Networks, Hegemony, and Multipolarity in the Hellenistic Cyclades

Abstract

The connected studies in this dissertation draw on insights from network theory and international relations theory to reframe our economic, social, and political narratives of the Cyclades in the Hellenistic period. First, it synthesises recent work on the Hellenistic coinages of the islands, including the first study of the coinage of Paros, to identify previously unrecognised sub-regional island numismatic networks. Second, study of the proxeny network in the Cyclades confirms the historical validity of the Cyclades as a unit at this time, and demonstrates the systemic centrality of Delos to communication both inside and across the Hellenistic Cyclades. Third, it reconceptualises the sanctuary of Delos as a locus of socially embedded competitive display, and argues that dedications were required for patrons to maintain their relevance, but rarely, if ever, could grant primacy. Finally, a reanalysis of Rhodian activity in the Hellenistic Cyclades presents Rhodes as one of several contemporaneously active competing powers, rather than one of a succession of uncontested hegemons. Each study individually allows more space for islander agency, regional complexity, and the diversity of the island experience than has previously been common. Cumulatively, the result is a richer pattern of narratives which are more consistent with our current understanding of the environmental constraints inherent in Cycladic life; which are embedded in the varying regional and sub-regional economic and social structures here identified; and which allow for more diverse diachronic engagement by a range of internal and external powers.