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Lecture Nine
The Athenian Empire and
Democracy
Teacher: Wu Shiyu
Email: [email protected]
A Review
Battle of Salamis:Decisive Greek victory.
Like the Battles of Marathon and Thermopylae,
Salamis has gained something of a 'legendary' status
(unlike, for instance, the more decisive Battle of
Plataea), perhaps because of the desperate
circumstances and the unlikely odds.
Salamis is one of the most significant battles in
human history.
Much of modern western society, such as
philosophy, science, personal freedom and
democracy are rooted in the legacy of Ancient
Greece.[
Greek Trireme
Lecture Nine
The Athenian Empire and
Democracy
Teacher: Wu Shiyu
Email: [email protected]
9.1 The Establishment of the Athenian Empire
The collaboration in fighting against the
Persians evoked a rare interval of interstate
cooperation in ancient Greek history. Athens and
Sparta, the two most powerful city-states, had put
aside their mutual suspicions.
During the Persian Wars, they had shared the
leadership of the united Greek military forces.
Later this cooperation after the defeat of the
Persians failed. Out of this failure arose the
Athenian Empire.
9.1.1 The Troubles of Sparta
In 479 B.C., the Greek coalition decided
to continue to drive out the Persian outposts
(哨站) that still existed in northern Greece
and western Anatolia (小亚红细亚).
Spartan general, Pausanias was chosen to
lead the united army and began the first
expedition in 478 B.C. This proved to be a
mistake.
9.1.1 The Troubles of Sparta
Spartan men in positions of power, once away from
home, inescapably behaved badly. In Sparta, they
were always under regimented training and under the
scrutiny of one another, but outside Sparta, with no
constraints imposed on them, they were ill prepared to
operate humanely and effectively.
As a result, the Greek forces under his control could
not tolerate his arrogant and violent behavior toward his
allies as well as local Greek citizens.
9.1.1 The Troubles of Sparta
In addition, away from the rigid virtue,
Pausanias took to living luxuriously. He
would wear elaborate Persian costumes.
And he even began to negotiate with Xerxes
in an attempt to gain greater power with
Persian help.
Eventually, he was recalled to Sparta
and tried for treason but was acquitted for
lack of sufficient evidence.
9.1.1 The Troubles of Sparta
Pausanias committed a most unforgivable
sin to Spartans: to organize a revolt of helots.
The plot was discovered and Pausanias fled
to a temple for safety, where he was
surrendered and starved to near death.
He did not die in the temple, a sacred
ground. He was removed and died outside.
9.1.1 The Troubles of Sparta
The Spartans lost their prestige among the members
in the Greek coalition and eventually the Athenians came
to lead the alliance.
Yet the leaders at Sparta was happy to be free of the
leadership because, in the words of the Athenian
historian Thucydides, “they were afraid any other
commanders they sent abroad would be corrupted, as
Pausanias had been, and they were glad to be relieved of
the burden of fighting the Persians.
Also, Spartans had to be alert to guard against the
helot revolts, and prolonged overseas operations were
difficult to maintain.
9.1.2 The Delian League
In 477 B.C., the other Greeks were persuaded to
request Athenian leadership of the alliance against the
Persians. The Greek alliance against Persia now took on a
new form under Athenian leadership.
Member states, located in northern Greece, on the
islands of the Aegean Sea, and along the western coast of
Anatolia, would swear a solemn oath never to desert the
coalition.
Sparta, on the other hand, was still leading a league
long since established, referred to as the Peloponnesian
League by modern historians. Thus, Athens and Sparta
each had its own coalition (联盟) of allies. Each of the
alliances had an assembly to set policies, but the final say
went to the head of the alliances, namely, Sparta and
Athens.
The Delian League
9.1.2 The Delian League
Athenian domination over the alliance was promoted by
special arrangements made to finance naval operations of
the Athenian-led alliance.
Aristides set the standards of dues (会费, 捐费) to be
paid by the member states every year, based on their size
and prosperity. Larger member states were to supply
whole warships, triremes at the time, with crews and their
pay; smaller states were to share the cost of a ship or
simply contribute cash, which would be pooled with
others’ dues to pay for the ship and its crew.
The alliance’s funds were put in the sacred temple of
Apollo on the Aegean island of Delos, and consequently
the alliance was later referred to as the Delian League.
9.1.2 The Delian League
Over time, more and more states found that
contributing cash was easier than going to the
trouble of supplying warships. Most of these states
opted for this because they had difficulty in building
ships as specialized as triremes and training crews
to operate them. However, as Athens was far larger
than most of the allies, it had the capacity to build
triremes in large numbers. More importantly, it had
a large population of men eager to earn pay as
rowers.
9.1.2 The Delian League
As a result, Athens built and manned most of the
warships, using the dues of other states to complement its
own contribution.
The Athenian rowers on these warships came from the
poorest social class, the class of the laborers, and as they
contributed to the navy, they earned money and also gained
more political importance.
Though Athens continued to maintain its hoplite army,
over time its fleet became its most powerful force. As the
fleet gained more importance militarily, so did the rowers
politically, which would later influence the political structure
in Athens.
9.1.2 The Delian League
The Delian League did achieve it principal
goal: within the next twenty years since its
foundation, league forces succeeded in expelling
almost all of the Persian garrisons (守备部队)out of
the city-states along the northeastern Aegean coast
and driving the Persian fleet from the Aegean Sea,
ending the Persian threat to Greece for the next fifty
years.
9.1.3 The Athenian Empire
Meanwhile Athens grew stronger
from its share of the spoils (战利品) captured
from the Persians and the dues paid by
other members of the Delian League.
By the middle of the fifth century
B.C., the dues alone amounted to 600
talents. This annual income meant general
prosperity for people living in a state the
size of Athens (about thirty or forty
thousand adult male citizens).
9.1.3 The Athenian Empire
However, over time, as Persian threat was minimized,
other members were beginning to doubt on the necessity
of retaining the Delian League.
The Athenians, of course, would not allow any
desertion (放弃) of the league to happen. They would not
even tolerate the disagreement with the decisions made for
the league as a whole under Athenian leadership. As most
allies eventually lacked the warships of their own,
Athenians were able to use their fleet to compel
discontented allies to adhere to league policy and to
continue paying their dues
As Thucydides observed, rebellious allies “lost their
independence”, and the Athenians were “no longer as
popular as they used to be” .
9.1.3 The Athenian Empire
The most astounding instance of Athenian compulsion
of a reluctant ally was the case of the island of Thasos in
the northern Aegean Sea.
In 465 B.C., Thasos unilaterally withdrew from the
Delian league after it disputed with Athens.
To force the Thasians to keep their sworn agreement
that they should never desert the league, the Athenians,
leading allied forces, besieged them. The Thesians had to
surrender in 463 B.C.. As punishment, Thasos was forced
to dismantle its defensive walls, give up its naval force and
pay enormous tribute and fines.
9.1.3 The Athenian Empire
In this way, the originally voluntary Delian
League was eventually transformed into an
empire, the so-called Athenian Empire, a term
invented to point out the harsh dominance Athens
came to exercise over other members.
To Athenians, this transformation was justified
because it was Athens that kept the alliance strong
enough to perform the principal mission of the
Delian League: to protect Greece from the
invasion of the Persians.
The Athenian Empire
9.2 Athenian Democracy
In the decades following the Persian wars, as the
poorer men of the thete class were manning the
Athenian fleet, the political importance also
increased. And they began to recognize that it was
they who provided the basis for Athenian security
and prosperity. Apparently it was the time to make
administration of justice as democratic as the process
of making laws in the assembly.
It was true that the assembly could serve as a
court of appeals at this time, but it was the archons (
执政官), the annual magistrates (执法官), and the
Areopagus council (最高法院)of archons who were
rendering the judicial verdicts (裁决).
9.2 Athenian Democracy
Since 487 B.C., the nine archons had been
chosen by lot instead of the previous
election, making those offices filled by
random chance and not to be dominated by
wealthy men from higher classes. Thus it
was felt to be democratic as it gave an equal
chance to all eligible (有资格的)citizens.
9.2.1 The Democratic Reform of System of Justice
Still the democratically chosen archons
were likely to be corrupted by bribery (受贿)
or under pressure of socially prominent (显赫
的) men. If the laws were to be applied fairly
and honestly, it should be administrated in a
different judicial system instead of by the
archons. A reform of the judicial system was
needed.
9.2.1 The Democratic Reform of System of Justice
The time was ripe for further democratic
reforms. In 461 B.C., Ephialtes seized the moment
to convince the assembly to pass measures limiting
the power of the Areopagus.
Ephialtes
 Ephialtes was an ancient Athenian politician and
an early leader of the democratic movement there.
In the late 460s BC, he oversaw reforms that
diminished the power of the Areopagus, a
traditional bastion of conservatism, and which are
considered by many modern historians to mark the
beginning of the "radical democracy" for which
Athens would become famous.
9.2.1 The Democratic Reform of System of Justice
Previously, the Areopagus had had authority to judge
accusations of the archons’ misconduct, and this was
referred to as “guardianship of the laws.” As the Areopagus
was composed of former archons, it would presumably
have been on good terms with the current archons. For the
misconduct of the current archons, which deserved
punishment, there existed possibility of the Areopagus’
forgiving.
The reforms abolished the guardianship of the laws
from the Areopagus, although Ephiltes showed respect for
its venerable history and long traditions, leaving it with
jurisdiction over homicide and some religious matters and
the council remained the court for premeditated murder
and wounding, arson, and other offenses.
9.2.1 The Democratic Reform of System of Justice
Most significantly for the Ephialtic reforms, a judicial
system of courts was established. The courts were
composed of juries of male citizens over thirty years old,
selected by lot to serve for a year. Previously, it was the
archons and the Areopagus that were exercising most of
the judicial power. Now the power was largely transferred
to the jurors (陪审员).
There were six thousand men in all, to be randomly
chosen and distributed into individual juries as needed to
handle the case load. Under this new judicial system, the
archons were to treat minor offenses, the Areopagus had
its few special judicial competencies, and the council and
assembly could deal with certain cases concerning public
interest, but the newly established courts were given an
extraordinary jurisdiction.
9.2.1 The Democratic Reform of System of Justice
In most cases the charges were brought to the
court, and the only government official present
was a magistrate to keep order during the trial.
The jurors had sworn an oath to pay attention
and judge fairly, and they were not instructed
by any judge or harangued (高谈阔论) by
prosecutors (原告)or defense lawyers. Only when
a magistrate was on trial for misconduct in office
or when the case involved the public interest
would a citizen be appointed to speak for the
prosecution.
9.2.1 The Democratic Reform of System of Justice
In criminal cases, persuasive speech was the most
important element due to limitation of techniques used in
modern trials such as blood tests or fingerprints. Both the
accuser and the accused had to speak for themselves in the
court.
Sometimes they could pay someone else to organize
the speech for them to deliver, or they could ask others
to support their arguments or prove their good
character.
Therefore, their characteristics and reputations were
always relevant, and the jurors expected to find out about
truth partly from hearing about a man’s background and
his conduct as citizen.
9.2.1 The Democratic Reform of System of Justice
After hearing the speeches by the persons involved, the
jurors made up their minds and decided on their own
how the law should be applied in each case. A majority
vote of the jurors was their decision and there was no
higher court to overrule the decision. Also there was no
appeal from their verdicts.
Such was the enormous power of the court system and
in practice, the juries were defining the fundamental
principles of Athenian public life. In Aristophanes’ comic
play about the Athenian judicial system, The Wasps,
produced in 422 B.C., a juror boasts, “our power in court is
no less than royal!” .
9.2.1 The Democratic Reform of System of Justice
At the end of their term of service, the jurors
did not have to undergo a public scrutiny of their
actions as jurors, unlike other officials in Athenian
democracy. As there were so large juries,
numbering from several hundred to several
thousand, bribing jurors to improperly influencing
the outcome of cases was very difficult. Later, the
system was even further revised to assign jurors to
cases by lot and not until the day of the trial.
9.2.1 The Democratic Reform of System of Justice
The structure of the new court system
reflected the underlying principles of the Athenian
democracy in the mid-fifth century B.C. It was
participated by a widespread cross-section of
randomly selected male citizens, with corruption
prevented by elaborate precautions. And
individual citizens, regardless of their wealth,
were equally protected under the law.
9.2.1 The Democratic Reform of System of Justice
Significant though the Ephialtic reforms were,
there were people who disliked the turn the
government was taking. Shortly after the reforms
were enacted, presumably these people arranged
for the assassination of Ephialtes. Upon his death
the leadership was transferred to his dynamic
associate Pericles, who remained the most
prominent politician in Athens from about 461B.C.
to his death in 429 B.C.
Pericles
Pericles is the son of Zenpos. For more than 30 years,
he has led the Athenian people, not a king, not a dictator,
but as the embodiment of their will, this great democratic
people.
He has been ranked with Abraham Lincoln and Winston
Churchill as one of the three democratic leaders in
human history. He is a true statesman; Thucydides pays
him the same high tribute he does to Themistocles.
Extracting from that I will say to you that a true statesman
is possessed of a bedrock of principles, beliefs. He has a
moral compass of profound integrity and truth. And
Thucydides tells us that Pericles was the very embodiment
of integrity. Statesmen must have a vision. And he must be
able to build a consensus to achieve that vision.
Pericles
Like Churchill and like Roosevelt, Pericles
was an aristocrat, came from one of the most
distinguished of all Athenian families, the
Alcmeonid. He had been educated and he partook
all the intellectual currents of one of the greatest
ages of cultural creativity. For the prosperity and
freedom, he attracted for the city, the finest minds
of Greece, who probed all aspect of natural
science, questions of ethics and morality. History
itself was born there, and it was the freedom of
Athens that attracted Herodotus.
Pericles
Pericles was rich enough, and unlike
Themistocles, he didn’t have to take bribes. A man
of calm, he persuaded the Athenians by the
intellectual force of his rhetoric. Themistocles was
inclined to give flowery speeches and passionate
speeches. Pericles led Athenians in logic step by
step. He never curried favor with them. He was a
true leader. He did not use public opinion polls.
He led and he had a vision. That vision is that
Athens will be No. 1 power in the Greek world.
9.2.2 The Reforms of Pericles
In the 450s B.C., the Athenian democracy
received further backing when Pericles (c. 495429 B.C.) proposed that a daily stipend (津贴) be
paid using state revenues (税收收入) to men who
served on juries, in the council of five hundred,
and in other public offices filled by lot.
With the stipend as suggested by Pericles, it
was easy for poor men to leave their regular work
to serve in these time-consuming positions. By
contrast, the ten generals received no stipends.
9.2.2 The Reforms of Pericles
The ten generals were elected rather than
chosen by lot since their positions required
expertise and experience, and they were the most
influential public officials responsible for military
and civil affairs, especially public finances. They
were not paid because mostly it was the rich men
like Pericles, who were able to receive education
required for this top job and who had the free time
that were expected to win the election as generals.
Though generals received no pay, they were
compensated by the high prestige they held.
9.2.2 The Reforms of Pericles
Pericles and other rich people had inherited enough
wealth so that they were able to plunge into politics
without worrying about making money, but payment for
public service was essential for democracy as the mass of
working men had to think twice before they pushed their
work aside and served for the public without payment.
The stipend paid to other officials and jurors was no
more than an ordinary laborer could earn in a day, but it
was able to enable poorer Athenians to serve in
government. Pericles’ proposal for stipends for jurors
earned him enormous popularity among ordinary citizens.
As a result, He was able to carry out more reforms in the
domestic policy.
9.2.2 The Reforms of Pericles
In 451 B.C., Pericles sponsored a law
regulating that henceforward citizenship would
be granted only to children whose mother and
father were both Athenians. Previously, the
children of Athenian men and non-Athenian
women had been Athenian citizens. With the
passing of the new law, the notion of Athenian
identity was solidified to be special and exclusive.
More importantly, it emphatically recognized the
special status of Athenian women as possessing
equal citizenship with Athenian men in the
important process of setting up the citizenship of
new generations of Athenians.
9.2.2 The Reforms of Pericles
Not long after the citizenship law was passed,
Athenians began a checkup of citizenship among them and
those who had claimed citizenship fraudulently were
expelled. For Athenian men, the advantages of citizenship
included the rights to participate in politics and in juries, to
influence decisions related with their lives, to be protected
under the law, and to own land and property in Athenian
territory.
Citizen women had fewer rights because they were
excluded from politics, but they did enjoy the basic
guarantees of citizenship: the right to control property and
to be protected by law for their persons and their property.
Both men and women citizens were sharing unparalleled
material prosperity with an increased sense of communal
identity.
9.2.2 The Reforms of Pericles
Pericles pushed the Athenian democracy even
further. Now together with the assembly, composed
of all classes of citizens, the council of five hundred,
the magistrates or archons chosen by lot, and
ostracism ((古希腊)贝壳流放法), with the authority
of majority over any minority or individual when the
vital interests of the state were at stake, Athenian
democracy reached its height, and the city-state itself
entered into a “Golden Age”.
Thank You！