Peripoloi

In old Greece, the péripoloi (péripolos in the singular) are frontier guards. One finds them in particular with Athens with the traditional time. The word is made of πέρι (around) + πέλοπαι (to be driven).

Institution at the time traditional in Attic

The péripoloi did not correspond to a juridically definite group: they could comprise beautiful young man S ( néôtatoi ), mercenaries, and even of the citizens; on the other hand, they belong rather to the modest social classes, at least until the reforms of Lycurgue. That being said, the body of the péripoloi accommodated mainly néôtatoi and wogs, therefore not-citizens. Their mission was, as their name indicates it, to patrol at the borders of the territory; one distinguished them from this fact of another category of soldiers ensuring defense of the territory: the hidruménoi , which kept the fortifications. The hidruménoi were recruited among the presbytéroi (50-59 years), whereas the péripoloi were rather recruited among the néôtatoi (18-19 years) and the néoi (20-29 years).

The officers ordering the quotas of péripoloi were the péripolarques ones. They was elected officers by a show of hands by the Parliament of the people, but they remained men of ground close to their men. The péripolarques ones, we are unaware of the exact number, were under the orders of the strategist of the territory, that of the ten Athenian strategists who was in charge of the defense of the Attic. But the supreme authority remained the Parliament of the people, because it only could vote the important military decisions. Although they were patrol craft, the péripoloi always depended on a fort of fastener, variable according to their mission. These forts were not the péripolion , as one could believe it (this word is never used in Attic), but the phrourion (fortresses) and the phylaktèrion (guardrooms). In addition, it is noted that the various quotas of péripoloi did not have a zone of appointed patrol but were sent here and there according to the needs.

The péripoloi were formed according to their specific needs (light equipment, mobility, weapons of jet), in Pirée when they were beautiful young men, but generally on the heap. The péripoloi were generally light infantrymen, who were lacking in the city of Athens during the medic wars and at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War; they were also archers with horse, riders or scouts.

The financing of the péripoloi, namely the payment of their equipment, their ration and their wages, was made by the means of the evergetism then public finance.

Péripoloi and will chôra: the military role

The territory of the city is consisted of the city (the asty ), the surrounding countryside (the will chôra ), and the borders of the territory (the eschatiai ). This heterogeneous territory constitutes the civic space of the city, but also constitutes a strategic space, i.e. a territory to be defended. To imply the citizens in the defense of the , two methods will chôra: to do so that the citizens have grounds close to the borders (it is the case of the aristocrats), or to make so that they spend their years of service soldier in the army of territorial defense, and in particular among the péripoloi.

The strategy of defense of the territory evolved/moved in Athens: there was initially the traditional strategy which consisted in preserving one will chôra inviolate, often at the price of a battle arranged against the invader; then the strategy péricléenne which consisted in sacrificing the defense of the territory to the profit of the defense of the city and the maritime empire; then the “new” strategy at the 4th century, an intermediate pragmatic strategy enters the two preceding ones.

In this vast defensive unit, the péripoloi had, in time of war, to announce the arrival of hostile forces, to put at the shelter the rural populations then to badger the invaders to slow down their progression, to prevent them from scattering in groups of plunderers in the countryside. In times of peace, they located and pushed back the brigands and pirates, and ensured a gendarmerie post along the borders; remainder, they had as a task to delimit those.

The péripoloi took part in military campaigns only exceptionally: one twice finds them in Mégare, at the time of the catch of the island of Sphactérie, and can be during the forwarding of Sicily.

The civic role of the péripoloi

The close link which the body maintained the péripoloi with the éphébie illustrates the will well to train the future citizens not only with the weapons, but with the military questions whose knowledge will be essential for them at the time of the debates with the Parliament. The military service among the péripoloi of thètes and wogs reinforces their attachment with the democracy, and especially allows the emergence of a democratic army, because before the army, which was dominated by the aristocracy, was mainly oligarch. The episode of the murder of Phrynichos is exemplary: the péripoloi are in the middle of the plot against oligarchy and support the democrats.

It appears, of the remainder, that the péripoloi constitute a counterweight with excesses of the Polis, because they precisely symbolize what is external to the city, while being constituent city. The city is exclusive, socially rigid, given, it affectionate the aristocracy and exalte the pitched battles; the péripoloi are plural, integrating, pragmatic, democratic, they prefer the skirmish, more rational.

The civic role of the péripoloi appears finally by the religious practice. In Épire, the péripoloi affectionnent the divinities of the eschatiai: Side and nymphs, Artémis, Dionysos. In Attic, the péripoloi took part in the local worships, such as those of the sanctuary of Déméter and Korè with Éleusis, of the sanctuary of THEMIS and Némésis in Rhamnonte, or of the sanctuary of Poséidon in Sounion; they also took part in religious holidays, such as Dionysies rural or the ancestral contests of Halôa.

Genealogy of the institution

The péripoloi have initially mythological origins. The legend of Thésée seems to be founder, like that of Mélanthos. Both are young men who gained their social rise during engagements in the eschatiai and with the assistance of the trick. The péripoloi influenced, and their evolution under Lycurgue was perhaps influenced, by the fictitious Platonic institution of Agronomy. The Agronomists resemble the péripoloi curiously - and of the remainder the city of Magnètes is in fact Athens under another name, ideal Athens which Plato wishes. As for the area of origin of the péripoloi, it seems that it is the area of Sicyone; they would have existed there as of

To locate this institution among the similar or close institutions is more complex. The péripoloi can be compared, up to a certain point, with the crypts lacédémoniens. Coexisted in Athens, until the reforms of Lycurgue, two close institutions: the éphébie, reserved for the first classes censitaires, and the péripolat, reserved for the Thètes. The working life in the body of the péripoloi lasted normally only one year. This service was obligatory.

Out of Attic, and in addition to Sicyone, one finds péripoloi in Greece of the North-West. The cities épirotes would have imitated the institutions of their city mother Corinthe or Corcyre. The working life of these péripoloi seems longer than that their Athenian counterparts, but they are fewer. With the difference of the Attic, the péripoloi are always natives whereas the péripolarques ones can be possibly foreigners. The organization of the péripoloi is done in quotas more autonomous than in Attic; they must form part of a political system less centralized: small communities have péripoloi, but cities whose these communities constitute the eschatiai provide them qualified officers.

The péripoloi épirotes, finally, seem very pious, and make dedications to divinities of the eschatiai .

Evolution of the institution in Attic

The first big change that the péripoloi knew took place at the time of the reforms of Lycurgue. Lycurgue was an austere and determined reformer, whose objective was to make it possible Athens to take its revenge on the Macedonia after 334. For that, it reformed finances of the city brilliantly, increased the military expenditure and undertook many reforms in this field, in particular the reform of the éphébie. This reform is known to us by Constitution of Athens of Aristote. This text describes us tally ephebic: kosmètes, sophronists, lochages-beautiful young men; and of course same beautiful young men them, which resemble milks for feature with the péripoloi in their missions and their armaments. The major difference is that all the citizens from now on take part in this activity. If the word péripoloi were given up, they is that from now on all the citizens become péripoloi one year, after one year of quartering to the Pirée; a more aristocratic title was thus retained. The time lycurgéenne corresponds to an expansion of ephebic inscriptions; the nationalist objective of this reform shows through.

At the time of the domination Macedonian, one notes a disappearance of the ephebic inscriptions in the borders, signs that the éphébie is become again aristocratic, since it becomes again annual and gives up her year of service like péripoloi; sign also financial problems of the city.

As of the release of 229, one sees appearing new soldiers in the inscriptions, the hypaithroi , which seem to be the successors of the péripoloi. As their name indicates it (“soldiers of outdoor”), they patrol on will chôra and can sleep with open air. They all are of the Athenian citizens. Their existence does not prevent the persistence of the beautiful young men, whose activity at the borders seems to know a revival.

The Roman conquest put of course fine at the activities of the péripoloi and assimilated, but the péripoloi continued to appear in the Roman literature hellénophone. Denys d' Halicarnasse, in particular, mentioned péripoloi when Périclès pays to them homage in its Funeral oration. But Denys generally uses the péripoloi term badly by the way; they is that it évertue to be a parallelism enters the Greek and Roman institutions, even if it means to make of all the guards borders or sentinels of the péripoloi. One notes at Lucien de Samosate, finally, that the Athenian model perdure, since this one uses the Athenian institutions in its fictions.

See too

External bonds and documents

Pierre Sigler, Péripoloi and péripolarques in old Greece , UPPA (memory of history), 2005

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