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The Piraeus – a World Apart1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2009

Sitta von Reden
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Extract

In book 5 of the Politics Aristotle discusses the causes for change in constitutions. He argues that, since people have opposing and often mistaken views about their just share in government, the main condition of political stability – that is, justice according to proportionate equality – is impaired. Aristotle then gives eleven particular reasons for civil strife (stasis) of which the last one may serve as a starting point for this paper:

Sometimes poleis enter into the civil strife because of the regional conditions (dia tous topous), because the land is not well suited for a polis to become a single unit. As for example, the people at Chytus in Clazomenai, or those from Colophon and Notion. And also at Athens they are not all in harmony (ouk homoiôs eisin) but those living in Piraeus are more democratic (mallon demotikoi) than in the city (13O3b7).

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , April 1995 , pp. 24 - 37
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1995

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References

Notes

2. Arist, . Pol. 1301a 20ffGoogle Scholar. Aristotle's theory of political change has rarely been discussed in its own right. See, however, the useful discussion by Polanski, R., ‘Aristotle on Political Change’ in Keydt, D. and Miller, F. D. (edd.), A Companion to Aristotle's Politics (Oxford, 1991), pp. 323–45Google Scholar.

3. Cf. Laws. 705a–b, quoted below.

4. See Aubonnet, J., Aristote, Politique (Budé, Paris, 1973), pp. 162–3 with full documentationGoogle Scholar.

5. Osborne, R., Demos, the Discovery of Classical Attica (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 64–92Google Scholar.

6. Amit, M., Athens and the Sea (Brussels, 1965)Google Scholar, id., ‘Le Pirée dans l'histoire d'Athènes á l'époque classique’, Bulletin de I'Association G. Budé 935/1961, 464–74. Garland, R., The Piraeus (London, 1987)Google Scholar.

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8. Thuc. 1.93.3. For discussion of the date of the first fortification see Hornblower, S., A Commentary on Thucydides (Oxford, 1991)Google Scholar, ad loc. with full bibliography.

9. Plut, . Them. 32.5Google Scholar citing Diodorus Periegetes (FGH 372 F 35). For further discussion of the location and authenticity of the tomb of Themistocles see Garland, , op. cit., pp. 216–17Google Scholar.

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12. Arist, . Ath.Pol. 50.2Google Scholar (astunomoi), 51.1–4 (for agoranomoi, metronomoi, sitophylakes, and epimeletai tou emporiou).

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14. Arist, Ath.Pol. 61.1, 42.3Google Scholar; Thuc. 8.92.5 (stratêgoi for the supervision of the dockyards); Arist, . Ath.Pol. 43.4Google Scholar (grain trade a regular issue of the assembly); Lys. 13.32 and 55; Thuc. 7.93.1 and 3; IG II.2 1176 (assembly in the theatre on Mounichia).

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17. Thuc. 2.17,6.30–2 and Xen, Hell. 2.2.3Google Scholar.

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19. Thuc. 8.92.10.

20. The main sources for the participation of foreigners against the Thirty Tyrants are Xenophon, , Hell. 2.4.24–5Google Scholar; IG II2 10 and Arist, . Ath.Pol. 40.2Google Scholar. For further discussion see above all Osborne, M. K., Naturalisation in Athens, Vol. I (Brussels, 1983), pp. 26–43, esp. pp. 35–42Google Scholar, and for a contrasting position Krentz, P., The Thirty at Athens (New York, 1982), esp. pp. 73 and 84ffGoogle Scholar.

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22. IG II.2 10, face A; cf. Osborne (1983), p. 33.

23. Garland (1987), pp. 3 and 5.

24. Ibid., p. 108f.

25. Earliest reference for Bendis IG II.2 310.208 (dated to 429/8; cf. Garland [1987], Appendix III, No. 37) and further references in Garland (1987, pp. 231–3); for Aphrodite Ourania see IG II.2 337 dated to 333/2 and found in Piraeus, which renders the location of the shrine in Piraeus highly likely; cf. IG II.2 4636–7 (both dated to the fourth century and also found on the Piraeus peninsula).

26. Thuc. 2.29; cf. Garland (1987), p. 119 and Nilsson, M. P., Cults, Myths, Oracles and Politics in Ancient Greece (Lund, 1951), pp. 45–8Google Scholar.

27. IG II.2 1361 (fourth century), 1255 (337/6), 1496 (334/3–331/0) are decrees of citizen orgeônes, while IG IV 1256 (329/80) is the first known decree made by the Thracians; cf. Garland (1987), pp. 119,162,232. In an inscription of the third century a joint procession of Thracian orgeônes of Bendis resident in Piraeus and in the astu is decreed.

28. Garland (1987), p. 132; Amit (1965), p. 82.

29. Aesch. 1.40.

30. See first Wiedemann, T. E. J., G&R 30 (1983), 163–70Google Scholar; more generally, Hall, E., Inventing the Barbarian: Greek Self-definition through Tragedy (Oxford, 1989)Google Scholar; and Cartledge, P., The Greeks: a Portrait of Self and Others (Oxford, 1993)Google Scholar.

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32. Polanyi (1977), pp. 189–99; Cf. id. (1960), pp. 329–35.

33. Polanyi (1977), pp. 190–1 referring to Hasebroek (1933), pp. 1–8; Finley (Finkelstein), CPh 30 (1935), pp. 320–36Google Scholar; and Knorringa, H., Emporos: Data on Trade and Traders in Greek Literature from Homer to Aristotle (Amsterdam, 1926), pp. 114ffGoogle Scholar.

34. Humphreys, S. C., ‘History, Economics and Anthropology: the Work of Karl Polanyi’ in Anthropology and the Greeks (London, 1978), pp. 31–75, esp. p. 48Google Scholar; Figueira, T. J., ‘Karl Polanyi and Ancient Greek Trade: the Port of Trade’, Ancient World 10 (1984), 15–30Google Scholar; Millett, P., ‘Sale, Credit and Exchange in Athenian Law and Society’ in Cartledge, P., Millett, P., Todd, S. (edd.), Nomos (Cambridge, 1991), pp. 167–94, esp. p. 170Google Scholar.

35. Mossé, C., ‘The World of the Emporion in the Private Speeches of Demosthenes’ in Garnsey, P. D. A., Hopkins, K., and Whittacker, C. R. (edd.), Trade in the Ancient Economy (London, 1983), pp. 53–63Google Scholar; Millett, , ‘Maritime Loans and the Structure of Credit in 4th-century Athens’; in Garnsey, Hopkins, Whittacker (1983), pp. 36–52Google Scholar.

36. Lys. ft. 38 (Gernet-Bisoz).

37. Whitehead, , The Ideology of the Athenian Metic (Cambridge, 1977)Google Scholar. A particularly good example of this is Lys. 12.4.

38. See the example of Meixidemos (IG II2 1582), discussed in Osborne (1985), pp. 1ff.

39. Cf. Thuc. 1.141–3; 2.38; Loraux, N., The Invention of Athens (Princeton, 1986), pp. 42–4, 180–202, 328–38Google Scholar.