The purpose of this study is to combine an archaeological and a historical analysis of settlement within the territory of the polis of Mantineia in E. Arkadia during the Archaic and Classical periods. Its aim is twofold: first, to collect and interpret the evidence for settlements and their history; secondly, to examine that evidence in relation to Mantineia's society and economy, in order to assess the significance of changes of settlement patterns for the nature of the Mantineian polis. The changes in question revolve around the eventful history of the town of Mantineia which was founded sometime in the late Archaic or early Classical period, destroyed by the Spartans and compulsorily abandoned in 385 B.C., and finally refounded in 370, remaining in existence until the sixth to seventh centuries A.D.The significance of these changes for the political and military history of the Peloponnese, especially for the vital interests of Spartan foreign policy, was realized in antiquity and has been discussed in detail in several modern accounts. The location of Mantineian territory within the Peloponnese (Fig. 1) made it a strategic military focus and thoroughfare. Mantineia, together with Tegea and Pallantion, occupied the modern valley of Tripolis, which enclosed the largest plain of E. Arkadia and was linked directly with the valley of Sparta through the N. Lakonian hills by at least two major routes used by military traffic.
This introductory chapter begins with a brief background of the organization of the Leeds–Manchester Greek History Research Seminar, which sought ‘to give the variety and plurality their due by examining alternatives (theoretical and actual) to the polis and/or to democracy in archaic, classical, and early hellenistic Greece’. In short, the goal was to provide a counterbalance to the then current democracy celebrations, to redirect attention to the range of political systems and communities beyond that of the democratic polis, and particularly Athenian dēmokratia, and to encourage a more rounded analysis of Greek political life. The chapter then discusses how Athens was unrepresentative of ancient Greek poleis, the range of constitutions found in classical Greece, and various kinds of communities in Greek antiquity of which the polis was only one form, and amphiktyonies and confederacies.
‘The problem of Spartan land tenure is one of the most vexed in the obscure field of Spartan institutions.’ Walbank's remark is as true today as when it was written nearly thirty years ago. Controversy surrounding this subject has a long tradition going back to the nineteenth century and the last thirty years have witnessed no diminution in the level of disagreement, as is demonstrated by a comparison of the differing approaches in the recent works by Cartledge, Cozzoli, David and Marasco. Although another study runs the risk of merely adding one more hypothesis to the general state of uncertainty, a fundamental reassessment of the question is required, not least because of its significance for the historian's interpretation of the overall character of Spartiate society. Through the introduction of a new perspective it may be possible to advance our understanding of the subject.In Section I of this essay I shall attempt to review several influential scholarly theories and to examine their feasibility and the reliability of the evidence upon which they are based. Section II will begin to construct a more plausible alternative account which is based upon more trustworthy evidence. Finally, Section III will discuss a comparatively underemphasised aspect of the topic, the property rights of Spartiate women, which suggests a rather different interpretation of the character of land tenure and inheritance from those more usually adopted.
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