The Society of Hellenistic Kos

elective courses

The inscriptions from Kos, recently published in the volumes of IG XII 4 contain a great wealth of information on the Hellenistic society of the island which has not been sufficiently studied yet. Through the analysis of this rich source material we will discuss important topics of Hellenistic social history, such as the connection between wealth and power, relationship between town and rural communities, the status of foreigners, non-

citizens, and women. We will also look for the economic, geopolitical and cultural contexts of the characteristcs of Koan society and explore to what extent these characteristics conform with general Hellenistic trends.

The first seminar, „Analyzing the Society of Hellenistic Kos: Class, Professions and Legal Statuses“ will deal with theoretical problems of the analysis of Koan society, especially with the applicability of the category of class and the question of social stratification. Through an examination of sacrifice prescriptions preserved in the documents on the sale of priesthoods as well as of votive and funerary inscriptions, a reconstruction of the

population of Koan society will be attempted. The emergence of a hereditary elite dominating all aspects of publich life is generally held to be the hallmark of the post-classical city.

The seminar on „Wealth and Power in Hellenistic Kos“ will examine the ways in which this process played out in Hellenistic Kos. The seminar will be centered around the analysis of the rich body of prosopographical evidence on the participants of the famous war time subscription list (IG XII 4, 75-77). It will be argued that the elite exercised its influence on politics not primarily through the regular offices (archai), but through engagement in diplomacy, participation in irregular committees as well as informal mechanisms. This constitutes a markedly different configuration of the wealth–power nexus than in other well documented Hellenistic cities.

The seminar on „Life in the Rural Communities of Kos“ will examine the complex relationships between the central town of Kos and the demes scattered over the territory of the island which constituted a single unified political entity. The epigraphic evidence makes it possible to trace flows of migration from the rural communities to the town of Kos as well a vibrant religious and political life and intensive, market-oriented economic activity

in the demes. A comparison with other well documented Hellenistic cities with extended territories, such as Rhodes and Athens, will shed light on the peculiarities in the situation of the Koan demes.

Literature recommended for the course. In case of compulsory classes, conducted in many groups, you can limit the list in this part of the sylabus to some basic textbooks (up to 65 000 characters)

Ando, C.: The Political Economy of the Hellenistic Polis: Comparative and Modern Perspectives, in: Börm, H. and Luraghi, N. (eds.): The Polis in the Hellenistic World, Stuttgart: Steiner, 2018, 9-26.

Buraselis, K.: Kos between Hellenism and Rome. Studies on the Political, Institutional and Social History of Kos from ca. the Middle Second Century B. C. Until Late Antiquity, Philadelphia 2000.

Höghammar, Kerstin: The moving movers. Foreigners buried on Kos in the Hellenistic period, in: Poulsen, B. – Pedersen, P. – Lund, J. (eds.): Karia and the Dodekanese. Cultural Interrelations in the Southeast Aegean II. Early Hellenistic to Early Byzantine, Oxford – Philadelphia 2021, 89-108.

Höghammar, K.: Kerstin: Public Servants and Cult Officials: The Socio-economic Standing of the Priests of Apollo and the Hieropoioi at Halasarna, c. 220-180 BC, in, Stefanakis, M. – Mavroudis, G. – Seroglou, F. K.: Religion and Cult in the Dodecanese during the First Millenium BC, Oxford 2023, 63-72.

Kató, P.: Wealthy Koans around 200 B. C. in the Context of Hellenistic Social History, JAC 36/2 (2021), 235-268.

Paul, Stéphanie: Cultes et sanctuaires de l‘île de Cos, Kernos Supplément 28, Liège 2013

Sherwin-White, Susan M.: Ancient Cos: An historical study from the Dorian settlement to the Imperial period, Göttingen 1978.

Wiemer, H.-U.: Käufliche Priestertümer im hellenistischen Kos, Chiron 33 (2003), 263-310.

Ongoing assessment of activity.