Democracy 101

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Democracy 101

• What is it good for?

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Overview

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

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Athenian Geography

• Athens has poor soil
• Red clay bad for food, good for pottery
• Olives, grapes and figs
• 3 splendid harbors of Piraeus
• Silver mines in Larium
• Fine white marble

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Legends of Athenian Past

• Never successfully invaded by Dorians
• A refuge for pure Greeks escaping invasions
• So they were Pure Greeks. Ionians.
• Tradition of harmony, not conflict.
• Synoikismos bringing households together
• Legend of the Genesis of Athens. Yikes.

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Legends of Athenian Past

• 632, Cyclon of Megara wanted to est. a Tyranny so
  attempted a coup. First recorded challenge to
  Athenian aristocrats.
• Tried to seize the Acropolis. Failed. Hid in
  temple of Athena.
• Megacles and his Alcmaeonid followers inherited a
  curse and were exiled from the city. Even the
  bodies of buried Alcmaeonidae were dug up and
  removed from the city limits.
• Alcmaeonidae allegedly negotiated for an alliance
  with the Persians during the Persian Wars,
  despite the fact that Athens was leading the
  resistance to the Persian invasion.
• Pericles and Alcibiades were Alcmaeonidae, and
  during the Peloponnesian War the Spartans
  referred to the family curse in an attempt to
  discredit Pericles.

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Social Units of Athens

• Households gt Clans gt Villages gt Tribes.

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Oikos (Household)

• Most family heads in Ancient Greece were
  subsistence landowners. The property was held by
  and transmitted through the oikos 'household',
  which consisted of a family plus any free or
  slave dependents.
• It is from the Greek word oikos that we get the
  word 'economy'.

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Genos (Clan)

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

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Phratry (Village)

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

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Phylai (Tribe)

• Three phratries formed a tribe or phylai headed
  by a tribal king. The earliest known function of
  the tribes was military.
• Greek tribes were corporate bodies with their own
  priests and officials, as well as military and
  administrative units.
• The English word 'phylum', used in Biology to
  distinguish groups larger than species etc., is
  related to the Greek word Phylai.

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The original 4 phylai in Athens were the

• Geleontes
• Hopletes
• Argadeis
• Aegicoreis

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Kings of Athens

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

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Social Classes

• Sameness led to a sense of relative equality and
  enforced the idea that all tribesmen had rights.
• Even so, equality was only relative. Society was
  divided into 2 social classes.
• The upper class sat in council with the king for
  major problems and provided war leaders.
• This reduced the need for a king who was also the
  military leader.

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Archons Replaced the Kings of Athens

• Historical Progression of Top Officials in
  Athens
• King gt
• Polemarch King gt
• Polemarch, King, Civil affairs Archon gt
• Polemarch (military), First Archon (civil), and
  King-Archon (religion) gt
• Thesmothetai (3 other Archons)

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Overview of Athenian Archons

• 594-558 Solon
• 550-527 Pisistratus
• 527-515 Hipparchus
• 515-508 Hippias
• 513-507 Cleisthenes
• 479-461 Cimon
• 461-429 Pericles
• 429-422 - Cleon

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Draco

• The privileged eupatrid(aristocratic) few in
  Athens had been making all the decisions for long
  enough.
• By 621 B.C. the rest of the people of Athens were
  no longer willing to accept arbitrary, oral rules
  of the eupatrid thesmothetai 'those who lay down
  the law' and judges.
• Draco was appointed to write down the laws.
  Athens may have been a late-comer to the written
  law code since it may already have been done
  elsewhere in the Hellenic world.

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First Glimpse of legal System

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

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Problems Introduced by the Law Code of Draco

• The story goes that when asked about the
  harshness of his punishments, Draco said the
  death penalty was appropriate for stealing even
  so much as a cabbage. If there had been a worse
  penalty than death, Draco would gladly have
  applied it to greater crimes.

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Draco

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

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Slavery For Debt

• Through the laws of Draco, those in debt could be
  made slaves -- but only if they were members of
  the lower class.
• This means members of a genos (the gennetai)
  could not be sold as slaves, yet their hangers-on
  (orgeones) could.

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Homicide

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

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Solon

• Solon, a lyric poet and the first Athenian
  literary figure whose name we know, came from an
  aristocratic family which traced its ancestry
  back 10 generations to Hercules, according to
  Plutarch.
• Aristocratic beginnings did not prevent him from
  fearing that someone of his class would try to
  become tyrant.
• In his reform measures, he pleased neither the
  revolutionaries who wanted the land redistributed
  nor the landowners who wanted to keep all their
  property intact.

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

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Solon's Modest Social Reforms

• While Solon enacted compromises and democratic
  reforms, he kept the social organization of
  Attica and the Athenians, the clans and tribes.
• Following the end of his archonship, political
  factions and conflict developed.
• One side, the men of the Coast (consisting
  mainly of the middle classes and peasants),
  favored his reforms.
• The other side, the men of the Plain (consisting
  mainly of Eupatrids 'nobles'), favored
  restoration of an aristocratic government.

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Plutarch records Solon's own words about his
actions

• "The mortgage-stones that covered her, by me
  Removed, -- the land that was a slave is
  freethat some who had been seized for their
  debts he had brought back from other countries,
  where-- so far their lot to roam, They had
  forgot the language of their homeand some he
  had set at liberty, --Who here in shameful
  servitude were held."

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Solons Reforms Background Analysis

• Caveat Herodotus and Plutarch are the main
  source of information, yet they wrote about Solon
  hundreds of years after his death.
• Born a Eupatrid aristocrat
• A poet, inspired by Tyraetus.
• Became a trader. Worldly.
• Unlike Hammurabi, Lycurgus, and Draco, Solon made
  no claim that God bestowed these laws upon him.
• During Solon's time, many city-states saw tyrants
  seize power.

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Solons Reforms Background II

• Inherits a divided and tumultuous system. A
  system in Crisis
• Economic/ideological rivalry
• Clan rivalry
• Regional rivalry - 'Athens was torn by recurrent
  conflict about the constitution. The city was
  divided into as many parties as there were
  geographical divisions in its territory. For the
  party of the people of the hills was most in
  favour of democracy, that of the people of the
  plain was most in favour of oligarchy, while the
  third group, the people of the coast, which
  preferred a mixed form of constitution somewhat
  between the other two, formed an obstruction and
  prevented the other groups from gaining control.
  Plutarchs Lives

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Solons Reforms Background

• Many Athenians had become debt slaves. Why?
• Soil depletion
• Deforestation
• Natural evolutionary process of winners and
  losers as happens in times of great change
• E. Tyrannies est. in Megara Corinth
• A B C D E Impetus to experiment and
  change. Solon becomes Sole Archon for 1 year. Why
  Solon?
• Mil hero vs. Megara
• A wise poet
• A Moderate. The message of the Delphic Oracle,
  which was at the height of its power these days,
  was moderation.

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• New social arrangement. Based on wealth, not
  birth.
• Timocracy power based on land ownership and
  wealth.
• Reduced kinship ties

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Solons Constitutional Reforms
Title Grain Production Military Role
Pentakosiomedimnoi 500 Eligible to be Strategoi
Hippeas 300-500 Cavalry
Zeugatai 200-300 Hoplites/Infantry
Thetes lt200 Volunteered as batman, slingers, or naval rowers.

• .

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Solons Constitutional Reforms

• Arconship 9 1
• Areopagus aristocratic council / Council of
  Elders
• Consisted of former archons
• Final decisions on legislation, war and peace
• Meets 3-4 times/month
• Power reduced by Solon. Transferred to Boule

• Boule / Council of 400
• Upper house
• Each of 4 tribes elect 100 members
• Sets agenda for Ekklesia.
• Ekklesia
• 1-3 allowed in (no Thetes)
• Annual elections
• 43,000 people. However, only those wealthy enough
  to spend time away from home would have been able
  to participate
• Heleai Judicial Branch
• 6000 jurors
• All cases except treason and murder

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Solons Economic Reforms

• Repealed Dracos Code
• Seisachtheia, "shaking-off of burdens
• Annulment of all contracts based on debt
• Prohibition of debt slavery.. Released debt
  slaves
• Debt slaves in Diaspora allowed home
• No Radical Land Reform
• Tantamount to civil war
• Solons moderation
• Land to be divided up among sons. Not only to
  eldest. ? Democratized land ownership. ?Democ.
• Encouraged cash crop system. Olives ? Empire

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Solons Economic Reforms

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

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Factionalism in Solonian Athens

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

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Conclusions

• Father of Athenian Democ?
• By end of 5th C, most Athenians had a small plot
  of land
• A time of peace
• Too moderate? Frieze on temple of Apollo at
  Delphi, Nothing in Excess attributed to Solon.
• Make everyone unhappy, but kept peace. Persuaded
  rich and poor to compromise. Forestalled
  revolution. Radicals criticized him for failing
  to establish equality of possessions and power
  conservatives denounced him for admitting the
  commoners to the franchise and the courts.
  (Durant, 117)
• Asked if he had given Athenians the best laws he
  replied, no, but the best that they would
  receive. (Durant, 117)
• Asked what is good government, he replied when
  the people obey the rulers, and the rulers obey
  the laws.

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Solonian Reforms Conclusions

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

  Region Ideology Class Supported
Peralia SW - Shores Moderates Mid Class-Traders Solon
Pediakoi C - Plains Aristocrats Rich Lycurgus
Diakroi E Mountains Radicals Poor Pisistratus
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Solonian Reforms Conclusions

• After completing his reforms, Solon surrendered
  his extraordinary authority and left Athens.
  Self-imposed exile for 10 years so he would not
  be tempted to become a Tyrant. According to
  Herodotus, Athens was bound by Solon to maintain
  his reforms for 10 years (Plutarch says 100
  years).
• According to Plutarch, Solon was related to the
  tyrant Pisistratus (their mothers were cousins)
• Returned to Athens in 546. Saw his constitution
  overthrown, and Tyranny established.
• 1 of 7 Athenian Wise men

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Pisistratus A Special Kind of Tyrant

• Maintained Solons reforms and pol. structures.
  Tyrannical enforcement of Solonic democracy.
  Stacked his men in positions of power.
• Objective to reduce factional/class tensions.
  Methods
• For the rich
• Some control of Areopagus
• Maintain archonships
• Allies with Tyrants and develops trading networks
• Attic exports to Ionia, Cyprus, Syria, and Spain
• Est. colonies in Dardanelles

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Pisistratus A Special Kind of Tyrant

• For the poor
• Cut taxes for poor
• Est. 5 tax on ag. production. 1st tax in Athens.
  
• Gave away state owned land
• Est. circuit courts
• Athenian beautification-aqueducts, roads,
  temples
• Mining at Larium
• Promoted arts

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Legacy of Pisistratus

• Est. Panatheniac brought competition, honor,
  and foreigners.
• Est. library
• Established coinage (owls)
• So Pisistratus took over the power in Athens
  yet he in no way deranged the existing
  magistracies or the ordinances but governed the
  city well and truly according to the laws that
  were established. (Herodotus, 1.59)
• Pisistratus died 527 BCE, succeeded by his eldest
  son, Hippias. Hippias and his brother,
  Hipparchus, ruled the city like father did.
• Hipparchus murdered at Panathenaic Games by
  Aristogeiton, who was competing for the
  affections of young Harmodius. Tried to kill
  Hippias also.
• Hippias became paranoid and oppressive.
  Espionage and terror.
• The Alcmaeonids, led by Cleisthenes, deposed
  Hippias by bribing the Delphic oracle to tell the
  Spartans to liberate Athens, which they did in
  510 The Pisistratids not executed, but forced
  into exile.

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Mystic Chords of Memory

• Harmodius and Aristogeiton become democratic
  liberators in Athenian democratic ideology

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Phases of Construction in Athens
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Revolution in Athens, 508

• Power struggle b/w
• Isagoras (Alcmaeonid aristocrat)
• Cleisthenes (Dem reformer)
• Boule resists Cleisthenes
• Spartan King Cleomenes and Isagoras occupy
  Athenian Acropolis
• Athenians unite, besiege Acropolis
• Cleomenes surrenders, withdraws Cleisthenes
  assumes power in Athens

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Herodotus on the Revolution (5.72)

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

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Cleisthenic Athens 513-507 Political Reforms I

• Cleisthenes was the uncle of Pericles' mother
  Agariste
• Father of Athenian democracy. Increased power
  of Ekklesia and reduced power of nobility
• Cleisthenes called his reforms isonomia
  ("equality under law", iso equality nomos
  law), NOT demokratia.
• New Const. of 507
• Council of 500 (Boule)
• From 400 members under Solon, to 500 members, 50
  from each tribe
• 1 month term (10 months)
• not eligible for re-election for 10 years
• Each tribe presides for 1/10 of the year
• Met everyday
• Functions
• Elect the Generals
• Proposals to Assembly
• Stays like this for rest of Athenian history

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Cleisthenic Athens 513-507 Political Reforms II

• Ekklesia / Assembly
• Lower House
• 30,000
• Met 40 times/year on Pynx
• Remarkably powerful
• Sovereign in foreign policy decisions
• Elect the Strategoi
• Voted on laws proposed by Boule
• New power of Ostracism
• 10 Strategoi (Generals). 1 per tribe. Serve 1
  year. Re-electable.
• Dikasteria law courts reorganized and had from
  2015001 jurors selected each day, up to 500 from
  each tribe

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Ostracism

• Vote once/year
• gt6000 (1 in 3 Athenians)
• Only 1/year
• Most years none
• Democracy
• Eliminate dangers
• Not guilty. Family and land unharmed
• Civil democratic device?
• Safety valve promoted unity and minimized the
  threat of civil war
• 10 men in 90 years

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The Pynx
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Model of the Pnyx
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Cleisthenic Sociopolitical Reorganization

• Changed the political organization
• From 4 traditional tribes, based on family
  relations
• To 10 tribes according to their area of residence
  (their deme).
• 139 demes organized into thirty groups called
  trittyes ("thirds"), with ten demes divided among
  three regions in each trittye. Each tribe now has
  people in coast, mountain, and plain.
• Gives demes names and heroes
• Residents of demes, some foreign born, now
  citizens of demes. Doubled the voting role.
  Secured new supports and a broader base.
• Revolutionized classification system. No longer,
  I am Cleisthenes, son of Megacles. Now, I am
  Cleisthenes from Ion.
• Alcmaeonids diffused through 3 tribes, weakening
  clan power
• He first divided all the citizens into ten
  tribes instead of the earlier four, with the aim
  of mixing them together so that more might share
  control of the state. Aristotle, Constitution of
  the Athenians, 21
• Compare to Soviet dekulakization

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Demes of Attica
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Analysis of Cleisthenic Reforms

• Slaves, women, resident aliens, and Thetes are
  NON participants.
• A Hoplite democ, not a Thete const.
  Non-landholders were marginalized (timocracy)
• Radical for its time. Not revolutionary.
• Rulers have much to fear Spartans, Persians,
  ostracism, democracy, aristocracy
• Isonomia breaks down regional loyalties to forge
  Athenian civic democratic identity
• Provided a sense of ownership and Athenian pride
  12 years before the Battle at Marathon
• Well analyze Athenian democ after we study
  Pericles

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Conclusions?

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

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Ancient Greece

• The main political rivalry within the Greek
  cities was that between Athens and Sparta
• The other political threat they faced was that
  between the Greeks and the barbarians (anyone
  not Greek, particularly the Persians to the north)

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Definition

• Democracy derives from the ancient Greek,
  demokratia
• demos the people
• kratien to rule

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Definition

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

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Definition

• Other types of government derived from Greek
  base
• Aristocracy Rule by the best
• Monarchy Rule by one person
• Oligarchy Rule by the wealthy
• Timocracy Rule by the honorable
• Tyranny Rule by the rulers, for the
  rulers

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Democratic Rule

• For The People to rule we need
• Equality
• how dow we define that?
• Freedom
• how dow we define that?
• Engagement
• what type? and how?

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Questions of Democracy

• Who are The People?

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Questions of Democracy

• How do the people rule?

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Questions of Democracy

• How do we know what the people want?

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Questions Democracy

• What areas should we allow the people to rule?

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Questions of Democracy

• Why do we think the People will make good
  political decisions?

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Athenian Democracy
The last of the 3 great Athenian tragedians
Euripides c. 485-407 BCE
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Pericles

• Pericles (c. 485-429 BCE)
• Legendary Athenian leader
• Champion of the arts and sciences, and renowned
  military/political leader
• Led Athens into the Peloponnesian War

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Pericles

• Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE) pits Sparta and
  its allies against Athens

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Peloponnesian War
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Peloponnesian War

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

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Peloponnesian War

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

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The Funeral Oration