The Classical Greek Polis: Urbanism and Democracy

Reconstruction of the Greek city of Miletus in ancient Ionia

Priene, Turkey, 4th cen. BC (c. 350 BC)

The Classical Greek Polis: Urbanism and Democracy

acropolis

“high city”

agora

Mycenae (c. 1400 B.C.)hilltop citadel + palace = total urban area

I. Democratic culture produces a new kind of public space & new public buildings

Priene, Turkey, 4th cen. BC (c. 350 BC)Bronze-Age Greece

Classical

A. What were the two poles of Classical Greek cities?

Priene, Turkey, 4th cen. BC (c. 350 BC)

acropolis downtown with agora

I. A.

agora – town square, place where people assembled to agoreuein (“to speak to one another”)

Aristotle said that an acropolis wassuitable for oligarchy and monarchy and level ground for democracy (see Politics 7.10.4).

Greek historian/ethnographer Herodotus wrote that the king of the Persia said: “I never yet feared the kind of men who have a place set apart in the middle of the city [i.e., the agora] in which they get together and tell one another lies under oath” (Herodotus, History, 1.153).

I. B. Locate the major public buildings in a Classical Greek cityI. B. 1. stoas a. Definitionb. Activities displayed to the public in stoas

Priene, Turkey

agora

stoa

Priene

I. B. 2. council/senate house (bouleuterion)

Priene, Turkey

Remains of the Bouleuterion in Priene

Remains of the Ionic Temple of Athena Poliasin Priene, c. 334 B.C.

Priene, Turkey

I. B. 3. urban temples

Priene, Turkey

Theater at Priene, c. 300 B.C., seats 6000

I. B. 4. theater

Theater at Priene, c. 300 B.C.

Greek theaters bind audience to place through performance

I. B. 4.

II. Planned cities in Greece: a reflection of Pythagorean principles and a product of democratic values

Classical period: Greek new town ofPriene (ancient Ionia)

Archaic period: Greek colony of Paestum (Italy)

II. A. The Hippodamian city plan

Priene Miletus Piraeus (port of Athens)

II. A. 1. Who was Hippodamus of Miletus?

Hippodamus of Miletus (5th cen. B.C.), the first to theorize the gridded city plan.

Priene, Turkey

II. A. 2. What were the five main features of the Hippodamian plan?

1. Streets at right angles.2. Quarters divided into blocks3. Blocks subdivided into housing lots4. Public buildings set into the system without interfering with traffic5. Plan laid over any terrain.

Priene

Priene, Turkey

II. A. 3. How do we know that Pythagorean principles governed nature and not the other way around?

Priene: N/S street from temple to agoraPriene: main E/W street

II. A. 4. What is the nature of city wall in Greek planned cities?

Priene, Turkey