Synoikismos
Synoikismos ( ancient Greek συνοικισμός ) describes the planned and / or arranged amalgamation of several villages into one city.
Every synoikism demanded victims. It was carried out against the resistance of many who were faced with the decision between extermination, remaining in an unsecured environment or relocation. “It is an accumulation of bitter pains that has hardly occurred again in the rest of the history of Greece…” which preceded the establishment of every polis. As a rule, strong minorities are likely to have implemented the synoicisms first. Later reunions, on the other hand, were caused by the need to enable a tribe to survive under difficult conditions.
Mostly the term is used in ancient studies.
Examples
Cities created by Synoikismos are:
- Athens - so far only proven by myths
- Sparta
- Megalopolis
- Kassope
- Nicopolis - foundation of the city 31 BC By Octavian by amalgamating the cities of Kalydon , Ambrakia and Kassope
- Olynth - expansion of the city by the merger of the Chalcidian coastal cities Mekyberna , Singos and Gale in 432 BC Chr.
- Thessaloniki - founded in 315 BC By Kassandros by amalgamating 26 places on the Thermaic Gulf
- Rome
literature
- Peter J. Rhodes : Synoikismos. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 11, Metzler, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-476-01481-9 , column 1161 f.
- Mogens Herman Hansen , Thomas Heine Nielsen: An inventory of archaic and classical poleis. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004. ISBN 0-19-814099-1 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cf. Jacob Burckhardt : Greek cultural history . Volume I and II. Berlin & Stuttgart 1908, p. 68.