In the late 500s to early 400s BCE, democracy developed in the city-state of Athens. The Romans drove the rest back into Piraeus so swiftly that Archelaus was left outside the walls and had to be hauled up by rope. The one exception to this rule was the leitourgia, or liturgy, which was a kind of tax that wealthy people volunteered to pay to sponsor major civic undertakings such as the maintenance of a navy ship (this liturgy was called the trierarchia) or the production of a play or choral performance at the citys annual festival. This executive of the executive had a chairman (epistates) who was chosen by lot each day. It is understandable why Plato would despise democracy, considering that his friend and mentor, Socrates, was condemned to death by the policy makers of Athens in 399 BCE. With the city starving, its leaders asked Aristion to negotiate with Sulla. Athens, meanwhile, was devastated. Critically, the emphasis on "people power" saw a revolving door of political leaders impeached, exiled and even executed as the inconstant international climate forced a tetchy political assembly into multiple changes in policy direction. Aristion didnt hold out long: He surrendered when he ran out of drinking water. Cartwright, M. (2018, April 03). Although active participation was encouraged, attendance in the assembly was paid for in certain periods, which was a measure to encourage citizens who lived far away and could not afford the time off to attend. He also said that the ability to govern and participate in government was more important than one's class. World History Encyclopedia. Yet his plans hit a snag when Delos refused to break from Rome. Mithridates swiftly retaliated, invading and overrunning Bithynia. Sulla circulated among his men and cheered them on, promising that their ordeal was almost over. Athenian democracy developed around the fifth century B.C.E. known for its art, architecture and philosophy. The first was the ekklesia, or Assembly, the sovereign governing body of Athens. Third, was the slave population which . Related Content Cartwright, Mark. This being the case, the following remarks on democracy are focussed on the Athenians. Its economy, heavily dependent on trade and resources from overseas, crashed when in the 4th century instability in the region began to affect the arterial routes through which those supplies flowed. Our latest articles delivered to your inbox, once a week: Our mission is to engage people with cultural heritage and to improve history education worldwide. The majority won the day and the decision was final. Meanwhile, our democratically elected representatives are holding on to the fuse in one hand and a box of matches in the other. He is the author, co-author, editor and co-editor of 20 or so books, the latest being Alexander the Great: The Hunt for a New Past (Pan Macmillan, London, 2004). The Athenian Democracy in the Age of Demosthenes: Structure, Principles Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. democratic system failed to be effective. We care about our planet! Scorning the vanquished, he declared that he was sparing them only out of respect for their distinguished ancestors. Read more. There were 3 classes in the society of ancient Athens. One of the indispensable words we owe ultimately to the Greeks is criticism (derived from the Greek for judging, as in a court case or at a theatrical performance). But in 200, Philip, having come of age and claimed the crown, dispatched an army toward Athens to regain the port. "It is profoundly dangerous when a politician takes a step to undercut or ignore a political norm, it's extremely dangerous whenever anyone introduces violent rhetoric or actual violence into a. His influence and that of his best pupil Aristotle were such that it was not until the 18th century that democracy's fortunes began seriously to revive, and the form of democracy that was then implemented tentatively in the United States and, briefly, France was far from its original Athenian model. Alexander the Great, for all his achievements, is described as a "mummy's boy" whose success rested in many ways on the more pragmatic foundations laid by his father, Philip II. With winter coming on, Sulla established his camp at Eleusis, 14 miles west of Athens, where a ditch running to the sea protected his men. This is a form of government which puts the power to rule in the hands of . That was definitely the opinion of ancient critics of the idea. Inside Piraeus, Archelaus countered by building towers for his siege engines. With people chosen at random to hold important positions and with terms of office strictly limited, it was difficult for any individual or small group to dominate or unduly influence the decision-making process either directly themselves or, because one never knew exactly who would be selected, indirectly by bribing those in power at any one time. Although the 4th century was one of critical transition, the era has been overlooked by many ancient historians in favour of those which bookend it - the glory days of Athenian democracy in the 5th century and the supremacy of Alexander the Great from 336 to 323 BC. However, Plutarch drew on Sullas memoirs as a source, so these anecdotes may be unreliable; Sulla had an interest in denigrating his opponent.). World History Encyclopedia, 03 Apr 2018. In 411 and again in 404 Athens experienced two, equally radical counter-coups and the establishment of narrow oligarchic regimes, first of the 400 led by the formidable intellectual Antiphon, and then of the 30, led by Plato's relative Critias. In Athenian democracy, not only did citizens participate in a direct democracy whereby they themselves made the decisions by which they lived, but they also actively served in the institutions that governed them, and so they directly controlled all parts of the political process. According to a fragmentary account by the historian Posidonius, Athenions letters persuaded Athens that the Roman supremacy was broken. The prospect of the Anatolian Greeks throwing off Roman rule also sparked pan-Hellenic solidarity. The famous Long Walls that had connected the two cities during the Peloponnesian War had since fallen into disrepair. The real question now is not can we, but should we go back to the Greeks? The city held festivals and presented nine plays each year, both comedies and tragedies. The group made decisions by simple majority vote. 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. Its popular Assembly directed internal affairs as a showcase of democracy. 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. Meanwhile, the siege of Piraeus continued, with each side matching the others moves. 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. Archaic Greece saw advances in art, poetry and technology, but is known as the age in which the polis, or city-state, was read more, In the late 6th century B.C., the Greek city-state of Athens began to lay the foundations for a new kind of political system. Web. 'Oh, run away and play', rejoins Pericles, irritated; 'I was good at those sorts of debating tricks when I was your age.'. It shows how an earlier generation of people responded to similar challenges and which strategies succeeded. The resulting decision to try and condemn to death the eight generals collectively was in fact the height, or depth, of illegality. 'What', asks the teenage Alcibiades pseudo-innocently, is 'law'? We would much rather spend this money on producing more free history content for the world. If they did not fulfill their duty they would be fined and sometimes marked with red paint. In Athens, it was a noble named Solon who laid the foundations for democracy, and introduced a . Chronological order of government in ancient Athens. Sparta had won the war. This, fortunately, did not last long; even Sparta felt unable to prop up such a hugely unpopular regime, nicknamed the '30 Tyrants', and the restoration of democracy was surprisingly speedy and smooth - on the whole. What mattered was whether or not the unusual system was any good. Positions on the boule were chosen by lot and not by election. Originally Answered: Did Athenian democracy failed because of its democratic nature? As soldiers carted away their prized and sacred possessions, the guardians of Delphi bitterly complained that Sulla was nothing like previous Roman commanders, who had come to Greece and made gifts to the temples. 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. Such brutality may have been carried out with a design; Athenians fearing a Roman military intervention were growing restless under Aristion. Over time tyrants became greedy and cruel. We are committed to protecting your personal information and being transparent about what information we hold. With Athens running short of food, Archelaus one night dispatched troops from Piraeus with a supply of wheat. 2.37). But when one of the Athenian delegates began a grand speech about their citys great past, Sulla abruptly dismissed them. But this was all before the powerful Athens of the fifth century BC, when the city had been at its zenith. S2 ep4: What would a more just future look like? 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. To the Greeks, he represented himself as a new Alexander, the champion of Greek culture against Rome. By Professor Paul Cartledge The war had one last act to play out. The Pontic troops had built other lunettes inside, but the Romans attacked each wall with manic energy. It was this body which supervised any administrative committees and officials on behalf of the assembly. The Athenian statesman Pericles defined democracy as a system which protects the interests of all the people, not just a minority. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence. Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. Mark is a full-time author, researcher, historian, and editor. The government and economy were also weak causing distress all over Athens. 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. Last updated 2011-02-17. Citizens probably accounted for 10-20% of the polis population, and of these it has been estimated that only 3,000 or so people actively participated in politics. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. The boul or council was composed of 500 citizens who were chosen by lot and who served for one year with the limitation that they could serve no more than two non-consecutive years. 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. Athens, for example, committed itself to unpopular wars which ultimately brought it into direct conflict with the vastly more powerful Macedonia. The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. Athenian democracy was a direct democracy made up of three important institutions. An early example of the Greek genius for applied critical theory was their invention of political theory Three of the seven noble conspirators are given set speeches to deliver, the first in favour of democracy (though he does not actually call it that), the second in favour of aristocracy (a nice form of oligarchy), the third - delivered by Darius, who in historical fact will succeed to the throne - in favour, naturally, of constitutional monarchy, which in practice meant autocracy. The Italian Social War ended in 88, freeing the Romans to meet the Pontic threat in the east. Aristion executed citizens accused of favoring Rome and sent others to Mithridates as prisoners. When that failed, the Romans settled in for a long siege. Any citizen could speak to the assembly and vote on decisions by simply holding up their hands. The second important institution was the boule, or Council of Five Hundred. Nevertheless, in one sense the condemnation of Socrates was disastrous for the reputation of the Athenian democracy, because it helped decisively to form one of democracy's - all democracy's, not just the Athenian democracy's - most formidable critics: Plato. 'Certainly', says Pericles. 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. This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. He was chief historical consultant for the BBC TV series 'The Greeks'. They butchered and ate all their cattle, then boiled the hides. Only around 30% of the total population of Athens and Attica could have voted. Of all the democratic institutions, Aristotle argued that the dikasteria contributed most to the strength of democracy because the jury had almost unlimited power. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page. Under Macedonian control, Athens had dwindled to a third-rank power, with no independence in foreign affairs and an insignificant military. Yet, with the advent of new technology, it would actually be possible to reinvent today a form of indirect but participatory tele-democracy. 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. Leemage/Universal Images Group/Getty Images. It was this revived democracy that in 406 committed what its critics both ancient and modern consider to have been the biggest single practical blunder in the democracy's history: the trial and condemnation to death of all eight generals involved in the pyrrhic naval victory at Arginusae. Cleisthenes changed Athenian democracy becuase he redefined what it was to be a citizen and so removed the influence of traditional clan groups. It was too much. 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. Regardless, Sulla benefited greatly. In 146, they ruthlessly destroyed the city-state of Corinth and established their authority over much of Greece. A very clever example of this line of oligarchic attack is contained in a fictitious dialogue included by Xenophon - a former pupil of Socrates, and, like Plato, an anti-democrat - in his work entitled 'Memoirs of Socrates'. But - a big 'but' - it works: that is, it delivers the goods - for the masses. Unlike the ekklesia, the boule met every day and did most of the hands-on work of governance. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so. Gloating over Roman misfortunes, he declared that Mithridates controlled all of Anatolia. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Aegean, events touched off an explosion whose force would swamp Athens. To protect their money, some Athenians buried coin hoards. Why did the system fail? 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. The evidence comes in the form of what is known as the Persian Debate in Book 3. This was because, in theory, a random lottery was more democratic than an election: pure chance, after all, could not be influenced by things like money or popularity. Not all anti-democrats, however, saw only democracy's weaknesses and were entirely blind to democracy's strengths. Perhaps the most notoriously bad decisions taken by the Athenian dmos were the execution of six generals after they had actually won the battle of Arginousai in 406 BCE and the death sentence given to the philosopher Socrates in 399 BCE. Ancient Athenian democracy differs from the democracy that we are familiar with in the present day. 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. The result was a series of domestic problems, including an inability to fund the traditional police force. 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. With Athens under his thumb, Sulla turned back to Piraeus. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Enter your email address, confirm you're happy to receive our emails and then select 'Subscribe'. In these intellectuals' view, government was an art, craft or skill, and should be entrusted only to the skilled and intelligent, who were by definition a minority. However, historians argue that selection to the boule was not always just a matter of chance. One unusual critic is an Athenian writer whom we know familiarly as the 'Old Oligarch'. 04 Mar 2023. First, was the citizens who ran the government and held property. This page has been archived and is no longer updated. Ancient Greece saw a lot of philosophical and political changes soon after the end of the Bronze Age. In practice, this assembly usually involved a maximum of 6000 citizens. By the end, it was hailing its latest ruler, Demetrius, as both a king and a living God. Two scenes from Athens in the first-century BC: Early summer, 88 BC, a cheering crowd surrounds the envoy Athenion as he makes a rousing speech. However, more difficult was the fact that Athens now had to recognize and accept Sparta as the leader of Greece. Athens transformed ancient warfare and became one of the ancient world's superpowers. Mithridates, who came from a Persian dynasty, ruled a culturally mixed kingdom that included both Persians and Greeks. It only hastened Athens' eventual defeat in the war, which was followed by the installation at Sparta's behest of an even narrower oligarchy than that of the 400 - that of the 30. READ MORE: Why Greece Is Considered the Birthplace of Democracy. In hard practical fact there was no alternative, and no alternative to hereditary autocracy, the system laid down by Cyrus, could seriously have been contemplated. To some extent Socrates was being used as a scapegoat, an expiatory sacrifice to appease the gods who must have been implacably angry with the Athenians to inflict on them such horrors as plague and famine as well as military defeat and civil war. City residents who had cheered lustily for Athenion, the demagogic envoy, now found themselves ruled by a tyrant. The Greek emissary became an enthusiastic booster of the king and sent letters home advocating an alliance. The military impact of Athenian democracy was twofold. The third important institution was the popular courts, or dikasteria. The capital would be sending no more reinforcements or money. The mass involvement of all male citizens and the expectation that they should participate actively in the running of the polis is clear in this quote from Thucydides: We alone consider a citizen who does not partake in politics not only one who minds his own business but useless. 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. The specific connection made by the anonymous writer is that the ultimate source of Athens' power was its navy, and that navy was powered essentially (though not exclusively) by the strong arms of the thetes, that is to say, the poorest section of the Athenian citizen population. Those defeats persuaded Mithridates to end the war. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. Then there was the view that the mob, the poor majority, were nothing but a collective tyrant. Sulla arrived in Greece early in 87 with five legions (approximately 25,000 men) and some mounted auxiliaries. Athenions fate is not clear. Terrified Romans fled to temples for sanctuary, but to no avail; they were butchered anyway. Thank you for your help! The constitutional change, according to Thucydides, seemed the only way to win much-needed support from Persia against the old enemy Sparta and, further, it was thought that the change would not be a permanent one. During the 600s B.C., Athens was a small city-state. Athens' democracy in fact recovered from these injuries within years. This, the study says, has led to a two-dimensional view of the intervening decades as a period of unimportant decline. A demagogue, a treacherous ally, and a brutal Roman general destroyed the city-stateand democracyin the first-century BC, https://www.historynet.com/the-end-of-athens/, Jerrie Mock: Record-Breaking American Female Pilot, When 21 Sikh Soldiers Fought the Odds Against 10,000 Pashtun Warriors, Few Red Tails Remain: Tuskegee Airman Dies at 96. 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.". Instead, Dr. Scott argues that this period is fundamental to understanding what really happened to Athenian democracy. The generals' collective crime, so it was alleged by Theramenes (formerly one of the 400) and others with suspiciously un- or anti-democratic credentials, was to have failed to rescue several thousands of Athenian citizen survivors. (Ostracism, in which a citizen could be expelled from the Athenian city-state for 10 years, was among the powers of the ekklesia.) The two either supported the Romans or were currying favor with the side that they expected to win. An important element in the debates was freedom of speech (parrhsia) which became, perhaps, the citizen's most valued privilege. Sulla had the tyrant and his bodyguard executed. With the help of bodyguards, Athenion pushed through the crowd to the front of the Stoa of Attalos, a long, colonnaded commercial building among the most impressive in the Agora. Any citizen could speak to the assembly and vote on decisions by simply holding up their hands. The Athenians: Another warning from history? Athens declared the Delos harbor duty-free, and the island prospered as a major trading center. Others brought up rams and entered the breach theyd made in the walls earlier. The lottery system also prevented the establishment of a permanent class of civil servants who might be tempted to use the government to advance or enrich themselves. It was from the creation of this empire that the sovereign Athenian demos gained the authority to exercise the will of Athens over other Greek states and not just her own. The word democracy (dmokratia) derives from dmos, which refers to the entire citizen body, and kratos, meaning rule. Plato realized why democracy failed - even in ideal conditions, such as the direct democracy of ancient Athens. Rome would have to fight the Pontic king again before his final defeat and deathpurportedly by suicidein 63. Sulla, lacking ships, could not give chase. After suitable discussion, temporary or specific decrees (psphismata) were adopted and laws (nomoi) defined. BBC 2014 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.