The Antigonids and Hellas – Studies in the Relation Between the Antigonid Dynasty and the Greek Poleis

In the Hellenistic period, the Antigonid dynasty ruled ancient Macedonia and expanded its domination towards northern Greece as well as several other parts of the Greek mainland. While the Macedonians had long been accustomed to living under monarchic domination, the Greek poleis had a centuries-long tradition of urban autonomy and emphatically rejected domination by a single person. The liberty of the polis had an existential meaning for the cities’ self-image. The Hellenistic rulers therefore allowed the city-states to maintain a pretence of autonomy, mostly by granting them special privileges. The PhD project examines this ambivalent relation between the cities’ autonomy and their urban self-administration on the one hand and the Antigonids’ efforts to impose their rule on the other. Specifically, it asks to what extent the Antigonids were ultimately able to control the Greek city-states and in what aspects of the cities’ administration Antigonid domination was manifested.