the fifth century BC, Athenian hunger to regain their imperial power in the fourth century
BC led to autonomy developing into a propagandic dog whistle, rather than a genuine
concept, much like ideas of panhellenism. Although Aristotle’s work refers to autarkeia in
terms of economic and demographic self-sufficiency, after the battle of Leuctra, the
absolute dependence of member-states of the Confederacy not able to defect to Thebes on
the Athenian navy to keep themselves secure makes it difficult to comfortably be able to
define them as retaining autarkeia, yet alone much left of autonomia .
First, as mentioned, it must be determined what exactly autonomy or autonomia
means for this debate. Hansen rightly points out that defining poleis as simply autonomous
is problematic considering a majority of states were dependencies by the 4 th century. 2 He
argues that ‘autonomous’ poleis should be defined as both independent and autonomous
units, as long as autonomous is taken to mean the Greek definition “to live under one’s own
laws”. 3 As a majority of poleis were dependencies and not independent, this is hard to
reconcile. Many historians try to alleviate this issue by claiming that poleis were ideally
autonomoi , aiming for the status, but this is not backed up in ancient sources before 375
BC. 4 In terms of how autonomia can be defined using ancient sources, unsurprisingly,
sources can agree that Athenian imperialism, Persian rule and the presence of Spartan
garrisons prevent states from being autonomoi . 5 Moreover, there is agreement that a state
cannot be ruled by a tyrant. 6 Again unsurprisingly, membership of the Peloponnesian
League or a Federation also means a state cannot be classified autonomia . 7 Finally, cleruchy
2 Hansen, p. 22. 3 Hansen, p. 23. 4 Hansen, p. 24. 5 Athenian: Thuc. 1.67.2, 1.139.1; Persian: Xen. Hell. 3.2.12, 3.2.20; Spartan: Xen. Hell 4.8.1, IG ii 2 43.10-12; Hansen p. 34-35. 6 Hdt. 1.96.1, Dem. 17.7; Hansen, p. 34. 7 Peloponnesian League: Xen, Hell , 6.3.7-8; Thuc. 1.144.2; Federation: Xen, Hell 4.8.15; Hansen p. 35.
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