S2 ep4: What would a more just future look like? During the Classical era and Hellenistic era of Classical Antiquity, many Hellenic city-states had adopted democratic forms of government, in which free (non- slave ), native (non-foreigner) adult male citizens of the city took a major and direct part in the management of the affairs of state, such as declaring war, voting . The . But what form of government, what constitution, should the restored Persian empire enjoy for the future? In hard practical fact there was no alternative, and no alternative to hereditary autocracy, the system laid down by Cyrus, could seriously have been contemplated. Ancient Athenian democracy differs from the democracy that we are familiar with in the present day. The assembly also ensured decisions were enforced and officials were carrying out their duties correctly. When the Romans destroyed the Macedonian Kingdom in 168, the Senate awarded Athens the Aegean island of Delos. However, in reality, it was actually Persia who had won the war. With Athens under his thumb, Sulla turned back to Piraeus. In tandem with all these political institutions were the law courts (dikasteria) which were composed of 6,000 jurors and a body of chief magistrates (archai) chosen annually by lot. Dr Scott's study also marks an attempt to recognise figures such as Isocrates and Phocion - sage political advisers who tried to steer it away from crippling confrontations with other Greek states and Macedonia. From the story of the rise and fall of Athens, it is clear that the concept of democracy was abused to the point that only the city's citizens had rights and the rest of the allies were considered as subjects. About the same time that the Pontic army was sweeping across the province of Asia, Athens dispatched the philosopher Athenion as an envoy to Mithridates. To some extent Socrates was being used as a scapegoat, an expiatory sacrifice to appease the gods who must have been implacably angry with the Athenians to inflict on them such horrors as plague and famine as well as military defeat and civil war. The Romans drove the rest back into Piraeus so swiftly that Archelaus was left outside the walls and had to be hauled up by rope. The first concrete evidence for this crucial invention comes in the Histories of Herodotus, a brilliant work composed over several years, delivered orally to a variety of audiences all round the enormously extended Greek world, and published in some sense as a whole perhaps in the 420s BC. During the night, Archelaus sealed the breaches in the walls by building lunettes, or crescent-shaped fieldworks, inside. With the help of bodyguards, Athenion pushed through the crowd to the front of the Stoa of Attalos, a long, colonnaded commercial building among the most impressive in the Agora. In around 450 B.C., the Athenian general Pericles tried to consolidate his power by using public money, the dues paid to Athens by its allies in the Delian League coalition, to support the city-states artists and thinkers. Cleisthenes introduced democracy in Athen (500c BCE) Democracy of Athens. A demagogue, a treacherous ally, and a brutal Roman general destroyed the city-stateand democracyin the first-century BC. The third important institution was the popular courts, or dikasteria. The lottery system also prevented the establishment of a permanent class of civil servants who might be tempted to use the government to advance or enrich themselves. What mattered was whether or not the unusual system was any good. Archaeologists have found no inscriptions with decrees from the Assembly that date within 40 years of the end of the siege. Then, early in the first century BC, a political crisis engulfed Athens when its eponymous archon, or chief magistrate, refused to abide by the Athenian constitutions one-term limit. The book, entitled From Democrats To Kings, aims to overhaul Athens' traditional image as the ancient world's "golden city", arguing that its early successes have obscured a darker history of blood-lust and mob rule. The Pompeion was ravaged beyond repair and left to decay. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/Athenian_Democracy/. In the year 507 B.C., the Athenian leader Cleisthenes introduced a system of political reforms that he called demokratia, or "rule by the people" (from demos, "the people," and kratos, or. Athenian Democracy. People of power or influence weren't concerned with the rights of such non-citizens. As the year 87 drew on, Mithridates sent additional troops. 'Oh, run away and play', rejoins Pericles, irritated; 'I was good at those sorts of debating tricks when I was your age.'. After all, at the time of writing, Athens was the greatest single power in the entire Greek world, and that fact could not be totally unconnected with the fact that Athens was a democracy. Democracy inevitably fails because it is predicated not on merit but on popularity. A marble relief showing the People of Athens being crowned by Democracy, inscribed with a law against tyranny passed by the people of Athens in 336 B.C. Critically, the emphasis on "people power" saw a revolving door of political leaders impeached, exiled and even executed as the inconstant international climate forced a tetchy political assembly into multiple changes in policy direction. Its main function was to decide what matters would come before the ekklesia. That was one, class-based sort of objection to Greek-style direct democracy. An early example of the Greek genius for applied critical theory was their invention of political theory, probably some time during the first half of the fifth century BC. The Greek idea of democracy was different from present-day democracy because, in Athens, all adult citizens were required to take an active part in the government. Others were rather more subtly expressed. Soon after, Roman soldiers overheard men in the Athenian neighborhood of the Kerameikos, northwest of the Acropolis, grousing about the neglected defenses there. The word democracy (dmokratia) derives from dmos, which refers to the entire citizen body: the People. Athens, therefore, had a direct democracy. The generals' collective crime, so it was alleged by Theramenes (formerly one of the 400) and others with suspiciously un- or anti-democratic credentials, was to have failed to rescue several thousands of Athenian citizen survivors. The Pontic troops had built other lunettes inside, but the Romans attacked each wall with manic energy. Most of all, Pericles paid artisans to build temples read more, Ancient Greek mythology is a vast and fascinating group of legends about gods and goddesses, heroes and monsters, warriors and fools, that were an important part of everyday life in the ancient world. A Greek trireme The Athenian statesman Pericles defined democracy as a system which protects the interests of all the people, not just a minority. While Eli Sagan believes Athenian democracy can be divided into seven chapters, classicist and political scientist Josiah Ober has a different view. and the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C. The Romans placed a proxy on the Bithynian throne and encouraged him to raid Pontic territory. Any citizen could speak to the assembly and vote on decisions by simply holding up their hands. A further variant on this view was that the masses or the mob, being ignorant and stupid for the most part, were easily swayed by specious rhetoric - so easily swayed that they were incapable of taking longer views or of sticking resolutely to one, good view once that had been adopted. The military impact of Athenian democracy was twofold. Meanwhile, our democratically elected representatives are holding on to the fuse in one hand and a box of matches in the other. Athenion at first feigned a reluctance to speak because of the sheer scale of what is to be said, according to Posidonius. Immediately following the Bronze Age collapse and at the start of the Dark . Athenian democracy was a system of government where all male citizens could attend and participate in the assembly which governed the city-state. 'Certainly', says Pericles. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! As he advanced, Thebes and the other Greek cities that had allied with Archelaus nimbly switched back to the Roman side. Its economy, heavily dependent on trade and resources from overseas, crashed when in the 4th century instability in the region began to affect the arterial routes through which those supplies flowed. World History Encyclopedia. The boul represented the 139 districts of Attica and acted as a kind of executive committee of the assembly. Scorning the vanquished, he declared that he was sparing them only out of respect for their distinguished ancestors. Athens' democracy in fact recovered from these injuries within years. At the start of the century Athens, contrary to traditional reports, was a flourishing democracy. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms. Throughout the siege, Sulla got regular reports from spies inside Piraeustwo Athenian slaves who inscribed notes on lead balls that they shot with slings into the Roman lines. Its popular Assembly directed internal affairs as a showcase of democracy. This was a democratic form of government where the people or 'demos' had real political power. Citizens probably accounted for 10-20% of the polis population, and of these it has been estimated that only 3,000 or so people actively participated in politics. Submitted by Mark Cartwright, published on 03 April 2018. Sulla eventually gained the upper hand, thanks to large devices that Appian said discharged twenty of the heaviest leaden balls at one volley. These missiles killed a large number of Pontic men and damaged their tower, forcing Archelaus to pull it back. Draco writing the first written law code in Athens was the initiating event that brought democracy to Athens. Sulla had logistical problems of his own. Sullas solution: rob the Greek temples of their treasures. Re-enactment of fighting 'hoplites' BBC 2014 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. But this was all before the powerful Athens of the fifth century BC, when the city had been at its zenith. The Athenians had reason to fear for their lives. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. They didnt act immediately; a fight over who would lead the army against Mithridates was settled only when Consul Lucius Cornelius Sulla secured the command by marching on Rome, an unprecedented move. It shows how an earlier generation of people responded to similar challenges and which strategies succeeded. An important element in the debates was freedom of speech (parrhsia) which became, perhaps, the citizen's most valued privilege. Attacking into the half circle of the lunette, they were hit by missiles from the front and both flanks. Plutarch also claims that Aristion took to dancing on the walls and shouting insults at Sulla. According to the writer's dramatic scenario, we are in what we would now call the year 522 BC. In the words of historian K. A. Raaflaub, democracy in ancient Athens was. They therefore in a sense deserved the political pay-off of mass-biased democracy as a reward for their crucial naval role. The name of "democracy" became an excuse to turn on anyone regarded as an enemy of the state, even good politicians who have, as a result, almost been forgotten. Many tried to flee, but Aristion placed guards at the gates. Of all the democratic institutions, Aristotle argued that the dikasteria contributed most to the strength of democracy because the jury had almost unlimited power. No one, so long as he has it in him to be of service to the state, is kept in political obscurity because of poverty. He and his allies then retreated to the Acropolis, which the Romans promptly surrounded. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. He also said that Mithridates would free the citizens of Athens from their debts (whether he meant public or private debts is not clear). At last, Archelaus saw that the game was up and skillfully evacuated his army by sea. Little more than a hundred years later it was governed by an emperor. Archelauss men, Sulla discovered, had dug a tunnel and undermined it. Not only do we pay for our servers, but also for related services such as our content delivery network, Google Workspace, email, and much more. "It is profoundly dangerous when a politician takes a step to undercut or ignore a political norm, it's extremely dangerous whenever anyone introduces violent rhetoric or actual violence into a. The result was a series of domestic problems, including an inability to fund the traditional police force. In addition, sometimes even oligarchic systems could involve a high degree of political equality, but the Athenian version, starting from c. 460 BCE and ending c. 320 BCE and involving all male citizens, was certainly the most developed. The king probably wished to engage the Romans far to the west, away from his core territories in Anatolia. https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-greece/ancient-greece-democracy. The mass involvement of all male citizens and the expectation that they should participate actively in the running of the polis is clear in this quote from Thucydides: We alone consider a citizen who does not partake in politics not only one who minds his own business but useless. This, the study says, has led to a two-dimensional view of the intervening decades as a period of unimportant decline. Enter your email address, confirm you're happy to receive our emails and then select 'Subscribe'. Nine presidents (proedroi), elected by lot and holding the office one time only, organised the proceedings and assessed the voting. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. As winter stretched on, Athenians began to starve. The contemporary sources which describe the workings of democracy typically relate to Athens and include such texts as the Constitution of the Athenians from the School of Aristotle; the works of the Greek historians Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon; texts of over 150 speeches by such figures as Demosthenes; inscriptions in stone of decrees, laws, contracts, public honours and more; and Greek Comedy plays such as those by Aristophanes. In these intellectuals' view, government was an art, craft or skill, and should be entrusted only to the skilled and intelligent, who were by definition a minority. Nevertheless, in one sense the condemnation of Socrates was disastrous for the reputation of the Athenian democracy, because it helped decisively to form one of democracy's - all democracy's, not just the Athenian democracy's - most formidable critics: Plato. Archaeologists discovered these caches thousands of years later and found bronze coins minted during the siege, when Aristion and King Mithridates jointly held the title of master of the mint. He also said that the ability to govern and participate in government was more important than one's class. Illustrating the esteem in which democratic government was held, there was even a divine personification of the ideal of democracy, the goddess Demokratia. READ MORE: Why Greece Is Considered the Birthplace of Democracy. When that failed, the Romans settled in for a long siege. Our word demagogue -- that is, an irresponsible "rabble rousing" populist politician -- is lifted directly from Athenian debates about the nature of democracy. At the kings order, the locals slaughtered tens of thousands of Romans and Italians who lived among them. These challenges to democracy include the paradoxical existence of an Athenian empire. Sulla, tipped off by a lead-ball message, captured the relief expedition. World History Foundation is a non-profit organization registered in Canada. Athens, too, should throw in with this rising power, he asserted. The first was the ekklesia, or Assembly, the sovereign governing body of Athens. But where Athenion failed, Mithridates was determined to succeed. Athens, meanwhile, was devastated. Third, was the slave population which . Our selection of the week's biggest Cambridge research news and features sent directlyto your inbox. The evidence comes in the form of what is known as the Persian Debate in Book 3. Athens in the early first century had energy and culture. Appian, the historian who wrote in the second century AD, records that the Bithynians were terrified at seeing men cut in halves and still breathing, or mangled in fragments, or hanging on the scythes.. The Roman leaders, he said, were prisoners, and ordinary Romans were hiding in temples, prostrate before the statues of the gods. Oracles from all sides predicted Mithridatess future victories, he said, and other nations were rushing to join forces with him. In 146, they ruthlessly destroyed the city-state of Corinth and established their authority over much of Greece. This complex system was, no doubt, to ensure a suitable degree of checks and balances to any potential abuse of power, and to ensure each traditional region was equally represented and given equal powers. Read more. But what did the development of Athenian democracy actually involve? 500 BC Athens decided to share decision making. Blood flows in the narrow streets, as the Romans butcher the Athenianswomen and children included. Athenian Democracy. The two either supported the Romans or were currying favor with the side that they expected to win. If they did not fulfill their duty they would be fined and sometimes marked with red paint. The word democracy comes from the Greek words demos, meaning "the people," and kratos, meaning "to rule.". Athenion had the mob eating out of his hand. Our latest articles delivered to your inbox, once a week: Our mission is to engage people with cultural heritage and to improve history education worldwide. Meanwhile, the siege of Piraeus continued, with each side matching the others moves.
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