The Rise of Athens

This process was called synoecism, or a “bringing together into one home.” Attica was now a unitary polity with central control exercised by Athens. In other words, it became a city-state, or (to use the Greek word) a polis. Its national hero, Theseus, stood as the symbol of this groundbreaking development.

Similar reforms unfolded elsewhere in Greece, not always with complete success. In Boeotia, for instance, the lands lying to the north of Attica, the largest city, Thebes, never managed to secure more than a fractious federation. Throughout its history it was always having to use force to maintain its authority over its constituent parts.

Theseus was regarded as the first people’s ruler of Athens. He laid aside his royal power, reserving to himself only the supreme command in war and guardianship of the law. In practice, of course, this meant that he was still in charge, a benevolent autocrat. Plutarch’s overall verdict is that he “founded a commonwealth, so to speak, of all sorts and conditions of citizen. However, he did not let his democracy become confused and disordered by multitudes of immigrants.”

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These stories about Theseus reflect the attitudes of those who made them up—namely, Athenians in search of a founding myth. Banditry and violence were common in the classical world and here we have a hero ready and able to put down criminal behavior wherever he found it. What is more, his deeds are clearly constructed on the model of the celebrated Labors of Heracles, seemingly impossible tasks that the strongman completed with ease. Athens wanted its own personalized Heracles-alternative.

A believer in the rule of law, this fictional Theseus was only too happy to break it when it suited him. Careless, sexist, and a little sociopathic, intelligent and attractive, willing to thumb his nose at the gods and capable of taking punishment for his impertinence, Theseus was the kind of man Athenians liked to be like. We will meet his type time and again as we proceed through the city’s history.

The “Dark Age” that followed the mysterious collapse of the Mycenean civilization lasted for about three centuries. Monarchs like Theseus became a rarity and some time before 800, when the Greeks emerged into the light, Athens became a republic governed by a group of noble families, an aristocracy. Combative and unruly, they were a collective of Theseuses.

By contrast, the Spartans, who are our second protagonist, were conservative and kept their kings. In fact, they could not have been more different from the Athenians in almost every way. The two states got on together very badly. A candid friend from the city of Corinth told the Spartans how little they had in common with the Athenians. “They are innovators, quick thinkers and swift at putting their plans into action, while you like to hold on to what you have, come up with no new ideas and when you do take action never achieve as much as you should have done.”

Where the Athenians were open-minded and excited by change, Sparta feared and resisted it, as we shall now see.

2

A State of War

The Spartan boy was terrified, but absolutely determined. He must not let himself down, or his comrades. They were under strict instructions by their official trainers to steal wherever and whatever they could. Their only crime was to be found out.

The others with him in his age group had stolen a tame young fox and given it to him to look after. When its owners came in search of it, the teenager was holding the fox under his cloak. The frightened animal struggled to escape; it began biting through his side and lacerated his intestines. The teenager did not move or make a noise, to avoid being found out.

The owners left and the boy’s friends realized what had happened. They told him off for his stupidity. Far better to let the animal be found than lose his life. “No!” he replied, though mortally wounded. “Better to die without giving in to the pain than to save a life and live ever after in disgrace.”

This famous parable was an object lesson for young Spartans.

The origins of Sparta, or Lacedaemon, its official name, are obscured by ancient myth. Its citizens numbered themselves among the Dorian “invaders” of Greece in opposition to the “native” Ionians. By the end of the eighth century, it had become one of the great city-states of Greece. You would not think it, though, if you were to judge by appearances.

Sparta, the Lacedaemonian capital, lay in a fertile river valley in the southern Peloponnese. The land was called Laconia and the river the Eurotas. The Peloponnese was, like the rest of mainland Greece, rocky and barren with only a few pockets of farmland. The mountains were still wooded, but the process of deforestation was proceeding apace. To the west, but cut off from Sparta by the high barrier of the Taygetos range, lay the rich, flat, alluvial, and tempting plain of Messenia.