Download Greek Democracy

Dr. Fredricksmeyer
World of the Ancient Greeks
The World's First Democracy and its Dystopian Elements
Greek world in general by 600:
Mycenaean Age
monarchy (basileus)
Dark Ages
aristocracy (archontes, sing. archon)
Archaicl Period
tyranny (tyrannnos)
The last stage resulted approximately as follows (see Archaic Period):
(1) Greater equitation of wealth/increasing middle class
(2) Democratization of warfare (hoplite panoply)/increasing military role
of middle class
(3) Increasing middle class political demands against aristocracy
(4) Middle class support for tyrant opposed to (other) aristocrats
Athens
by 600 highly unstable, and on verge of tyranny:
(1)-(3) above (i.e. middle vs. upper class), and …
A. (additional) inter-class conflict (lower vs. upper class)
tenant farmers
slaves in Attica
slaves abroad
B. intra-class conflict (upper vs. upper class)
regional/clan of the three regions: coast, city, inland
Solon (an archon)
reforms of 594/3-eunomia:
(a) economic
cancelled all debts on land and persons
repatriated debtor-slaves
outlawed future loans made on security of person
outlawed wage labor for another citizen
(b) constitutional
divided society into 4 classes by wealth (not birth): "bushelmen"
gave even lowest classes/socio-economic groups share in governance, through the
Assembly
Question: why aristocracy allows these reforms
1. things about to blow
2. no real political loss
3. no real economic loss
key role of SLAVERY in the evolution of democracy
Yet, important step toward democracy:
separated class/political power from birth
ethos of equality
slavery
agrarian equality
ethos of participation
precedent of compromise by upper class
Tyranny-Peisistratids
Peisistratus
represented poor and disaffected hill party (vs. city and coast)-extreme democrats
after three failed coups d'états, establishes self as tyrant in 546
Moderate rule
Coinage: famous 4-drachma "Attic owls"-helps stimulate economy
Sets stage for intellectual revolution of the classical period:
Lyric (see Wine, Women and Song)
Epic
Tragedy (see Irrationalism)
Thespis 535
Great Dionysia
Art and architecture (see Idealism)
Policies (pro-democratic):
supported non-aristocratic population
promoted civic (rather than clan) identity
Panathenaic games
maintains Solon's constitution (classification by wealth rather than birth)
Hippias
Takes over from dad upon his death in 528
Tyrannicide: Hipparchus killed in 514
Harmodious and Aristigeiton
Increasingly oppressive rule
expelled with help of Spartans in 510
Democracy-Kleisthenes (508)
Isonomia
(1) undermines regional/clan (coast, city, inland) ties:
10 tribes (ethnos) named after Attic heroes
each divided into 3 sections (trittys)
each section made up of blocs of neighborhoods (deme) from the three regions:
coast, city, inland
For example
Tribe of Theseus
1 trittys (1/3 section)
made up of demes
(neighborhoods) from
coast region
x 10
1 trittys (1/3 section)
made up of demes
(neighborhoods) from
city region
1 trittys (1/3 section)
made up of demes
(neighborhoods) from
inland region
Citizens now identified by demotic rather than patronymic
ostracism: safeguard against tyranny
(2) offices open to everyone/all socio-economic classes, power of archons diminished, and
that of Assembly now paramount
Chief legislative and judicial bodies bodies:
Council (boulê) of 500
set agenda for Assembly
in Prytany of 50
met in the bouleterion
boarded in the Tholos
Assembly (ekklesia) of all male citizens
40 regular meetings a year
attended by 6,000
met on the Pnyx
make all policy decisions, determine all laws (DIRECT DEMOCRACY)
Areopagus (where they met) of 9 archons
stripped of most powers under aristocratic rule
tried deliberative homicide
Draco's code (621)
Extreme limitations of Athenian democracy: 85% of population excluded
women and children
metics (resident aliens)
slaves
Success of Athenian Democracy
Distribution of wealth (1/5)
Stability
Set stage for classical period
By far largest percentage of population to share rule up to this time in history
Model for American democracy
Women (see Wine, Women, and Song)
Children (free-born)
Exposed at birth, if weak and sickly, and sometimes if female
Otherwise rejoicing
Girls growing up typically received less food
Toys (rattles, clay animals, dolls, hobby horses, yo-yos, swings), games (leap frog, field
hockey), chores
But must have had to grow up more quickly due to life expectancy (vs. adultescents)
But no clear concept of children as other than little people, child psychology, etc.
as evidenced in part by art, where look like miniature adults
Not till Émil by Rousseau (18th century),
Slaves
c. 25-40% of total population (100k in mid-5th cent.)
Women, men, children
Foreign and Greek
not based on ethnicity
Non-racist basis (herod and the Ethiopians)
Bought from parents
Taken in war
Children of slave-parents
Rights extremely limited
Can't marry
Can't own property
Testimony acceptable only after torture
Treatment-extremely varied:
domestic slaves in Athens
indistinguishable in dress and appearance from citizens
The Old Oligarch
Euripides
some lived on own
low-high positions: paidagogoi, doctors, teachers, architects
some bought freedom
in mines (e.g. at Laurium)
worked to death in brutal conditions
key to advent of Greek democracy (see above)