The lives of cities in a time of kings: The Greek poleis of Asia Minor and the nearby islands in the age of Alexander and his Successors

Thesis

This thesis comprises a study of the old Greek cities, the poleis, of Western Asia Minor and the littoral islands, in the years 336 to 280 BC. This half-century span covers the transition from the rule of the Achaemenid Empire to rule by the Hellenistic kings who were to dominate the Eastern Mediterranean for the next centuries and a half. From the first expedition by Philip of Macedon, followed three years later by the successful conquest of Alexander the Great, the temporal scope of this thesis ends with the death of the Successors, his generals who founded their own kingdoms in the ashes of his empire.

My focus is on the reactions and actions of the poleis along the seaboard of Asia Minor and the islands nearby to the tumultuous developments of these years. I ask how and how well they navigated the changing political world around and above them. At the heart of these questions is the repeated act of negotiation of each city, each a state in their own right, with the warlords and kings who directed developments at the highest level. I show how such developments were driven partly by the demands and ambitions of the cities, as the building blocks of the regions that make up this coast.

First, I set out the geographical and historical background to the period, defining the boundaries of each region. I then turn to the past of Western Asia Minor, focussing on developments since the King’s Peace of 386 between the Greek states on the western side of the Aegean and the Persians, which created a political border between the mainland states and their neighbours in the islands. The following parts then travel from the Northwest, through Ionia in the centre, down to Karia and the islands of the south-eastern Aegean. In each part, chapters are comprised of studies that range from an in-depth exploration of a single inscription and the historical moment it was carved in, to studies of patterns of trade and economic growth across the entire 50-year period.

Authors: Clarke, OS

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-mzmw06zd0
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Early Hellenistic History; Alexander the Great; Asia Minor; Greek History; Diadochi; Polis
• Subjects: Greece--Rhodes (Island); Turkey--Cyzicus (Extinct city); Troas (Turkey); Ionia (Turkey and Greece); Greece--History--Macedonian Expansion, 359-323 B.C.; Turkey--Ephesus (Extinct city); Macedonia--History--Diadochi, 323-276 B.C.; Polis (The Greek word); History, Ancient; Greece--History--Macedonian Hegemony, 323-281 B.C.; Turkey--Priene (Extinct city)