Fragments de cités

The Greek city was far from a homogeneous entity. Rather, it was composed of a multitude of communities  – civic subdivisions, associations, families, social groups, etc. – which Aristotle identifies as the “parts” of the political community. This book examines these sub-civic communities as constituent fragments of the polis. It addresses the enduring tension between unity and multiplicity: between the city as a central authority, being more than the sum of its parts, and the various communities whose interests often diverged from, or even conflicted with, those of the polis, necessitating ongoing negotiation across different levels of collective identity. To what extent, the book asks, did the city hold a monopoly over the koinon, the common good?

This study concentrates on three Aegean cities during the Hellenistic and Roman periods – Cos, Rhodes, and Delos –, chosen for the large number of their sub-civic groups and the availability of primarily epigraphic material. Within these cities, the analysis focuses on three types of community configurations, arranged from the most institutionalized to the least formalized: the public organization and the relationship between the city and its civic subdivisions on Cos and Rhodes following their synoecism; the proliferation of groups on Delos after its transfer to Athenian control by the Roman Senate in 167/6 BCE and the formation of a marginalized local community; and finally, social groupings on Cos defined by contribution to a subscription or by possession of Roman citizenship, with original prosopographical research.

The central aim of this book is to propose a model of the polis as a plural entity – one that acknowledges the multiplicity of groups based on participation, the plurality of affiliations and social identities, and the lived experience of fragmentation and internal tensions that shaped the civic life of the Greeks.