Dress Codes and the Rise of Civil Society

In the EIA “might was right” for the armed retinues of the basileis. With the rise of the integrated polis-state over large zones of the Archaic Aegean we expect evidence for Weber’s definition of “the state,” that it monopolizes the use of force. From figural representations on Archaic vases (van Wees 1998) disarmament develops slowly. In early Archaic, swords and spears remain typical dress for the elite household and its factious clans, but in the final Archaic period these and the open dress allowing rapid deployment of such weapons yield to a tight-fitting male dress copied from the Near East, linked to the disappearance of the sword. As the sixth century closes, the spear is replaced by a walking-stick, available to fend off vagrants, but no longer a serious weapon. Carrying the staff also makes plain that the owner is no artisan, needing hands free for labor, but a man about town, with wealth and leisure to conduct social and political affairs or attend the gymnasium. There is even a brief appearance of what later would be seen as “effeminate” Oriental fashion, the male parasol. At the same time, scenes of elite dining, which begin in Archaic times with a series of armor and weapons suspended above the diners, shift by early Classical times to a single set of military equipment, symbolizing the economic and political status of the head of family as a member of the middle or upper citizen class (the hop-lite, having sufficient income to own the heavy equipment required of the citizen foot soldier in a typical Greek city-state). This symbolizes the transformation from private clan feuding to service for the community.