Why Greek Poleis Produced So Many Geniuses

A History of Mankind (83)

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In much of the Greek world, events tended to mirror those in Athens, with merchants often pushing tyrants from power to protect their interests, or at least trying to.

Sostratos/Sostratus of Aegina, a small island near Athens apparently choke full of slaves[1], became the richest Greek of the Sixth Century BC, and one whose influence was so prevalent that his name has been found in Egyptian inscriptions, and jars with the letters SO have been found throughout Etruscan sites.

In Corcyra in Corfu, a rocky island on the western coast of Greece, a series of lead plaques from around 500 BC record large sums loaned to creditors, recorded in a standardized language that indicates the whole process was common practice, that can only be sourced to trade – and may indeed be also financing further trading ventures.

In Chios in the Aegean, the so-called “constitution stele” is evidence of democratic reform, as it set up a new council with fifty members of each tribe; in Mytilene, the largest and most powerful polis in Lesbos, trade-derived wealth triggered bloody disputes for power among aristocratic factions despite the successful tyranny of the famous Pittacus, and only stopped when Persian and later Athenian power subdued everyone equally.