Download Empire and Democracy in Fifth Century Athens

February 13 th , 2012
 478 BCE – Pausanias in command of Hellenic League.
 Alienated the allied states.
 Ionian allies begin to defect; looking to Athens as a
new hegemon.
 Pausanias recalled on charges of corruption and
medizing; Peloponnesian troops go home.
 New alliance organized by the Athenian noble Aristides.
 Objectives: 1. Defend Greece against Persia. 2. Punish
Persia. 3. Plunder.
 Ostensibly an alliance of equals; HQ and treasury on the
island of Delos.
 Ships and troops OR money.
 Many allies demilitarized; Athens militarized.
 “So (Aristeides and Themistokles) organized the building of
the walls together, although they were political opponents,
but it was Aristeides who urged the Athenians to detach the
Ionians from the alliance of the Lakedaimonians, watching
for the moment when they were in bad odour because of
Pausanias. As a result it was he who determined the first
installment of tribute from the poleis, in the third year after
the sea-battle at Salamis, in the archonship of Timosthenes
(478/7) and swore the oaths to the Ionians to have the same
enemies and the same friends (as the Athenians), a
ceremony at which they also sank the usual lumps of iron
into the sea.” (?Aristotle, Athenian Constitution 23.4-5.
Crawford & Whitehead, Doc. 129).
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Foreign Relations:
 Increase in Athenian wealth from allied tribute.
 Increase in Athenian naval supremacy.
 Athens increasingly imperious.
Domestic Developments:
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Large scale building program.
Influx of immigrants (i.e. metics).
New citizenship legislation (451/50 BCE).
Trend toward more radical democracy.
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“The Athenians were hegemones of allies who were originally autonomous and who
planned operations on the basis of their common revenues….Their first action under the
command of Kimon the son of Miltiades, was to besiege and take Eion on the (river)
Strymon; it was held by Persians, who were sold into slavery. Then they took Skyros, the
island in the Aegean, which was inhabited by the Dolopians, who were also sold into
slavery; they then settled the island themselves. Next they became involved in war
against the Karystians, who were acting without the other Euboians, who came to terms
eventually. After this they went to war against the Naxians, who had revolted, and
besieged them and brought them over; this was the first allied polis to lose its freedom
contrary to the prevailing custom; later it happened to the others one by one. There were
various reasons for the revolts, but the most important were failure to provide phoros or
ships, and desertion, which sometimes occurred….And in a variety of other ways too the
Athenians came to no longer enjoy the same popularity as hegemones; and they did not
participate in campaigns as equals and found it easy to subdue those who revolted. For
these developments the allies themselves were responsible; for the majority of them,
because of their reluctance to go on campaign, let it be laid down that they should
contribute money up to a sufficient level instead of ships, so as not to have to leave home;
thus they increased the size of the Athenian navy with the money which they themselves
contributed, while at the same time rendering themselves unprepared and incompetent
for war when they revolted.” (Thucydides 1. 97-99. Crawford & Whitehead, Doc. 130).
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470 BCE – Naxos attempts to leave the Delian League; revolt crushed by Athens.
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468/7 BCE – Athenian admiral Cimon defeats Persian fleet at b. of Eurymedon; ca. 200 Persian ships
captured.
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465-2 BCE – Thasos attempts to revolt; no longer saw a need for the League; revolt crushed; Thasos
forced to contribute cash instead of ships; Thracian mines confiscated.
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464 BCE – Earthquake at Sparta; Helot revolt.
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462 BCE - Athens sends assistance under Cimon but the Spartans reject it.
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461 BCE – Cimon ostracized; anti-Spartan factions ascendant at Athens; Athens allies with Argos and
Thessaly.
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461-445 BCE – The First Peloponnesian War.
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460 BCE – Egypt revolts from Persia; Athens commits ships.
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459 BCE – Megara defects to Athens.
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457 BCE – Spartan victory over Athens at b. of Tanagra (in Boeotia).
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454 BCE – Athenians suffer heavy naval losses in Egypt; league treasury and HQ moved to Athens.
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452 BCE – Five year truce between Athens and Sparta.
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451 BCE – Argos breaks with Athens; signs thirty year peace with Sparta.
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447 BCE – Five year truce between Athens and Sparta expires.
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446 BCE – Sparta defeats Athens at b. of Coronea; Boeotia, Euboia, and Megara defect; 30 year peace.
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441-439 BCE – The revolt of Samos; brutally crushed; Euboia recovered.
 Neither party to interfere with the allies of the other party.
 Neutral poleis could join any alliance they chose.
 Disagreements settled by arbitration.
 Allies not permitted to switch sides.
 Each party permitted to use force to keep allies in line.
 Some states (i.e. Potidaea) in an ambiguous position.
 Reforms of Cleisthenes (508 BCE) est. democracy on a permanent footing.
 Tension between: 1. Aristocrats opposed to democracy. 2. Those favoring
moderate democracy (i.e. the politeia of Solon). 3. Those favoring more radical
democracy.
 Oligarchs/aristocrats (Aristides, Cimon, Thucydides).
 Democrats (Ephialtes, Pericles).
 General trend toward ever more radical democracy; not likely “ideological” in
origin.
 Athenian democracy and Athenian imperialism inextricably bound together.
 “The aristocrats saw even before this that Perikles had already become the
greatest politai, but they wished nonetheless that there should be someone in
the polis who could stand up to him and blunt the edge of his power, to stop it
becoming a thoroughgoing monarchy; so as an opponent for him they set up
Thoukydides, from (the deme) Alopeke. Thoukydides was a moderate man,
and a relative of Kimon’s, though less of a military man than Kimon: law and
politics were his preferred spheres, and by acting as a watchdog in the astu and
getting to grips with Perikles on the speaker’s rostrum he soon brought the
politeia into equilibrium. For he did not allow the so-called kaloi k’agathoi to
be scattered about and mixed up, as before, with the demos, and their prestige
thus swamped by force of numbers: he separated them out, brought them
together in one unit, and created a sort of counterpoise in the balance by the
weight and power that this gave them collectively. Right from the start, in fact,
there had been a kind of hidden flaw, just as in a piece of iron, which pointed
to a divergence between the policies of the demos and of the aristocrats, but
now the ambitious rivalry between Perikles and Thoukydides cut the deepest of
the gashes in the polis: one section of it now came to be called the demos, the
other the few (oligoi).” (Plutarch, Perikles 11.1-3. Crawford & Whitehead, Doc.
145)
 508 BCE – Democratic reforms of Cleisthenes; gradual radicalization of
democracy.
 486 BCE – Archons chosen by lot.
 482 BCE – Aristides ostracized.
 462 BCE – More radical democrats (i.e. Ephialtes and Pericles) getting the
upper hand; Cimon ostracized; Ephialtes limits the power of the Aereiopagos
(i.e. limited to homicide and sacrilege cases); Ephialtes and Pericles push antiSpartan agenda (i.e. alliance with Argos and Thessaly).
 461 BCE – Ephialtes assassinated.
 461-451 BCE – Pericles’ legislation permitting the poor to watch theatrical
production w/o paying; Lowered the property qualification for the archonship;
Introduced pay for jury service , assembly attendance, and public office
(Misthos).
 451 BCE – Pericles’ citizenship legislation.
 444 BCE – Ostracism of Thucydides.
 Liturgies.
 “Long before this, when Perikles was prominent in the state and had
legitimate sons, he proposed the law that only those who were born of
two Athenians should be Athenians. And when the king of the
Egyptians sent 40,000 medimnoi of wheat as a gift to the demos, it was
necessary for the politai to divide it among themselves; and many suits
were revived against people who were illegitimate under the law in
question, suits which had been overlooked and neglected, and many
people fell victim to informers. In fact just under 5,000 were convicted
and sold into slavery, while those who remained and were adjudged
Athenians amounted to 14,040 in number….” (Plutarch, Perikles 37.2.
Crawford & Whitehead, Doc. 128)
 “Initially, as has been said, pitted as he was against the reputation of
Kimon, Perikles endeavoured to ingratiate himself with the demos. But
he was at a disadvantage in terms of wealth and property – and these
were what Kimon was using to win over the poor: he was providing a
dinner every day to any needy Athenian, clothing the elderly men, and
allowing anyone who wished to pick the fruit on his estates, from which
he had the fences removed. It was Perikles found himself outdone in
these demagogic techniques that he turned to the distribution of
public funds. His advisor in this, as Aristotle reports, was Damonides of
the deme Oa. And very soon he had bribed the multitude, one and all,
with theatre-tickets (theorika) and fees for dikastai (i.e. jurors) and
other forms of misthos and largesse, so that he could use their support
in his attack on the Areiopagos Council.” (Plutarch, Perikles 9.2-3.
Crawford & Whitehead, Doc. 141A)
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“After seeing the state growing in confidence and much wealth accumulated, he
[Aristides] advised the people to lay hold of the leadership of the league, and to quit the
country districts and settle in the city. He pointed out to them that all would be able to
gain a living there, some by service in the army, others in the garrisons, others by taking
part in public affairs; and in this way they would secure the leadership. This advice was
taken; and when the people had assumed supreme control they proceeded to treat their
allies in a more imperious fashion….They also secured an ample maintenance for the
mass of the population in the way which Aristides had pointed out to them. Out of the
proceeds of the tributes and the taxes and the contributions of the allies more than
20,000 persons were maintained. There were 6,000 jurymen, 1,600 bowmen, 1,200
knights, 500 members of the Council, 500 guards of the dockyards, besides 50 guards in
the acropolis. There were some 700 magistrates at home, and some 700 abroad. Further,
when they subsequently went to war, there were in addition 2,500 heavy armed troops,
twenty guard ships, and other ships which collected the tributes, with crews amounting
to 2,000 men, selected by lot; and besides these, there were the persons maintained at
the Pryteneum, and orphans and jailers, since all these were supported by the state.”
(?Aristotle, Athenian Constitution 24. D.B. Nagle & S.M. Burstein, 2006)
 Sparta uncomfortable with Athens as hegemon of the Delian League.
 Many league allies unhappy; urging Sparta to intervene.
 Athenian democracy dependent on revenues from allied tribute.
 Athenian aristocrats on good terms with Sparta and the elite in allied
states (i.e. Cimon).
 Democratic reforms undermine influence of aristocrats in Athens and
exacerbate tensions with Sparta.
 Tensions lead to the Peloponnesian War.
 Thucydides our principal source.
 B. at Athens (ca. 460 BCE) into an old and wealthy aristocratic family
 Related to Miltiades (victor at b. Marathon, 490 BCE) and Cimon
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(victor at b. of Eurymedon, 468 BCE)
Owned gold mines in Thrace
Received a sound education in rhetoric
Was familiar with Herodotus’ work
Participant in Peloponnesian War as an Athenian general in the region
around Thrace
Contracted the plague that struck Athens and that killed Pericles
Commanded troops in 424-3 BCE in attempt to take back Amphipolis
from Spartan control; Exiled for his failure
Exile allowed him to travel throughout Greece and view the war from
both sides
Eye witness to much of what he relates
 Wrote a history of the Peloponnesian Wars
 Writing published after exile in 424 BC
 Account breaks off in 411 BCE, 7 years before the
war ended (i.e. 404 BCE); Xenophon, Hellenica.
 Work organized into 8 books
 States two primary objectives
 First: To commemorate the greatest war ever
 Second: To provide an analysis of the past that is
useful as a guide for future policy/decision makers
 A political history: not as in partisan but as in an
exercise in political science
 “The Athenians and the Peloponnesians began the war
when they broke the Thirty Years’ Peace which had
been made after the (re)capture of Euboioa. As to why
they broke it, I have to put on record first of all their
(respective) grounds of complaint and disputes – this
in order that nobody need ever ask why such a great
war came upon the Greeks: for its truest cause, albeit
the one least publicised, was in my opinion the fact
that the Athenians, by growing great and making the
Spartans afraid, obliged them to go to war….”
(Thucydides 1.23.4-6. Crawf0rd & Whitehead, Doc.
165A).
 The Epidamnus affair (435 BCE).
 The Potidaea crisis (433-2 BCE).
 The Megara Decree.
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Peloponnesia...
 Epidamnus = A colony of Corcyra; Corcyra = a colony of
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Corinth; Corinth = Major power in the Peloponnesian
League.
Ousted faction seeks help in Corcyra; rejected.
Help sought in Corinth; Corinth agrees to send help.
War between Corinth and Corcyra.
Corcyra seeks alliance with Athens.
Athens concerned about the Thirty Year Peace.
Forms a “defensive” alliance with Corcyra.
Confrontation between Corinthian and Athenian fleet at
Corcyra.
Corinth denounces Athens to the Spartans; Sparta does
nothing.
 Potidaea = A colony of Corinth AND a tributary ally of Athens;
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received annual magistrates from Corinth.
Athens needs Potidaea for: 1. Tribute. 2. Access to resources.
Loyalty doubted after the Corcyra incident.
433-2 BCE – Athens demands: 1. Expel Corinthian magistrates. 2.
Accept no more magistrates from Corinth. 3. Pull down defensive
walls. 4. Send hostages to Athens.
Potidaea refuses; Athens lays siege.
Corinth reacts by: 1. Sending a relief force. 2. Denouncing Athens
to Sparta; Sparta does nothing.
 Athens angry at Megara’s defection (back) to the
Peloponnesian League.
 Megara accused of cultivating land sacred to Demeter and
Persephone.
 Megara banned from all Athenian (i.e. Delian League)
markets and ports.
 Megara in dire straits.
 Sparta finally induced to act.
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~mmgower
 Archidamean War (431-421 BCE).
 Peace of Nicias (421-418 BCE).
 The Sicilian War (416-413 BCE).
 The Decelean War (413-404 BCE).
 Basically a stalemate.
 431-429 BCE – Strategy of Pericles; the plague;
death of Pericles.
 425 BCE – Athenian victory at Pylos; ca. 198
Spartan troops captured on Sphacteria.
 422 BCE – Spartan victory at Amphipolis; exile of
Thucydides.
 421 BCE – The Peace of Nicias.
 Named after Athenian general, Nicias; chief Athenian
negotiator.
 Athens motivated by: 1. The loss of Amphipolis. 2.
Discontent among allies.
 Sparta motivated by: 1. Return of Spartan troops taken at
Pylos. 2. Return of Pylos to Peloponnesian control.
 Conditions of Peace: 1. Return of Amphipolis to Athens. 2.
Return of Pylos and the Spartan prisoners to Sparta. 3.
Each side to keep control of what they have. 4. Not to
interfere with states under each others’ control.
 Corinth opposed to the treaty.
 Thebes refused to sign the treaty.
 Amphipolis refused to rejoin Athens.
 Athens refused to give up Pylos.
 The plan of Alcibiades (alliance with democratic states in
Peloponnese – Argos, Mantinea, Elis).
 418 BCE – Agis II attacks Mantinea; the Athenian quandary.
 427 BCE – Athens sends troops & envoys to Sicily to look for allies
(unsuccessful).
 421 BCE – Athenians commence planning an invasion of Sicily.
 417 BCE – The deputation from Egesta.
 415 BCE – Armada sets out under Nicias (taken ill), Lamachus (killed in
battle), and Alcibiades (recalled).
 414 BCE – Athenians besiege Syracuse.
 413 BCE – Spartans send Gylippus to Syracuse; Athenian navy trapped
in harbor at Syracuse and destroyed; land forces routed; 7000 troops
killed or sold into slavery; navy annihilated.
 “All alike fell in love with the enterprise. The older men
thought that they would either subdue the places against
which they were to set sail, or at all events, with so large a
force, meet with no disaster; those in the prime of life felt a
longing for foreign sights and spectacles, and had no doubt
that they should come safe home again; while the idea of
the common people and the soldiery was to earn wages at
the moment, and to make conquests that would supply a
never-ending fund of pay for the future. With this
enthusiasm of the majority, the few that liked it not feared
to appear unpatriotic by holding up their hands against it,
and so kept quiet.” (Thucydides, 6.24. Lim & Bailkey, 2005)
 “When the news was brought to Athens, for a long while
they disbelieved even the most respectable of the soldiers
who had themselves escaped from the scene of the action
and clearly reported the matter, a destruction so complete
not being thought credible. When the conviction was
forced upon them, they were angry with the orators who
had joined in promoting the expedition – as if they had not
themselves voted for it – and enraged at the reciters of
oracles and soothsayers and all other omen-mongers of the
time who had encouraged them to hope that they would
conquer Sicily.” (Thucydides, 8.1. Lim & Bailkey, 2005)
 Athenian navy greatly diminished; no experienced leaders left.
 413 BCE - Spartan king, Agis II, occupies village of Decelea in Attica; plunders
the countryside.
 412 BCE – Spartan treaty with Persian king Darius II (East Greek cities in
exchange for money and ships).
 411 BCE – Oligarchic coup in Athens; oligarchy of 400 est; Athenian defeats at
the Bosphorous and Euboea; second oligarchy of 5000.
 410 BCE – Democracy restored; war at a stalemate.
 407/6 BCE – Lysander appointed Spartan commander; Persian king ordered
satrap of Lydia (Cyrus the Younger) to support Lysander.
 405 BCE – Lysander corners Athenian fleet at Aigospotomoi and destroys it;
Sparta in control of the Bosphoros; Athens starved into surrender.
 Athens forced to: 1. Pull down their long walls. 2. Give
up all foreign possessions. 3. Dismantle their fleet. 4.
Repatriate exiles. 5. Swear allegiance to Sparta
 404 BCE – Athenian democracy replaced by the Thirty
Tyrants (expelled in 403 BCE)
What do you see as the main reasons for
the Peloponnesian Way?
Why do you think the war lasted so long?
Why did the Spartans prevail?