From the beginning of the article:
The decision of Ialysos, Kameiros and Lindos – the three poleis on the island of Rhodes – to unite into a single state is acknowledged to be a pivotal event in Rhodian history: it is the polis created through that merger that came to play a prominent role in Hellenistic times. Seen in a broader perspective, moreover, the unification of the Rhodian poleis occupies a distinct (and perhaps significant) place in the series of similar processes that occurred at various times throughout the Greek world. It is only natural, therefore, that the Rhodian synoikism and its consequences should receive much attention in modern scholarship. The current orthodoxy on this topic can be summarized in accordance with the three principal points it makes.
(1) Having defected from the Athenian League to join the Peloponnesian alliance in 411 BC, the poleis of Ialysos, Kameiros and Lindos experienced an oligarchic revolution. Concurrently with this (or shortly after), they carried out a political synoikism through which they united into a single state, governed by a central political authority. (2) The process of unification, however, was not completed until also a physical synoikism had been carried out. That occurred in 408/7 BC, when citizens of Ialysos, Kameiros and Lindos came to live together in the new urban centre that had just been built in Ialysian territory, the city of Rhodos. Designated as the capital of the new state, that city became also the centre of the Rhodian government. Thus the period 411-407 is seen as a transitional phase, during which the three city-states were linked together as members of a federal organization. (3) With the completion of the synoikism in 408/7, Ialysos, Kameiros and Lindos ceased to exist as separate poleis, as they surrendered entirely their sovereignty (i.e. primarily their right to make
independent decisions on matters concerning their relations with other states) to the newly-formed state, the polis of Rhodes. Henceforward they simply constituted subdivisions of the unified state, each representing one of the three pan-Rhodian phylai: Ialysis, Kameiris and Lindia.
Nyhedsbrev
Print siden
Se udvalgte sider
