Download Athenian Democracy - Get Well Kathleen Davey

Athenian Democracy &
The Class Assembly
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http://www.lclark.edu/~ndsmith/Athenian_Democracy.htm
In his Histories, Herodotus has a Persian named Otanes urge that his country adopt democracy
(dêmos = "people" and kratos = "power") (3.80): “The rule of the majority has the most beautiful
name of all: equality under the law (isonomiê)…the holders of magistracies are selected by lot and
are held accountable for their actions. All deliberations are in public. I predict that we will give up
monarchy and replace it with democracy. For in democracy all things are possible.”
Otanes' analysis of democracy is obviously drawn from the model of the Athenian democracy,
which Herodotus had visited in his travels. This small passage beautifully sums up the essence of
the Athenian democracy.
Written laws, which were posted in the Agora for all Athenians to see, were the keys to equality. In
Euripides' Suppliant Women, Theseus, a legendary king of Athens and in the minds of the
Athenians, one of the founders of democracy, comments on the importance of written laws for equal
justice (433-37): When laws are written down, both the weak and the wealthy have equal justice. It
is possible for the weaker citizens to use the same language to a prosperous man, whenever he
insults them. And having justice on his side, the lesser man wins in court.”
Magistrates
The Athenians were especially worried about the power of magistrates becoming a threat to the
democracy. This was especially true of the archonship, which was one of the most distinguished
offices in Athens. There were nine archons and in order to restrict their power, the archons, like
almost all other Athenian officials, were chosen by lot from citizens who put themselves forward,
rather than elected. The use of the lot cut down on political rivalry, which always threatened to turn
into civil strife in the super-competitive Athenian society, and also eliminated the possibility of
corruption (bribery of voters). Magistrates were also held accountable to all citizens for their acts in
office. Abuses of power were sure to bring prosecution when the official underwent his examination
(euthyna) after he left office. Since magistracies at Athens were annual, with very few exceptions,
punishment for the guilty was not far off.
Another restriction on power for magistrates that kept them from becoming too influential was the
Athenian practice of rotating the various offices among the citizens. A citizen could hold an office
only once in a lifetime. This was true of virtually all Athenian magistracies with one very important
exception, the board of ten generals. There was no limitation on the number of times a citizen could
be elected general; Pericles served as a general fifteen consecutive years. The method of selection
for the generalship was also different. Generals were elected. The reason for these differences was
that, although the machinery of the Athenian democracy could tolerate amateur government, in
which inexperienced (and on some occasions no doubt incompetent) citizens had to learn the ropes
of their office every year. it was of the essence that reliable men, expert in military science, serve
as generals as often as possible. Athens was a militarily aggressive state and its empire depended on
the effectiveness of its military leadership. During the fifth century, war was much more a normal
condition than peace.
The Athenians, however, recognized that a powerful general could be a very dangerous threat to
the democracy. Thus one general was never appointed commander-in-chief of a given expedition.
Military decisions required consultation among generals resulting in a consensus. But the measure
that perhaps kept generals in line was the constant scrutiny and threat of prosecution. Ten times a
year, the generals had to undergo a vote of confidence in the Assembly and they were also subject
to prosecutions for crimes like bribery and treason. A negative decision in the Assembly or the
courts could result in removal from their duties before their year of generalship was over and further
penalties like exile. Even Pericles suffered the wrath of the Athenian courts when he was fined and
deposed near the end of his career. A military failure caused Thucydides, the famous Athenian
historian, to be removed from office and exiled. Of course, after their year of office, a general, like
all other magistrates, had to undergo the standard examination (euthyna) of his official acts before a
jury. One Athenian general felt so pressured by his examination that he committed suicide.
Assemby (Ekklêsia)
The Assembly was the supreme decision-making body in Athens, which met in an open area on a
hill called the Pnyx.
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The Pnyx was the central symbol of the Assembly, of the Demos and of Democracy itself. It is here
that all free adult male citizens of Athens gathered in assembly to discuss and vote on the most
important matters of the city concerning cult, finance, elections, military and naval issues, foreign
policy and justice. Technically every male citizen over the age of 18 could attend meetings of the
Assembly with the right to speak and vote on all matters of domestic and foreign policy. Space and
other practical considerations, however, would not allow every citizen to attend every meeting. For
example, it is estimated that by the end of the Peloponnesian War the male citizen population
numbered around 30,000. The area on the Pnyx at most could hold a little over 6,000 (the quorum
for a meeting). The agenda was posted four days preceding the meeting and a sign was set up on the
very day of the meeting. A citizen did not have to hold any office to speak at a meeting of the
Assembly, but, as one might expect, the great majority of attendees had no desire to speak. There
were men like Pericles and Cleon, who were influential and willing to advise citizens on matters
before the Assembly. The rest of the citizens, however, were not required to be passive; they could
either show their support or displeasure during and after a speech. No doubt, a meeting of the
Assembly could be a fairly rowdy affair. After the speeches were done, the whole Assembly made
the final decision. These decisions were made either by a yes or no vote with rocks or by a show of
hands. By the fourth century BC, all participants were paid for attending the Assembly, a full
compensation for half a day's lost employment.
Council (Boulê)
The Council placed the Assembly’s discussion subjects on the agenda in the form of
preliminary decrees. The Council consisted of 500 members selected annually by lot, 50 from each
of the ten Athenian tribes All male citizens over the age of 30 were eligible to serve in the Council,
but service in this body was not compulsory. In contrast with the magistracies, a citizen could serve
twice as a councilor in his lifetime. After the council’s legislation was moved to the Assembly and
voted upon, the resulting decrees started with the formula "edoxe tei bouli kai toi demoi" (It was
decided by the Council and the people).
Law Courts
The courts were another crucial part of the Athenian democracy. No citizen was above the
law, so as in America everyone, both rich and poor, had to submit to the judgment of their fellow
citizens, who made up the juries. Every year from citizens, who had voluntarily put themselves
forward, 6000 jurors were selected by lot and were sworn in. Every day the courts were in session,
a varying portion of this panel of 6000 would show up early in the morning, attracted by the
prospect of getting paid for their jury duty. The juries needed for that day were selected by a very
complicated procedure involving an ingenious allotment machine. There were two steps in this
procedure of allotment: the first to select all the jurors needed that day and the second to assign
them to a specific court room. No juror could know ahead of time whether he was going to serve
that day and, if selected, which case he would be involved in. The reason for the complex process
was to prevent bribery. The size of jury panels varied from 201 to 401 in private lawsuits and from
501 (as in Socrates' trial) to as high as 2501 in more important cases). The large size of these panels
also militated against the possibility of bribery. A secret ballot also protected the jurors from
improper outside influence.
Epilogue
On the whole the democracy served the Athenians well for over one hundred and eighty years (with
two brief interruptions). Of course, one could complain that the democracy excluded the majority of
the population of Athens. Indeed women, resident aliens, and slaves could not participate in the
democratic process, but one must remember that the United States only abolished slavery during its
Civil War and women only got the right to vote early in the 20th century. On the other hand,
Athenian democracy allowed and fostered a degree of direct participation in the democratic process
unknown in modern democracies. In modern America, involvement in the political process is quite
limited. An American citizen may or may not vote once a year and occasionally does jury duty. (A
very small percentage of the American population gets more politically involved than that.) In
comparison, an estimated 40% of Athenian male citizen population was directly involved on a more
or less regular basis in Athenian government. Moreover, the system of pay for service allowed the
poor to participate in the political process and their exercise of real political power in these various
capacities was a great source of annoyance to richer, more conservative Athenians. The individual
citizen, willing to throw himself into the political fray had an impressive array of powers. He could
propose a law, which, if it found enough support, could be formulated by the Council of 500, put on
the agenda of a later Assembly meeting, discussed and voted upon at that meeting. He could act as a
defender of the Constitution (like our Supreme Court) by bringing a graphê paranomôn, a
prosecution for proposal of a law that was either illegal or not in the best interests of the state.
Citizens who initiated this process sought to repeal the law and punish the proposer. Finally, he
could bring a public prosecution against any other citizen whether a private person or a magistrate
(in the process of examination). Not even the most influential politician could escape the power of
the Athenian citizenry, if he had lost their support. In the fifth century, the process of ostracism
through secret ballot was available to the citizens. When citizens in the Assembly had decided that
they wanted an ostracism, voting took place two months later, and each voter scratched the name of
the person he wanted ostracized on a piece of broken pottery or potsherd (ostrakon) then the person
with the most votes was sent into exile for a ten year period. Ostracism did not carry with it the
stigma that conviction of a crime against the state did, but was just a device to tone down political
rivalry that might evolve into civil strife. The ostracized person did not lose his political rights or
have his property confiscated.
Pericles' description of the Athenian democracy in his "Funeral Oration" is not empty rhetoric
(Thuc. 2.37): “ Our constitution is called a democracy because power is in the hands not of a
minority but of the whole people. When it is a question of settling private disputes, everyone is
equal before the law; when it is a question of putting one person before another in positions of
public responsibility [magistracies], what counts is not membership of a particular class, but the
actual ability which the man possesses. No one, so long as he has it in him to be of service to the
state, is kept in political obscurity because of poverty “
It is 433BC. and today the Assembly has before it several issues put before it by the council.
Background: For over a decade, Pericles had consolidated Athenian resources, made
Athens' navy incomparable, and used the resources of the Delian League to rebuild
Athens after the ravages of the Persian Wars. Initially the Delian League was a combined
alliance against Persia which sought to protect member states against further Persian
encroachments and liberate Ionian cities rebelling against Persia. Member states had
donated ships and soldiers to a combined defense and the mutual treasury had been
located on the island of Delos. However, as time past Pericles urged/told most states to
contribute money to the Delian League rather than ships. The money was then moved to
Athens where much was put to use building ships, but significant funds were used to build
Delian League Highlights
◦ By 445 B.C. — more than 200 cities in the League
◦ Athenian popular court became the court of appeals for cases between the allied states
or their citizens — some states had to refer all capital offenses to Athens
◦ 469 Naxos and in 465 Thasos tried to withdraw from Confederacy — The cities were
subjugated and the allies decided to take its fleet and change the naval contributions it
made into a regularly-given tribute. A garrison was left behind and the citieseffectively
became an imperial subject.
◦ Athens imposed democratic constitutions for all members
◦ 454 Treasury transferred to Athens "for safekeeping"
◦ Pericles appropriated funds of Delian League treasury to beautify Athens
-- Imposed loyalty oaths on members which read: "The people of Chalkis are to swear as
follows: I shall not revolt from the people of Athens in any way or by any means
whatever, either in word or in deed, nor shall I follow anyone who revolts; and if any
person causes a revolt, I shall denounce him to the Athenians… and I shall be as good
and honorable as ally as I am able…"
•Opponents of recent Athenian policy note that these measures are responsible for the
more frequent rebellions in the league and the development of the Athenian Empire has
left the citizens less safe. WAR with the Athens greatest enemies, Corinth and Sparta
(members of the Peloponnesian League is more likely) and In transforming the free
confederacy into an empire Athens violated not only honor but the most fundamental
principal of Hellenic political life: the sovereignty of the polis — Athens gained the
reputation as the "Enslaver of Hellas"
•Supporters of Pericles offered that Athens had been beautified, possessed an arche, an
empire embracing most of the Aegean, gained allies, weakened the Persians, became the
dominant economic and cultural power in the Mediterranean, achieved relative peace, a
suppression of piracy, and a measure of justice throughout the region by its strong
encouragement of democratic government over aristocratic government.
Current Military Status:
*Sparta has
• no navy but Corinth’s;
• it had the best disciplined army with 2,000 cavalry and 30,000 infantry
(counting helots and periocoi).
• They have neither a state income nor a surplus.
*Athens has
• 300 ships besides those of Corcyra, Chios, Lesbos.
• 1200 cavalry, 1800 foot archers, 13,000 hoplites
• It had 6,000 talents in reserve and an annual income of 1,000 talents of
which 600 came from tribute.
Questions:
1. Should we use the Delian League Money to develop Athens?
2. Should Athens conclude a defensive alliance with the strong naval power Corcyra (Corinth's
most bitter enemy)? This would endanger the very food supply of the Peloponnesus but
might cause Corinth and Sparta to take up arms.
3. Should we seek an empire by attacking Syracuse (Sicily)
4. Read http://www.getwellkathleen.us/worldhistory/greecerome/greeceamericaempire.htm and
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig3/bonner2.htmlhttp://www.lewrockwell.com/orig3/bonner2.html
Is the description of America as an empire apt? Should America pursue a policy of refusing
to attack anyone unless attacked first?