Definition of "koinon"

Greek koina have their own chronological and local particularities, and in spite of the existence of certain analogies, these cannot be followed absolutely or be considered valid in all cases.

1977, Epigraphica: rivista italiana di epigrafia, page 7

The Cretan Koinon as it is considered in the preceding chapters was similar in some respects to other Greek koina.

1989, Maurice van der Mijnsbrugge, The Cretan Koinon, Amsterdam: Adolf M. Hakkert, page 35

Other decrees relating to koinons give them security from taxes or from being drafted for military service in foreign states. The koinons were associations of various kinds, groups of worshippers, guilds of craftsmen, federations of states, groups of magistrates. Koinons of Asclepiasts, worshippers of Asclepius, functioned and left monuments in Athens, Colyphon, and elsewhere.

1990, Wesley D. Smith, “Introduction”, in Hippocrates: Pseudepigraphic Writings, E. J. Brill, section “The Speeches and Medical History”, page 15

Apart from these village koinons, there were two large koinons in the Karian history that had a national standing.

2007, An Anatolian Civilisation in the Aegean Karia: (Karuwa/Karka/Karkisha/Krk), page 21

After their overwhelming victory against the Spartans at Leuktra, the Boiotians likewise found ritual action a powerful means of undergirding the new and hard-won but still compromised participation of the entire region in the koinon.

2013, Emily Mackil, “Cultic Communities”, in Creating a Common Polity: Religion, Economy, and Politics in the Making of the Greek Koinon, University of California Press, section “Legitimating and Celebrating the Power of the Koinon”, page 214

The cases of the Ionian and Euboian koina serve to futher underline how misleading these mainland Greek koina can be as models for reconstructing the institutional structures of koina in the rest of the Greek world.

2019, Aneurin Ellis-Evans, “The Hellenistic Koinon of the Lesbians”, in The Kingdom of Priam: Lesbos and the Troad between Anatolia and the Aegean, Oxford University Press, section 2 (The Refoundation of the Lesbian Koinon), subsection 5 (Deliberative Bodies and Magistrates of the Koinon), page 214

While some koinons were formed by a military takeover by a dominant community, most were voluntary associations between geographically contiguous communities.

2020, Robert Inman, Daniel L. Rubinfeld, “Cooperative Federalism”, in Democratic Federalism: The Economics, Politics, and Law of Federal Governance, Princeton University Press, page 82

The introduction and continuation of this koinon on a level transgressing provincial boundaries – in addition to the civic and the provincial imperial cult – is clear testimony for the continuing importance of Greek koina in the Roman Imperial period as instruments for Greek cities to embed themselves within the larger framework of the Roman Empire.

2021, Martin Hallmannsecker, “The Ionian Koinon and the Koinon of the 13 Cities at Sardis”, in Kommission für alte geschichte und epigraphik des deutschen archäologischen instituts: Chiron 50, Walter de Gruyter GmbH, page 22