Urban Relocation in Archaic and Classical Greece Flight and Consolidation

Very good hardcover in a very good dust jacket. Dust jacket has wear to corners and head and tail of the spine. 8vo. (6 x 1 x 9 inches) Page 168 has a single line in the margin otherwise the text is clean of marks or underlining. Includes maps, list of abbreviations, notes, bibliography and an index. 257 pp. Fast shipping in a secure book box mailer with tracking. Dozens of Greek cities moved from one site to another in the archaic and classical periods. Sometimes one city alone chose to relocate; at other times several cities or towns moved together to create a larger city ( a process called synoikism). the Phaeacians of the Odyssey provide a Homeric prototype, and relocation is a central theme in Herodotus' Histories. Thucydides provides information about several relocations, and the "Old Oligarch" gives a succinct analysis of its utility. All four of these ancient authors agree on the reason for relocation- to escape from or to meet an external threat. Nevertheless, modern scholars have asserted a variety of tother causes for the phenomenon, from silting, trade needs, or partisan politics to the desire to live in orthogonally planned cities. Some have postulated moves unknown in the ancient sources. Few have considered the practical problems of carrying out a relocation or synoikism. As a result scholars have missed one of the most significant factors in Greek international politics and an important element in the evolution of the polis. In this first comprehensive investigation of Greek urban relocation, Nancy H. Demand uses ancient evidence and modern archaeological and historical sources to analyze the relevant historical, topographic, and socioeconomic circumstances of each instance of relocation. She concludes that the ancient authorities were right- that the Greeks moved cities to escape from or meet an external threat, not for the reasons assumed by most modern scholars- and that most of the moves postulated by modern scholars did not in fact take place. She also investigates how the Greeks made the relocated cities work: how they managed distant landholdings, how mixed populations were integrated into one civic body, and how a polis was affected by incorporation into a megalopolis. The result of this study is a new understanding of an important but hitherto neglected factor in Greek history.…