sparta and athens: a look at the greek polis
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Sparta and Athens: A look at the Greek polis. asty + chora = polis. Asty means city proper, downtown, or urban core Chora means the agricultural outskirts outside the city walls. The polis of Atlanta is what we think of as the “greater metropolitan” area. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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Sparta and Athens: A look at the Greek polis
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asty + chora = polis
• Asty means city proper, downtown, or urban core
• Chora means the agricultural outskirts outside the city walls
The polis of Atlanta is what we think of as the “greater metropolitan” area.
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Every polis had certain features• An agora, or
public marketplace
• A major temple to the city’s main deity
• An institutional center, a building or open-air space for formal matters
• Entertainment facilities
• An acropolis
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Agora
An agora was a public market place where products were exchanged, people bought and sold things, but also where people encountered each other, where they hung out and talked and gossiped. In a sense, the life the city, or polis, really was played out informally, in many ways, in the agora.
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The temple
An artist’s rendition of the temple atop the acropolis in Athens
What the inside of the temple probably looked like.
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Institutional center: Where democracy took place
Pericles giving a speech to the citizens of Athens at the Assembly.
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The Greeks invented two forms of entertainment still enjoyed today. Every
polis contained these facilities
Ruins of an ancient Greek theatre A modern-day replica of an ancient Greek stadium
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Fortifications
Some poleis also had natural fortifications. These could involve walls around the city, but often there was some sort of high point. Cities started off and were built around, or even on, a high point. The greatest example of this is the Acropolis in Athens. This is a stone butte that sticks up right in the middle of the city, several hundred feet above the level of most of the urban core down below it, so that people would go there in ritual procession. But it was also a place to which people could retreat if the city were ever attacked by any of its neighbors.
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Civic virtue in Athenian democracy: politics
• Aristotle believed that humans lived “naturally” together in poleis
• “politics” comes from the Greek word polis;
• There is not an English word for the original meaning of “politics” (i.e. the way of living in a polis)
• Aristotle conducted studies of almost 200 poleis
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The birth of Sparta• Shrouded in legend• Story of Lycurgus, a
mythical law-giver, on command from the gods, gave Sparta a constitution all at once in 750 BCE
• Fact: Spartan system emerged slowly after their conquest of the Messenians in 725 BCE
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Social hierarchy in the Spartan system• The homoioi (the
“equals”) enjoyed total political liberty
• The periokoi (the “dwellars about”) were resident aliens who enjoyed protection, but not participation
• The helots (the “state slaves”) were the conquered Messenians
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The Spartan system of government• Designed to be conservative• Two kings; one at home and
one away with the army• Two legislative bodies; one
had all the “equals” as member and proposed legislation, the other was made up of the two kings, five ephors, and all “equals” over the age of 60 and had total veto power.
• Ephors (the “overseers”) made sure all laws and decisions were in accord with tradition
• Krepteia were the secet police who kept everyone in line
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The Spartan system depended on agoge
• Agoge means “training”, or “upbrining”
• Babies were “inspected” and at age 7 went into formal military training until 18
• All adult males were in the mililary until age 60
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The Spartan system (continued)• Marriage was not
companionate; only purpose was to create more “equals”
• Spartan system was designed to create military excellence, discipline, and loyalty
• Spartan life was austere and simple
• Book-learning was discuoraged
• Extreme wealth was seen as unattractive
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The Peloponnesian League• Created by the
Spartans to control neighboring city-states on the Peloponnesian peninsula
• It sought to curtail their democratic urges and mitigate their foreign policy
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The end of Sparta
• Conquered by the Romans in the 2nd century BC
• Sparta was very much admired by contemporaries for its strength, simplicity, and stability
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Athens: The most interesting and most important Greek polis
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Democracy in Athens
• A long process of power shifting from eupatrids (“well-fathered ones”) to the demos (“people”)
• Evolution of Athenian democracy was the result of response to political crisis over a 200 year period
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First steps toward democracy• Draco codifies Athenian
laws in 621 BCE• Although harsh, the
laws were a concession to those who opposed arbitrary rule of the eupatrids
• Eupatrids could no longer do whatever they wanted
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Writing down the laws does not solve Athens’ political problems
• Ordinary farmers still lived on the brink of poverty
• Wealthy land-owning eupatrids still ruled alone
• Wealthy merchants are excluded from the system
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In 594 BCE, Solon, a eupatrid who made a fortune as a merchant, was given wide
authority to reform the Athenian political system
• Solon was a moderate with no personal ambition for power
• He abolished debt slavery
• He changed public office qualifications from birth rank to wealth
• He created the Council of 400 which set the agenda for all citizens to vote on
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The reforms of Peisistratus• He respected all of
Solon’s reforms• Redistributed land• Inaugurated festivals
and public building projects
• After 40 years Peisistratus and his sons were overthrown by the eupatrids
• Cleisthenes, a blueblood, was given power to make reforms
Peisistratus. Peisistratus rode into Athens, accompanied by a tall and beautiful woman dressed as the warrior goddess Athene. The citizens were convinced that it was the goddess herself bringing him back to rule over them.
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From about 510 BCE to about 450 the Athenian democracy became as fully democratic as it
would ever become.
• Cleisthenes• Themistocles• Ephialtes• Pericles
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Cleisthenes
• Created a new Council of 500
• Gerrymandered voting blocs to unite people across social class and occupations
• Allowed virtually all men to vote and hold office
• Created ostracism
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Themistocles
• Popular leader during the Persian Wars (490 – 478 BCE)
• Worked to secure political rights for sailors in the Athenian navy
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Ephialtes and Pericles removed the last vestiges of aristocratic privlege
• They stripped the eupatrid Aeropagus of its power of judicial review
• Instituted pay for holding a public office
Statue of Pericles.
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How did the Athenian system actually work?• A very weak
executive office, with a powerful role for the assembly (i.e. the demos, or people)
• Characterized by vigorous debate in the assembly, which encouraged demagogues and lack of continuity in policy
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Who enjoyed the rights of Athenian citizenship?
• Adult males with two Athenian parents, approximately 10% of all 400,000 in Athens
• Not women, resident aliens, or slaves
Women as plunder of war: Ajax the Lesser taking Cassandra, tondo of a red-figure kylix by the Kodros Painter, ca. 440-430 BC,
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How did the Athens system finance itself?
• By tribute paid from the Athenian Empire
• Slave labor became increasingly important
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Athens greatest defender and advocate: Pericles
• His Funeral Oration explained how and why Athens was special and the envy of the Greek world
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The critics of Athens
• Democracy does not bring forth the best and the brightest rulers
• Democracy fosters a disrespect for important people
• Too changeable and subject to demagoguery; seemed unstable
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What is the verdict?Athens demonstrated what a democracy might be. Was it perfect? Far from it. But Athenians showed the world what one version of democracy might look like, and has inspired others for over 2000 years. It remains for others, and is an ongoing project, to show for whom a democracy might work….