Democracy 101What is it good for?

Overview

• Athenian Democracy• The Virtues of Ruling• Republic or Democracy?

Athenian Geography • Athens has poor soil

• Red clay: bad for food, good for pottery

• Olives, grapes and figs• 3 splendid harbors of Piraeus • Silver mines in Larium• Fine white marble

Legends of Athenian Past

• Never successfully invaded by Dorians

• A refuge for pure Greeks escaping invasions• So they were “Pure Greeks”. Ionians.

• Tradition of harmony, not conflict. • Synoikismos – “bringing households together”

• Legend of the Genesis of Athens. Yikes.

Legends of Athenian Past

• 632, Cyclon of Megara wanted to est. a Tyranny so attempted a coup. First recorded challenge to Athenian aristocrats.

• Tried to seize the Acropolis. Failed. Hid in temple of Athena.

• Megacles and his Alcmaeonid followers inherited a curse and were exiled from the city. Even the bodies of buried Alcmaeonidae were dug up and removed from the city limits.

• Alcmaeonidae allegedly negotiated for an alliance with the Persians during the Persian Wars, despite the fact that Athens was leading the resistance to the Persian invasion.

• Pericles and Alcibiades were Alcmaeonidae, and during the Peloponnesian War the Spartans referred to the family curse in an attempt to discredit Pericles.

Social Units of Athens:

Households ==> Clans ==> Villages ==> Tribes.

Oikos (Household):

Most family heads in Ancient Greece were subsistence landowners. The property was held by and transmitted through the oikos 'household',

which consisted of a family plus any free or slave dependents.It is from the Greek word oikos that we get the word 'economy'.

Genos (Clan):

• A group of ancient Greek families claiming descent from a common ancestor was known as the genos 'clan'. The families of the genos shared religious cults. Shared religion proved to be a strong bond. It was the heads of the gene (plural of genos) who arranged marriages.

• It is from the Greek word genos that we get words like the English 'gene'.

Phratry (Village):

• Thirty gene (clans) formed a phratry, which Michael Grant says was probably the equivalent of a village or city-ward. Each phratry held an annual religious festival in which it enrolled new members.

Phylai (Tribe):

• Three phratries formed a tribe or phylai headed by a tribal king. The earliest known function of the tribes was military.

• Greek tribes were corporate bodies with their own priests and officials, as well as military and administrative units.

• The English word 'phylum', used in Biology to distinguish groups larger than species etc., is related to the Greek word Phylai.

The original 4 phylai in Athens were the:

GeleontesHopletesArgadeis

Aegicoreis

Kings of Athens:

Early Athens had kings, like most other ancient city-states. These kings gradually morphed into less

permanent officials.

Social Classes:

Sameness led to a sense of relative equality and enforced the idea that all tribesmen had rights.

Even so, equality was only relative. Society was divided into 2 social classes. The upper class sat in council with the king for major problems and provided war leaders.

This reduced the need for a king who was also the military leader.

Archons Replaced the Kings of

Athens:Historical Progression of Top Officials in Athens:

King ==> Polemarch & King ==>

Polemarch, King, & Civil affairs Archon ==> Polemarch (military), First Archon (civil), and King-Archon (religion) ==>

Thesmothetai (3 other Archons)

Overview of Athenian Archons

• 594-558 – Solon• 550-527 – Pisistratus

• 527-515 – Hipparchus• 515-508 – Hippias

• 513-507 – Cleisthenes• 479-461 – Cimon• 461-429 – Pericles• 429-422 - Cleon

Draco

• The privileged eupatrid(aristocratic) few in Athens had been making all the decisions for long enough.

• By 621 B.C. the rest of the people of Athens were no longer willing to accept arbitrary, oral rules of the eupatrid thesmothetai 'those who lay down the law' and judges.

• Draco was appointed to write down the laws. Athens may have been a late-comer to the written law code since it may already have been done elsewhere in the Hellenic world.

First Glimpse of legal System • First written code. posted on wooden tablets,

later on 3 sided pyramids. Probably just a codification of existing practices/oral law. Comparable to Hammurabi's Code. Violation and punishments clear. Laws readily available to all. Empowering. In effect, reduces power of aristocracy. Probably written b/c of pressure from new hoplite classes. All his laws were repealed by Solon apart from those dealing with homicide.

Problems Introduced by the Law Code of Draco

The story goes that when asked about the harshness of his punishments, Draco said the death penalty was appropriate for

stealing even so much as a cabbage. If there had been a worse penalty than death, Draco would gladly have applied it to greater crimes.

Draco

As a result of Draco's strict, unforgiving code, the adjective based on the name Draco -- draconian -- refers to penalties considered excessively severe.

Slavery For Debt

Through the laws of Draco, those in debt could be made slaves -- but only if they were members of the lower class.

This means members of a genos (the gennetai) could not be sold as slaves, yet their hangers-on (orgeones) could.

Homicide

• Another result of the codification of laws by Draco -- and the only part that remained part of the legal code -- was the introduction of the concept of "intention to murder." Murder could be manslaughter (either justifiable or accidental) or intentional homicide. With the new law code, Athens, as a city-state, would intervene in what were formerly family matters of blood-feuds.

Solon • Solon, a lyric poet and the first Athenian literary

figure whose name we know, came from an aristocratic family which traced its ancestry back 10 generations to Hercules, according to Plutarch.

• Aristocratic beginnings did not prevent him from fearing that someone of his class would try to become tyrant.

• In his reform measures, he pleased neither the revolutionaries who wanted the land redistributed nor the landowners who wanted to keep all their property intact.

• He instituted the seisachtheia by which he canceled all pledges where a man's freedom had been given as guarantee, freed all debtors from bondage, made it illegal to enslave debtors, and put a limit on the amount of land an individual could own

Solon's Modest Social Reforms

• While Solon enacted compromises and democratic reforms, he kept the social organization of Attica and the Athenians, the clans and tribes.

• Following the end of his archonship, political factions and conflict developed.

• One side, the men of the Coast (consisting mainly of the middle classes and peasants), favored his reforms.

• The other side, the men of the Plain (consisting mainly of Eupatrids 'nobles'), favored restoration of an aristocratic government.

Plutarch records Solon's own words about his actions:

"The mortgage-stones that covered her, by me Removed, -- the land that was a slave is free;that some who had been seized for their debts he had brought back from other countries, where

-- so far their lot to roam, They had forgot the language of their home;and some he had set at liberty, --

Who here in shameful servitude were held."

Solon’s Reforms: Background Analysis

• Caveat: Herodotus and Plutarch are the main source of information, yet they wrote about Solon hundreds of years after his death.

• Born a Eupatrid – aristocrat

• A poet, inspired by Tyraetus.

• Became a trader. Worldly.

• Unlike Hammurabi, Lycurgus, and Draco, Solon made no claim that God bestowed these laws upon him.

• During Solon's time, many city-states saw tyrants seize power.

Solon’s Reforms: Background II

Inherits a divided and tumultuous system. A system in Crisis:

A.Economic/ideological rivalry

B.Clan rivalry

C.Regional rivalry - 'Athens was torn by recurrent conflict about the constitution. The city was divided into as many parties as there were geographical divisions in its territory. For the party of the people of the hills was most in favour of democracy, that of the people of the plain was most in favour of oligarchy, while the third group, the people of the coast, which preferred a mixed form of constitution somewhat between the other two, formed an obstruction and prevented the other groups from gaining control.’ – Plutarch’s Lives

Solon’s Reforms: Background

• Many Athenians had become debt slaves. Why?

• Soil depletion

• Deforestation

• Natural evolutionary process of winners and losers as happens in times of great change

• E. Tyrannies est. in Megara & Corinth

• A + B + C + D + E = Impetus to experiment and change. Solon becomes Sole Archon for 1 year. Why Solon?

• Mil hero vs. Megara

• A wise poet

• A Moderate. The message of the Delphic Oracle, which was at the height of its power these days, was moderation.

• New social arrangement. Based on wealth, not birth.

• Timocracy – power based on land ownership and wealth.

• Reduced kinship ties

Solon’s Constitutional Reforms

• .

Title Grain Production

Military Role

Pentakosiomedimnoi

500+ Eligible to be Strategoi

Hippeas 300-500 Cavalry

Zeugatai 200-300 Hoplites/Infantry

Thetes <200 Volunteered as batman, slingers, or naval rowers.

Solon’s Constitutional Reforms

• Arconship – 9 + 1• Areopagus – aristocratic

council / Council of Elders• Consisted of former

archons• Final decisions on

legislation, war and peace

• Meets 3-4 times/month• Power reduced by Solon.

Transferred to Boule

• Boule / Council of 400 • Upper house • Each of 4 tribes elect 100

members• Sets agenda for Ekklesia.

• Ekklesia• 1-3 allowed in (no Thetes)• Annual elections • 43,000 people. However, only

those wealthy enough to spend time away from home would have been able to participate

• Heleai – Judicial Branch• 6000 jurors• All cases except treason and

murder

Solon’s Economic Reforms

1. Repealed Draco’s Code

2. Seisachtheia, "shaking-off of burdens”• Annulment of all contracts based on debt• Prohibition of debt slavery.. Released debt slaves • Debt slaves in Diaspora allowed home

3. No Radical Land Reform• Tantamount to civil war• Solon’s moderation• Land to be divided up among sons. Not only to eldest. →

Democratized land ownership. ↑Democ.

4. Encouraged cash crop system. Olives → Empire…

Solon’s Economic Reforms

Monetary Reform Competitiveness of Athenian commerce. Uniform weights and measures. Encouraged production and export of pottery. Graduated income taxOffered citizenship to for skilled workers → economic diversification Legalized and taxed prostitution Condemned pompous ceremonies and expensive sacrifices Sons of battle dead to be educated at states’ expense

Factionalism in Solonian Athens

Solon realized that the city was often split by factional disputes but that citizens were content because of idleness to accept whatever the outcome might be; he therefore produced a specific law against them, laying down that anyone who did not choose one side or the other in such a dispute should lose his citizen rights.

-Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians

Conclusions :

• Father of Athenian Democ?

• By end of 5th C, most Athenians had a small plot of land

• A time of peace

• Too moderate? Frieze on temple of Apollo at Delphi, “Nothing in Excess” attributed to Solon.

• Make everyone unhappy, but kept peace. Persuaded rich and poor to compromise. Forestalled revolution. “Radicals criticized him for failing to establish equality of possessions and power; conservatives denounced him for admitting the commoners to the franchise and the courts.” (Durant, 117)

• Asked if he had given Athenians the best laws he replied, “no, but the best that they would receive.” (Durant, 117)

• Asked what is good government, he replied “when the people obey the rulers, and the rulers obey the laws.”

Solonian Reforms: Conclusions

• challenged power of aristocrats• ↑ political competition • ↑ political participation • ↑ factionalism

  Region Ideology Class Supported

Peralia S&W - Shores

Moderates

Mid Class-Traders

Solon

Pediakoi C - Plains Aristocrats

Rich Lycurgus

Diakroi E – Mountains

Radicals Poor Pisistratus

Solonian Reforms: Conclusions

• After completing his reforms, Solon surrendered his extraordinary authority and left Athens. Self-imposed exile for 10 years so he would not be tempted to become a Tyrant. According to Herodotus, Athens was bound by Solon to maintain his reforms for 10 years (Plutarch says 100 years).

• According to Plutarch, Solon was related to the tyrant Pisistratus (their mothers were cousins)

• Returned to Athens in 546. Saw his constitution overthrown, and Tyranny established.

• 1 of 7 Athenian Wise men

Pisistratus: A Special Kind of Tyrant

• Maintained Solon’s reforms and pol. structures. Tyrannical enforcement of Solonic democracy. Stacked his men in positions of power.

• Objective: to reduce factional/class tensions. Methods:

• For the rich:

• Some control of Areopagus

• Maintain archonships

• Allies with Tyrants and develops trading networks

• Attic exports to Ionia, Cyprus, Syria, and Spain

• Est. colonies in Dardanelles

Pisistratus: A Special Kind of Tyrant

• For the poor:

• Cut taxes for poor

• Est. 5% tax on ag. production. 1st tax in Athens.

• Gave away state owned land

• Est. circuit courts

• Athenian beautification-aqueducts, roads, temples…

• Mining at Larium

• Promoted arts

Legacy of Pisistratus • Est. Panatheniac: brought competition, honor, and foreigners.

• Est. library

• Established coinage (owls)

• “So Pisistratus took over the power in Athens; yet he in no way deranged the existing magistracies or the ordinances but governed the city well and truly according to the laws that were established.” (Herodotus, 1.59)

• Pisistratus died 527 BCE, succeeded by his eldest son, Hippias. Hippias and his brother, Hipparchus, ruled the city like father did.

• Hipparchus murdered at Panathenaic Games by Aristogeiton, who was competing for the affections of young Harmodius. Tried to kill Hippias also.

• Hippias became paranoid and oppressive. Espionage and terror.

• The Alcmaeonids, led by Cleisthenes, deposed Hippias by bribing the Delphic oracle to tell the Spartans to liberate Athens, which they did in 510 The Pisistratids not executed, but forced into exile.

Mystic Chords of Memory

• Harmodius and Aristogeiton become democratic liberators in Athenian democratic ideology

Phases of Construction in Athens

Revolution in Athens, 508

• Power struggle b/w: • Isagoras (Alcmaeonid aristocrat)• Cleisthenes (Dem reformer)

• Boule resists Cleisthenes • Spartan King Cleomenes and

Isagoras occupy Athenian Acropolis• Athenians unite, besiege Acropolis• Cleomenes surrenders, withdraws;

Cleisthenes assumes power in Athens

Herodotus on the Revolution (5.72) After the fall of the tyranny, there was a struggle between

Isagoras and Cleisthenes, who was of the family of the Alcmaeonids. When Cleisthenes lost power in the political clubs, he won the support of the people by promising them control of the state. The power of Isagoras waned in turn, and he called in [the Spartan king] Cleomenes again, for he had ties of friendship with him. He persuaded him to ‘expel the curse,’ for the Alcmaeonids were thought to be amongst the accursed. Cleisthenes retired into exile, and Cleomenes arrived with a few men and expelled 700 Athenian families as being under the curse. Having done this, he tried to dissolve the Council (Boulē) and to put Isagoras and 300 of his friends in control of the city. The Council resisted and the people gathered; the supporters of Cleomenes and Isagoras fled to the Acropolis. The people surrounded them and besieged them for two days; on the third they let Cleomenes and all those with him go under a truce, and recalled Cleisthenes and the other exiles. The people had taken control of affairs, and Cleisthenes was their leader and champion of the people.

Cleisthenic Athens 513-507: Political Reforms I

• Cleisthenes was the uncle of Pericles' mother Agariste

• “Father of Athenian democracy.” Increased power of Ekklesia and reduced power of nobility

• Cleisthenes called his reforms isonomia ("equality under law", iso = equality; nomos = law), NOT demokratia.

• New Const. of 507

• Council of 500 (Boule)

• From 400 members under Solon, to 500 members, 50 from each tribe

• 1 month term (10 months)

• not eligible for re-election for 10 years

• Each tribe presides for 1/10 of the year

• Met everyday

• Functions:

• Elect the Generals

• Proposals to Assembly

• Stays like this for rest of Athenian history

Cleisthenic Athens 513-507: Political Reforms II

• Ekklesia / Assembly• Lower House• 30,000 • Met 40 times/year on Pynx • Remarkably powerful• Sovereign in foreign policy decisions• Elect the Strategoi • Voted on laws proposed by Boule• New power of Ostracism

• 10 Strategoi (Generals). 1 per tribe. Serve 1 year. Re-electable. • Dikasteria — law courts reorganized and had from 201–5001 jurors

selected each day, up to 500 from each tribe

Ostracism • Vote once/year

• >6000 (1 in 3 Athenians)

• Only 1/year• Most years none• Democracy• Eliminate dangers• Not “guilty”. Family and

land unharmed• Civil democratic device?• “Safety valve” promoted

unity and minimized the threat of civil war

• 10 men in 90 years

The Pynx

Model of the Pnyx

Cleisthenic Sociopolitical Reorganization

• Changed the political organization

• From 4 traditional tribes, based on family relations

• To 10 tribes according to their area of residence (their deme).

• 139 demes organized into thirty groups called trittyes ("thirds"), with ten demes divided among three regions in each trittye. Each tribe now has people in coast, mountain, and plain.

• Gives demes names and heroes

• Residents of demes, some foreign born, now citizens of demes. Doubled the voting role. Secured new supports and a broader base.

• Revolutionized classification system. No longer, “I am Cleisthenes, son of Megacles.” Now, “I am Cleisthenes from Ion.”

• Alcmaeonids diffused through 3 tribes, weakening clan power

• “He first divided all the citizens into ten tribes instead of the earlier four, with the aim of mixing them together so that more might share control of the state.” Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians, 21

• Compare to Soviet dekulakization

Demes of Attica

Analysis of Cleisthenic Reforms

• Slaves, women, resident aliens, and Thetes are NON participants.

• A “Hoplite democ”, not a Thete const. Non-landholders were marginalized (timocracy)

• Radical for its time. Not revolutionary. • Rulers have much to fear: Spartans, Persians, ostracism,

democracy, aristocracy…• Isonomia breaks down regional loyalties to forge Athenian civic

democratic identity• Provided a sense of ownership and Athenian pride 12 years

before the Battle at Marathon • We’ll analyze Athenian democ after we study Pericles…

Conclusions?

• Questions?• Your assessment of Athens?• Lessons from Athens?• Legacy of Athens?• Comparisons with Sparta?

Ancient Greece

The main political rivalry within the Greek cities was that between Athens and Sparta

The other political threat they faced was that between the Greeks and the “barbarians”

(anyone not Greek, particularly the Persians to the north)

Definition

Democracy derives from the ancient Greek, “demokratia”:

demos = the people

kratien = to rule

Definition

Meant to distinguish the idea that it is the people collectively, not any class, family, or

group that rules

Definition

Other types of government derived from Greek base:

Aristocracy: Rule by the best Monarchy: Rule by one personOligarchy: Rule by the wealthy

Timocracy: Rule by the honorable Tyranny: Rule by the rulers, for the

rulers

Democratic Rule

For “The People” to rule we need:Equality

how dow we define that?Freedom

how dow we define that?Engagement

what type? and how?

Questions of DemocracyWho are “The People?”

Questions of Democracy

How do “the people” rule?

Questions of Democracy

How do we know what the people want?

Questions Democracy

What areas should we allow the people to rule?

Questions of Democracy

Why do we think “the People”

will make good political decisions?

Athenian Democracy

Euripidesc. 485-407 BCE

The last of the 3 great Athenian tragedians

Pericles• Pericles (c. 485-429 BCE)

• Legendary Athenian leader

• Champion of the arts and sciences, and renowned military/political leader

• Led Athens into the Peloponnesian War

Pericles• Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE)

pits Sparta and its allies against Athens

Peloponnesian War

Peloponnesian War•In 415, Athens attacks Syracuse in Sicily, in move to gain control over the whole island•Resounding defeat, democracy collapses in Athens (411)•Sparta, with aid from Persia, builds its navy•405 surprise attack from Sparta on docked Athenian navy; all but 9 ships destroyed, thousands killed

Peloponnesian War•Spring 404, Athens surrenders•Sparta forces it to tear down walls•Remove fortress around Pireaus (its main port)•Navy reduced to 12 ships

The Funeral Oration