They didnt act immediately; a fight over who would lead the army against Mithridates was settled only when Consul Lucius Cornelius Sulla secured the command by marching on Rome, an unprecedented move. Scorning the vanquished, he declared that he was sparing them only out of respect for their distinguished ancestors. When that failed, the Romans settled in for a long siege. The classical period was an era of war and conflictfirst between the Greeks and the Persians, then between the read more. Any member of the demosany one of those 40,000 adult male citizenswas welcome to attend the meetings of the ekklesia, which were held 40 times per year in a hillside auditorium west of the Acropolis called the Pnyx. If we are all democrats today, we are not - and it is importantly because we are not - Athenian-style democrats. When Athenion sent a force to seize control of Delos, a Roman unit swiftly defeated it. The assembly could also vote to ostracise from Athens any citizen who had become too powerful and dangerous for the polis. The word democracy comes from the Greek words demos, meaning "the people," and kratos, meaning "to rule.". His short and vehement pamphlet was produced probably in the 420s, during the first decade of the Peloponnesian War, and makes the following case: democracy is appalling, since it represents the rule of the poor, ignorant, fickle and stupid majority over the socially and intellectually superior minority, the world turned upside down. I was not sent to Athens by the Romans to learn its history, but to subdue its rebels, he declared. Pericles knew Athens' strength was in their navy, so his strategy was to avoid Sparta on land, because he knew that on land, Athens would be no match for Sparta. During the 600s B.C., Athens was a small city-state. This money was only to cover expenses though, as any attempt to profit from public positions was severely punished. By Athenian democratic standards of justice, which are not ours, the guilt of Socrates was sufficiently proven. He and his allies then retreated to the Acropolis, which the Romans promptly surrounded. Most of the Greek cities there welcomed the Pontic forces, and by early 88, Mithridates was firmly in control of western Anatolia. The Roman leaders, he said, were prisoners, and ordinary Romans were hiding in temples, prostrate before the statues of the gods. Oracles from all sides predicted Mithridatess future victories, he said, and other nations were rushing to join forces with him. The University of Cambridge will use your email address to send you our weekly research news email. Archelaus landed on the Greek coast to the north and withdrew into Thessaly, where he joined forces with Pontic reinforcements that had marched overland from Anatolia. He was chief historical consultant for the BBC TV series 'The Greeks'. 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. Fighting ensued, and the Athenians then took steps that explicitly violated the Thirty Years' Treaty. Sulla circulated among his men and cheered them on, promising that their ordeal was almost over. Hes just returned to the city-state from a mission across the Aegean Sea to Anatolia, where he forged an alliance with a great king. World History Encyclopedia. BBC 2014 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. The tyranny had been a terrible and. Athens, humbled in recent years by the Romans, can seize control of its destiny, Athenion declares. Running a website with millions of readers every month is expensive. 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. Demagogue meant literally 'leader of the demos' ('demos' means people); but democracy's critics took it to mean mis-leaders of the people, mere rabble-rousers. Originally published in the Spring 2011 issue of Military History Quarterly. Why Greece Is Considered the Birthplace of Democracy. In 133 BC, Rome was a democracy. 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. About the same time that the Pontic army was sweeping across the province of Asia, Athens dispatched the philosopher Athenion as an envoy to Mithridates. Archaeologists have found no inscriptions with decrees from the Assembly that date within 40 years of the end of the siege. Numerous educational institutions recommend us, including Oxford University. 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. 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. S2 ep2: What did the future look like in the past? People rushed to greet him as he was carried into the city on a scarlet-covered couch, wearing a ring with Mithridatess portrait. He detached a force to surround Athens, then struck at Piraeus, where Archelaus and his troops were stationed. Since the 19th-century read more, The term classical Greece refers to the period between the Persian Wars at the beginning of the fifth century B.C. A mass slaughter followed. Greek democracy. Appian, the historian who wrote in the second century AD, records that the Bithynians were terrified at seeing men cut in halves and still breathing, or mangled in fragments, or hanging on the scythes.. Immediately following the Bronze Age collapse and at the start of the Dark . By the end, it was hailing its latest ruler, Demetrius, as both a king and a living God. Since Athenians did not pay taxes, the money for these payments came from customs duties, contributions from allies and taxes levied on the metoikoi. Athenian democracy was a system of government where all male citizens could attend and participate in the assembly which governed the city-state. This is a form of government which puts the power to rule in the hands of . The mighty Persian empire (founded in Asia a generation earlier by Cyrus the Great and expanded by his son Cambyses to take in Egypt) is in crisis, since a usurper has occupied the throne. It reached its peak between 480 and 404BC, when Athens was undeniably the master of the Greek world. 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. The lottery system also prevented the establishment of a permanent class of civil servants who might be tempted to use the government to advance or enrich themselves. The masses were, in brief, shortsighted, selfish and fickle, an easy prey to unscrupulous orators who came to be known as demagogues. Into this dangerous situation stepped Solon, a moderate man the Athenians trusted to bring justice for all. That was one, class-based sort of objection to Greek-style direct democracy. That was definitely the opinion of ancient critics of the idea. 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. Of all the democratic institutions, Aristotle argued that the dikasteria contributed most to the strength of democracy because the jury had almost unlimited power. Many tried to flee, but Aristion placed guards at the gates. To the Greeks, he represented himself as a new Alexander, the champion of Greek culture against Rome. "In many ways this was a period of total uncertainty just like our own time," Dr. Scott added. All Rights Reserved. Positions on the boule were chosen by lot and not by election. Such brutality may have been carried out with a design; Athenians fearing a Roman military intervention were growing restless under Aristion. Some 2,000 of Archelauss men were killed. One unusual critic is an Athenian writer whom we know familiarly as the 'Old Oligarch'. Sulla, tipped off by a lead-ball message, captured the relief expedition. 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. World History Publishing is a non-profit company registered in the United Kingdom. Athens is a city-state, while today we are familiar with the primary unit of governance . Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/Athenian_Democracy/. The Greek emissary became an enthusiastic booster of the king and sent letters home advocating an alliance. To some extent Socrates was being used as a scapegoat, an expiatory sacrifice to appease the gods who must have been implacably angry with the Athenians to inflict on them such horrors as plague and famine as well as military defeat and civil war. 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. More loosely, it alludes to the entire range of democratic reforms that proceeded alongside the Jacksonians read more, The Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C. 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 answer lies in a dramatic tale starring the demagogue Athenion, a mindless mob, a tyrant, and a brutal Roman general. There is a strong case that democracy was a major reason for this success. Re-enactment of fighting 'hoplites' Cartwright, Mark. Web. First, was the citizens who ran the government and held property. His achievements included the construction of the Acropolis, begun in 447. Why did the system fail? Ostracism, in which a citizen could be expelled from Athens for 10 years, was among the powers of the ekklesia. "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. 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. Dr Scott's study also marks an attempt to recognise figures such as Isocrates and Phocion - sage political advisers who tried to steer it away from crippling confrontations with other Greek states and Macedonia. The first, rather obvious, strike against Athenian democracy is that there was a tendency for people to be casually executed. 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. With few military resources of its own, the city turned for help to the Roman Republic, the rising power of the day. Rome would have to fight the Pontic king again before his final defeat and deathpurportedly by suicidein 63. Certainly, he was an oligarch, but whether he was old or not we can't say. Democracy inevitably fails because it is predicated not on merit but on popularity. Although this Athenian democracy would survive for only two centuries, its invention by Cleisthenes, The Father of Democracy, was one of ancient Greeces most enduring contributions to the modern world. Aristion executed citizens accused of favoring Rome and sent others to Mithridates as prisoners. It survived the period through slippery-fish diplomacy, at the cost of a clear democratic conscience, a policy which, in the end, led it to accept a dictator King and make him a God.". Read more. The word democracy (dmokratia) derives from dmos, which refers to the entire citizen body, and kratos, meaning rule. These bronze coins bore the Pontic symbol of a star between two half-moons. Now, Roman senators and Athenian exiles in Sullas entourage asked him to show mercy for the city. Submitted by Mark Cartwright, published on 03 April 2018. Athens, therefore, had a direct democracy. But what did the development of Athenian democracy actually involve? In the dark early morning of March 1, 86 BC, the Romans opened an attack there, launching large catapult stones. 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. While Eli Sagan believes Athenian democracy can be divided into seven chapters, classicist and political scientist Josiah Ober has a different view. To protect their money, some Athenians buried coin hoards. The result was a series of domestic problems, including an inability to fund the traditional police force. 474 Words2 Pages. The Italian Social War ended in 88, freeing the Romans to meet the Pontic threat in the east. 'So', persists Alcibiades, 'democracy is really just another form of tyranny?' The generals' collective crime, so it was alleged by Theramenes (formerly one of the 400) and others with suspiciously un- or anti-democratic credentials, was to have failed to rescue several thousands of Athenian citizen survivors. Paul Cartledge is Professor of Greek History at the University of Cambridge. As the year 87 drew on, Mithridates sent additional troops. Sulla had the tyrant and his bodyguard executed. A further variant on this view was that the masses or the mob, being ignorant and stupid for the most part, were easily swayed by specious rhetoric - so easily swayed that they were incapable of taking longer views or of sticking resolutely to one, good view once that had been adopted. But when one of the Athenian delegates began a grand speech about their citys great past, Sulla abruptly dismissed them. The Romans built a huge mobile siege tower that reached higher than the citys walls, and placed catapults in its upper reaches to fire down upon the defenders. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. To the Persians, he emphasized his descent from ancient Persian kings. This time, they burst through Archelauss hastily constructed lunette. In the later parts of the Republic, Plato suggests that democracy is one of the later stages in the decline of the ideal state. The World History Encyclopedia logo is a registered trademark. They therefore in a sense deserved the political pay-off of mass-biased democracy as a reward for their crucial naval role. Canada, The United States and South Africa are all examples of modern-day representative democracies. Sulla obtained iron and other material from Thebes and placed his newly built siege engines upon mounds of rubble collected from the Long Walls. There were 3 classes in the society of ancient Athens. As soldiers carted away their prized and sacred possessions, the guardians of Delphi bitterly complained that Sulla was nothing like previous Roman commanders, who had come to Greece and made gifts to the temples. But where Athenion failed, Mithridates was determined to succeed. In the late 500s to early 400s BCE, democracy developed in the city-state of Athens. The Romans looted even the great shrine at Delphi dedicated to Apollo. Eventually Archelaus realized someone was divulging his plans, but turned it to his advantage. 'Certainly', says Pericles. 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. However, historians argue that selection to the boule was not always just a matter of chance. In the 4th and 5th centuries BCE the male citizen population of Athens ranged from 30,000 to 60,000 depending on the period. Thank you for your help! Inside homes, the Romans discovered a sight that must have horrified even the most hardened among them: human flesh prepared as food. People of power or influence weren't concerned with the rights of such non-citizens. With the city starving, its leaders asked Aristion to negotiate with Sulla. Seeking to offer a unified theory about Greece's current political and economic crisis, this article unravels the particular mechanisms through which this country developed as a populist democracy, that is, a pluralist system in which both the government and the opposition parties turn populist. In these intellectuals' view, government was an art, craft or skill, and should be entrusted only to the skilled and intelligent, who were by definition a minority. An early example of the Greek genius for applied critical theory was their invention of political theory, probably some time during the first half of the fifth century BC. https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-greece/ancient-greece-democracy. Dr. Scott argues that this was caused by a range of circumstances which in many cases were the ancient world's equivalent of those faced by Britain today. Indeed, for the Athenian democrats, elections would have struck at the heart of democracy: They would have allowed some people to assert themselves, arrogantly and unjustly, against the others. Neither side gained an advantage until a group of Romans who had been gathering wood returned and charged into battle. This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. Athens, meanwhile, was devastated. An artillery duel developed. Over time tyrants became greedy and cruel. As the new Alexander, he may also have seen the conquest of Greece as a natural move. Those defeats persuaded Mithridates to end the war. "It is profoundly dangerous when a politician takes a step to undercut or ignore a political norm, it's extremely dangerous whenever anyone introduces violent rhetoric or actual violence into a. Then, in 133 B.C.E., Rome experienced its first political. One of the main reasons why ancient Athens was not a true democracy was because only about 30% of the population could vote. The Romans were extorting as much revenue as possible from their new province of Asia. Instead, Dr. Scott argues that this period is fundamental to understanding what really happened to Athenian democracy. Cleisthenes formally identified free inhabitants of Attica as citizens of Athens, which gave them power and a role in a sense of civic solidarity. The government and economy were also weak causing distress all over Athens. 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. Ancient Athenian democracy differs from the democracy that we are familiar with in the present day. It was here in the courts that laws made by the assembly could be challenged and decisions were made regarding ostracism, naturalization, and remission of debt. Athens, too, should throw in with this rising power, he asserted. Nevertheless, in one sense the condemnation of Socrates was disastrous for the reputation of the Athenian democracy, because it helped decisively to form one of democracy's - all democracy's, not just the Athenian democracy's - most formidable critics: Plato. Athenian democracy was short-lived Around 550BC, democracy was established in Athens, marking a clear shift from previous ruling systems. 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.