Hippodamos

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Hippodamos of Miletus ( Greek  Ἱππόδαμος ) was a Greek town planner and state theorist of antiquity , who in the 5th century BC. BC, but his exact dates are not known.

He achieved great fame through the " Hippodamian system " named after him in antiquity . This was an orthogonal system of even and equally sized plots ( insulae ). Hippodamos, however, is not the inventor of the orthogonal system itself. Such structures already existed in the Middle East and in Egypt at much earlier times. In the Greek area, too, such systems were regularly used for new foundations in connection with the so-called great Greek colonization. The Hippodamian system is often associated with the form of government of democracy , with Poleis also using grid systems for their city maps with other forms of government. A compelling equation of the Hippodamian city plan and democratic government is therefore not possible, even if Hippodamos himself represented a democratic conception of the state (see below).

The ancient written sources connect Hippodamos with the layout of several cities. He is said to have helped found the city of Miletus after it was destroyed by the Persians (479 BC). It is also reported that he was involved in the planning of the port of Piraeus (around 450 BC) and the Panhellenic "model town" Thurioi (445/444 BC). After all, he is said to have been used in the construction of Rhodes in 408 BC. Have contributed. This is unlikely, however, as Hippodamos would have been around 90 years old at this point.

In addition, Hippodamus is mentioned in the Aristotelian book Politics as the first who undertook to define the best state constitution without being a statesman himself.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ DNP V, sv Hippodamos (C. Höcker)

literature

  • Hans-Joachim Gehrke : Comments on Hippodamos of Miletus. In: Wolfgang Schuller (Ed.): Democracy and Architecture. The Hippodamian town planning and the emergence of democracy. Munich 1989, pp. 58-63.
  • Joachim Szidat : Hippodamos of Miletus. Its role in the theory and practice of Greek urban planning. In: Bonner Jahrbücher , Volume 180 (1980), pp. 31-44.
  • Charlotte Triebel-Schubert , Ulrike Muss: Hippodamos of Miletus. State theorist or city planner? In: Hephaistos , Heft 5/6, 1983, pp. 37-60.
  • Aristotle: politics. 2nd edition, Hamburg 2003, p. 102.
personal data
SURNAME Hippodamos
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ἱππόδαμος (Greek); Hippodamus of Miletus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION ancient Greek builder
DATE OF BIRTH 6th century BC BC or 5th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 5th century BC BC or 4th century BC Chr.