The Role of Geography in Shaping a Polis

Abstract

The comparison between Athens and Sparta has dominated the study of classical Greek civilisations for a long period of time. While much of the existing literature focuses on the political, social and economic differences between Greek city states, it fails to ask why these differences exist. This paper combines an existing wealth of literature on Greek geography with literature on the ancient Greek polises to analyse the role of geography in shaping a civilisation. It begins by decoding geography as an environmental stressor and then shows its political, economic and social outcomes in Athens and Sparta respectively. The above comparison suggests that the human responses to geography as an environmental stressor are crucial to whether and how a political community exists.