#city-state

[theprinceofembers]

"As long as we agree about something, then this dinner was worth the wasted wine." - Laloriaran Dynar

[arthurdrakoni]

Flag of the Free City of Hong Kong

This is the flag of the Free City of Hong Kong.  It comes from a world where Britain handed over Hong Kong to Taiwan rather than the People's Republic of China.  British leaders were able to convince both of the Chinas to allow Hong Kong to hold a referendum to decide its fate.  The overwhelming majority voted to join Taiwan.  The PRC demanded a recount, and Taiwan agreed to hold another referendum.  This time, however, Hong Kong voted to become and independent city-state.  America and Britain agreed to defend Hong Kong's independence if it were ever threatened.  Tensions ran high for a few days but, reluctantly, the PRC agreed to respect Hong Kong's sovereignty.  Though they also built a large wall along their border with Hong Kong.  The PRC claimed this was to keep Hong Kongers out, but almost everyone knew it was really to keep their citizens in.  

Hong Kong is an economic powerhouse just as it is in our world.  It maintains close relations with Taiwan.  The two nations operate a mutual immigration policy, colloquially referred to as the Free China Corridor.  As a result, Hong Kong is slightly less crowded than in our world.  Hong Kong also maintains good relations with Britain and is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. 

The flag symbolizes Hong Kong's mixed Chinese and British heritage.  The stripes harken back to the flag of the British East India company.  That they also resemble the America flag, and thus act like a middle finger to the PRC, is a happy coincidence.  The lotus flower represents Chinese influences on Hong Kong's culture. 

Link to the original flag on my blog: https://drakoniandgriffalco.blogspot.com/2017/09/flag-of-free-city-of-hong-kong.html?m=1

[fair-fae]

FebHyurary Day #8: City-State

[lettersnorth]

Born From Blood

[jeannereames]

What were the government systems of Alexander's day? Were most cities still ruled by kings?

The questioner asked about “cities,” but I’m not sure in what area. I’m assuming Greece? But Greece is part of a larger region: the Mediterranean Basin and Ancient Near East. The Ancient Near East in particular had a prior history of interconnectedness from the Middle Bronze Age forward, and certainly by the Late Bronze Age, that included Greece and Egypt (or the Eastern Mediterranean).

So some quick terminology:

A city-state is a large urban center and its dependent villages and rural countryside as an independent political entity.

A nation-state is a geographical area united by a concept of shared ethnicity and political independence.

A state is a geographical area that may include multiple ethnic groups united under a political hegemony.

These can be of varying sizes, although as you can gather, states tend to be much larger than city-states. They can, however, have different government systems. An “empire” is always a state. In fact, Rome invented that term: imperator = emperor. But city-states and even nation-states can have kings or other forms of gov’t.

Government styles vary. All of these are found in the ANE/Med Basin by Alexander’s day:

Priest-kings, dynastic kings, god-kings, subject kings, chieftain-style kingship (rule by clan), councilar-monarchy, mixed-government, oligarchy, tyranny, representative democracy, full democracy

If we look just at Greece, you won’t find the sort of “absolute” monarch that we see in the ANE at the time with subject kings in some areas.

In the southern Greek city-states, the dominant form was a sort of modified oligarchy where an oligarchic council made most decisions, but the assembly of the people still had voting power. Athenian democracy (invented in 510/9 BCE) had spread to various places where it competed with modified oligarchies; it was more popular in Attic-Ionic areas but not exclusive to them: Corinth and Syracuse both had democracies when they didn’t have a tyrant (Syracuse). Also, we have “leagues,” but these are made up of independent city-states (or later kingdoms, namely Macedon) and form for a given reason. They don’t constitute a form of ruling government in themselves.

Sparta had its own wacky “mixed” system that still included 2 kings, but also had a democratic arm (ephors) and oligarchic arm (gerousia). It’s pretty much unique to Sparta. Doric areas and especially Aeolic were more likely to be modified oligarchies, but as noted, that’s not a given. Then you get to the north and find the increasingly monarchal systems from Thessaly to Epiros to Macedon. Thessaly had 4 powerful clans who competed for power and tyranny (I think really ought to be called ‘princes’ not tyrants) and eventually co-ruled as a tetrarchy imposed by Philip. Epiros had a king, but that king answered to a council, and again you have ruling families.

Macedon, both lower and Upper (prior to Philip) had chieftain kingships, or rule-by-clan. This same form, even looser, was found north of them in Illyria, Paionia, and Thrace. Various clans had kings, who occasionally managed to create a hegemony over other clans due to a particular king’s charisma. Incidentally, the early Medes and Persians seem to have had a similar form.

It’s rare that a figure with enough charisma emerged, but we do get them: Cyrus I and Philip, most obviously—but also Bardylis I (of Illyria) and Sitalkes I (of Odrysian Thrace). In the latter two cases, however, the areas were briefly united, then fell apart again, either right after or after a few sons. Although really, we could say that of Macedon. Philip united the region, forced in several previously independent norther Macedonian kingdoms (Elimeia and Lynkestis, especially), stole one or two from Epiros (Orestis in particular), then gobbled up a bunch of Greek cities east. Alexander ran away with the toy…and that dynasty died.

Of all 4 of those charismatic uniters, only Cyrus’s kingdom lasted. And it lasted because Darius I stepped in and fixed it. Otherwise, it would have collapsed not unlike Bardylis’s Illyrian dynasty. While Darius claimed a family connection, most modern historians recognize it as strained at best, and possibly entirely made up. Why Persia may have succeeded where the other 3 fell apart is because Cyrus stepped into a looooong tradition of monarchal rule present in the ANE back into the Bronze Age. Cyrus, and especially Darius built the Achaemenid Persian Empire on the shoulders of the Babylonian, Assyrian, etc. before. We could even say that’s what Alexander was trying to do himself. But it got too big and collapsed.

I hope that helps explain the systems. I didn’t touch the west, but it had some unique systems of it’s own, such as the Etruscan Council of 12 Cities, which was a governing council, but within the cities, they were ruled by kings. We don’t know a lot about Carthage because Rome trashed a lot of their internal records; Aristotle did include them in his Politics.

[lunaziggy]

Comic: City-State Shenanigans

Well, that got dark fast...

Those poor, poor city-states. Frederick Barbarossa is a meanie.

[rvexillology]

Flag of the city-state Athens

from /r/vexillology Top comment: I did my own take on that not too long ago. I like the olive branch you added. http://drakoniandgriffalco.blogspot.com/2017/09/flags-of-athenian-empire.html?m=1