strong community in Laconia and enabled the Spartans to conquer the Laconians and subject them to serfdom. Known as Helots (the name is derived from a Greek work for “capture”), these conquered Laconians were bound to the land and forced to work on farms and as household servants for the Spartans.

When the land in Laconia was proved unable to maintain the growing number of Spartan citizens, the Spartans looked for land nearby and, beginning around 730 B.C.E., undertook the conquer of neighboring Messenia despite its lager size and population. Messenia possessed a large fertile plain ideal for growing grain. After its conquest, which was not completed until the seventeenth century B.C.E., the Messenians were reduced to serfdom and made to work for the Spartans. To ensure control over their conquered Laconian and Messenian Helots, the Spartans made a conscious decision to create a military state.

Sometime between 800 and 600 B.C.E., the Spartans instituted a series of reforms that are associated with the name of the lawgiver Lycurgus (see the box on Pg. 103- bottom of page for us). Although historians are not sure that Lycurgus ever existed, there is no doubt about the result of the reforms that were made: Sparta was transformed into a perpetual military camp.

The lives of the Spartans were now rigidly organized and tightly controlled (thus, our word Spartan, meaning “highly self-disciplined”). At birth each child was examined by state officials who decided whether he or she was fit to live. Those judged unfit were exposed to die. Boys were taken from their mothers at the age of seven and put under control of the state. They lived in quasi-military barracks, where they were subjected to harsh discipline to make them tough and given an education that stressed military training and obedience to authority. At twenty, Spartans males were enrolled in the army for regular military service. Although allowed to marry, they continued to live in the barracks and ate all their meals in the public dining halls with their fellow soldiers. Meals were simple; the famous Spartan black broth consisted of a piece of pork boiled in blood, salt and vinegar, causing a visitor who ate in a public mess hall to remark that he now understood why Spartans were not afraid to die. At thirty, Spartan males were recognized as mature and allowed to vote in the assembly and live at home, but they remained in military service until the age of sixty.

While their husbands remained in military barracks until the age of thirty, Spartan women lived at home. Because of this separation, Spartan women had greater freedom of movement and greater power in the household than was common for women elsewhere in Greece. Spartan women were encouraged to exercise and remain fit to bear and raise health children. Like the men, Spartan women engaged in athletic exercise in the nude. At solemn feasts, the young women marched naked in processions, and in the presence of the young men, they sang songs about those who had showed special gallantry or cowardice on the battlefield. Many Spartan women upheld the strict Spartan values, expecting their husbands and sons to be brave in war. The story is told that as a Spartan mother was burying her son, an old women came up to her and said, “ you poor woman, what a misfortune.” “No,” replied the mother, “because I bore him so that he might die for Sparta and this is what has happened, as I wished.”

The so-called Lycurgan reforms also reorganized the Spartan government, creating an oligarchy. Two kings from different families were primarily responsible for military affairs and served as the leaders of the Spartan army on its campaigns. Moreover, the kings served as the supreme priests within the state religion and had some role in foreign policy.

Two kings shared power with a body called the gerousia, a council or elders. It consisted of twenty-eight citizens over the age of sixty, who were elected for life and the two kings. The primary task of the gerousia was to prepare proposals that would be presented to the apella, an assembly of all male citizens. The assembly did not debate but only voted on the proposals. The assembly also elected the gerousia and another body known as the ephors, a group of five men who were responsible for supervising the education of youth and the conduct of all citizens.

To make their new military state secure, the Spartans deliberately turned their backs on the outside world. Foreigners, who might bring in new ideas, were discouraged from visiting Sparta. Furthermore, except for military reasons, Spartans were not allowed to travel abroad, where they might pick up new ideas that might be dangerous to the stability of the state. Likewise, Spartan citizens were discouraged from studying philosophy, literature, or the arts-subjects that might encourage new thoughts. The art of war was the Spartan ideal, and all other arts were frowned upon.

In the sixth century, Sparta used its military might and the fear it inspired to gain greater control of the Peloponnesus by organizing an alliance of almost al the Peloponnesian states. Sparta’s strength enabled it to dominate this Peloponnesian league and determine its policies. By 500 B.C.E., the Spartans had organized a powerful military state that maintained order and stability in the Peloponnesus. Raised from early childhood to believe that the total loyalty to the Spartan state was the basic reason for existence, the Spartans viewed their strength as justification for their militaristic ideals and regimented society.

Athens

By 700 B.C.E., Athens had established a unified polis on the peninsula of Attica. Although early Athens had been ruled by a monarch, by the seventh century B.C.E., it had fallen under the control of the aristocrats. They possessed the best land and controlled political and religious life by means of a council of nobles called archons. Although there was an assembly of full citizens, it possessed few powers.

Near the end of the seventh century B.C.E., Athens was experiencing political and social discontent stemming from the development of the rival factions within the aristocracy and serious economic problems. Increasing numbers of Athenian farmers found themselves sold into slavery when they were unable to repay the loans they had borrowed from their aristocratic neighbors, pledging themselves as collateral. Repeatedly, revolutionary cries for cancellation of debts and a redistribution of land were heard.

The ruling Athenian aristocrats responded to this crisis by choosing Solon, a reform-minded aristocrat, as sole archon in 594 B.C.E., and giving him full power to make all the changes. Solon’s reforms dealt with both the economic and political problems. He cancelled all current land debts, outlawed new loans based on humans as collateral and freed people who had fallen into slavery for debts. He refused, however, to carry out the redistribution of the land and hence failed to deal with the basic cause of the economic crisis. This failure, however, was overshadowed by the commercial and industrial prosperity that Athens began to experience in the following decades.

Like his economic reforms, Solon’s political measures were also a compromise. Though by no means eliminating the power of aristocracy, they opened the door to the participation of new people, especially the non-aristocratic wealthy, in the government. But Solon’s reforms, though popular, did not truly solve Athens problems. Aristocratic factions continued to vie for power, and the poorer peasants resented Solons failure to institute land redistribution. Internal strife finally led to the very institution Solon had hoped to avoid- tyranny. Pisistratus, an aristocrat, seized power in 560 B.C.E. Pursuing a foreign policy that aided Athenian trade, Pisistratus remained popular with the mercantile and industrial classes but the Athenian s rebelled against his son and ended the tyranny in 510 B.C.E. Although the aristocrats attempted to reestablish an aristocratic oligarchy, Cleisthenes, another aristocratic reformer, opposed this plan, and with the backing of the Athenian people, gained the upper hand in 508 B.C.E.

Cleisthenes created a new council of 500, chosen, by lot by the ten tribes in which all citizens had been enrolled. The new council of 500 was responsible for the administration of both foreign and financial affairs and prepared the business that would be handled by the assembly. This assembly of all male citizens had final authority in the passing of laws after free and open debate; thus, Cleisthenes reforms had reinforced the central role of the assembly of citizens in the Athenian political system.

The reforms of Cleisthenes created the foundations for Athenian democracy. More changes would come in the fifth century, when the Athenians themselves would begin to use the word democracy to describe their system (our word democracy comes from the Greek word demos [people] and the Greek word kratia [power]). By 500 B.C.E., Athens was more united than it had been and was on the verge of playing a more important role in Greek affairs.

The Lycurgan Reforms

In order to maintain their control over the conquered Messenians, the Spartans instituted the reforms that created their military state. In this account of the supposed lawgiver Lycurgus, the Greek historian Plutarch discusses the effect of these reforms on the treatment and education of the boys.

PLUTARCH, LYCURGUS

Lycurgus was of another mind; he would not have masters bought out of the market for his younger Spartans… nor was it lawful, indeed, for the father himself to breed up the children after his own fancy; but it was as soon as they were seven years old they were to be enrolled in certain companies and classes, where they all lived under the same order and discipline, doing their exercises and taking their play together. Of these, he who showed that the whole course of their education was one continued exercise of a ready and perfect obedience. The old men, too, were spectators of their performances, and often raised quarrels of seeing which would be more valiant, which a coward, when they should come to more dangerous encounters. Reading and writing they gave them, just enough to serve their turn; their chief care was to make them good subjects, and to teach them to endure pain and conquer in battle. To this end, as they grew in years, their discipline was proportionately increased; their heads were close clipped, they were accustomed to go barefoot, and for the most part play naked.

After they were twelve years old, they were no longer allowed to wear any undergarments; they had one coat to serve them a year; their bodies were hard and dry, with but little acquaintance of baths and unguents; these human indulgences they were allowed only some few particular days in a year. They lodged together in little bands upon beds made of the rushes which grew on the banks of the river Eurotas, which they were to break off with their hands with a knife; if it were winter, they mingled some thistledown with their rushes, which it was thought had the property of giving warmth. By the time they were come to this age there were not any of the more hopeful boys who had not a lover to bear him company. The old men, too, had an eye upon them, coming often to the grounds to hear and see them contended either in wit or strength with one another, and this as seriously… as if they were fathers, their tutors, or their magistrates; so that there was scarcely any time or place without someone present to put them to mind of their duty, and punish them if they had neglected it.

[Spartan boys were also encouraged to steal their food.] They stole too, all other meat they could lay their hands on, looking out and watching all opportunities, when people were asleep or more careless than usual. If they were caught, they were not only punished with whipping, but hunger, too, being reduced to their ordinary allowance, which was but very slender, and so contrived on purpose, that they might set about to help themselves, and be forced to exercise their energy and address. This was the principal design to their hard fare.