Development of the Archaic

The main achievements of the archaic age in this field may be briefly noted. First, from the seventh century onwards, there was the codification of the laws, often through the action of a legisla­tor, a figure whose function was at once secular and public in character. The norms which governed society were defined and removed from the arbitrary interpretation of powerful men, and justice became a matter of public concern. In the terminology of Louis Gernet, one moved from the stage of predroit to that of droit. In general, the social and economic position of the citizens improved. One main characteristic of the develop­ment of community consciousness, whether merely a sign of this evolution or a cause of it, was the so-called 'hoplite reform' which took place in the course of the seventh century: the citizen-soldier fighting in a group became the military reflection of the city.

Concurrently with the notion of citizen there developed gradually the antithetical notions which were to be clear-cut in the classical period, first that of the non-citizen, who was outside the political community, secondly and especially that of the slave, the complete outsider, deprived of liberty and who in theory had no rights at all. The notion of citizen, in other words, was at once an inclusive and an exclusive one. The connection between the development of these two extreme and opposed notions, that of the free citizen and that of the slave, is more than a theoretical one. The archaic age witnessed simultaneously both the develop­ment of the notion of community and the rise of the citizens with­in the city, and the development of chattel-slavery on a substantial scale. To be sure, servile labor in one form or another was not a novelty in itself in the archaic age: Homer already mentions slavery.

Besides, the Greeks had been acquainted with other more archaic forms of subjection than chattel-slavery, in particular helotage. But the institution of chattel-slavery, and the way in which it spread, were a new development of the archaic age, and one which cannot be dissoci­ated from the growth of the city. The Greeks themselves were aware of the fact.

Questionnaire:

• Explain about the development of the Archaic.