Description
Book SynopsisIn the chaotic decades after the death of Alexander the Great, the world of the Greek city-state became deeply embroiled in the political struggles and unremitting violence of his successors' contest for supremacy. As these presumptive rulers turned to the practical reality of administeringthe disparate territories under their control, they increasingly developed new cities by merging smaller settlements into large urban agglomerations. This practice of synoikism gave rise to many of the most important cities of the age, initiated major shifts in patterns of settlement, and consolidated numerous previously independent polities. The result was the increasing transformation of the fragmented world of the small Greek polis into an urbanized network of cities.Drawing on a wide array of archaeological, epigraphic, and textual evidence, City and Empire in the Age of the Successors reinterprets the role of urbanization in the creation of the Hellenistic kingdoms and argues for the agency of local actors in the formation of these new imperial cities.
Trade Review"The planned, designed, institutional reorganization of urban populations, together with a systematic and rationally-articulated thinking about cities, were, for whatever reason, characteristic of the Greek world since the archaic period. But nothing matches the royal synoikisms of the early Hellenistic period for scale of ambition, coherence of vision, and on-the-ground disruption. In this impressive and considered book, Ryan Boehm investigates such consolidations of existing Greek
poleis into new or expanded mega-cities by the warlords, kings, and dynasts of the early Hellenistic period. . . . Boehm splendidly makes the case for his topic." * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *
Table of ContentsList of Abbreviations
Introduction
PART ONE. URBANIZATION AND THE IMPERIAL FRAMEWORK
1. Imperial Geographies: City, Settlement, and Ideology in the Formation of the Hellenistic Kingdoms
2. Urbanization and Economic Networks
PART TWO. CULT, POLIS, EMPIRE: THE RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL DIMENSIONS OF SYNOIKISM
3. Civic Cults between Continuity and Change
4. Consensus, Community, and Discourses of Power
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
