Introduction: Bureaucracy and Administration in Ancient Greece

This exhibition of artifacts, inscriptions, texts, buildings, and diagrams spans approximately 3500 years and features exhibits from the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the Classical period, the Hellenistic period, and modernity. The places of origin of the items featured include modern Iran, Crete, the Balkan Peninsula, and the United States of America. Within this exhibition are great buildings, religious items, laws and decrees, military equipment, and evidence of economic transactions. The common thread between them? Each of these exhibits is intended to provide a unique perspective on the administrative and bureaucratic history of Ancient Greece. 

“Administration” and “bureaucracy” are somewhat broad terms. As such, it is prudent to define what, exactly, is included within an “administrative and bureaucratic history” of a territory. For the purposes of this exhibition, the administrative and bureaucratic history is the history of systematized, ordered authority in the Ancient Greek world. In plain English, this exhibition is a history of structure. Political structure, religious structure, economic structure, and military structure are all part of the administrative and bureaucratic history of Ancient Greece; this is because, of course, any government, religion, economy, or military with any kind of structure must, in some capacity, contain or be the result of an organized decision-making process, and thus be, by definition, a bureaucracy.  

This exhibition will interact with three key tenets of Ancient Greek administration and bureaucracy.

 

1. First, the relatively small size of Greek societies, be they Mycenaean settlements or classical city-states, meant that bureaucracies were rarely far removed from the populations they served. When compared to a large conglomeration of societies living under one rule (like the Achaemenid Empire), Greek bureaucracies were somewhat simple and very connected to their constituents. This allowed lawmakers and administrators to tailor their work to smaller groups of people without having to delegate control, which led to more specific legislation and, at times, a greater consolidation of power.

2. Second, and relatedly, the architecture of Greek bureaucracy was abundantly public.  Beginning with the Palace at Knossos, continuing through the Mycenaean era, and still evident in institutions such as the Athenian Acropolis, centers of decision-making were almost always some combination of administrative spaces, marketplaces, social areas, and centers of trade. Though historians such as Moses Finley argue that ancient societies likely did not make economic decisions based on collected data and statistics, it is obvious that, throughout ancient Greek history, there was an understanding of the socioeconomic importance of a bustling political, social, and trade economy in which members of society felt they could freely take part. 

3. Third, in a broad sense, the Ancient Greeks were (considering the small size of each polis) a highly bureaucratic society. Very little, from military actions to religious offerings, was done without a plan and a defined leadership structure. As areas of power became larger (during and after the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars, and again during the Hellenistic period), bureaucracies became more complex, and began to resemble those of larger non-Greek empires. 

The challenge of attempting to curate a history of a concept (as opposed to something more material, like clothing or pottery) is that concepts – and particularly bureaucracy – are usually not glamorous, and often leave little historical evidence. There are no monuments to bureaucracy atop the Athenian Acropolis. But there are lessons to be learned from the ways in which ancient Greek bureaucracies used their authority. Polis-specific nationalism was a legitimate force in ancient Greece and contributed to the internal disunity evident across every period of ancient Greek history. There was substantial buy-in on the part of citizenry in many city-states; historically, innovative systems such as Athenian democracy and Spartan military oligarchy tend not to survive unless they have the support of their constituents. The Greeks were clearly doing something right; one of the questions this exhibition attempts to explore is: why were Greek bureaucracies so effective for so long?

It is also important to note that the curator of this exhibition does not intend to apply a positive or negative connotation to the words “bureaucracy” and “administration.” Unquestionably, ancient Greek bureaucracies, at times, did good work for the people they served. Armies need structure, cities need boundaries, and architecture needs intent – in all of which, bureaucracy plays a major role. But ancient Greek administrative states also allowed the proliferation of slavery, orchestrated the slaughter of innocents in captured territories, and committed countless other atrocities that were only possible because of the organized nature of bureaucratic administration. When a law or structure is described in this exhibition as “effective,” or any similar word is used, it is in reference to the aims of that law or structure’s originators and not a judgment regarding the goodness of that law or structure. 

This exhibition is not a comprehensive analysis of Greek administration and bureaucracy; rather, it is a small window into the many ways the many Ancient Greek societies were, in varying ways, structured, public-facing bureaucratic states. There is no correct way to approach this exhibition; the items are placed in approximately reverse chronological order, but viewers are welcome to start their explorations at any point in the exhibition.

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