"If history can provide a map of where we have been, a mirror to where we are right now and perhaps even a guide to what we should do next, the story of this period is perfectly suited to do that in our times," Dr. Scott said. The answer lies in a dramatic tale starring the demagogue Athenion, a mindless mob, a tyrant, and a brutal Roman general. Not All Opinions Are Equal In a democracy all opinions are equal. 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. 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. 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. 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. Following standard Roman procedure, Sullas men made a quick assault on the walls of the port, trying to catch the defenders by surprise. 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. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page. By the end, it was hailing its latest ruler, Demetrius, as both a king and a living God. The majority won the day and the decision was final. For only $5 per month you can become a member and support our mission to engage people with cultural heritage and to improve history education worldwide. From Democrats To Kings is published by Icon Books. 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. 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. Others were rather more subtly expressed. Then there was the view that the mob, the poor majority, were nothing but a collective tyrant. The collapse of Greek democracy 2,400 years ago occurred in circumstances so similar to our own it could be read as a dark and often ignored lesson from the past, a new study suggests. These challenges to democracy include the paradoxical existence of an Athenian empire. License. Ancient Greece is often referred to as "the cradle of democracy.". Though he at first refused, he later relented and sent a delegation to meet with the Roman commander. Nine presidents (proedroi), elected by lot and holding the office one time only, organised the proceedings and assessed the voting. Athens was forced to destroy its main defenses, abolish the Delian League and its fleet was handed over to the Spartans. Passions ran high and at one point during a crucial Assembly meeting, over which Socrates may have presided, the cry went up that it would be monstrous if the people were prevented from doing its will, even at the expense of strict legality. Paul Cartledge is Professor of Greek History at the University of Cambridge. 'Certainly', says Pericles. There is a strong case that democracy was a major reason for this success. 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. Athens in the early first century had energy and culture. Then there was the view that the mob, the poor majority, were nothing but a collective tyrant. One unusual critic is an Athenian writer whom we know familiarly as the 'Old Oligarch'. "Athenian Democracy." Athenions fate is not clear. 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. Though Archelaus restored Delos to Athenian control, he turned over its treasury to Aristion, an Athenian citizen whom Mithridates had chosen to rule Athens. Sulla had logistical problems of his own. Athens, for example, committed itself to unpopular wars which ultimately brought it into direct conflict with the vastly more powerful Macedonia. The Greek emissary became an enthusiastic booster of the king and sent letters home advocating an alliance. 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. 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. The resulting decision to try and condemn to death the eight generals collectively was in fact the height, or depth, of illegality. Ultimately, the Romans grew exhausted, and Sulla ordered a retreat. Sulla had the tyrant and his bodyguard executed. 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, therefore, had a direct democracy. 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. When the Romans destroyed the Macedonian Kingdom in 168, the Senate awarded Athens the Aegean island of Delos. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. Regardless, Sulla benefited greatly. In 146, they ruthlessly destroyed the city-state of Corinth and established their authority over much of Greece. Athenian democracy was a direct democracy made up of three important institutions. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence. Greek Bronze Ballot DisksMark Cartwright (CC BY-NC-SA). 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. Read more. Canada, The United States and South Africa are all examples of modern-day representative democracies. Plato realized why democracy failed - even in ideal conditions, such as the direct democracy of ancient Athens. 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. But when one of the Athenian delegates began a grand speech about their citys great past, Sulla abruptly dismissed them. But what did the development of Athenian democracy actually involve? 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 first was the ekklesia, or Assembly, the sovereign governing body of Athens. "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. Please support World History Encyclopedia. Re-enactment of fighting 'hoplites' 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. Of all the democratic institutions, Aristotle argued that the dikasteria contributed most to the strength of democracy because the jury had almost unlimited power. Mark is a full-time author, researcher, historian, and editor. S2 ep 5: What is the future of artificial intelligence. In the words of historian K. A. Raaflaub, democracy in ancient Athens was. Athenian Democracy. World History Encyclopedia. There was no political violence, land theft or capital punishment because those went against the political norms Rome had established. Certainly, he was an oligarch, but whether he was old or not we can't say. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. Athens declared the Delos harbor duty-free, and the island prospered as a major trading center. An artillery duel developed. Aristion didnt hold out long: He surrendered when he ran out of drinking water. 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, what counts is not membership of a particular class, but the actual ability which the man possesses. Once near his target, Sulla moved to isolate Athens from Piraeus and besiege each separately. Unlike the ekklesia, the boule met every day and did most of the hands-on work of governance. [15] People rushed to greet him as he was carried into the city on a scarlet-covered couch, wearing a ring with Mithridatess portrait. https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-greece/ancient-greece-democracy. Since Athenians did not pay taxes, the money for these payments came from customs duties, contributions from allies and taxes levied on the metoikoi. Related Content The word democracy comes from the Greek words demos, meaning "the people," and kratos, meaning "to rule.". His election as hoplite general quickly followed. 'What? Draco writing the first written law code in Athens was the initiating event that brought democracy to Athens. The Romans quickly got to work on their own tunnel, and when the diggers from both sides met, a savage fight broke out underground, the miners hacking at each other with spears and swords as well as they could in the darkness, according to Appian. 04 Mar 2023. Athenian democracy was a system of government where all male citizens could attend and participate in the assembly which governed the city-state. 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. I was not sent to Athens by the Romans to learn its history, but to subdue its rebels, he declared. Attacking into the half circle of the lunette, they were hit by missiles from the front and both flanks. Eventually the Romans breached a section of the wall and poured through. One night Sulla personally reconnoitered that stretch of wall, which was near the Dipylon Gate, the citys main entrance. 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. 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. The two either supported the Romans or were currying favor with the side that they expected to win. The main interest for us centres on the arguments of the first speaker, in favour of what he calls isonomy, or equality under the laws. The University of Cambridge will use your email address to send you our weekly research news email. It was this body which supervised any administrative committees and officials on behalf of the assembly. Special interests include art, architecture, and discovering the ideas that all civilizations share. The real question now is not can we, but should we go back to the Greeks? 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. The second important institution was the boule, or Council of Five Hundred. When some topped the walls and ran away, he sent cavalry after them. Specific issues discussed in the assembly included deciding military and financial magistracies, organising and maintaining food supplies, initiating legislation and political trials, deciding to send envoys, deciding whether or not to sign treaties, voting to raise or spend funds, and debating military matters. The number of dead is beyond counting. Indeed, the failure to make badly needed changes in such key areas as pensions and health (under PASOK) and education (under ND) became the most striking feature of all governments in Greece's. 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. Athenion at first feigned a reluctance to speak because of the sheer scale of what is to be said, according to Posidonius. Any male citizen could, then, participate in the main democratic body of Athens, the assembly (ekklsia). 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. Weary of the siege and determined to seize the city by assault, he ordered his soldiers to fire an endless stream of arrows and javelins. Meanwhile, the siege of Piraeus continued, with each side matching the others moves. Sulla had reason to let Mithridates off easyhe was anxious to deal with his political opponents back in Rome. "It shows how an earlier generation of people responded to similar challenges and which strategies succeeded. Our word demagogue -- that is, an irresponsible "rabble rousing" populist politician -- is lifted directly from Athenian debates about the nature of democracy. Athens' democracy in fact recovered from these injuries within years. ', replies Alcibiades; 'even when it decrees by fiat, acting like a tyrant and riding roughshod over the views of the minority - is that still "law"?' Mithridates, who came from a Persian dynasty, ruled a culturally mixed kingdom that included both Persians and Greeks. The Romans looted even the great shrine at Delphi dedicated to Apollo. Archaeologists have found no inscriptions with decrees from the Assembly that date within 40 years of the end of the siege. 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. 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. This is a form of government which puts the power to rule in the hands of . People of power or influence weren't concerned with the rights of such non-citizens. War between Pontus and Romethe First Mithridatic Warbroke out in 89 BC over the petty state of Bithynia in northwestern Anatolia. However, in reality, it was actually Persia who had won the war. Ideals such as these would form the cornerstones of all democracies in the modern world. The assembly also ensured decisions were enforced and officials were carrying out their duties correctly. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Aegean, events touched off an explosion whose force would swamp Athens. Into this dangerous situation stepped Solon, a moderate man the Athenians trusted to bring justice for all. Cleisthenes changed Athenian democracy becuase he redefined what it was to be a citizen and so removed the influence of traditional clan groups. Persuasive speakers who seemed to offer solutions - such as Demosthenes - came to the fore but ultimately took it closer to military defeat and submission to Macedonia.