This collection of essays is based on the papers read at a conference in Durham in September 1995. In planning the conference we wanted to confront from a number of angles the fundamental questions of why and how the polis developed and what this development tells us about Archaic Greece. We invited six speakers (John Davies, Lin Foxhall, Mogens Hansen, Stephen Hodkinson, Catherine Morgan and John Salmon) to deal with six themes, and we then issued a general invitation to intending participants to offer shorter papers, as a result of which our repertoire was expanded to include the range which is covered in this book. We should like to thank not only our speakers but all those who participated in the conference and made it such a success.
For financial help we are grateful to the Classical Association, the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies and the Department of Classics at the University of Durham. We thank the Principal and the staff of Colling-wood College, Durham, for the use of their facilities, and the University of Durham for administrative underpinning. Special thanks must go also to James Pile for helping the four days to run so smoothly.
After the conference Routledge agreed to publish our book, and have done so with great efficiency, and our speakers revised their papers with welcome promptness. Finally, we should like to thank the members of the Department of Classics at Durham for their support and encouragement.
L.G.M. and P.J.R.
April 1996