Ancient Greece: A Very Short Introduction

Citation

Cartledge, P. (2011). Ancient Greece: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. (Very Short Introductions; first published in 2009 as Ancient Greece: A History in Eleven Cities.)

Chapter Summary

The book tells Greek history through portraits of eleven cities, framed by an Introduction and an Epilogue, with an appendix on the Panhellenic sanctuaries. The main text runs to about 133 pages; the back matter adds further reading, a chronology, a "Who's Who", a glossary and an index. Its range, in the publisher's description, runs from the first documented use of the Greek language around 1400 BCE, through the Classical and Hellenistic periods, to the foundation of the Byzantine empire around 330 CE. Emily Varto's review of the 2009 hardback in the Bryn Mawr Classical Review (2010.10.15) describes the cities as arranged chronologically: prehistory, the Dark Age and Archaic period, the Classical period, the Hellenistic world, and a closing look back and forward.

Introduction

Cartledge defends the decision to describe ancient Greece through cities. The Greek world was never a nation-state but a network of cities and other settlements held together by a shared culture, and its characteristic unit was the polis, best rendered "citizen-state": a self-governing community that combined town and countryside. Varto notes that the discussion of city, city-state and polis is deliberately short.

Cnossos; Mycenae

Two Bronze Age centres. Cnossos, one of several palace centres on Crete, is presented as the seat of a chiefly power over a mainly agrarian regime, and the chapter carries the story of Crete on into the Dark Age and Archaic periods. Mycenae, in the north-east Peloponnese, gave its name to the Mycenaean age; the chapter stresses the warlike palace rulers, the Near Eastern affinities of a civilization that was Greek in language, and the still-debated collapse around 1200 BCE.

Argos; Miletus; Massalia; Sparta

Four cities for the early and Archaic history. Argos illustrates continuity of habitation from the Late Bronze Age into the Early Iron Age and early rule by kings, notably Pheidon; Varto observes that the chapter dwells on questions of Greek identity. Miletus, the most prominent of the Ionian cities on the coast of Asia Minor, introduces emigration and colonization. Massalia (modern Marseilles) represents the "Western Greeks" and their trade, though little is known of its political system. Sparta raises the problem of scanty written evidence and explains a society organised for war around the enslavement of a whole Greek population.

Athens; Syracuse; Thebes

The Classical period. Athens, the largest and most complex Greek city before Alexandria, is analysed as three cities in one: the political community, the Acropolis and the port of Piraeus. Syracuse, a Corinthian foundation on Sicily, becomes the largest and richest of the Sicilian Greek cities. Thebes, which profited from the conflict between Athens and Sparta, was for some decades of the fourth century BCE the most powerful city in mainland Greece.

Alexandria

The single chapter on the Hellenistic world after Alexander, centred on the city in Egypt that, as the Athens chapter notes, eventually outgrew Athens as the largest city of the Greek world.

Byzantion; Epilogue

Byzantion, founded on the Bosporus in the seventh century BCE, mattered to Athens because it could manage and tax the grain trade from the Black Sea. The Epilogue follows the site's later history and returns to the polis as the place where Greek politics happened, arguing that this political legacy deserves attention; Varto found that it also questions why the West studies classical civilization.

Appendix: The Panhellenic Sanctuaries

Sites shared by all Greeks, such as Delphi and Olympia, treated outside the city chapters.

Key Concepts

Introduction and the Bronze Age

• Polis: the self-governing citizen-state, town and countryside together, which the book takes as the defining unit of Greek civilization.
• Palace societies: the Bronze Age centres of Crete and the mainland, ruled from palaces that served as seats of political and ceremonial power.
• The collapse around 1200 BCE: the end of the Mycenaean palace centres, whose causes remain disputed.

Archaic and Classical cities

• Colonization: the movement of Greeks to found new settlements around the Mediterranean and Black Sea, seen through Miletus, Massalia and Syracuse.
• Western Greeks: the Greek cities of Sicily, southern Italy and the western Mediterranean, treated as central rather than peripheral.
• Helotage: the Spartan enslavement of a whole Greek population that shaped Sparta's military way of life.
• Democracy and empire: Athens as political community, Acropolis and port, and as an imperial power.

Hellenistic world and legacy

• Hellenistic period: the world after Alexander, represented by Alexandria.
• Panhellenic sanctuaries: shared religious centres where Greeks from different cities met.
• Political legacy: the derivation of "politics" from the affairs of the polis, and the book's case for its continuing relevance.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• A clear organising device. Using cities makes a long history manageable and lets the book move both around the Greek world and through time. Varto judged that each city serves the structure and the book's intent well, and that the choice of "city" works as a device for including many forms of Greek urbanism.
• Beyond Athens and Sparta. Separate portraits of Massalia, Syracuse, Miletus and Byzantion treat Greeks outside the Aegean as part of Greek history proper. Varto singled out Massalia and Byzantion as the most original chapters.
• Reliable scholarship, readable tone. The review describes the content as based on current, well-accepted scholarship, written in the engaging manner of an experienced lecturer, with short chapters and explanations of word origins that link antiquity to modern vocabulary.
• Useful reference apparatus. The chronology, "Who's Who" and glossary help a beginner keep track of names and dates across the eleven cities.

Limitations

• Connections between cities are thin. Varto notes that the cities interact mainly through war, that relations with non-Greek neighbours receive little space, and that the Panhellenic sanctuaries, important for Greek common life, are relegated to an appendix. She asks whether Greek history can be told through cities alone.
• No notes or source citations. The 2009 edition reviewed had a list of suggested reading but no notes or full bibliography, so students cannot trace the evidence behind particular claims; it does not model the handling of sources.
• Uneven coverage. With eleven chapters for some two thousand years, the Hellenistic world has a single chapter and Persia, Macedon and Rome appear only through their dealings with individual cities.
• Occasional florid language. The review finds the style sometimes overly elaborate, with some vocabulary and Latin phrases that may puzzle readers.

Where It Fits in the Course

This is the shortest and most introductory book in the ancient-history list and a good first read. Robin Lane Fox's The Classical World is the natural next step: a single-volume narrative of Greece and Rome from Homer to Hadrian for general readers and students, which supplies the continuous story that Cartledge's city portraits do not. Marc Van De Mieroop's A History of the Ancient Near East, ca. 3000–323 BC is a university survey of the Near East from the early city-states to the Macedonian conquest; it gives the wider context for the chapters on Mycenae, Miletus and Alexandria.

After that, Simon Hornblower's The Greek World 479–323 BC offers a detailed political and social history of the Classical period across the whole Greek-speaking world, with close attention to the evidence, which is exactly what Cartledge's chapters on Athens, Syracuse and Thebes lack. Martin Goodman's The Roman World 44 BC–AD 180 continues into the Roman empire, and Livy's The Early History of Rome is a primary source. Reading Cartledge first gives the map of the Greek world needed for all of these.

How to Use This Book

No background in ancient history or Greek is required. The book suits first-year students in history, classics, archaeology and politics, and general readers who know Athens and Sparta and want a wider picture.

A suggested plan:

• Core: the Introduction for the idea of the polis, then Athens and Sparta, the cities most courses discuss first.
• Then the rest in order, since the chapters follow chronology. Miletus, Massalia and Syracuse together make a short course on Greek colonization; Thebes and Alexandria bridge the Classical and Hellenistic periods.
• Do not skip the Epilogue, which sets out the book's argument about the polis and its legacy, or the appendix on the sanctuaries, which partly corrects the city-by-city view.

Keep a map open while reading, since many cities lie far from Greece itself, and use the chronology and "Who's Who" as running references. Because the book has no source notes, pair each chapter with a translated primary source where possible, Herodotus for Miletus or Sparta, Thucydides for Athens and Syracuse, and use the further-reading list to choose a specialist study. For essays, cite Cartledge for interpretation and framing, and go to Hornblower or the sources for evidence.