The Frequency of Stasis

This chapter introduces a database of fifth- and fourth-century staseis that have been recognized by existing scholarship, as well as a set of proxies for what I call “prominence” in the evidentiary record: the amount of evidence concerning the history of a given polis that is available to modern historians. It then uses the database to reveal four striking trends in the frequency and distribution of attested staseis. Next, it uses the proxies to show that both the apparent trends exhibited by recognized staseis and existing scholarship on the frequency of stasis – most of which takes one or more of these trends to be historical – are products of evidentiary scarcity and bias. Finally, it identifies two other methodological issues that compromise attempts to study stasis on a macro scale and argues that new approaches are necessary.