Download Athens and Its Subjects

Athens and Its Subjects
Imperial Controls and Imperial Ideology
Iron Fist in the Velvet Glove
Thucydides, 1.76
“We have done nothing contrary to human practice, in
accepting an empire when it was offered to us and then
refusing to give it up. Three very powerful motives
prevent us from doing so--honor, fear, and self-interest.
And we were not the first to act in this way. It has always
been a rule that the weak should be subject to the strong;
besides we consider that we are worthy of our power.”
Imperialism: Problems of Definition
 “Imperialism” enters English language and gains
currency after 1870
 J.A.Hobson/V.I. Lenin: capitalist exploitation
 J.A. Schumpeter: “the objectless disposition on the part
of a state to unlimited forcible expansion.”
 M. Doyle (Empires: 45): “a relationship, formal or
informal, in which one state controls the effective
sovereignty of another political society. It can be
achieved by force, by political collaboration, by
economic, social, or cultural dependence.”
Imperialism and Subjects
Empire and Life Among “Allies”
Moses Finley on Athenian Imperialism
“Athenian imperialism employed all the forms of
material exploitation that were available and
possible in that society.”
Moses Finley’s Typology of Imperialism
 Finley’s Typology of State Power exercised over other states:
 1. Restriction of freedom of action in interstate relations
 2. Political/judicial/administrative interference in internal affairs
 3. Compulsory military/naval service
 4. Payment of some form of tribute
 5. Confiscation of land of other states
 6. Various forms of economic exploitation/subordination
 The “Closed Sea” Policy (cf. Thuc. 3.86 on Athenian western
operations in 427 BCE)
Athenian Imperial Controls
 Athenian Courts for Athenian/Allied Litigation
 Athenian Weights, Measures and Currency for Allied
States
 Proxenoi and Fostering Democratic Constitutions in other
Greek States
 Cleruchies--10,000 holdings? (Finley)
 Tribute Lists (ATL)
Coinage Decree
450-446 or 425/4 or before 414 BCE
“The herald making the journey shall require of them (that
they accomplish) all that the Athenians command. An
addition shall be made to the oath of the Boule by the
secretary of the [Boule, in future, as] follows: “If someone
coins money of silver in the cities and does not use [Athen]ian
coins or weights or measures [but (uses instead) foreign coins]
and measures and weights, [I shall exact punishment and
penalize him according to the former] decree which
Klearch[os moved.” Anyone shall be allowed to turn in] the
foreign money [which he possesses and to convert it in the
same fashion] whenever he chooses. The city [shall give him in
place of it our own coin.] Each individual (?) [shall bring] his
money [to Athens and deposit it at the] mint.”
Coinage Decree
Athenian “Owl”
Athenian Import Interests
in the Peloponnesian War (427 BCE)
“The Athenians sent the fleet [to Sicily], ostensibly because of
their kinship with the Leontinians, though their real aims
were to prevent grain being brought in to the Peloponnesus
from the west and to make a preliminary survey to see
whether it would be possible for them to gain control of
Sicily.”
Thucydides, 3.86
Imperialism and Metropole
Empire and Life in Athens
Imperial Economy of Democratic Athens:
Infrastructure
 Fleet (100 active triremes, 200 reserves)

Dock workers, shipwrights, around 20,000 rowers, rope and cable
industry, pitch manufacture, sail production, crew trainers
 Building Program

Architects, sculptors and stone cutters, day laborers for public
works projects
 Athenian and Inter-State Administration of
Justice

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Lodging and consumer spending for non-Athenians in Athens
Pay for jury duty; inter-state cases tried in Athens
Bureaucracy of the empire: 700 officials (Arist. Ath. Pol. 24.3)
Imperial Citizenship and Democracy
Imperial Ideology: Panathenaea
Athenian Cultural Symbols of Power and Dominance
 Poetic, musical, and athletic contests; torch race
 Presentation of the peplos to cult statue of Athena
 Tributary states required to send official
delegation to the festival; contribution of cow and
panoply by each state; bringing in of tribute
 Tribute assessments announced for the next year
Varvakeion Statuette
2nd century CE
Cult Statue of Athena in Parthenon
Athenian Theater as Self-Critique?
A Corrective to Thucydides on the “Melian Debate”?
Euripides, The Trojan Women (415 BCE)
as Social Protest?
Theater of the Absurd: Aristophanes
Lysistrata, Acharnians as anti-war plays; Birds and
Cloudcuckooland (414 BCE) as utopian satire of Athenian
empire: cui bono? Aristocratic class bias (cf. “Old
Oligarch”)?
Athenian people as beneficiaries of empire
Discussion
 Approaches to Studying Imperial Expansion
 Metrocentric
 Pericentric
 Systemic