Everything about Synoecism totally explained
Synoecism or
synœcism (
Ancient Greek: συνοικισμóς) is the amalgamation of villages and small towns in Ancient Hellas into larger political units such as a single city. It is the process by which
democracy in the Ancient Greek world originated and developed. The word itself means "dwelling together" or "to unite together under one capital city". Synœcism is opposed to the Greek word
διοικισμóς (
dioikismós).
Interplay between "demos" and "polis"
In
early Greece, ancient society was split between the "
demos", (
δημοι, κωμαι); meaning the "country people" or the "country villages" and the "asty" or "
polis" (
πολις); the seat of the princely (
nobility, the gentry, the aristocracy), the sacerdotal and military families. The distinction between the
πολις and the
δημοι was of great political importance in the ancient states. There was much antagonism between these two bodies; the country and city and where commerce and trade became the dominant cultural and ideological force, it collected many men together promoting larger towns and democracy. In the city states of Classical Greece, synœcism occurred when the "demos" combined, usually by force, with and submerged the "politiea" to form one political union.
In democratic states
For
Athens, the villages of
Attica combined with the asty of Athens proper. The
πολις and the
δημοι became identical in Athens and the later word was used by preference to signify the whole community. It was the wealthy and populous cities of the Greeks in the
Ionian territory that popular government was first established. This is how the word "democracy" was formed and its
form of government. This synœcism was one of the primary causes of
the kyklos in ancient Hellas.
This principle is witnessed in the history of
Mantineia. In the fifth century, after its synœcism it became a democracy; in the fourth century, it was again split apart, (dioikismos) and an
oligarchy was formed. Later on more political upheaval caused a synœcism to recur thus creating another democracy.
"Legends...current before the villages were ' synoecised ' into Athens."
"When the town was first formed...by the synœcism of the neighboring villages."
"Even the crushing of such dissent within the Peloponnesus didn't rid Sparta of her fears as she was forced to acknowledge the synoecism of Elis into a democratic poleis, north of Messenia, and the synoecism of Mantinea, both as reward for remaining apart from the rebellion attempt by Tegea and Argos."Further Information
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