CUP (2015) h/b 605pp £99.99 (ISBN 9780521192262)
Ancient Greek city-states interacted in a number of ways, one of which was to create federal associations (koina) for the sake of pursuing political, military and cultural aims inspired by shared sentiment or (sometimes hegemonic) aspiration. Until the publication of the current volume, the most recent large-scale study of these organisations was Larsen’s 1968 Greek Federal States. The discovery of a great deal of relevant epigraphical evidence and the development of modern scholarship (in particular in-depth studies of the deployment of ethnicity in Greek culture) means that a new study of this phenomenon is overdue.
The organisation of this weighty volume sets out very clearly the geographical and historical scope of federalism in Greek antiquity. The editors’ introduction emphasises the role of regional proximity, political institutions and the (often flexible) senses of shared identity which underlay federal organisation; they present federalism as a response to the political dynamics within which the Greeks found themselves. Two papers assess the notion of federalism in the light of Panhellenic themes: Jonathan Hall’s paper argues, against Larsen, that collective ethnic identity was not a prerequisite for federalisation but it was a means to its accomplishment. Lynette Mitchell explores the relationship between federalism and notions of a Greek community.
The core of the book (20 of its 29 chapters) surveys the occurrence of federal organisations across the Greek world, analysing their territorial extent, political and military activity, and demonstrating their variety of legislative and cultural practices. Whereas some leagues represented (or even preserved) the political identity of their constituent polis-members, other organisations were more hegemonic, dominated by a single power (this was a characteristic also of the fourth-century and Hellenistic Hellenic Leagues discussed by Smarczyk); the balance of power within some leagues (such as that of the Aegean Islanders) is less clear. We see the way in which federalism appears and disappears in different areas: in some regions (Chalkidike or Arkadia, for instance) it was a short-lived experiment; in others it was a long-term factor (Boiotia, where federalism took on a wide range of manifestations over the course of antiquity); the Achaian and Aetolian Leagues, obscure in the classical period, reached their political peak in the Hellenistic period. Some federations were created mostly for military convenience or self-preservation, but others exhibited cultural affinity. There are discussions of federalism on the edges of the Greek world (Lykia, Italy, Kyrenaika), but (disappointingly) no extended discussion of the Ionian League, which (as far as we can tell from the limited evidence) re-emerged as a cultural union in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Conflict resolution and economic integration, two important achievements of federal states, are the subjects of synoptic chapters by Mackil and Ager. One further important contribution that this volume makes is to underline the exceptionality of the Athenian state, which dominated a territory comparable in area to that of the federations discussed here; indeed, as Raaflaub’s paper shows, the fifth-century Delian Confederacy aimed at Athenian domination rather than federation.
The volume closes with Bearzot’s excavation of ancient political theory on federalism and Lehmann’s assessment of the engagement of the American Federalists with its history. This volume makes a great contribution by demonstrating the importance of federal organisation—in a wide range of manifestations—to a wider understanding of Greek political culture. As a reference work, this volume will become a core research tool on Greek political history (especially that relevant to areas less well-known: the Greek ‘second world’) but its broad relevance to Greek, Hellenistic and Roman history makes it important to a wide range of teachers.
In the period of Roman domination, some federal organisations carried on and represented the identities of their constituent parts; yet as a form of political strength federalism was rendered insignificant by Roman power (see the Index, s.v. ‘Rome’). What, then, does the study of ancient federalism offer at a time when its modern counterpart in Europe is in crisis? Perhaps it is relevant to observe that those federations that lasted longest were those which were able to transform to meet the challenges they faced and were able to co-ordinate the interests of constituent members most effectively.
Peter Liddel