Download 2 – Archaic Greece – Rise of Athenian Democracy

The Areopagus
Athens entered the Archaic Period in the same way so many of its neighbours, as a citystate ruled by a  , or "king." Unlike Sparta, however, Athens' history was not
dominated by invasion of a neighbour, for the land around Athens was agriculturally rich
and the city had a harbour so that it could trade easily with city-states around the Aegean.
The power of the  slowly faded; underneath the  was a council of
nobles, which were called the Areopagus, from the name of the hill on which they met.
In the eighth century BC, these nobles gradually became very wealthy, particularly off of
the cash crops of wine and olive oil, both of which require great wealth to get started. As
their wealth increased, the nobles of the Areopagus slowly stripped the king of power
until Athenian government imperceptibly became an oligarchy. The Areopagus consisted
of a varying number of members, and it elected nine archons, or "rulers," to run the state.
The archons, however, always had to submit to the approval or veto of the Areopagus,
and they also became members of the Areopagus when their term in office expired, so, in
reality, the Areopagus ruled the country.
Rule by the wealthy, however, is often inherently unstable. In Athens, the farmers in
the surrounding countryside produced mainly wheat, while the wealthy and nobility
owned estates that produced wine and olive oil. Wheat-farming was badly managed,
however; the average Athenian farmer didn't rotate crops or let fields lie fallow.
Production of wheat plummeted at the same time that Athenians began to import wheat
and to export olive oil and wine. So not only did production of wheat fall, so did its price.
Pretty soon, even though the wealthy farmers were making money hand over fist, the
average farmer had fallen deeply into debt to the wealthiest members of society. To pay
for that debt, farmers sold their children, their wives, and even themselves into (limited)
slavery both in Athens and abroad. The situation was a powder-keg waiting to go off;
suffering under unmanageable debts, sold into slavery, with the government under the
control of the wealthy people that were the causes of their problems, the average
Athenian farmer was primed for revolution.
The Reforms of Solon
But history takes strange turns sometimes. Recognizing the danger of the situation, in
594 BC, the Areopagus and the people of Athens agreed to hand over all political power
to a single individual, Solon. In effect a dictator, Solon's mission was to reform the
government to stem the tide of hardship and exploitation and set up a system to guarantee
that Athens didn't slip into such a situation again.
Solon immediately dismissed all outstanding debts, and he freed as many Athenians as
he could from the slavery they had sold themselves into. He banned any loans that are
secured by a promise to enter into slavery if the loan is defaulted, and he tried to bring
people who had been sold into slavery abroad back to Athens. In addition, he encouraged
the development of olive and wine production (making olives the only legal export for
Athens), so that by the end of the century, most of Athenian land was dedicated to these
lucrative crops.
As far as government is concerned, he divided Athenian society into four classes based
on wealth. The two wealthiest classes were allowed to serve on the Areopagus. The third
class were allowed to serve on an elected council of four hundred people. This council
was organized according to the four tribes making up the Athenian people; each tribe was
allowed to elect one hundred representatives from this third class. This council of four
hundred served as a kind of balance or check to the power of the Areopagus. The fourth
class, the poorest class, was allowed to participate in an assembly; this assembly voted on
affairs brought to it by the council of four hundred, and even elected local magistrates.
This class also participated in a new judicial court that gradually drew civil and military
cases out of the hands of the wealthiest people, the Areopagus.
Peisistratus and the Tyranny
The Athenians considered Solon the great hero of their state and pointed to the reforms
of Solon as the basis of their state. Solon's new state, however, lasted very briefly.
Although he brilliantly reformed the government, he really didn't solve the economic
crisis, and within a few years, Athens was collapsing in anarchy. A nobleman,
Peisistratus, swept into power during this anarchy and set about restoring order. The
tyranny of Peisistratus, however, was as important to the foundation of Athenian
democracy as Solon's reforms had been. Although he was a military leader who backed
up his power with a frightening mercenary army, Peisistratus began to actively build in
and around Athens, and actively reform Athenian religion and religious practices, and, in
particular, devoted his government to cultural reform. He sought out poets and artists in
order to make Athens a culturally sophisticated and dynamic society. But, in particular,
he launched a full attack on the power of the nobility. He increased the power of the
Assembly and the courts associated with the poorest classes, and used all his power to
make sure that the Solonian government worked smoothly and that elections were held
(provided his supporters were elected).
Like most tyrants, Peisistratus had monarchical ambitions; on his death, the tyranny fell
to his son, Hippias. The life of a tyrant is not a comfortable one, and although Hippias
began in the mold of his father, the assassination of his brother caused him great fright
and consternation. He became suspicious and withdrawn and increasingly arbitrary. His
enemies, which were many, if they hadn't already started, began plotting his overthrow.
In particular, a wealthy family, the Alcmaeonids, who had been exiled by Peisistratus,
prevailed on Sparta to assist them in the overthrow of Hippias. Under the Spartan king,
Cleomenes I, Athens was overcome in 510 BC and Hippias ran to exile in Persia
Cleisthenes
The Spartans followed their usual practice and entered into a truce with Athens and
installed their own hand-picked Athenians to lead the government. The Spartans,
however, were too clever for their own good. They chose an individual, Isagoras, whom
they felt was the most loyal to Sparta; Isagoras, however, was a bitter rival of the
Alcmaeonids, who had been the original allies of Sparta. Isagoras, for his part, set about
restoring the Solonic government, but he also set about "purifying" Athenian citizenship.
Under Solon and later Peisistratus, a number of people had been enfranchised as citizens
even though they weren't Athenian or who were doubtfully Athenian. For in the Greek
world, you could only be the citizen of a city-state if you could trace your ancestry back
to the original inhabitants of the state. Isagoras, however, began to throw people off the
citizenship rolls in great numbers. Cleisthenes, an Alcmaeonid noble, rallied popular
support and threatened the power of Isagoras, who promptly called for the Spartans
again. The Spartans invaded a second time, and Cleisthenes was expelled, but soon a
popular uprising swept Isagoras from power and installed Cleisthenes.
From 508 to 502 BC, Cleisthenes began a series of major reforms that would produce
Athenian democracy. He enfranchised as citizens all free men living in Athens and Attica
(the area surrounding Athens). He established a council which would be the chief arm of
government with all executive and administrative control. Every citizen over the age of
thirty was eligible to sit on this council; each year the members of the council would be
chosen by lot. The Assembly, which included all male citizens, was allowed to veto any
of the council's proposals and was the only branch of government that could declare war.
In 487, long after Cleisthenes, the Athenians added the final aspect of Athenian
democracy proper: ostracism. The Assembly could vote (voting was done on potsherds
called ) on expelling citizens from the state for a period of ten years. This
ostracism would guarantee that individuals who were contemplating seizing power would
be removed from the country before they got too powerful.
So by 502 BC, Athens had pretty much established its culture and political structure,
just as Sparta had pretty much established its culture and political structure by 550 BC.
Athens was more or less a democracy; it had become primarily a trading and commercial
center; a large part of the Athenian economy focussed on cash crops for export and crafts;
it had become a center of art and literature; the city had become architecturally rich
because of the building projects of Peisistratus—an architectural richness that far
outshone other Greek city-states; and Athenian religious festivals were largely in place.
The next one hundred years would be politically and culturally dominated by Athens; the
event that would catapult Athens to the center of the Greek world was the invasion of the
Persians in 490 BC.
Questions
What was a ?
What was the Areopagus?
What was an archon?
What problems nearly precipitated an economic collapse in Athens preceding
Solon’s reforms?
5. Why was stabilization of the economic condition of the lower classes a necessity
for the future prosperity of Athens?
6. Why would the Areopagus grant Solon nearly unlimited power to reform the
state?
7. What economic reforms did Solon implement?
8. Why did Solon choose olives as the only export?
9. What political reforms did Solon institute?
10. What political reforms did Peisistratus implement?
11. What social contributions did Peisistratus effect?
12. What series of major reforms did Cleisthenes employ that would produce
Athenian democracy?
1.
2.
3.
4.