| The Polis exerts an educative force. It is not only | | | | constitution as the invention and gift of the gods, |
| the best of nurses, the watch and ward of the | | | | as the soul of the city, and as the guardian and |
| boy playing on the soft ground, sparing no pains | | | | keeper of every civic virtue. The laws are the |
| to care for him, but it also trains the citizen | | | | rulers o f cities, and Demaratus the Spartiate tried |
| throughout his whole life. It sponsors no schools, | | | | to make Xerxes understand that his countrymen |
| although it fosters the conventional instruction in | | | | have a ruler, this ruler being the law, of which |
| music and gymnastics. One cannot neatly | | | | they stand in fear more crushing than the |
| categorize the many-sided cultural influences | | | | Persians in fear of their great king. Hence, the |
| affecting the whole citizenry: choral songs at | | | | lawgiver stands out as a superhuman being, and |
| festivals, the sumptuous rites of worship, the | | | | the glory of a Lycurgus, a Solon, a Zaleukus, or a |
| architecture and works of art, the drama and | | | | Charondas was reflected upon persons living |
| recitations by rhapsodists. | | | | considerably later. For instance, around the year |
| The participation in state government, either as | | | | 400 B.C., Diocles of Syracuse codified the laws, |
| an administrator or a concerned subject, made | | | | and after his death was accorded the fame of a |
| living in a Polis a continuous educational process. | | | | hero and honored with a temple. |
| During its more prosperous periods, the city-state | | | | Above all, the nomos (law) was not meant to |
| exercised powerful social controls by conferring | | | | serve the temporary interests and moods of the |
| honors on the individual until abuse of this practice | | | | individuals, or submit to the casual whims of the |
| induced the more intelligent to forgo the laurel | | | | majority. The retention of the old laws was |
| wreaths, acclamations by heralds, and other | | | | praised at least in theory; one recognized in the |
| honors. In time the whole preceding history of a | | | | customs and usages dating back perhaps to the |
| praiseworthy city came to be one of the | | | | founding of the city the basic strength, of which |
| strongest inducements to excellence. "Nowhere," | | | | the laws were only the expression. In some |
| Xenophon said, "are the deeds of forebears | | | | states, the boys had to learn the laws by heart |
| grander and more numerous than in Athens" | | | | according to some melody or cadence, not simply |
| thereby inspiring many people to emulate these | | | | as a learning device but rather to preserve the |
| virtues. | | | | laws unchanged. Nomos has the twofold meaning |
| Thus the Polis represents an image for the | | | | of law and melody. |
| highest heroism and dedication under a collective | | | | On the other hand, ancient records tell us that, |
| will, forging its way out of rural beginnings by | | | | having drawn up a code of laws for the |
| means of action, suffering, and passion; hence the | | | | Athenians, Solon bound them by a solemn oath |
| Polis must rigorously define the requisites and | | | | not to repeal any of them during the ten following |
| obligations of its active citizens who have to be a | | | | years while he was away on his travels. But soon |
| part of this power. | | | | thereafter they experienced a grave political crisis |
| Such poleis embrace a kind of happiness and | | | | and in the end changed his constitution, making it |
| unhappiness totally different from that of cities of | | | | fully democratic. Many other Greek poleis had |
| other times and nations. Only the most impetuous | | | | similar experiences and, despite their initial code of |
| city republics of the Middle Ages ever attained this | | | | laws, most colonies suffered turmoil and had a |
| level of living and suffering, and even then for | | | | stormy history. The full-fledged democracies were |
| short periods only. | | | | perpetually subject to the craving for revision. |
| This also explains the essentially violent nature of | | | | According to Aristotle, law was no longer |
| the Polis. In spite of all its leagues and compacts, | | | | sovereign in a democracy, rather it was the |
| the Polis, as a rule, is externally isolated. Often it is | | | | crowd. |
| joined in life-and-death contests with its nearest | | | | The Greek conception of the state completely |
| neighbor, and so is exposed to the terrible | | | | subordinated the individual to the general polity |
| arbitrament of fortune on the battlefield. | | | | but, as will be seen, it also developed the |
| Within its own realm the Polis is most fear-inspiring | | | | tendency of pushing him onward very forcefully. |
| for the individual if he is not willing to lose himself | | | | In conformity with this idealized conception, the |
| completely in it. The modes of coercion it freely | | | | prodigious powers of the individual should have |
| resorts to are death, dishonor, and exile. There is | | | | realized themselves fully in the community and |
| no appeal beyond the Polis, and no escape, for | | | | become its most vivid expression. But in deed and |
| the fugitive abandons all personal protection. | | | | in truth, Greek freedom was modified by the |
| Supreme power, lodged in the state, curtails | | | | ubiquity of the state. Not even in religion could the |
| individual freedom in every respect. Worship of | | | | individual find refuge from the state. Moreover, he |
| deities, feast days, and myths take their origin | | | | could not be sure that the gods were good and |
| from the Polis; the state is likewise a church | | | | merciful. Individuals and parties ruled over religion |
| invested with the legal right to prosecute for | | | | in the name of the Polis. |
| impiety, and this combined power completely | | | | Whoever in antiquity considered himself entitled to |
| overshadows the individual. | | | | sovereignty, or only aspired to it, hesitated at |
| He owes the Polis military service; in Rome till he | | | | nothing in respect to his competitors and |
| is forty-six, in Athens and Sparta for life. The Polis | | | | opponents, not even at annihilation. In these poleis, |
| has complete power over him and his property; it | | | | all political punishment, whatever the guilt of the |
| can even set a price on certain goods. In short, | | | | vanquished, took the form of vengeance and |
| the individual has no security of life or property | | | | obligatory execution. This will become clear when |
| over against the Polis and its interests. And this | | | | we see that the punishment of the ostracized |
| servitude to the state exists under all | | | | and executed was extended to their children and, |
| constitutions, but most oppressively in | | | | in a way, to their forebears, whose graves were |
| democracies, where under the guise of working | | | | desecrated. The Hellenes recognized clearly two |
| for the state and its interests villainous | | | | alternatives: either we destroy them, or they will |
| demagogues could interpret in their own way the | | | | destroy us; and they acted inexorably on this |
| principle "the state's interest is the supreme law." | | | | principle. |
| In addition to being a religion in itself, the Polis | | | | That those who killed tyrants were signally |
| encompassed the other forms of religious | | | | honored, provided they escaped with their lives, |
| practices; and the fact that the community as a | | | | and often even after death were honored with |
| whole took part in sacrifices and festivals made | | | | public monuments and worshiped as heroes, is so |
| for a strong sense of unity among the citizens | | | | well known as to leave no room for doubt. The |
| quite apart from the laws, the constitution, and | | | | result was that some obscure murderer, |
| public dealings of the citizens with each other. | | | | subsequently found to have been a scoundrel and |
| When the Polis began its decline, it was no longer | | | | a traitor, like Phrynichus in Athens (411 B.C.), |
| satisfied with the worship of deities, even in the | | | | would receive citizenship as a public benefactor, |
| special sense of heroes and guardians of cities, | | | | be publicly crowned with a wreath at the Greater |
| and it deified itself as Tyche [Fortune] with the | | | | Dionysia and other festivities. The slayers were |
| high crown. A sentence of Pindar throws | | | | acclaimed, whatever their motives or personal |
| remarkably clear light on this transition. | | | | worth. |
| O Tyche, savior goddess, daughter of Zeus the | | | | Since the Polis was the real and the loftiest religion |
| deliverer, I beseech you to hover about mighty | | | | of the Hellenes, wars fought for the Polis took on |
| Chimera! You direct the fleet ships by sea, the | | | | all the horrors of religious wars. Every break with |
| darting battles by land, and the gatherings where | | | | the Polis disrupted the life of the individual. |
| men take counsel. | | | | Consequently, people bemoaned a civil war as the |
| The Tycheum was perhaps not the largest, but | | | | worst, the most frightful, and most godless of all |
| often it was one of the most elegant temples of | | | | wars, thoroughly hated of gods and men. |
| a city. | | | | Unhappily, this knowledge never brought about |
| In time, however, the goddess Tyche no longer | | | | peace. No one at that time could openly say that |
| sufficed, for when victorious in battle, most cities | | | | the fictitious goal (of unbounded citizenship) |
| could not refrain from humiliating the conquered, | | | | overtaxed the powers of human nature in the |
| or from idealizing themselves as Demos. And this | | | | long run, but it was obvious that men of ability |
| at times was done in such a monstrous form as | | | | secretly lost heart and increasingly shunned public |
| the placing of a statue in the agora at Sparta, | | | | office. A system of philosophical ethics arose |
| which can have come only out of the most | | | | which severed its ties with the Polis and took on |
| wretched period of that state. And since Demos | | | | a universal human scope. Epicurus and his school |
| was customarily represented in a shape proper to | | | | stripped the Polis of its feverish deification, |
| the so-called "good daimons," he became in time | | | | reducing it to a compact for mutual security. The |
| the subject of an active worship. | | | | desire of the Polis to survive at any cost was to |
| As an ideal whole, the Polis appears in another | | | | prove- itself in times of terrible suffering. The |
| sense and in another form, namely, as a nomos, | | | | guilty individual, Isocrates says, may die before |
| which comprises in one term both the laws and | | | | retribution overtakes him, but the poleis, endowed |
| the constitution of a state. The loftiest | | | | with deathlessness, must endure the vengeance o |
| expressions are used to praise the law and the | | | | f men and gods alike. |