In the meantime, Mithridates used the respite to rebuild his strength. The Roman Republic vs. Athenian Democracy: Comparisons Chronological order of government in ancient Athens. democratic system failed to be effective. 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 power). At the kings order, the locals slaughtered tens of thousands of Romans and Italians who lived among them. The first concrete evidence for this crucial invention comes in the Histories of Herodotus, a brilliant work composed over several years, delivered orally to a variety of audiences all round the enormously extended Greek world, and published in some sense as a whole perhaps in the 420s BC. The second important institution was the boule, or Council of Five Hundred. At best it was mere opinion, and almost always it was ill-informed and wrong opinion. Terrified Romans fled to temples for sanctuary, but to no avail; they were butchered anyway. Not All Opinions Are Equal In a democracy all opinions are equal. But what did the development of Athenian democracy actually involve? These challenges to democracy include the paradoxical existence of an Athenian empire. and the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C. Sulla attacked again the next morning with his entire army, hoping the wet mortar of the lunettes would not hold. 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. 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. Its main function was to decide what matters would come before the ekklesia. But - a big 'but' - it works: that is, it delivers the goods - for the masses. Dr Scott's study also marks an attempt to recognise figures such as Isocrates and Phocion - sage political advisers who tried to steer it away from crippling confrontations with other Greek states and Macedonia. Athens, too, should throw in with this rising power, he asserted. 500 BC Athens decided to share decision making. 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. They butchered and ate all their cattle, then boiled the hides. Of all the democratic institutions, Aristotle argued that the dikasteria contributed most to the strength of democracy because the jury had almost unlimited power. 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. The Thirty Tyrants ( ) is a term first used Cleisthenes (b. late 570s BCE) was an Athenian statesman who famously Ostracism was a political process used in 5th-century BCE Athens Pericles (l. 495429 BCE) was a prominent Greek statesman, orator Themistocles (c. 524 - c. 460 BCE) was an Athenian statesman and Solon (c. 640 c. 560 BCE) was an Athenian statesman, lawmaker What did democracy really mean in Athens? 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. There was in Athens (and also Elis, Tegea, and Thasos) a smaller body, the boul, which decided or prioritised the topics which were discussed in the assembly. Since the 19th-century read more, The term classical Greece refers to the period between the Persian Wars at the beginning of the fifth century B.C. A small number of families came to dominate the leading political offices and ruled almost as an oligarchyone that was careful not to provoke the Romans. 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. Inside Piraeus, Archelaus countered by building towers for his siege engines. Greek Bronze Ballot DisksMark Cartwright (CC BY-NC-SA). Solon Put Athens on the Road to Democracy. All Rights Reserved. Please support World History Encyclopedia. (Only about 5,000 men attended each session of the Assembly; the rest were serving in the army or navy or working to support their families.). They therefore in a sense deserved the political pay-off of mass-biased democracy as a reward for their crucial naval role. The End of Athens: How the City-State's Democracy was Destroyed 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. But without warning, it sank into the earth. The first was the ekklesia, or Assembly, the sovereign governing body of Athens. Athenian democracy was short-lived Around 550BC, democracy was established in Athens, marking a clear shift from previous ruling systems. 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. 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. But what form of government, what constitution, should the restored Persian empire enjoy for the future? 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. 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. Illustrating the esteem in which democratic government was held, there was even a divine personification of the ideal of democracy, the goddess Demokratia. As the year 87 drew on, Mithridates sent additional troops. Realizing the citys defenses were broken, Aristion burned the Odeon of Pericles, on the south side of the Acropolis, to prevent the Romans from using its timbers to construct more siege engines. A Greek trireme Chiefly because of a fatal ambiguity: to its opponents democracy was no more, and no better, than mob-rule, since for them it meant the political power of the masses exercised over and at the expense of the elite. That at any rate is the assumed situation. Cleisthenes introduced democracy in Athen (500c BCE) Democracy of Athens. However, the equality Herodotus described was limited to a small segment of the Athenian population in Ancient Greece. 2023 A&E Television Networks, LLC. Sparta and its allies accused Athens of aggression and threatened war. 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. 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. "use strict";(function(){var insertion=document.getElementById("citation-access-date");var date=new Date().toLocaleDateString(undefined,{month:"long",day:"numeric",year:"numeric"});insertion.parentElement.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(date),insertion)})(); FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. 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. After his speech, the excited throng rushes to the theater of Dionysus, where official assemblies are held, and elects Athenion as hoplite general, the citys most important executive position. What is Athenian Democracy? Solon and Cleisthenes - Study.com Athenions fate is not clear. Rome would have to fight the Pontic king again before his final defeat and deathpurportedly by suicidein 63. World History Encyclopedia, 03 Apr 2018. 04 Mar 2023. 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. 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. This, the study says, has led to a two-dimensional view of the intervening decades as a period of unimportant decline. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Aegean, events touched off an explosion whose force would swamp Athens. Any male citizen could, then, participate in the main democratic body of Athens, the assembly (ekklsia). This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. 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. Aristion didnt hold out long: He surrendered when he ran out of drinking water. Athens declared the Delos harbor duty-free, and the island prospered as a major trading center. 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. Sulla ordered another retreat, and turned his attention to Athens, which by now was a softer target than Piraeus. In 590 BCE Athenians were suffering from debt and famine throughout Athens. An important element in the debates was freedom of speech (parrhsia) which became, perhaps, the citizen's most valued privilege. Blood flows in the narrow streets, as the Romans butcher the Athenianswomen and children included. Second, was the metics who were foreign residents of Athens. Appian, the historian who wrote in the second century AD, records that the Bithynians were terrified at seeing men cut in halves and still breathing, or mangled in fragments, or hanging on the scythes.. These groups had to meet secretly because although there was freedom of speech, persistent criticism of individuals and institutions could lead to accusations of conspiring tyranny and so lead to ostracism. This is a form of government which puts the power to rule in the hands of . Cleisthenes formally identified free inhabitants of Attica as citizens of Athens, which gave them power and a role in a sense of civic solidarity. Cartwright, Mark. The Greek emissary became an enthusiastic booster of the king and sent letters home advocating an alliance. Why, to start with, does he not use the word democracy, when democracy of an Athenian radical kind is clearly what he's advocating? The Athenians: Another warning from history? - University Of Cambridge In despair, many Athenians kill themselves. 'So', persists Alcibiades, 'democracy is really just another form of tyranny?' Things You May Not Know About Democracy in Ancient Greece - Culture Trip Athens transformed ancient warfare and became one of the ancient world's superpowers. One of the main reasons why ancient Athens was not a true democracy was because only about 30% of the population could vote. Sparta had won the war. Solon's Reforms and the Rise of Democracy in Athens - ThoughtCo He and his allies then retreated to the Acropolis, which the Romans promptly surrounded. Plato and the Disaster of Democracy - Classical Wisdom Weekly World History Encyclopedia. The Animal Welfare and Ethical Review Body, Report on the allegations and matters raised in the BUAV report, Non-human primates (marmosets and rhesus macaques). Inside homes, the Romans discovered a sight that must have horrified even the most hardened among them: human flesh prepared as food. 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. A Council of 500 and Assembly were created. As the Pontic general Archelaus persuaded other Greek cities to turn against Romeincluding Thebes to the northwest of AthensAristion established a new regime in Athens. 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. Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. Re-enactment of fighting 'hoplites' 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. As winter stretched on, Athenians began to starve. His short and vehement pamphlet was produced probably in the 420s, during the first decade of the Peloponnesian War, and makes the following case: democracy is appalling, since it represents the rule of the poor, ignorant, fickle and stupid majority over the socially and intellectually superior minority, the world turned upside down. It was the first known democracy in the world. Sulla arrived in Greece early in 87 with five legions (approximately 25,000 men) and some mounted auxiliaries. 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. 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 assembly could also vote to ostracise from Athens any citizen who had become too powerful and dangerous for the polis. 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. Though he at first refused, he later relented and sent a delegation to meet with the Roman commander. Athenion promised that Mithridates would restore democracy to Athensan apparent reference to the archons violation of the constitutions one-term limit. A marble relief showing the People of Athens being crowned by Democracy, inscribed with a law against tyranny passed by the people of Athens in 336 B.C. Sulla had siege engines built on the spot, cutting down the groves of trees in the Athenian suburb of the Academy, where Plato had taught some three centuries earlier. Actor posing as Socrates Cleisthenes changed Athenian democracy becuase he redefined what it was to be a citizen and so removed the influence of traditional clan groups. World History Publishing is a non-profit company registered in the United Kingdom. I was not sent to Athens by the Romans to learn its history, but to subdue its rebels, he declared. In the dark early morning of March 1, 86 BC, the Romans opened an attack there, launching large catapult stones. And its denouement is the Roman sack of Athens, a bloody day that effectively marked the end of Athens as an independent state. So what we have in Herodotus is a Greek debate in Persian dress. His election as hoplite general quickly followed. 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. While Eli Sagan believes Athenian democracy can be divided into seven chapters, classicist and political scientist Josiah Ober has a different view. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. Centuries later, archaeologists discovered some of these in the ruins of the Pompeion, a gathering place for the start of processions. https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-greece/ancient-greece-democracy. 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. Little more than a hundred years later it was governed by an emperor. World History Encyclopedia is a non-profit organization. Now all citizens could participate in government, not just aristocrats. Democracy itself, however, buckled under the strain. 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 . 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. Please read our email privacy notice for details. Eventually the Romans breached a section of the wall and poured through. Most of the Greek cities there welcomed the Pontic forces, and by early 88, Mithridates was firmly in control of western Anatolia. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. The Athenian Democracy in the Age of Demosthenes: Structure, Principles Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. The number of dead is beyond counting. He also helped himself to a stash of gold and silver found on the Acropolis. To the Greeks, he represented himself as a new Alexander, the champion of Greek culture against Rome. Cite This Work 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. Read more. When Athenion sent a force to seize control of Delos, a Roman unit swiftly defeated it. Pericles | Athenian statesman | Britannica Sulla had reason to let Mithridates off easyhe was anxious to deal with his political opponents back in Rome. The third important institution was the popular courts, or dikasteria. Seeking to offer a unified theory about Greece's current political and economic crisis, this article unravels the particular mechanisms through which this country developed as a populist democracy, that is, a pluralist system in which both the government and the opposition parties turn populist. Critics of democracy, such as Thucydides and Aristophanes, pointed out that not only were proceedings dominated by an elite, but that the dmos could be too often swayed by a good orator or popular leaders (the demagogues), get carried away with their emotions, or lack the necessary knowledge to make informed decisions. Not all anti-democrats, however, saw only democracy's weaknesses and were entirely blind to democracy's strengths. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. Then he recounted events in the east. An artillery duel developed. With the city starving, its leaders asked Aristion to negotiate with Sulla. This money was only to cover expenses though, as any attempt to profit from public positions was severely punished. Sulla had the tyrant and his bodyguard executed. Athenian democracy refers to the system of democratic government used in Athens, Greece from the 5th to 4th century BCE. Pericles, (born c. 495 bce, Athensdied 429, Athens), Athenian statesman largely responsible for the full development, in the later 5th century bce, of both the Athenian democracy and the Athenian empire, making Athens the political and cultural focus of Greece. This time, they burst through Archelauss hastily constructed lunette. A mass slaughter followed. The masses were, in brief, shortsighted, selfish and fickle, an easy prey to unscrupulous orators who came to be known as demagogues. 'What? Soon after, Roman soldiers overheard men in the Athenian neighborhood of the Kerameikos, northwest of the Acropolis, grousing about the neglected defenses there. People of power or influence weren't concerned with the rights of such non-citizens. Then there was the view that the mob, the poor majority, were nothing but a collective tyrant. Though Mithridates had to withdraw from territories he had conquered and pay an indemnity, he remained in power in Pontus. 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. was part of the first Persian invasion of Greece. The group made decisions by simple majority vote. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms. One which is so bad that people ultimately cry out for a dictator. To protect their money, some Athenians buried coin hoards. This system was comprised of three separate institutions: the ekklesia, a sovereign governing body that wrote laws and dictated foreign policy; the boule, a council of representatives from the ten Athenian tribes and the dikasteria, the popular courts in which citizens argued cases before a group of lottery-selected jurors. Archaeologists discovered these caches thousands of years later and found bronze coins minted during the siege, when Aristion and King Mithridates jointly held the title of master of the mint. Suffering dearly, the Greek cities on the Anatolian coast went looking for help and found a deliverer in Mithridates VI, king of Pontus in northeastern Anatolia. Many of its economic problems were gradually solved by attracting wealthy immigrants to Athens - which as a name still carried considerable prestige. Though Archelaus restored Delos to Athenian control, he turned over its treasury to Aristion, an Athenian citizen whom Mithridates had chosen to rule Athens. 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. Demagogue meant literally 'leader of the demos' ('demos' means people); but democracy's critics took it to mean mis-leaders of the people, mere rabble-rousers. Modern representative democracies, in contrast to direct democracies, have citizens who vote for representatives who create and enact laws on their behalf. With few military resources of its own, the city turned for help to the Roman Republic, the rising power of the day. Athens was forced to destroy its main defenses, abolish the Delian League and its fleet was handed over to the Spartans. Thank you! Athens' democracy in fact recovered from these injuries within years. The famous Long Walls that had connected the two cities during the Peloponnesian War had since fallen into disrepair. BBC - History - The Fall of the Roman Republic - Logo of the BBC Therefore, women, slaves, and resident foreigners (metoikoi) were excluded from the political process. Jurors were paid a wage for their work, so that the job could be accessible to everyone and not just the wealthy (but, since the wage was less than what the average worker earned in a day, the typical juror was an elderly retiree). Sulla, lacking ships, could not give chase. That was definitely the opinion of ancient critics of the idea. The word democracy (dmokratia) derives from dmos, which refers to the entire citizen body: the People. 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. known for its art, architecture and philosophy. Every day, more than 500 jurors were chosen by lot from a pool of male citizens older than 30. Third, was the slave population which . The events that led to renewed hostilities began in 433, when Athens allied itself with Corcyra (modern Corfu ), a strategically important colony of Corinth. The book, entitled From Democrats To Kings, aims to overhaul Athens' traditional image as the ancient world's "golden city", arguing that its early successes have obscured a darker history of blood-lust and mob rule. Athenian Democracy - World History Encyclopedia Athenian 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. It was in the courts that laws made by the assembly could be challenged & decisions were made regarding. Last updated 2011-02-17. Regardless, Sulla benefited greatly. The military impact of Athenian democracy was twofold. The next day, as he made his way to the Agora for a speech, a mob of admirers strained to touch his garments. Why Democracy Failed: Plato's Nightmare Coming True - Home For Fiction The result was a series of domestic problems, including an inability to fund the traditional police force. During the 600s B.C., Athens was a small city-state. Any citizen could speak to the assembly and vote on decisions by simply holding up their hands. As below ground, so above. S2 ep 5: What is the future of artificial intelligence. Only around 30% of the total population of Athens and Attica could have voted. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Throughout the siege, Sulla got regular reports from spies inside Piraeustwo Athenian slaves who inscribed notes on lead balls that they shot with slings into the Roman lines. We contribute a share of our revenue to remove carbon from the atmosphere and we offset our team's carbon footprint. 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. 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. When the fleet reached the city, Aristion quickly seized power, thanks in part to a personal guard of 2,000 Pontic soldiers. While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015. In practice, this assembly usually involved a maximum of 6000 citizens. This page has been archived and is no longer updated. 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. 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. The government and economy were also weak causing distress all over Athens. This was a democratic form of government where the people or 'demos' had real political power. Certainly, he was an oligarch, but whether he was old or not we can't say. Books Gloating over Roman misfortunes, he declared that Mithridates controlled all of Anatolia. 'Oh, run away and play', rejoins Pericles, irritated; 'I was good at those sorts of debating tricks when I was your age.'. Athenian Democracy. He also said that the ability to govern and participate in government was more important than one's class. When Athenion returned home in the early summer of 88, citizens gave him a rapturous reception. Canada, The United States and South Africa are all examples of modern-day representative democracies. Democracy of the Ancient Athens | Short history website In around 450 B.C., the Athenian general Pericles tried to consolidate his power by using public money, the dues paid to Athens by its allies in the Delian League coalition, to support the city-states artists and thinkers. The answer lies in a dramatic tale starring the demagogue Athenion, a mindless mob, a tyrant, and a brutal Roman general. 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.