Transcript archon 594/3 BC

Ancient Greeks
Athenian Democracy
Solon
archon 594/3 B.C.
• seisachtheia—“shaking-off of burdens”
Liberated the hektēmoroi—“sixth-parters”
Toppled the horoi—“boundary stones”—of Attika
Granted citizenship to immigrant craftsmen
Banned export of agricultural products other than olive
oil
Compiled a new code of laws that superseded
Draco’s code of 621 B.C.
Created a process for public appeals of magistrates’
verdicts in the ēliaia
Solon’s organization of Athenian
citizenry
Four census classes based on wealth:
– pentakosiomedimnoi—“five-hundred-measuresmen”
– hippeis—“horesmen”
– zeugitai—“yokemen”
thetes—“poor”
Boulē—Council of 400
Areopagos Council
Athenian law
Archaeological
evidence from the
Agora Museum in
Athens
– klepsydra—“water
clock”
bronze juror ballots
– pinakia—“identification
tablets”
– kleoterion—“allotment
machine”
The consequences of Solon’s
reforms
• Solon and Croesus
(Herodotus 1.30-33)
• Pisistratos—tyrant of
Athens
• Hippias and
Hipparkhos
• The Tyrannicides,
Harmodios and
Aristogeiton
Cleisthenes
Takes power from political
rival Isagoras in 508 B.C.
Dēmokratia—“power of
the people”
• demes—villages or city
neighborhoods
• phylai—“tribes”: increased
from four to ten
• trittyes—“thirds”: coast,
inland, and city
Council of 500
Athenian Assembly
Ekklēsia—Athenian
Assembly where all
citizens (excluding
women, children, and
slaves) were free to
discuss the issues,
vote, and put
decisions into action.
Pnyx (hill where
legislature met
Bema—“speaker’s
platform”
Democracy
Pericles’ Funeral Oration
(epitaphios logos)—
Thucydides 2.34-46
•
Male citizens -
11%
•
Women & Children - 24%
• Metics -
10%
• Slaves -
54%
Comparison
ANCIENT ATHENS
MODERN USA
PARTICIPATION
REPRESENTATION
LOTTERY
ELECTION
SOVEREIGN DEMOS
SEPARATION OF POWERS
LAW: PRAGMATIC
LAW: TRANSCENDENTAL
Sources for Athenian History
and Democracy
Anderson, Greg. The Athenian
Experiment: Building an Imagined Political
Community in Ancient Attica, 508-490 B.C.
(Ann Arbor, 2003).
Camp, John, and Elizabeth Fisher. The
World of the Ancient Greeks (London,
2002).
Forrest, W. G. The Emergence of Greek
Democracy (London, 1966).
Pomeroy, Sarah, Stanley Burstein, Walter
Donlan, and Jennifer Roberts. Ancient
Greece: A Political, Social, and Cultural
History (New York, 1998).