The Spear, the Scroll, and the Pebble: How the Greek City-State Developed as a Male Warrior-Citizen Collective

Description

This book presents a powerful new argument for how and why the Greek city-states, including their distinctive society and culture, came to be – and why they had the highly unusual and influential form they took. After reviewing early city-state formation, and the economic underpinnings of city-state society, three key chapters examine the way the Greeks developed their unique society. The spear, scroll and pebble encapsulate the book’s core ideas. To access this information, these military and political citizens had to be able to read. Billows examines the spread of schools and literacy throughout the Greek world, showing that the male city-state Greeks formed the world’s first-known mass literate society. He concludes by showing that it was the mass-literate nature of the Greek city-state society that explains the remarkable and influential culture the classical Greeks produced. The book seeks to understand how and why the Greek city-states and their distinctive male-oriented society and culture came to be and had the highly unusual and influential form they took. After reviewing early city-state formation, and the economic growth underpinning city-state society, three key chapters examine the way the Greeks developed their unique kind of society. In the first place, city-state Greeks developed a citizen-militia military system that gave more or less equal importance to each male citizen-warrior, thereby emboldening the citizen-warriors to demand political rights. That led to the growth of collective political systems called oligarchy and democracy, in which thousands of active male citizens formed the sovereign element of the state and made political decisions through communal debate and voting. In order for such systems to function, a shared information base had to be created, and this was done by setting up public notices of laws, proposed policies, public meeting agendas, and a host of other information. To access this information citizens had to be able to read, and the final chapter examines the spread of schools for boys and consequent male literacy throughout the Greek world, showing that the city-state Greeks formed the world’s first known mass literate society. Being literate, finally, has a profound effect on the human brain’s cognitive process and capacity, as modern neuroscience has shown, and the book concludes by showing that it was the mass-literate nature of Greek city-state society that explains the remarkable and influential culture the classical Greeks produced. Cover Halftitle page Series page Title page Copyright page Dedication Contents Illustrations Abbreviations Acknowledgments Map Introduction What is a Polis? What is a City-State? 1 The Origin and Early Development of the City-State Early Iron Age Communities Overseas Settlements and City-State Development The Ethnos Model: Phokis The Centrifugal Polis Model: Boiotia and the Argolid The Centripetal Polis Model 1: Sparta and the Perioikic System The Centripetal Polis Model 2: Athens and the Deme System Conclusion: The Development of the City-State 2 Economic Development and the City-State Preconditions: Geography, Climate, and Demography The Early Greek Economy The Developed Greek Economy Making a Living in the Greek Economy Conclusion: The Greek City as Center of Economic Specialization and Exchange 3 The Spear: Warfare and the City-State Early Greek Warfare Hoplite Warfare The Hoplite Revolution Fleets in the Greek World: The Role of the Poor in Warfare Conclusion: The City-State as a Warrior Collective 4 The Pebble: Collective Decision Makingand the City-State From Oligarchy to Democracy: The Varieties of Collective Decision Making The Political Theory of Collective Decision Making Public Information and Political Participation Conclusion: The City-State as a Collective of Informed Citizens 5 The Scroll: Literacy and the City-State The Origin and Spread of the Greek Alphabet Schools and the Spread of Literacy The Evidence for Reading and Writing Conclusion: The Literate Citizen Conclusion: Literate Citizen-Warriors and City-State Culture Appendix 1: A Note on the Sources Appendix 2: Aristotle’s Politeiai Appendix 3: Overseas Settlements and Metropoleis Notes Bibliography Index Plates