Beyond Thebes

This chapter uses the results obtained in Chapter 7 to develop a hypothesis regarding the frequency of staseis in poleis other than Thebes: namely, that most poleis experienced stasis at a similar rate of once every 6–12 years. It then subjects this hypothesis to a series of tests using a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis at both the macro and the micro level. It shows that the working hypothesis does not hold for Athens, Sparta, or Syracuse, all of which are genuine outliers with respect to stasis; that it almost certainly holds for a small subset of prominent poleis, such as Argos and Miletos, whose political histories can be studied in detail; that it very likely holds for a larger set of 50 prominent poleis, such as Herakleia Pontike and Mytilene, whose political histories are relatively well documented; and that it probably holds for most of the other thousand or so poleis under consideration.