diplomacy in antiquity

from the Myca-mean palaces run by a king called Wanax, notable local basileus, who was assisted
by a council of elders – gerontes. The Mycenaean age was characterized by a warrior culture and
trade relations with the neighboring Sicily, Italy, Anatolia, and Macedonia. Dorians quickly overran
the Mycenaean civilization of the Peloponnese. It spelled the end of the fortress age, the beginning
of a rural wilderness from 1100-900 B.C. until the urbanized polis emerged due to the dislocation
and the integrity of the political institutions of the Mycenaean age in the eighth century. This
dispersal gave rise to the particularism of the Greek poleis comprising different institutions, cults,
calendars, dialects, and alphabets. This organization also resulted in a specific kind of colonization
reflecting the various political systems in Greece: Monarchy, Oligarchy, and Democracy.
Moreover, the colonies often organized themselves as independent sovereign polis. This helped
contribute to the development of the political institution known as tyranny when wealthy aristocrats
got elected as monarchs by the popular assembly in competition with other nobility. The
administration was mainly maintained by tribes and clans and helped mitigate conflicts between the
aristocracy and the people. This helped ensure the colonial enterprise was agricultural in nature and
direct popular democracy to be an even more cumbersome process than usually admitted. In ancient
Greece, a diplomatic system slowly emerged to the effect of regulating territorial rights and right of
access through a combination of legalization of links, a method of envoys, and exchange between
political leaders, leading to a complex of city-states, more often than not organized in Leagues
around a leading state such as Sparta ( Lacedemonian) or Athens (Delian), Corinth ( Aetolian) or
Thebes (Archaen). This state system existed between the Sixth century-second century B.C. Here, a
method of balance of powers proper was invented and applied to the art of diplomacy. The reason
for this lay like the system: The need to coalesce and forge alliances for status and influence among
the members of the Greek state system to attain economic growth and military prowess. From
Sparta’s pre-eminence in the Peloponnese and later using an alliance with Persia over Athens’ rise
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