Ancient Athenian democracy differs from the democracy that we are familiar with in the present day. The opposing forces clashed bitterly for a long timeAppian records that both Sulla and Archelaus held forth in the thick of the action, cheering on their men and bringing up fresh troops. Less than two years separate these scenes. He detached a force to surround Athens, then struck at Piraeus, where Archelaus and his troops were stationed. 'What? It was from the creation of this empire that the sovereign Athenian demos gained the authority to exercise the will of Athens over other Greek states and not just her own. Buildings in the Agora and on the south side of the Acropolis remained damaged for decades, monuments to the poverty in postwar Athens. Instead, Dr. Scott argues that this period is fundamental to understanding what really happened to Athenian democracy. War between Pontus and Romethe First Mithridatic Warbroke out in 89 BC over the petty state of Bithynia in northwestern Anatolia. Sulla, lacking ships, could not give chase. Persuasive speakers who seemed to offer solutions - such as Demosthenes - came to the fore but ultimately took it closer to military defeat and submission to Macedonia. With winter coming on, Sulla established his camp at Eleusis, 14 miles west of Athens, where a ditch running to the sea protected his men. It was this revived democracy that in 406 committed what its critics both ancient and modern consider to have been the biggest single practical blunder in the democracy's history: the trial and condemnation to death of all eight generals involved in the pyrrhic naval victory at Arginusae. Nine presidents (proedroi), elected by lot and holding the office one time only, organised the proceedings and assessed the voting. When Athenion sent a force to seize control of Delos, a Roman unit swiftly defeated it. 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. For example, in Athens in the middle of the 4th century there were about 100,000 citizens (Athenian citizenship was limited to men and women whose parents had also been Athenian citizens), about 10,000 metoikoi, or resident foreigners, and 150,000 slaves. Draco writing the first written law code in Athens was the initiating event that brought democracy to Athens. World History Encyclopedia, 03 Apr 2018. BBC 2014 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. (There were also no rules about what kinds of cases could be prosecuted or what could and could not be said at trial, and so Athenian citizens frequently used the dikasteria to punish or embarrass their enemies.). Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. Though Archelaus restored Delos to Athenian control, he turned over its treasury to Aristion, an Athenian citizen whom Mithridates had chosen to rule Athens. Those defeats persuaded Mithridates to end the war. The Romans looted even the great shrine at Delphi dedicated to Apollo. It was too much. As the new Alexander, he may also have seen the conquest of Greece as a natural move. Mark is a full-time author, researcher, historian, and editor. Sulla had siege engines built on the spot, cutting down the groves of trees in the Athenian suburb of the Academy, where Plato had taught some three centuries earlier. Athenian democracy refers to the system of democratic government used in Athens, Greece from the 5th to 4th century BCE. Most of the Greek cities there welcomed the Pontic forces, and by early 88, Mithridates was firmly in control of western Anatolia. The 50-man prytany met in the building known as the Bouleuterion in the Athenian agora and safe-guarded the sacred treasuries. Attacking into the half circle of the lunette, they were hit by missiles from the front and both flanks. Its popular Assembly directed internal affairs as a showcase of democracy. Though he at first refused, he later relented and sent a delegation to meet with the Roman commander. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Democracy itself, however, buckled under the strain. Chiefly because of a fatal ambiguity: to its opponents democracy was no more, and no better, than mob-rule, since for them it meant the political power of the masses exercised over and at the expense of the elite. A demagogue, a treacherous ally, and a brutal Roman general destroyed the city-stateand democracyin the first-century BC. There is a strong case that democracy was a major reason for this success. From Democrats To Kings is published by Icon Books. Athens declared the Delos harbor duty-free, and the island prospered as a major trading center. The answer lies in a dramatic tale starring the demagogue Athenion, a mindless mob, a tyrant, and a brutal Roman general. By Athenian democratic standards of justice, which are not ours, the guilt of Socrates was sufficiently proven. This was a democratic form of government where the people or 'demos' had real political power. Sulla called a halt to the pillage and slaughter. The third important institution was the popular courts, or dikasteria. In an effort to remain a major player in world affairs, it abandoned its ideology and values to ditch past allies while maintaining special relationships with emerging powers like Macedonia and supporting old enemies like the Persian King. Athenian democracy was a direct democracy made up of three important institutions. Cite This Work Originally published in the Spring 2011 issue of Military History Quarterly. "There are grounds to consider whether we want to go down the same route that Athens did. "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. This "slippery-fish diplomacy" helped it survive military defeats and widespread political turbulence, but at the expense of its political system. Some Rights Reserved (2009-2023) under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license unless otherwise noted. As the Pontic general Archelaus persuaded other Greek cities to turn against Romeincluding Thebes to the northwest of AthensAristion established a new regime in Athens. Chronological order of government in ancient Athens. Over time, however, the Romans had begun to look less friendly. Specific issues discussed in the assembly included deciding military and financial magistracies, organising and maintaining food supplies, initiating legislation and political trials, deciding to send envoys, deciding whether or not to sign treaties, voting to raise or spend funds, and debating military matters. After all, at the time of writing, Athens was the greatest single power in the entire Greek world By 413, however, the argument from success in favour of radical democracy was beginning to collapse, as Athens' fortunes in the Peloponnesian War against Sparta began seriously to decline. Athenion struts on stage before the crowd, then displays the sloganeering skills of a modern politician, saying: Now you command yourselves, and I am your commander in chief. With few military resources of its own, the city turned for help to the Roman Republic, the rising power of the day. 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. Dr. Scott argues that this was caused by a range of circumstances which in many cases were the ancient world's equivalent of those faced by Britain today. a unique and truly revolutionary system that realized its basic principle to an unprecedented and quite extreme extent: no polis had ever dared to give all its citizens equal political rights, regardless of their descent, wealth, social standing, education, personal qualities, and any other factors that usually determined status in a community. Not all the Anatolian Greeks wanted to do the dirty work: the citizens of the inland town of Tralles hired an outsidera man named Theophilusto kill for them. Therefore, women, slaves, and resident foreigners (metoikoi) were excluded from the political process. Immediately following the Bronze Age collapse and at the start of the Dark . Athens, humbled in recent years by the Romans, can seize control of its destiny, Athenion declares. Athens transformed ancient warfare and became one of the ancient world's superpowers. Now, Roman senators and Athenian exiles in Sullas entourage asked him to show mercy for the city. Sulla attacked again the next morning with his entire army, hoping the wet mortar of the lunettes would not hold. Any member of the demosany one of those 40,000 adult male citizenswas welcome to attend the meetings of the ekklesia, which were held 40 times per year in a hillside auditorium west of the Acropolis called the Pnyx. The majority won the day and the decision was final. Out of all those people, only male citizens who were older than 18 were a part of the demos, meaning only about 40,000 people could participate in the democratic process. In ancient Athens, the birthplace of democracy, not only were children denied the vote (an exception we still consider acceptable), but so were women, foreigners, and enslaved people. Please read our email privacy notice for details. Any citizen could speak to the assembly and vote on decisions by simply holding up their hands. This page has been archived and is no longer updated. However, historians argue that selection to the boule was not always just a matter of chance. 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. It was here in the courts that laws made by the assembly could be challenged and decisions were made regarding ostracism, naturalization, and remission of debt. Canada, The United States and South Africa are all examples of modern-day representative democracies. "Athenian Democracy." The World History Encyclopedia logo is a registered trademark. Paul Cartledge is Professor of Greek History at the University of Cambridge. They are also, however, reminders of the human capacity for disagreement, read more, An ambiguous, controversial concept, Jacksonian Democracy in the strictest sense refers simply to the ascendancy of Andrew Jackson and the Democratic party after 1828. When that failed, the Romans settled in for a long siege. Direct involvement in the politics of the polis also meant that the Athenians developed a unique collective identity and probably too, a certain pride in their system, as shown in Pericles' famous Funeral Oration for the Athenian dead in 431 BCE, the first year of the Peloponnesian War: Athens' constitution is called a democracy because it respects the interests not of a minority but of the whole people. The island had many Roman and Italian residents and relied heavily on the Roman trade. Jurors were paid a wage for their work, so that the job could be accessible to everyone and not just the wealthy (but, since the wage was less than what the average worker earned in a day, the typical juror was an elderly retiree). In the 4th and 5th centuries BCE the male citizen population of Athens ranged from 30,000 to 60,000 depending on the period. A small number of families came to dominate the leading political offices and ruled almost as an oligarchyone that was careful not to provoke the Romans. In the later parts of the Republic, Plato suggests that democracy is one of the later stages in the decline of the ideal state. In practice, this assembly usually involved a maximum of 6000 citizens. Pericles, (born c. 495 bce, Athensdied 429, Athens), Athenian statesman largely responsible for the full development, in the later 5th century bce, of both the Athenian democracy and the Athenian empire, making Athens the political and cultural focus of Greece. The Athenian Democracy existed from the early 7th century BC up until Athens was conquered by the Macedonians in 322 BC. 2023 A&E Television Networks, LLC. Although active participation was encouraged, attendance in the assembly was paid for in certain periods, which was a measure to encourage citizens who lived far away and could not afford the time off to attend. Since the 19th-century read more, The term classical Greece refers to the period between the Persian Wars at the beginning of the fifth century B.C. Knowledge of the life of Pericles derives largely from . The Italian Social War ended in 88, freeing the Romans to meet the Pontic threat in the east. His political opponents had seized control of Rome, declared him a public enemy, and forced his wife and children to flee to his camp in Greece. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Cartwright, M. (2018, April 03). Since Athenians did not pay taxes, the money for these payments came from customs duties, contributions from allies and taxes levied on the metoikoi. In addition, in times of crisis and war, this body could also take decisions without the assembly meeting. This demokratia, as it became known, was a direct democracy that gave political power to free male Athenian citizens rather than a ruling aristocratic read more, The amazing works of art and architecture known as the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World serve as a testament to the ingenuity, imagination and sheer hard work of which human beings are capable. The ancient Greeks have provided us with fine art, breath-taking temples, timeless theatre, and some of the greatest philosophers, but it is democracy which is, perhaps, their greatest and most enduring legacy. When Athenion returned home in the early summer of 88, citizens gave him a rapturous reception. In 590 BCE Athenians were suffering from debt and famine throughout Athens. But when one of the Athenian delegates began a grand speech about their citys great past, Sulla abruptly dismissed them. Not All Opinions Are Equal In a democracy all opinions are equal. In this way, the 500 members of the boule dictated how the entire democracy would work. S2 ep 5: What is the future of artificial intelligence. Running a website with millions of readers every month is expensive. The Romans placed a proxy on the Bithynian throne and encouraged him to raid Pontic territory. "In many ways this was a period of total uncertainty just like our own time," Dr. Scott added. Neither side gained an advantage until a group of Romans who had been gathering wood returned and charged into battle. But in 200, Philip, having come of age and claimed the crown, dispatched an army toward Athens to regain the port. The group made decisions by simple majority vote. The assembly could also vote to ostracise from Athens any citizen who had become too powerful and dangerous for the polis. Archelaus in turn built a tower that he brought up directly opposite its Roman counterpart. Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. We are committed to protecting your personal information and being transparent about what information we hold. Third, was the slave population which . In the late 500s to early 400s BCE, democracy developed in the city-state of Athens. "use strict";(function(){var insertion=document.getElementById("citation-access-date");var date=new Date().toLocaleDateString(undefined,{month:"long",day:"numeric",year:"numeric"});insertion.parentElement.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(date),insertion)})(); FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. With Athens under his thumb, Sulla turned back to Piraeus. ', replies Alcibiades; 'even when it decrees by fiat, acting like a tyrant and riding roughshod over the views of the minority - is that still "law"?' As the year 87 drew on, Mithridates sent additional troops. Ideals such as these would form the cornerstones of all democracies in the modern world. 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. The war had one last act to play out. He also said that Mithridates would free the citizens of Athens from their debts (whether he meant public or private debts is not clear). Re-enactment of fighting 'hoplites' The constitutional change, according to Thucydides, seemed the only way to win much-needed support from Persia against the old enemy Sparta and, further, it was thought that the change would not be a permanent one. Yet the religious views of Socrates were deeply unorthodox, his political sympathies were far from radically democratic, and he had been the teacher of at least two notorious traitors, Alcibiades and Critias. S2 ep 3: What is the future of wellbeing? It supervised government workers and was in charge of things like navy ships (triremes) and army horses. The Pompeion was ravaged beyond repair and left to decay. In 129 BC, after Rome established its province of Asia, in western Anatolia across the Aegean, Delos became a trade hub for goods shipped between Anatolia and Italy. Sign up for our free weekly email newsletter! 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. Two scenes from Athens in the first-century BC: Early summer, 88 BC, a cheering crowd surrounds the envoy Athenion as he makes a rousing speech. - Melissa Schwartzberg. In 399 he was charged with impiety (through not duly recognising the gods the city recognised, and introducing new, unrecognised divinities) and, a separate alleged offence, corrupting the young. The number of dead is beyond counting. To the Persians, he emphasized his descent from ancient Persian kings. Ultimately, the city was to respond positively to some of these challenges. The word democracy comes from the Greek words demos, meaning "the people," and kratos, meaning "to rule.". Athenian democracy was short-lived Around 550BC, democracy was established in Athens, marking a clear shift from previous ruling systems. 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. Eventually the Romans breached a section of the wall and poured through. The masses were, in brief, shortsighted, selfish and fickle, an easy prey to unscrupulous orators who came to be known as demagogues. Solon ended exclusive aristocratic control of the government, substituted a system of control by the wealthy, and introduced a new and more humane . These bronze coins bore the Pontic symbol of a star between two half-moons. 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. During the 600s B.C., Athens was a small city-state. The tyranny had been a terrible and. Hes just returned to the city-state from a mission across the Aegean Sea to Anatolia, where he forged an alliance with a great king. Our publication has been reviewed for educational use by Common Sense Education, Internet Scout (University of Wisconsin), Merlot (California State University), OER Commons and the School Library Journal. 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. But without warning, it sank into the earth. One night Sulla personally reconnoitered that stretch of wall, which was near the Dipylon Gate, the citys main entrance. His short and vehement pamphlet was produced probably in the 420s, during the first decade of the Peloponnesian War, and makes the following case: democracy is appalling, since it represents the rule of the poor, ignorant, fickle and stupid majority over the socially and intellectually superior minority, the world turned upside down. Please support World History Encyclopedia. The boul represented the 139 districts of Attica and acted as a kind of executive committee of the assembly. However, Plutarch drew on Sullas memoirs as a source, so these anecdotes may be unreliable; Sulla had an interest in denigrating his opponent.). Sulla ordered another retreat, and turned his attention to Athens, which by now was a softer target than Piraeus. The city held festivals and presented nine plays each year, both comedies and tragedies. Archelaus landed on the Greek coast to the north and withdrew into Thessaly, where he joined forces with Pontic reinforcements that had marched overland from Anatolia. One of the indispensable words we owe ultimately to the Greeks is criticism (derived from the Greek for judging, as in a court case or at a theatrical performance). Suffering dearly, the Greek cities on the Anatolian coast went looking for help and found a deliverer in Mithridates VI, king of Pontus in northeastern Anatolia. Democracy, however, was found in other areas as well and after the conquests of Alexander the Great and the process of Hellenization, it became the norm for both the liberated cities in Asia Minor as well as new . Submitted by Mark Cartwright, published on 03 April 2018. I wish to receive a weekly Cambridge research news summary by email. As soldiers carted away their prized and sacred possessions, the guardians of Delphi bitterly complained that Sulla was nothing like previous Roman commanders, who had come to Greece and made gifts to the temples. Plato realized why democracy failed - even in ideal conditions, such as the direct democracy of ancient Athens. It dealt with ambassadors and representatives from other city-states. In this case there was a secret ballot where voters wrote a name on a piece of broken pottery (ostrakon). What he failed to realize, however, is that crowding the population of Athens behind its Long Walls would be deadly if disease ever broke out in Athens while Sparta had it besieged. That was definitely the opinion of ancient critics of the idea. The capital would be sending no more reinforcements or money. At last, Archelaus saw that the game was up and skillfully evacuated his army by sea. Books The competition of elite performers before non-elite adjudicators resulted in a pro-war culture, which encouraged Athenians in . Democracy in Ancient Greece is most frequently associated with Athens where a complex system allowed for broad political participation by the free male citizens of the city-state. 'So', persists Alcibiades, 'democracy is really just another form of tyranny?' The word democracy (dmokratia) derives from dmos, which refers to the entire citizen body: the People. The heart of this story is a months-long battle featuring treachery and clever siege warfare. 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. According to a fragmentary account by the historian Posidonius, Athenion's letters persuaded Athens that "the Roman supremacy was broken." The prospect of the Anatolian Greeks throwing off Roman rule also sparked pan-Hellenic solidarity. He disappears from the historical record; Aristion must have deposed him. Because of his reforming compromises and other legislation, posterity refers to him as Solon the lawgiver. License. Nor did he do anything to help defend his own cause, so that more of the 501 jurors voted for the death penalty than had voted him guilty as charged in the first place. Now all citizens could participate in government, not just aristocrats. In the words of historian K. A. Raaflaub, democracy in ancient Athens was. The government and economy were also weak causing distress all over Athens. Macedonians under Philip IIfather of Alexander the Greathad defeated Athens in 338 BC and installed a garrison in the Athenian port city of Piraeus. The king probably wished to engage the Romans far to the west, away from his core territories in Anatolia. The first was the ekklesia, or Assembly, the sovereign governing body of Athens. Our word demagogue -- that is, an irresponsible "rabble rousing" populist politician -- is lifted directly from Athenian debates about the nature of democracy. Related Content Numerous educational institutions recommend us, including Oxford University. An artillery duel developed. 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. How did Athens swing so quickly from euphoria to catastrophe? Becoming more desperate, they gathered wild plants on the slopes of the Acropolis and boiled shoes and leather oil-flasks. (Only about 5,000 men attended each session of the Assembly; the rest were serving in the army or navy or working to support their families.). World History Encyclopedia. Into this dangerous situation stepped Solon, a moderate man the Athenians trusted to bring justice for all. In 411 and again in 404 Athens experienced two, equally radical counter-coups and the establishment of narrow oligarchic regimes, first of the 400 led by the formidable intellectual Antiphon, and then of the 30, led by Plato's relative Critias. Indeed, the failure to make badly needed changes in such key areas as pensions and health (under PASOK) and education (under ND) became the most striking feature of all governments in Greece's. The two either supported the Romans or were currying favor with the side that they expected to win. Athenian democracy refers to the system of democratic government used in Athens, Greece from the 5th to 4th century BCE. This imperial system has become, for us, a by-word for autocracy and the arbitrary exercise. democratic system failed to be effective. Athens, therefore, had a direct democracy. 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. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. More loosely, it alludes to the entire range of democratic reforms that proceeded alongside the Jacksonians read more, The Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C. Cleisthenes formally identified free inhabitants of Attica as citizens of Athens, which gave them power and a role in a sense of civic solidarity. When Athenion returned home in the early summer of 88, citizens gave him a rapturous reception. As winter stretched on, Athenians began to starve. According to Appian, Sulla ordered an indiscriminate massacre, not sparing women or children. Many Athenians were so distraught that they committed suicide by throwing themselves at the soldiers. The Athenian statesman Pericles defined democracy as a system which protects the interests of all the people, not just a minority. Sulla circulated among his men and cheered them on, promising that their ordeal was almost over. The effect on the citys model democracy was also staggering. Certainly, he was an oligarch, but whether he was old or not we can't say. Of all the democratic institutions, Aristotle argued that the dikasteria contributed most to the strength of democracy because the jury had almost unlimited power.
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