Preface
Priene was an average polis in modern Turkey. The city was founded in the early 4th century BCE. The city was planned from the level of each street down to the place and purpose of the private rooms. At first it was a model polis and an embodiment of the classical virtues. But in a world in transition Priene could not stand still. All this changed. The houses were divided to create more houses but also combined to create larger residences - but only the happy few would have profited from those changes.
Fig 1: Map of the western coast of Turkey
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The classical period
Priene was founded in the 4th century BCE. The citizens chose for a planned city, in which each citizen would get the same amount of land and an equal house. They hired Pythius, the architect of the Mausoleum in Halicarnassus. His task was to create a city that was based on, as the Oxford Classical Dictionary puts it, the following values: small size, political autonomy, social homogeneity, sense of community and respect for law.
Pythius designed a city for about 5000 inhabitants. They were not all citizens. The number of men with citizenship was approximately 1500. So it was a polis with an average size. |
The city was in her early period political autonomous and kept that independence for quite a long time. To create social homogeneity Pythius designed each house in the same way: the houses had two floors and were all facing the south. The sun could in that way heat the houses in the winter and in the summer the roof provided cooling shade. On the ground floor there was space for storage or a shop. A small courtyard, the main living area, and an andron. The andron was the room were the men held their symposia. The andron was rather small, because there was only room for six people. On the upper floor were the sleeping rooms and the room for the women.
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The houses in the city centre were probably more desirable than the houses at the edge of the city. It is likely that the houses by a lottery were distributed. This would strengthen the sense of community of the citizens. There are of course a few remarks on the design of Pythius. The houses and rooms he designed were already outdated. In late classical Athens the smallest houses had an andron of the same size as the androns in Priene. This would be the root for the changes in the Hellenistic period.
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Fig 2: Reconstruction of an Insula in Priene. Mid fourth century.
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The Hellenistic period
In the Hellenistic period the world changed, the Greek world was for a short period united by Alexander the Great (356-323) and after his death his successors ruled a great part of the Greek world. Those changes affected the polis as well, the autonomy was lost and the social homogeneity changed. The elite was more clearly in the picture, Demosthenes (384-322) pleaded to the Athenians that they were spending too much on their own houses. and he was longing for past times in which the Athenians invested more in the beautification of their own city. These changes also affected Priene.
Fig 3: Development of house 33 in Priene.
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In Priene part of the citizens began to change their houses. In the early Hellenistic period we begin to see an inequality in some houses. They started to emphasize their entrances, courtyards and especially their androns: in the classical period there was just room for six people while in the Hellenistic period twenty persons could participate in a symposium. This was not only a way of the inhabitants to improve their lifestyle but also a manner to impress their peers.
In the late Hellenistic period the changes in the houses increased on a wider scale. There was a growth in the population of the town. In this period a lot of houses were divided into smaller dwellings, some not bigger than one room. But not all of the houses were decreased in size. The happy few expanded their houses even further, now even with private and public spaces, creating townhouses with comfort for their owners and a clear message to their competitors. Almost all of these houses were situated in the centre of the city. The smaller ones were found on the edges of the city. This would have changed the social relations and could be a heavy toll on the social homogeneity. This will have led to social tension, a problem of many Hellenistic poleis. |
To Conclude
Pythius’ monument of polis values could not stand the changes of time. When it was finished it was already outdated and a changing world changed the perfect polis to a city that was in the best interest of the happy few and not of the most people. The houses of the elite were more comfortable and ready to impress its peers. This will have created tension between the inhabitants. Does the phrase polis still apply to this Hellenistic city? Yes because the people themselves still believed in the concept polis and would use that phrase for their society.
Selected bibliography
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Figures |
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Fig 1: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Ephesos_regional_map.png
Fig 2: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/507499451733324850/ James Whitley.The Archaeology of Ancient Greece. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2001) fig. 12.13 Fig 3: Wolfram Hoepfner, en Ernst Ludwig Schwandner, Haus und Stadt im Klassischen Griechenland, (Munchen: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 1986) fig 186. |
January 27th, 2016
DH
