Since Athenians did not pay taxes, the money for these payments came from customs duties, contributions from allies and taxes levied on the metoikoi. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. These bronze coins bore the Pontic symbol of a star between two half-moons. In this case there was a secret ballot where voters wrote a name on a piece of broken pottery (ostrakon). Draco writing the first written law code in Athens was the initiating event that brought democracy to Athens. In an effort to remain a major player in world affairs, it abandoned its ideology and values to ditch past allies while maintaining special relationships with emerging powers like Macedonia and supporting old enemies like the Persian King. The terms of the 85 BC peace agreement with Sulla were surprisingly mild considering that Mithridates had slaughtered thousands of Romans. In 133 BC, Rome was a democracy. Athens transformed ancient warfare and became one of the ancient world's superpowers. His election as hoplite general quickly followed. Knowledge of the life of Pericles derives largely from . 474 Words2 Pages. Though Mithridates had to withdraw from territories he had conquered and pay an indemnity, he remained in power in Pontus. The war had one last act to play out. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms. Any citizen could speak to the assembly and vote on decisions by simply holding up their hands. 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. Athenion promised that Mithridates would restore democracy to Athensan apparent reference to the archons violation of the constitutions one-term limit. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. One of the main reasons why ancient Athens was not a true democracy was because only about 30% of the population could vote. Athenian Democracy. All male citizens of Athens could attend the assembly which made political decisions. and the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C. Ostracism, in which a citizen could be expelled from Athens for 10 years, was among the powers of the ekklesia. In addition, in times of crisis and war, this body could also take decisions without the assembly meeting. Little more than a hundred years later it was governed by an emperor. In 83 BC, Sulla and his army returned to Italy, kicking off the Roman Republics first all-out civil war, which he won. 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. Greek myths explained everything from religious rituals to the weather, and read more, The term Ancient, or Archaic, Greece refers to the years 700-480 B.C., not the Classical Age (480-323 B.C.) Athenian democracy was a direct democracy made up of three important institutions. A mass slaughter followed. 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. 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. Then there was the view that the mob, the poor majority, were nothing but a collective tyrant. 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. Aristion didnt hold out long: He surrendered when he ran out of drinking water. At last, Archelaus saw that the game was up and skillfully evacuated his army by sea. It dealt with ambassadors and representatives from other city-states. 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. 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. The next day, as he made his way to the Agora for a speech, a mob of admirers strained to touch his garments. 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. Ancient Athenian democracy differs from the democracy that we are familiar with in the present day. The Romans then fractured a nearby portion of the wall and launched an all-out attack. Not all the Anatolian Greeks wanted to do the dirty work: the citizens of the inland town of Tralles hired an outsidera man named Theophilusto kill for them. Meanwhile, our democratically elected representatives are holding on to the fuse in one hand and a box of matches in the other. 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. Then, in 133 B.C.E., Rome experienced its first political. Sign up for our free weekly email newsletter! Such brutality may have been carried out with a design; Athenians fearing a Roman military intervention were growing restless under Aristion. He disappears from the historical record; Aristion must have deposed him. Democracy, which had prevailed during Athens' Golden Age, was replaced by a system of oligarchy in 411 BCE. This imperial system has become, for us, a by-word for autocracy and the arbitrary exercise. The effect on the citys model democracy was also staggering. Paul Cartledge is Professor of Greek History at the University of Cambridge. The classical period was an era of war and conflictfirst between the Greeks and the Persians, then between the read more. 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). World History Foundation is a non-profit organization registered in Canada. It was this body which supervised any administrative committees and officials on behalf of the assembly. 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. Democracy itself, however, buckled under the strain. Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. Cleisthenes changed Athenian democracy becuase he redefined what it was to be a citizen and so removed the influence of traditional clan groups. During the Classical era and Hellenistic era of Classical Antiquity, many Hellenic city-states had adopted democratic forms of government, in which free (non- slave ), native (non-foreigner) adult male citizens of the city took a major and direct part in the management of the affairs of state, such as declaring war, voting . Of this group, perhaps as few as 100 citizens - the wealthiest, most influential, and the best speakers - dominated the political arena both in front of the assembly and behind the scenes in private conspiratorial political meetings (xynomosiai) and groups (hetaireiai). The result was a series of domestic problems, including an inability to fund the traditional police force. 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. If we are all democrats today, we are not - and it is importantly because we are not - Athenian-style democrats. Athenian democracy was short-lived Around 550BC, democracy was established in Athens, marking a clear shift from previous ruling systems. Nevertheless, democracy in a slightly altered form did eventually return to Athens and, in any case, the Athenians had already done enough in creating their political system to eventually influence subsequent civilizations two millennia later. We are committed to protecting your personal information and being transparent about what information we hold. As the new Alexander, he may also have seen the conquest of Greece as a natural move. Macedonians under Philip IIfather of Alexander the Greathad defeated Athens in 338 BC and installed a garrison in the Athenian port city of Piraeus. Once near his target, Sulla moved to isolate Athens from Piraeus and besiege each separately. Archaeologists have found no inscriptions with decrees from the Assembly that date within 40 years of the end of the siege. From the story of the rise and fall of Athens, it is clear that the concept of democracy was abused to the point that only the city's citizens had rights and the rest of the allies were considered as subjects. This page has been archived and is no longer updated. When Athenion returned home in the early summer of 88, citizens gave him a rapturous reception. The famous Long Walls that had connected the two cities during the Peloponnesian War had since fallen into disrepair. He sees 12 stages in the development of Athenian democracy, including the initial Eupatrid oligarchy and the final fall of democracy to the imperial powers. "In many ways this was a period of total uncertainty just like our own time," Dr. Scott added. It reached its peak between 480 and 404BC, when Athens was undeniably the master of the Greek world. Greek Bronze Ballot DisksMark Cartwright (CC BY-NC-SA). Centuries later, archaeologists discovered some of these in the ruins of the Pompeion, a gathering place for the start of processions. World History Encyclopedia. Re-enactment of fighting 'hoplites' I wish to receive a weekly Cambridge research news summary by email. The boul represented the 139 districts of Attica and acted as a kind of executive committee of the assembly. Leemage/Universal Images Group/Getty Images. 500 BC Athens decided to share decision making. Unfortunately, sources on the other democratic governments in ancient Greece are few and far between. Rome responded, rushing 20 warships and 1,000 troops to Piraeus to keep Philip V at bay. 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. 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. Fighting ensued, and the Athenians then took steps that explicitly violated the Thirty Years' Treaty. 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. When Athenion returned home in the early summer of 88, citizens gave him a rapturous reception. As the year 87 drew on, Mithridates sent additional troops. In the words of historian K. A. Raaflaub, democracy in ancient Athens was. No one, so long as he has it in him to be of service to the state, is kept in political obscurity because of poverty. This being the case, the following remarks on democracy are focussed on the Athenians. 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. At one point, the Romans carried a ram to the top of one of the mounds fashioned from the rubble of the Long Walls. But where Athenion failed, Mithridates was determined to succeed. 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. (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.). Last updated 2011-02-17. 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. 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. Scorning the vanquished, he declared that he was sparing them only out of respect for their distinguished ancestors. Neither side gained an advantage until a group of Romans who had been gathering wood returned and charged into battle. The Athenian statesman Pericles defined democracy as a system which protects the interests of all the people, not just a minority. 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 Pompeion was ravaged beyond repair and left to decay. The military impact of Athenian democracy was twofold. In the 4th and 5th centuries BCE the male citizen population of Athens ranged from 30,000 to 60,000 depending on the period. Sulla had the tyrant and his bodyguard executed. 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. Athenion had the mob eating out of his hand. Athenion at first feigned a reluctance to speak because of the sheer scale of what is to be said, according to Posidonius. 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. It was in the courts that laws made by the assembly could be challenged & decisions were made regarding. In the late 500s to early 400s BCE, democracy developed in the city-state of Athens. Others were rather more subtly expressed. This newfound alliance initially benefited Athens. Sulla obtained iron and other material from Thebes and placed his newly built siege engines upon mounds of rubble collected from the Long Walls. Enter your email address, confirm you're happy to receive our emails and then select 'Subscribe'. Athenian democracy developed around the fifth century B.C.E. Any male citizen could, then, participate in the main democratic body of Athens, the assembly (ekklsia). When some topped the walls and ran away, he sent cavalry after them. Instead, Dr. Scott argues that this period is fundamental to understanding what really happened to Athenian democracy. However, more difficult was the fact that Athens now had to recognize and accept Sparta as the leader of Greece. S2 ep 5: What is the future of artificial intelligence. [15] 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. Chronological order of government in ancient 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. Our publication has been reviewed for educational use by Common Sense Education, Internet Scout (University of Wisconsin), Merlot (California State University), OER Commons and the School Library Journal. Athens is a city-state, while today we are familiar with the primary unit of governance . Inevitably, there was some fallout, and one of the victims of the simmering personal and ideological tensions was Socrates. 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. He was chief historical consultant for the BBC TV series 'The Greeks'. The resulting decision to try and condemn to death the eight generals collectively was in fact the height, or depth, of illegality. Why did the system fail? If you use this content on your site please link back to this page. By Professor Paul Cartledge What he failed to realize, however, is that crowding the population of Athens behind its Long Walls would be deadly if disease ever broke out in Athens while Sparta had it besieged. Of all the democratic institutions, Aristotle argued that the dikasteria contributed most to the strength of democracy because the jury had almost unlimited power.