Thomas Heine Nielsen – författare

This is the first ever documented study of the 1,035 identifiable Greek city states (poleis) of the Archaic and Classical periods (c.650-325 BC). Previous studies of the Greek polis have focused on Athens and Sparta, and the result has been a view of Greek society dominated by Sophokles'', Plato''s, and Demosthenes'' view of what the polis was. This study includes descriptions of Athens and Sparta, but its main purpose is to explore thehistory and organization of the thousand other city states.The main part of the book is a regionally organized inventory of all identifiable poleis covering the Greek world from Spain to the Caucasus and from the Crimea to Libya. This inventory is the work of 47 specialists, and is divided into 46 chapters, each covering a region. Each chapter contains an account of the region, a list of second-order settlements, and an alphabetically ordered description of the poleis. This description covers such topics as polis status,territory, settlement pattern, urban centre, city walls and monumental architecture, population, military strength, constitution, alliance membership, colonization, coinage, and Panhellenic victors.The first part of the book is a description of the method and principles applied in the construction of the inventory and an analysis of some of the results to be obtained by a comparative study of the 1,035 poleis included in it. The ancient Greek concept of polis is distinguished from the modern term `city state'', which historians use to cover many other historic civilizations, from ancient Sumeria to the West African cultures absorbed by the nineteenth-century colonializingpowers. The focus of this project is what the Greeks themselves considered a polis to be.

This is the first ever documented study of the 1,035 identifiable Greek city states (poleis) of the Archaic and Classical periods (c.650-325 BC). Previous studies of the Greek polis have focused on Athens and Sparta, and the result has been a view of Greek society dominated by Sophokles', Plato's, and Demosthenes' view of what the polis was. This study includes descriptions of Athens and Sparta, but its main purpose is to explore the history and organization of the thousand other city states. The main part of the book is a regionally organized inventory of all identifiable poleis covering the Greek world from Spain to the Caucasus and from the Crimea to Libya. This inventory is the work of 47 specialists, and is divided into 46 chapters, each covering a region. Each chapter contains an account of the region, a list of second-order settlements, and an alphabetically ordered description of the poleis. This description covers such topics as polis status, territory, settlement pattern, urban centre, city walls and monumental architecture, population, military strength, constitution, alliance membership, colonization, coinage, and Panhellenic victors.The first part of the book is a description of the method and principles applied in the construction of the inventory and an analysis of some of the results to be obtained by a comparative study of the 1,035 poleis included in it. The ancient Greek concept of polis is distinguished from the modern term `city state', which historians use to cover many other historic civilizations, from ancient Sumeria to the West African cultures absorbed by the nineteenth-century colonializing powers. The focus of this project is what the Greeks themselves considered a polis to be.

Were the ancient Olympics used, or abused, by the classical Greek city-states for purposes not strictly athletic or religious? This study attempts to outline an answer to this question by focusing on the way the city-state of Elis managed its role as permanent host of the Olympic festival, as well as by addressing the way that the hundreds of other Greek city-states attempted to project favorable images of themselves through activities at the games and at the sanctuary. Elis was a fine host of the Olympics and cannot be seriously accused of sportswashing or blamed for favoring its own athletes. Since ancient Greek athletes were not official representatives of their city-states, states had to improve their international profile primarily by way of dedications at Olympia. Such dedications consisted mainly of spoils of war, in raw or converted form. The study also discusses the motives of the athletes themselves and concludes that the chief motive was a quest for glory. The study then goes on to consider how the glory of victory was handled and enhanced by the victors and, not infrequently, by their city-states that attempted to bask in the fame of its victors. However, the quest for glory did not prevent athletes from pursuing material gain, and this is considered alongside such phenomena as transfer of allegiance and match fixing.