Chios: Island and Polis in the Archaic and Classical Periods

Abstract

The island of Chios is located in the far east of the Aegean, just off the Anatolian coast. Chios was a single polis throughout the Archaic and Classical periods but controlled a large and topographically varied island with a dispersed settlement pattern. Chios and the Chians are often cited in anecdotes by ancient and modern authors, yet we know comparatively little about Chios, whether it be how the Chians lived on their island or how the Chian polis functioned. This problem is broadly caused by a lack of ancient literary evidence addressing Chios, minimal and often uneven modern archaeological examination of the large island, and a limited collection of inscriptions and other evidence.

As a result, many questions remain about Chios as a settled island and a political entity. This thesis addresses a range of these questions, including the impact of the island and its topography on the political and social development of the Chian polis, the size and composition of Chios' population, how Chian slavery operated, what the underlying economic model was, the nature of the internal political structure of the polis, and how the Chians engaged in warfare. This thesis offers a detailed examination of each of these themes throughout the Archaic and Classical periods, utilising the available literary, archaeological, epigraphic, and numismatic evidence backed up by the author's own explorations on the island.

Owing to the general paucity of evidence for Archaic and Classical Chios, a synthetic approach is taken, whereby each theme is addressed independently in its own chapter, yet all are examined as part of a broader and interconnected whole. In particular, this thesis examines the interconnections between themes and asks how we might use the limited evidence we have to make further inferences about aspects of Chian history that we cannot directly observe. It contextualises what we can discern about Chios with what we know about better-studied parts of the Greek world and draws on approaches used in other epichoric histories. The overall aim of this thesis is to explore how these themes can build upon each other to construct a cohesive understanding of Chian history. Show more