Synoikism, Urbanization, and Empire in the Early Hellenistic Period by Ryan Anthony Boehm A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Emily Mackil, Chair Professor Erich Gruen Professor Mark Griffith Spring 2011 Copyright © Ryan Anthony Boehm, 2011 ABSTRACT SYNOIKISM, URBANIZATION, AND EMPIRE IN THE EARLY HELLENISTIC PERIOD by Ryan Anthony Boehm Doctor of Philosophy in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology University of California, Berkeley Professor Emily Mackil, Chair This dissertation, entitled “Synoikism, Urbanization, and Empire in the Early Hellenistic Period,” seeks to present a new approach to understanding the dynamic interaction between imperial powers and cities following the Macedonian conquest of Greece and Asia Minor. Rather than constructing a political narrative of the period, I focus on the role of reshaping urban centers and regional landscapes in the creation of empire in Greece and western Asia Minor. This period was marked by the rapid creation of new cities, major settlement and demographic shifts, and the reorganization, consolidation, or destruction of existing settlements and the urbanization of previously under- exploited regions. I analyze the complexities of this phenomenon across four frameworks: shifting settlement patterns, the regional and royal economy, civic religion, and the articulation of a new order in architectural and urban space. The introduction poses the central problem of the interrelationship between urbanization and imperial control and sets out the methodology of my dissertation. After briefly reviewing and critiquing previous approaches to this topic, which have focused mainly on creating catalogues, I point to the gains that can be made by shifting the focus to social and economic structures and asking more specific interpretive questions. My approach is highly interdisciplinary, making heavy use of new evidence from archaeological surveys, and hundreds of excavations and epigraphic finds. The first chapter maps the changes in settlement patterns across several regions in Greece and Asia Minor. It first establishes that almost all of the foundations of the Hellenistic kings were not actually ex novo creations, but represented either the refoundation of an existing city or the centralization of population scattered in many smaller cities and villages. It then makes the case for the centrality of the process of synoikismos, the merging of multiple cities into a single community, for understanding the urbanization processes of the period. The literary sources for many of the foundations of the Hellenistic kings, principally the historians Strabo and Diodoros, stress the destructive process involved in creating these new settlements, which is often described as involving the razing of ancient cities and forced population transfer into these new sites. This historical topos overshadows what was in reality a much more complicated process. There is good archaeological and epigraphic evidence that many of these sites persisted as urban centers after they were supposedly destroyed. It is only through a detailed treatment of each of these foundations, with close attention to the epigraphic, numismatic, and archaeological material that a more nuanced picture of the process of synoikismos and urban foundation can be achieved. Focusing on a dozen case studies, from Thessaly and Macedonia to the Troad and Ionia, I attempt to reconstruct a picture of the settlement patterns of these regions in the late fourth century and show how these ! 1! changed after the centralization processes of the Hellenistic kings. Accompanying this argument is a series of original maps, which illustrates this process in detail. The second chapter examines the effects of this planned urbanization for the reorganization of economic activity both within and across regions and how this reflects the policies of imperial powers. I argue that there was a conscious strategy of setting up wider economic zones to combat the natural fragmentation of the Greek landscape and ensure greater mobility and access to resources, serving both the interests of the king and the individual cities. After considering some royal letters that hint at the economic concerns of the kings and cities and shed some light on the costs that these foundations entailed, I examine the crucial role of restructuring land tenure and expanding infrastructure in the form of roads, ports, and markets that linked these newly expanded urban centers. I then present the evidence for trade networks from several of these cities, before and after the foundations and refoundations of the kings. Through a careful study of the evidence from transport amphorae (storage jars for long-distance trade), I demonstrate that there is a quantifiable expansion of commerce in this period. Finally, the chapter explores the relationship of foundations and urbanization to the creation of koina, or federal leagues, that united even larger areas in economic cooperation through the creation of a common coinage, a common treasury and other forms of economic, political, and religious interdependence. I conclude by asserting the centrality of economic concerns for the policies of the kings, rescuing this line of inquiry from recent primitivist interpretations of the ancient economy that have sought to minimize the importance of economic behavior in the ancient world. In the third chapter, I explore the role of religion and shared cultic identity in forging these new communities and the degree to which negotiating these ancient traditions established a dialogue between king and city. I begin by tracking the continuity and discontinuity of cults across the destruction and creation of cities, and isolate the importance of ritual, cult, and the manipulation of symbols for creating new polities, as well as the potential of these same factors to undermine political unity. In every new royal foundation in this period there is evidence for the persistence of cults that were transferred to the new urban center from the old polis centers, many of which became the central cult of the foundation. However, there is also evidence for the continuing significance and attachment to cults in their original setting and a lingering importance to the landscape. This religious attachment, I argue, partially explains why so many of these synoikisms ultimately failed, resulting in the breakaway and reconstitution of the original cities. I also point to a number of instances where there is evidence for the complete abandonment of sites of cult after a population transfer, showing that a single rubric for understanding how cults are incorporated into a new foundation is not possible. After considering the mechanisms of cultic transfer, I highlight the central role of religion in creating a new, common polity and the degree to which it was a stage for negotiation and tension between city and king and between the communities themselves. The fourth chapter looks to the interior of the city, attempting to show how the articulation of urban space, city planning, and architecture reflect responses to the new political and social realities of the period. I explore the layout of these cities and the advantages of their design, fortification, and infrastructure. I then examine the means of incorporating ancient sanctuaries in to the new city plan, along with the construction of new, centrally located sanctuaries and the meaning of their architectural order and decoration. I also treat domestic space, and demonstrate how the layout of housing blocks mirrored the concern for equality necessary for integrating diverse populations. Finally, I explore the way the Hellenistic monarchs inserted themselves into the physical fabric of ! 2! the city through palaces, sanctuaries dedicated to ruler cult, monumental statues, and public buildings. This project ultimately seeks to provide a new approach to a period of great transition for the history of the Greek polis and a model for imperial interaction in the ancient Mediterranean. I conclude by stressing the degree to which the power of the kings was filtered and mediated through complex negotiations with cities and the limits traditional ties of ethnicity, religion, and identity placed on the authority and opportunism of the kings, while simultaneously providing a highly elaborated venue for that power. This study also seeks to understand strategies of resilience and adaptation for political communities in times of stress, collapse, and change. ! 3! TO MEG i TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Royal Foundation, Synoikismos, and Settlement: Unifying Communities in the Early Hellenistic Period 1. INTRODUCTION: REGIONS 11 2. MACEDONIA, GREECE, AND THRACE UNDER KASSANDROS 12 3. THRACE AND ASIA MINOR: FROM ACHAEMENID TO HELLENISTIC EMPIRE 21 4. THESSALY AND MAGNESIA 31 5. CONCLUSIONS: PATTERNS AND DIVERGENCES 40 Chapter 2: Urbanization, Centralization, and the Regional and Royal Economies 1. INTRODUCTION 42 2. THE CONCERNS AND COSTS OF SYNOIKISMOS AND URBAN FOUNDATION 44 3. THE CITY AND THE LAND 47 4. ROADS, INFRASTRUCTURE, AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONNECTIVITY 52 5. HARBORS, CUSTOMS, ROUTES AND TRADE 56 6. KOINA, REGIONAL ECONOMIES, AND TAXATION 66 7. CONCLUSIONS 70 Chapter 3: Cult, Polis, and Hellenistic Empire 1. INTRODUCTION 72 2. CULT AND SYNOIKISMOS IN