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Master's Teses Teses and Dissertations

1943

Te Teory of Greek Democracy Before AristotleEdmund P. Burke Loyola University Chicago

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THE THEORY OF GREEK DEMOCRACY

BEFORE ARISTOTLE

•

BY

EDMUND P. BURKE, S . J .

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL li'ULFIT.IMENT OF

THE REQ,UIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER

OF ARTS IN LOYOLA UNIVERSITY

JULY

1943,



VITA

Edmund P. Burke, S.J . , was born in Chicago, I l l inois , on

4, 1916.

He moved to Oak Park, I l l inois , and graduated from Ascensio

School in 1930. The following three years, from 1930 to

he attended ~ u i g l e y Preparatory Seminary, Chicago, I l l inoi

graduated from St. Ignatius High School in that city in 1934.

In September of that year he entered the Milford Novitiate o

he Society of Jesus, attending the Arts College of Xavier Unive

Cincinnati , Ohio, from 1934 to 1938. In 1938 he transferreo West Baden College of Loyola University, where he received his

of Bachelor of Arts in 1939. He entered the Graduate Scho

f Loyola University in 1939.

From 1941 to 1943 the writer was engaged in teaching Classic

t St. Ignatius liigh School in Chicago, I l l ino i s .



TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE 1Greek poli t ical spiri t---Greek poli t ical prin-

I .

I I .

I I I .

ciples.

SOLON THE FATHER 0]' GREEK DEMOCRACY

Place---Life---Reforms---Poems.

• • • • • • • • • •

THE HISTORIANS AND GREEl{ DEM:OCRACY • •Herodotus---Thucydides.

• • • • • • • •

THE OLD OLIGARCH--A CRITIC OF ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY •A real is t of position---An uncompromising snob---Hostile to the people, the mob---Dislike forDemos.

• •

8

22

41

IV . AN EDUCATOR AND PAMPHLETEER ON ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY ••• 53Isocrates---The contemporary of Democracy---

V.

VI.

Ancestral DemocracY---Excess of freedom.

PLATO--THE ~ ~ O L U T I O N OF A CRITIC • • • • • •Family posit ion---Poli t lcal philosopher--Ideal State---Death of Socrates---Enemy ofDemocracy.

• • • • •

PLATO YOUNG IDEALIST AND OLD REALIST • • • • • • • • •Rigorous cri t ic---Vlrtue of the second best

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

61

71

• 84NCLUSION •

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 86



INTRODUCTION

GREEK DEMOCRACY

The Greeks were a practical people. Their pol i t ica l philoso

was pract ical . They wanted to procure the 'good l i f e ' f

country, to be good ci t izens, and to t e l l the i r fellows how

become good ci t izens . They were interested in one another be-

they took an interest· in the future of the i r country. Their

we say, but the Greek talked of his1T6AI5, his ci ty-s t

e Greek himself was 7/od/7fjr , a ci t izen; his government was

7[01\ IT4/d. , and to l ive the l i fe of a cit izen was mAI776tI

is a sadly cheapened word, scarcely the same word as i t/

as when i t was rrOJ.ITI /('Y/, and when a poli t ic ian was a statesman

There is a simplicity about this alignment; i t is a

f the Greek knew what he was about. He knew what the words he

meant. Poli t ics was statesmanship, care of the state and

for i t s welfare. That this should be so was a thing

Greek, a mark of his simplicity and pract ical i t

e fact that a l l pol i t ica l l i fe of the Greek, even the words he

should be rooted in 1[t,,, 5 i s a most signif icant fact in hi

Poli t ical ly, social ly, economically, in culture, in spi

, in heritage, Greece was what i t was, and became what i t is toI

, because of that singular inst i tut ion, 7ToAI 5 , the ci ty-s tate

this (word) and i t s derivatives the Greek sought to express th

1



l i fe , and the whole duty, of man; that union of human being

r a common end, which could alone produce and exercise a l l the

ins t incts and abi l i t ies of every free individual. Hl

When we speak of Greece, we are often talking of Athens.

could not have been so great without democracy. Without th

there could have been no democracy. Glover sums up fo

what Athenian democracy was and what i t did.

I t was a government of oitizens met in an assembly, where, without Presidents, ministers, am

bassadors or representatives, they themselvesgoverned. They created a beautiful ci ty and alaw-abiding people; they united the Greek worldor a large part of i t ; they defeated the Persian Empire in a l l i t s greatness and drove thePersian from the sea. They made an atmospherewhere genius could grow, where i t could be ashappy perhaps as genius ever can, and where i tflowered and bore the strange f ru i t that hasenriched the world forever. tWhateter we know

of beauty, half i s hers . t The pol i t ica l temper, and the scientific,--philosophy, sculptureand poetry--Athens gave us them a l l in that.period, a century or ep a t longest, whileDemocracy flourished. 2

For the task a t hand this short, eloquent eulogy must suffic

is written by a man who has demonstrated his abi l i ty to transla

e sp i r i t of the ancient world into patterns with which the mode

sympathetio. For Glover has a mind for the universal,

r the unchanging. And the greatness of the Greeks i s that so

of thei r contribution to civi l izat ion was universal, the i r

W. W arde) Fowler, The City-State of the Greeks And Romans, Macmillan & Co. ,Ltd. , London, 1907, ~T. R. Glover, Democracy in ~ Ancient World, Macmillan Co., NewYork, 1927, 73.



and the i r philosophy, the i r economic, social and pol i t

inst i tut ions. Yet they remained a pract ical people. Under

the deta i ls in which thei r early pol i t ica l philosophy was

l ies the unchanging, the implication of broad, profound

In these pages the opinions about democracy from Solon to

wil l be reviewed. We shall look for the Greek's own ref lec

on his own invention. And i t should hardly surprise us i f ,

the end, we discover that a l l the step-children of democracy,

l l that her cr i t ics and panegyrists alike have censured and

in her, were, we might say, born with her, and that the

of a l l the democracies continued to feel the pangs of her

great t rava i l a l l the l i fe long of her wonderful child. "Me

interested in the well-being of thei r race and eager to he

through i t s diff icul t ies") did not keep s i lent . "Good ci t izen

for the future of the i r country,,4 created a pol i t i ca l

without thei r knowing i t , because they fe l t i t

duty "to keep watch on the maladies of the age and to try t

them.t15

Newman remarks that "the Republic formed a turning-point in

e history of Greek pol i t ica l philosophy, and gave i t a directio

W.L. Newman, The Poli t ics qf Aristot le , Vol. I , Introduction tthe Pol i t ics , Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1887, 421.

~ . , 421Ibid. , 422-



i t was slow to lose. 'llhe pol i t ical philosopher was to be n

apathetic analyst of social phenomena, but the watchful phys

of the State, unflinching in his diagnosis of i t s maladies

d outspoken in pointing to the true remedy.tt6 The Republic was

the characteris t ic exemplar of one period in the development

f Greek pol i t ical inquiry. Greek theorizers on government be

natural division to two schools: They are Plato and his

and Aris tot le . "The Poli t ics of Aristotle is vir tu

the closing word, or almost the closing word, of a debate be

by Pythagoras and the Sophists, and continued by Socrates,

Isocrates, and Plato. Aristot le 's pol i t ica l views were

e outcome of more than a century and a half of controversy."?

present we shal l direc::. out at tent ion to the f i r s t of these

in the formative stage of Greek pol i t ica l science. We

dig for discussions ot democracy amid poetic inspiration,

the fine colorings of Thucydidean oratory,

e sel t - interes ted complaints of an uncomfortable bourgeoise, an

e thoughtful diatr ibe of one of' the ~ r e a t e s t thinkers of a l l th

Solon, Thucudides, Herodotus, Xenophon, The Old Oligarch

Isocrates, and Plato, a l l in thei r own way

thei r forceful contribution to the pol i t ica l philosophy of

Newman compares the pol i t ical philosopher in Greece to

e prophets of another people(Israel);8 i t is a thought which

Newman, 421I bid . , 552Ibid . , 422



f by a council of five hundred ci t izens chosen ~ ~ from the

body of the ci t izens. All ruled by turn. The judicial

of the State was in the hands of popular courts, the membe

f which were als'o drawn lu: 121 from the general assembly. The

the whole people, ruled and had an equal opportunity,

and duty to share in every kind of pol i t ica l authority. Th

called th is singular ins t i tut ion what i t was,--Democracy,

e rule of the people.

The picture has another side, and ]lowler, who always looks

r the best in the Athenian pol i ty , is forced to make the follow

g admissions in his admirable and understanding work on ~ Cit

of the Greeks and Romans.

I said some way back that I should have aword to say about the weak pOints in this wonder

fu l pol i t ica l creation of the Athenians. Draw-backs there always have been, and always wil l be,to every social organization which human naturecan devise and develop, and a t Athens these wereso serious and so far-reaching in the i r consequences that the remainder of th is chapter must beoccupied in a brief consideration of them.

In two ways, while real is ing ' the goodl i f e ' to such an extent as was pract ical ly possible in a CitY-State, Athens impinged upon whatwe may be disposed to cal l the r ights of otherindividuals and States . She was, in the f i r s tplace, a slave-owning State. Secondly, in th isgolden age of hers she was an imperial State whoseso-called ' a l l i es ' , including nearly a l l the mostimportant ci t ies in and around the Aegean Sea, wereobliged to obey her orders, or r isk the chance ofsevere punishment. Had she been neither a slaveState nor an imperial s ta te , i t is hardly possibleto suppose that she could have attained her highpol i t ica l and in tel lectual level; and this re

f lect ion, a somewhat melancholy one, needs a wordof explanation.

I have a l l along been t reat ing Athens as a



democracy, and such, in the view of every Greek,she actual ly was. But we must not entirely forget that , judged by the standard of the nineteenth centQry, she was not real ly a democracy,but a slave-holdLng artstocracy. The number ofslaves in Attica is now estimated a t 100,000 a tthe beginning of the }eloponnesian War, as againsta free population of about 135,000. And th is meansthat a l l the i r menial work, and no doubt a greatpart of the work which is now done by what weca l l the industr ia l classes , was done for theAthenians by persons who Viere in no sense mem-bers 01:' the s ta te , who had nell.lHer 'INill nor s ta tus of the i r ovm, and whose one duty in l i fe wasto obey the orders of the i r masters.

Now we have to face the fac t that the smallCltV-State,--even such an one as Athens--could not

reach the highest level of hUman l i f e at ta inablein tha t day, without sacr-tficing the freedomand in teres ts of other Stt;.tes -V,l1 ~ s e capacityfor good may have been as <J.;reat as her own.Athens deprived the subjects of her empire ofindependence, - -of the tl 'ue poli t icd.l l i fe of theGreek State ,--and used the i r resources for herown glory and adornnent. Pericles does nothesi ta te to t e l l the } ~ t h . e : l i a n s that the i r empireis a tyranny, and thei r s ta te a t .yrant.-- 'you

have come by th i s tyranny, ' he t e l l s them, 'andyou can not go back from i t ; you have outrun thetardy motion of' the Greek world of pol i t ica lideas . ' 9

Fowler, 1 7 7 - 1 ~ 2 .

7



CHAPTER ONE

SOLON THE FA'lliER OF' GREEK DEMOCRACY

I ,,;,1 I / ('I ' .......

Jnuw U1YJe?OeSwl fJ . . TO(JoV ! ~ P q £ otJrrov ""Tlc/elff."-Ie) bF I

:L IU ;;[ otfT) j qu dt-bv o ~ z f T ' i 7T of t! I / , ~ S v 0 .5 •

,? , ,I ' l " -' /.Ai ,(' ("( 0 v rS V Y g1,u 'II /(g1l ,¥P'l1,U 4fT I II ' I/frel Y oIJ n TO"

, _.> 1 ., ~ \..:1/~ c H TO/( '9'.PdO'SjUrzy ,u ncr" v cl £11(11 ~ ; t t ' v .~ I J \ \ \ / , •

Ea-T'I1Y .s'J/-l 'P1139/JWI/' tq>rJufav' o-tll((JJ d,ut;0Tlpoltr{

.J.J! .> " ~ I 1VJ f f i y J"OU!( f ,glCl ' Q l . I J S 7 ~ ' p O f ) f o l s f ( ! ( ~ f '

~ ,J,U" I rl e 'YIn 7[8 f«.s,

- ' , .1 / .J I /J. Vrl ' Y£c cf t JT" j . I V e £ cL r; U 0 JU e Y..r. >

,:, 1 \ / 1 f I

lu 8 vv t L d l . J " lhdS O-,(at!lciJ:) lJ'TTs!P?19'cAtd T ~I I .JI ,

1Cpf:l or'" Trelal C J ' ' ' P d ~ c f l l f ' oa-Te lo - I " J, ) 1.11 , "" r ~

T r Jb l l cf 'el ,Pld Alnc ' f , J oJ ,odor/.E.rn 4 ' J T r ' J u T ~, .J I ~ / , , 2

ret!. vT d. lTd. 7" I d v.9 P u77DU I d P T /eJ.. 'rJ.c 7 [ / VI) TV') »,

Alexander was a youth who led his phalanxes into history,

the word of Empire in Western ears; Caesar was the stern

,

Constitution of Athens, 12

Demosthenes, De Falsa Legatione, 255

8



the purpose of the change was.

acted too well tor that .

Solon did not plan blindly.

Firs t , the question arises: What was Solon str iving for

1

The answer l ies in his own words. I ¥' I i yWa ' J(le;; /[i(

,.II JI ..... ,D ( ~ PF VQ S i yeto ge y sJ A d'.!! c:iL J 1 ~ J Till rrpecr(3 v Tel 7n Y

-' - ,... J I / I 10, c:ropWY cf dId k I c:l Q v , q/J n:.}J Yo,u e 1(?7 v · "I am alive to

e tac t , and the pain l ies deep within my breast , as I see the

home of the Ionian race being slain by the sword." Solici

for his homeland lay deep in his heart . He saw the immense

in the violent feud tha t had sp l i t the s tate for a long

ll He himself belonged by bir th and reputation to the high-

st class, but his limited means and business act ivi t ies put him

middle class . 12 Yet he does not hesitate to speak out

against the wealthy class because he blamed them, in gen

for the dissension.

f ~ co I ~ ' \ ,

t>}UH cf'?zO'""",vslcrclYT£J lye ",p,at !(rJp TGpOY 'bTar( ' \ I ,- ..I _ J / J,/,t 71o ..... I lHJV "c141wl' ~ r Jrpr:>pv ,..,Jolgcl7c!j

I

J / / / . .J I \ co -tv u, To I P Icr t Tl i , cr 1)1. u ' adY vo 0 V, oflTl 8=rll> "Htl]

r ' ~ I

I , ) / r _." ';'/ 13If

e,era ,ue e: a v-6) J

vp I Y ripTlsA 7TfIlYT Il ( [ l T ~ '

. . .the strong teel ings ot your hearts , you who have forced your

ay to a sat ie ty ot good things. Hold in check your vain

Ibid. , 5 ,2Ibid. , 5, 3Ibid. , 5, 3Ib d . , 5 , 3



1

Neither shal l we obey you, nor wil l you find everything

to you."

Peace was Solon's aim, and he put the blame for the lack of

on the wealthy.14 But above a l l Solon was a fair-minded man.

indeed i s his f ines t qual i ty, and, as we shal l see, a quali ty

him to choose the part icular reforms that he did. There

he avoided with great caution any undue al ienat ion of the

In the passage quoted a t the beginning of th is chapter he

his platform. "To the common people I have given such a

of privi lege as suff iceth them, nei ther robbing them of

e r ights they had, nor holding out the hope of greater ones; and

have taken equal thought for those who were possessed of power

d who ,!'!ere looked up to because of the i r wealth,· careful that

too, should suf ter no indignity.I

have taken a stand which

me to hold a stout shield over both groups, and I have

nei ther to triumph unjustly over the other."15 In th is

is found, I think, the focal point of Solon's pol i t ica l

~ IYou wil l remember that he says: EfTI??V S'al,uq!lGS'AWv

" / 16__- 1 e " - F . P . . . . ; o : ; . . . ; . . v _ . . . ; c r : . - ; : c I ~ ! f . ; : ; D ~ r _ . : I c I - f ) 1 1 L . . 1 j ~ D _ - r . : . . . . l l o E . . , p : : ; . . ¥ Q " ' - / . . : : c r ; . . . . . = . . ,__ tt I s t 0 0 d ho1ding

strong shield over both par t ies ." He t r ied to make i t plain

he wished to give every man what was his due. His f i r s t act

Ib d ., 5, 3Ibid . , 12, 1; t ranslated in 1.1:1. Linforth, Solon the Athenian,Macmillan Co., New York, 1920, 135

Aristot le , 12, 1



18

whenever seen, and, secondly, he ins t i tuted the r ight of ap

to an assembly of a l l the cit izens. No more could the magis

defeat just ice by delivering 'crooked judgments'. He had

written code to abide by, and, fai l ing that , he had to

the assembled body of the ci t izens and give an account of hi

and his actions before he l e f t his magistracy. Thus did

e law begin to rule the Athenians, and people become free; Ath

the way to democracy, for good or for i l l .

I t is not to be supposed that Solon accomplished a l l he did

opposition. He met bi t te r and often unfair crit icism, an

to have foreseen the cause for complaint that Plato and

would find in democracy. lie did not himself, as we

establish the democracy. That was to come l a ter . He merel

the way,--so that i t is probable that he would have found

much wider basis of agreement with the l a ter cr i t ics of democra

than would many of i t s more l ibera l exponents during i t s heyda

indication of th is a t t i tude i s found in one of Solon's sayings

in A r i s ~ o t l e t s Constitution of Athens. There he explains

he believes to be the r ight way to deal with the people.

.... . . . . >\.JI \ , . I (I I

b )1U J JI4JS' ell( tilp,rrTcl vUY n ~ ' , u o l r £ ct"o- IV en-tJIT/>

I /.) \ / /" ) /

un,£. tl'mY e\ ve ~ f l I unI t I J / S ; ! 0 U'; V o ~ .r ~ }\ I ' e.l r I \ oN ( ' I

Tar-ee( .biD J f O P f ~ lJt 'fH V J aZ.;", lTtJ),US 0..4130(' IlPlJi/1U I './- I ( ' I , / ' )1 '3'"".

d.YIJ,PUl71"lJlv/Y DO"tJlJ }An vlJor - .PINI "'F

The populace wil l follow i t s leaders best i f i t is

neither le f t too free nor subjected to too muchres traint . For excess giveth bir th to arrogance,



20

the ignorance and fol ly that an unguided mob would be

of, ei ther because of mass adulation or mass blindness,

he warned the people against i t . "The people through thei r

folly sink i n t ~ slavery under a single lord. Having raised a

n to too high a place, i t is not easy la ter to hold him back;

is the time to be observant of a l l things.,,22

In his own l i fet ime Solon saw his predictions unheeded and

e tyranny established. Then there came from his l ips the f i r s t

wordS, spoken in his disappointment, and long sharpened by

S o ¥ ~ prophetic foresight of what the ignorant crowd could do.

I f ye have suffered the melancholy consequencesof your own incompetence, do not at t r ibute th isevi l fortune to the gods. Ye have yourselvesraised these men to power over you, and havereduced yourselves by th is course to a wretchedstate of servitude. Each man among you, indiv-

idually, walketh with the tread of the fOX, butcolle9tively ye are a se t of simpletons. Forye look to the tongue and the play of a man'sspeech, and regard not the deed which is donebefore your eyes. 23

knew as well as any man the weakness of democracy. I t was

t always the ra t ional sta te , not always wisest in i t s choices.

not strong under foreign attack; i t was guil ty of

The voice of the people could be a power wielded

a "set of Simpletons". Democracy was vulnerable to the bland-

of a strong popular leader. But Solon, wise in the Wis-

of the Seven Ancient Sages of Greece, knew, as every man who

Athens was to learn, that his task was done and done well ,

Diodorus Siculus, IX, 20; t rans. in Linforth, 145Ibid . , 145



CHAPTER TWO

THE HISTORIANS AND GREEK DEMOCRACY

HERODOTUS AND THUCYDIDES

PART ONE--HERODOTUS

The t rans i t from the creator of Athenian democracy and of

r whole pol i t ica l culture to the Father of History, who l ived

wrote a fu l l century and a half or more af ter Solon, may seem

precipitous. But no apologies need be offered for the

of his tor ical records. Herodotus' fatherhood of so elem

a science as that of history shows how complete and how em-

y must be the gap between Solon's time and his , · in so far as

records are concerned. Herodotus is the f i r s t great name

r history. He is also one of the ear l ies t writers of prose, an

certainly the f i r s t t ruly important prose author that we have.

is part of the sad inadequacy of ancient studies that for one

f i f ty years, from the time when democracy had not even

as such but had only been planted by Solon as a new seeawait the freshening of a distant Spring, unt i l she burst forth

fu l l bloom, giving bir th to the glorious f i f th century of

we can read no word of her, either in praise or in blame.

Herodotus comes to the story of democracy not as an his tor i -

. His value there i s negligible compared to the storehouse of

22



in Aris to t le ' s Constitution of Athens. Bu

s a man of the f i f th century, who l ived for a great while in

or in her colonies and was possibly a c i t i zen , l he has a

Athenian contribution to democracy. After Solon's cr

of the i r ideal ci t izenship the Athenian was l i t t l e by l i t t l

to the rea l iza t ion of his own importance in the working

Athenian c i ty-s ta te . Educated inliividually to the know-

tha t each one had some role to play in the business of Sta

tha t inevi tably the lo t would f a l l upon him to play his

joyful and eager to support the direct ion of the State with

l l his s trength, yet fearful sometimes l es t the unseeing lo t

ra ise him to heights beyond the power of h is wits to carry

the Athenian was f i r s t and foremost a ci t izen. And breathin

the sp i r i t of freedom his ci ty bred, the Athenian was a

Democracy, in i t s e l f , is government by discussion. I t is government 'by the word'. And a l lthings are thrown for sett lement into an arenain which 'one shrewd thought devours another ' .From the c o n s t ~ n t discussions of pol i t i ca l det a i l the cit izens of a Qreek democracy natura l ly rose to the discussion of po l i t i ca l principles . Democracy cannot exis t on inheri tedand unexplained t rad i t ion . I t l ives in thefree a ir of nimble tllOue;ht, and the discuss-ion of principles i s as v i ta l to i t s l i f e as thediscussion of pol ic ies . 2

The Third Book of herodot us 3 i s the f i r s t manifestat ion tha

H.J.Rose, Greek Litera ture , Macmillan Co., New York, 299.E(rnest) Barker, Greek Pol i t ica l Theory--Plato And His Predece

~ , London, Methuen & Co., 1918, 4.Herodotus, I I I , 80-82.



s an Asiat ic , and the Asiatic always loved the despot.

had usually turned in that direction.

The debate at tr ibuted with grotesque inappropriateness to the three Persian nobles is nothingelse than a representation of Hellenic ins t i tu-

t ions and a reflect ion of Hellenic ideas. (Thedebate as a whole is unreal and impossible, butthe characteris t ics at tr ibuted to the const i tut ions are ent i rely Greek and un-Oriental)."5

25

He, a t

The point of history that brought on this unusual debate

an intr iguing l i t t l e t a le . 6 A group of Persian noblemen,

of the highest rank in the kingdom, discovered that there

over Persia by means of t r ickery and fraud a Magian who ca l l

himself Smerdis, Cyrus' Son. 7 These Grandees were otanes, In

Gobryas, Megabyzus, Aspathines, Hydarnes, and Darius. 8

conspired together to r id the realm of the usurper and suc

9Afterwards the rebels held a council on the whole state

affa i rs , a t which words were uttered "which to some Greeks seem

Three of the council advanced the i r views on the

course of the Persian government, Otanes speaking for dem

Megabyzus for oligarchy, and Darius, who was ultimately to

king, for monarchy. Two remarkable facts stand out in the

that Herodotus t e l l s . Firs t of a l l , the discussion i t se l f

Ibid . , 3Herodotus, I I I , 67-88Ibid. , 67-70Ib id . , 70Ibid. , 71-79Ibid. , 80-82



27

i t is called, or the American s ta te , which aChieved s tabi l i ty

permanence through a separation of the executive, legis la t ive

judicial functions of the government.

The best that each of the grandees could say for his poli ty

contained in the definitions that ' each was careful to give.

gives a descriptive definit ion of democracy:

J \

d.fXriJ. ) / co / \

40ytL A v7TGu9t1YoV III ' " 7

/

Ii., .J

a 1.11 AIl.! U sil z:. 7rJ. yr.a ISI

. ) I J \

TijJ Z Z : t Z ~ J w .)/

sJ It.d ,,4. l>e., . >sI e ~ 1'£I i f ) c

/

7lrJrTlIJV

7

\P lv

J , ~ /q Dr21Y lJe<J>

\,

TO f rO IVbV

, / .13Z:-d lL.'3. " T ~

Firs t of al l , the rule of the multitude has the mostexcellent name of a l l , signifying equality before thelaw. Offices are held according to lo t , and thosewho hold them have to give an account of the i r con-

~ u c tafterwards; and a l l decrees are brought upbefore the general assembly.

, /gives the essence of oligarchy more brief ly as: T6 !!fA T'

... ( ' / ~ - "'".) /

S Df' I).J '"5 J"slpWY rc.uy sA f lO'" TW v , "the rule of a company

14 \ / J 1the best men. f1 I ~ ~ o n a r c h y , of course, is : Ttl I"rf?t:I. TO ; e l k " . J ? ~ r, .... .) / 1

TOl l eI PI (TTov , "the rule of the one best man." 5. / I

All the best that CQuld be said for democracy has been in -

in Otanes' defini t ion. Three sal ient points stand out:

before the law; an elective office for the executive

Ibid. , I I I , 80Ibid. , 81

Ibid. , 82



28

which is responsible before the people for i t s conduct in

and the r ight of an assembly of ci t izens to exercise de

power. 16 This is a definit ion that states suff ic ient

well what Herodotus knew of democracy. He has, however,tneg

one important point . To find the cause of th is oversight

is well to consider the signif icant fact tha t Herodotus was

t himself an Athenian and therefore not schooled in the long

t radi t ion. I t may be for th is reason that Herodotus

something of the Athenian sp i r i t of democracy and fai led to

that i t was not the people who ruled Athens but the Law.

The other part icipants , both the oligarchist and the monar-

save thei r severest s tr ic tures for democracy. They speak o

e foolishness and violence of the useless mob. 17 They find the

and the l icense of the unbridled multitude unbearable.e people are ignorant, headlong, blind, "like a r iver in flood,"

tyrannical than the worst tyrant , incapable of keeping the

peace, unable to save themselves from revolt ,and, l ike a

mob, they follow the man who champions their cause and make

tyrant . 18 This picture of the foibles and fa l l of democracy,

as i t is , was only too vivid for the Greek who had seen this

fate come upon the Athenians again and again. On the face of

then, democracy must d e f e n ~ i t se l f on many a score.

Ibid. , 80

Ibid . , 81Ibid. , 81-82



31

take. Power in the hands of a single man is heady wine, an

the best man can s u ~ c u m b gradually to the intoxication of

. 29 The strongest point for democracy agaiBst the monarch is

the l a t te r can do as he wills and cannot be held accountable

r his conduct. The people must be dependent upon his benevol

for the i r own protection. There is more power for good in

but the monarch's power for evi l is also multiplied. I

l depends upon the man, and r ight there stands the weakness of

The debate over, four of the Seven. declared for monarchy and

as to What was the jus tes t way of making a king. 30

hangs a curious ta le , - -an illQminating ref lect ion on what

glibly called "the one best man". They resolved that he

be elected king whose horse should be f i r s t to neigh a twhile they together would be riding out through the sub

b of the c i ty . Darius l e f t nothing to chance. A clever groom

his brought a mare that was especially favored by Darius' horse

tethered the two in the suburb by night. At dawn the six

out to the suburb as agreed, and on reaching the place where

e mare had been picketed, Darius' horse t rot ted up to i t and

Thus did Darius become king.3 l One wonders whether to

monarchy less or Herodotus more.

Ibid. , 80

Ibid. , 83Ibid . , 84-86



PART TWO--THUCYDIDES

Thucydides created pol i t ica l history. Herodotus was not a pol i t ica l historian, for l ike Inanyothers he wrote pol i t ica l history in a non-politi ca l spi r i t . In the quiet city of Halicarnassuswhere he was born, he had seen nothing of pol i t -i ca l l i f e ; and when he f i r s t met i t in fu l lswing in post-war Athens, he took no part in i t ,but looked on from outside as an admiring specta tor . Thucydides on the other hand was a truecit izen of Periclean Athens, and the breath ofl i fe to Periclean Athens was pol i t ica l act ivi ty.Since the social upheavals of the sixth century,when Solon had laid the foundation for the sound

pol i t i ca l sense which early distinguished theAthenians from the i r Ionian kinsmen, every leading"citizen of Athens had taken part in pol i t i cs ,and the Athenians had thereby acquired a vastbody of p o l i t i c a ~ 2 e x p e r i e n c e and well-markedpol i t ica l ideas.

32

The testimony of such a man on any point of pol i t i ca l his -

is invaluable and,we might say, unique. His account is t rus

beyond a l l others, f i r s t , because he was himself ident if ied

the greatest days of the Athenian democracy, secondly, be

l ived long enough to see the beginning of the decline and

therefore in a bet ter cr i t i ca l position to estimate t ruly the

in the Athenian system tha t led to deter iorat ion, and,oecause the principles that guided him in his writing

less exacting than those of the best modern his tor ical me

as he explains himself:

W(erner) Jaeger, Paideia, The Ideals of Greek Culture, t rans.from the Second German Edition by G(ilbert) Hight, OxfordUniversity Press, New York, 1939, 380-381.



34

his his tor ical sense, to some l imitat ion of democratic l icense.

gives expression to this l a t te r att i tude when, after recounting

of the Four Hundred and the establishment of a qual

democracy in the hands of the Five Thousand,--every man whofurnish himself with a hopl i te ' s outf i t belonged to this

,) r/ .),,;, ...."says: outr n l1 la -TJ. err£. ,,'14 t , kov JA817¥dIQI 9 ' d U l O Y 7 ~

; I/ ' , ' J , ~ /T[olt ,TelJ(J""cl . .YTF/- , uGT{> ' i l eAf 7z TE tS' TOO] O/l/d9'vJ

" \ / J" •

TOu; rroAtlov.J iVV-Jfpau1f l t t v F T Q "The Athen-

appear to have enjoyed the best government they ever had, a t

in my time; for there was a moderate blending of the few

the many • .,34

A short time after these words were written Thucydides'

came to an end. These are, then, Thucydides' f inal words

democracy. They marked the his tor ian 's approval of a moderate

bsed upon a property qual i f icat ion. His acceptance of

form should cause no reproach a t that- early date, since, i f

should care to examine into the matter, we would find that our

Founding Fathers centuries l a ter always intended to l imit the

privilege of the new Republic on just such a basis . Northis l as t expression of h is on democracy change considerably

former sentiments on democracy. Hitherto a l l his re

on the consti tut ion of Athens had been dominated by the

figure of Pericles , and a l l his disquieting fears for

Ibid. , v i i i , 97,5; t rans. from C. F(orster) Smith, Thucydides,IV, WIlliam Heinemann, Ltd. , London, 1923, 373.



aristocracy of ta lent is supreme. Logically,tha t implies the principle tha t i f one man issupremely valuable and important he wil l be re cognized as the ruler of the sta te . This concept ion would, on the one hand, allow tha t the poli t i ca l act ivi ty of each individual has some value for the community; yet i t also admits the

fact--recognized in Thucydides even by the radi ca l demagogue Cleon--that the people alone cannot possibly govern a large and dif f icul t empire.Thucydides considers tha t Periclean Athens wasa happy solution of a problem which was becomingacute in the s tate of 'freedom and equali ty ' , thati s , in the complete democracy of mob-rule--theproblem of the relationship which ought to existbetween a superior individual and the pol i t ica lcommunity.

History has shown that this solution dependson the appearance of a genius to lead the s ta te- an accident as uncommon in a democracy as in othertypes of s ta te . 3?

No more str iking example of the lack of prodigali ty with

36

history has supplied democracy with such inspired leadership

be chosen than the plight in which Athens found herself af ter

lost the genius of Pericles . 38 His successors were more of a

mediocre men lacking the ta lent to rise to supremacy on

own merits . Consequently in the struggle for the foremost

in the sta te , they were prepared in thei r lus t for power to

to the whims of the people even in the conduct of public

This was a fateful mistake for a great and imperial

to make. The people are not prepared themselves to balance

judge delicate questions of foreign policy and military s t ra t -

Many blunders resulted, especially the disasterous Sici l ian

Jaeger, 406Thucydides, i i , 65, 10-13



38

subject to private ambitions and greed, 50 incompetent to

others,5 l imprudent in decisions;52 nei ther wise nor equit

I t was besides disobedient and intractable, 54 impatient,5

and inconsistent with i t se l f . 57 Alcibiades,

told the Lacedaemonians that i t was an admitted fol ly,

/ J I 58U\ o],puuut! slyo/,l •

(J I

At i t s best , a glorious best , democracy was worth i t s faul ts

splendid eulogy that Thucydides put into the mouth of Pericles

he delivered the Funeral Oration over the fal len soldiers of

is the best statement we have of the ideals of democratic

59 This speech, as well as the other numerous speeches

the History is the means that 'J:lhucydides consistently

to express his own pol i t ica l ideas. I t i s , therefore, in

of the character of the writer, a trustworthy and sane accoun

the high regard for democracy fe l t by the bet ter and more in

of the time. They were so convinced that thei r

of government was the best of i t s day that they thought i t

be a model for the imitat ion of other peoples. Pericles

not slow to t e l l the people, and they were content to accept

Ibid. , i i , 59-60; v, 26

Ibid. , i l , 65Ibid. , i i i , 37Ibid. , i i i , 43Ibid. , v i, 39Ibid. , vi i , 14; v i i , 72

Ibid. , vi i , 84i£!a: : t ; ~ g Z ~ O ; v i i i , 1

bl.d. , it: 35-46Ibid ••



39

he said as an accomplished fact , that thei rs was not a mech

equality. All stood the same before the law, for the i r own

All had equal opportunities, but only those with sup

pol i t ical abi l i ty could achieve public honors. Poverty was

bar to public off ice , nor was obscurity of rank. Personal

t was the only qual i f icat ion . And no :!lan was hindered from

part in public af fa i r s , nay, i t was each man's duty to do

J \" 1 - /. UOYfJt. d=dP Toy 7'£ unrfGI / TU /YdF u eT t ! ! . ( CVTa 2I' ) ),

I j.J ~ "If d?I f J..J7u Dri= J cl J) 4' aI/PJ £/ 0 Y YO JU { ~ § v "For we alone

the man taking no part in these affairs not as one mind

g his own business, but as good for nothing."60

Thus did the supporters of the Athenian const i tut ion view

as the t rue State,

where man was equal to man, and an impart ial lawruled all--A State which served no part icular int e res t , but did just ice to every class. Democracy made room for the r ich in f i n ~ n c e , the wise incounCil, the masses in decision. bl

was the State tha t l ived a Golden Age, that exoerienced

l i fe" perhaps more than any other. I t provided the

relaxation from to i l : games and sacr i f ices and homesout with elegance and good t as te , providing days f i l led

pleasure; and the ci ty became so great because of i t that

the products of a l l the earth flowed in upon i t ; a l l the

musiC, and a r t o ~ men found there a congenial home. 62 But

Ibid . , i i , 40,2.Barker, 150.Thucvdl.des. i i .18 .



42

nothing is known or the author. Certainly i t was not Xenophon.

e book was written early in the Peloponnesian War, a t a time,

to the dates generally accepted, berore Xenophon was

when he was a small boy. This matter is a l l discussed by

who inclines to Cri t ias , the famous leader or the Thirty

as the most likely. author,.8 T h ~ work certainly antedates

and, as shall be seen, i t s view of Athenian democracy

or an opposite nature rrom that idealized picture or the Fun-

Oration. The supposition, and i t must remain such, or Cri-

authorship is quite in character with the nature or the

since ror years the author has been known as the Old Oli-

Whoever he was, he was a man who had seen a momentous and

age, and had come away singularly unimpressed by i t . He

to have seen a l l the blemishes of democracy and was willing

ta lk about them candidly and coolly. There is a "cold and

detachment on the part of the writer , who sets forth

s facts s ta t i s t ica l ly and without emotion, and leaves the reader

passupon

them what judgment hepleases."9

Yet,in

the raceof

s hosti le sp i r i t , his pamphlet marks the beginning of no cam

to oust the democracy, nor was' i t intended to do anything

the kind. The cool l i t t l e way he rinishes is anything but

Ibid. , 373-382Ibid. , 381NF(trtancis) Brooksr An Athenian Crit ic or Athenian DemocracY,Dav

u , London 19. 2 ~



43

He remarks that there is very l i t t l e danger, or hop

since i t is possible that he was talking for the benefi t of

oligarchic fr iends--of any successful attack upon

e democracy of Athens.lO

The writer , in fact , seems to have conceived a left-handed

for the Athenian democracy. His r ight hand with i t s

grasp of things told him that the democracy put a man of his

with his educational and material advantages, his savoir

in a ridiculous posit ion. By ta lent and posit ion he was

f i t ted to take a leading place in affa i rs of s ta te . Yet

he could do that who would satisfy the passions and prejudi

s of the ignorant mob which ruled Athens. A man of his rank

hardly condone this clear-cut fol ly, that the Athenian

/

put the base ( 71 w ~ (!!D L ) in a bet ter position than/ /

e good ( ~ ? 1 < T rot ). The use of the word x..e "iT l:. () [ in the book-

t under consideration, ~ A e 2 1 Y d / W v/

7T4lt ,Tl I t> , I , i , is re-

I t means useful, serviceable, deserving./

TTOY'YJpo r» ::;.

the opposite idea,--of something causing pain or hardship,

No doubt about i t , th is man was an uncompromising snob.

was completely absorbed in the welfare of his ovm class and has

sympathy or in teres t for the cownon people. Nevertheless he

a grudging admiration for the Athenian system. An old

himself, he can see the wisdom of ignorance and the

(Xenophon), De Republica Atheniensium, I I I , 13.



I f you look for good government, you wil l see,in the f i rs t .nlace , the most capable men legislat ing for the community, and in the second, thegood will hold the bad in check and wil l not a llow madmen to advise or speak or s i t in the assembly. As a resul t of these excellent conditions theldemocracy would very soon fa l l into

salvery. 4

46

Democracy, indeed, possessed i t s own slaves. Over a third -

possibly half of the population belonged to th is or to the

alien class . Neither of these gr·oups were cit izens or

the r ignts of ci t izens. St i l l they were a large and

minority, doubly powerful under the Athenian system.

al l , a maritime empire and as such needed/the

Iof the metics ( J"l I: ]=01 t r o l ) , 'o r resident aliens, for hand

r

trade, and the f lee t . The slaves were needed for a l l the

work and for a great uart of the work which i s now done by

e industr ial classes. The whole social organization of the

was bui l t on this system, and upon i t thei r prosperity de

At Athens, however, the Old Oligarch saw what he thought

evidence of a gradual deterioration of the old system. The

found in the l icense a t Athens and in the Athenians' con-

on matters of power and wealth an opportunity to make

masters aware of the corporate strength of the slave-classes

e ci ty-s ta te in i t s lus t for empire had enslaved i t se l f , from

considerations, to i t s slaves and resident al iens. To

Ibid. , I , 9; Trans. in Brooks, 11-12.



47

e horror of the upper class, the slaves, l ike thei r masters,

In dress and appearance they becaome no different from

e cit izens. No longer could a ci t izen chastise a slave. Rarely

d the slave yield the walk to the cit izen.15 With a l l this the

of Athens were content,--reasonably so from thei r viewpoin

had struck a bargain with the spir i ts of Wealth and Empire.

Led by the same sp i r i t the people were inclined to repress

that they themselves could not ~ a r t i c i p a t e in or gain

benefit to themselves. They were hosti le to gymnastics and

as arts beyond the i r capacity, or in which they found no

But yet they were outspoken in the i r demands

r dramatic choruses and athle t ic t raining and the wquipment of

because:

they real ise that i t is the rich who furnishchoruses and the people who are furnished withthem, and the rich who undertake athlet ic t ra in-ing and triremes and the people who have themundertaken for them. At the same time the peopleclaim to receive pay for thei r services as singers, runners, dancers, and on board ship, inorder that they themselygs may gain, and therich may become poorer.

Ever in pursuit of wealth the democracy has made i t s al l ies

e slaves of the Athenian people. 17 This they have accomplished

uphold.ing the bad(or democratic) cause in a l l the subject-ci t-

De Republica Ath., I , 10Ibid . , I , 13; t rans . in Brooks, 13-14.De Republica Ath., I , 18



48

s • "They deprive the good of thei r civic r ights and property,

get them exiled, and put them to death, and they help on the

expecting, and wisely so, that the l a t te r will be friends

the central democracy. 'I'he Athenians have conceived a very

for the treatment of the i r a l l i es . ] 'oolishly, so i t

they do "not allow them to prosper and then demand higher

but each Athenian pockets a l l he can, leaving them only

to l ive and work from, and so he is unable to plot against

demoCracy.19 And. they force the a l l ies to sa i l to Athens for

settlement of lawsuits, a procedure which is as safe as i t is

for a l l concerned. The poor receive the benefi t of a l l

court fees. The Athenians have the al l ies a t the i r beck and

without leaving home. They uphold in the i r own courts the

of democracy and destroy thei r enemies more safely than

would i f just ice were administered in the several communities

in-coming l i t igan t is subject to a one per cent tax; he must

for his lodging and food, and have a slave and a carriage.

th is i s in the people s pockets. In Athens the al l ies lea'rn

the i r master is , - -not the generals nor the ambassadors whom

have seen at home,not the law, not the Athenian const i tut ion,

~ SnuoT l l f b r . t ~ $ t > w TT a r , the humble si t izen of Athens. 20) y r ./

Ib id . , I , 14.Ib id . , I , 15.Ib id . , I , 17, 18.



50

Democracy is reproached by some, writes the Old Oligarch, fo

fault that i t could not correct even i f i t wanted to do so. The

l ies in the system. Democracy is slow. Man or measure can

a year before the Counci lor the Assembly before being heard

si tuat ion is not at a l l unusual. I t is forced upon Athens by

e enormous amount of public business. The Counci lor the Assem-

y had to give decision "upon more lawsuits, prosecutions, and

than the res t of mankind put together • .,24 Deliberations

war; provision of revenue; enacting of laws; the daily wel

of the ci ty; the al l ies ; supervision of dockyards and sacred

the f i t t ing of triremes; the choregi for the Dionysia,

Panathenaea, Prometheia, and Hephaestia; the appoint-

of the four hundred t r ierarchs; the sat isfact ion of a l l l i t i

a t home and from abroad; the test ing ana approval of c i t i -

-questions of' mili tary service, of' punishment f'or crime and

assessments of' t r ibute; the whole complicated system

home and f'oreign re la t ions, - - these were the concern of the

of' Athens, a task which engaged large numbers of the pop

in rotat ion. I t was a leisure-loving populace, too. They

the people who held twice as many fes t ivals as any other

in Greece. During these periods the ci ty ' s business came to

s tandst i l l . Li t t le wonder that democracy was slow and that

found immunity in i t s surroundings. 25

Ibid. , I I I , 2; t rans. in Brooks, 24.De Republica Ath., I I I , 1-8.



51

Nevertheless, these matters cannot be changed. Every device

betters the Constitution takes away something from the dem-

and this the people will not to lerate . Unimportant chang

or taking away here or there, they will permit, but the

they will not change, and the democracy will always es

the evil course i f i t is suited to i t se l f . So greatly do

e peonie fear enslavement. 26 Their numbers would be few and

to fai lure , for "how could anyone suppose that the majority

have suffered unjustly at Athens, where i t is the people who

the off ic ia l posts."27

The Old Oligarch has been caught on the horss of his O'A'n

His disl ike of democracy is born of his to ta l lack of

for the mob. He feels no confidence in i t . He cannot

i t s ways nor appreciate i t s values. Yet he sees with

own clear eyes the same br i l l ian t ci ty that Thucydides was to

of in a few years. He lived through a Golden Age, too, and

a l l the advantages of the Imperial City. He l ived

Pericles, and called what he saw democracy,--wanton demoora-

, self ish, ignoble, unjust , and ignorant. Thucydides l ived un

r Pericles , and called what he saw ttnominally a democracy",--

the opposite of 'what the Old Oligarch saw--, yet a demooracy

made the whole ci ty of Athens the school of Greek culture , ~

Ibid. , I I I , 8, 9, 10.Ibid. , I I I , 13; t rans. in Brooks, 27-28.



52

~ d (/5 ,1[ . " g E. v (J I Y ,28 an immortal heri tage. Zimmern speaks

i t as the nmost successful example of social organization known

history.n29 Thucydides saw the glorious ideal and praised i t ;

OldOligarch did not see the ideal, could not understand i t ,

t he saw the facts ; he saw the great city and grimly admired tha

Thucydides, I I , 41.A(lfred) Zimmern, The Greek Commonwealth, Poii t ics and Econom

ics in ] ' i f th CentU:;Y-Athens, Clarendon Press, Oxforcr:-1924,367



CHAPTER FOUR

AN EDUCATOR Al'lD PAMPHLETEER ON ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY

\ \ I ." ('" )\ J I 1tu n ~ J/!.!!j11. 7TodtwJ ovJ',g v £rEpav'll 7Toll lTE.la •

The pol i t ica l views of Isocrates were the product of his

The great day of democracy was already past . Before l so

was five years old, the Peloponnesian War had begun. This

s in 431. When Pericles died in 429, Isocrates was only seven.

e news .of the disasterous death of the Sici l ian Expedition came

him as a man of twenty-three. Two years l a te r he saw the Four

established and received his f i r s t taste of oligarchy.

e next year, 410, the democracy was fully restored. Six years

by, and, when he was thi r ty- three , the long walls were pulled

and the Thirty Tyrants began the i r reign of te r ror . Andthe next year, in 403, the democracy was revived. At th i r ty

he saw how Socrates died, and, when he was f i f ty , Plato was,

in the Academy. In 380 the Panegyric was written by a

of f i f ty-s ix, four years after the bir th of Demosthenes and

By the time Isocrates re8.ched three score and ten Aris

had arrived in Athens. In his e ighties the old teacher wat

the r ise of Philip and heard the eloquent Philippics of the

of A ~ e n s . He was one year short of ninety when Plato died

347. He could have seen the beginning of a new age when at

lsocrates , Areopagiticus, 14.53



56

3How could anyone believe tha t he, an Athenian

o had seen the t o l l of those terr ible months with his o ~ n eyes,

desire a return of the rule of the Thirty Tyrants and of the

of terror , when a Spartan garrison had occupied the

The shame of th is event was indelibly printed on a l l

thoughts and made the oligarchy an ever hateful refuge. 4

No government, he held, even the most -y.ranton democracy, cou

the depravity of an oligarchy. Nevertheless a comparing

the oligarchy they were r id of and of the democracy they en-

should not leave the Athenians complacent. Their present

as he saw i t , was a far cry from the noble polity of thei r

The fortunes of Athens were.on an iIT)J.--neasurably lowe

than they had ever been before democracy had been corrupted.

Along such l ines did Isocrates make his plea. With true

century vigor he pictured the degeneracy of the democracy

the day and contrasted i t with the Golden Age of the past .

of his cri t icism we have heard before and shal l hear again in

Make allowance as we may for overdrawing the picture, the

agreement upon certain undesirable features of democracy

seem to have manifested themselves consistently leaves l i t t l e

for doubting that much abuse real ly existed, and not in a

Isocrates, Areopagiticus, 16For whole paragraph cf. Isocrates, Areopagiticus, 61-73



57

or inoffensive degree. George Norlin in his Introduction

Areopagiticus observes that Isocrates at tr ibuted the weak

of Athens mainly to an excess of "freedom" and makes his ovm

that , "in the fourth century, the Athenianswere

l ivingand more the i r own l ives, self ishly pursuing the i r own bus

or l iving off the state rather than for i t , and craving in

the l iber ty to 'do as they 1iked,".5

The specific charges Isocrates makes bear out this view. He

the Athenians that they drive a l l orators from the plat -

except those who support the i r own desires. 6 This corrupt

has gone so far that the orators actual ly pract ise and

how to make thei r discourses pleasing to the Athenians, dis

what wil l be advantageous to the s tate .? Isocrates con-

/

the Athenians more seriously for allowing to appear on the

before them men whose private morals l e f t much to be de

men such as Eubulus, Call i stratus (cf. Athenaeus, i4,166e),

d Philocrates(cf. Aeschines, On the Embassy, 52). They l is ten

drunks8 l ike the demagogue Cleophon, and to men l ike Eubulus,

inst i tuted the public dole, sett ing aside a portion of the

revenues as a "theoric" fund to be distr ibuted to the

G(eorge) Norlin, Isocrates, I I , William heinemann, Ltd. , London1929, 101.Isocrates, Peace, 3Ib id . , 5Aris tot le , 34



58

a t public fes t ivals , rather than to public-spir i ted men of

1 .) 1 .J ~ I I

d>1pO!(fd..TItl,S ovtnlS DUIC !6"TI TCtJ.fI'?Ztrld..· "Though this is

democracy, there is no freedom of speech • .,9

Isocrates feared the democracy was l iving on i t s name. I t

a reputation for equality with equity. But democracy

d been betrayed and now educated i t s ci t izens to feel that " in-

was democracy, transgression of the law was l iber ty , that

tongue was' equality, and l iber ty to do anything

a l l was happiness."\ J /

Y U £ v 01 } fo ?t oHr I el vI

I \ \ / ~ I

.d G Y e e F I Ii v , T '1 k ~ E J r oJ?? 17 g- I rl k -' rr a va ,?C l 4. VJ

, .) / "-- 1 __' ~ I .10~ v - - > , " " - ) . c . . . , . r ~ O ; : . . . ; ; ; U . . . ; ; a - - - ' - ' ; : : c l . . . : ; v , - - _ T , L . . . ; : o : . . ; v ~ _ 7 T " , " , - . l . d d u l C , - T ~ ~ ~ 7 i " " 7 r . . . . . . ; ; ! ) ~ ( - , , e ~ J v «U a,.( l . ,u 0 V I A II'

Isocrates proposed a simple remedy,--the restorat ion of the

ins t i tu ted by Solon and re-established by Cleisthenes.

-' ~ , ~ / ~ I I:J/

0 tJ!C cot v ~ v,P 0 l ,Ll A ~ () ({ Tt: <f?Z},u 0711£ T ~ , e d ¥ 0 (J r£

" 1 4\ . / .117[o;l i ( j iJJ4bf' 0: v,.u , ! ~ p ovcrJ r " A government than

we could find none more democratic or more advantageous to

ci ty ." History gives the l i e to Isocrates ' statement here.

was mentioned in the chapter on Solon--and there is ample proof

r i t in Aristot le ' s Constitution of Athens--that Solon did not

a democracy, nor could the poli ty as long as he guided

For Whole paragraph ef . Isoerates , Peace, 1), 14.lsoerates, AreoDagitieus, 20.

Ib d., 17 •



be called democratic. As the work stood when Solon l e f t i t ,

had been inst i tu ted only in the judicial sphere. ffHe

the people not so much the control of public p o l ~ c y , as the

of being governed legal ly in accordance with k n o ~ nrt12 In other respects Solon believed firmly in the rule

law and in holding the people in close res t ra in t . So that , in

Solon's actual government was an aristocracy which ruled

5

Isocrates, of course, was perfectly well aware of th is fact ,

such a constitution met his desires exactly. He gives complet

to the "ancestral democracy", picturing i t for what

was, a consti tut ional aristocracy.

Our forefathers had resolved that the people,as the supreme master of the s ta te , should appoint

the magistrates, cal l to account those who fai ledin thei r duty, and judge in cases of dispute; while.those ci t izens who could afford the time andoossessed suff ic ient means should devote themselvesto the care of the commonwealth, as servants ofthe people, ent i t led to receive commendation i fthey proveQ fa i thful to the i r t rus t , and contenting themselves with th is hOllor, but, condemned,on the other hand, i f they governed badly, to

m e e ~ ~ i t h n ~ 3 m e r c y , but to sut ter the severestpunJ.snment.

confirms the fact that th is was Solonian practice , name-

for the people to select the i r own magistrates and have the

to cal l them to account for thei r conduct, though, as Iso-

recommends, the selection \A,raW to be from "men of reputation

Barker, 44.

Isocrates, Areopagiticus, 26, 27; t rans. in Norlin, 119-121.



60

means".14

Isocrates, then, was a vigorous cr i t ic of pure democracy.

s faith in the lo t , supposedly the feature most characteris t ic o

e democracy of Athens, was notoriously slender. 'l'he old democr

, he said, recognized two kinds of equality: that which made

e same award to a l l al ike , where the lo t was leader of a l l dis

and that which gave to each man his due, on the basis

merit . Further he held that the ancient democracy had chosen

e la t te r , rejecting,and r ight ly so he thought, the principle th

e good and the bad are worthy of the same honor. 15 I t was the

of the i r forefathers, a.nd his as well, · that the best

d ablest should be selected for each function of the state . In

he de:t"'ined the democratic man as the man who did, not

the people l iked, but what was for the i r good. He wanted to

the people only that measure of sovereignth which would en

them to protect the i r constitution and through i t the i r

Exclusive of th is safeguard he was willing to c h ~ n g e the

of democracy from Rule or the People to Love of the

Aristot le , Poli t ics , 1274, a, l5f f .

Isocrates, Areopagiticus, 21, 22.



wall, and the only hope for the salvation of socie ty is tha t philosophers should become rulersor rulers philosophers. 8

64

that Plato was the ablest thinker of his day and,

Athenian of the Athenians, the recollection tha t with a l l his

and ar t i s t i c genius he should have been, by a l l the usual

bet ter prepared to estimate the magnitude of Athenian

under the democracy, and the knowledge tha t his writ-

have made him for us the l iving, breathing sp i r i t of Greece,

emphasis to a serious question raised in the minds of every

e whoestimates Plato ' s greatness t ru ly . How could he have been

blind to the vir tues of democracy? Could i t be tha t he was

t blind, that he gave us a true picture of democracy in Athens?

so, his views cannot be l ight ly dismissed.

Plato, we have said, was, especially in his younger and

years, an ideal is t in pol i t i cs . He had conceived an ideal

or which he gives us a ru l l explanation in his l i terary

the Republic. How much Plato ' s noble ideal may have

his views of pract ical pol i t ics is hinted a t in Barker's

Pol i t ica lTheory.

I t has been suggested that the main-spring ofthe Reoublic is Plato ' s aversion to contemporary capitalism, and his desire to subst i tutea new scheme of socialism. This would make ofthe Republic an economic t reat ise ; and theauthor of the suggestion enforces his point

Shorey, What Plato Said, 6; cf. Plato, Republic, 496c-e,cr. also Laws, 660c, Republic, 473c-d.



66

general conclusion, then, is , i t seems, that the ideal concep

of Plato do re f lec t l i te ra l ly the actual Athenian conditions

r are they representat ive of f i f th century popular bel ie f . But

again a note of caution should be added,-- i t is dif f icul t toas the writers quoted would have us do, the views of a

as profound as Plato.

A more hwnan view of the origin of Plato ' s "bias" against

is expressed in the opinion that he could forget neither

s ancestry nor his posit ion in Athenian society. He was a Eu

and his mother was connected by blood with the oligarch

The posit ion of this class might be described in the

manner. The whole organization of the State 's religious

belonged,by.tradit ion, in the hands of the aristocracy.

were matters for a man of bir th and education. Closely con-

with rel igious usage, there was the idea of just ice, as

a matter of technical and t radi t ional knowledge as the re l ig-

and not to be administered, so i t would seem in the ear

times of the City, except by those to whom divine order had

that knowledge. All this is reasonable, as experience

In the primitive stages of any s ta te , the common people

in no position to regulate the rel igious and judicial function

the s ta te . No more, indeed, are they capable of guiding the

in mil i tary matters.

The Aristocracy took the greater r isk in actualwarfare, and were a t greater expense than the



coamons in providing themselves with horses andsuperior arms. They ••• had a greater stake inthe State and they bore the greater burden.What wonder, then, i f they ••• ceme to lookdown on the Deople as louts who could not andwould not f ight , unworthy alike of honor on thebat t lef ie ld, and of power in the consti tut ion. 12

67

Modern commentators on Plato feel that he, as an inheri tor

this t radi t ion, could not escape i t s effects on his own phil

of the s ta te , and they at t r ibute his disaffection for the

of the people to thi.s Cause. I t is a simple solution

the question, but not one that quiets serious doubts that

have raised. Barker maintains that " i t would be a mistake

judge the pol i t ics of Plato ' s family from the career of Cri-

or to maintain that Plato inherited from his family a prej

against Athenian democracy."l) Grundy defends Plato ' s

with an acute analysis of the whole picture .

Ideal is t histor ians have renresented the Athenian democracy as an ideal consti tut ion wherein the selfishness inherent in human nature wasreduced to a minimum, and the good of the in dividual waB merged in the good of the commun-i ty . I f this view be accepted, i t must beassumed tha t the upper and wealthier classesin Greek democracies, and above a l l in Athens,

were uniformly and singularly bad, for theyhated this ideal consti tution with a hatredthat was singularly whole-hearted. The intens i ty of the feeling between oligarch and dem-ocrat a l l the Greek world over was such thatparty patriotism held in men's esteem a placeabove a l l devotion to the s ta te ••• Those who

would account for the intensity of this feelingby differences in theoret ical pol i t ics assignto i t a cause which is obviously inadequate.

118.Barker, 109.



Men do not die fo r pol i t ica l theories , unlessthese theories embody some pract ica l principlewhich makes a mater ial difference in the l i fewhich they l ive . 14

68

The argument dravm from Pla to ' s years is a double-edged swo

s cr i t i cs wield i t against him, contending tha t Plato l ived so

tha t the Athens he knew had los t the gif ted and animated

of the Golden Age and had suffered sadly a t the hands of

r andoest i lence . In the i r opinion: " I t is unscientif ic to

of the working of Athenian ins t i tu t ions in the f i f th century

by the opinions of men who knew them only as worked by a

population in the fourth.,,15 Admirers of Plato who de

also to be fr iends of democracy use the length of his days

the i r own s a t i s f a c ~ i o n and consolation. Plato 's eighty years

long enough, since he was fe r t i le and productive to the end,

provide two dis t inct periods in his pol i t i ca l thought,-- the

of the Gorgias and the Republic and the period of the

and the Laws. In these l a t te r Plato, we shal l see, seem

to adopt, a more tolera.nt at t i tude to the democracy of Athens.

many years had perhaps made the res t less tor rent

his impetuous idealism run slower, more content to hold i t se l f

the more comfortable channel of pract ical i ty . Or the i r

hau dimmed the memory of the stain which Athenian democra

had to bear forever in the midst of many proad boasts and glor-

deeds,-- the murder of Pla to ' s beloved master, Socrates.

G.B. Grundy, r:I.'hucydides And the History of His ~ , John 1iur

ray, London, 1911, 107-8.

Fowler, 153-4.



69

I t is never easy to knovT which is Socrates' thought and whic

Plato ' s own. Socrates l e f t no v ~ i t i n g s of his own. We know

chiefly through the influence of his mind on Pla to ' s . (Xen-

too, W : ~ ' l s Socrates' disciple and has l e f t loving and rever

t accounts of him.) S t i l l , i t is possible to some degree to

Socrates' contribution to Plato ' s pol i t i ca l thought.

af te r reviewing with thoroughness Plato ' s pol i t i ca l theor-

summarizes Socrates' contribution to them.

@ocrate;r had cri t ic ised the characteris t icsof Athenran democracy--the use of the lo t ;the composition of the assembly; the ignorance of the Athenian statesmen. He hadpreached that the handling of pol i t ics required some esoteric mystery of knowledge; andsuch preaching in a democratic State was a tthe best gnCiVisme, and a t the worst lesema,jeste. l

pol i t i ca l implications contained in this doctrine are apparent

teaching reached i t s logical fulfi lment in the theories of

~ o c r a t e ; J h e l d that pol i t ics not only r e ~ i r e dknowledge, but also unselfish devotion •• ~ l h el a t t e ~ i s a conception which no advocate of thedemocratic cause could do otherwise than endorse.But Socrates had preached the sovereignty of

knowledge, and the doctrine of the sovereignty ofknowledge might easily become, in i t s pol i t ica lapplication, a doctrine of enlightened despotism. This, indeed, is what i t became, a t anyrate for a time and during the middle periodof his l i fe , in the hands of Plato. Such atheory of enlightened despotism was necessar-i ly inimical to democracy; i t m.ight also become

Barker, 94.Ibid . , 96-7.



inimical to the rule of law. Monarchical, a.nd

even absolut ist , philosophies might thus drawthei r inspirat ion from Socrates; and in tha tsense he was the enemy of democracy.17

70

was a fate in Athens for enemies of democracy. "No man in

preserve his l i fe i f honestly opposes himself to you. n18

Ihid . , 96-7.Plato, Apology, 31e.



CHAPTER SIX

PLATO YOUNG IDEALIST AND OLD REALIST

THE RIGOROUS CRITIC ~ ~ D ~ r l E VIRTUE OF THE SECOND BEST

, ttl \ .J / I I

trJ. t Irrrrot. ( OytJ , . 7lJ VU I ." t u e« p W J, """) . , "

l f d l CC£J&ywr "flBI7 L i ' I (D l VtJl> l u e creel' ,);r ~ r )

, , t ', ) I ..... .:I \

''''-9 TJ.. Tel.( 0 do ( l r e 4 ael l >. 0 reTE r T U i ..,( I (.:v :r; / t

~ - ,), ,- ' I \

J .7TdYTU/YTl . , ec fV Jun l j lCrT)J ' cA l . , t I e l l

~ /

T ' J /lAc! ' lTd v T ~ t t l

Qu7£.C1 )

,U i f ; !" Tel.

Plato and Isocrates l ived and wrote side by side as heads

r iva l schools in fourth century Athens. Their years of pro-

writing and thinking coincided for forty or f i f ty years.

what they said and what they thought about democracy there are,

course resemblances. Both were extremely cr i t i ca l of fourth

democracy. Both had harsh things to say about the relaxin

Plato, Republic, VIII, 56)c, 7.Ibid. , 560e.71



72

morals and the lowering or civic sp i r i t that was-apparent in

Athens. Isocrates, however, was no enemy or democracy. He

deplored the new, radical system into which the ancient

had degenerated, while he reserved only the highest

ror the s ta te of Solon, Cleisthenes, and Pericles, extoll in

polity or his ancestors and even of his own boyhood as the

which Athens ought to return. The democracy that

sat ir ized was the democracy of the demagogues who fol-

Pericles and of the unsett led sta te of the fourth century.

Plato is a more thorough-going enemy of democracy. The

he attacks is f i f th c e n t u ~ y Athens. The shocking things he

about democracy concern the Athens of Pericles and of Them-

The very days of democracy's greatest a c c o m p l i s ~ ~ e n t s

the days that Plato deprecates. The best tha t democracy had

offer was not 600d enough for Plato,--not in these early years

Plato was forty and Socrates dead l i t t l e more than a decade.

was the period, about )87, that Plato chose to make f ina l

separation from the pol i t ica l world and give his devotion

to philosophy. The Gorgias, which V'tas written at

time, is his "Apology", vindicating his own choice. Lamb in

Introduction to the Gorgias i s or the opinion that "this ex

the peculiar severity of his at t i tude and language towards

of' the past and present .")

Plato, V, William Heinemann, London, 1925, 256.



73

Plato ' s charges against Themistocles and Pericles and other

statesmen are based on a principle that is typical ly his

According to i t he defines what the good statesman ought to

for his country, namely, to make his fel low-cit izens

good as possible. And i f a man is a good statesman, he wil l be

changing his fel low-cit izens from worse to bet ter .

th is principle to Pericles ' career, Plato holds that , i f

is to pass inspection on th is pOint, the Athenians would

to be found bet ter a t the end of Pericles ' career than they

when he f i r s t began to speak before the people. Plato then

whether the Athenians are said to have become bet ter because

Pericles, or, on the contrary, to have been corrupted by him.

for my part , hear th i s , that Pericles has made the Athenians

and cowardly and loquacious and greedy, by star t ing the sys-

, , ,J/ J / Iof public fees." TJ , l JT l Jd,P e'J=""J'E. J/fDtJW, Wf,tr t ' \£J . .

I .J / J \ ' , 1

rreva' 'A6nYd/oVf -rJP/tJuJ /fJ,1. ~ e l tl £I oJ I( d ,

I , I - ' /

}, 0 V) t r ,A L q> I }, d led' up 0 U J E I J ,"' - <2 Q r; 0 P I pi IC

To Y ! fa rd (lTdC-d v T d.. .4 The seriousness of this

cannot be exaggerated. This is not fourth century

This is Athens in her glory. These are the same Athenian

whom Thucydides said: "Their bodies they devote to the i r coun

as though they belonged to other men: the i r true se l f is

mind, which is most t ruly the i r own when employed in her

Plato, Gorgias, 516e.



74

n5

Two men looked a t the same real i ty; one saw i t as i t was;

other saw i t in perspective, from the vantage point of forty

years. Whose testimony should be accepted? The philosopher'

the historians?

A very recent work of William Kelly Prentice, The Ancient

accepts Plato ' s verdict without question. I shal l quote

passage in fu l l merely to show that i t is not a t a l l unusual

r careful students of Greek antiquit ies to agree unreservedly

Plato 's condemnation of Athenian ins t i tut ions, despite the

t radit ion that has painted, and will ever picture, the

democracy as an ideal state and a model for a l l others.

decide that question would require a fu l l and comparative study

Athenian with the l a te r democratic inst i tu t ions and of the.

state with the other successful sta tes of the past and

Here the question is l e f t entirely open, though Plato ' s

is presented by Prentice in an extremely favorable l ight .

Socrates' question to Call icles6 implies

that Plato thought the Athenian voters had beencorrupted by Pericles, who had made them lazy,cowardly, disputatious, and greedy for the mon-ey paid to them by the government. Under Periclesthe state came to exist chiefly to support thedemos. I

I t is possible that Pericles, l ike others,_

Thucydides, Funeral Oration, i i , 35-46.Plato, Gorgias, 5l5e.Aristot le, Pol i t ics , l293a.



then to destruction. 876

Plato blruaes Pericles in principle for th is gradual deter i

of the demos. This at t i tude of the philosopher is based

shrewdness and pract ical i ty on the undeniable fact that Per-

was r e s p o n ~ i b l e for introducing the practice whereby the

or jurors received payment from the s ta te for their servi-

The Constitution of Athens by Aristot le says that more than

men were receiving s ta te pay as jurymen and members of the

being maintained at the public expense as public ser:

or benefactors. This high figure means that one out of ev-

four, or even one out of every three ci t izens were engaged

received wages as public c iv i l servants. 9

Zimmern, an authority ~ n the Greek pol i t ics and economics

f if th century, is not in agreement with Plato ' s condemnatio

this pract ice.

Regular pay for s ta te work, such as Periclesinst i tu ted for jurymen and counCillors, is not'corruption' but a great advance ••• 'The laboureris worthy of his hi re ' : and Athenians weresensible enough not to be ashamed of receivingi t . The effect of i t s introduction was not somuch to tempt poor men into public l ife[The Old .Oligarch, Isocrates, and Plato infer the c o n t r a r y ~as to compensate the moderately well-to-do forthe i r time and trouble. lO

There comes for th, nevertheless, from the pages of Plato an

W(illiam Kelly) Prentice, The Ancient Greeks, University Press,Princeton, 1940, 151-2.Zimmern, 175.

Ibid. , 176, note.



77

different from the idealized ci t izen of Thucydides. The

Plato saw was not the kind to devote his body to his coun-

as'though i t belonged to another man. Quite al tered, too, is

portra i t of the ImDerial City to which "al l the products of

earth flow in . ,,11 ; where l ive "the lovers of beautY",12 with

"many relaxations from tOil,,;13 and the i r homes "f i t ted out

good taste and elegancen • 14 All Plato saw was a "wound fes-t/

under the scar", - - V Tr CJ u t\ ()' .

And't is said they have made the city great; but

they do not perceive that this greatness is butthe swelling of a wound festering under the scar,caused by those men of a former time. For without teillperance and just ice they l-::.ave stuffed thecity with harbors and arsenals and walls andt r ibute and suchlike foolery.15

then says that when the crash comes, as come i t must to a

l a i ~ on feeble foundations, the people will blame the coun

who are ruling them and who are merely reaping the evi l

of other men's mistakes. And Themistocles and Cimon and

the causes of a l l these evi ls , wil l go unblamed. 16

does not side-step. He lashes out fearlessly. I t may be

he is rather rigorous in his view; yet there is an element of

in his c h a r ; : ~ e s . Pericles did go fa r toward teaching the

to l ive off the s ta te , instead of depending on thei r own

I I , 38.Ib id . , 40.Ibid. , 38.Ibid. , 38.

Plato, Gorgias, 518e, 519a.Ibid. , 519a.



78

and i t is true tha t Pericles ' course may have been de

by the necessi t ies of his pol i t ica l posit ion. I t was the

e panem e t ciroenses of a l a te r age, and of every pol i t ical sys

wherein the people have begun to feel the i r power.

But the question of payment admits of another explanation, which shows i t to be connected necessari ly with a pol i t ica l ideal such asthat which he Pericles Dursued. P a ~ n e n t to radministrative services was clearly a necessityof a true democratic const i tut ion ••• Since popular tl;overnment meant personal government onthe part of the demos, and such personal govern

ment, which implied the pol i t ical education ofthe masses, was part of the Periclean ideal , tosecure services from the poorer ci t izens somecompensation for the loss of time was necessary,and the numerical equality which democracy demandswould have been a mere f ict ion had not these services been secured by pay.17

S t i l l and al l , Plato has scored a point . Whether Pericles

i t or not, and whether he knew i t or not that the innovatio

dangerous,and thought tha t by his personal influence, as in

many other things, he could keen the tendency for more and more

to the people from becoming exaggerated, th is reform be-

the chief change connected with his name. The abuses tha t

la ter on in Athenian history as the resul t of th is sys

natural ly opened the persons of i t s promoters, and especially

i t s inaugurator, to the charge that they and he had resorted to

bribery in order to establish the i r own influence. I t struck

A.H.J. Greenidge, Handbook of Greek Consti tutional History,New York, 1902, 163-4.



79

that there was some absurdity involved in the idea of a

Ie paying i t se l f for attendance on public business.

The cri t icism of democracy found in the Gorgias is bi t ter ly

In the Republic,which was possibly ~ ~ i t t e n seven

ten years after the Gorgias,18 Plato ' s views have reached a

maturity, and, while no less condemnatory, his words are

constructive. By that period he had constructed a defini te

on which to defend his anti-democratic at t i tude. Building

from this foundation he formulated a new plan for an

reject ing as he bui l t every part of l i fe , in

and law that fe l l away from his ideal . One such was

e democracy of Athens. Plato 's ideal was a s ta t ic society of

functional groupings, based on what has been cal led "the

of specific function".19 This ideal made Plato an en-

y of Democracy. His mind sought direct ly af te r cer tainty and

i r r i ta ted by the ever-chausing pol i t i ca l opinions of the Ath-

assembly and i t s leaders.

I t is impossible, in Plato 's view, to speak ofany single or agreed rule of l i fe in democrAcy.

I t contravenes entirely his fundamental concept ion of the s ta te as a social type to 'INhich everymember must beotrained to conform-by a processof education.2

Cf. P{aul} Shorey, Plato the Republic, I , William Heinemann,Ltd., London, 1935, xxiv-xxv.Barker, 256.Ibid. , 255.



80

The democratic system, in Plato ' s view, because i t ignored

e p r i n c i ~ l e of function, was aff l ic ted with two serious flaws.

ignorance and ins tabi l i ty . Ignorance, in fact , was

e especial curse of democracy. Plato saw nothing but fol ly in

fai lure to use to the fu l l man's natural aristocracy

t a lent . In democracy the professionsl statesman had no place.

was government by amateurs, government of shif t ing opinions

d of no permanent values nor of steady policy.

In Athens especially democracy seemed only to mean

the r ight divine of the ignorant-to govern wrong.Any man might speak in the Assembly and heln swayi t s decisions: Any man, whatever his capacity,might be appointed to executive office by thechance of the 10t . 21

Plato ' s pol i t i ca l thought a t this period was rooted in the

that knowledge was the basis of government. How far he

from admitting the principle of consent that has f i l led the

of modern pol i t ica l writers and has become the tes t of

established government in modern times is clearly seen

his thihly veiled contempt for the democratic man who bounces

in the assembly and says whatever comes into his head. 22 The

might be a smith, a shoemaker, a merchant, a sea-captain, a

man, a poor man, well-born or base. I t mattered not. Such

s each man's r ight and by this formula did democracy thr ive.

Ibid. , 149.Plato, R e p u b l ~ , 56ld.



81

Athenian fe l t only exaltation in the nobil i ty of the ideal and

i t as his own discovery and glory.

Under the incentive of our constitution each ofus can present himself to the community adequate,in his own resources, a t one and the same time,for many act iv i t ies , and that with a versat i lecapacity, and without ta i l ing in the graces. 23

t this system won no admiration from Plato; the very ideal he

downright unjust.

Just ice meant, in his eyes, that a man should dohis work in the stat ion of l i fe to which he wascal led by his capaci t ies. Everything has i t s

function. An axe which is used to carve a t reeas well as to cut i t down, is an axe misused;24and a man who attempts to ~ o v e r n his fellowswhen at best he is only f i t to be a tolerablecraftsman, is a man not only mistaken, but alsounjust. 25

At best , a best that Plato was unwilling to admit in the

the democratic s ta te could only hope to str ike a medi-

average between vir tue and vice. Too slOW, too shifty to be

i t was too weak to be vicious. But the vir tue of medio

was not enough for Plato. }ie had his oVvn grand ideal of

e philosopher king. In his young idealism, he could not con

of admitting a second or a third best , of let t ing bet ter

n be shoved aside merely to capture some elusive l iber t ies ,

that often enough were snares of evi l that entrapped and

corrupted the men who ran fas tes t toward them. Democracy

Ibid . , 56ld.Ibid. , 353a.Barker, 149; cf. Plato, Republic , Ek. I , ent i re .



83

Thus Plato in the Laws, forestal l ing al ien cr i t ic ism, depos

the philosopher king of his younger and more ideal is t ic years

d put in his place on the throne the Rule of Law. Yet he never

to affirm that there is none mightier than Knowledge,

i t can be found "by some divine grace, - - Sf'1 U0/1'. .28r l .

I '-'I I -' 1 / .J . /

T 1<T'7n,u nJ Jd f - tJf.J7F VD,k« 6,,1 c) UTI' ,pi f '1 OIlJI',U IsJ

rw l / °29 Very f'ar from either of these ideals is the

of' the undisciplined d e m o s ~ Unhappy Platot To approve

he would have had not only to remove the very germ and

of' his pol i t ica l thought but also to forgive. Democra

struck not only a t his mind. I t had pierced his heart when i t

d kil led Socrates.

Ibid. , 875c.Ib id . , 875c.



CONCLUSION

The purpose of this study has been to give a complete re -

of the discussions concerning Greek democracy as found in

e writings of Plato and his predecessors. Aristot le , whose con

to the theory of pol i t ics has been both vast and per t in

has, of se t purpose, been avoided as worthy of separate

Originally i t had been part of my plan to make use

f the t reat ise on the Constitution of Athens, a work which has

at t r ibuted to Aristot le and is usually published among his

This booklet gives a rel iable and detailed account of the

of the Athenian consti tut ion from i t s beginning to i t s

and decline. From i t s pages a description of Athenian

a t work was to be drawn. The democracy of Athens shoul

be understood through what i t was and did; the people and

leaders should be seen working and producing.

Three things, however, became apparent af ter a reading of

e Aristotel ian t reat ise : Firs t , that there i s no adequate sub

for the work i t se l f ; secondly, the book is short enough

be read by anyone who cares to supplement mere discussions on

e theory of democracy; las t ly , the Constitution of Athens has

worked over thoroughly by a large number of authors, since

is the source for the pol i t ica l history of this period. Anoth

review of the same matter would have lacked the zest of

84



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8

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APPROVAL SHEET

The thesis submitted by Edmund P. Burke, S.J.(full name of author)

,has been read and approved by three ~ e m b e r s of the Depart-

ment of Clessics •

The f inal copies have been examined by the director

of the thesis and the signature which appears below verifies

the fact that any necessary changes ha.e been incorporated,

and that the thesis is now given final approval with re-

ference to content, form, and mechanical accuracy.

The thesis is therefore accepted in partial fulfil lment

of the requirenents for the Degree of Master of Arts.

the theory of greek democracy before aristotle

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