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Anthropology and the classics: war, violence, and the stateless polis1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Moshe Berent
Affiliation:
The Open University of Israel, mosheb@oumail.openu.ac.il

Extract

I. INTRODUCTION

It has become a commonplace in contemporary historiography to note the frequency of war in ancient Greece. Yvon Garlan says that, during the century and a half from the Persian wars (490 and 480–479 B.C.) to the battle of Chaeronea (338 B.C.), Athens was at war, on average, more than two years out of every three, and never enjoyed a period of peace for as long as ten consecutive years. ‘Given these conditions’, says Garlan, ‘one would expect them (i.e. the Greeks) to consider war as a problem …. But this was far from being the case.’ The Greek acceptance of war as inevitable was contrasted by Momigliano and others with the attention given to constitutional changes and to the prevention of stasis: ‘the Greeks came to accept war like birth and death about which nothing could be done …. On the other hand constitutions were men-made and could be modified by men.’

Moralist overtones were not absent from this re-evaluation of Greek civilization. Havelock observed that the Greeks exalted, legitimized, and placed organized warfare at the heart of the European value system, and Momigliano suggested that:

The idea of controlling wars, like the idea of the emancipation of women and the idea of birth control, is a part of the intellectual revolution of the nineteenth century and meant a break with the classical tradition of historiography of wars.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2000

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51 A case against citizens' monopoly of violence could be made by the fact that non-citizens were sometimes employed as hoplites. Nevertheless, this employment created pressures for enfranchisement (see below).

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56 Plato, Republic 578d-e (emphasis added), trans. Desmond Lee (Harmondsworth, 1974).

57 Xen. Hiero 4.3. And see Fisher, N. R. E., Slavery in Classical Greece (London, 1993), 71–2.Google Scholar

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59 Cartledge, Paul, ‘Rebels and sambos in classical Greece’, in Cartledge, P. and Harvey, F. D. (edd.), Crux: Essays in Greek History Presented to G. E. M. de Ste Croix on His 75th Birthday (Exeter and London, 1985), 46.Google ScholarGarlan, in his Slavery in Ancient Greece (Ithaca, NY and London, 1988)Google Scholar, ch. 2, classifies them as ‘community slaves’. Since these were actually communities many scholars (e.g. de Ste Croix in his Class Struggle) find it helpful to classify them as ‘state-serfs’ rather them as slaves: Fisher (n. 57), 23–4.

60 Aristotle, Politics 7.10, 1330a24–9 (tran Barker, S. Ernest, The Politics of Aristotle [Oxford, 1946])Google Scholar; Plato, (Laws 111) says that ‘The frequent and repeated revolts in Messenia, and in states where people possess a lot of slaves who all speak the same language, have shown the evils of the system often enough … if the slaves are to submit to their condition without giving trouble, they should not all come from the same country or speak the same tongue, as far as it can be arranged’ (trans. Saunders, Trevor J. [Harmondsworth, 1970])Google Scholar, and see Garlan (n. 59), 177–83.

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74 De Ste Croix (n. 70), 207–8.

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77 Pritchett (n. 75), 458–9. Another matter is the fact that one of the prime targets of war in ancient Greece had been the destruction of crops and other agricultural resources. See L. Foxhall ‘Farming and fighting in ancient Greece’, in Rich and Shipley (n. 66), 134–6. Thus long invasions did not affect all alike—farmers were hit harder than those without land and some farmers were hit harder than others (pp. 142–3.) See also Osborne, R., Classical Landscape with Figures: The Ancient Greek City and its Countryside (London, 1987), 154.Google Scholar

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81 Plato, Republic 372e-374a (emphasis added) [trans. Lee (n. 56)]. See also discussion in Gellner (n. 13, 1981), 16–18.

82 There is a similar argument in the Phaedo 66c: wars are fought for wealth, which we need only for our slavish attention to the body. see Guthrie, W. K. C., A History of Greek Philosophy, vol. 4 (Cambridge, 1975), 338Google Scholar n.l and 448.

83 It could be that Plato relies here on what he sees as the rules of war among Greeks (as distinguished from wars between Greeks and non-Greeks) which prohibited these actions. See Republic 469c–471c.

84 Gellner (n. 13,1981), 16–21.

85 Rihll (n. 66), 87.

86 Plato, Phaedo 66c.

87 Politics 1.8, 1256bl, 1256b23.

88 Rihll (n. 66), 105. Millett (n. 75), 183–4 says ‘As far as the Greek themselves were concerned warfare was conceived as potentially profitable.’

89 Hugh Bowden, ‘Hoplites and Homer: warfare, hero cult, and ideology of the polis’, in Rich and Shipley (n. 66), 48.

90 Austin and Vidal-Naquet (n. 73), p. 13.

91 Pritchett (n. 75), 445–53; Rihll (n. 66), 92–100.

92 Pritchett (n. 76, 1971), 82; Rihll (n. 66), 79.

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99 Ibid., 93–4.

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102 Burkert, Walter, Homo Necans: The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth, trans. Peter, Bing (Berkeley, 1983), 47.Google Scholar

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104 Thuc. 6.18. See also Havelock (n. 6), 75.

105 Politics 7.14, 1334a5–10.

106 Politics 7.H, 1333b5.

107 Khaldun, Ibn, The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History, trans. Franz, Rosenthal, abridged and ed. Dawood, N. J. (London, 1967), 97100Google Scholar; Gellner (n. 13,1981), 16–28.

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109 Weber (n. 21), 1359–63. See also Bryant, J. M., ‘Military technology and socio-cultural change in the ancient Greek city’, Sociological Review 38 (1990), 484–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Bryant notes that Marx had fully anticipated Weber on this connection between militarism and social organization.

110 Gellner (n. 13, 1981), 189–90.

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113 Ibid., 25–6, 30–1. See also Adcock, F. E., The Greek and Macedonian Art of War (Berkeley, 1957), 4.Google Scholar

114 Yet not entirely neglected. Thus Cartledge points at the ‘levelling effect’ of fighting in phalanxes. See Cartledge (n. 33), 44.

115 Andreski (n. 12), 139.

116 Connor (n. 2), 21–4.

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120 Ehrenberg, Thus, using traditional ‘statist’ language says that ‘regional connections of kinsfolk and clans were decisively destroyed by Cleisthenes’ reforms (emphasis added) (The Greek State [London, 1969 2], 29).Google Scholar However, others thought they had to account for this peaceful transition. Andrewes, A. claims that ‘the general impression remains that clans and phratries had already ceased to play a part, as such, in Athenian politics, well before the reform of Cleisthenes in 507’ (The Greeks [London, 1967], 82).Google Scholar Another possibility is that the new cults supplemented rather then replaced the old one, as the genos and phratry seemed to have been little affected by the reforms. See E. Kearns, ‘Religious structures after Cleisthenes’, in Cartledge and Harvey (n. 59), 204–7.

121 Actually Cleisthenes created a new army rather than rearranged an old one. Van Effenterre, H. has pointed out that while the political aspect of the Cleisthenes reforms has been thoroughly emphasized the military aspect has been neglected (‘Clisthéne et les mesures de mobilisation’, REG 89 [1976], 1–3)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Effenterre points to the need to create a new army after the reign of the Peisistratids who disarmed the population and relied upon mercenaries (pp. 3–4). He concludes that Cleisthenes’ reform was simultaneously a political measure and a military measure (p. 16), and a successful one considering the victories both against Greek neighbours and in the Persian wars. However, he still remains within the mainstream which sees the army as a reflection of the reform and not also as an instrument for bringing it about. Siewert, on the other hand, seems to belittle the political motives of the reform and see the latter as a largely military reorganization (Die Trityyen Attikas und die Heeresreform des Kleisthenes [Munich, 1982]).Google Scholar However, in stateless communities with a high military participation ratio, that is, where almost everybody carries arms in wartime, it is impossible to separate the military from the political.

122 Bowden (n. 89), 47.

123 Vernant, J. P. (ed.), Problèmes de la guerre en Grèce ancienne (Paris and La Haye, 1968), 18.Google Scholar For the same position, see M. Detienne, ‘La phalange: problemes et controverses’, ibid., 140–2.

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129 M. H. Hansen (n. 54), 58–9 and 61–4.

130 Bowden (n. 89), 48.

131 Some without greaves and others without corselets, or using leather helmets instead of bronze, or shields of different shape and materials. Salmon, J., ‘Political hoplites?JHS 97 (1977), 90–2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Bowden (n. 89), 48–9.

132 Raaflaub, Kurt A., ‘Soldiers, citizens and the evolution of the early greek polis’, in Mytchell, Lynette G. and Rhodes, P. J. (edd.), The Development of the Polis in Archaic Greece (London, 1997), 54.Google Scholar Walter Donlan, ‘The relation of power in the pre-state and early-state polities’, ibid., 45–6. Lin Foxhall, ‘A view from the top: evaluating the Solonian property classes’, ibid., 131.

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136 Herman (n. 134), 164.

137 Starr (n. 23), 43–5.

138 Snodgrass (n. 133), 39.

139 Aristotle, Politics 4.10, 1297b25–30 (trans. Barker [n. 60]).

140 Bowden(n.89),61.

141 Cartledge (n. 127), 18.

142 Ibid.

143 Snodgrass (n. 126), 110.

144 Snodgrass (n. 126), 84–5.

145 Cartledge (n. 127), 19–20.

146 Ibid., 18.

147 Hanson(n. 111), 9–18.

148 Cartledge (n. 33), 43.

149 Pritchett, W. K., The Greek State at War, part 4 (Berkeley, 1985), 33.Google Scholar See also Morris (n. 64), 196–204.

150 Pritchett (n. 149), 44.

151 Raaflaub (n. 132), 49–57.

152 Hanson, V. D., The Other Greeks: The Family Farm and the Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization (New York, 1995), 238.Google Scholar

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154 Hanson (n. 152), 223.

155 Khazanov (n. 128), 149–50.

156 Aristotle, Politics 4.10, 1297b15–24.

157 Snodgrass(n. 126), 114.

158 Ibid., 113; Cartledge (n. 127), 23. Yet Snodgrass (n. 135), 98 seems to reject the existence of ‘a phase of true cavalry warfare, in which the warrior actually fought from horseback’. See also Greenhalgh, P. A. L., Early Greek Warfare: Horsemen and Chariots in the Homeric and Archaic Age (Cambridge, 1973), 75–8,146Google Scholar, who maintains that the hippeis of the Geometric Age communities to whom Aristotle referred as having a military and political dominance were not cavalrymen, but heavy-armed foot-soldiers who used their horses for transport. Greenhalgh suggests that before the so-called ‘hoplite reform’, battles were less organized affairs and success depended far more on individual skill and that the creation of the phalanx was prompted by technological inventions (such as the double-grip shield). The (mounted) pre-hoplite (still a mounted infantryman) used his horse for transportation to the battlefield and also to move around in the battle, while after the invention of the phalanx the hoplite could ride to battle but not use his horse to move about during the engagements between the phalanxes (pp. 70–4, 146). Van Wees suggests that the warchariots in Homer were used to transfer the warrior to the battlefield and to move within the battle, yet normally, ‘he at some point “jumps off” and “mingles with the promakhof”, on foot’ (‘The Homeric way of war: the Iliad and the hoplite phalanx (I)’, Greece and Rome 41 [1994], 9–10).

159 Detienne(n. 123), 134–8.

160 Gellner (n. 13, 1981), 34. For the non-territorial definition of the Greek polis, see notes 128 and 129 above.

161 Kurt Raaflaub, ‘City-state, territory, and empire in classical antiquity’, in Molho, A., Raaflaub, K., and Emlen, J. (edd.), City-States in Classical Antiquity and Medieval Italy (Stuttgart, 1991), 566.Google Scholar

162 Hdt. 8.61–3. See discussion in Manville (n. 100), 38–40.

163 P. Vidal-Naquet quoting Hippolyte Taine in ‘The tradition of the Athenian Hoplite’ (n. 58), 86 (an earlier version, ‘La tradition de Phoplite Athenien’ was published in Vernant [n. 123], 161–81). Another example is Thuc. 7.77.7 where Nicias, at the moment of retreat in Sicily, says to the Athenian army ‘Reflect that you yourselves, wherever you settle down, are a city already’. See C. Mossé, ‘Le rôle politique des armées dans le monde Grec à l'époque classique’, in Vernant (n. 123), 222.

164 P. Cartledge, ‘La nascita degli opliti e l'organizzazione militare’, in S. Settis (ed.), I Greci, vol. 2. And see also Pritchett, W. K., Studies in Ancient Greek Topography, vol. 4 (Amsterdam, 1991), 181–90.Google Scholar

165 Agrarianism: Hanson (n. 152). Demography: Snodgrass, , Archaeology and the Rise of the Greek State (Cambridge, inaugural lecture, 1977)Google Scholar; modified by I. Morris (n. 64), 156–9.

166 Hans Van Wees, Homeric Warfare, in Morris and Powell (n. 166), 687–9.

167 Osborne, R., Greece in the Making, 1200–479 B.C. (London, 1996), 150.Google Scholar

168 Raaflaub, K., ‘Homeric society’, in Ian, Morris and Barry, Powell (edd.), A New Companion to Homer (Leiden, 1997), 645–8.Google Scholar

169 Bowden (n. 89), 61.

170 Osborne (n. 167), 150.

171 As Vidal-Naquet (n. 163), 86 points out, also in the classical period ‘the army and the city were modeled on the polis. This was obvious at Salamis, where it was not the fleet that saved the city but the city that took up residence on the ships.’

172 For details of the hoplite protocol, see Hanson (n. 111), 9–18.

173 Ibid., 25.

174 Ibid., 31.

175 Adcock (n. 113), 4.

176 The evidence in these matters seems at first glance to conflict. Connor (n. 2), 15, n. 59 suggests that much of the evidence used to suggest that Greeks enslaved other Greeks after battles in fact applies to sieges and that siege warfare was governed by a radically different code from that which applied to hoplite battles. A victorious besieger of a city was allowed to treat the captives as he saw fit. This could result in the death of military-age men and the enslavement of women and children. And see also Rihll (n. 66), 85.

177 Connor (n. 2), 16.

178 Ibid., 21. Indeed M. Wight considers ancient Greece to constitute the first ‘states-system’ which he roughly defined as ‘a federation of a number of states with the object of preserving the actual balance of power’ (Systems of States [Leicester, 1977], 21–2).

179 Adcock (n. 113), 11–12; Hanson (n. 111), 37.

180 Hanson(n. 111), 37.

181 Alastair Jackson, ‘War and raids in the world of Odysseus’, in Rich and Shipley (n. 66), 64–76. Rihll (n. 66), 79–80.

182 See notes 91 and 176 above.

183 Hanson (n. 152), 357–65.

184 Ibid., 369–375.

185 Sahlins (n. 95), 6–7; Khazanov (n. 68), 89–90; Crone, Patricia, ‘The tribe and the state’, in Hall, John A. (ed.), States in History (Oxford, 1986), 4950.Google Scholar

186 Crone (n. 185).

187 See note 53.

188 Cartledge, P., ‘Classical Greek agriculture II: two more alternative views’, Journal of Peasant Studies 23 (1995), 137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

189 Hanson (n. 152), 353.

190 Runciman (n. 53), 353–356.

191 See note 162.

192 Hanson (n. 152), 389.

193 Khazanov(n. 128), 296. cf. 228–9. Gellner, ‘Foreword' ibid., xiii-xv, xxv.

194 Gellner (n. 18), 13–14; Finley, M. I., ‘The ancient Greeks and their nation’, in The Use and Abuse of History (Hanaondsworth, 1990), 120–33.Google Scholar

195 Gellner (n. 19, 1991), 87. cf. 84–90.