Greece session 4 Sparta & Athens

ANCIENT GREECE
iv-Sparta & Athens

τέτταρες τέτταρα δ´

Τό Τέταρον Μάθηµα

PRINCIPAL TOPICS

I. Sparta; The Way of War

II. αγωγη (agōgē); School of the Soldier

III. Rise of Statism

IV. Athens; The Light of Reason

V. Social History

VI. Democracy

Marble statue
of a helmed

I. SPARTA
THE WAY OF WAR
hoplite (5th
century BC),
Archæological
Museum of
Sparta, Greece

FIRST, A WORD ABOUT NAMES

the Greeks usually referred to these people as Lacedaemonians (Λακεδαιµόνιοι )

In Greek mythology, Lacedaemon was a son of Zeus by the nymph Taygete. He married Sparta, the daughter of
Eurotas, by whom he became the father of Amyclas, Eurydice, and Asine. He was king of the country which he named
after himself, naming the capital after his wife.

the southern part of the Greek peninsula, which Sparta came to dominate was
called the Peloponnesos (PAY•lo•PO•nay•sose)

this “island of Pelops” took its name from Pelops:

in Greek mythology, Pelops (Greek Πέλοψ, from pelios: dark; and ops: face, eye), was king of Pisa in the
Peloponnesus. He was the founder of the House of Atreus through his son of that name.

ORIGINS

Spartans, like all Hellenes, claimed divine descent

In Greek mythology, Lacedaemon was a son of Zeus by the nymph Taygete.

Spartans, like most of the Peloponnesians, spoke Doric Greek, thus claimed
descent from the Dorian invaders

but they also claimed a link to the Achaeans through intermarriage

therefore their foundation mythology dripped testosterone, the conquerors of
Homer’s bronze-clad heroes

Homer refers to Sparta as the “hollow land”


Hollow Lacedaemon. Site of the Menelaion, the shrine to Helen and Menelaus
constructed anciently in the Bronze Age city that stood on the hill of Therapne on the
left bank of the Eurotas River overlooking the future site of Dorian Sparta. Across the
valley the successive ridges of Mount Taygetus are in evidence.


it lies between two mountain ranges,
Taygetus (2407 m) and Parnon (1935 m)

Sparta, the capital city lies on the right bank
of the Eurotas river

to its west is Messenia, the first object of
Sparta’s wars of conquest

its conquered peoples became the despised
and feared slaves, the helots

SPARTAN SOCIETY
Σπαρτιάται or
Ὅµοιοι
wariors the élite about 8,000
(Spartiates) or
(Homoioi)
(men only)
Spartans or peers

Περιοἶκοι
(Perioikoi) free, but no estimate
artisans inferiors
those who live available
around

Εἵλωτες 170,000 to
state-owned degraded &
(Heílôtes) 224,000
slaves oppressed
Helots (total)

SPARTIATES

had only two purposes in life:

males-(1) train for war (2) wage war

Spartiate
females-(1) prepare for child birth (2) give birth to superior genetic stock

all other normal economic pursuits were performed by the lower classes!

their unusual family life, such as it was, will be described later

only Spartiates could dwell in the city of Sparta

each family also had a kleros (an allotment of agricultural land outside the city)

PERIOIKOI

free but non-citizens of Laconia, they were part of the Dorian conquerors

of the five Dorian tribes, the Spartans rose to power. the other four tribes
became the perioikoi

they were the craftsmen and conducted what little trade there was

forbidden to live in Sparta, hence, they were were those who “lived around”

they could leave Lacedaimon to conduct business

they had no political rights and could not marry Spartans

their poleis formed a buffer around Sparta to keep out outside influences

HELOTS

an unfree group, their status was already disputed in antiquity:

according to Critias they were “especially slaves”

according to Pollux, their status was “between free men and slaves”

tied to the land, they were agricultural labor, assigned to a particular kleros

ritually mistreated, humiliated and even slaughtered: every autumn, during the
krypteia, they could be killed by a Spartan citizen without fear of repercussion

bastards, born of Helot women and Spartan fathers were µόθακες (mothakes), a
sort of intermediate class. Boys served in the army in inferior roles. Girls were
exposed at birth to die

MESSENIAN WARS -8 TH-5 TH C.

casus belli-it was said the first battle was initiated because some Messenian men carried off some Spartan
women praying at a temple. When the Messenians refused to return them, the Spartans invaded Messenia



743-724 BC-First Messenian War: after the Dorian invasion the Spartans began
to subjugate the Achaeans living to the west in Messenia. Those Messenians
who didn’t escape to other states were reduced to slavery and called helots

685-668 BC-Second Messenian War: about forty years later the helots revolted
with the aid of the Argives. These Achaeans also hated the Spartan Dorians.
After many defeats the Spartans finally prevailed under the leadership of their
leader Tyrtaeus. This experience began the road to militarism



743-724 BC-First Messenian War: after the Dorian invasion the Spartans began
to subjugate the Achaeans living to the west in Messenia. Those Messenians
who didn’t escape to other states were reduced to slavery and called helots

685-668 BC-Second Messenian War: about forty years later the helots revolted
with the aid of the Argives. These Achaeans also hated the Spartan Dorians.
After many defeats the Spartans finally prevailed under the leadership of their
leader Tyrtaeus. This experience began the road to militarism

5th c-Third Messenian War-the Pausanias Plot

According to Myron of Priene, an anti-Spartan historian of the
middle 3rd century BC:

"They assign to the Helots every shameful task leading to disgrace. For they
ordained that each one of them must wear a dogskin cap (κυνῆ / kunễ) and wrap
himself in skins (διφθέρα / diphthéra) and receive a stipulated number of beatings
every year regardless of any wrongdoing, so that they would never forget they were
slaves. Moreover, if any exceeded the vigour proper to a slave's condition, they
made death the penalty*; and they allotted a punishment to those controlling them
if they failed.”
__________
*this was to remove potential troublemakers and rebels

Wikipedia

Sparta was like no other state in the Greek world; like hardly any other state in all
of history. This made it the subject of attention and interest, and of unusual
admiration, although not always, throughout the millennia. When people know
about the Greeks, they know about Sparta. Later political philosophers are struck
just as Plato and Aristotle were by certain things about the Spartan way of life that
make them take it seriously and admire it. Rousseau was a great admirer of Sparta
for a variety of reasons. But one of the things that I don't want you to lose sight of is
that Sparta becomes a slave-holding state like no other Greek state.

Now, there was slavery all over the ancient world. There was no society that we
know of in the ancient world that was without slavery and Greece was no different,
but there were not very many slaves among the Greek states as a whole. There was
certainly nothing elsewhere like what the Spartans did to their slaves.

The Spartan citizens had a system that allowed them to not work in order to live; no
other Greek state would have that. To think about Greek slavery in the seventh
century B.C., remember Hanson's reconstruction of the development of the polis.
Think about farmers who themselves worked the fields, and are assisted in their
work in the fields by one or two slaves that they owned. That's not the Spartan
system.

Kagan

The Spartan system will be Spartiates at home, training constantly for war, never
working any fields, never engaging in trade or industry. Others do that for them. In
a small way this begins to resemble slavery as we think of it in the antebellum
south in the United States, where great armies of slaves are doing all the work and
where the plantation owners, “the Spartans,” don't do any work at all, but maintain
a kind of a military aristocracy.

Please don't push that analogy too far and I hope I haven't misled you by suggesting
it. I do it is because it may help us better understand the Spartans a little.

My old colleague who taught history of American slavery, John Blassingame, said to
me that when the emancipation came, the slaves were freed and so were the masters
and I think that's a very perceptive thing to say. Those southern plantation owners
were sitting on a powder keg.

Kagan (edited and emphasis added)

They were in terror constantly that if everything didn't go just right something like
Nat Turner's rebellion would take place, and they'd come home and find their
wives and children with their throats cut. They were in constant terror and they had
to live a life that required all sorts of things that they might not have liked to do, in
order to repress the slave population on which they relied. That is what I want to
communicate.

The Spartans, after the two Messenian Wars [743-724 and 685-668 BC], were in
constant fear. I think it's not too strong a word to describe the prospect of helot
rebellions. The rebels might then be assisted by neighboring states which were
jealous of or disliked the Spartans. Thucydides says flat out that that's the key to
understanding Spartan policy and Spartan thinking. It is their fear of the helots.

Most scholars would have accepted that without question; lately, some scholars
have wanted to question it. I must say I'm not at all persuaded by the new
interpretations. I do think to understand the Spartans we have to comprehend their
continuing permanent concern about the helots.

Kagan

II ΑΓΩΓΗ
(AGŌGĒ)
SCHOOL OF THE SOLDIER

LYKOURGOS (LYCURGUS)
“HE WHO BRINGS INTO BEING THE WORKS OF A WOLF”

a real person?

the legendary “lawgiver of Sparta” (c. 800-730 BC)

travels and observations

the oracle of Delphi

his principles:

equality (among citizens) ὀµὀιοι (homoioi)

military fitness ἁρετή (aretē)

austerity ἄσκεσις (askesis); spurning wealth (το πλυτος)

Bas-relief of Lycurgus, one of 23 great
lawgivers depicted in the chamber of
the U.S. House of Representatives.

675-650 Lycurgus received the great rhetra (Μεγάλη Ῥήτρα,
“great saying or proclamation”)-the charter of aristocratic
“republican” government at Sparta-from the oracle of Apollo at
Delphi, which recognized the dual kingship, with each king
selected from the prominent families of Agiads and
Eurypontids, and a 30 member council, the Gerousia which
included the 2 kings and 28 elders. The right of ratification
resided with the ecclesia attended by all male citizens;
citizenship requirements for Spartiatai included possession of
a kleros of public land, membership in one of the military
messes (syssitia) and successful completion of the Spartan
agogē….
Donald Kagan, class notes handout

The Great Rhetra

KEY

Command

Legislate

Oversight

Obedience

LYCURGUS’ INSTITUTIONS

syssitia-Spartiates (Spartan citizens) are required to take their meals in military
messes rather than with their families

agogē-the system of military education, successful completion becomes a
requirement for citizenship

kleros-this unit of public land was assigned to each male head of household. It
was worked by a helot labor force. The Spartiatos was thus freed to practice his
military duties

each Spartiate child is examined at birth by the state inspectors from his village
Gerousia. Those boys or girls with any sort of birth deficiency are exposed to die

boys remain at home until age seven. Then they enter the military system and
live in barracks. They live in “packs” or “herds;” their new families. Their
education is supervised by the “boy herder,” and carried out by the upper class
boys

ages 7-12-they are taught privation and stealth

each Spartiate child is examined at birth by the state inspectors from his village
Gerousia. Those boys or girls with any sort of birth deficiency are exposed to die

boys remain at home until age seven. Then they enter the military system and
live in barracks. They live in “packs” or “herds;” their new families. Their
education is supervised by the “boy herder,” and carried out by the upper class
boys

ages 7-12-they are taught privation and stealth

ages 12-19-more specifically military skills, graduates become reserve army

ages 19-30-active army, then finally, marriage; but syssitia with their military
unit continues

“MENTORING”

after puberty, each boy entered into a close relationship with an older male
Spartiate, his erotes (lover)

he was then called the eromenos (beloved)

the Athenian Xenophon, who spent many years in Sparta, was at pains to deny
that this was a homosexual relationship

Kagan’s response--”nonsense”

even after the eromentos graduated and became an erotes himself, he retained a
lifelong relationship with his erotes

this constitutes the ultimate military male bonding and unit cohesion

Degas, “Young Spartans Exercising” (1860) “In this painting, Lycurgus stands
among the mothers in the group of adults in back. Degas stated that his source for
his interpretation was Plutarch. This painting reveals the power of the utopian,
naturalistic view of Sparta that was perpetuated in the modern era.--Pomeroy & al.

Now, up to now, I've been talking about men, but it's important to talk about
Spartan women too, because they were different from other Greek women, just as
the men were different. Just to make that clear, let me make it plain that the rest
of the Greeks treated women very, very differently from men, and one thing that
was very striking and the difference was that the men engaged in physical exercise,
especially in these competitions that were part of the great games, and those were
always carried out in the nude. Women did not engage in these sports activities
and it would have been the greatest conceivable shame for a woman to be seen in
the nude, it was just absolutely unthinkable for the ordinary Greeks. But the
Spartans do things their own way, and their women engage in dancing and
athletics, and in competition and they did so in the nude, just as the boys did, and
so they were not shut away from the boys all the time in the way that Greek girls
were kept away from the boys.
Donald Kagan, lecture transcript, op. cit.

Now, up to now, I've been talking about men, but it's important to talk about
Spartan women too, because they were different from other Greek women, just as
the men were different. Just to make that clear, let me make it plain that the rest
of the Greeks treated women very, very differently from men, and one thing that
was very striking and the difference was that the men engaged in physical exercise,
especially in these competitions that were part of the great games, and those were
always carried out in the nude. Women did not engage in these sports activities
and it would have been the greatest conceivable shame for a woman to be seen in
the nude, it was just absolutely unthinkable for the ordinary Greeks. But the
Spartans do things their own way, and their women engage in dancing and
athletics, and in competition and they did so in the nude, just as the boys did, and
so they were not shut away from the boys all the time in the way that Greek girls
were kept away from the boys.
Donald Kagan, lecture transcript, op. cit.

PLUTARCH’S, SAYINGS OF SPARTAN
WOMEN

a Spartan mother burying her son received condolences from an old woman who
commented on her bad luck. “No, by the heavens, but rather good luck, for I bore
him so that he could die for Sparta, and this is precisely what has happened.”

another woman,seeing her son coming toward her after a battle and hearing from
him that everyone else had died, picked up a tile and, hurling it at him, struck him
dead, saying “And so they sent you to tell us the bad news?”

quoted in Pomeroy & al., Ancient Greece, pp. 177-178

ἢ τὰν ἢ ἐπὶ τᾶς
(eh tan eh epi tas)
Plutarch reported that Spartan mothers parting words to their
sons were “[Come home] either [with] it (your shield) or on it.”

THE KRYPTEIA

at age twenty, the best graduates of the agogē are offered the chance to choose this élite
organization for their active military service

a sort of proto-SS, these secret police had the primary responsibility for repressing the
helots, sometimes with public punishments

The kryptes were also sent out into the countryside with only a knife to survive on their
skills and cunning with the instructions to kill any helot they encountered at night and to
take any food they needed--Plutarch

Krypteia members stalked the helot villages and surrounding countryside, spying on the
servile population. Their mission was to root-out potential sedition. Troublesome helots
could be summarily executed

THE STATE UNDERMINES THE FAMILY

we’ve already noted how euthanizing “unfit” children was a state decision

although Spartiates could marry after age twenty in order to produce future soldiers,
many measures were designed to subordinate the family to the state:

age 20-30 Spartiates had to steal away to have marital relations

even after age 30, meals were taken with the 15 man syssition; “unit cohesion” trumped family
life

every possible cultural norm was designed to place loyalty to the state above self or family

Kagan calls Sparta “a polis on steroids” suggests it be written P*O*L*I*S

MODERN VIEWS ON
SPARTA
As late as the twentieth century, critics of western capitalist society have idealized the
Spartans as highly virtuous, patriotic people produced by a noncapitalistic society. In
recent years, however, some who cherish individual freedom and social mobility have
come to see in Sparta a forerunner of totalitarian regimes such as Nazi Germany, and
in fact some Nazis did identify with Sparta. Furthermore the blueprint for twentieth-
century communism had many affinities with the Spartan utopia. Nevertheless even
today, the old preference for Sparta has reappeared in the works of some feminist
theorists, who have noted that the lives of women in Sparta appear to have been more
conducive to good health, enjoyable, and in many ways superior to those of women in
democratic Athens.

Although Athens was no more a typical Greek polis than was Sparta, examining
Athens and Sparta together is a useful way of understanding the ancient Greek view
of life….It is to Athens that we now turn.
Pomeroy & al., Ancient Greece, p. 178

IV. ATHENS: THE
LIGHT OF REASON

IV. ATHENS: THE
LIGHT OF REASON

“We are lovers of wisdom, but without weakness.”--Pericles

δεί τὰ ταῦτα παθείν
‘ινα σοφίαν ἔχοµεν

It is necessary to suffer these things
in order that we attain wisdom
--my Greek teacher’s response

when I complained about the difficulty

of Greek

Pericles’ funeral oration
for the Athenian war dead
430 BC

“… in the matter of education, whereas [the Spartans] from early youth are always undergoing laborious
exercises which are to make them brave, we live at ease, and yet are equally ready to face the perils which they
face. For we are lovers of the beautiful in our tastes and our strength lies, in our opinion, not in deliberation
and discussion, but that knowledge which is gained by discussion preparatory to action.

Pericles rises to crescendo in his praise of Athens, "In short, I say that as a city we are the school of Hellas;
while I doubt if the world can produce a man, who where he has only himself to depend upon, is equal to so
many emergencies, and graced by so happy a versatility as the Athenian….For we have a peculiar power of
thinking before we act, and of acting, too, whereas other men are courageous from ignorance but hesitate
upon reflection. And they are surely to be esteemed the bravest spirits who, having the clearest sense both of
the pains and pleasures of life, do not on that account shrink from danger."

Jowett translation, 1888

...education in Athens was left entirely to individual enterprise. After their sixth year
the [wealthy] boys were put in the charge of a paidagogos, who was usually an old
slave. He had no responsibility for their education; his function was to accompany
them to school and generally to keep watch over them. On a familiar Greek vase
painting is a representation of one of these old men carrying the lyre of his master’s
son as the latter makes his way to school.

Everyday Life in Ancient Times, p. 229

We also see scrolls of papyrus, which was the only paper the Greeks
knew….Generally, however, papyrus was used sparingly, since it was expensive. Nearly
all the work was done on wax tablets.

Reading and writing were taught first. With them came some work in numbers, but the
Greeks used letters of the alphabet for their numerical system, and most simple
mathematical calculations were performed on an abacus. [They were invented in
Mesopotamia and arrived in Greece in the 5th century--Wikipedia]


Languages, save native Greek, were not taught. The principal textbook
from earliest times was Homer, and all young Greeks knew their Iliad and
Odyssey, many of them by heart. Such subjects as natural science,
geography, and history formed part of a higher stage of education and were
generally taught in the philosophical surroundings of the academies.

As early as the 5th century some geometry was added to the usual
curriculum, although Socrates thought it should be limited to what was
strictly necessary.

[Rhetoric was taught to those with political ambitions by private tutors
called sophists]


FROM EARLIEST TIMES ATTICA WAS
ORGANIZED INTO

φυλη (phylē, tribe) • originally four, named after mythical
founder heros
φρατρια (phratria,
• these aristocratic strongholds were
phratry, that is religious as well as political
“brotherhood” or “kinfolk” organizations

γενος (genos, clan or • also, originally, only the aristocrats
extended family were considered to have genos

οικος (oikos, household) • our word economics comes from the
Greek “rules for the household”

The sea traffic of Athens must have been rapidly growing in the first half of
the seventh century. It is easy to see how the active participation of Athens
in trade began to undermine the aristocracy of birth, by introducing a new
standard of social distinction. The nobles engaged in mercantile commerce
with various success, some becoming richer, and others poorer; and the
industrial folk increased in wealth and importance. The result would
ultimately be that wealth would assert itself as well as birth, both socially
and politically; and in the second half of the seventh century we find that,
though the aristocracy has not been fully replaced...all the conditions are
present for such a transformation.

J.B. Bury, A History of Greece, p. 167

ORIGINAL THREE CLASSES OF
FREEDMEN

Eupatridai=the aristocracy, literally “well fathered.” They called themselves hoi
agathoi (the good), others, hoi kakoi (the bad). There was no ennobling.
Aristocracy could only be inherited

Georgoi=land-owning peasant farmers. Landless agricultural workers
(hektemoroi, sixth-parters) their fee of the crops which their labor produced,
paid to the land owner

Demiurgoi=the artisans and merchants who lived in Athens or the surrounding
villages. Perhaps, “those who made stuff” (dēmiourgos ‘craftsman,’ from dēmios
‘public’ (from dēmos ‘people’) + -ergos ‘working.’)

LATER FOUR CLASSES BY WEALTH

Pentacosiomedimnoi=those large proprietors whose income reached five
hundred medimnoi (measures) of grain at a time when oil and wine had not
been much cultivated, i.e., the landed aristocracy, could serve as strategoi

Hippés=those whose produce equalled <300, but>500 measures. Those gentry
who could maintain a horse (hippos) and fight as cavalry in war

Zeugitai=those whose income was =200 medimnoi. These yeomen farmers
were those who could support a pair of oxen (zugon=yoke), hoplitai

Thetes= 199 or <manual workers or sharecroppers, in war, servants or rowers

according to the Solon reforms, early sixth century

OTHERS

women and children=Attic society, like the rest of the ancient world (and most
of mankind’s [sic] experience thereafter) was patriarchal.

metoikoi=the metics were resident aliens. They, like women and male children
under twenty, all non-citizens, could not participate in the assembly (ἐκκλησία-
ekklēsia)

douloi=the slaves. Household slavery had existed since time immemorial, but
the seventh century advance in commerce and industry led to a slave trade from
Asia Minor, Thrace and the Black Sea coast to satisfy the demand for increased
labor. No data exist for the early years, but:

Between 317 BC and 307 BC, the tyrant Demetrius Phalereus ordered a general
census of Attica, which arrived at the following figures: 21,000 citizens, 10,000
metics and 400,000 slaves.--Wiki

Classical Athens is renowned for being the birthplace
of democracy. Yet it also holds the dubious distinction
of being the ﬁrst society with large numbers of slaves.
Coincidence? Probably not, as Paul Cartledge explains

...any human being that by nature (κατά φῦσις) belongs not to himself but to
another is by nature a slave.

But is there anyone thus intended by nature to be a slave, and for whom such
a condition is expedient and right, or rather is not all slavery a violation of
nature?

There is no difficulty in answering this question, on the grounds both of
reason and of fact. For that some should rule and others be ruled is a thing
not only necessary, but expedient; from the hour of their birth some are
marked out for subjection, others for rule. [emphasis added, jbp]

Aristotle, Politics, bk i, 4-6, Benjamin Jowett, trans. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1928

DRACŌ- ( Δράκων, Drakōn) (circa 7th century BC)

RULE OF LAW

the first Athenian legislator. Prior to this, all law was customary, i.e., whatever
the local basileis said they remembered it was. There were no written statutes

39th Olympiad (621 or 20 BC)--a member of the aristocratic Council (Βουλή-
Bou•LAY), he replaced the prevailing system of oral law and blood feud by a
written code to be enforced only by a court

the example of murder, a crime with religious overtones, believed to pollute the
polis

his punishments were so strict that the code was said to be written in blood
rather than ink

SOLŌN- ( Σόλων, c. 638 BC – 558 BC )

statesman, lawmaker, and poet...often credited with
having laid the foundations for Athenian democracy

early sixth century-to revise or abolish the older laws
of Draco, all debts were abolished and all debt-slaves
were freed. The status of the hectemoroi (the "one-
sixth workers"), who farmed in an early form of share
cropping , was also abolished. These reforms were
known as the Seisachtheia, the "shaking-off of
burdens."

reduced the power of the old aristocracy by making
wealth rather than birth a criterion for holding
political positions, a system called timokratia or
bust titled Solon, National Museum, Naples Timocracy

SOLON- THE POET AND REFORMER

πολλοὶ γὰρ πλουτεῦσι κακοί, ἀγαθοὶ δὲ πένονται:
ἀλλ' ἡµεῖς αὐτοῖς οὐ διαµειψόµεθα
τῆς ἀρετῆς τὸν πλοῦτον: ἐπεὶ τὸ µὲν ἔµπεδον αἰεί,
χρήµατα δ' ἀνθρώπων ἄλλοτε ἄλλος ἔχει.

Some wicked men are rich, some good are poor;
We will not change our virtue for their store:
Virtue's a thing that none can take away,
But money changes owners all the day

Here translated by the English poet John
Dryden, Solon's words define a 'moral high
ground' where differences between rich and
poor can be reconciled or maybe just ignored.
His poetry indicates that he attempted to use
his extraordinary legislative powers to
establish a peaceful settlement between the
country's rival factions.
Wikipedia
Solon, depicted as a medieval scholar in the
Nuremberg Chronicle

Solon’s poems, written around the beginning of the sixth century,
constitute our earliest direct [primary source] evidence for
Athenian society at a crucial time in its development. [Kagan calls
Solon “the first historical person”] The histories of Herodotus and
Thucydides, though dealing mainly with fifth century events, also
contain some valuable information about early Athens.
Pomeroy & al., Ancient Greece, p. 181

Another thing that [Solon] did — I'm going to talk about
citizenship for a moment; the Greek poleis were very jealous of
their citizenship. Their theory of the polis was that all citizens were
the descendants of the original founders of the city. In other
words, everybody in Athens was a relative of some kind.

Of course it wasn't true; certainly in Athens we know there were
many immigrants .... But the fact remains that that was the
[widespread belief], and the notion of this — the power, the
centrality of the concept of polis to them is something we need to
understand, and they were jealous of it and selfish with it. This was
not something they would simply allow people to acquire, if they
wanted it. This place is us and it's not them and we don't make
people citizens, .... To be a citizen of Athens in those days, you had
to have a father who was a citizen of Athens; nothing else would
do ....
Kagan

But Solon changed that; Solon offered citizenship to individuals
who came to Athens to settle and could show that they had a
valuable skill, a valuable craft and the results were that Athens
would become in the decades following Solon, a great center for
the manufacturing of a variety of things; pottery is what
[remains], and painted pottery is a great part of the Athenian
tradition, but sculpture also and all kinds of things that we
probably don't have, because they would have been destroyed over
time. But the idea was, if you were a skilled craftsman, you could
come to Athens. Before Solon, anybody who came to Athens, could
stay, could make themselves a permanent resident, but he would
always be what the Greeks called a metoikos, we say in English a
metic, meaning a resident alien, never to be a citizen….

Solon arranged for them to become Athenian citizens...it turned
out to be one of those things that Solon instituted that would have
long range consequences, helpful to the Athenian state.
Kagan

Well, brilliant, marvelous Solon was so clever he realized that
when you're moderate, the wonderful achievement of a moderate
person is that everybody is dissatisfied, because the guys on that
end are unhappy and the guys [on the other] end are unhappy, and
so he knew that there would be immediate efforts to overthrow
what he had done. So, one of his stipulations was that the
Athenians would have to leave his laws unchanged for ten years,
and he also knew that his own life would be extremely
uncomfortable hanging around Athens while everybody came and
said, what the hell did you do Solon? So, he left town and went on
his travels for ten years after that.

Well, it saved him a lot of grief, but it didn't save his legislation,
because there was tremendous strife in Athens after the year of
Solon's archonship, indeed, something resembling chaos....
Kagan

Anarchy
(from Greek: ἀναρχίᾱ anarchíā)
no archon, no leader/leadership

They were technically years of anarchy; that is to say, there was
so much dispute and conflict in Athens that they were unable to
elect the nine archons...that was how serious the conflict
was....localism, regionalism was very powerful in Attica and it was
regionalism that was a large part of the problem in this period.
Important figures in the aristocracy from different parts of Attica,
each sought to make himself the dominant force in Athenian
society, and to bring about changes that were satisfactory to [him],
but they ran into the fact that they had competition....There were
three factions that were identified...by the Athenians and they all
struggled....
Kagan

THE FACTIONS

Pedieis - Lycurgus [not to be confused with the Spartan] was the leader of the Pedieis. They were
the basileis who resided on the fertile plains. These landowners could grow grain, giving them
leverage during the food shortage which had resulted from the decades-long war with Megara
(second quarter of the 6th century). These richest barons wanted the total repeal of Solon’s reforms--
reactionaries

THE FACTIONS

Pedieis - Lycurgus [not to be confused with the Spartan] led the Pedieis, referring to the basileis
who resided on the fertile plains. These landowners could grow grain, giving them leverage during
the food shortage which had resulted from the decades-long war with Megara (second quarter of the
6th century). These richest barons wanted the total repeal of Solon’s reforms--reactionaries

Paralioi - Paralioi referred to the aristocrats living along the coast. Led by Megacles, an
Alcmaeonid, the Paralioi party was not as strong as the Pedieis primarily because they did not have
the same ability to produce grain as did the plainsmen. With the Megarans patrolling the sea, much
of the import/export possibilities were limited. They were more open to Solon’s reforms

THE FACTIONS

Pedieis - Lycurgus [not to be confused with the Spartan] led the Pedieis, referring to the basileis
who resided on the fertile plains. These landowners could grow grain, giving them leverage during
the food shortage which had resulted from the decades-long war with Megara (second quarter of the
6th century). These richest barons wanted the total repeal of Solon’s reforms--reactionaries

Paralioi - Paralioi referred to the aristocrats living along the coast. Led by Megacles, an
Alcmaeonid, the Paralioi party was not as strong as the Pedieis primarily because they did not have
the same ability to produce grain as did the plainsmen. With the Megarans patrolling the sea, much
of the import/export possibilities were limited. They were more open to Solon’s reforms

Hyperakrioi-The last group...dwelled primarily in the hills and were by far the poorest of the
Athenian population. Their only products that could be bartered were items like honey and wool.
Peisistratos [δεµοτατότικος-the most democratic] organized them into the Hyperakrioi, or hill
dwellers. This party was grossly outnumbered by the Plain party (even when combined with the
Coastal party)

PEISISTRATOS- ( Πεισίστρατος, f. 561 BC – 528/27 BC )
The Athenian FDR

565-heroic general in the Megaran War, wounded, asked for a
bodyguard to protect him from his enemies

561 & 556-he twice attempted to become a tyrant in the chaos
following the Solonian reforms, the second time with the aid
of Megacles and the Paralioi faction

The Athenian FDR



Many of the poleis around Athens had replaced their
aristocracies or oligarchies with tyrants: Sicyon, Corinth,
Megara

riding into Athens with “Athena”

The Athenian FDR



Many of the poleis around Athens had replaced their
aristocracies or oligarchies with tyrants: Sicyon, Corinth,
Megara

[date uncertain]-after two periods of exile, he returned with a
body of mercenaries and kept the power for the remainder of
his life

a different sort of tyrant, he used his power to aid the poorest
riding into Athens with “Athena” farmers and hoplites and made the legal system more
accessible. His reign was later viewed as a “golden age”

[But one of his least popular “reforms” was a 5% tax--the 1st of its kind]

Aristotle tells this story, one day Peisistratus was traveling around
the countryside of Attica, as I guess he sometimes did, and he went
up on the slopes of Mount Hymettus, not too far from the city of
Athens. You can go up there today, the notion of anybody farming
on that mountain is totally incredible.... So anyway, he goes up to
this farmer and he says, "Say farmer what do you grow on your
farm?" The farmer, you have to imagine a gnarled old mean, nasty
old guy saying, "On my farm I grow rocks and Peisistratus is
welcome to his five percent."

Well, what did Peisistratus say, off with his head or send him on to
the moon? He said, “well, aren't you a cute little fellow. I hereby
declare your farm exempt from taxes forever”, and it became a
famous thing, the tax free farm. It shows up in a Byzantine
encyclopedia; that story is still being told. So, you got a very special
kind of tyrant here.
Kagan

Peisistratos enacted a popular program to beautify Athens and
promote the arts. He minted coins with Athena's symbol (the
owl).... Under his rule were introduced two new forms of poetry,
the dithyramb and tragic drama, and the era also saw growth in
theater, arts and sculpture. He commissioned the permanent
copying and archiving of Homer's two epic poems, the Iliad and
the Odyssey, and the canon of Homeric works is said to derive
from this particular archiving.
Wikipedia

Hippias of Athens (Ancient Greek: Ἱππίας ὁ Ἀθηναῖος) was one
of the sons of Peisistratus, and was tyrant of Athens in the 6th
century BC.
Hippias succeeded Peisistratus in 527 BC, and in 525 BC he
introduced a new system of coinage in Athens. His brother
Hipparchus, who may have ruled jointly with him, was murdered by
Harmodius and Aristogeiton (the Tyrannicides) in 514 BC. Hippias
executed the Tyrannicides and became a bitter and cruel ruler.

Wikipedia

Harmodius and Aristogeton, the tyrannicides, kill Hipparchos
in 514 BC but fail to kill his brother, the tyrant Hippias

The Alcmaeonidae family, who Peisistratus had exiled in 546 BC, had built a new temple at
Delphi, then bribed the priestess to command the Spartans to help them overthrow
Hippias. A Spartan force was sent to help, but Hippias and his family, the Pisistratidae,
allied themselves with Cineas of Thessaly, and the Spartans and Alcmaeonidae were at first
defeated.
A second attempt, led by Cleomenes I of Sparta, successfully entered Athens and trapped
Hippias on the Acropolis. They also took the Pisistratidae children hostage, and Hippias
was forced to leave Athens in order to have them returned safely. He was expelled from
Athens in 510. Shortly before the end of his rule, he married his daughter, Archedike, to
Aiantides, son of Hippoklos, the tyrant of Lampsakos, to facilitate his access to [the
Persian Great King] Darius' court at Susa.
The Spartans later thought that a free, democratic Athens would be dangerous to Spartan
power, and attempted to recall Hippias and reestablish the tyranny. Hippias had fled to
Persia, and the Persians threatened to attack Athens if they did not accept Hippias;
nevertheless the Athenians preferred to remain democratic despite the danger from Persia.
Soon after this, the Ionian Revolt began. It was put down in 494 BC, but Darius I of Persia
was intent on punishing Athens for their role in the revolt. In 490 BC Hippias, still in the
service of the Persians, led Darius to Marathon, Greece.

Wikipedia

But that’s another story...

CLEISTHENES- ( Κλεισθενης, f. late sixth century)

son of Megacles, who had first aided Peisistratos,
then fallen out with him and been exiled

511/10-with help from the Alcmaeonidae
(Cleisthenes' genos, "clan"), he was responsible for
overthrowing Hippias, the tyrant son of
Pisistratus. After the collapse of Hippias' tyranny,
Isagoras and Cleisthenes were rivals for power,
but Isagoras won the upper hand by appealing to
the Spartan king Cleomenes I to help him expel
Cleisthenes.

508/7-when Isagoras overplayed his hand he was
overthrown and Cleisthenes began his reforms Cleisthenes is known as "the father of Athenian
democracy". Modern bust, on view at the Ohio
Statehouse, Columbus, Ohio

Now, this requires that they establish a new constitution, because they're going to
have a regime the like of which no one had ever seen before. But in trying to
understand this constitution and it's not easy — the ancient sources tell us a lot
about it, but it's not perfectly clear what's in everybody's mind as they do what
they do. Motives and purposes are not clear as you'll see in a moment. But
anyway, what I want you to fix on is this.

Don't imagine that what's taking place here is even anything like the American
Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, where a bunch of delegates have been
selected from here and there, and they all sit and argue with each other over the
hot summer and finally come up with various plans. It's better to think of the
French Revolution, think of the convention where the sort of the mass of the
people have gained control of the situation, after driving the king from his throne,
and after really putting aside a more aristocratic council that came before it, and
they sit down with radical people running around, ready to kill people. This is
the outfit that's going to end up killing the king and his queen, and all the
aristocrats they can lay their hands on. In other words, we are in a revolutionary
situation, and force and terror are in the air. Everybody is fully aware of the
danger of this and that, and of some dangers that probably don't even exist.

Kagan

Now, this requires that they establish a new constitution, because they're going to
François Antoine de Boissy d'Anglas
have a regime the like of which no one( had5ever1seen8before. s a in trying h
1 7 6 – 8 2 ) w a But F r e n c to
understand this constitution and it's not easy — the ancient sources tell us a lot
about it, but it's not perfectly clear what's in everybody's mind as they doFirst
statesman of the Revolution, what
they do. Motives and purposes are notRepublic and Empire a moment. But
clear as you'll see in
anyway, what I want you to fix on is this. On the Jacobin journée of 1st
Prairial 1795, he was presiding over
Don't imagine that what's taking place here Convention, and like the American
the is even anything remained in his
Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, where a bunch of delegates have been
post despite insults and menaces of
selected from here and there, and they all sit and argue with each other over the
hot summer and finally come up with various plans. It's When to think of the
the insurgents. better the head of
the deputy, Jean Féraud, was
French Revolution, think of the convention where the sort of the mass of the
people have gained control of the situation, after driving him on from his throne,
presented to the king the end of a
and after really putting aside a more aristocratic council that came before it, and
pike, he saluted it impassively.
they sit down with radical people running around, ready to kill people. This is
the outfit that's going to end up killing the king and his queen, and all the
aristocrats they can lay their hands on. In other words, we are in a revolutionary
situation, and force and terror are in the air. Everybody is fully aware of the
danger of this and that, and of some dangers that probably don't even exist.

Kagan

We are in a situation that resembles civil war, The Athenians, who will be sitting in the
assembly passing the laws that produce the constitution that Cleisthenes favors are, first of
all, already afraid that the local aristocrats will use force or guile against them. But on top
of that there have been two Spartan invasions of Attica in the last couple of years and
there's nothing to stop King Cleomenes from coming back again. In fact, I'd go further; I'd
say there's every reason to fear that that's going to happen. Again, that's where the analogy
to the French Revolution works well.

Nothing that happens in that most radical period of the French Revolution is
understandable If you don't know that the French regularly expect that the kings and
emperors of Europe will be marching against them with professional armies very soon, and
their fear is absolutely justified, and so is the Athenian fear that the Spartans will be
coming.
So it's in that hot environment, where fear is all over the place, that this new democratic
constitution will be shaped. The place where it's happening is in the assembly. The
assembly sits on a hillside in the middle of Athens. A hill called the pynx. There in the
open air all adult male citizens are eligible to participate in what takes place.
What about the people who have been thrown off the citizen lists by Isagoras? Are they
there? This is just my reasoning; we don't have any hard evidence. My answer is absolutely
they are. Who is going to tell them not to? You show up on the hill, who's going to kick you
off? Does Cleisthenes want you kicked out? Hell no, because as we will see, one of his main
planks is enrolling those people as citizens.
Kagan

We are in a situation that resembles civil war, The Athenians, who will be sitting in the
assembly passing the laws that produce the constitution that Cleisthenes favors are, first of
ΠΝΥΞ
all, already afraid that the local aristocrats will use force or guile against them. But on top
of that there have been two Spartan invasions of Attica in the last couple of years andPNYX
there's nothing to stop King Cleomenes from coming back again. In fact, I'd go further; I'd
say there's every reason to fear that that's going to happen. Again, that's where the analogy
to the French Revolution works well.

Nothing that happens in that most radical period of the French Revolution is
understandable If you don't know that the French regularly expect that the kings and
emperors of Europe will be marching against them with professional armies very soon, and
their fear is absolutely justified, and so is the Athenian fear that the Spartans will be
coming.
So it's in that hot environment, where fear is all over the place, that this new democratic
constitution will be shaped. The place where it's happening is in the assembly. The
assembly sits on a hillside in the middle of Athens. A hill called the pynx. There in the
open air all adult male citizens are eligible to participate in what takes place.
What about the people who have been thrown off the citizen lists by Isagoras? Are they
there? This is just my reasoning; we don't have any hard evidence. My answer is absolutely
they are. Who is going to tell them not to? You show up on the hill, who's going to kick you
off? Does Cleisthenes want you kicked out? Hell no, because as we will see, one of his main
planks is enrolling those people as citizens.
Kagan

So, in fact, I will bet a lot of money that in all the electioneering that
went on about all these different things, they were a group he must
have targeted and said you've been unfairly treated by these
aristocrats. If I get in power, I will see to it that you are enrolled
again as citizens. So, all of that is happening, and people are very
excited about what is going on. That's the background for these
rather dry and puzzling details I'm about to lay on you to try to
describe what these new laws were that amounted to some kind of a
democracy.

THE CLEISTHENES REFORMS

the heart of the new constitution was a radical change of the tribes, the phylae

the four ancient tribes

Geleontes, Hopletes, Argadeis and Aegicoreis

were replaced by ten new ones

Erechthesis, Aegeis, Pandianis, Leontis, Acamantis, Oeneis, Cecropis, Hippothontis,
Aeantis, and Antiochis

So, he picks out a hundred names of heroes and he assigns them to the ten tribes by lot,
and now you suddenly have ten new tribes. If you can try to think yourself back to a tribal
society and think about what a disruptive thing this is. All my life I've been a member of
the tribe named after, Ion, and so have my ancestors, and so my other ancestors. No more.
He's not around anymore; there's a new tribe that was invented that I'm a member of. So,
that's a very surprising thing. But that's not the end of the story; each tribe now is divided
up into three parts. The word for a third is trittys and the plural is trittyes, and here's the
point. Each of the tribes has one of its trittys in and around the city of Athens. It has
another one in the middle of Attica and the third will be in the region called the coast, the
Peralia.
So every tribe is geographically distributed across all of Attica. The city region, the coast
region, and the midland region, each one of these regions has ten trittyes, one for each of
the ten tribes. Now, let's take it a step further, the trittyes themselves are formed of units
that are called demes. The Greek word for it, and it's very confusing, is demos. Now, the
demos is this deme, this political unit. It also means a village, it also means the whole
Athenian people, and it also means only the poor Athenian people. So, there you are. But
in the context that we're dealing with it here, we mean these units that are geographical
and have a constitutional function.
Kagan

There is, however, even here a certain amount of confusion, because some of the demes are
actually made up of an original village. They don't mess with that. A deme is the equivalent
of a — in other words, a deme is a deme. The two different meanings of the word deme;
other demes for the constitutional purpose are made up of a number of villages. So, there
would be a lot of these old demes placed into the new constitutional deme. The idea,
however, is that every trittys must be of the same size in terms of population, because the
whole idea is to get each tribe to be numerically equal and one reason for that is, because
the tribes will be the regiments of the Athenian army. You line up and fight in accordance
with your deme, which is located in the certain trittys, which becomes a regiment. Your
tribe is a regiment of the army.
Kagan

Here's another thing that Cleisthenes tried, with the law, to change the way in which an
Athenian was officially designated. It used to be, before Cleisthenes came along, you ask a
man who are you. He would say I am Cleisthenes, the son of Megacles. Just the
patronymic, just like you bear the name of your father, unless you chose to bear the name
of your mother, which is evidence of how un-Athenian you really are. So, that's the way it
was, but under the laws of Cleisthenes, henceforth, citizens were to be designated not as
Cleisthenes, son of Megacles, but as Cleisthenes from Alopeke, that is, his deme.
He was to be the citizen's name and his deme name. People have argued about what the
point of all this was, but I think one limited point, before we get to the full story, is simply
another way of cutting down the influence of birth in the society. It's a way of damaging
the aristocratic principle and asserting in its place — look what's really happening here,
that there is something which is the polis that has nothing to do with birth that is the part
of the legal structure which is a polis. It's a whole new concept that's really creeping in
here, replacing the old traditional way of organizing society with one that is the work of
citizens coming together and determining how they themselves will be governed. Let that
be the story of the tribes for a moment.
Kagan

Now, here we go with another council [βουλη], you've heard about the council of four
hundred, you've heard about the council of three hundred. We can do better than that;
we're going to have the council of five hundred. It will be the council that is the democratic
council for the remainder of the history of the Athenian democracy, with the exception of
short periods of oligarchic rebellion that remove it, but it comes back when the democracy
does.
Let me describe it briefly. It is open to all Athenian adult male citizens. Membership on the
council comes through some combination of allotment and election — the point of it is that
an assembly of thousands is not well equipped to conduct all kinds of business that has to
be conducted for the state, and even its own business. You need a smaller group to prepare
the agenda for a full assembly [εκκλεσια] meeting, and so that was the function of the five
hundred.
It is, and this is very important, one of those very democratic elements, the assembly of
course was totally democratic, because adult male citizens participate if they wish. But you
can easily get around that in some degree if you have a council or little group that actually
determines what's going to happen. From the first it wasn't so. The members of the council
had to be — I'm sorry, the council itself was as democratic as the assembly. So, we'll come
back to that council later on, but there it is in place.
Another thing that happened was that by now the army of Athens, which originally had
been led simply by the polemarch, the archon who was chosen for the military leadership,
had given way to generals who commanded the different tribes. It used to be that each
tribe elected its own general, but in the new system now, the entire people elected the
generals for each of the tribes. In other words, the ten tribes still had a general apiece, but
the entire population elected him.
Kagan

ostraca
Pericles
Ostracism (Greek: έξω-οστρακισµός – exo (out)-ostrakismos) was a procedure under the
Kimon
Athenian democracy in which any citizen could be expelled from the city-state of Athens for ten
Aristides
years.

every January-automatic vote in the Assembly, “Shall
there be an ostracism?” (simple majority decides)

March-if there is an ostracism, the Agora is fenced off. At
the 10 gates (one for each tribe) an official verifies
citizenship. Once in, you cannot leave until the polls close

ostraca
Pericles
Kimon
Aristides

every January-automatic vote in the Assembly, “Shall
there be an ostracism?” (simple majority decides)

March-if there is an ostracism, the Agora is fenced off. At
the 10 gates (one for each tribe) an official verifies
citizenship. Once in, you cannot leave until the polls close

the ostraca are counted (6,000 votes necessary)

if the quota is met, the ostraca are sorted. The man with
the most votes (plurality) “wins”

his punishment?

ostraca
what an ostracism is not Pericles
Kimon
Aristides

THE ROAD TO ATHENIAN
DEMOCRACY

DRACO

SOLON

CLEISTHENES

PERICLES

Because of a family tradition of
naming descendants after their
forebears, members of the family
can easily be confused. Hence,
what follows is a partial family tree
of the historical Alcmaeonid family.
Males are in blue, females in red,
and those related by marriage in
white.

as the note says, it’s easy
to become lost among the
Alcmaeonidai. Let me try to
help with this review of the
ones we’ve already met.

Megacles was a member of the Alcmaeonidae family, and the archon eponymous in 632
BC when Kylon made his unsuccessful attempt to take over Athens. Megacles was
convicted of killing Kylon (who had taken refuge on the Acropolis as a suppliant of
Athena) and was exiled from the city, along with all the other members of his genos, the
Alcmaeonidae. The Alcmaeonidae inherited a forebears, ("stain") thatthe family
miasma members of lasted for
generations among Megacles' descendants. can easily be confused. Hence,
of the historical Alcmaeonid family.
Males are in blue, females in red,
white.

of the historical Alcmaeonidyear-long
the tyrant who hosted the family.
Males e t i t iin n f o rfemales a u red, e r
c o m p are o blue, h i s d in g h t
and thosehand. by marriage in
Agariste’s related
white.

what follows isgrandson family above,
Megacles, the a partial of the tree
of theof Alcmaeon. The winner of
son historical Alcmaeonid family.
Males are He blue, females in red, of
Agariste. in was an opponent
Pisistratus in the 6th century BC. He
drove out Pisistratus during the
white. first reign as tyrant in 560
latter's
BC, but the two then made an
alliance with each other, and
Pisistratus married Megacles'
daughter. However, Megacles
turned against Pisistratus when
Pisistratus refused to have children
with Megacles' daughter, which
brought an end to the second
tyranny.

Cleisthenes, son of Megacles, what follows isgrandson family above,
Megacles, the a partial of the tree
grandson of Cleisthenes of Sicyon.
Uncle of Pericles' mother of theof Alcmaeon. The winner of
son historical Alcmaeonid family.
Males are He blue, females in red, of
Agariste. in was an opponent
Agariste and father of Pisistratus in the 6th century BC. He
Alcibiades' maternal and those related by marriage in
drove out Pisistratus during the
grandfather Megacles. Author white. first reign as tyrant in 560
latter's
of the reforms of 507.
BC, but the two then made an
alliance with each other, and
Pisistratus married Megacles'
daughter. However, Megacles
turned against Pisistratus when
Pisistratus refused to have children
with Megacles' daughter, which
brought an end to the second
tyranny.

forebears, members of the family
can easily be confused. Hence,
Cleisthenes, son of Megacles, what follows is a partial family tree
grandson of Cleisthenes of Sicyon.
Uncle of Pericles' mother of the historical Alcmaeonid family.
Agariste and father of Males are in blue, females in red,
Alcibiades' maternal and those related by marriage in
grandfather Megacles. Author white.
of the reforms of 507.

PERICLES- ( Περικλῆς, Periklēs, "surrounded by glory"; c. 495 – 429 BC)

son of Xanthippos, the hero of Mycale and Agariste, the niece of
Cleisthenes

his enemies called him a tyrant and argued that he had inherited
the curse of the Alcmaeonidae through his mother Agariste

probably the best known Athenian leader during its Golden Age
and at the start of the Peloponnesian War

but his life is another story

the inscription “Pericles, two other stories...
son of Xanthippos,
Athenian”. Marble, Roman
copy after a Greek original
from ca. 430 BC

Greece session 4 Sparta & Athens

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