Classical Polis Research Articles

Класичний античний поліс: форми привласнення та соціальні кластери

This article continues the series of publications on the universal evolution of the ancient civilization and its sub-civilizations and deals with the characteristics of socio-economic and social structures in a classical ancient polis, and their interrelationships and contradictions on the example of Athens. The author considers various changes in power-property relations and the role of traditional social clusters in the governing groups under the expansion of democratic institutional order and with the growing stratum of non-citizens. The defeat of dynastic proto-institutions, the competition between clanism and corporatism, the development of private property of citizens and democratic procedures promoted to the strengthening of personal and collective sub-actors in the ruling group, as well as to their consolidation in the context of strengthening of the economic positions of non-citizens. At the same time, the collision between the ruling group as a representative of the civil community in the polis and an organization relatively separated from it acquires new qualitative features, including the struggle for redistribution of the centralized surplus and necessary product between the sub-actors of the ruling group and the conversion of its parts from personal-private and corporate-clan-collective power-proprietary appropriation into various forms of private appropriation by the members of the power group. The main social clusters of the classical polis (peasants, artisans and merchants, aristocrats, non-tribal rich, hired workers, slaves, civil community) and their appropriate forms of appropriation (personal-clan, clan-private, clan- and corporate-private, private and collective-individual). Attention is focused on inter- and intra-cluster contradictions regarding the appropriation of surplus and necessary product. The author concludes about the network nature of the classic policy appropriation system and about the expediency of its further study.

Pharmacopoeial Standards for Venpucani Ilakam - A classical Siddha medicine

Belief on the therapeutic values of herbal medicine is in increasing trend and the consumption of traditional medicine is also in upward trend. The quality control and assurance of these traditional medicines is a prime criterion for any herbal drug manufacturer. Venpucani ilakam (VPI) is a classical poly herbal Siddha medicine under the category Ilakam (Legiyam in Ayurveda). This poly herbal medicine is a combination of 18 ingredients of plants and animal origins. An attempt was made to prepare the drug with authenticated ingredients and subjected to physicochemical analysis, thin layer chromatographic photo documentation and high performance thin layer chromatographic finger printing. The TLC photo documentation of defatted chloroform extract showed nine spots under UV 254, ten spots under UV 366 nm and eleven spots after derivatization with vanillin sulphuric acid; defatted success ethanol extract showed five spots under short wavelength, six spots under long wavelength and seven spots after derivatization. HPTLC finger printing recorded eleven peaks under 254 nm, seventeen under 366 nm and fifteen peaks after derivatization in defatted chloroform extract; nine peaks under 254 nm, eleven peaks under 366 nm and eight peaks after derivatization in defatted ethanol extract. About twenty three percent loss in weight was observed on heating at 105oC and drug was acidic nature. Not less than fourty percentage of the drug was soluble in alcohol and also in water. This drug has wide therapeutic use and the derived results may serve as reference standards.

Flaked Stone Tools and Domestic Economy in a Classical Polis: Lithics from the Lower Town at Halieis, Greece

The advent of metallurgy in the Bronze Age corresponded with a reduced role for stone tools. Objects of worked stone from historic contexts have therefore received less attention than objects made of other materials. An assemblage from the Classical city-state of Halieis in the southern Argolid demonstrates the continued use of lithics in historic periods. The material, consisting largely of obsidian blades, with few cores and other production residue, reflects either primary reduction off-site and importation of finished tools or preforms, or recycling of older material. Despite the assemblage's small size, the lithics reveal some nuances of an underreported aspect of the ancient Greek economy.

Rape culture in Classical Athens?

Classical Athens had a culture of widespread sexual violence, where different forms of sexual misconduct were embedded in the normative framework. Numerous products of the city’s ‘popular culture’, such as mythology, literature and art, propagated the normalcy of rape. A large body of modern scholarship has correlated this frequency with the particular Athenian historical context during the Cassical period, underlining that ancient Athenians followed different standards and guidelines than we do for the evaluation of sexual behaviour. This article demonstrates that in Classical Athens the repeated representations of rape in literature and art were means to preserve the fundamental principles of the established male order. The power structure of the Classical Athenian polis fostered attitudes that remind us of the modern concept of ‘rape culture’. This concept, developed by feminist scholars to describe modern realities, reveals how societies can use culture to downgrade the moral wrongness of rape. ‘Rape culture’ will be used in this article as a model, or analytical tool, to reinterpret the Classical literary evidence on Athenian attitudes towards sexual assault. I will argue that this model makes better sense of the evidence than the now prevalent relativistic interpretation.

Enhancing the Oil-Fouling Resistance of Polymeric Membrane Ion-Selective Electrodes by Surface Modification of a Zwitterionic Polymer-Based Oleophobic Self-Cleaning Coating

Due to the frequent oil spill accidents and pollution of industrial oily wastewater, oil fouling has become a great challenge to polymeric membrane ion-selective electrodes (ISEs) for applications in oil-contaminated areas. Herein, a simple approach is proposed to enhance the oil-fouling resistance of polymeric membrane ISEs by surface modification of a zwitterionic polymer-based underwater oleophobic coating. As a proof-of-concept, a classical poly(vinyl chloride) membrane-based calcium ion-selective electrode (Ca2+-ISE) is chosen as a model sensor. The zwitterionic polymer-based coating can be readily modified on the sensor's surface by immersion of the electrode into a mixture solution of dopamine and a zwitterionic acrylate monomer (i.e., sulfobetaine methacrylate, SBMA). The formed poly(SBMA) (PSBMA) coating alters the oleophilic membrane surface to an oleophobic one, which endows the surface with excellent self-cleaning properties without loss of the sensor's analytical performance. Compared to the pristine Ca2+-ISE, the PSBMA-modified Ca2+-ISE exhibits an improved analytical stability when exposed to oil-containing wastewater. The proposed approach can be explored to enhance the oil-fouling resistance of other polymeric membrane-based electrochemical sensors for use in the oil-polluted environment.

Solvent‐Actuated Self‐Assembly of Amphiphilic Hole‐Transporting Polymer Enables Bottom‐Surface Passivation of Perovskite Film for Efficient Photovoltaics

AbstractBottom‐surface defect passivation of perovskite film, lagging far behind easily conducted bulk and top‐surface passivations in perovskite solar cells (PSCs), remains rather challenging because most passivation molecules/groups can be eroded by polar solvents used for the subsequent perovskite deposition. In this work, an effective bottom‐surface passivation is enabled for enhanced performance of inverted PSCs by covalently attaching a passivation group (hydroxyl) to a hole transporting polymer. A short linker (methylene) between the hydroxyl and the conjugated backbone bearing hydrophobic long alkyl chains is adopted to improve the resistance of the resultant amphiphilic polymer to polar solvents. A solvent evaporation‐induced self‐assembly of the amphiphilic hole transporting polymer is developed to enrich hydroxyl groups on the film surface, passivating defects of the upper perovskite layer via interactions with undercoordinated Pb2+ and I– sites. Inverted PSCs based on this hole transporting film are superior in efficiency (20.12%), reproducibility, large‐area fabrication, and stability to its classical poly(bis(4‐phenyl)(2,5,6‐trimethylphenyl)amine) counterpart. This work demonstrates that rational introduction of passivation groups into the hole transporting layer combined with self‐assembly‐modulated component distributions is useful to realize bottom‐surface passivation of the perovskite layer for improved photovoltaic performance.

Synthesis and physicochemical evaluation of fluorinated lipopeptide precursors of ligands for microbubble targeting.

Ligand-targeted microbubbles are focusing interest for molecular imaging and delivery of chemotherapeutics. Lipid–peptide conjugates (lipopeptides) that feature alternating serine–glycine (SG)n segments rather than classical poly(oxyethylene) linkers between the lipid polar head and a targeting ligand were proposed for the liposome-mediated, selective delivery of anticancer drugs. Here, we report the synthesis of perfluoroalkylated lipopeptides (F-lipopeptides) bearing two hydrophobic chains (CnF2n+1, n = 6, 7, 8, 1–3) grafted through a lysine moiety on a hydrophilic chain composed of a lysine–serine–serine (KSS) sequence followed by 5 SG sequences. These F-lipopeptides are precursors of targeting lipopeptide conjugates. A hydrocarbon counterpart with a C10H21 chain (4) was synthesized for comparison. The capacity for the F-lipopeptides to spontaneously adsorb at the air/water interface and form monolayers when combined with dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) was investigated. The F-lipopeptides 1–3 demonstrated a markedly enhanced tendency to form monolayers at the air/water interface, with equilibrium surface pressures reaching ≈7–10 mN m−1 versus less than 1 mN m−1 only for their hydrocarbon analog 4. The F-lipopeptides penetrate in the DPPC monolayers in both liquid expanded (LE) and liquid condensed (LC) phases without interfacial film destabilization. By contrast, 4 provokes delipidation of the interfacial film. The incorporation of the F-lipopeptides 1–3 in microbubbles with a shell of DPPC and dipalmitoylphosphatidylethanolamine-PEG2000 decreased their mean diameter and increased their stability, the best results being obtained for the C8F17-bearing lipopeptide 3. By contrast, the hydrocarbon lipopeptide led to microbubbles with a larger mean diameter and a significantly lower stability.

Fused Furan‐Based Organic Small Molecules as Dopant‐Free Hole Transporting Material for Inverted Perovskite Solar Cells

Hole transport material (HTM) is a significant constituent in perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However, HTM generally is not utilized in its pristine form but with dopants (such as lithium salt, tert‐butyl pyridine, F4‐TCNQ), which accelerates device degradation and leads to poor stability. Therefore, dopant‐free HTM is highly desirable to fabricate stable devices. Herein, a fused furan organic small molecule (C8‐DPNDF) is introduced as a dopant‐free HTM in inverted PSCs. As a potential HTM candidate, C8‐DPNDF shows excellent properties, such as high hole mobility, matched energy level with perovskite, and resistance to perovskite precursor solution. As a result, the device based on C8‐DPNDF as HTM shows a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 17.5%, compared with 17.1% of the control device based on classic poly(bis(4‐phenyl)(2,4,6‐trimethylphenyl)amine) (PTAA) as the HTM. In addition, the unencapsulated device based on C8‐DPNDF as HTM keeps 92% of its initial PCE after 30 days of storage in ambient air with a relative humidity of ≈40%. This finding is expected to pave the way toward stable and highly efficient inverted PSCs based on dopant‐free HTMs.

Coordination Effects in Polymer Electrolytes: Fast Li+ Transport by Weak Ion Binding

In view of the limited ionic conductivity and low lithium transference number in classical poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO)-based salt-in-polymer electrolytes, employing alternative polymer architectures...

Polis and Oikos: The Art of Politics in the Greek City-State

ABSTRACTThe Greek city-state has traditionally been viewed as an entity that was divided into two distinct spheres (oikos and polis) and governed by two distinct arts (oikonomia and politikê technê). The aim of this article is to show that this image of the Greek city-state is not very accurate. The relationship between the oikos and the polis was not exclusive in classical poleis. Particularly in Athens during the democratic period, the polis was depicted as a family writ large, and to the extent that oikos was seen as an entity of its own, it was a part of the polis, not excluded from or opposed to it. My aim is to show that the art of the household and the art of politics were not distinct arts as has been claimed in modern political theory. Furthermore, although the collapse of the classical city-state during the Hellenistic era entailed a privatization of the household, it was not until modern times, from the late eighteenth century onwards—when the concept of the natural right to life and property became firmly established in juridical and political discourses—that the private sphere attained genuine autonomy.

A potentiometric sensor based on modified electrospun PVDF nanofibers - towards 2D ion-selective membranes.

Core-shell modified nanofiber mats were used as ion-selective membranes for the first time. Keeping the overall macroscopic size of the sensing element the same as for classical plasticized poly(vinyl chloride) membranes, herein the proposed nanofiber based systems resulted in ultrathin (<10 nm) recognition layers with the total area nearly 3 orders of magnitude larger and the surface to volume ratio close to 7.5 × 107. Thus, for the first time close to 2D potentiometric receptors were obtained. Formation of thin and continuous liquid recognition layers on nanofibers was confirmed by XPS studies. The nanofiber based ion-selective mats used in the classical internal-solution arrangement were characterized with analytical parameters - the slope and detection limit well comparable to those for classical plasticized poly(vinyl chloride) based membranes. Despite the novel arrangement of the ion-selective layer and its nanometric thickness, the reproducibility of the recorded potentials, studied for more than 30 days, was high. Using confocal microscopy it was shown that electrolyte transport through porous nanofibers' mat phase is the rate limiting step in conditioning of the receptor layer. The estimated electrolyte diffusion coefficients for the nanofiber phase are close to 10-10 cm2 s-1, and thus are orders of magnitude lower compared to values characterizing ion transport through classical poly(vinyl chloride) based membranes. The truly nanostructural character of nanofiber ion-selective mats is visible in chronoamperometric experiments. It was shown that a core-shell nanofiber mat behaves as an array of nanoelectrodes - individual nanofibers. Thus, the novel nanofiber based architecture of ion-selective mats brings also a new quality to the current based electrochemistry of ion-selective sensors.

Nossis’ Dildo: A Metapoetic Attack on Female Poetry in Herodas’s Sixth Mime

Herodas’s reference in Mime 6 to a stolen dildo in the possession of “Nossis, daughter of Erinna” (the names of two female poets) represents a metapoetic attack on the popularity of feminine poetry in the Hellenistic period. By associating the dildo-maker with Homer, who represents poetry’s role in shaping the ideal male citizen of the Classical polis, Herodas uses Nossis’ theft of the dildo to criticize the appropriation and misuse of the morally edifying masculine poetic tradition, in his view, for the purpose of female pleasure and gratification, exposing anxieties about the erosion of Classical masculinity in the Hellenistic period.

РОЛЬ БАСІЛЕВСІВ В ОРГАНІЗАЦІЇ РЕМІСНИЧОГО ВИРОБНИЦТВА ЗА ДАНИМИ ТАБЛИЧОК СЕРІЇ JN

The activities of the basileis, who appear in Homer’s poems as tribal leaders, are associated with the organizing of handicraft production in the texts of linear B. Since the position of basileus, which appears before us for the first time in the Pylian and Knossos texts, continues to exist in the polis period, the study of the functions of the Achaean basileis will not only expand and deepen our knowledge of this position in the Mycenaean kingdoms of the second millennium, but will also allow us to reveal the transformational processes that this office underwent after the collapse of the palatial states of Greece and during the emergence of classical polis civilization. This article examines the Pylian texts of the Jn series, which record the basileis’ fulfillment of the function of managing (overseeing) the work of the smiths. The work is based on the so called combinatorial method, which provides in-depth study of the internal structure of texts as a fundamental stage of penetration into their content. Applying this method, the author recognizes four distinct sections in the document Jn 431: apekean smiths who have tarasija; apekean smiths, who do not have tarasija; apekean smiths of Potnia, who have tarasija; apekean smiths of Potnia, who do not have tarasija. This division allows us to conclude that the basileus Apiqota only supervises the work of the apekean smiths who have tarasija, and is not associated with the apekean smiths who do not have tarasija. Analasing the role played by the basileis in the Jn series in general and the functions that the basileus Apiqota performs in the text of Jn 431 in particular, and also based on the fact that the basis of basileis’ activity was concentrated in the qasirewija headed by them, the author concludes that the basileis were not in any way substantially or organically connected with the smiths, and the function of controlling their work was imposed on the basileis by the palace in certain individual cases (Jn 431, 691, 845) and played a secondary role in their activities.

The Voice of the People in Homer

Abstract The informality of the Homeric assembly is often emphasised to distinguish it from the democratic bodies of the classical polis, and to show that the people in the Homeric society had no means to qualify the power of their aristocratic leaders. This article argues, to the contrary, that the lack of a formal system of command and control in the Homeric society conditioned the dependence of the leaders on a political model of persuasion. Since this was necessarily directed at the mass population of the society, they people were integrated in the system of government. This was maintained through three general mechanisms: first, the voice of the people was institutionalised, in the form of a popular assembly, the agorē; second, the people had a standardised, effective means by which to express consent and a limited amount of dissent to their leaders in the assembly; third, the people participated in a juridical function which was communal in purpose and form. This model seeks to show that, in these ways, the voice of the people held an important position in the structure of power, one which depended on the informality of that structure rather than being reduced by it.

Improving the Biocompatibility of Polymeric Membrane Potentiometric Ion Sensors by Using a Mussel-Inspired Polydopamine Coating.

Polymeric membrane potentiometric ion sensors have been widely used in clinical diagnosis for the detection of electrolyte ions and account for billions of measurements every year throughout the world. However, in many cases of practical relevance, biofouling, which might lead to sensor failure, usually occurs due to the lack of biocompatibility of these sensors. Herein, we describe a simple and robust approach for improving the biocompatibility of the polymeric ion-selective membranes. A marine mussel-inspired polydopamine polymer is used as a hydrophilic coating on the surface of conventional potentiometric ion sensors. Such a coating can be easily formed by self-polymerization of dopamine and robustly deposited on the sensor surface mimicking the adhesion mechanism of mussels. The classical poly(vinyl chloride) membrane-based calcium ion-selective electrode (ISE) is chosen as a model. Compared to the unmodified Ca2+ ISE, the polydopamine modified electrode shows a significantly reduced blood platelet adsorption while retaining original potentiometric ion response properties, which clearly indicates a high antifouling capability induced by the hydrophilic polydopamine coating. We believe that the proposed approach can provide an appealing way to improve the biocompatibility in the development of polymeric membrane electrochemical and optical sensors.

ПЕРІОД PORTO FRANCO НА ДЕЛОСІ

The article deals with the features and changes in the development of Delian polis during the free port period. The economic development was analized, it has experienced the highest prosperity due to duty-free trade and the slave market on the island. The political evolution of Delos from the classical polis to the Hellenistic city is characterized. The peculiarities of religious life on the island, which combined both Greek and Eastern cults, were identified.

Спор о свободе: анализ одного дискурса в беседах Сократа с Калликлом и Аристиппом

This paper aims at analyzing the differences in views on human freedom as seen in Socrates’ argument with the sophist Callicles and his own pupil Aristippus. These differences reflect sociocultural issues that emerged amid the crisis of the classical polis, and called for rethinking an antinomy between freedom and slavery, typical of antiquity. While Socrates emerges victorious in both discussions, his understanding of freedom is not devoid of contradictions, stipulated by an attempt to combine freedom of a thinking person with the traditional unity of a civic community. At the same time, this debate brings to light a new dimension of human freedom that allows a human being to stay true to oneself even in a poorest social environment, namely one’s spiritual freedom.

Once More about the Concept of Civil Society: A Philosophical Approach

There is a huge number of publications devoted to civil society. Nevertheless this theme is inexhaustible, because the very subject of it is multidimensional and changing along with the evolution of society. Alongside this, one of the key problems of the civil society theory is a problem of its perception in our mind. Answering these questions, the author, at first, stresses the necessity to differ three historical types of civil society: ancient classical polis, civil communities of the Modern History and contemporary civil society. They all are substantially different inter se from the axiological point of view. That is a reason not to use the ideological and methodological curves developed for historically previous types of civil society for the analysis of contemporary one. Secondly, the author focuses attention upon epistemological aspect of the civil society theory, in particular he proposes to rethink the concept of “totality” not in a formal logic way but in the “logic” of living systems in order to be able by means of this concept to express the unity of the diversity of social system. Thirdly, the author treats the concept of “citizen” in informal sense, stresses its existential, personal content and contemplates it through the dialectical relation of “totality-peculiarity-individuality.” Fourthly, the author researches the phenomenon of contemporary civil society as a counterpart of a state in the complex society the main features of which are the diversity and individuality. He comes to the conclusion that the civil society is not a society in common sense, but rather is some kind of “soil structure,” so called “social mycelium” that fertilizes social system with new opportunities. In the final part of the article author gives the example of one of the approaches to estimate the degree of maturation of civil society, proposed by the world-wide international organization “Civicus.” He stresses that the logic of power distribution in contemporary society presupposes cooperation of different actors, and one of the most influential of them is the civil society.

“From Shahristān to Medina” Revisited

AbstractThe title is taken from an article published in 2006 by Hugh Kennedy that is an examination of the Sasanian city. This subject is re-examined with a presentation of archaeological information on Sasanian cities in Fars province and the city of Jundi Shapur in Khuzistan. The urban form and key institutions are presented with consideration of changes introduced with the Islamic period. In contrast to the Classical polis, the problem is limited information on urban element in Sasanian cities and some of these elements are described.

Quinoxaline-Containing Nonfullerene Small-Molecule Acceptors with a Linear A2-A1-D-A1-A2 Skeleton for Poly(3-hexylthiophene)-Based Organic Solar Cells.

We used the quinoxaline (Qx) unit to design and synthesize two nonfullerene small-molecule acceptors of Qx1 and Qx1b with an A2-A1-D-A1-A2 skeleton, where indacenodithiophene (IDT), Qx, and rhodanine (R) were adopted as the central donor (D), bridge acceptors (A1), and terminal acceptors (A2), respectively. Qx1 and Qx1b contain different side chains of 4-hexylphenyl and octyl in the central IDT segment to modulate the properties of final small molecules. Both small molecules show good thermal stability, high solubility, and strong and broad absorption spectra with optical band gaps of 1.74 and 1.68 eV, respectively. Qx1 and Qx1b exhibit the complementary absorption spectra with the classic poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and the high-lying lowest unoccupied molecular orbital energy levels of -3.60 and -3.66 eV, respectively. Polymer solar cells based on P3HT:Qx1 showed a high open-circuit voltage ( Voc) of 1.00 V and a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 4.03%, whereas P3HT:Qx1b achieved a Voc of 0.95 V and a PCE of 4.81%. These results demonstrate that the Qx unit is also an effective building block to construct promising n-type nonfullerene small molecules to realize a relatively high Voc and PCE for P3HT-based solar cells.