8/5/2023 0 Comments Magna graecia colony![]() Mercenaries were frequently recruited from Laconia and Arcadia in the fifth century, but non-Greeks such as Campanians, Italiotes, Etruscans, even Iberians, will also have been present in substantial numbers. Syracuse was a Greek polis as were its satellite communities in Sicily and Magna Graecia, but the composition of the citizenship of the latter because of its, often, mercenary basis was highly heterogeneous. Not all new citizens would have been military veterans since craftsmen and other trades must have been included and incorporated into the new socio-political hierarchy. The members of the newly created towns became the citizens of their communities having been perhaps citizens of Syracuse, but for many and almost certainly the greater number, after they had been mercenaries of the tyrants. This ad hoc approach to populating the chief city of Sicily very soon afterwards became more broadly applied whenever the Syracusan rulers needed loyal followers and a stable military situation in outlying districts. A common patrimony was not a prerequisite to belonging to a community among the Sicilian Greeks. Later, under Dionysius I, Syracusan citizens regained primacy, but with a notable Geloan and Camarinaean presence, and probably also former citizens of Acragas and Selinous. ![]() Although Syracuse was, according to early accounts,1 founded by Corinthian settlers, its ability to become a major military power in the first half of the fifth century was actually based on a hierarchical system of citizenship that departed some way from what mainland Greeks would have recognised as truly 'citizenship.' Thus, under Gelon, the citizen body of Syracuse consisted of a Geloan supremacy with Syracusans, Megarians and others represented. ![]() The Syracusans created a colonial system which differed quite radically from the, roughly contemporary, Athenian cleruchies, nor was it a model to be copied in an exact fashion by Alexander the Great, his successors or the Romans. In establishing colonial foundations to ensure the security of Syracuse and its conquered territories, the city's tyrants: Gelon, Hieron I, Dionysius I and his son, maintained control through what could be described as a hybrid and unique form of imperialism.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |