Our word demagogue -- that is, an irresponsible "rabble rousing" populist politician -- is lifted directly from Athenian debates about the nature of democracy. In 146, they ruthlessly destroyed the city-state of Corinth and established their authority over much of Greece. The masses were, in brief, shortsighted, selfish and fickle, an easy prey to unscrupulous orators who came to be known as demagogues. The classical period was an era of war and conflictfirst between the Greeks and the Persians, then between the read more. At the meetings, the ekklesia made decisions about war and foreign policy, wrote and revised laws and approved or condemned the conduct of public officials. Mark is a full-time author, researcher, historian, and editor. Sulla had the tyrant and his bodyguard executed. The Greek system of direct democracy would pave the way for representative democracies across the globe. Under this system, all male citizens - the dmos - had equal political rights, freedom of speech, and the opportunity to participate directly in the political arena. 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. 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. 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. In this case there was a secret ballot where voters wrote a name on a piece of broken pottery (ostrakon). There was no political violence, land theft or capital punishment because those went against the political norms Rome had established. 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. Athens is a city-state, while today we are familiar with the primary unit of governance . If they did not fulfill their duty they would be fined and sometimes marked with red paint. 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. 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. Last updated 2011-02-17. In Athens, it was a noble named Solon who laid the foundations for democracy, and introduced a . We would much rather spend this money on producing more free history content for the world. But in 200, Philip, having come of age and claimed the crown, dispatched an army toward Athens to regain the port. In a democracy, the Greek historian Herodotus wrote, there is, first, that most splendid of virtues, equality before the law. It was true that Cleisthenes demokratia abolished the political distinctions between the Athenian aristocrats who had long monopolized the political decision-making process and the middle- and working-class people who made up the army and the navy (and whose incipient discontent was the reason Cleisthenes introduced his reforms in the first place). I was not sent to Athens by the Romans to learn its history, but to subdue its rebels, he declared. "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. As below ground, so above. An artillery duel developed. This was because, in theory, a random lottery was more democratic than an election: pure chance, after all, could not be influenced by things like money or popularity. 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. 'Why', answers his guardian Pericles, who was then at the height of his influence, 'it is whatever the people decides and decrees'. Inevitably, there was some fallout, and one of the victims of the simmering personal and ideological tensions was Socrates. World History Publishing is a non-profit company registered in the United Kingdom. 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. Athens transformed ancient warfare and became one of the ancient world's superpowers. We are committed to protecting your personal information and being transparent about what information we hold. 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. 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. Paul Cartledge is Professor of Greek History at the University of Cambridge. An important element in the debates was freedom of speech (parrhsia) which became, perhaps, the citizen's most valued privilege. 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 . Gloating over Roman misfortunes, he declared that Mithridates controlled all of Anatolia. Cleisthenes introduced democracy in Athen (500c BCE) Democracy of Athens. 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. 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 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. Athenian Democracy. Though he at first refused, he later relented and sent a delegation to meet with the Roman commander. "If history can provide a map of where we have been, a mirror to where we are right now and perhaps even a guide to what we should do next, the story of this period is perfectly suited to do that in our times," Dr. Scott said. Athens remains a posterchild for democracies worldwide, but it was not a pure democracy. READ MORE: Why Greece Is Considered the Birthplace of Democracy. His election as hoplite general quickly followed. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page. The capital would be sending no more reinforcements or money. There was in Athens (and also Elis, Tegea, and Thasos) a smaller body, the boul, which decided or prioritised the topics which were discussed in the assembly. Around 460 B.C., under the rule of the general Pericles (generals were among the only public officials who were elected, not appointed) Athenian democracy began to evolve into something that we would call an aristocracy: the rule of what Herodotus called the one man, the best. Though democratic ideals and processes did not survive in ancient Greece, they have been influencing politicians and governments ever since. He disappears from the historical record; Aristion must have deposed him. When Athenion returned home in the early summer of 88, citizens gave him a rapturous reception. During the 600s B.C., Athens was a small city-state. and the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C. Eventually Archelaus realized someone was divulging his plans, but turned it to his advantage. Blood flows in the narrow streets, as the Romans butcher the Athenianswomen and children included. Please support World History Encyclopedia. It only hastened Athens' eventual defeat in the war, which was followed by the installation at Sparta's behest of an even narrower oligarchy than that of the 400 - that of the 30. 'What? He also said that Mithridates would free the citizens of Athens from their debts (whether he meant public or private debts is not clear). That at any rate is the assumed situation. Plutarch also claims that Aristion took to dancing on the walls and shouting insults at Sulla. Sullas solution: rob the Greek temples of their treasures. He also said that the ability to govern and participate in government was more important than one's class. 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. The majority won the day and the decision was final. Ostracism, in which a citizen could be expelled from Athens for 10 years, was among the powers of the ekklesia. Most of the Greek cities there welcomed the Pontic forces, and by early 88, Mithridates was firmly in control of western Anatolia. Athens' democracy in fact recovered from these injuries within years. 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. Leemage/Universal Images Group/Getty Images. The city held festivals and presented nine plays each year, both comedies and tragedies. When the fleet reached the city, Aristion quickly seized power, thanks in part to a personal guard of 2,000 Pontic soldiers. A year after their defeat of Athens in 404 BC, the Spartans allowed the Athenians to replace the government of the Thirty Tyrants with a new democracy. A mass slaughter followed. 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. To protect their money, some Athenians buried coin hoards. The Italian Social War ended in 88, freeing the Romans to meet the Pontic threat in the east. Now, Roman senators and Athenian exiles in Sullas entourage asked him to show mercy for the city. Books Many of its economic problems were gradually solved by attracting wealthy immigrants to Athens - which as a name still carried considerable prestige. Athens was already a waning star on the international stage resting on past imperial glories, and the book argues that it struggled to keep pace with a world in a state of fast-paced globalisation and political transition. "There are grounds to consider whether we want to go down the same route that Athens did. Buildings in the Agora and on the south side of the Acropolis remained damaged for decades, monuments to the poverty in postwar Athens. However, historians argue that selection to the boule was not always just a matter of chance. 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. When a Roman ram breached part of the walls of Piraeus, Sulla directed fire-bearing missiles against a nearby Pontic tower, sending it up in flames like a monstrous torch. There is a strong case that democracy was a major reason for this success. Theophilus even hacked off the hands of Romans clinging to statues inside a temple. The next day, as he made his way to the Agora for a speech, a mob of admirers strained to touch his garments. The war had one last act to play out. Men on both towers discharged all kinds of missiles, according to Appian. (Ostracism, in which a citizen could be expelled from the Athenian city-state for 10 years, was among the powers of the ekklesia.) Passions ran high and at one point during a crucial Assembly meeting, over which Socrates may have presided, the cry went up that it would be monstrous if the people were prevented from doing its will, even at the expense of strict legality. 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. In practice, this assembly usually involved a maximum of 6000 citizens. 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. 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. Web. With the Persians closing in on the Greek capitol, Athenian general read more, The story of the Trojan Warthe Bronze Age conflict between the kingdoms of Troy and Mycenaean Greecestraddles the history and mythology of ancient Greece and inspired the greatest writers of antiquity, from Homer, Herodotus and Sophocles to Virgil. Nevertheless, democracy in a slightly altered form did eventually return to Athens and, in any case, the Athenians had already done enough in creating their political system to eventually influence subsequent civilizations two millennia later. Athenion had the mob eating out of his hand. The Athenian statesman Pericles defined democracy as a system which protects the interests of all the people, not just a minority. One night Sulla personally reconnoitered that stretch of wall, which was near the Dipylon Gate, the citys main entrance. "It shows how an earlier generation of people responded to similar challenges and which strategies succeeded. He detached a force to surround Athens, then struck at Piraeus, where Archelaus and his troops were stationed. Meanwhile, the siege of Piraeus continued, with each side matching the others moves. In despair, many Athenians kill themselves. As winter stretched on, Athenians began to starve. 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. World History Encyclopedia is a non-profit organization. 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. Cartwright, M. (2018, April 03). The Romans then fractured a nearby portion of the wall and launched an all-out attack. Modern representative democracies, in contrast to direct democracies, have citizens who vote for representatives who create and enact laws on their behalf. Rome, which was preoccupied fighting its former Italian allies in the Social War (9188), failed to step in to settle matters, increasing resentment in Athens. 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 hard practical fact there was no alternative, and no alternative to hereditary autocracy, the system laid down by Cyrus, could seriously have been contemplated. 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. One which is so bad that people ultimately cry out for a dictator. Why did the system fail? 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. A demagogue, a treacherous ally, and a brutal Roman general destroyed the city-stateand democracyin the first-century BC, https://www.historynet.com/the-end-of-athens/, Jerrie Mock: Record-Breaking American Female Pilot, When 21 Sikh Soldiers Fought the Odds Against 10,000 Pashtun Warriors, Few Red Tails Remain: Tuskegee Airman Dies at 96. Historian Appian states that the Pontics massacred thousands of Italians there, a repeat of the slaughter in Anatolia. Solon Put Athens on the Road to Democracy. The Romans quickly got to work on their own tunnel, and when the diggers from both sides met, a savage fight broke out underground, the miners hacking at each other with spears and swords as well as they could in the darkness, according to Appian. This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. Those defeats persuaded Mithridates to end the war. 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 Athens running short of food, Archelaus one night dispatched troops from Piraeus with a supply of wheat. 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. Terrified Romans fled to temples for sanctuary, but to no avail; they were butchered anyway. They butchered and ate all their cattle, then boiled the hides. It supervised government workers and was in charge of things like navy ships (triremes) and army horses. Democracy itself, however, buckled under the strain. After defeating the Bithynians, Mithridates drove into the Roman province of Asia. With Athens under his thumb, Sulla turned back to Piraeus. Athenian democracy was short-lived Around 550BC, democracy was established in Athens, marking a clear shift from previous ruling systems. S2 ep 5: What is the future of artificial intelligence. (According to Plutarchs Life of Sulla, the tyrant Aristion and his cronies were drinking and reveling even as famine spread. 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. The Romans placed a proxy on the Bithynian throne and encouraged him to raid Pontic territory. Ancient Athenian democracy differs from the democracy that we are familiar with in the present day. 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. The one exception to this rule was the leitourgia, or liturgy, which was a kind of tax that wealthy people volunteered to pay to sponsor major civic undertakings such as the maintenance of a navy ship (this liturgy was called the trierarchia) or the production of a play or choral performance at the citys annual festival. The result was a series of domestic problems, including an inability to fund the traditional police force. Athens, therefore, had a direct democracy. This time, they burst through Archelauss hastily constructed lunette. 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. The first was the ekklesia, or Assembly, the sovereign governing body of Athens. The specific connection made by the anonymous writer is that the ultimate source of Athens' power was its navy, and that navy was powered essentially (though not exclusively) by the strong arms of the thetes, that is to say, the poorest section of the Athenian citizen population. Neither side gained an advantage until a group of Romans who had been gathering wood returned and charged into battle. 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. 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. Other reputations are also taken to task: The "heroic" Spartans of Thermopylae, immortalised in the film 300, are unmasked as warmongering bullies of the ancient world. Critics of democracy, such as Thucydides and Aristophanes, pointed out that not only were proceedings dominated by an elite, but that the dmos could be too often swayed by a good orator or popular leaders (the demagogues), get carried away with their emotions, or lack the necessary knowledge to make informed decisions. The boul or council was composed of 500 citizens who were chosen by lot and who served for one year with the limitation that they could serve no more than two non-consecutive years. 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. Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. Cartwright, Mark. https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-greece/ancient-greece-democracy. BBC 2014 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. But where Athenion failed, Mithridates was determined to succeed. The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. Perhaps the most notoriously bad decisions taken by the Athenian dmos were the execution of six generals after they had actually won the battle of Arginousai in 406 BCE and the death sentence given to the philosopher Socrates in 399 BCE. The Pontic king sent his Greek mercenary, General Archelaus, into the Aegean with a fleet. ', 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"?' Athens was forced to destroy its main defenses, abolish the Delian League and its fleet was handed over to the Spartans. 2.37). World History Encyclopedia. We care about our planet! World History Foundation is a non-profit organization registered in Canada. Therefore, women, slaves, and resident foreigners (metoikoi) were excluded from the political process. 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. 'So', persists Alcibiades, 'democracy is really just another form of tyranny?' Then, in 133 B.C.E., Rome experienced its first political. Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. By Professor Paul Cartledge But when one of the Athenian delegates began a grand speech about their citys great past, Sulla abruptly dismissed them. Mithridates, who came from a Persian dynasty, ruled a culturally mixed kingdom that included both Persians and Greeks. The word democracy (dmokratia) derives from dmos, which refers to the entire citizen body, and kratos, meaning rule. Read more. Mithridates swiftly retaliated, invading and overrunning Bithynia. 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 . The Athenian Democracy in the Age of Demosthenes: Structure, Principles Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. Athenian democracy was a direct democracy made up of three important institutions. Cleisthenes issued reforms in 508 and 507 BC that undermined the domination of the aristocratic families and connected every Athenian to the city's rule. 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. At the kings order, the locals slaughtered tens of thousands of Romans and Italians who lived among them. People rushed to greet him as he was carried into the city on a scarlet-covered couch, wearing a ring with Mithridatess portrait. Ancient Greece saw a lot of philosophical and political changes soon after the end of the Bronze Age. The Athenian Democracy existed from the early 7th century BC up until Athens was conquered by the Macedonians in 322 BC. All male citizens of Athens could attend the assembly which made political decisions. That was one, class-based sort of objection to Greek-style direct democracy. This money was only to cover expenses though, as any attempt to profit from public positions was severely punished. Now all citizens could participate in government, not just aristocrats. Cite This Work It was too much. This imperial system has become, for us, a by-word for autocracy and the arbitrary exercise. Athens' democracy in fact recovered from these injuries within years. By Athenian democratic standards of justice, which are not ours, the guilt of Socrates was sufficiently proven. It reached its peak between 480 and 404BC, when Athens was undeniably the master of the Greek world. Related Content Athens in the early first century had energy and culture. 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. laborers forced into bondage over debt, and the middle classes who were excluded from government, while not alienating the increasingly wealthy landowners and aristocracy. This is a form of government which puts the power to rule in the hands of . It dealt with ambassadors and representatives from other city-states. Immediately following the Bronze Age collapse and at the start of the Dark . As we have seen, only male citizens who were 18 years or over could speak (at least in theory) and vote in the assembly, whilst the positions such as magistrates and jurors were limited to those over 30 years of age. The boule was a group of 500 men, 50 from each of ten Athenian tribes, who served on the Council for one year. Though Archelaus restored Delos to Athenian control, he turned over its treasury to Aristion, an Athenian citizen whom Mithridates had chosen to rule Athens. But what form of government, what constitution, should the restored Persian empire enjoy for the future? 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. The Greek emissary became an enthusiastic booster of the king and sent letters home advocating an alliance. https://www.worldhistory.org/Athenian_Democracy/. 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. Little more than a hundred years later it was governed by an emperor. Then there was also an executive committee of the boul which consisted of one tribe of the ten which participated in the boul (i.e., 50 citizens, known as prytaneis) elected on a rotation basis, so each tribe composed the executive once each year. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. It argues that it was not the loss of its empire and defeat in war against Sparta at the end of the 5th century that heralded the death knell of Athenian democracy - as it is traditionally perceived. Perhaps more significantly, however, the study suggests that the collapse of Greek democracy and of Athens in particular offer a stark warning from history which is often overlooked. But geometry worked against him. Seven noble Persians conspire to overthrow the usurper and restore legitimate government. In an effort to cope, Athens began to create a system of self-regulation, described as a "giant Neighbourhood Watch", asking citizens not to trouble its overstretched bureaucracy with non-urgent, petty crimes. Thank you for your help!

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