Stasis in Hellenistic Asia

This thesis undertook an interdisciplinary approach combining research methods in history and in political science to explore the phenomenon of stasis or civil violence in the Greek city-states of Asia during the Hellenistic period. It aimed to explore the significance that external factors had in causing stasis and generating its outcomes. In current scholarship, socioeconomic tensions within cities are forwarded as the most significant cause for stasis, with the prevailing view considering them as a flashpoint for triggering political violence between a wealthy class and a poor class in the citizen body. Although identifying socioeconomic tensions as a cause for stasis is valid in many cases, there are a number of instances where cities erupted into civil violence in which social and economic tensions did not appear as a cause. There were also many incidents of stasis in which social and economic tensions played only a partial role in triggering the violence. It was this thesis’ objective to focus on these anomalies that the prevailing views in scholarship have overlooked, and in this way make an original and important contribution to our understanding of stasis. The thesis accomplished this objective through selecting five case studies of Greek city-states in Asia that underwent a period of stasis during the age of Alexander and the Polybian era. The case studies were conducted through interdisciplinary methods combining political history with neorealism theory from political science and international relations. These case studies showed that in many cases, stasis in ancient Greek cities could be caused by external factors unrelated to their domestic political disputes and affairs, and that they could also be caused by the interaction between politics on the regional and global scale with the local scale within the city. Ultimately, the thesis found that in examining stasis, we must remain mindful of external sources and pressures and explore their role to the same admirable degree that current scholarship has developed for internal pressures.