Greek Federal States

Introduction

Ancient Greece witnessed some of the most elaborate experiments with federalism in the pre-modern era. From the late Archaic Age (6th century BCE) to the Hellenistic world, the integration of city-states (poleis) into various federal organizations impacted the history of the Aegean Greek states. At its peak, toward the end of the 5th century BCE, almost half of all city-states in mainland Greece and the Peloponnese were part of a federal league. A Greek federal state was called a koinon or sympoliteia, both terms that indicate the communal aspect of the league. In addition, the word ethnos was in use, designating a federal state as well as a tribe community. The overlap of both strands foregrounds how most federal states built on regional ethnic identities as they emerged in the Archaic Age. In many cases, the ethnic identity of the Hellenic tribes, for example, of the Boiotians, Arkadians, Aitolians, and others, provided the platform for political forms of integration. In its Greek variant, then, federalism was not only a constitutional design, but also a form of cooperation fueled by sentiments of common primordial descent and ethnic togetherness, and their expression in ritual and cult. All the while, the need to accumulate resources in war and other areas of state action additionally fostered the idea of interstate integration. Federal states consisted of a larger number of poleis, smaller towns (sometimes mere villages or loose agglomerations of farmsteads, so-called komai), or units that were in themselves smaller tribes or scattered subtribes. The integration of members into a league led to a political organization that was recognized by the Hellenes as a new state. This quality of a koinon marks its distinct difference from other forms of interstate cooperation, such as fighting alliances (symmachies) or religious associations (amphiktyonies). At the same time, the members of a koinon maintained certain political prerogatives and privileges that highlighted their character as genuine political communities. In this sense, federal states distinguished themselves from more unitary forms of regional integration as fostered, for instance, by Sparta in Lakonia and Athens in Attica.

General Overviews

The first thematic study of ancient Greek federalism is Freeman 1863. Originally planned as a two-volume set to cover the history of the phenomenon up to his own times, Freeman’s second volume never saw the light of day. When the first volume was reedited by J. B. Bury in 1883, this altered the outlook of the book, which was thereafter viewed as a stand-alone monograph. Freeman’s work constitutes a remarkable collection of evidence that had never been assembled before. In continental Europe, in particular in German-speaking academia, Busolt and Swoboda 1920–1926 offered a magisterial treatment of rubrics and themes supported by exhaustive regional studies. The work was inspired by constitutionalist approaches; hence, the authors strove for systematization and the establishment of juristic paradigms. Traces of this can be detected in Ehrenberg 1969, although Ehrenberg also reached beyond political features and state law in his attempt to conceptualize Greek federalism. The true breakthrough came with Larsen 1955 and Larsen 1968. The former is a publication of the Sather lectures that Larsen had delivered at Berkeley in the 1953–1954 academic year. Based on his earlier publications in the field, and owing much to the format of public academic lectures, Larsen provided a first synopsis of representative government in Greece and Rome. In 1968, this life-long engagement led to the publication of what became the most important and most cited monograph of Greek federal states. Greek Federal States: Their Institutions and History (Larsen 1968) examines the history and institutions of all koina of the Classical and Hellenistic periods, with a clear command of the evolution of federal paradigms over time and their impact on history, up until c. 146 BCE. Martin 1975 picks up there to survey the development in the Greek world under Roman rule. Daverio Rocchi 1993 chooses a conventional divide between periods; the author’s scope is to juxtapose the organization of city-state and federal state in the style of a handbook that is not unlike Busolt and Swoboda 1920–1926. An edited volume, Beck and Funke 2015 presents a new research synthesis, with a complete list of regional case studies in Aegean Greece and its peripheries. To deepen the analysis, the book also includes various thematic chapters and an introduction to the conceptualization of federalism in ancient Greece and the history of its scholarship.

Beck, Hans, and Peter Funke, eds. 2015. Federalism in Greek antiquity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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The most complete survey overview of Greek federalism. It includes chapters on all attested federal states in Aegean Greece and its peripheries plus many thematic articles, written by the leading authorities in the field. In the introduction, the editors offer a balanced conceptualization of federalism and also a short history of the scholarship and its associated paradigms.
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Busolt, Georg, and Heinrich Swoboda. 1920–1926. Griechische Staatskunde. 2 vols. 3d ed. Munich: C. H. Beck.
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Published in the authoritative German Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaften series, this two-volume edition was a tremendous scholarly achievement at the time; it was so successful that within the particular vein of state-law studies it was never superseded. Volume 2 (edited by Swoboda) contains studies on all federal states under the rubric “Interstate Relations.”
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Daverio Rocchi, Giovanna. 1993. Città-stato e stati federali della Grecia classica: Lineamenti di storia delle istituzioni politiche. Milan: LED Edizioni Universitarie.
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A handbook-type volume in which the author covers the institutions of Greek federal states both systematically (chapter 3) and through selected case studies (chapter 8). The approach is strictly political, with a main focus on the organization and constitutional design of federalism.
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Ehrenberg, Viktor. 1969. The Greek state. 2d ed. London: Basil Blackwell.
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The book filled the gap in English-speaking scholarship that was left after Freeman 1863. Originally published in Germany in two volumes in 1957 and 1958, where Ehrenberg had lived until his forced exile in 1939, its approach to federalism is less overtly constitutional than the works in the German school (Busolt and Swoboda 1920–1926). Originally published in English in 1960.
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Freeman, Edward. 1863. History of federal government from the foundation of the Achaian League to the disruption of the United States. London: Macmillan.
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The earliest study on the topic that in many ways established federalism as an object of investigation in Greek history. The breakdown of chapters is somewhat convoluted, with free-floating sections on the history of Greece in general and also on federalism in Italy and the Imperium Romanum.
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Larsen, Jakob A. O. 1955. Representative government in Greek and Roman history. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
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The book contains the reworked versions of the author’s Sather Lectures delivered at Berkeley, presented in eight chapters, from early Greece to Late Antiquity, with a long appendix on the meetings of the assemblies of the Achaian League.
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Larsen, Jakob A. O. 1968. Greek federal states: Their institutions and history. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
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The leading monograph in the field, published as a synoptic account that builds on the research carried out by the author over four decades. The eminent strength of Larsen’s synthesis is the coherence of his analysis and narrative, which draws strongly on Polybius. The book became the most referenced study in the field, despite its unusual chapter breakdown of federalism before and after the King’s Peace of 386 BCE (which was based on the author’s belief that all federal states were dissolved as a consequence of the peace).
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Martin, David George. 1975. Greek leagues in the later second and first centuries BC. PhD diss., Princeton University.
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In method and spirit the unpublished manuscript draws from the works by Jakob Larsen. The time span under investigation begins where Larsen’s Greek federal states had stopped, in 146 BCE. The thesis is particularly rich in exploration of leagues in central Greece for which the evidence is fragile and scattered (see also the section below under Individual Federal States: Minor Leagues in Central Greece), including the minor leagues of the Perrhaibians, Magnesians, Athamanians, Dorians, Oitaians, Ainians, and Dolopians.
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Thematic Studies

Unlike the General Overviews, thematic studies of Greek federalism do not necessarily strive for complete coverage and large-scale analysis of all attested federal states. Rather, they approach the phenomenon through the lens of key themes. The understanding of the inherent mechanics of federalism owes much to the application of such theme-based, often comparative analyses, as they zoom in on facets and features that give a picture of integration in a Greek federal state from a multitude of perspectives.

Theme-Based Surveys

Theme-based surveys draw on a large pool of regional case studies, but their thematic spin sets them apart from handbooks and general overviews. Beck 1997 and Corsten 1999 include chapters on many individual states, which provide the basis for analysis of Greek federalism. Mackil 2013 is the most comprehensive study in this vein of inquiry, with a large section that explores the history of the three major federal states in the Hellenistic period, namely Boiotia, Aitolia, and Achaia. Funke and Haake 2013 is an edited volume that includes studies of Greek federalism from the perspective of federal sanctuaries.

Beck, Hans. 1997. Polis und Koinon: Untersuchungen zur Geschichte und Struktur der griechischen Bundesstaaten im 4. Jahrhundert v. Chr. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.
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An analysis of federalism and its impact on Greek affairs in the 4th century BCE. The author concludes that federalism added to an escalation of interstate rivalry and violence rather than to their containment, because the federal principle was challenged by the omnipresent claim for autonomy.
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Corsten, Thomas. 1999. Vom Stamm zum Bund: Gründung und territoriale Organisation griechischer Bundesstaaten. Munich: Oberhummer Gesellschaft.
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The author studies a selection of major federal states, in which he traces the organization of leagues into districts and other territorial subdivisions. Drawing strongly on the body of epigraphic evidence, the book argues that the existence of territorial districts constitutes the distinct criterion for the definition of a Greek federal state.
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Funke, Peter, and Matthias Haake, eds. 2013. Greek federal states and their sanctuaries. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.
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A collection of essays published in English, French, and German that explore the specific conditions under which regional sanctuaries contributed to the political integration of ethnos states.
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Mackil, Emily. 2013. Creating a common polity: Religion, economy, and politics in the making of the Greek koinon. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
DOI: 10.1525/california/9780520272507.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A new standard work of reference that adopts a holistic picture of integration, propelling the importance of economic cooperation and coercive forces in addition to political, religious, and cultural modes of interaction. The author draws on an impressive array of thought paradigms from other disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences.
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Conceptual Discussions of Federalism in Greek Antiquity

Scholars in Ancient History and Classics have noted the conceptual difficulties that exist when federal paradigms are applied to the ancient world. Research in the Social Sciences tends to take this aspect further, arguing that federalism is a constitutional design that presupposes the existence of the modern-day state apparatus. In sum, the problem of anachronistic concept attribution has led to a lively conceptual discussion of the nature of federalism in Greek antiquity; Beck and Funke 2015 (cited under General Overviews) addresses the issue in offering a broad, transhistorical discussion of the federal paradigm. The best source to trace the debate and follow its main proponents is Giovannini 1971 and the response given in Walbank 1976–1977. Even though the controversy has somewhat subsided since, it is a significant reminder that the implicit assumptions and inherent concepts of the debate require careful deliberation. Schmitt 1994 makes an effort to distinguish various forms of sympolities, which is mostly an heuristic exercise; the attempt did not find many followers. This is also true for Rzepka 2002, in which the author proposes his own interpretation of key concepts such as ethnos and koinon. The article is helpful in providing a critical assessment of earlier scholarship, although the representation of other scholarly views is not always as accurate as it should be. Reger 2004 avoids modern conceptual debates and categories; the author’s approach toward Hellenistic sympoliteiai is one that historicizes the topic and places it in the political culture around it. The steady increase in companions, handbooks, and encyclopedias in recent years has also led to an increase in publications of up-to-date survey chapters on federalism. The most accessible and well-balanced introductory discussions are those of McInerney 2013 and Mackil 2013.

Giovannini, Adalberto. 1971. Untersuchungen über die Natur und die Anfänge der bundesstaatlichen Sympolitie in Griechenland. Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck & Rupprecht.
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A thought-provoking attempt to argue for the parallel design of sympolities and unitary states. Although the argument has been dismissed by many, the study continues to remind readers of the inherent dangers of scholarly preconceptions when studying Greek federalism.
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Mackil, Emily. 2013. The Greek koinon. In The Oxford handbook of the state in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean. Edited by Peter Bang and Walter Scheidel, 304–323. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
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This chapter offers an accessible definition of the Greek koinon and its history. Highlighting the division of sovereignty among the regional government and its constituent communities, the author points to the extent of such a political design in the Greek world.
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McInerney, Jeremy. 2013. Polis and koinon: Federal government in Greece. In A companion to ancient Greek government. Edited by Hans Beck, 466–479. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
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Introducing the use of network theory to the study of Greek federalism, the author offers an innovative approach that avoids hardwired definitions. Instead, he provides a balanced checklist of features that were most commonly in place in an ancient Greek federal state.
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Reger, Gary. 2004. Sympoliteiai in Hellenistic Asia Minor. In The Greco-Roman east: Politics, culture, society. Edited by Sephen Colvin, 145–180. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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A study of Hellenistic monarchies and their interaction with sympoliteiai, concluding that federal states promoted by kings and their agents aimed at obliterating previously existing cities.
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Rzepka, Jacek. 2002. Ethnos, koinon, sympoliteia. In Euerghesias charin: Studies presented to Benedetto Bravo and Ewa Wipszycka by their disciples. Edited by Tomasz Derda, Jakub Urbanik, and Marek Węcowski, 225–247. Warsaw, Poland: Fundacaja im. Rafała Taubenschlaga.
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The book studies the ancient designation and terminology of federal states. It is posited that the term koinon refers mostly to federal assemblies rather than the federal state itself.
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Schmitt, Hatto H. 1994. Überlegungen zur Sympolitie. In Symposion 1993: Vorträge zur grieschischen und hellenistischen Rechtsgeschichte, Graz-Andritz, 12–16 September 1993. Edited by Gerhard Thür, 35–44. Cologne: Böhlau Verlag.
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The author points to the different forms and formats of sympolities, notably those in which the decision to unite was accompanied by the actual relocation of participating members into a new settlement.
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Stanton, Gregory R. 1982. Federalism in the Greek world: An introduction. In Hellenika: Essays on Greek history and politics. Edited by G. H. R. Horsley, 183–190. North Ryde, Australia: Macquarie Ancient History Association.
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Faithful to its title, the article offers a brief introduction to the defining features of federalism in the Greek world, with particular emphasis on the political status of member-states and their relations to the central powers of the league.
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Walbank, Frank W. 1976–1977. Were there Greek federal states? Scripta Classica Israelica 3:27–51.
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A critical assessment and rejection of Giovannini 1971.
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Federalism and Ethnicity

The works of scholars in Ancient History and Classical Studies contributed decisively to the so-called ethnic turn in the Humanities. The conceptual root of “ethnicity” puts the topic at the center of research on Graeco-Roman culture; to be sure, the semantic field between ethnos and ethnic/ethnicity is in itself both complicated and charged with modern meaning, as McInerney 2001 explains. In Greek history, this trend has led to the formation of what has sometimes been labelled the “ethnicity” school, although the various proponents of this “school” would probably not see themselves as followers of a coherent group of scholars. Concerning regional tribal identities in Aegean Greece, Catherine Morgan certainly paved the way in a series of important articles. Her monograph (Morgan 2003) is a very good point of departure for this; see also McInerney 1999 (cited under the Phokian League). Although a regional case study, Kühr 2006 includes a brilliant introduction to this study on Boiotia that capitalizes on theoretical reflections on memory and identity. The opening section of this study should be consulted by anyone who follows this avenue of inquiry. Freitag 2007 summarizes the many branches of ethnicity studies and how the conclusions of those works relate to the understanding of the development of Greek statehood, in particular in federal states. The most up-to-date synthesis on the relation between federalism and ethnicity in English is Hall 2015. Moving beyond the imagined realm of tribal identities and ethnic beliefs, Funke and Luraghi 2009 demonstrates how federalism, as a political manifestation of such identities, impacted the Greek world in very concrete terms.

Freitag, Klaus. 2007. Ethnogenese, Ethnizität und die Entwicklung der griechischen Staatenwelt in der Antike. Historische Zeitschrift 285:373–399.
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This is a useful survey article that summarizes the main themes centering on the interplay between federalism and ethnic identity in Greece.
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Funke, Peter, and Nino Luraghi, eds. 2009. The politics of ethnicity and the crisis of the Peloponnesian League. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
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The various contributions in this volume trace the rise of ethnic identities in the Peloponnese in the 4th century BCE and their translation into politics. In a series of regional case studies it is demonstrated how federalism gave a voice to anti-Spartan sentiments and fueled the desire for separation from the Peloponnesian League.
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Hall, Jonathan. 2015. Federalism and ethnicity. In Federalism in Greek antiquity. Edited by Hans Beck and Peter Funke. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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The article offers the best synthesis of the intertwined relation between ethnicity and federalism in Archaic and classical Greece. It fleshes out both the zones of interaction and fracture between both patterns.
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Kühr, Angela. 2006. Als Kadmos nach Boiotien kam: Polis und Ethnos im Spiegel thebanischer Gründungsmythen. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.
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Originating from a German PhD thesis, the book makes an innovative contribution to the debate on Greek memorial culture and identity formation. The author disentangles the interactive development of polis- and ethnos-identities in Boiotia and demonstrates those who were impacted by the rise of federalism in the region.
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McInerney, Jeremy. 2001. Ethne and ethnicity in early Greece. In Ancient perceptions of Greek ethnicity. Edited by Irad Malkin, 51–73. Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies.
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The author argues for a translation of the Greek term ethnos as “people” rather than the more common “tribe.” His supporting case study on the mythopoiesis of Phokis (see also McInerney 1999, cited under the Phokian League) demonstrates how traditions of primordial descent were essential for the rise of regional federations.
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Morgan, Catherine. 2003. Early Greek states beyond the polis. London: Routledge.
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A magisterial monograph by an author who has spearheaded the study of ethnic identities in ancient Greece since the early 1990s. Examining a broad array of sites and material evidence, the author traces the roots of different forms of regional association in the Iron Age and Archaic Greece.
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Federalism, Autonomy, and Interstate Arbitration

Federalism requires the persistent negotiation between all member-states that participate in its constitutional design. The inherent nature of the federal principle thus calls for the willingness to compromise and adhere to mechanisms of arbitration and nonviolent conflict resolution. The tension between local autonomy and a central government that is vested with authority to act on behalf of its constituents further increases the need among members to cooperate. Interstate arbitration and the call for autonomy are both vital features of Greek political culture. It is understandable, then, that these topics receive much attention from scholars in the field. Ager 1996 is the classic work with which to survey the phenomenon of interstate arbitration in general, including cases of federal arbitration. Harter-Uibopuu 1998 and Luraghi and Magnetto 2012 focus on the Achaian League, the arbitration mechanism of which is by far best attested in the literary and epigraphic sources. The study of autonomy in a federal state, with its heavy semantic baggage, is more controversial. The best starting point here is the introduction in Hansen and Nielsen 2004, the magisterial inventory of city-states compiled by the Copenhagen Polis Centre. The work of the CPC was considered slightly autoreferential by some, especially in the many conference and edited volumes that led up to the final inventory (all references there). But the scholarly debate was also one that was extremely stimulating and fruitful; the research controversy between Hansen and Keen, as detailed in Hansen 1995 and Keen 1996, over the status of members in federal Boiotia is paradigmatic in many ways. Löbel 2014 offers a systematic, in-depth analysis through the lens of political relations within a league. Ténékidès 1993 and Consolo Langher 2004 are the most representative contributions to the debate in French-language and Italian-language scholarship, respectively.

Ager, Sheila L. 1996. Interstate arbitrations in the Greek world, 337–90 B.C. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
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The standard reference work on the topic, with an extensive catalogue of 171 cases of interstate arbitrations, including a high volume in federal states.
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Consolo Langher, Sebastiana N. 2004. Natura giuridica e valori del federalismo Greco: Il conflitto fra autonomia ed egemonia. In Poleis e politeiai. Edited by Silvio Cataldi, 315–333. Alessandria, Italy: Edizioni dell’Orso.
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Focusing on the examples of the Chalkidic, Boiotian, and Thessalian Leagues, the article discusses the inherent tensions in a federal state that result from the desire of larger members to exercise leadership and control the affairs of the koinon.
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Hansen, Mogens H. 1995. Boiotian Poleis: A test case. In Sources for the ancient Greek city-state. Edited by Mogens H. Hansen, 13–63. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
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An exhaustive study, arguing that membership in the Boiotian League suspended the autonomy of participating cities.
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Hansen, Mogens H., and Thomas H. Nielsen, eds. 2004. An inventory of Archaic and classical poleis. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
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The magisterial inventory of 1,035 identifiable city-states, complied by the influential Copenhagen Polis Centre from (1994 to 2004, which is an indispensable reference tool for the study of the member communities of all Greek federal states. In the introduction to each region, a historical synopsis informs the reader about the trajectories of federal integration. The conceptual design of dependent city-states seeks to systematize the political status of a polis, also in a federal state.
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Harter-Uibopuu, Kaja. 1998. Das zwischenstaatliche Schiedsverfahren im achäischen Koinon. Cologne: Böhlau Verlag.
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A collection and analysis of cases of arbitration in the Achaian League. The study makes it clear that most conflicts, as attested in a series of epigraphic documents, clustered around local border disputes.
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Keen, Anthony G. 1996. Were the Boiotian poleis autonomoi? In More studies in the ancient Greek “polis.” Edited by Mogens H. Hansen and Kurt Raaflaub, 113–125. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.
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A critical answer to Hansen 1995. The edited volume also has a riposte by Hansen to this.
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Löbel, Yves. 2014. Die Poleis der bundesstaatlichen Gemeinwesen im antiken Griechenland: Untersuchungen zum Machtverhältnis zwischen Poleis und Zentralgewalt bis 167 v. Chr. Alessandria, Italy: Edizioni dell’Orso.
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Based on the author’s PhD dissertation, this comprehensive study researches Greek federalism through the lens of the relations between federal center and member communities. The book consists of regional case studies of all major federal states as well as a structural analysis of the political, military, and economic relations within each league.
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Luraghi, Nino, and Anna Magnetto. 2012. The controversy between Megalopolis and Messene in a new inscription from Messene (with an appendix by Christian Habicht). Chiron 42:509–550.
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This article provides an excellent analysis of the complex organization and administration of arbitration in a newly attested case from the Achaean League in the 180s BCE.
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Ténékidès, Georges C. 1993. Les relations internationales dans la Grèce antique. Athens, Greece: Leventis Foundation.
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The book comprises the republication of the author’s major contributions to the topic of Greek interstate law. Chapter 2 (pp. 231–404) is a reprint of a 1956 monograph-length article that examines the Greek city-state and its integration into federal states from a juristic point of view.
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Federal Economies

Economic aspects of federalism in ancient Greece are largely underresearched. So far the investigation is mostly confined to federal coin emissions of individual states (see Individual Federal States). Systematic research in this area continues to be rare, although the approach promises to extend the concept of integration beyond the arena of politics and ethnicity. Mackil 2013 (cited under Theme-Based Surveys) is spearheading scholarship in this area. The co-authored article Mackil and van Alfen 2006 and Mackil 2015 are important landmarks that demonstrate the fruitfulness of research in this area and hint at the potential for future exploration.

Mackil, Emily. 2015. The economics of federation in the ancient Greek world. In Federalism in Greek antiquity. Edited by Hans Beck and Peter Funke. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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The article discusses the relation between political and economic trajectories on integration in Greek federal states. It concludes that many koina used their authority to effect the economic integration of the regions they governed. With control over monetary policy, taxation, and the power to determine whether or not crucial goods such as grain would be exported from the region, Greek federal states took a strong interest in promoting regional economies.
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Mackil, Emily, and Peter van Alfen. 2006. Cooperative coinage. In Agoranomia: Studies in money and exchange presented to John H. Kroll. Edited by Peter van Alfen, 201–246. New York: American Numismatic Society.
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The authors argue that the production of cooperative coinages in Greek ethne requires a substantial degree of coordination between those who engage in them. Although those coinages have long been interpreted as an economic rather than a political phenomenon, the article demonstrates that the topic should not be considered strictly in terms of one or the other.
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Individual Federal States

The works cited in General Overviews and Thematic Studies draw on case studies of individual federal states or on selections of case studies assembled according to the overall scope of the investigation. They serve as excellent sources to begin the examination of individual federal states. Beyond coverage in overviews and thematic surveys, many specialized publications are available that explore the federal leagues of ancient Greece through the lens of regional history. This section lists the most important studies for each koinon and the key aspects (e.g., in politics, ethnicity, cult) most commonly associated with the history of federalism in the region.

The Achaian League

The Achaian League of the Hellenistic period ranks among the most renowned examples of federal integration in Greek Antiquity. It was praised by its native son Polybios, whose father was a leading league official for many years, for uniting the entire Peloponnese so that it almost resembled one city. Interestingly enough, no monograph on the league in English covers its constitutional design and history, from the earliest period to the conquest by Rome. In light of his magisterial scholarship on Polybios, Frank Walbank’s commentaries (Walbank 1957–1979) have also become invaluable sources for the study of Achaian federalism. A very thoughtful and also accessible survey chapter on the league is offered in Roy 2003. Written in French, Aymard 1938, although somewhat dated, continues to be an excellent point of departure. The archaeologically and epigraphically grounded works of Athanassios Rizakis (Rizakis 2008, which is the third volume of a series that was published over several years) complement Aymard’s analysis of the literary sources. In German, Bastini 1987 and Freitag 1999 are helpful. More compartmentalized research questions include the notorious problem of the designation of different assemblies of the koinon and their constitutional interplay, which is discussed in Lehmann 1983. The elaborate process of league arbitration, as attested in an increasing corpus of epigraphical sources, is explained in Luraghi and Magnetto 2012.

Aymard, Andre. 1938. Les assemblées de la confédération achaienne: Étude critique d’institutions et d’histoire. Bordeaux, France: Feret et fils.
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A classic study of the different sets of assemblies in the Achaian League and its overall political administration, mostly based on Polybius.
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Bastini, Andreas. 1987. Der Achäische Bund als hellenische Mittelmacht: Geschichte des Achäischen Koinon in der Symmachie mit Rom. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
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Applying the concept of a middle power to the Achaian League, the book explores the vector of Achaian foreign policy in the era of alliance with Rome, in the 2nd century BCE.
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Freitag, Klaus. 1999. Der Golf von Korinth: Historisch-topographische Untersuchungen von der Archaik bis in das 1. Jh. v. Chr. Munich: Tuduv.
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Drawing on F. Braudel’s conceptual work on the long duration of historical processes in minor seas and oceans, the author examines the interaction and political interconnectivity of the riparian states of the Corinthian Gulf. The history of Achaia and its league are embedded in studies in the topography and geography of the region.
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Lehmann, Gustav Adolf. 1983. Erwägungen zur Struktur des achaiischen Bundesstaates. Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 51:237–261.
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An article that further explores the meanings of the terms synodos and synkletos in Polybius’s description of the Achaian League.
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Luraghi, Nino, and Anna Magnetto. 2012. The controversy between Megalopolis and Messene in a new inscription from Messene (with an appendix by Christian Habicht). Chiron 42:509–550.
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A magisterial discussion of a new inscription from Messene from the c. 180s BCE that sheds new light on the arbitration process as applied in federal Achaia.
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Rizakis, Athanassios D. 2008. Achaie 3: Les cités achéennes: Epigraphie et histoire. Paris: De Boccard.
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Volume 3 of a series written by the same author that studies the federal and local organization of the Achaian League, drawing strongly on epigraphical and archaeological evidence.
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Roy, James. 2003. The Achaian League. In The idea of European community in history: Conference proceedings. Vol. 2, Aspects of connecting poleis and ethne in ancient Greece. Conference organized by the University of Athens and the Greek Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs, 13–16 March 2003. Edited by Kostas Buraselis and Kleanthis Zoumboulakis, 82–95. Athens, Greece: National and Capodistrian Univ. of Athens.
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Probably the best summary overview of the federal administration of Achaia.
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Walbank, Frank W. 1957–1979. A historical commentary on Polybius. 3 vols. Oxford: Clarendon.
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A historical and philological commentary that is indispensable in the study of references to the Achaian League made by Polybius.
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Aegean Islands: Keos, Lesbos, and the Nesiotic League

Federal integration in the natural environment of the Aegean islands is a largely understudied topic. The best source with which to start the investigation is Buraselis 2015, which delivers the only comprehensive study on the theme. The most prominent of those leagues, the Nesiotic League, or Leagues of the Islanders, has received some attention, notably in Sheedy 1996 and Meadows 2013. Lesbos offers a good example of federal integration on one island, as attested in Labarre 1994.

Buraselis, Kostas. 2015. Federalism and the sea: The koinon in the Aegean Sea. In Federalism in Greek antiquity. Edited by Hans Beck and Peter Funke. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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The latest standard account of federal organizations in the Aegean Sea, including sections on the Kean and Lesbian Confederacies as well as the Nesiotic League.
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Dürrbach, Felix. 1907. Αντιγονεία – Δημητριεία: Les origines de la confédération des Insulaires. Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 31:208–227.
DOI: 10.3406/bch.1907.3255Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A pathbreaking contribution on the rise of the League of Islanders, examining the epigraphic reference for the organization and celebration of two key festivals held by the league in honor of the Macedonian kings.
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Labarre, Guy. 1994. ΚΟΙΝΟΝ ΛΕΣΒΙΩΝ. Revue des études anciennes 96:415–446.
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The article traces the long history of political cooperation and integration on the island of Lesbos from the construction of the temple at Messa in the late Archaic period to the Roman Empire.
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Meadows, Andrew. 2013. The Ptolemaic League of Islanders. In The Ptolemies, the sea, and the Nile: Studies in waterborne power. Edited by Kostas Buraselis, Dorothy J. Thompson, and Mary Stefanou, 19–38. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139519649Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A thorough analysis of the rise of the 3rd-century Nesiotic League that places the federation in the broader religious, commercial, and political agency of Ptolemy Philadelphos in the Aegean.
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Sheedy, Kenneth A. 1996. The origins of the Second Nesiotic League and the defence of Kythnos. Historia 45:423–449.
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Discussion of the key events that led to the refoundation of the Nesiotic League. The author argues that the Rhodians revived the idea of an island league to prevent the Pergamene kings from establishing control of the region.
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The Aitolian League

Aitolia and the Aitolian League have received little scholarly attention. Together with Akarnania, with which its history was often intertwined, Aitolia has been considered a backwater of Greece. The dislike of the Aitolians shown by Polybios, if not open hostility toward them, also did not further their case. The groundbreaking works by Peter Funke on settlement patterns and urbanization processes in Aitolia altered scholarly perceptions (see Funke 1997, which is one among several publications on this topic). The first in-depth study on the religion and cults is Antonetti 1990; the author followed up on Aitolian topics in many articles. The lack of a comprehensive political history inspired two studies that appeared almost simultaneously, Grainger 1999 and Scholten 2000, the former being appended by a prosopographical work in 2000. Rzepka 2006 looks at the league through the lens of local communities and their political rights.

Antonetti, Claudia. 1990. Les étoliens: Image et religion. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
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A comprehensive study of the cults and sanctuaries of Aitolia, drawing heavily on the literary traditions. The book also treats the great geographical diversity of the region, and how this impacted the rise of diverse strands of the ancient tradition.
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Funke, Peter. 1997. Polisgenese und Urbanisierung in Aitolien im 5. und 4. Jh. v.Chr. In The polis as an urban centre and as a political community. Edited by Mogens H. Hansen, 145–188. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
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The article combines the history of Aitolia with an exploration of the development of settlement patterns, with a test-case study of Kallipolis. The author concludes that the Aitolian League comprised members that were classified as cities and tribes.
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Funke, Peter. 2013. Thermika und Panaitolika: Alte und neue Zentren im Aitolischen Bund. In Greek federal states and their sanctuaries. Edited by Peter Funke and Matthias Haake, 49–64. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.
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The article examines the function of Aitolia’s two most eminent festivals and their impact on the Aitolian League. While the Thermika were tied to Thermos as a physical space, the Panaitolika were free floating, which allowed the federal state to respond to the local demands of its members.
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Grainger, John D. 1999. The league of the Aitolians. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
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A narrative history of the Aitolian League in five parts, from the classical period to the dissolution of the koinon by Rome.
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Grainger, John D. 2000. Aitolian prosopographical studies. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
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This volume supplements the narrative history of Aitolia written by the same author. Compiling a list of all known Aitolians, their origins and parentage, Grainger facilitates the reconstitution of Aitolian families and studies various aspects of their history and society.
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Rzepka, Jacek. 2006. The rights of cities within the Aitolian confederacy. Valencia, Spain: Instituto Valenciano de Estudios Clasicos y Orientles.
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An engaging study on Aitolia, with a main focus on the institutional liberties and prerogatives of the city-states in Aitolia.
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Scholten, Joseph B. 2000. The politics of plunder: Aitolians and their koinon in the early Hellenistic era, 279–217 B.C. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
DOI: 10.1525/california/9780520201873.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Reinforcing the literary sources with a refined analysis of the literary and numismatic bodies of evidence, this book offers an authoritative account of Aitolian politics at the height of the league’s power in the 3rd century BCE.
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The Akarnanian League

Akarnania is often considered a backwater in Greek history, but the groundbreaking work of Oberhummer 1887 should convince scholars and students of ancient Greece otherwise. Material for the study of Akarnania is abundant, especially if the potential found in approaches in historical topography is fully unlocked. Domingo-Forasté 1988 is one of the first works to follow Oberhummer 1887, but the breakthrough in this particular region of “Third Greece,” to borrow H.-J. Gehrke’s famous term, beyond Athens and Sparta, came with a large-scale survey project, the results of which have informed Funke, et al. 1993 as well as Gehrke 1994–1995. At the same time, the activities of the Oberhummer Gesellschaft (founded in 1987) inspired further studies, as is well documented in Berktold, et al. 1996.

Berktold, Percy, Peter Büscher, and Christian Wacker, eds. 1996. Akarnanien: Eine Landschaft im Antiken Griechenland. Würzburg, Germany: Ergon Verlag.
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The initial volume by Oberhummer Gesellschaft, an association dedicated to the promotion of studies in Akarnania and adjacent territories. The volume contains many articles that are fundamental to the study of federalism in Akarnania.
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Dany, Oliver. 1999. Akarnanien im Hellenismus: Geschichte und Völkerrecht in Nordwestgriechenland. Munich: C. H. Beck.
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Based on a German PhD thesis, the book examines the history of Akarnania in relation to the broader stream of history in the Hellenistic period.
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Domingo-Forasté, Douglas. 1988. History of northern coastal Akarnania to 167 BC: Alyzeia, Leukas, Anaktorion and Argos. PhD diss., University of California at Santa Barbara.
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A concise PhD thesis (ms) that explores the history of the northern shores of Akarnania and Leukas.
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Funke, Peter, Hans-Joachim Gehrke, and Lazaros Kolonas. 1993. Ein neues Proxeniedekret des Akarnanischen Bundes. Klio 75:131–144.
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The authors publish a new proxeny decree of the Akarnanian League for a Roman in c. 167 BCE. The inscription, discovered during archaeological surveys of the Stratos region, sheds new light on the political administration of the league.
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Gehrke, Hans-Joachim. 1994–1995. Die kulturelle und politische Entwicklung Akarnaniens vom 6. bis zum 4. Jahrhundert v.Chr. Geographia Antiqua 3–4:41–48.
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A brief summary of the early history of the Akarnanian federal state that blends politics and urban development and treats the rise of ethnic identities in the region.
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Oberhummer, Eugen. 1887. Akarnanien, Ambrakia, Amphilochien, Leukas im Altertum. Munich: Verlag Theodor Ackermann.
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A groundbreaking study on the historical topography of Akarnania and neighboring territories that pioneered the scholarly exploration of the region.
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The Arkadian League

The Arkadian League properly constituted existed only for a short period in the 4th century BCE. However, Arkadia was considered by the Greeks as a more or less defined region in the central Peloponnese from the earliest times in Greek history, and the Arkadians were conceived to be a distinct ethnic group. Their major cities were renowned both for their advanced systems of governance (Thür and Taeuber 1994) and for their local rivalries. Its federal capital Megalopolis (Roy 2007) became a major Peloponnesian hub for many centuries after the league had fallen apart. Research on the political integration of Arkadia is thus firmly situated at the intersection of various scholarly paradigms, including regionalism, ethnicity, and dialectal and topographical studies. Research on Arkadia began relatively late; see Roy 1968 and Dušanić 1970. The former became the authoritative work in the field, which is also documented in the close cooperation with and many contributions made to the works of the Copenhagen Polis Centre (Nielsen and Roy 1999 and Nielsen 2002). Inspired by approaches fostered in ethnic identity studies, Pretzler 2009 fleshes out the interplay between ethnic and political patterns of integration during the times of federation.

Dušanić, Slobodan. 1970. Arkadski savez IV veka. Belgrade, Serbia: Univ. of Belgrade.
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One of the earliest explorations of federalism in Arkadia. The book is written in Serbo-Croatian, with a helpful summary conclusion in English (pp. 281–345).
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Nielsen, Thomas H. 2002. Arkadia and its poleis in the archaic and classical periods. Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
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The most comprehensive study on the geography, ethnography, and political administration of Arkadia, from the 6th to the late 4th centuries BCE. The author reaffirms that the Arkadian federal state existed only for a brief period of time, after 370 BCE.
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Nielsen, Thomas H., and James Roy, eds. 1999. Defining ancient Arkadia. Copenhagen: Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters.
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A collection of papers from a conference organized by the influential Copenhagen Polis Centre (see Hansen and Nielsen 2004, cited under Federalism, Autonomy, and Interstate Arbitration) that examine the notion of Akardianness from multiple angles.
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Pretzler, Maria. 2009. Arcadia: Ethnicity and politics in the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. In The politics of ethnicity and the crisis of the Peloponnesian League. Edited by Peter Funke and Nino Luraghi, 86–109. Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies.
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A discussion of the formation and expression of Arkadian ethnic identity and its formative impact on political affairs in the Peloponnese in the 370s and 360s BCE.
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Roy, James. 1968. Studies in the history of Arcadia in the classical and hellenistic periods. PhD diss., Cambridge University.
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The unpublished manuscript of the author’s doctoral dissertation. The study marks the beginning of a very long research engagement as manifested in numerous article contributions, which has made the author the leading authority on Arkadia and the western Peloponnese.
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Roy, James. 2007. The urban layout of Megalopolis in its civic and confederate context. In Building communities: House, settlement and society in the Aegean and beyond. Edited by Ruth Westgate, Nicolas R. E. Fisher, and James Whitley, 289–295. London: British School at Athens.
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A brief but succinct discussion of the urban design of Megalopolis and its function as the Arkadian capital.
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Thür, Gerhard, and Hans Taeuber. 1994. Prozessrechtliche Inschriften der griechischen Poleis: Arkadien. Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften.
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Publication and interpretation plus commentary of thirty-six inscriptions from Arkadia that elucidate the political and legal administration of the cities in the region.
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The Boiotian League

Boiotia ranks among the most eminent and elaborate federal states in Greek Antiquity. The region itself figures so prominently in research that it has its own continuing research bibliography online entitled Teiresias: A Review and Bibliography of Boiotian Studies. Despite some interruptions and changes, federalism in Boiotia has the longest history, spanning from the 6th century BCE well into the Roman Empire. The interplay between political structures and the belief in a shared ethnic identity put federalism on a firm footing. One particular period in the long history of Boiotian federalism, the early 4th century BCE, is documented in the Hellenika from Oxyrhynchos, a spectacular papyrus discovery made in 1906 and 1942, which sheds light on the constitution on the league. Naturally, this has attracted much scholarly attention. A full account of Boiotia’s regional integration has yet to be written. At this point, scholars have covered the topic in subsequent steps: Larson 2007 treats the earliest period, Buck 1994 examines the classical age until 371 BCE, Buckler 1980 studies the Theban hegemony, Gullath 1982 looks at the early Hellenistic period, and Knoepfler 2001 investigates the Hellenistic koinon. With rich epigraphic evidence from excavations at several sites in Boiotia, the understanding of the Hellenistic league(s) in particular has been susceptive to new interpretations, starting with Roesch 1965. More recently, Fossey 2014 and Papazarkadas 2014 demonstrate that the process of knowledge advancement is far from complete.

Buck, Robert J. 1994. Boiotia and the Boiotian League, 432 to 371 B.C. Edmonton: Univ. of Alberta Press.
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Picking up where A History of Boeotia by the same author (1979) left off, the book offers a narrative history of Boiotian politics in a key period from the Peloponnesian War to the Theban hegemony. It also draws strongly on the records from Boiotian local historians.
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Buckler, John. 1980. The Theban hegemony, 371–362 BC. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
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The authoritative account of Boiotia’s political history at the height of Theban power, written by the leading expert in the field.
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Fossey, John M. 2014. Epigraphica Boeotica II: Further studies on Boeotian inscriptions. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
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In Part 1 of this collection the author discusses epigraphic evidence for Boiotian relations with the world outside, with a helpful catalogue of proxeny decrees (pp. 43–82). Parts 2 and 3 include various dedications (civic and religious) and tombstones. Although the individual chapters appear somewhat disconnected, they highlight the vibrant agencies of Boiotian citizens at the local and the federal levels. Includes a contribution by Laurence Darmezin.
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Gullath, Brigitte. 1982. Untersuchungen zur Geschichte Boiotiens in der Zeit Alexanders und der Diadochen. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
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The only narrative account of Boiotian history in the turbulent history of the Wars of Successors.
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Knoepfler, Denis. 2001. La fête des Daidala de Platées: Une clef pour l’histoire de la Béotie hellénistique. In Éditer, traduire, commenter Pausanias en l’année 2000. Edited by Denis Knoepfler and Marcel Piérart, 349–374. Geneva, Switzerland: Université de Neuchatel and Librairie Droz.
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An exemplary case study of the ritual dynamics of the festival of the Daidala as reported by Pausanias, from which the author extrapolates a scheme of political membership of Boiotian cities and their participation in the Boiotian League.
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Larson, Stephanie. 2007. Tales of epic ancestry: Boiotian collective identity in the late archaic and early classical periods. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.
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Originating from a PhD thesis, the author examines the political landscape of late Archaic Boiotia, arguing that there was no military or political organization in place at the time but rather a loose ethnos organization that was based on a consonant combination of interrelated convictions and ethnic beliefs.
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Papazarkadas, Nikolaos, ed. 2014. The epigraphy and history of Boeotia: New finds, new prospects. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
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A collection of articles from a conference in Berkeley that revisits the history and epigraphy of Boiotia. Section I offers new interpretations of some of the key themes in the history of the Boiotian koinon from the times of the formation of the league to the late Hellenistic Age.
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Roesch, Paul. 1965. Thespies et la confédération béotienne. Paris: de Boccard.
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An epigraphic study of the Boiotian League in the Hellenistic period based primarily on an inscription (first published in 1933) that lists the magistrates from Thespiai. The book, written by the one of the greatest authorities in the field at the time, masterfully places this important text in a longer trajectory of time to examine the relations between Thespiai and the league.
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Teiresias: A review and bibliography of Boiotian studies. Montreal: McGill Univ., Department of History and Classical Studies.
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An indispensable work tool that references all scholarship that is carried out pertaining to Boiotia, and its adjacent regions, in the fields of Ancient History, Classics, Archaeology, and other disciplines.
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The Chalkidian League

On the northern fringes of Aegean Greece, the Chalkidian League provides a fascinating example of an advanced federal state, albeit a short-lived one. The earliest relations between the Chalkidians and the Greek cities from central Greece and Euboia have fueled a lively, sometimes passionate debate in works that include Bradeen 1952 and Knoepfler 1990. Zahrnt 1971, which is the author’s reworked PhD thesis, also contributes to this debate. However, the main research find has been the disclosure of a true federal polity under the region’s “natural” hegemon, the city of Olynthos, in the later 5th and early 4th centuries BCE. The examination of the literary sources (Thucydides, Xenophon) has made little progress since Zahrnt’s book, but new numismatic evidence (Psoma 2001) continues to cast light on the depth of the integration measures applied by the Chalkidians.

Bradeen, Donald W. 1952. The Chalcidians in Thrace. American Journal of Philology 73:356–380.
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The author studies the relation between the Chalkidians in the northern Aegean and the people of Chalkis in Euboia, concluding that the former derived from a group of colonists from Euboia.
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Knoepfler, Denis. 1990. The calendar of Olynthus and the origin of the Chalcidians in Thrace. In Greek colonists and native populations. Edited by Jean P. Descœudres and Arthur D. Trendal, 99–115. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
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An in-depth study of the calendar similarities between the Olynthians and the inhabitants of Chalkis in Euboia. The author demonstrates that the language of the Chalkidian inscriptions, as well as the names of persons and months, points to a Euboian origin.
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Psoma, Selene. 2001. Olynthe et les Chalcidiens de Thrace: Études de numismatique et d’histoire. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.
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The leading monograph on the history of the Chalkidic League, extrapolated from rich numismatic evidence.
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Zahrnt, Michael. 1971. Olynth und die Chalkidier. Munich: C. H. Beck.
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Due to its depth of analysis, scholarly diligence, and insightful historical interpretation, this book became one of the most impactful studies on the relation between Olynthus and the other cities of the Chalkidike, and their integration into a league. The study successfully argues that, in Antiquity, the place-name Chalkidike applied only to the small territory inhabited by the people of that region.
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The Cretan League

The island of Crete lies at the fringes of the mainstream literary tradition but it is rich in epigraphic evidence. Many treaties of interstate cooperation and integration survive, which are studied in Chaniotis 1996. In the Hellenistic period in particular the islanders established an institution that was referred to as koinodikion, the nature of which is assessed in Ager 1994. At the same time, traces of various smaller and locally confined federal spaces survive (Sekunda 2000). A new summary account to replace van der Mijnsbrugge 1931 needs to be written.

Ager, Sheila L. 1994. Hellenistic Crete and Koinodikion. Journal of Hellenic Studies 114:1–18.
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The author analyzes the epigraphic reference to the Cretan koinon of the Hellenistic period. She concludes that the federal union on Crete was looser than elsewhere, arguing that the attested koinodikon was not a federal institution but rather a particular type of court.
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Chaniotis, Angelos. 1996. Die Verträge zwischen kretischen Poleis in der hellenistischen Zeit. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.
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A historical and systematic analysis of treaties between Cretan city-states, with a section of eighty-two treaties with text edition and commentary.
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Sekunda, Nicholas V. 2000. Land-use, ethnicity, and federalism in west Crete. In Alternatives to Athens: Varieties of political organization and community in ancient Greece. Edited by Roger Brock and Stephen Hodkinson, 327–347. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
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In this highly innovative article, the author explores the origins of several confederations on Crete, including the leagues of the Polichnitai and Oreioi. He argues that the leagues were inspired by the notion of tribal togetherness, military threat, and the physical environment.
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van der Mijnsbrugge, Maurice. 1931. The Cretan Koinon. New York.
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A long-time standard account that is still valuable for its collection of literary evidence.
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Elis

Elis is listed here as an integrated state in which patterns of federalism are not easily discerned from other forms of regional integration. The most eminent scholar on the region, James Roy, has produced a large array of studies, of which Roy 1997 and Roy 2015 are two works of synthesis. The overall tenor is that Elis exemplifies some of the most basic forms of intercommunal cooperation in the Greek world. With the region serving as the home to Olympia, one of the greatest transregional sanctuaries in Aegean Greece, regional integration in Elis was not only fueled by the idea to unite all communities that shared in its ethnic identity (Gehrke 2003), but also shaped by complex, lively interactions with the temple precinct of Olympia, as is attested in Ruggeri 2004.

Gehrke, Hans-Joachim. 2003. Sull’etnicità elea. Geographia Antiqua 12:5–22.
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A key contribution on the rise of a regional identity in Elis and of the role Olympia played in this process.
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Roy, James. 1997. The perioikoi of Elis. In The Polis as an urban centre and as a political community: Symposium, August, 29–31, 1996. Edited by Mogens H. Hansen, 282–320. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
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A thorough identification of all attested perioikic communities in and around Elis. Alerting the reader to the fact that the Eleians themselves do not seem to have used the term perioikic when addressing their relations with subordinate communities, the author examines the designs for political control at work in the region.
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Roy, James. 2015. Elis. In Federalism in Greek antiquity. Edited by Hans Beck and Peter Funke. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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A synthesis on the political administration of Elis and adjacent territories. The author concludes that the broad array of interstate relations between the Eleians and their surrounding neighbors also included prototypical mechanisms of federal integration.
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Ruggeri, Claudia. 2004. Gli stati intorno a Olimpia: Storia e costituzione degli stati formati dai perieci elei, 400–362 a.c. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.
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Based on a meticulously organized PhD thesis, the book deals with the political relations of Elis and its various perioikic communities. A full exploration of the mutual citizenship regulations and of the fluctuating numbers of Eleian/perioikic hellanodikai dispatched to Olympia.
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Epeiros and Molossia

The society and political culture of Epeiros and Molossia in northwestern Greece were in many ways distinct from those in other federal states. Situated in a natural environment that resembled the Balkans rather than Greece proper and ruled by a monarchy throughout Antiquity, the Epeirote state engaged in agropastoral practices different from the rest of the Hellenes. Transhumance favored settlements in farmsteads and villages rather than urban centers. As a result, Epeirote society was shaped by unique patterns of loyalty and belonging (Davies 2000). Antonetti 2010 approaches northwestern Greece from a broad perspective, yet with insightful observations on the regional encoding of politics. The most erudite scholar on the region is Pierre Cabanes, whose many publications shed light also on all aspects pertaining to federalism in Epeiros as well as in individual subtribes. Recently, the orthodox picture of the Molossian League, as a forerunner to the Epeirote federal kingdom of the Hellenistic period, has been altered by the author of Meyer 2013, whose reassessment of the epigraphical evidence bears heavily on the reconstruction of events. Most of the evidence discussed by her comes from the renowned transregional sanctuary at Dodona, which, along with other religious sites, was paramount to the regional integration of Molossia (Moustakis 2006).

Antonetti, Claudia, ed. 2010. Lo spazio ionico e le communità della Grecia nord occidetale. Territorio, società, istituzioni: Atti del convegno internazionale, Venezia, 7–9 gennaio 2010. Pisa, Italy: Edizioni ETS.
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A collection of papers in Italian, English, French, and German from a conference held in Venice in 2010, with many key contributions on the design of federalism in northwestern Greece.
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Cabanes, Pierre. 1976. L’Épire de la mort de Pyrrhos à la conquête romaine: 272–167 av. J. C. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
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A narrative account of Epeirote history from 272 to 167 BCE with valuable information on geography and the dissemination of sites. The book is enriched with plates of inscriptions and various site maps and plans.
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Cabanes, Pierre. 1981. Les états fédéraux de Grèce du nord-ouest: Pouvoirs locaux et pouvoir fédéral. In Symposion 1979: Vorträge zum grieschischen und hellenistischen Rechtsgeschichte, Ägina, 3–7 September 1979. Edited by Panayotis D. Dimakis, 99–111. Cologne: Böhlau.
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The article offers a succinct overview of federalism in Epeiros and adjacent territories, with a focus on the distribution of political power among the federal member-states and the central government.
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Cabanes, Pierre. 2007. Les Chaones et l’Épire, de l’indépendance à l’association, Ve–IIe siècles avant J.-C. In Phoinike IV: Rapporto preliminare sulla campagne di scavi e ricerche 2004–2006. Edited by Sandro de Maria and Shpresa Gjongecaj, 227–238. Bologna, Italy: Ante Quem.
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A discussion of the relations between the tribe of the Chaones and the larger organization of Epeirotes. The article is one from the rich oeuvre of articles by the same author on the history, society, and (political) culture of northwestern Greece.
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Davies, John K. 2000. A wholly non-Aristotelian universe: The Molossians as ethnos, state, and monarchy. In Alternatives to Athens: Varieties of political organization and community in ancient Greece. Edited by Roger Brock and Stephen Hodkinson, 234–258. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
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A sketch of the main components of the Epeirote polity with a discussion of selected epigraphic evidence from the 3rd century BCE. Despite the seeming backwardness of their political institutions, the author posits that the organization of the Epeirotes was more durable than the traditional polis state.
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Franke, Peter. 1961. Die antiken Münzen von Epirus. Wiesbaden, Germany: Franz Steiner Verlag.
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The authoritative account of Epeirote coinage, which is crucial for understanding the political cooperation between the various tribes and settlements.
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Meyer, Elizabeth. 2013. The inscriptions of Dodona and a new history of Molossia. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.
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An in-depth study of the old and new epigraphic evidence from Dodona. In her reexamination of the material, the author proposes substantial changes to the chronological sequence of the inscriptions, which leads her to entertain a different narrative of political events in Molossia.
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Moustakis, Nikola. 2006. Heiligtümer als politische Zentren: Untersuchungen zu den multidimensionalen Wirkungsgebieten von polisübergreifenden Heiligtümern im antiken Epirus. Munich: Herbert Utz.
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A PhD thesis that examines the history of seven Epeirote sanctuaries, including lesser known sites. The collection of literary and nonliterary evidence makes the study particularly valuable.
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Euboia

The island of Euboia witnessed several movements toward federal integration of its major cities. The evidence for this is extremely sketchy, however. As in the case of the Chalkidian League, numismatic sources have added much to scholarly attempts to restore the league. But the coin hoards are fraught with chronological uncertainties, which has also led to significant variants in the overall assessment, cf. Picard 1979 versus Wallace 1956. The second most important body of evidence are the many inscriptions from Euboian cities, notably citizenship and honorary degrees of the major communities of Eretria and Chalkis. Denis Knoepfler is the authority on Euboian epigraphy who has also provided a new chronology for most texts. The best source with which to access his large oeuvre is Knoepfler 2015.

Knoepfler, Denis. 2015. The Euboian League: An irregular koinon? In Federalism in Greek antiquity. Edited by Hans Beck and Peter Funke. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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The most up-to-date survey article on the Euboian League that skillfully integrates diverse bodies of evidence, including numismatic, epigraphic, and literary sources.
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Picard, Olivier. 1979. Chalcis et la Confédération eubéenne: Étude de numismatique et d’histoire, IVe–Ier s. Paris: De Broccard.
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A thesis that challenged the chronology of coin hoards as established by Wallace (see Wallace 1956). Effectively, the author rewrites the history of federal integration on Euboia.
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Wallace, William P. 1956. The Euboian League and its coinage. New York: American Numismatic Society.
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A well-informed numismatic study on Euboian coin emissions. The historical interpretation of the material appears at times imaginative.
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Southern Italy: The Italiote League

The nature of the Italiote League, which was founded by several Achaian colonies in southern Italy, is somewhat unclear. Polybios had claimed that it was modeled on the Achaian League in the Peloponnese, but it is clear that this verdict cannot be taken at face value. There is little scholarship on the league, including some approaches in source criticism (Werner 1995). The interstate environment in Italy and Sicily differed in any case significantly from the Greek homeland, putting federalism in Magna Graecia on a different trajectory, as is noted in De Sensi Sestito 1994. Fronda 2013 and Fronda 2015 provide a balanced summary that accounts for the various hypotheses and uncertainties.

De Sensi Sestito, Giovanna. 1994. Il federalismo in Magna Grecia: La lega italiota. In Federazioni e federalism nell’Europa antica: Bergamo, 21–25 settembre 1992. Alle radici della casa comune europea 1. Edited by Luciana Aigner Foresti, 195–216. Milan: Vita e Pensiero.
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A concise study of the formation and history of the Italiote League that distinguishes between the early period and subsequent eras of hegemony, first of Kroton and then Tarentum.
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Fronda, Michael P. 2013. Southern Italy: Sanctuary, Panēgyris, and Italiote identity. In Greek federal states and their sanctuaries. Edited by Peter Funke and Matthias Haake, 123–138. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.
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The author studies the common cult site of the Italiote League, how it related to the sanctuary of Zeus Homarios in Achaia, and to what degree it served as a platform for the propagation of Italiote ethnic togetherness. He argues that the relocation of the site to Herakleia corresponded both to the changing composition of the league and to the evolving notion of tribal togetherness.
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Fronda, Michael P. 2015. The Italiote League and southern Italy. In Federalism in Greek antiquity. Edited by Hans Beck and Peter Funke. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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A fundamental study on the federal administration of the Italiote League that fosters a well-balanced interpretation of the notoriously treacherous body of evidence from literary, numismatic, and archaeological sources.
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Werner, Robert. 1995. Untersuchungen zur Geschichte und Struktur des Italiotenbundes. In Rom und der griechische Osten. Edited by Kai Brodersen and Charlotte Schubert, 287–296. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.
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Exploring the political history and associated chronological problems, this study makes full use of the literary evidence that survives in Polybius and Diodorus’s Library.
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The Lokrian League

Lokris is a relatively small region in central Greece. Its compact and often treacherous terrain has invited several topographical studies, including Fossey 1990 and, most recently, Pascual and Papakonstantinou 2013. The region was home to two distinct groups of Lokrians, Eastern and Western Lokrians, who have also acquired other labels: Hesperian Lokrians for the West (Lerat 1952) and Opuntian or Hypo/Epiknemidian Lokrians for the East (Nielsen 2000). Since both groups were territorially divided by Phokis, ethnic sentiments and political ties developed on a very distinct trajectory, as is documented in the many works of Giovanna Daverio (Daverio Rocchi 2013 addresses the topic of ethnic divide) and in Domínguez 2008.

Daverio Rocchi, Giovanna. 2013. Ethnic identity and territorial settlement: East and West Lokrians. In Greek federal states and their sanctuaries. Edited by Peter Funke and Matthias Haake, 139–161. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.
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An examination of the foundation legends and tales of common epic ancestry of the Lokrians (the heros Lokros, Athena Ilias, Ajax) that provided them with a narrative of ethnic unity that transcended the fragmentation of their tribe into scattered, noncontiguous territories in central Greece.
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Domínguez, Adolfo J. 2008. Ethnos, koinon and polis among the Locrians. In Forme sovrapoleiche e interpoleiche di organizzazione nel mondo greco antico: Atti del convegno internazionale, Lecce, 17–20 settembre 2008. Edited by Mario Lombardo, 322–334. Galatina, Italy: Congedo.
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The survey article discerns the multiple forms of political organization in Lokris and its noncontiguous territories of Western (Ozolian) and Eastern (Hypoknemidian/Opuntian and Epiknemidian) Lokrians.
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Fossey, John M. 1990. The ancient topography of Opuntian Lokris. Amsterdam: Gieben.
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This study is particularly valuable for the exploration of settlement structures in the small terrain of Opuntian Lokris. The book includes a discussion on the political and military cooperation of the identified communities.
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Lerat, Lucien. 1952. Les Locriens de l’Ouest. 2 vols. Paris: De Boccard.
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Vo. 1, Topographie et ruines. Vol. 2, Histoire, institutions, prosopographie. The most comprehensive study of the Western Lokrians and their federal organizations.
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Nielsen, Thomas H. 2000. Epiknemidian, Hypoknemidian, and Opountian Lokrians: Reflections on the political organisation of East Lokris in the classical period. In Further studies in the ancient Greek polis. Edited by Pernille Flensted-Jensen, 91–120. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.
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Embarking from an analysis of the toponyms of the various territorial subdivisions of Eastern Lokris in the literary sources, the author investigates their potential political integration. He argues that the Epiknemidian Lokrians were most likely incorporated into the league of the neighboring Hypoknemidians.
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Pascual, José, and Maria-Fonteini Papakonstantinou, eds. 2013. Topography and history of ancient Epicnemidian Locris. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
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This richly illustrated volume with contributions from a diverse team of experts (all articles in English) examines the history of Epiknemidian Lokris from multiple angles and perspectives. Part 3 also discusses the engagement of the Epiknemidian Lokrians in the federal state of all Lokrians.
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The Lycian League

The Lycian League has been praised from Strabo to The Federalist as one of the most refined federal states in Greek Antiquity. This verdict was fueled in part by its elaborate citizenship regulations at the local and the federal levels (Larsen 1957, Reitzenstein 2012) as well as its adherence to the idea of proportional integration. Also, what made the league unique was its amalgamation of several constitutional designs; cf. Jameson 1980. An excellent regional study on all of these aspects is Behrwald 2000; Vitale 2012 extends the analysis into the 3rd century BCE, when the nature of the league changed once again under Roman rule. The rich archaeological evidence from Patara, one of the league centers, includes remains of one of the best preserved assembly buildings of a Greek federal state (Korkut and Grosche 2007).

Behrwald, Ralf. 2000. Der Lykische Bund: Untersuchungen zu Geschichte und Verfassung. Bonn, Germany: Rudolf Habelt.
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This study, based on the author’s PhD thesis, offers a comprehensive analysis of the Lycian League. Part 1 examines the history of the league in the classical, Hellenistic, and early Imperial periods. Part 2 deals with its political organization.
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Jameson, Shelagh. 1980. The Lykian League: Some problems in its administration. Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II 7.2: 832–855.
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A full-fledged examination of the main administrative features of the Lycian League, including its federal magistracies, citizenship regulations, and assemblies. The article also contains a section on the eligibility of women for federal office.
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Korkut, Taner, and Götz Grosche. 2007. Patara II.1: Das Bouleuterion von Patara: Versammlungsgebäude des lykischen Bundes. Istanbul: Yayinlari.
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An account of the excavations of the large civic building at Patara, which served as assembly space of the Lycian League. The interpretation of the archaeological data offers important insight into the workings of the federal assembly.
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Larsen, Jakob A. O. 1957. Lykia and Greek Federal Citizenship. Symbolae Osloenses 33:5–26.
DOI: 10.1080/00397675708590485Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An analysis of the particularities of citizenship arrangements in the Lycian League. The author also ties the discussion of Lycia to the broader context of federal citizenship regulations in the Greek world.
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Reitzenstein, Denise. 2012. Elite und Mehrfachbürgerrechte im lykischen Bund. In Patrie d’origine et patries électives. Edited by Anna Heller and Anne-Valérie Pont, 327–339. Bordeaux, France: De Boccard.
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The author studies the feature of multiple local citizenships of many Lycians, mostly in the 2nd century CE. She concludes that the exercise of multiple citizenships allowed local elites to distinguish themselves and point to their manifold connections with other elites. The article is complemented with an appendix that conveniently lists all individuals for whom multiple local citizenship status is attested.
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Troxell, Hyla A. 1982. The coinage of the Lycian League. New York: American Numismatic Society.
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The most comprehensive analysis of federal coin emission from the Lycian League.
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Vitale, Marco. 2012. Eparchie und Koinon in Kleinasien von der ausgehenden Republik bis ins 3. Jh. n. Chr. Bonn, Germany: Rudolf Habelt.
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The book studies the creation of administrative clusters in Asia Minor under the Roman Empire. Chapter 9 discusses the eparchy of Lycia, including its relation to the Lycian League from the earlier periods.
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Macedonia

The kingdom of Macedon in northern Greece receives little if any attention in the discussion of ancient Greek federalism. Recently, however, the leading scholar in the field, Miltiades Hatzopoulos, has brought Macedonia to the table for further exploration of its unique structures of political integration.

Hatzopoulos, Miltiades B. 2015. Federal Macedonia. In Federalism in Greek antiquity. Edited by Hans Beck and Peter Funke. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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A highly original study that focuses on the integration of cities into the Macedonian kingdom. The author discloses a unique amalgamation of monarchic, aristocratic, and democratic elements in Macedonia.
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Messenia

Federalism in Messenia is difficult to trace but Roebuck 1941 affirms that the exchange between the communities in the region was governed by the idea of political integration. Nino Luraghi, who has established himself as the leading authority on Messenia in recent years, revisits the evidence, including recent discoveries (Luraghi 2015). While the traces of genuine federalism continue to be vague, Messenia offers a good example of regional integration through political measures.

Luraghi, Nino. 2015. Traces of federalism in Messenia. In Federalism in Greek antiquity. Edited by Hans Beck and Peter Funke. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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The author explores the patterns of the political integration of the region of Messenia into a solidified state, drawing on the enormous growth in documentary evidence in recent decades.
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Roebuck, Carl Angus. 1941. A history of Messenia from 369 to 146 B.C. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Library.
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For many years the only in-depth study of the political organization and administration of the Messenian state after its inception in 369 BCE. The author also discusses the relation between the various Messenian settlements and their relation to the newly established center of Messene.
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The Phokian League

Phokis is a relatively small and rocky region in central Greece (c. 1,600 square kilometers) that contained many settlements that the sources label cities, or city-states. This fact alone helps to explain the high volume and intensity of interaction among the inhabitants of the region. The second characteristic of the region derived from the mutual relations between the Phokians and the Sanctuary of Delphi, which was situated in their lands (Daverio Rocchi 2011). In many ways, the eventful exchange between both impacted the history of the Phokians and it also sealed the fate of their federal state. Friedrich Schober’s PhD dissertation served as a standard account of the political history for many years (Schober 1924). Buckler 1989 replaces the sections that dealt with the era of Philip of Macedon and the war against the Amphiktyony of Delphi, in which the Phokians were deeply engaged. A new chapter in the study of the region started, however, only with the turn to research in ethnic studies. Ellinger 1993 anticipates this by means of a brilliant analysis of a “Phokian national legend” that governed their actions as an ethnic group. The rise of early ethnic identity patterns is then masterfully explored in McInerney 1999. The work follows McInerney 1997, a study that focuses on the Phokian assembly place.

Buckler, John. 1989. Philip II and the sacred war. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
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A narrative history of Greek affairs in the latter half of the 4th century BCE, in which the Phokian League plays an exuberant role.
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Daverio Rocchi, Giovanna. 2011. Frontiere del Parnasso: Identità etnica e dinamiche locali nella Focide antica. Alessandria, Italy: Edizioni dell’Orso.
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This short monograph discusses the history of the Phokian League, with chapters on the topography, urban development, and relations with the Delphi and its hiera chora (“Sacred Lands”) that were located in the center of the region.
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Ellinger, Pierre. 1993. La légende nationale phocidienne: Artémis, les situations extrêmes et les récits de guerre d`anéantissement. Paris: École Française d’Athènes.
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The leading monograph on Phokis in French, comprising three major sections that cover its imaginary and political history. In many chapters, the author applies a metahistorical approach that blends the realms of legend and tradition, intellectual association, and scholarly interpretation.
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McInerney, Jeremy. 1997. The Phokikon and the hero Archegetes. Hesperia 66:193–207.
DOI: 10.2307/148482Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The article identifies the site of the federal assembly building of the Phokian League, the so-called Phokikon, on the hilltop of Sanctuary Hill, in the valley of the Platanias River.
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McInerney, Jeremy. 1999. The folds of Parnassos: Land and ethnicity in ancient Phokis. Austin: Univ. of Texas Press.
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The most comprehensive treatment of the history of Phokis and the Phokian League. The work is inspired by, and in turn contributes to, the discussion of the ethnicity paradigm. In the opening section, the author explores the conceptual strands of the history of classical scholarship on ethnicity.
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Schober, Friedrich. 1924. Phokis. PhD diss., University of Jena.
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The earliest study on Phokis as a distinct region, in this pioneering work the author aimed to collect all literary evidence for the history and historical topography of the region and its ethnic group.
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The Thessalian League

The Thessalian League flourished in the 4th century BCE under its famous leader Jason of Pherai (Sprawski 1999), who commanded the largest Greek army at the time (Westlake 1935). But the earlier and later history of the league make the Thessalian koinon one of the most enduring, and flexible state organizations in Greek history. The natural environment of Thessaly differed formidably from that of its neighbors to the south: The wide plains and rivers invited a different agropastoral regime, which was characterized by large-scale landowning and horse-breeding (see Stählin 1924). Such an environment favored the rise of feudal lords, so-called tagoi, who established themselves as leaders over substantial territories (Helly 1995). The integration of their dominions into a league made possible the accumulation of many resources. The earlier history of the league is also traceable from numerous coin finds, the evident point of departure being Franke 1970. With the rise of Philip II, Thessaly was inevitably drawn into the larger power shift in the Greek world. Consequently, the exchange with Macedon and then Rome altered the face of federalism from the 2nd century BCE to the early Common Era (Kramolisch 1978, Graninger 2011).

Franke, Peter. 1970. ΦΕΘΑΛΟΙ-ΦΕΤΑΛΟΙ-ΠΕΤΘΑΛΟΙ-ΘΕΣΣΑΛΟΙ. Archäologischer Anzeiger:85–93.
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A numismatic study that argues for the existence of a Thessalian federal league in the 5th century BCE.
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Graninger, Denver. 2011. Cults and koinon in Hellenistic Thessaly. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
DOI: 10.1163/ej.9789004207103.i-210Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An examination of the history and religion of the Thessalian League in the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE, including chapters on the sanctuaries and federal calendar. The author demonstrates that the Thessalian League absorbed a distinct profile in the realm of cults only in that period, evidently under the patronage of Rome.
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Helly, Bruno. 1995. L’État thessalien: Aleuas le Roux, les tétrades et les tagoi. Lyon, France: Maison de l’Orient Méditerranéen.
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In this controversial study of the numerical distribution of administrative districts across Thessaly, the author posits that the tageia was not an all-Thessalian office but rather a local office.
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Kramolisch, Herwig. 1978. Die Strategen des thessalischen Bundes vom Jahr 196 v.Chr. bis zum Ausgang der römischen Republik. Bonn, Germany: Rudolf Habelt.
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An indispensable compilation of the leading officials of the Thessalien League, mostly extrapolated from epigraphic evidence. The book studies those officeholders systematically and in chronological sequence.
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Sprawski, Sławomir. 1999. Jason of Pherae: A study on the history of Thessaly in the years from 431 to 370 BC. Cracow, Poland: Jagiellonian Univ. Press.
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The book surveys the political history of Thessaly at the height of its power in the 4th century BCE, when Jason of Pherai had turned the league into a tight Pheraian dominion.
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Stählin, Friedrich. 1924. Das hellenische Thessalien. Stuttgart: Verlag von Engelhorns Nachfolge.
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Written in the spirit of the rising discipline of historical topography, this seemingly dated investigation continues to be valuable for its integration of geographical and political facets of history.
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Westlake, Henry D. 1935. Thessaly in the fourth century B.C. London: Methuen.
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This book provides a narrative history of the Thessalian League from the end of the Peloponnesian War to Philip’s archonship. Despite its age it is a helpful introduction to the topic.
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Minor Leagues in Central Greece

Between the larger spheres of influence of Thessaly in the North, Boiotia in the Southeast, and Aitolia in the Southwest, the small heartland of central Greece was the home to several minor, or “mini,” federal organizations. Rousset 2015 discusses these groupings by means of a summary synthesis. At times the mini leagues were absorbed by their more powerful neighbors; see, for instance, Decourt, et al. 2004, which covers the communities of minor leagues under Thessaly. At other times the small leagues managed to remain apart from their dominant neighbors. The Perrhaibian League is one such example; see Kramolisch 1979. The independence of those small federal states depended heavily on their ability to form alliances with communities nearby, some of which were often less than a few kilometers away. The evidence for the minor leagues is mostly epigraphic in nature with large gaps in the chronology of events; see Rousset 1994 on important documents for the League of the Dorians.

Decourt, Jean-Claude, Thomas H. Nielsen, and Bruno Helly. 2004. Thessalia and adjacent regions. In An inventory of archaic and classical poleis. Edited by Mogens H. Hansen and Thomas H. Nielsen, 684–685. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
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See also pp. 709–713. This article provides a helpful compilation of city-state units in and around Thessaly, including sites in Malis, Doris, Oitaia, Achaia Ohthiotis, and Perrhaibia, with reference to the relevant literary sources for each site.
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Kramolisch, Herwig. 1979. Das Ende des perrhäbischen Bundes. In La Thessalie: Actes de la Table-ronde, 21–24 juillet 1975. Edited by Bruno Helly, 201–219. Lyon, France: Maison de l’Orient; Paris: De Broccard.
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One of the few discussions of the Perrhaibian League until its dissolution in 146 BCE, with an analysis of the epigraphic evidence from Delphi that lists Perrhaibian delegates after the league had come to an end.
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Rousset, Denis. 1994. Les Doriens de la Métropole: Nouveaux documents. Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 118:361–374.
DOI: 10.3406/bch.1994.4651Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Among the documents assembled in this article is an inscription that references a federal official of the Dorians from Erineos, a so-called doriarch, which sheds light on the regional organization of separate communities in Doris.
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Rousset, Denis. 2015. Microfederalism in central Greece. In Federalism in Greek antiquity. Edited by Hans Beck and Peter Funke. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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A survey chapter that discusses the scattered evidence for the political organization of the Dorian and Oitaian Leagues in central Greece.
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Works on Ancient Federal Thought

The examination of ancient political discourses on federalism is a notorious problem. There is no systematic treatment of federalism in the writings of the political philosophers, who would be expected to be the best qualified to comment on the topic, nor is there a coherent discussion in the works of the historians. The most elaborate ancient discussion comes from the author of the Hellenika from Oxyrhynchos, whose digression into the mechanics of federalism in Boiotia is examined in Bearzot 2015, with reference to all earlier works on the topic. Beyond the Hellenika from Oxyrhynchos, the ancient discourse must be pieced together from scattered notes and references made in passing. Lehmann 2001, which itself is a synthesis of multiple articles published earlier by the same author, is the most eminent study in the field. The book discloses that the federal discourse in Antiquity was much more lively than previously assumed. Beck 2001 and Bearzot 2004 flesh out the strands of federalism in Xenophon’s Hellenika, while Funke 1998, Hansen 1999, and Winterling 1995 offer thoughtful discussions of Aristotle and the writings emanating from his students. Vimercati 2005 extends our understanding through an exploration of federal ideas in Plutarch’s Lives.

Bearzot, Cinzia. 2004. Federalismo e autonomia nelle Elleniche di Senofonte. Milan: Vita e Pensiero.
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The author offers an in-depth analysis of the speeches in Xenophon’s Hellenika that pertain to federal affairs in Greece in twelve chapters that disclose an inherent conflict between federalism and the call for autonomy (see also works cited Thematic Studies: Federalism, Autonomy, and Interstate Arbitration).
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Bearzot, Cinzia. 2015. Ancient theoretical reflections on federalism. In Federalism in Greek antiquity. Edited by Hans Beck and Peter Funke. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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A handy summary discussion of all ancient references to federalism.
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Beck, Hans. 2001. The laws of the fathers versus the laws of the league: Xenophon on federalism. Classical Philology 96:355–375.
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Drawing on the political discourse of the 4th century BCE as presented in Xenophon’s Hellenika, the author extrapolates Xenophon’s ideas on federalism. He concludes that there was an inherent discursive contradiction between the views of proponents of federalism and its opponents’ moral call for autonomy and governance according to the forefathers.
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Funke, Peter. 1998. Die Bedeutung der griechischen Bundesstaaten in der politischen Theorie und Praxis des 5. und 4. Jhdt. s v. Chr. (auch eine Anmerkung zu Arist. pol. 1261a22–29). In Politische Theorie und Praxis im Altertum. Edited by Wolfgang Schuller, 59–71. Darmstadt, Germany: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
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Surveying the political practice in selected federal states, the article moves on to discuss an opaque reference on the nature of the Arkadian League in Aristotle’s Politics. The author concludes persuasively that Aristotle drew a double distinction between polis and symmachy and between ethnos and symmachy.
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Hansen, Mogens H. 1999. Aristotle’s reference to the Arkadian federation at Pol. 1261a29. In Defining ancient Arkadia. Edited by Thomas H. Nielsen and James Roy, 80–88. Copenhagen: Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab.
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Another attempt to solve the riddle of Aristotle’s reference to the Arkadian ethnos in a notorious comment in the Politics (see Funke 1998). The author proposes that Arkadia is viewed as an ethnos that settles in cities, and that this applied to the Arkadian League after 370 BCE.
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Lehmann, Gustav Adolf. 2001. Ansätze zu einer Theorie der griechischen Bundesstaaten bei Aristoteles und Polybios. Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck & Rupprecht.
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A comprehensive study of federal thought and theory, in which the author argues convincingly that Polybius engaged in an intellectual dialogue with Aristotle’s ideas on federalism. The book also includes sections on the Hellenika from Oxyrhynchos and the nomograph-lists from Epidauros.
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Vimercati, E. 2005. Plutarco sul federalismo (Arat. 24, Philop. 8). Aevum 69:61–78.
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In this short article contribution, the author explores Plutarch’s understanding of Achaian federalism, as shaped by two of the leading Achaian statesmen, Aratos of Sikyon and Philopoimen. The analysis includes an innovative comparison of political metaphors.
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Winterling, Aloys. 1995. Polisübergreifende Politik bei Aristoteles. In Rom und der griechische Osten. Edited by Kai Brodersen and Charlotte Schubert, 313–328. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.
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A discussion of the lack of in-depth reflection of federalism in Aristotle’s writings. The author argues that this was based on Aristotle’s assessment that interstate relations were generally volatile. The obvious response to this challenge was for the polis state to minimize its external relations and refrain from projects of cooperation.
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Reception Studies

Greek federalism has often served as a historical paradigm, referenced to inform debates in political philosophy or modern-day politics. The most obvious example is the vibrant debate over the design of the American constitution, in which both sides, The Federalist and its opponents, argued extensively with reference to the ancient Greek experiences with federalism. Chinard 1940 studies this topic with regard to Polybius and his reception by the American Founding Fathers; Giovannini 2003 and Hanses 2011 follow this avenue of inquiry, with insightful observations about the impact of Antiquity on the political discourse of the day. In Lehmann 2015, this is embedded in the wider context of the development and transformation of political ideas since the 15th century. Knoepfler 2013 examines how Montesquieu’s theory of separation of powers as fostered in L’esprit des lois (1734) was informed by federal paradigms from Antiquity. A more opaque appropriation of ancient federalism is that of Swoboda 1915, an inaugural address given by the author as principal of the University of Prague.

Chinard, Gilbert. 1940. Polybius and the American constitution. Journal of the History of Ideas 1:38–58.
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In many ways a trend-setting examination that argues persuasively that the presidential executive and senatorial rights of oversight in the United States mirrored Polybius’s analysis of a mixed constitution in Book 6 of his Histories.
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Giovannini, Adalberto. 2003. Genèse et accomplissement de l’État fédéral de la Grèce antique à la Constitution américaine de 1787–1789. In The idea of European community in history: Conference proceedings. Vol. 2, Aspects of connecting poleis and ethne in ancient Greece. Edited by Kostas Buraselis and Kleanthis Zoumboulakis, 143–176. Conference organized by the University of Athens and the Greek Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs, 13–16 March 2003. Athens, Greece: National and Capodistrian Univ. of Athens.
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A nuanced discussion of the reception of Greek Antiquity by the American Founding Fathers that discloses the complexity of the process of intellectual appropriation. The article sounds out the critical voices of leading protagonists of the day, who argued against the emulation of the Greek experience with federalism.
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Hanses, Mathias. 2011. Antikenbilder im “Federalist”/“Anti-Federalist”. In Antike als Modell in Nordamerika? Konstruktion und Verargumentierung, 1763–1809. Edited by Ulrich Niggemann and Kai Ruffing, 85–110. Munich: Oldenbourg Verlag.
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A broad study on the reception of Antiquity in the constitutional debate over the Virginia Plan and its subsequent implementation.
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Knoepfler, Denis. 2013. “Un modèle de belle république fédérative”? Montesquieu et le système politique des Lyciens, de la genèse de l’Esprit des Lois aux découvertes épigraphiques les plus récents en Asie Mineure méridionale. Journal des Savants:115–154.
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A study on the Lycian League, mostly known through Strabo (see the Lycian League), and its impact on Montesquieu’s political philosophy. The paper also takes an exciting intellectual turn to extend its scope and include recent epigraphic findings in the discussion.
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Lehmann, Gustav Adolf. 2015. Greek federalism, the rediscovery of Polybius, and the framing of the American constitution. In Federalism in Greek antiquity. Edited by Hans Beck and Peter Funke. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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Examining the impact of Polybius’s writings on learned circles in Venice, London, and the Dutch Republic, the author skillfully traces the development of federal ideas in the early modern era. The endpoint of his examination is marked by the reception of Greek federalism among the American Founding Fathers, which occurred only two generations before the first scholarly investigation of Greek federalism (see Freeman 1863, cited under General Overviews).
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Swoboda, Heinrich. 1915. Rektoratsrede: Die griechischen Bünde und der modern Bundesstaat. Prague: J. G. Calve.
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The author’s inaugural address as principal of Prague University, delivered in October 1914, published as a short essay. The speech itself is an intriguing historical document that speaks to Greek federalism as much as it does to the Zeitgeist and to a world in turmoil at that time.
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European Union Conference Volumes

Reception Studies highlights the intellectual cross-reference between the study of federalism in history and its role in the modern world. This section illustrates that dialogues today about the contemporary design of political integration continue to invite conversations about federalism in Greek Antiquity. These dialogues follow a different trajectory, but, in principle, they reinforce the fact that the reception of ancient federalism is ongoing. Since the 1990s, the political and academic debate over the developing constitution of the European Union has triggered new scholarly interest in the paradigmatic potential of Greek federalism. In this spirit of inquiry, several conferences have been held that explore the topic of political integration in Antiquity and its cultural “roots”—note the subtitle of Aigner Foresti 1994, which includes a large volume of important case studies. Buraselis 1994 includes an array of contributions that cluster around the idea of political unity in federal states and other forms of unification projects. Duringr the presidency of Greece in the European Union in the first half of 2003, the Hellenic government sponsored an at-large academic conference that examined the idea of European community in history; Buraselis and Zoumboulakis 2003 is the second volume of the subsequent publication of the conference proceedings. Siewert and Aigner Foresti 2005 is a study that assembles the essential information for students in the European Union; the inclusion of federalism in the territories of the disintegrating Roman Empire in Late Antiquity mirrors the broad conception that was applied by Freeman. The latest international convention of this kind was held in Lecce, Italy, in 2008, organized by a European Union–sponsored research consortium. Its proceedings are published in Lombardo 2008, which includes an extensive and diverse collection of articles on the topic of “supra-polis” and “inter-polis” organizations in the ancient Greek world. The volume includes several studies on federalism.

Aigner Foresti, Luciana, ed. 1994. Federazioni e federalismo nell’Europa antica: Bergamo, 21–25 settembre 1992. Alle radici della casa comune europea 1. Milan: Vita e Pensiero.
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A rich collection of contributions in German, Italian, French, and English. Articles include important case studies on numerous federal states, from their earliest development to the 4th century CE.
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Buraselis, Kostas, ed. 1994. Units and unity of antiquity: Papers from a colloquium at Delphi, 5-8-4 1992. Athens, Greece: Livani.
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Conference papers (English, German, Greek) from a symposium held in Delphi in 1992 that address the question of political integration from a broad perspective. The meeting aimed to explore the possibilities for a common European history school book for Antiquity. Two papers explicitly discuss the notion of Greek federalism. Published for the Greek Cultural Center at Delphi.
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Buraselis, Kostas, and Kleanthis Zoumboulakis, eds. 2003. The idea of European community in history: Conference proceedings. Vol. 2, Aspects of connecting poleis and ethne in ancient Greece. Conference organized by the University of Athens and the Greek Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs. Athens, Greece: National and Capodistrian Univ. of Athens.
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Volume 2 of the proceedings from a conference held in Athens. The scope of most contributions is set widely. Beyond case studies on Achaia, Aitolia, and ethnos states in northern Greece, the book is enriched by many conceptual and structural analyses.
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Lombardo, Mario, ed. 2008. Forme sovrapoleiche e interpoleiche di organizzazione nel mondo greco antico: Atti del convegno internazionale, Lecce, 17–20 settembre 2008. Galatina, Italy: Congedo Editore.
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The book is a collection of forty-six articles in many languages, with an overarching theme that is loosely defined as “supra-polis” and “inter-polis” organizations. Despite a certain degree of inevitable incoherence, the volume contains many research contributions on topics pertaining to federalism.
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Siewert, Peter, and Luciana Aigner Foresti, eds. 2005. Föderalismus in der griechischen und römischen Antike. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.
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Based on a study module for European universities, this edited volume surveys the history of federalism in the Graeco-Roman world in four chapters, with a very flexible definition that amalgamates federalism with other forms of regional cooperation and integration.
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