What does polis mean in ancient greece. What is Polis? Meaning of the word polis, historical dictionary. Government of ancient Athens

In this article we will talk about Ancient Greece. More precisely, we will try to find the answer to the question of ancient Greece.

In the 8th-9th century BC. e. Greece was not the only state, as, for example, the states of the Ancient East during its heyday. Greece was a country of policies.

A polis in ancient Greece is a community of citizens, a collective of farmers and pastoralists who live together and protect their land together. Gradually, the policy changed, acquiring the features of the state. Its center became a walled city, with a marketplace - an agora, a temple dedicated to various houses and the like. Farmers and shepherds settled around the city. All land suitable for agriculture, lands and natural resources were considered the property of the community.

Only a citizen could be the owner of the land. All citizens were members of the militia who took up arms during a military threat. The people's assembly held all the power in the polis. Only citizens of the village had the right to participate in it. There were different types policies in ancient Greece.

There were dozens of them. The policies of ancient Greece were powerful. Their names are Athens and Sparta. The richest city was Corinth. Each policy had its own government, army and treasury, minted a coin.

Athens

Answering the question of what a policy is in ancient Greece, the first state that should be considered is Athens. The territory of the Athenian polis occupied the entire peninsula of Attica in Central Greece. Athens itself is located in the center of a fertile plain, 5 km from the sea.

The dominant position in the new state belonged to the tribal nobility. The main government positions were occupied by aristocrats. The supreme power belonged to the Areopagus, consisting of representatives of the tribal nobility, and to the archons - state officials (head, high priest, commander in chief, six public judges).

Gradually, the poor members of the community opened up and were forced to borrow from the rich. A debt stone was placed on the land of the borrowers. When they could not repay the debt with interest, they lost the land. Those who leased the land kept only a sixth of the crop for themselves, and gave the rest to the owner of the land. The peasants became emaciated, became debtors, and subsequently turned into slaves.

Solon's reforms

In the 8th-7th century BC. e. a certain part of the demos - merchants, owners of workshops and ships, wealthy peasants - got rich. Now they sought to participate in the management of the policy, but were deprived of this right. It was they who launched and led the struggle between the demos and the aristocracy.

In the midst of turmoil, citizens turned to the Athenian politician Solon, who headed the policy in ancient Greece - this led to the implementation of several reforms. First of all, he canceled the debts of the Athenians and forbade debt slavery. The land plots were returned to the debtors. The Athenians, who were enslaved for debt, were given freedom. From now on, no Athenian could be a slave!

Solon introduced the division of citizens into four categories - the richest, wealthiest, middle class and the poor - depending on the size of their property and income. Citizens of different categories had different rights and performed different duties to the state.

The transformations that Solon made in Athenian society reoriented Athens towards the development of democracy.

Tyranny in Athens

20 years have passed since the beginning of the reign of Solon, and unrest began again in Athens. A relative of Solon, the commander Pisistratus, in 560 BC. e. seized power and began to rule in Athens alone, by force ensuring peace and harmony in the Athenian policy. So tyranny was established in Athens.

The lands of the aristocrats who left the country were distributed among the peasants. For them, the tyrant introduced a tax (a tenth of the harvest), which enriched the state treasury.
Peisistratus tried to promote the development of agriculture, crafts, trade, and shipbuilding. He began a great construction in Athens: temples, paths and water pipes were erected by his order. Poets were also invited to the city, the Iliad and the Odyssey were written, which by that time were transmitted orally. Actually, it was during the reign of Peisistratus that Athens became the cultural center of Greece. Since then, their maritime power has also begun.

Completion of the formation of the Athens policy

Tyranny fell shortly after the death of Peisistratus (because his heirs ruled cruelly), and the legislator Cleisthenes was elected the first archon. He divided the entire territory of the Athenian state into 10 districts, each of which consisted of three equal parts - seaside, rural and urban. Citizenship was no longer determined by belonging to a clan, but to a particular district. Previously, the territory of the country was divided according to ancestry. With this reform, Cleisthenes "mixed" the citizens and gave them all the same rights. Thus, the influence of the tribal nobility in the administration of the state was reduced.

All citizens were now considered equal regardless of property status: even the poor could hold any public office. So, in Athens, power was again in the hands of the people.

Sparta

Sparta was a powerful city in Ancient Greece. In the 9th century BC. e. on the Peloponnese peninsula, in the region of Laconica, the Dorians founded several settlements. Subsequently, they finally conquered the local Achaean tribes. In the 7th c. BC e. Dorians annexed the neighboring region of Messenia to their possessions. During the two Messenian wars, the name Lacedaemon (Sparta) developed.

In the article we are looking for an answer to the question of what is a policy in ancient Greece. Therefore, we will dwell on the state structure of Sparta in more detail.

State structure

The citizens of Sparta lived according to the laws, which, according to legend, were introduced by the sage Lycurgus. The Council of Elders played a leading role in the administration of the Spartan state. The decision of the council of elders was approved by the people's assembly. Participation in it was accepted only by citizen-warriors who have reached 30 years of age.

Lycurgus made sure that all citizens of Sparta had equal rights, so that among them there were neither poor nor rich. Spartan families received possession of the same land, they could not be sold or donated, since all land in Sparta was considered the property of the state.

The Spartans were forbidden to engage in craft, trade, their only occupation was military affairs. Weapons and handicrafts were made for them by the perieki. The land allotment of the Spartan was cultivated by helots. The Spartans could not sell, fire or kill a helot - the helot families, like the land, belonged to the state.

Life of the Spartans

Analyzing the question of what a policy is in ancient Greece, we will briefly talk about the life of the Spartans.

The Spartans were brave, hardy warriors. They wore coarse clothes, lived in the same one-story wooden houses. They had certain forms of hairstyles, beards and mustaches. During construction, it was allowed to use an ax, and only in the manufacture of doors - a saw. From the age of 16 until old age, the Spartan was obliged to serve in the army. At the age of 30, he was considered an adult and had the right to receive a plot of land and marry.

This is how the city-states of Ancient Greece lived and developed.

The archaic period $ (VIII-VI $ centuries BC) was marked by the stage of formation of a socially divided society and a polis state. It was a fundamentally different path of development, completely different from the form of state formations of the ancient East, Crete and Achaean Greece, which became an integral feature of ancient life. The period of formation of the policy stretched for about half a millennium. The process of its disintegration took no less time. The phenomenon of the polis system was the result of a long development of ancient civilization, and its origins should be sought in ancient times, especially the development of the rural community, which consists in the effective interaction of the communal and privately owned economy.

Prerequisites for the formation of the policy system:

1. Compliance with the principle of succession. Unlike the civilizations of the Ancient East, the Greeks took into account the rich historical experience of previous periods, especially the Cretan-Mycenaean civilization.
2. Mastering the processing of iron, brought society to a qualitatively new stage industrial relations. More durable iron tools expanded the material capabilities of the Greeks, which created the conditions for the expansion of commodity production, which set a rapid pace for economic and social development.
3. Natural conditions of the Balkan Peninsula allowed to obtain high yields without the use of complex hydraulic structures. Thus, creating favorable conditions for the development of private farms built on the thoughtful exploitation of slave labor with more a high degree profitability.
4. Calm geopolitical situation. Greece of the archaic period developed without outside interference. Interstate military conflicts in the Ancient East in $I$ thousand BC prevented the exertion of political and cultural pressure on the emerging ancient civilization.
5. Great Greek colonization, which has become one of critical factors development of the polis phenomenon and its spread around the world. It was an effective tool for reducing social tensions, providing a balance between the number of people and the territory they cultivated.

The process of the historical development of Hellas proceeded within the framework of internally cohesive republics, based on a civil society of moderately prosperous farmers. In such state associations, favorable conditions are created for maintaining high rates of economic development, stratification of the social structure, the emergence of more complex and diverse institutions, and the emergence of a high culture. The overall result of this process was the emergence of several hundred small state formations with a similar socio-economic structure, principles of political organization of power and a system of spiritual values. It was in the crabs of the polis system that the Greeks created a unique civilization that enriched the treasury of world culture and secured a worthy place in history for itself.

Remark 1

It should be borne in mind that the term “polis” among the Greeks meant both a city and a state, therefore, the definition “city-state” is often applied to it. This is not entirely correct, since the urban settlement did not exist everywhere. For example, Sparta existed as a union of several villages, having no urban education.

The main features of the policy

Each city-state had its own characteristics. But, at the same time, they all had the following similar features:

• Building plan. The policy had a single Center - a place from where help could be sent immediately to any part of the state. There was a market, temples, a place for public meetings and craft workshops. All urban settlements were located on the seashore or not far from the coast and always had a harbor or port. The city center could have defensive fortifications. This is where the bulk of the population lived.
• Developed trade relations and commodity exchange- the basis of the economic prosperity of the polis state. The villagers brought wine, oil, wool, and in return they bought tools, fabrics, and clothes. The commodity economy provided an opportunity for rapid enrichment and the emergence of large landownership in the countryside and handicraft production in the city.
• The social structure of the policies consisted of three classes: land, trade and craft nobility, free small producers (artisans, merchants, farmers), slaves and dependent workers.
• The controversial nature of ownership, which consisted in the coexistence of its forms such as public (polis) and private (individual). The policy carefully monitored the distribution of the land fund, imposing a land maximum. He supervised inheritance, limited the right of ownership and disposal of the allotment, acted as a guarantor of land ownership up to the allocation of land to landless citizens from the reserve fund.
• Sharp opposition of citizens of the policy to non-citizens- meteks and slaves. Formally, they were not included in the life of the polis organism, but actually ensured its existence.

Definition 1

Metek- Incompetent resident, migrant from another policy.

The core of the social structure was the so-called collective, full-fledged citizens - indigenous people.

Definition 2

Indigenous resident of the policy- a citizen whose ancestors lived in the region for several generations. He owned a plot of land, participated in popular meetings, and had a place in the phalanx of heavily armed hoplites.

1. Democratic, republican form of government, consisting in absolutely equal complicity of citizens in political life. All of them had land allotments and were equal among themselves. The direct connection between the citizen and the state led to the absence of a bureaucratic apparatus, or to its minimal presence in the policy. The supreme power belonged to the people's assembly of full-fledged citizens, at the head of which stood the Council, elected for a fixed term. Re-election to office was not allowed.
2. Coincidence of political and military organization. A full citizen was also a warrior providing protection to the policy. The army was nationwide, where service was a duty and a privilege.

Orientation towards the "middle class". The civil collective of the policy was heterogeneous. Rapid growth commodity-money relations led to rapid property stratification and, consequently, the weakening of ties between different social strata. The policy tried to maintain the unity of citizens, applying a number of measures for this: allocating plots to landless citizens, introducing a landowner's maximum, which prevented the concentration of the land fund in a narrow circle of nobility. Liturgies were imposed on the wealthy members of society.

Definition 3

Liturgy- a special tax imposed on wealthy citizens of the policy. It existed in the form of choregia and trierarchy.

Definition 4

Choregia- a special policy duty for wealthy citizens who were obliged, during the period of preparation for theatrical performances, to pay for the staging of a particular drama, tragedy, comedy and the work of actors.

Definition 5

Tri-hierarchy- a special policy duty for wealthy citizens who were obliged, during the war, to build warships for the policy and pay for the crew service at their own expense.

Having a common ideology where the highest value was determined by the policy itself. The concept of a citizen as a free person was formed, having full political rights and the duty to protect the state from enemy forces.

Policy types

In history, there are several types of policies, which ancient authors divided into three categories according to the form of government: democracy, oligarchy, tyranny.

Modern science takes into account the level of economic relations, distinguishing three groups:

1. Agrarian character of the economy- the oligarchy dominated here, using the labor of dependent workers, commodity-money relations were poorly developed. Sparta can serve as an example of such a policy.
2. Diversified nature of the economy. These policies had rich and fertile lands. But the imbalance between the size of the land and its fertility necessitated the establishment of colonies and the development of trade and handicraft production. What was the result of the intensive development of commodity-money relations, the widespread use of slave labor. Here citizens led an active social and political life. The most striking example of this type of policy was Athens, Megara, Chalkis.
3. Trade and handicraft character of the economy. This group included policies with an insufficient amount of fertile land from the very beginning of the archaic period, which determined their exclusively trade and craft character and the weakness of the aristocracy. These policies were most actively involved in the process of colonization; commodity-money relations were intensively developed here. The most striking examples of such formations were Corinth, Aegina.

Greece in antiquity- this is not one whole state in the understanding of contemporaries. The ancient country consisted of policies - city-states. They were independent units, considering themselves independent, but if it was necessary to unite against an external enemy, the allies instantly came to the aid of each other.

A special form of organization of the economy, law and political relations
Any of the policies consisted of urban development and the territory surrounding it. These were farmland fields, pastures, farms. They were called "choirs". These mini-states arose, according to the unique stock of political, economic and legal views of the Hellenes. At first they struggled with the remnants of the primitive system with tribal orders. Later, as a result of the growth of commodity-money relations and the division of crafts, agricultural preferences, and social struggle, isolated communities arose.
From an economic point of view, the property of farmers belonged simultaneously to the community and had a private character. Moreover, private property was determined only for full-fledged representatives of the policies, which owe their origin. There were few such residents, while the rest were reputed to be incomplete. Among them:

1. Absolutely disenfranchised slaves.
2. Artisans.
3. Free traders.
4. Representatives of ethnic groups and foreigners who have few rights.

Wealthy citizens of the city-state were endowed not only with the right of private property, land ownership, but also had slaves. For the performance of public service and the performance of their military duties, the residents of the policies were paid a salary.
If required, all residents aged 17 to 65 stood up to protect policies. No matter how many there were, in wartime they represented the people's militia. It included everyone, regardless of social status and wealth. Only the rich performed higher tasks: they led foot detachments with excellent weapons. The poorer representatives of wealthy communities could only dominate the not very well-armed soldiers.
Every inhabitant of the policy was a patriot of his Motherland. In the city-states, a special ideology reigned. In the political sense, these states were united by one thing: the government consisted of representatives of the public - "apella". There also included full-fledged residents of the policies, which constituted the Areopagus or the Senate. There were also elected positions.

These are the magistrates. The political system of each policy can be equated to a democratic one, since the state was ruled by a popular assembly. However, there were policies that introduced an oligarchic or even tyrannical type of management. That was Sparta. But Athens almost at all times remained democratic, even when under oppression and in complete destruction.

As for the economy, the territories, the amount of fertile land and livestock played the leading role here. In addition, excellent relations between farmers, merchants and artisans made the economy of the policy stronger, from which the state gained greater independence and influence in the general political arena. Such a policy can be considered Sparta. But Corinth, which did not have such a rich choir, belonged more to the craft and trade varieties of the economic system.

At one time policies were in crisis. For example, when the institution of private property was highly developed, some of the land owners became very poor, or even went bankrupt. This state of affairs is typical for the period of the 5th c. BC. It went on for about a century.

Draconian methods and reforms of Solon

These were the methods of government of a certain Dragon Emperor. He issued a set of legislative acts that were distinguished by their cruelty. It was possible to save only a few names, the essence of which is already clear. Among the draconian methods:

1. Complete patriarchy.
2. The legality of bonded slavery.
3. The possibility of imminent blood feud.
4. Highly high rate property tax.

The Council, which essentially ruled Athens, consisted of 400 full citizens. They were given the right to bear arms.
After there was another important period in the life of Greece - the operation of the new legislation of Solon. This was facilitated by quite revolutionary sentiments among the public. They almost openly opposed the tribal aristocracy. Prosperous merchants and industrialists followed suit. The coup happened in the 7th century. BC. Of course, it was more like a banal struggle for power and the desire for a better life for certain segments of the population. As always, the lower classes were the losers.
As a result, the struggle led to Solon entering the political arena. He was elected archon and endowed with exceptional and unique powers. Accordingly, this ruler favored the tribal aristocracy. A distinctive feature of Solon's innovations was the reform of debt slavery. All debt obligations were cancelled. People who were in bondage were released, and those who managed to be sold to other countries were returned to their homeland.
The new ruler divided the inhabitants into several categories, depending on their wealth and social status, down to the lowest stratum. Representatives of the first 3 categories had the right to be appointed to public office. The highest of them were occupied by the first-class. The fourth type of community was included only in the national assembly.
Each policy had a "Council of 400". The meetings were held annually. The representation consisted of a hundred people of each tribe. Solon also formed a court, which could be considered a people's court, since it included members of all 4 categories. So the tribal system was preserved, and the phyla (4 categories) inhabited Athens and other policies. Such public order kept for 30 years.

Activities of Cleisthenes

If we consider the life of policies on the example of Athens, it is permissible to say that almost all city-states followed a similar path. Every nation protested against dictatorship, tyranny. Cleisthenes, a rather noble inhabitant of Greece, led one of the directions of populism, which opposed tyrants. As a result, having become a successful politician, this figure seized power.
Thus, the tribal system in Greece was practically eliminated. This period is dated to 500 BC. BC. The division of the population was carried out not by class and economic component, but by territory. Phils have been eliminated. They became territorial phyla. There were 10 of them. Each of them included 3 territories. The population consisted of only 1 third of the villagers, the rest were residents of cities. Demos were also formed - these are even smaller units of a third of phyla. Each demo was headed by an elder.


Policies differed significantly in the number of inhabitants and class composition. The largest of them was Sparta. More than 200 thousand people lived on the territory of more than 8,000 square kilometers.
The next in terms of quantitative composition is Attica. Athens had an area of ​​only 2.5 km2, but almost the same population as in Sparta - about 150-170 thousand.
There were city-states that were located only 40 km2, and their population was several hundred people. On average, the territories of policies in Greece amounted to 200 km2, which were inhabited by 15 thousand inhabitants. Only 1-2 thousand could be full-fledged warriors.
It so happened that the policies were very identical in political structure. The popular assembly characterized each of the city-states. People made the final decisions, regardless of what they were persuaded by the rulers or the oligarchs. This is how the citizens managed their polis-state.
Polis are unique units known throughout the world for their original traditions. Such city-states existed only in Greek society. And now Greece is divided into provinces, but at the same time it is already a single state.
In policies at all times respected the opinion of the majority. The owners also had a certain weight a large number lands and extensive farming. Coups and almost revolutionary events had no effect on the established order. City-states existed for a long time, rooted in the minds of politicians and ordinary people.

In the 5th century BC. Dion, thanks to its cult belonging to Zeus and the Muses, especially revered in these parts, became the second capital of Ancient Macedonia. King Archelaus made it a cultural center comparable in importance to the main pearls of Greece - Delphi and Olympia - and combining the exclusivity of both.

Parnassus is a sacred mountain!

In this article we will talk about a sacred place for any Hellenic of ancient times - about Mount Parnassus. The ancient Greeks believed that the "navel of the earth" (in Greek "ὀμφᾰλόςγῆς" - "center of the Earth") is located only 150 kilometers from Athens in Phokidea, the slopes of Mount Parnassus. On the slopes of this mountain was the famous Delphic sanctuary, which was considered the center of the entire pan-Hellenic world.

Knossos Palace. Crete

The Palace of Knossos, or rather Knossos, is the most famous Greek landmark, which is more than four thousand years old. It is located near the capital of Crete, Heraklion. It seems incredible, but the legendary palace with the mythical creature the Minotaur was opened only a hundred years ago, and until that moment there were only suspicions about the existence of an ancient architectural monument on this site.

Skiathos Island

Skiathos Island (translated from Greek as “Shadow of Athos”) is a small island (49 km.2), which is the westernmost island of the Northern Sporades archipelago. The island is washed by the Aegean Sea and has more than 60 beaches for every taste: from large and crowded to wild and untouched by civilization.

Ancient Greece has always amazed even the imagination of compatriots, not to mention the historians of our time. Their civilization, which originates from simple fishermen and herders, soon became one of the most powerful in the Ancient World. The Greeks were revered as outstanding (and extremely cunning) politicians, excellent sailors and warriors.

They also reached considerable heights in mechanics: some of their devices are not inferior in complexity to mechanical watches of the 19th century. The Greeks were aware of the energy of steam, they created the first prototypes of steam engines in the form of toys.

However, all these and many other achievements would not have been possible without a carefully adjusted social structure of the state, which could educate its citizens and protect them from enemies. Since the polis was the main "cog" of the ancient Greek civilization, this phenomenon should be discussed separately.

What is an ancient Greek polis?

In fact, a separate city was called a policy. But here an important clarification should be made: in those years, cities were often in fact separate states. The same Phoenician Empire was, in the modern sense of the word, a confederation formed by individual countries that could leave it at any time. In addition, the main part of the population of the policy was politically active: any free person considered it his duty to participate in the vote, in making important government decisions.

All this often resulted in fierce disputes and even fights right on the streets, which is why contemporaries considered the Greeks to be "wacky and noisy people." Thus, the policy should be considered a separate, special form of political and social organization. The territory of such a formation was limited not only by the city walls, but also by those lands that the main part of the population of the policy (that is, people who were on public service) could protect and cultivate.

How did city-states come about?

The policy is unique in that it arose at a turning point in ancient history, during the transition from the tribal and communal system to the first "proto-states". In those distant years, the stratification of society began: they preferred to become artisans and sell the results of their labor, rather than give away the benefits they created for nothing. Merchants appeared who knew how to sell handicrafts to other tribes, a “caste” of warriors who defended those same merchants and the general well-being of all members of this “forerunner of the state” became rigidly isolated.

In general, almost all city-states of Ancient Greece had a good army, and therefore, if necessary, they could stand up for themselves.

Of course, all these people preferred not to live in a bare field. Large cities began to emerge and develop rapidly. Due to the fact that artisans and landowners, merchants and warriors, scientists and politicians lived within their walls, they were completely self-sufficient. This is how policies came into existence.

But what was the social structure of such amazing (by modern standards) "cities"? Oddly enough, but the bulk of the population of the Greek-style policy was represented by free people, citizens. They participated both in the production of everything necessary (cattle breeders, farmers, artisans), and in the protection of their land. The military estate protected the settlements from not too dangerous threats, while during enemy raids, all its inhabitants came out to protect the walls of the policy.

THE BIRTH OF THE GREEK POLIS

The archaic era was a unique period in ancient Greek history. In just three centuries, completely new, never-before-existing types of civilization, society and statehood appeared in Hellas. The starting point of their emergence is the appearance of the policy. If at the beginning of the archaic period Greece was a country of primitive, economically, politically and culturally poorly developed tiny rural communities, then by the end of this period it had created statehood and became a country of policies. The civilization of Ancient Greece is, first of all, polis civilization.

In historical literature, the policy is most often defined as a "city-state". This interpretation can be recognized as correct with one significant caveat: in connection with the policy, both the concept of "city" and the concept of "state" should be interpreted exclusively in the "ancient" sense. The word "polis" in ancient Greek really means "city", but not as a "complex of buildings, streets, defensive structures, etc.", but as "the totality of its free full-fledged inhabitants - citizens." The ancient authors under the word "polis" primarily meant urban civic community. At the same time, the word “polis” (and the related term “watered”) also means the state, but again, not in the sense of a certain territory under the control of a certain sovereign power, but in the same sense civil team, administering its territory by its own efforts. For the ancient Greeks, the policy, abandoned by its citizens, could no longer be considered as such: this settlement was no longer either a city or a state. But at the same time, say, an army on a campaign could in some situations constitute itself as a policy, since it was a collective of citizens, although it did not have any territory at the moment, not to mention city buildings.

Thus, the concept of "polis" cannot be unconditionally equated either with the concept of "city" or with the concept of "state". Thus, there were policies in which there were two or more urban centers (although one of them necessarily stood out, playing the role of the capital). There were also (but rather rare) policies that did not have an urban center at all; such was, in particular, the policy of Sparta or the Phocian policy of Ponopius, which no one called a city. And yet, despite some shortcomings, the definition of the policy as an urban civil community, constituting itself as a state, seems to be the most preferable to the term "city-state", since the role of the civil collective was fundamental for the polis type of statehood.

However, in addition to citizens, people who did not enjoy civil rights lived on the territory of the policy (slaves, foreigners who moved to the policy, women, etc.). They were members of society, but they were not part of the civil community, of the policy as such.

The category of "citizen" (as opposed to the category of "subject" that has long existed in the Ancient East) was of key importance for the entire existence of the policy. The citizen was endowed with a set of inalienable rights and obligations, moreover, in fact, each of his rights was at the same time a duty. In order to be a citizen, a person had to possess a certain set of necessary characteristics. First of all, he had to be personally free. After the polis type of the socio-political structure was formed in its final form, the concepts of "citizen" and "slave" became incompatible. Further, only the male: polis civilization was built on the supremacy of the male part of the population. Women did not have not only political, but generally no (including property) civil rights.

The status of a person in pre-capitalist societies was primarily determined by the attitude to landed property. Ancient Greece was no exception. Man was considered full citizen insofar as he had land property. These two statuses were, as a rule, inseparable from each other: only a citizen is a landowner and only a landowner can be a citizen. Land ownership in the policy existed simultaneously in two forms - public and private, and state property acted as primary in relation to the private.

The citizen, i.e., the collective owner of state land, was endowed by the civil community with an individual land plot on the basis of private property rights, which the man had the right to dispose of at his own discretion. He remained a landowner, even if for some reason he lost his allotment, since the status of a citizen provided him with the right to public, state land, on which forests, pastures, mines, etc., leased out, were located, and from the exploitation of which every citizen received his share of the income. In the ancient polis, the political collective of citizens was at the same time a collective of landowners. A personally free, but not a citizen, resident of the policy could never receive ownership of a land allotment, and with it the rights of a citizen.

Thus, it was the community, that is, the collective of citizens of the policy, that was the owner of all the land in the state. This form of ownership, in which the right of ownership of the main means of production (namely, such was the land in ancient times) in its state (public) and private forms was determined by the status of a citizen and controlled by a civil community, is called ancient form of ownership. It should be said that this dual form of ownership is inherent in some inconsistency. After all, the citizen of the polis was the owner of his land, and his private right to land was inalienable only as long as he remained a citizen. Since the private owner lost civil rights(for example, by a court verdict for certain crimes), the policy, on a completely legal basis, deprived a member of the community of his allotment.

A characteristic feature of the policy was that all its citizens had the right to take participation in government. It is the civilian team in uniform National Assembly exercised - really or nominally - the highest power in the policy. Polis statehood did not provide for the existence of special authorities. Polises were states without bureaucracy, and all magistrates(i.e., officials) were chosen by citizens by voting (or by drawing lots, the choice of which was considered a manifestation of the will of the gods). A citizen of the policy could with good reason say about himself that in the 18th century. said the French king Louis XIV: “The state is me!” But at the same time, the citizen of the policy was a representative of the state not in itself, but only as part of a civil collective. Thus, in the Greek policy for the first time in world history, a republican statehood, in which society and the state are not separated from each other, but represent a single whole.

The citizen was obliged to participate in the military activities of the policy, that is, to be a member of its military organization. Actually, the army of the policy was militia of citizens - land owners. At the same time, military service, associated with the need to protect the freedom and integrity of the policy, its statehood and laws, as well as the property of members of the civil community, was at the same time not only the duty of a citizen, but also his right, since it was also one of the criteria for civil status. Persons who were not part of the civilian collective were recruited into the army only in case of the most extreme necessity.

Thus, in ancient Greece, the concepts of “citizen”, “member of the national assembly”, “bearer of supreme power”, “member of the polis militia” and “land owner” were inextricably linked. All citizens were equal before the law, each policy guaranteed personal freedom. This led to the manifestation in a number of policies egalitarian(i.e. egalitarian) trends, which is natural in the conditions of collective government of the state. Thus, in order to maintain equality in the team, the richest noble citizens were often forced to bear the greatest costs in the interests of society. In fairness, it should be said that in the heyday of the polis, these demands of polis life were met by representatives of the elite with understanding.

Naturally, due to its structure, the Greek policy could only be very small in terms of territory and population. So, Sparta (the largest territorially polis of the Greek world), including Messenia conquered by the Spartans, had an area of ​​​​8400 square kilometers and a population of 200-300 thousand people, the Athenian policy - respectively 2500 square kilometers and 250-350 thousand people. But such large policies were rather exceptions. The territory of most of the policies did not exceed 200 square kilometers, and the population was 10 thousand people. There were also very small policies with a territory of 30-40 square kilometers, on which several hundred people lived. Thus, a typical polis was a tiny state, consisting of cities(or town) and rural areas. Most of the inhabitants of such a policy, which could be bypassed in a few hours, knew each other by sight.

The city was the center, the capital of the policy, often (though by no means always) more than half of the population of the state lived in it. However, the city has not yet been opposed to the countryside. The Greek polis society is fundamentally different from the societies of many other eras, when the city was the focus of the activities of only merchants and artisans leading a specific urban lifestyle, and the peasantry inhabited exclusively countryside. In almost any city of Hellas, a very significant, and sometimes predominant, part of the inhabitants were the same peasants, who daily departed from the city to their land plots in the chorus. Thus, each member of the civil collective, no matter what he did (he could be, for example, the owner of a craft workshop, a large wholesaler, a professional politician), was at the same time landowner(at least owned a share of the public land). And for most citizens, a piece of land was undoubtedly the main means of subsistence.

The main characteristics of the policy are to a certain extent inherent in the "ideal" policy. Of course, in the presence of general trends, the historical development of specific, actually existing policies had its own characteristics.

Sources

Since the archaic era is less covered in the works of ancient authors than subsequent ones, much attention naturally attracts the material monuments that have come down from these times, obtained during archaeological excavations. Important information for science was provided by systematic studies by historians of the archaic buildings of Athens (the remains of the ancient temples of the Acropolis, early public buildings on the Agora), the cult complexes of the largest sanctuaries in Hellas (Delphi, Olympia). The study of the territories of those policies that were destroyed in the archaic era and have not been restored since then has brought very important results: old Smyrna in Asia Minor, Emporion on the island of Chios, etc. Since the oldest layers were preserved intact there, without later inclusions, this greatly facilitates their analysis.

The data of epigraphy for the archaic era are not of great importance, since writing appeared only recently and the number of inscriptions was still small. However, the earliest Greek inscriptions are extremely interesting already because of their rarity and uniqueness. Among the archaic epigraphic monuments are the texts of laws (for example, in the law of the VI century BC from the island of Chios there are references to government bodies democratic character), agreements between policies, lists of officials, as well as inscriptions of a private nature. For example, in 591 BC. e. Greek mercenary soldiers in the Egyptian service during one of the campaigns, having fun, inscribed their names on the leg of the colossal statue of Ramses II in southern Egypt. But even these few pieces of evidence, together with sources of other types, make it possible to see more clearly the specific realities of that era.