Title: Aim: Why no
1Aim Why no kings among the Greeks?
- What form of government should take its place?
2From Homer to Herodotus why no true monarchs?
- Geography city-states (poli), rather than
kingdoms - Culture / State-Building - more tribal, like
Jacobsens primitive democracy - Technology the phalanx/hoplites creates
citizen landholders with rights - why?
Athens as a special case The poor rowed its
ships, demanded equal rights
3From Homer to Herodotus why no monarchs?
- A period of experimentation
- Tyrannies
- Oligarchies
- Direct democracies
- No one idea dominated for long in any city
- Debate about which form was best and best for
who the state or the individual?
4From Herodotus to Sophocles the needs of the
individual, the needs of the state
- Who was right and wrong?
- Doesnt Creon have right to expect she will
follow the law? What if no one followed the law? - Can exceptional individuals decide not to
follow the law? - What if the law or state is wrong?
- How does this relate to whats going on in the
Greek world? How does this relate to our world?
5Socrates, Plato, Aristotle all were opponents of
direct democracy
- Socrates taught the oligarchs of Athens, who
tried to end direct democracy, and justified it
intellectually because the common people were
blockheads - Plato believed in a state run by
philosopher-kings those most capable of getting
to the truth - Aristotle was the tutor of Alexander the Great
and felt only those of the middle class should
be part of government, not the uneducated mob
6Were the Greeks unique or may there have been
many other societies debating these types of
questions before empire established itself?