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

This book is dedicated to the memory of

Princess, Thomas, Ophelia, and Ty

and to

Ursula, Kalli, Myfanwy, and Finn

may they live long and prosper

Also available from Bloomsbury

Corinth in Late Antiquity by Amelia R. Brown

Greek Warfare by Hans van Wees

Parody, Politics and the Populace in Greek Old Comedy by Donald Sells

Periclean Athens by P. J. Rhodes

Detail from the Chigi vase (mid seventh century) showing Greek hoplite warriors advancing in neat lines to confront each other in battle. (The Chigi vase is in the National Etruscan Museum, Villa Giulia, Rome, inv. no. 22697.) Public domain image retrieved from Wikimedia Creative Commons, Szilas/Gallery 2016

Athenian fifth-century public inscription concerning cultic matters, now in the Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens. Photo credit: Gary Lee Todd (2016) retrieved from Creative Commons under CCO 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication license (CCO 1.0)

School scene showing boys learning to read and play the lyre, from a red-figure Attic drinking cup painted by Douris c. 485 BCE . Antikensammlung, Staatliche Museen zu BerlinStiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz. Foto: Johannes Laurentius, F 2285

Athenian ostraka (pot sherds) used to vote in an ostracism, one showing the name Kallias son of Kratias (ostracized in 485) and three with the name Megakles son of Hippokrates (ostracized in 486), now in the Cycladic Art Museum, Athens. Photo credit: Tilemahos Efthimiadis (2009) retrieved from Creative Commons under Attribution 2.0 Generic license (CC BY 2.0)

The idea of writing a book about the development of the Greek city-states first occurred to me many years ago now, around 1990. After doing a good bit of background reading and some preliminary writing, however, I reached the conclusion that a book on the Greek city-states would quite possibly be made instantly obsolete by the work of the Copenhagen polis project directed by Mogens Hansen, and I laid my work aside until that project had have been completed. In the intervening years, I became distracted by various other projects of my ownediting and commenting on the Hellenika Oxyrhynchia for Brills New Jacoby, and writing books on Julius Caesar, the battle of Marathon, and Philip and Alexander of Macedonia, for examplebut my interest in the Greek city-states continued to develop in my mind. It became clear to me that the Copenhagen project would not interfere with the kind of book I wanted to write at all, but my idea about what sort of book I wanted to write had changed drastically, partly due to my growing interest in the role of literacy in the city-states, so that the present work bears little resemblance to what I had in mind c. 1990, which is, I think, very much for the good.

It is a pleasure to acknowledge the help of Kurt Raaflaub, who read a very early draft of Chapter 1 and helped me improve it significantly and likewise of Alan Shapiro who kindly read my pages on Athens. Tal Ish Shalom read Chapters 4 and 5 and had some interesting comments to contribute, and for Chapter 5 in particular I have benefited from many conversations (and disagreements) over the years with William Harris. Even though I continue to disagree strongly with his views on Greek literacy, he has certainly saved me from various errors, and contributed to the relative sophistication of my ideas on the topics of education and literacy. Some readers for the Press have also had very useful comments, for which I thank them. Needless to say, none of the above are to blame for any errors or misconceptions that remain: I can be a stubborn thinker.

Finally, and above all, I must thank my familyClare, Madeline, and Colettewho have lived with my frequent distractions while pursuing this project for far too many years now, and have done so on the whole with great patience and forbearance. I am truly lucky to have them in my life; and I thank them and anyone else who has put up with me and/or been helpful over the years: students, friends, family, you are the best.

City-States of Southern Greece, sixth to fourth c. BCE

Detail from the Chigi vase (mid seventh century) showing Greek hoplite warriors advancing in neat lines to confront each other in battle. (The Chigi vase is in the National Etruscan Museum, Villa Giulia, Rome, inv. no.22697.) Public domain image retrieved from Wikimedia Creative Commons, Szilas/Gallery 2016 {{PD-US-expired}} (relates to chap. 3).