Athenian Revolution

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Athenian Revolution
Part of the
aristocratic oligarchy

Establishment of a participatory democracy for all free men of Athens
Parties
Democrats
Tyrants
Persia
Lead figures

Darius I

The Athenian Revolution (508–507 BCE) was a revolt by the people of

tyranny that had swept through Athens and the rest of Greece.[1]

Background

According to legend, Athens was formerly ruled by kings, a situation which may have continued up until the 9th century BCE. During this period, Athens succeeded in bringing the other towns of Attica under its rule. This process of synoikismos – the bringing together into one home – created the largest and wealthiest state on the Greek mainland, but it also created a larger class of people excluded from political life by the nobility.

From later accounts, it is believed that these kings stood at the head of a land-owning aristocracy known as the

Ecclesia, the ancient Athenian assemblies. The archon eponymous remained the titular head of state even under the democracy, though with much reduced political importance. In 753 BCE the perpetual archonship by the Eupatridae[3] were limited to 10 year terms (the "decennial archons").[4] After 683 BCE the offices were held for only a single year.[5]

Bust of Solon, democratic reformer in Athenian Antiquity

By the 7th century BCE, social unrest had become widespread, as Athens suffered a land and agrarian crisis. Many

court of law
. However, these "Draconian" reforms ultimately failed to quell the conflict.

Reform and revolution

Seisachtheia

In 594 BCE,

ecclesia or Assembly, which was open to all male citizens, regardless of social class. The Alcmaeonids were also allowed back into the city, during the archonship of Solon.[7] Eventually the moderate reforms of Solon, improving the lot of the poor but firmly entrenching the aristocracy in power, gave Athens some stability. For many of the years to come, the nascent democracy even managed to govern itself without an archon
.

Hipparchus

Democracy however was threatened by tyranny, as several political factions began to vie for control of the Athenian polis.

tyrannicides Harmodius and Aristogeiton. Hippias executed the tyrannicides and it was said that he became a bitter and cruel ruler, executing a large number of citizens and imposing harsh taxes on the Athenian populace.[8] Hippias's cruelty soon created unrest among his subjects. As he began losing control, he sought military support from the Persians and formed alliances with other Greek tyrannies.[9] The Alcmaeonidae
family of Athens, which Peisistratus had exiled in 546 BCE, was concerned about Hippias forming alliances with the Persian ruling class, and began planning an invasion to depose him.

In 510 BCE

Demaratos, Gongylos or Alcibiades.[12]

The Solonian constitution was created by Solon in the early 6th century BC.[13] At the time of Solon the Athenian State was almost falling to pieces in consequence of dissensions between the parties into which the population was divided. Solon wanted to revise or abolish the older laws of Draco. He promulgated a code of laws embracing the whole of public and private life, the salutary effects[14] of which lasted long after the end of his constitution.

Revolution

With the tyrant ousted, the Spartan king installed Isagoras at the head of an oligarchy, made up of Athenian aristocrats that were loyal or sympathetic to Sparta. He found himself opposed by the majority of Athens, particularly the middle and lower classes, who desired a return to democracy. Cleisthenes, of the pro-democracy Alcmaeonidae clan, was expelled from Athens by the Spartan-backed oligarchs, leaving Isagoras unrivalled in power within the city. Isagoras set about dispossessing hundreds of Athenians of their homes and exiling them on the pretext that they too were cursed by the Alcmaeonidae miasma. He also attempted to dissolve the Boule. However, the council resisted, and the Athenian people declared their support for the council and revolted against the oligarchy. Cleomenes, Isagoras and their supporters were forced by regular citizens to flee to the Acropolis, where they were besieged by Athens' populace for two days. On the third day the Athenians made a truce, allowed Cleomenes and Isagoras to escape, and executed 300 of Isagoras' supporters. Cleisthenes was subsequently recalled, along with hundreds of exiles, and he was elected the first archon of a democratic Athens.[15]

Modern bust of Cleisthenes, known as "the father of Athenian democracy".

Cleisthenes began to institutionalize the democratic revolution. He commissioned a

Xanthippus in 485/84 BCE).[18] Under this system, the exiled man's property was maintained, but he was not physically in the city where he could possibly create a new tyranny. One later ancient author records that Cleisthenes himself was the first person to be ostracized.[19]

The Spartans thought that a free and democratic Athens would be dangerous to Spartan power, and attempted to recall Hippias from Persia and re-establish the tyranny. Democratic Athens sent an embassy to

Peisistratids have influence in Athens.[23]

Democracy and counter-revolution

Main article: Athenian democracy
Assembly
.

In 462 BCE, the pro-democracy

popular assembly a sweeping series of reforms which divided up the powers traditionally wielded by the Areopagus among the democratic council of the Boule, the Ecclesia itself, and the popular courts. Ephialtes took away from the Areopagus their "additional powers, through which it had guardianship of the constitution." The Areopagus merely remained a high court, in control of judging charges of murder and some religious matters. At the same time or soon afterwards, the membership of the Areopagus was extended to the lower level of the propertied citizenship.[26] The success of Ephialtes' reforms was rapidly followed by the ostracism of Cimon, which left Ephialtes and his faction firmly in control of the state, although the fully fledged Athenian democracy of later years was not yet fully established; Ephialtes' reforms appear to have been only the first step in the democratic party's programme.[27] Ephialtes, however, would not live to see the further development of this new form of government; In 461 BCE, he was assassinated, succeeded to the democratic leadership by Pericles.[28]

In the wake of Athens' disastrous defeat in the

Council of 400, in the Athenian coup of 411 BCE. The oligarchy endured for only four months before it was replaced by an even more democratic government. Democratic regimes governed until Athens surrendered to Sparta in 404 BCE, when the government was placed in the hands of the so-called Thirty Tyrants, who were pro-Spartan oligarchs.[29] After a year pro-democracy elements regained control, and democratic forms persisted until the Macedonian army of Phillip II conquered Athens in 338 BCE.[30]

See also

References

  1. ^ Ober, Josiah (1996). The Athenian Revolution. Princeton University Press. pp. 32–52.
  2. ^ Gods, Heroes and Tyrants: Greek Chronology in Chaos By Emmet John Sweeney.
  3. ^ Herodotus, George Rawlinson, Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, Sir John Gardner Wilkinson. The History of Herodotus: A New English Version, Ed. with Copious Notes and Appendices, Illustrating the History and Geography of Herodotus, from the Most Recent Sources of Information; and Embodying the Chief Results, Historical and Ethnographical, which Have Been Obtained in the Progress of Cuneiform and Hieroglyphical Discovery, Volume 3. Appleton, 1882. Pg 316
  4. ^ Evelyn Abbott. A Skeleton Outline of Greek History: Chronologically Arranged. Pg 27.
  5. ISBN 978-0-470-76628-6
    .
  6. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica, Areopagus.
  7. ^ See Gomme, A Historical Commentary on Athens, on 1.126.12. Megacles' son Alcmaeon held command during the first Sacred War: Plutarch, Solon 11.2.
  8. ^ Smith, William (1851). A new classical dictionary of Greek and Roman biography, mythology and geography. New York: Harper. p. 671.
  9. ISBN 978-0-674-03314-6
    .
  10. ISBN 978-1-84964-713-7
    .
  11. ISBN 978-1-4381-1020-2
    .
  12. ISBN 978-0-521-60758-2
    .
  13. ^ A Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, Mythology, Religion, Literature and Art, from the German of Dr. Oskar Seyffert. Page 595
  14. ^ Effecting or designed to effect an improvement
  15. ^ Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians, Chapter 20
  16. ^ Aristotle, Politics 6.4.
  17. ^ Morris & Raaflaub Democracy 2500?: Questions and Challenges
  18. ^ Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians, Chapter 22
  19. ^ Aelian, Varia historia 13.24
  20. ^
    ISBN 978-1-107-00960-8
    .
  21. ^
    ISBN 978-1-107-00960-8
    .
  22. ^ Smith, Willam (1851). A new classical dictionary of Greek and Roman biography, Mythology, and Geography. New York: Harper. p. 671.
  23. ^ Burn, A. R. (1988). The Pelican History of Greece. London: Penguin. p. 173.
  24. ^ Kagan, The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, 64-5. See also Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians, 23
  25. ^ Unless otherwise noted, all details of this campaign are drawn from Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians, 25
  26. ^ Thorley, J., Athenian Democracy, Routledge, 2005, pp. 55–56
  27. ^ Hignett, History of the Athenian Constitution, 217-18
  28. ^ Plutarch, Pericles, 10.6–7
  29. ^ Blackwell, Christopher. "The Development of Athenian Democracy". Dēmos: Classical Athenian Democracy. Stoa. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
  30. ^ "The Final End of Athenian Democracy". PBS.
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