Suchergebnisse

This book aims to offer a new interpretation of the settlement movement initiated by the city of Megara in archaic times. It shows the role of conflict between the aristocratic families for the departure of the Megarians and reveals the role of the heritage of the metropolis in the creation of institutions of colonial cities.

The Politeiai are one of Aristotle's historical works. Several hundreds of fragments have come down to us. While Aristotle's Nomima barbarika recorded the customs of the barbaric ethne, the Politeiai are generally considered to be a collection of polisconstitutions. A closer look reveals, however, that alongside a majority of Greek poleis Aristotle also included several ethne in his Politeiai, namely those in the North(west) of the Greek mainland and on the Peleponnesus. This article tries to shed light on Aristotle's reasons for selecting these ethne. On the basis of key passages in the Politics, the author argues that their presence in the Politeiai indicates that Aristotle considered them as Hellenic, and, although inferior in status to the polis, capable of having a politeia. In Aristotle's time, nearly all of the ethne known to have been included in the Politeiai had formed koina. While Aristotle did not explicitly discuss the federal state, he acknowledged its existence both in the Politics and the Politeiai, obviously inspired by the political reality of his time in which the koina played an increasingly prominent role, illustrated by their presence as members in Hellenic treaties alongside the poleis.