ANCIENT GREECE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 4 August 1928, Page 12

ANCIENT GREECE

CITY STATE SYSTEM / Tho political unit amongst the Greeks was not the nation, but the "polis" or single city, which was a distinct, autonomous, and self-governing entity, and that effectually prevented any. thing like hearty or prolonged co-opera-tion between the different States, said Professor Erskine Brown in the cdurse of a lecture on "Tho Greek City State *<; a Workers' Educational Association mooting at Wellington. It possessed a system of government, codoof laws, and eoiuugo entirely its own, "so that if an Athenian went to Thebes, a city much nearer Athens than Mastertou is to Wellington, he was a foreigner, an alien, and had po civic or even private rights, and could not acquire landed property. Indeed, during the greater part' of their history Athens was at war with Thebes. This incapacity for union was not duo to any inherent defect in the Greek character, but was partly due to geographical reasons and partly to* the individualism and love of -independence of the Greeks: The existence ; of !wnat r 4 called the Athenian Empire for half, a century was proof that some, at least, of *he Greeks had tho power of political organisation on a largo scale. But this Empire was" not a contralisation- of Greece, it covered only the islands and some of the Aegean coast towns, and the attempt to extend it to' the mainland helped to ruin Athens. The Greeks had the capacity for central government, .butf circumstances were too strong for therrii: This isolation,, however, was .a prime factor in the rapid development of Greek lifo in all its aspects, and each member 1 of tho community could realise his citi-

zenship and'Ms ihftsrisfc much more ihorou ghjjr,: tMii- : - was possible nowadays; 4vhert: ; a'iffia;p- ; i\jas a mere unit in a very, mmWtevj&tfaurnber of voters. Most of. tho' Grtek/States had an area of onlv a.few?square miles, and it Was doubtful if their citizens;.eyj*Exceeded 20,000 in number, exclusive "of resident aliens—i.e., /free non-citizens and slaves. The actual populatfon .of Athens at the time of its prosperity must have been something like 150,000.