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Athens Part 1
Solon, the Athenian politician and lawmaker: Solon (638-558 BC) was an Athenian
politician, lawmaker and poet. He is considered as the first innovative lawmaker that set
the ground for the creation of democracy, the governmental system that made Athens
powerful and granted the city its fame all over the centuries. Although his reforms lasted
for short in his time, he laid the foundations for the economic, cultural and military
development of the town.
Solon was born into a noble family in 638 B.C. He was a merchant by profession and a poet.
In 594 BC, he was elected an Archon, kind of governor, in ancient Athens. That time, the
society of Athens was facing an economic and moral depression due to an agricultural
crisis. Farmers could not repay their debts to the wealthy landowners and in return they
were sold as slaves, including their wives and children.
Political and social instability
This caused instability and rivalry in the society. As Athens was kind of divided in regions
and families, there was much controversy over which family rules and which would prove
better than the other. In this miserable point, Solon was elected and made the necessary
reforms to improve the local society. In fact, he mostly reformed three domains:
constitution, economy and morality.
The Laws of Solon
The first thing of Solon was to set all enslaved Athenians free and to relieve them from their
debts. This made him very popular among the people. Also, as he had understood that
farming couldn't get people enough for living, he envisioned to make Athens a powerful
trade centre and to have Athenian ships traverse the Aegean and the Mediterranean Sea.
He prohibited exporting any other product than olive oil and he gave benefits for foreign
tradesmen to settle in Athens. This was he set the foundation for the economic growth of
Athens, which would also grant the city its cultural development and military power.
New political system
Another important contribution of Solon was in the formation and establishment of
democracy, the governmental system that would mark the history of the city and would
influence the entire world in the centuries to come. Depending on their income and not
their noble origin, Solon divided the Athenian society in classes. Only the top three classes
had political rights and could be elected in public posts, but still this was a very important
measure for that time.
Solon permitted all citizens to participate in the Ekklesia, the council that discussed public
issues, and had the right to vote for any particular issue. Also, some of them by turns would
become members of the Heliea, the court that could call the officials into account, when
needed.
With certain rules, Solon also tried to reform the morals of the Athenians. He abolished
some laws that gave only men the right to have property and that required a large amount
of dowries. Also, he gave any citizen the right to take legal action on behalf of another
citizen and forced every man to take part in wars. This way he stressed out the importance
to be politically active for the good of the state.
Travelling around the world
When Solon completed his reformation works, he left Athens to sail around the world. It is
said that before he left, he made the Athenians sign a contract that they would keep those
reformations for at least 10 years before they make any change in the political system. This
way Solon wanted to prevent any political instability until the town gets strong again and
recover from its political problems.
However, only four years after Solon had left, Pesistratus took over the power in Athens
and established tyranny. Solon, a strong opponent of Pesistratus, got killed in Cyprus
shortly after the tyrant had taken over control.
During his trips around the world, Solon met new people and civilizations and this made
him a wise man. In fact, Plutarch includes him among the ten wisest men of the Greek
antiquity. In one of these trips in Egypt, as Plato narrates, Solon met a priest who told him
the story of a prosperous town that got submerged in a single day and night due to the
wrath of gods. This town is today known as the lost Atlantis.
In another journey to Lydia, Solon met the local king Croesus who praised that he was the
happiest man on earth. Then, Solon replied "Call no man happy before he dies", meaning
that luck can turn unexpectedly and things might change from one day to the other. In fact,
a few years later, king Croesus lost his kingdom to the Persians.
In the years to follow his death, Solon was remembered as a wise man with innovative
ideas. Upon these ideas, Pericles, a few decades later, established the famous Athenian
democracy. Today he is thought as the founder of this governmental system.
Structure of Government in Athens: They developed a system of government allowing
citizens to participate in making important decisions. Today we know this as
democracy. There are three institutions that make up the pillars of Athenian democracy,
the Assembly, the Council of 500, and The Court.
Assembly
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All men who were citizens could take part in debating issues and voting on laws.
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A minimum of 6000 people present to have a vote count.
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Each member had an equal right to speech.
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Example of direct democracy because they voted directly on government decisions.
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A decision was made based on a majority vote called a decree.
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Met about 40 times per year (every 8 – 10 days)
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They discussed large issues such as war and religion but also private concerns.
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Met in a large open area at the top of a hill call the Pnyx.
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Members made speeches, debate, listen, discuss, and finally vote.
Council of 500
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Also known as the Bouleuterion (Boule)
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Was the full time government in Athens.
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Council members’ terms lasted only one year.
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Positions were chosen using a lottery method.
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You could only serve on the council twice in your lifetime.
Council leaders only had the position for 24 hours. Their job was to supervise how
the government was run.
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Divided into ten tribes
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50 members from each tribe over the age of 30 served on the council
Athenian Court
If citizens felt that they had been wronged, they would bring their concerns to the
magistrate.
Magistrates were citizens and officers of the court who were chosen by lottery for a
one year term.
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Sometimes fines would be set, other times they would send the case to trial.
Class Structure and Citizenship in Ancient Athens
A person’s class (slave, Athenian-born or Metic) determined their rights and
responsibilities. The democratic principles of representation, equity and fairness only
applied fully to male citizens.
Men
·
2 classes: Citizens or Metics
o Citizens:
§ Free, born in Athens
§ Sent sons to school and owned property
§ Paid taxes
§ Expected to serve in government positions, vote, and perform military service
§ Only citizens could participate in government.
o Metics: - not citizens
§ Foreigners living in Athens
§ They could send sons to school. (if they could afford it.)
§ They couldn’t own property without permission.
§ They needed a citizen to sponsor them, otherwise they could become enslaved
§ They could not vote or hold government positions
§ Expected to perform military service
Women
·
2 Classes: Athenian or Metics – neither were citizens
o Athenian
§ Caregivers and home managers
§ Could own property
§ Could influence citizens (influencing husbands)
§ Could not vote
§ Could not participate in government
o Metics:
§ Caregivers and home managers
§ Could not own property
§ Could not vote
§ Could not participate in government
§ Could not influence citizens
Children
·
Boys: attend school (if they could afford it), If school was to expensive, they would
help in the family business, expected to have military training. Athenian boys would
become citizens, but Metic boys would not.
·
Girls: stay home and learn household skills
Slaves
·
Men, women and children who were bought and sold by others
·
Could not own land,
·
Could not make day to day decisions about their life
·
Did not participate in government or vote
·
Could not every become a citizen
What ideas of fairness, equity, and rights were part of Athenian democracy?
·
The most important idea what that it is fair that citizens be allowed to rule
themselves. This is the basis of democracy.
·
Athenians believed that majority rule was fair. This meant that decisions were made
by voting and that law supported by more than half the voters was passed.
·
Athenians believed that people who belonged to the same class in society should have
equal rights. All male citizens had the right to belong to the assembly and vote. (The only
exceptions were people who committed acts that would cause them to lose their
citizenship and these were clearly laid out in law)
·
Women, slaves and metics were denied voting rights.
·
Slavery was an accepted part of Athenian society. A person’s right to own another
person was not questioned, even by great Athenian thinkers like Socrates)
·
Individual and minority rights were not part of the thinking of Athenian
democracy. The common good was the highest value.
ARITSTOTLE
Aristotle is a towering figure in ancient Greek philosophy, making contributions to logic,
metaphysics, mathematics, physics, biology, botany, ethics, politics, agriculture, medicine, dance
and theatre. He was a student of Plato who in turn studied under Socrates. He was more
empirically-minded than Plato or Socrates and is famous for rejecting Plato’s theory of forms.
As a prolific writer and polymath, Aristotle radically transformed most, if not all, areas of
knowledge he touched. He was referred to as “The Philosopher.” In his lifetime, Aristotle wrote
as many as 200 treatises, of which only 31 survive. Aristotle was the first to classify areas of
human knowledge into distinct disciplines such as mathematics, biology, and ethics. Some of
these classifications are still used today.
As the father of the field of logic, he was the first to develop a formalized system for reasoning.
Aristotle observed that the validity of any argument can be determined by its structure rather
than its content. A classic example of a valid argument is his syllogism: All men are mortal;
Socrates is a man; therefore, Socrates is mortal. Given the structure of this argument, as long as
the premises are true, then the conclusion is also guaranteed to be true. Aristotle’s brand of logic
dominated this area of thought until the rise of modern propositional logic and predicate logic
2000 years later.
Aristotle famously rejected Plato’s theory of forms, which states that properties such as beauty
are abstract universal entities that exist independent of the objects themselves. Instead, he argued
that forms are intrinsic to the objects and cannot exist apart from them, and so must be studied in
relation to them. However, in discussing art, Aristotle seems to reject this, and instead argues for
idealized universal form which artists attempt to capture in their work.
Aristotle was the founder of the Lyceum, a school of learning based in Athens, Greece; and he
was an inspiration for the Peripatetics, his followers from the Lyceum.
DRACO
Draco was an Athenian statesman who first wrote down the laws of Athens, but made them
very harsh. Draco did not actually create most of the laws, but only wrote them down so
that judges would apply the laws consistently. Draco's laws were very harsh, and
prescribed the death penalty even for minor offences. Draco's laws also allowed debtors to
be sold into slavery. Draco's laws were superseded by the laws of Solon, several decades
later.
SOCRATES
Socrates was born circa 470 BC, in Athens, Greece. We know of his life through the writings
of his students, including Plato and Xenophon. His "Socratic method," laid the
groundwork for Western systems of logic and philosophy. When the political climate of
Greece turned, Socrates was sentenced to death by hemlock poisoning in 399 BC. He
accepted this judgment rather than fleeing into exile.
Because he wasn't from a noble family, he probably received a basic Greek education and
learned his father's craft as a stone mason at a young age. It is believed Socrates worked as
mason for many years before he devoted his life to philosophy. Contemporaries differ in
their account of how Socrates supported himself as a philosopher. Both Xenophon and
Aristophanes state Socrates received payment for teaching, while Plato writes Socrates
explicitly denied accepting payment, citing his poverty as proof.
Socrates married Xanthippe, a younger woman, who bore him three sons—Lamprocles,
Sophroniscus and Menexenus.. By his own words, Socrates had little to do with his sons'
upbringing and expressed far more interest in the intellectual development of Athens'
young boys.
Athenian law required all able bodied males serve as citizen soldiers, on call for duty from
ages 18 until 60. According to Plato, Socrates served in the armored infantry—known as
the hoplite—with shield, long spear and face mask. He participated in three military
campaigns during the Peloponnesian War, at Delium, Amphipolis, and Potidaea, where he
saved the life of Alcibiades, a popular Athenian general. Socrates was known for his
courage in battle and fearlessness, a trait that stayed with him throughout his life. After his
trial, he compared his refusal to retreat from his legal troubles to a soldier's refusal to
retreat from battle when threatened with death.
Plato's Symposium provides the best details of Socrates's physical appearance. He was not
the ideal of Athenian masculinity. Short and stocky, with a snub nose and bulging eyes,
Socrates always seemed to appear to be staring. However, Plato pointed out that in the eyes
of his students, Socrates possessed a different kind of attractiveness, not based on a
physical ideal but on his brilliant debates and penetrating thought. Socrates always
emphasized the importance of the mind over the relative unimportance of the
human body.
Socrates believed that philosophy should achieve practical results for the greater wellbeing of society. He attempted to establish an ethical system based on human reason rather
than theological doctrine. He pointed out that human choice was motivated by the desire
for happiness. Ultimate wisdom comes from knowing oneself. The more a person knows,
the greater his or her ability to reason and make choices that will bring true happiness.
Socrates believed that this translated into politics with the best form of government being
neither a tyranny nor a democracy. Instead, government worked best when ruled by
individuals who had the greatest ability, knowledge, and virtue and possessed a
complete understanding of themselves.
For Socrates, Athens was a classroom and he went about asking questions of the elite and
common man alike, seeking to arrive at political and ethical truths. Socrates didn’t lecture
about what he knew. In fact, he claimed to be ignorant because he had no ideas, but wise
because he recognized his own ignorance. He asked questions of his fellow Athenians in a
dialectic method (the Socratic Method) which compelled the audience to think through a
problem to a logical conclusion. Sometimes the answer seemed so obvious, it made
Socrates's opponents look foolish. For this, he was admired by some and vilified by others.
During Socrates's life, Athens was going through a dramatic transition from hegemony in
the classical world to its decline after a humiliating defeat by Sparta in the Peloponnesian
War. Athenians entered a period of instability and doubt about their identity and place in
the world. As a result, they clung to past glories, notions of wealth, and a fixation with
physical beauty. Socrates attacked these values with his insistent emphasis on the greater
importance of the mind. While many Athenians admired Socrates's challenges to Greek
conventional wisdom and the humorous way he went about it, an equal number grew
angry and felt he threatened their way of life and uncertain future.
Before Socrates's execution, friends offered to bribe the guards and rescue him so he could
flee into exile. He declined, stating he wasn't afraid of death, felt he would be no better off if
in exile and said he was still a loyal citizen of Athens, willing to abide by its laws, even the
ones that condemned him to death. Plato described Socrates's execution in his Phaedo
dialogue: Socrates drank the hemlock mixture without hesitation. Numbness slowly crept
into his body until it reached his heart. Shortly before his final breath, Socrates described
his death as a release of the soul from the body.
PLATO
Ancient Greek philosopher Plato was the student of Socrates and the teacher of
Aristotle. His writings explored justice, beauty and equality, and also contained
discussions in aesthetics, political philosophy, theology, cosmology, epistemology and the
philosophy of language. Plato was the founder of the Academy in Athens, one of the first
institutions of higher learning in the Western world. Both of his parents came from the
Greek aristocracy. Plato’s father, Ariston, descended from the kings of Athens and
Messenia. His mother, Perictione, is said to be related to the 6th century BCE Greek
statesman Solon.
As with many young boys of his social class, Plato was probably taught by some of Athens’
finest educators. This probably helped develop the foundation for Plato’s study of
metaphysics (the study of nature) and epistemology (the study of knowledge). As a young
man, Plato experienced two major events that set his course in life. One was meeting the
great Greek philosopher Socrates. Socrates’ methods of dialogue and debate impressed
Plato so much that he soon he became a close associate and dedicated his life to the
question of virtue and the formation of a noble character. The other significant event was
the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta, in which Plato served for a brief time
between 409 and 404 BCE. The defeat of Athens ended its democracy, which the Spartans
replaced with an oligarchy. Two of Plato’s relatives, Charmides and Critias, were prominent
figures in the new government, part of the notorious Thirty Tyrants whose brief rule
severely reduced the rights of Athenian citizens. After the oligarchy was overthrown and
democracy was restored, Plato briefly considered a career in politics, but the execution of
Socrates in 399 BCE soured him on this idea and he turned to a life of study and philosophy.
Sometime around 385 BCE, Plato founded a school of learning, known as the Academy,
which he presided over until his death. It is believed the school was located at an enclosed
park named for a legendary Athenian hero. The Academy operated until 529 ACE, when it
was closed by Roman Emperor Justinian I, who feared it was a source of paganism and a
threat to Christianity. Over the years it operated, the Academy’s curriculum included
astronomy, biology, mathematics, political theory and philosophy. Plato hoped the
Academy would provide a place for future leaders to discover how to build a better
government in the Greek city-states.
Plato’s final years were spent at the Academy and with his writing. The circumstances
surrounding his death are clouded, thought it is fairly certain he died in Athens in 347 BCE,
when he was in his early eighties. Plato’s impact on philosophy and the nature of humans
has had a lasting impact far beyond his homeland of Greece. His work covered a broad
spectrum of interests and ideas: mathematics, science and nature, morals and political
theory. His beliefs on the importance of mathematics in education have proven to be
essential for understanding the entire universe. His work on the use of reason to develop a
more fair and just society that is focused on the equality of individuals established the
foundation for modern democracy.