The effect on the citys model democracy was also staggering. Then there was the view that the mob, the poor majority, were nothing but a collective tyrant. Intellectual anti-democrats such as Socrates and Plato, for instance, argued that the majority of the people, because they were by and large ignorant and unskilled, would always get it wrong. It was this body which supervised any administrative committees and officials on behalf of the assembly. The Athenians: Another warning from history? A year after their defeat of Athens in 404 BC, the Spartans allowed the Athenians to replace the government of the Thirty Tyrants with a new democracy. In a democracy, the Greek historian Herodotus wrote, there is, first, that most splendid of virtues, equality before the law. It was true that Cleisthenes demokratia abolished the political distinctions between the Athenian aristocrats who had long monopolized the political decision-making process and the middle- and working-class people who made up the army and the navy (and whose incipient discontent was the reason Cleisthenes introduced his reforms in the first place). Actor posing as Socrates Rome, which was preoccupied fighting its former Italian allies in the Social War (9188), failed to step in to settle matters, increasing resentment in Athens. Other reputations are also taken to task: The "heroic" Spartans of Thermopylae, immortalised in the film 300, are unmasked as warmongering bullies of the ancient world. In the year 507 B.C., the Athenian leader Cleisthenes introduced a system of political reforms that he called demokratia, or "rule by the people" (from demos, "the people," and kratos, or. It was in the courts that laws made by the assembly could be challenged & decisions were made regarding. The majority won the day and the decision was final. At the meetings, the ekklesia made decisions about war and foreign policy, wrote and revised laws and approved or condemned the conduct of public officials. Thank you! Soon after, Roman soldiers overheard men in the Athenian neighborhood of the Kerameikos, northwest of the Acropolis, grousing about the neglected defenses there. The opposing forces clashed bitterly for a long timeAppian records that both Sulla and Archelaus held forth in the thick of the action, cheering on their men and bringing up fresh troops. License. Most of all, Pericles paid artisans to build temples read more, Ancient Greek mythology is a vast and fascinating group of legends about gods and goddesses, heroes and monsters, warriors and fools, that were an important part of everyday life in the ancient world. By Athenian democratic standards of justice, which are not ours, the guilt of Socrates was sufficiently proven. Then, early in the first century BC, a political crisis engulfed Athens when its eponymous archon, or chief magistrate, refused to abide by the Athenian constitutions one-term limit. Traditionally, the concept of democracy is believed to have originated in Athens in c508 BC, although there is evidence to suggest that democratic systems of government may have existed elsewhere in the world before then, albeit on a smaller scale. The Greek idea of democracy was different from present-day democracy because, in Athens, all adult citizens were required to take an active part in the government. In 229, when the Macedonian King Demetrius II died, leaving nine-year-old Philip V as his heir, the Athenians took advantage of the power vacuum and negotiated the removal of the garrison at Piraeus. According to the writer's dramatic scenario, we are in what we would now call the year 522 BC. This demokratia, as it became known, was a direct democracy that gave political power to free male Athenian citizens rather than a ruling aristocratic read more, The amazing works of art and architecture known as the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World serve as a testament to the ingenuity, imagination and sheer hard work of which human beings are capable. At the start of the century Athens, contrary to traditional reports, was a flourishing democracy. After all, at the time of writing, Athens was the greatest single power in the entire Greek world, and that fact could not be totally unconnected with the fact that Athens was a democracy. But in 200, Philip, having come of age and claimed the crown, dispatched an army toward Athens to regain the port. Over time tyrants became greedy and cruel. This, the study says, has led to a two-dimensional view of the intervening decades as a period of unimportant decline. It was here in the courts that laws made by the assembly could be challenged and decisions were made regarding ostracism, naturalization, and remission of debt. His achievements included the construction of the Acropolis, begun in 447. When some topped the walls and ran away, he sent cavalry after them. He also helped himself to a stash of gold and silver found on the Acropolis. Democracy itself, however, buckled under the strain. World History Publishing is a non-profit company registered in the United Kingdom. In tandem with all these political institutions were the law courts (dikasteria) which were composed of 6,000 jurors and a body of chief magistrates (archai) chosen annually by lot. The first, rather obvious, strike against Athenian democracy is that there was a tendency for people to be casually executed. Sulla eventually gained the upper hand, thanks to large devices that Appian said discharged twenty of the heaviest leaden balls at one volley. These missiles killed a large number of Pontic men and damaged their tower, forcing Archelaus to pull it back. Athens' democracy in fact recovered from these injuries within years. S2 ep4: What would a more just future look like? Into this dangerous situation stepped Solon, a moderate man the Athenians trusted to bring justice for all. Pericles knew Athens' strength was in their navy, so his strategy was to avoid Sparta on land, because he knew that on land, Athens would be no match for Sparta. Ancient Greece is often referred to as "the cradle of democracy.". They are also, however, reminders of the human capacity for disagreement, read more, An ambiguous, controversial concept, Jacksonian Democracy in the strictest sense refers simply to the ascendancy of Andrew Jackson and the Democratic party after 1828. 04 Mar 2023. According to Appian, Sulla ordered an indiscriminate massacre, not sparing women or children. Many Athenians were so distraught that they committed suicide by throwing themselves at the soldiers. In an effort to cope, Athens began to create a system of self-regulation, described as a "giant Neighbourhood Watch", asking citizens not to trouble its overstretched bureaucracy with non-urgent, petty crimes. The Roman leaders, he said, were prisoners, and ordinary Romans were hiding in temples, prostrate before the statues of the gods. Oracles from all sides predicted Mithridatess future victories, he said, and other nations were rushing to join forces with him. If we are all democrats today, we are not - and it is importantly because we are not - Athenian-style democrats. Then, in 133 B.C.E., Rome experienced its first political. Modern representative democracies, in contrast to direct democracies, have citizens who vote for representatives who create and enact laws on their behalf. https://www.worldhistory.org/Athenian_Democracy/. Dr. Scott argues that this was caused by a range of circumstances which in many cases were the ancient world's equivalent of those faced by Britain today. Of all the democratic institutions, Aristotle argued that the dikasteria contributed most to the strength of democracy because the jury had almost unlimited power. Third, was the slave population which . This executive of the executive had a chairman (epistates) who was chosen by lot each day. In the words of historian K. A. Raaflaub, democracy in ancient Athens was. The World History Encyclopedia logo is a registered trademark. However, Plutarch drew on Sullas memoirs as a source, so these anecdotes may be unreliable; Sulla had an interest in denigrating his opponent.). Its popular Assembly directed internal affairs as a showcase of democracy. When Athenion returned home in the early summer of 88, citizens gave him a rapturous reception. Nor did he do anything to help defend his own cause, so that more of the 501 jurors voted for the death penalty than had voted him guilty as charged in the first place. The Pontic army used scythes mounted on chariots as weapons of terror, cutting swaths through the Bithynian ranks. (There were also no rules about what kinds of cases could be prosecuted or what could and could not be said at trial, and so Athenian citizens frequently used the dikasteria to punish or embarrass their enemies.). Sulla obtained iron and other material from Thebes and placed his newly built siege engines upon mounds of rubble collected from the Long Walls. Any member of the demosany one of those 40,000 adult male citizenswas welcome to attend the meetings of the ekklesia, which were held 40 times per year in a hillside auditorium west of the Acropolis called the Pnyx. Ancient Athenian democracy differs from the democracy that we are familiar with in the present day. How did Athens swing so quickly from euphoria to catastrophe? Inevitably, there was some fallout, and one of the victims of the simmering personal and ideological tensions was Socrates. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. Meanwhile, our democratically elected representatives are holding on to the fuse in one hand and a box of matches in the other. Cartwright, Mark. Following standard Roman procedure, Sullas men made a quick assault on the walls of the port, trying to catch the defenders by surprise. During the 600s B.C., Athens was a small city-state. It was the first known democracy in the world. He sent out another convoy carrying food for Athens, and when the Romans attacked it, his men dashed from hiding inside the gates and torched some of the Roman siege engines. The contemporary sources which describe the workings of democracy typically relate to Athens and include such texts as the Constitution of the Athenians from the School of Aristotle; the works of the Greek historians Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon; texts of over 150 speeches by such figures as Demosthenes; inscriptions in stone of decrees, laws, contracts, public honours and more; and Greek Comedy plays such as those by Aristophanes. Though Archelaus restored Delos to Athenian control, he turned over its treasury to Aristion, an Athenian citizen whom Mithridates had chosen to rule Athens. The ancient Greeks have provided us with fine art, breath-taking temples, timeless theatre, and some of the greatest philosophers, but it is democracy which is, perhaps, their greatest and most enduring legacy. Athens was already a waning star on the international stage resting on past imperial glories, and the book argues that it struggled to keep pace with a world in a state of fast-paced globalisation and political transition. But what form of government, what constitution, should the restored Persian empire enjoy for the future? This being the case, the following remarks on democracy are focussed on the Athenians. Ostracism, in which a citizen could be expelled from Athens for 10 years, was among the powers of the ekklesia. That at any rate is the assumed situation. As the year 87 drew on, Mithridates sent additional troops. When a Roman ram breached part of the walls of Piraeus, Sulla directed fire-bearing missiles against a nearby Pontic tower, sending it up in flames like a monstrous torch. Antiphon's regime lasted only a few months, and after a brief experiment with a more moderate form of oligarchy the Athenians restored the old democratic institutions pretty much as they had been. The group made decisions by simple majority vote. The heart of this story is a months-long battle featuring treachery and clever siege warfare. Sulla had reason to let Mithridates off easyhe was anxious to deal with his political opponents back in Rome. Apparently, some Roman stones had missed the gate and crashed into the Pompeion next door. We contribute a share of our revenue to remove carbon from the atmosphere and we offset our team's carbon footprint. Instead, Dr. Scott argues that the strains and stresses of the 4th century BC, which our own times seem to echo, proved too much for the Athenian democratic system and ultimately caused it to destroy itself. Rome would have to fight the Pontic king again before his final defeat and deathpurportedly by suicidein 63. Inside homes, the Romans discovered a sight that must have horrified even the most hardened among them: human flesh prepared as food. Less than two years separate these scenes. At best it was mere opinion, and almost always it was ill-informed and wrong opinion. Cartwright, M. (2018, April 03). Hes just returned to the city-state from a mission across the Aegean Sea to Anatolia, where he forged an alliance with a great king. Please note that some of these recommendations are listed under our old name, Ancient History Encyclopedia. It is a period of history that we would do well to think about a little more right now - and we ignore it at our peril.". The government and economy were also weak causing distress all over Athens. Democracy, however, was found in other areas as well and after the conquests of Alexander the Great and the process of Hellenization, it became the norm for both the liberated cities in Asia Minor as well as new . In 590 BCE Athenians were suffering from debt and famine throughout Athens. known for its art, architecture and philosophy. Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. Now, Roman senators and Athenian exiles in Sullas entourage asked him to show mercy for the city. The city held festivals and presented nine plays each year, both comedies and tragedies. City residents who had cheered lustily for Athenion, the demagogic envoy, now found themselves ruled by a tyrant. The evidence comes in the form of what is known as the Persian Debate in Book 3. Solon Put Athens on the Road to Democracy. Rome responded, rushing 20 warships and 1,000 troops to Piraeus to keep Philip V at bay. Knowledge of the life of Pericles derives largely from . Athens, too, should throw in with this rising power, he asserted. Though he at first refused, he later relented and sent a delegation to meet with the Roman commander. Cite This Work It survived the period through slippery-fish diplomacy, at the cost of a clear democratic conscience, a policy which, in the end, led it to accept a dictator King and make him a God.". Not only do we pay for our servers, but also for related services such as our content delivery network, Google Workspace, email, and much more. In a new history of the 4th century BC, Cambridge University Classicist Dr. Michael Scott reveals how the implosion of Ancient Athens occurred amid a crippling economic downturn, while politicians committed financial misdemeanours, sent its army to fight unpopular foreign wars and struggled to cope with a surge in immigration. For example, in Athens in the middle of the 4th century there were about 100,000 citizens (Athenian citizenship was limited to men and women whose parents had also been Athenian citizens), about 10,000 metoikoi, or resident foreigners, and 150,000 slaves. Read more. In addition, sometimes even oligarchic systems could involve a high degree of political equality, but the Athenian version, starting from c. 460 BCE and ending c. 320 BCE and involving all male citizens, was certainly the most developed. "Athenian Democracy." His election as hoplite general quickly followed. Since Athenians did not pay taxes, the money for these payments came from customs duties, contributions from allies and taxes levied on the metoikoi. In 133 BC, Rome was a democracy. Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. Thank you for your help! Athens remains a posterchild for democracies worldwide, but it was not a pure democracy. So what we have in Herodotus is a Greek debate in Persian dress. Though Mithridates had to withdraw from territories he had conquered and pay an indemnity, he remained in power in Pontus. Certainly, he was an oligarch, but whether he was old or not we can't say. It argues that it was not the loss of its empire and defeat in war against Sparta at the end of the 5th century that heralded the death knell of Athenian democracy - as it is traditionally perceived. Re-enactment of fighting 'hoplites' The Romans then fractured a nearby portion of the wall and launched an all-out attack. Under this system, all male citizens - the dmos - had equal political rights, freedom of speech, and the opportunity to participate directly in the political arena. This was a democratic form of government where the people or 'demos' had real political power. Every day, more than 500 jurors were chosen by lot from a pool of male citizens older than 30. Centuries later, archaeologists discovered some of these in the ruins of the Pompeion, a gathering place for the start of processions. One night Sulla personally reconnoitered that stretch of wall, which was near the Dipylon Gate, the citys main entrance. I was not sent to Athens by the Romans to learn its history, but to subdue its rebels, he declared. In 399 he was charged with impiety (through not duly recognising the gods the city recognised, and introducing new, unrecognised divinities) and, a separate alleged offence, corrupting the young. Gloating over Roman misfortunes, he declared that Mithridates controlled all of Anatolia. Aristion executed citizens accused of favoring Rome and sent others to Mithridates as prisoners. 'Why', answers his guardian Pericles, who was then at the height of his influence, 'it is whatever the people decides and decrees'. When that failed, the Romans settled in for a long siege. In this case there was a secret ballot where voters wrote a name on a piece of broken pottery (ostrakon). Sulla also moved north, however, and defeated Archelaus in two pitched battles in Boeotia, at Chaeronea and Orchomenos. Mark is a full-time author, researcher, historian, and editor. The . The word democracy (dmokratia) derives from dmos, which refers to the entire citizen body: the People. Sullas solution: rob the Greek temples of their treasures. The two either supported the Romans or were currying favor with the side that they expected to win. One of the main reasons why ancient Athens was not a true democracy was because only about 30% of the population could vote. a unique and truly revolutionary system that realized its basic principle to an unprecedented and quite extreme extent: no polis had ever dared to give all its citizens equal political rights, regardless of their descent, wealth, social standing, education, personal qualities, and any other factors that usually determined status in a community. Athenian democracy was a direct democracy made up of three important institutions. Greek Bronze Ballot DisksMark Cartwright (CC BY-NC-SA). They didnt act immediately; a fight over who would lead the army against Mithridates was settled only when Consul Lucius Cornelius Sulla secured the command by marching on Rome, an unprecedented move. The word democracy (dmokratia) derives from dmos, which refers to the entire citizen body, and kratos, meaning rule. In the furious fighting that followed, he kept his army close to Piraeus to ensure that his archers and slingers on the wall could still wreak havoc on the Romans. Thanks to Sullas ruthlessness, Athenions demagoguery, and the Athenians manic enthusiasm for the proposed alliance with Mithridates, Athenss days as an autonomous city-state were all but over. Indeed, there was a specially designed machine of coloured tokens (kleroterion) to ensure those selected were chosen randomly, a process magistrates had to go through twice. War between Pontus and Romethe First Mithridatic Warbroke out in 89 BC over the petty state of Bithynia in northwestern Anatolia. A mass slaughter followed. S2 ep 5: What is the future of artificial intelligence. Around 460 B.C., under the rule of the general Pericles (generals were among the only public officials who were elected, not appointed) Athenian democracy began to evolve into something that we would call an aristocracy: the rule of what Herodotus called the one man, the best. Though democratic ideals and processes did not survive in ancient Greece, they have been influencing politicians and governments ever since. These bronze coins bore the Pontic symbol of a star between two half-moons. In the dark early morning of March 1, 86 BC, the Romans opened an attack there, launching large catapult stones. Athenion at first feigned a reluctance to speak because of the sheer scale of what is to be said, according to Posidonius.
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