Ciclo

FeBo: Federalism and Border Management in Greek Antiquity

ERC 2021 COG PR. Nr. 101043954, P.I. Elena Franchi

7 marzo 2023
31 dicembre 2024
Organizzato da: 
Elena Franchi
Contatti: 
Staff di Dipartimento

Within two years after the foundation of the League of Nations in 1919, historians such as Arthur E.R. Boak wondered whether there were ancient predecessors of this interstate institution. The League of Nations was regarded as “a voluntary association of self-governing states for the purpose of promoting international peace and security” (“Greek Interstate Associations and the League of Nations”. American Journal of International Law 15, 375–83: 382, my italics). Boak examined both the federal states of antiquity and supra-state “federal” forms in the broad sense (such as hegemonic symmachies, Hellenic Leagues, amphiktyonies). Were these forms of federation forerunners to the League of Nations? Compared to the ambivalent history of Greek antiquity – characterised by peaceful conflict-resolution strategies as well as secular wars – for Boak the answer “no” was inevitable. The League of Nations had no precedent, and thus a certain optimism in it was permitted.

In a different, yet equally vibrant context, Jakob A.O. Larsen (“Federation for Peace in Ancient Greece”. Classical Philology 39, 145-62) started from the same question and analysed more or less the same ancient Greek cases. Larsen was writing in 1944, as the world was being ravaged by war and searching for a way out. Could federal bodies promote peace? Like Boak, Larsen also looked to the ancient Greeks with hope, but unlike Boak, he allowed himself a degree of optimism even with regard to the ancients.

The “federation for peace” dilemma has dominated studies on federalism in general (not just ancient federalism) and has run through post-World War II Europe, the Cold War, and the nascent European Union. Moreover, federation for peace has been the hope to which many have clung in the face of crumbling nations, the dramas of ethnic conflicts and the challenge of religious conflicts. Something had to exist to keep nations united in peace. That something seemed to be federalism.

Investigations into Greek Federal States have also been guided by this question. Articulate and nuanced answers have been developed, although these have scarcely been conclusive. The evidence does not seem to allow for clear-cut conclusions, but that is not the decisive point. The important aspect is that we are still looking for answers to the same question, namely Boak’s question: did federalism promote peace?

FeBo does not seek an answer to that question because it starts from the assumption that with regard to Ancient Greece the question we should be asking is a different one, and it focuses on borders: how did the Greek federal states deal with the problem of internal (intra-federal) and external borders? Did border management policies aim at peaceful coexistence per se or rather at a balance of power and stability? Did they take into account economic, ethnic, cultural, athletic and religious cross-border networks?

Since intra-federal and external borders must necessarily be approached from different research perspectives and with divergent questions, FeBo organises two series of FeBinars, each with another focus, one on internal (The Management of Internal Borders by Federal States), the other on external borders (Crossing Federal Borders: Ancient and Modern).

  • The inaugural lecture delivered by Hans Beck, “Interpolis Cooperation and Competition: the Case of Southern Boiotia” -  7 March 2023, initiates both series since it focuses on a case study involving both intra-federal and extra-federal borders.

The Management of Internal Borders by Federal States

  1. Own and Common. Reflections on the Internal Borders of Greek Federal States - 23 May 2023 
  2. Under and/or through the Border: Proxeny across Federal Borders in the Hellenistic Peloponnese - 29 June 2023
  3. Internal or External Borders? The Case of Elis and Ledrinoi - 27 September 2023
  4. Dispute over Land or Dispute over Borders? Legal Aspects of Interstate Conflicts in the Achaean Koinon - 7 February 2024
  5. What happened to the Argive Borderlands during the Hellenistic and Roman Period? - 22 February 2024
  6. Exclusion from Community Borders: Case Studies from Ancient Greek Political Thought - 7 March 2024
  7. Urbanism and Religious Architecture in Boeotia: Archaeological Reflections on Networks, Communities and Interactions - 27 May 2024
  8. Internal Borders Attica - 26 September 2024

Crossing Federal Borders: Ancient and Modern

  1. The Law and the Functions of Cross-border Cooperation - 9 May 2023
  2. From Chalieis to Kallieis: Land, Boundaries and Threats in West Lokris and Eastern Aitolia - 23 November 2023
  3. Gods to Federate, Gods to Separate: Territorial Dynamics and Greek Divine Onomastics - 7 December 2023
  4. The Aetolian-Acarnanian Plain between Inner and External Frontier - 18 April 2024
  5. Changing Frontiers in and around Arkadia: the Work of the Arkadian federation in the 360s - 2 May 2024
  6. The Making of Aitolia Beyond the Ethnos Borders: Some Reflections on the Origins and Development of the Districts of Stratos and Lokris - 22 May 2024
  7. Internal and External Borders in Epirus - 6 June 2024

The FeBinars also form part of the Teaching Project "Conflict Management in Ancient Federal Greece", structured on two distinct levels (PhD students and MA students respectively). The didactic activities envisaged for PhD students include an intensive training program conducted by Claudio Biagetti, Sebastian Scharff and Roy van Wijk and belong to the calendar of training events of the doctoral program “Forme del testo e dello scambio culturale" (Forms of Cultural Exchange and Textuality). The teaching activities aimed at MA students will take place as an optional preparatory workshop for students before each webinar. They will be held with the support of the history tutor (a final-year Master’s student), who will have trained with Biagetti, Scharff and van Wijk first. The tutor will also have participated in the above mentioned didactic activities envisaged for PhD students. In the optional preparatory workshops, students will be divided into groups that work autonomously on tasks prepared by the academic teachers in collaboration with the tutor. Groups will be selected in accordance with the principles of knowledge sharing so as to include diverse competences, as previously established through a student questionnaire. Group tasks will focus on the topics that the experts will discuss in the following webinar and will include document analysis, reading of scientific articles, and preparatory activities that center on the micro-language of federal studies. After each webinar, there will be a consolidation workshop dedicated to the discussion of the most complex passages in the talks and an analysis of sources referred to by the speakers.


ERC, European Research Council