Помощничек
Главная | Обратная связь


Археология
Архитектура
Астрономия
Аудит
Биология
Ботаника
Бухгалтерский учёт
Войное дело
Генетика
География
Геология
Дизайн
Искусство
История
Кино
Кулинария
Культура
Литература
Математика
Медицина
Металлургия
Мифология
Музыка
Психология
Религия
Спорт
Строительство
Техника
Транспорт
Туризм
Усадьба
Физика
Фотография
Химия
Экология
Электричество
Электроника
Энергетика

Nature of the Political Units



The city-state (polis) was the main form of political organization throughout the Greek world from the eighth century until Philip of Macedonia conquered the peninsula in the late fourth century B.C. Most of these units were comprised of a group of towns or a small city, usually walled, surrounded by relatively small areas of agricultural territory. Attica, for example, was the area occupied by the Athenian people. It included many small agricultural villages, but the city of Athens was the center of political life and administration, and the people throughout Attica were called Athenians. The population of the city-states varied from the largest, such as Syracuse, Acragas, and Athens, with about 25,000 male citizens, to the smallest, such as Siris and Thourioi in Sicily, which contained only several thousand inhabitants. In size, the city-states ranged from several

\/

42 Historic International Systems

hundred square miles, including outlying agricultural territory, to small towns , built on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea comprising only several hundred acres. Most poleis were about 100 square miles.

The forms of government in the city-states varied from priest-kings rul­ing over tribal organizations, small oligarchies of the rich, and military tyrannies to freely elected governments, wherein citizens (omitting peasants, merchants, and slaves), whose tenure in office rotated frequently, formulated and adminis­tered policies directly.

The city-state cannot be understood adequately when described only in terms of its political institutions, for the Greeks considered the polls the ideal social organization for liberating an individual from a natural state and for providing justice, promoting fellowship and harmony, and training personal character. Despite the many economic, cultural, and language ties among Greek city-states, there was no struggle to create a common framework for uniting all the Hellenic people into a more viable empire. The Greeks emphasized the virtue of limited political organizations—small enough to allow for the assembly of all free citizens to help make political decisions and small enough for govern­ment and administration never to seem impersonal influences over the lives of citizens. The state and society were thus indistinguishable concepts among the Greeks.

Aside from the poleis, three other types of political units played roles in the Greek international system. One was the tributary state, a polls that came under the hegemony of another city-state but was allowed to maintain some degree of autonomy in internal affairs. During the fifth century, when Athens dominated the Delian League, a number of the smaller members of the alliance became tributary states. Most of these were obliged—ostensibly as alliance part­ners—to accept Athenian domination over their external relations, contribute to the Athenian treasury (officially, a contribution to the alliance), and make war and peace according to the interests of Athens. Failure to follow Athenian leadership resulted in serious punishment, including occupation of the recalci­trant city-state by Athenian troops and construction of permanent Athenian garrisons.

The third type of political unit was the military colony, cleruchy, which some city-states established to guard strategic territories, waterways, and trade routes. The cleruchy also served as an outlet for surplus population from the mother city-state, particularly after these cities grew to the point where their own agriculture could not provide adequate food supplies for the population.

Finally, many city-states also established nonmilitary colonies throughout the Aegean and Mediterranean seas. They erected these towns and cities primar­ily as new sources of food supply and areas for relieving population congestion at home. Many city-states also sent politically unreliable citizens and unwanted aspirants for public office to their colonies, sometimes in exile, sometimes to fill honorific positions. Although the original connection between the city-state and its colonies was one of dependence, after several decades most colonies became independent of their mother city-states and retained only formal reli-

43 Historic International Systems

gious ties. Otherwise, the colonies organized their own political administration and conducted their own external affairs.31

 




Поиск по сайту:

©2015-2020 studopedya.ru Все права принадлежат авторам размещенных материалов.