The growth of Greek cities in the first millennium BC
In this paper I trace the growth of the largest Greek cities from perhaps 1,000- 2,000 people at the beginning of the first millennium BC to 400,000-500,000 at the millennium’s end.
The collapse and regeneration of complex society in Greece, 1500-500 BC
Greece between 1500 and 500 BC is one of the best known examples of the phenomenon of the regeneration of complex society after a collapse. I review 10 core dimensions of this process (urbanism, tax and rent, monuments, elite power, information- recording systems, trade, crafts, military power, scale, and standards of living), and suggest that punctuated equilibrium models accommodate the data better than gradualist interpretations.
Legal Pluralism in Archaic Greece
The theory of legal pluralism argues that law’s function in modern society must be understood as a negotiation between different sets of legal orders operating simultaneously. This paper argues that archaic Greece, too, was a legally plural society and explores two negotiations as evidence: 1)the relationship between Drakon’s murder law and the procedure of blood-money negotiation; 2)the Gortyn Law Code and oath-trials.
Monogamy and polygyny
This paper discusses Greco-Roman practices of monogamy and polygyny for a forthcoming handbook on the ancient family.