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Summary Full overview of the OCR Democracy and the Athenians

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Democracy and the Athenians

Institution
OCR

18 pages summary, has the history from Solon/Cleisthenes/Ephialtes/Pericles etc and also has the set sources for OCR: Aristophanes, Plato, Pseudo-Xenophon, Aeschylus, Euripides and Thucydides (analysis, quotes and summaries)

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Uploaded on May 30, 2023
Number of pages 18
Written in 2022/2023
Type Summary

Structures of Athenian democracy:
Assembly

 Ekklesia- means something called out
 Some form before Solon, not with same power
 Specific roles under Cleisthenes- scrutinised magistrates, voted on matters put to them by
the boule
 Any citizen can attend, met at dawn four times each prytany
 Scythian archers used as police force to direct citizens and have order in the assembly
meeting
 Vote of confidence of magistrates, could discuss any matters relating to the city, including
laws, corn supply, ostracism, war, peace, foreign policy, tax, finance, public buildings upkeep
 Voting done either with show of hands or secret ballot
 Act as court of appeal

Magistrates/Archons

 Selected from citizen body, most citizens served once in their life, served for a year, could
only be held once
 Each board responsible for one specific area of civic life, e.g keeping streets clean,
supervising markets, checking weights, managing state prison
 Had to go through a serious of questions from the Boule, Boule voted whether to put them
through
 Could only hold a specific magistracy once

The Boule

 Every tribe selected 50 councillors by lot, main administrative arm of government and
advisory to the assembly
 Prepared motions to be debated in the assembly, oversaw implementations of assembly’s
decisions, managing public property, supervising collection, and expenditure of money,
managing public building works, supervised elections, met foreign dignitaries
 Each tribe held presidency for 1 civil month, chosen by lot at end of each civil month
 Every morning, one of the prytanis (the 50 councillors) was chosen by lot to be the chairman
of the council for that day- called epistates

Demagogue

 Leaders
 Opinions are listened to in the assembly
 Speaks to the people, persuade them

Juror/Dikasts

 6000 per year
 Brotherhood of the 3 obols

Areopagus

 Selected and supervised archons, acted as a court of law
 Made of ex-archons

,  Ephialtes 462/1BC
Most court cases are decided by the Heliaia, Areopagus were deprived of jurisdiction over
homicide and sacrilege- more democratic

Solon and Cleisthenes:
Before Solon

 Attica is 2500^2km
 Herodotus- Histories 5th century BC/ Aristotle- Constitution of Athens late 4 th century BC/
Plutarch- Life of Solon 1st century AD
 Main source for period before Solon ‘The Athenian Constitution’ Aristotle? /Pseudo Aristotle
 First form of in Athens was monarchy surrounded Theseus
 Wealth meant landowners
 Areopagus meant on the Areopagus hill (hill of Ares)
 Many farmers in poverty
 Undisputed power of aristocracy, created a destitute class of citizens (Hektemoroi)

Solon

 Athenian poet and law maker
 Born aristocratic
 Appointed arbitrator in 593/4BC
 Considered to be fair and moderate
 Worked in business and travelled extensively
 Understood emerging mercantile class
 Not power hungry

Reforms of Solon

 Economic
Aimed to alleviate poverty of farmers, outlawed enslavement of those unable to pay debts,
previously enslaved slaves for same reason were freed and allowed to return to Attica.
Legislated for the cancellation of debts called Seisachtheia and abolishes slavery through
debts. Wanted to encourage trade- standardised weights and measures. Forbade export of
all agricultural products except olive oil to prevent famine. Must have returned some land to
common use and/or private land to rightful owner, remedying the abuses because
Hektamaroi not mentioned after Solon. Prevent famine and keep prices low by limiting
exporting- focus on Attica. Prevents wealthier landowners from oppressing poor neighbours
with legislature on water. Coinage abolished, paid in silver or by swapping goods
 Political
Sought to break power of eupatridae. Reorganized class system depending on how many
measures (medimnos) of agriculture they produced. Pentakosiomedimni-hippeis-zeugitai-
thetes. Established that men from all classes had right to attend the assembly
 Legal
Placed all new legislation in the agora for everyone to see. Introduced right of appeal to a
jury, all citizens could sit on these juries. Public lawsuits, any citizen can prosecute an offense
even if it’s nothing to do with them

Results

,  Unrest in Attica continued
 Too radical on both sides
 Poor wanted more, rich wanted less
 Damasias aimed to instate himself as tyrant
 Coastal faction content with reforms
 Plain faction did not like reforms- led by aristocrats
 Uplands faction wanted more land, led by Peisistratus

Cleisthenes

 Scholarly debate surrounding Cleisthenes and his importance in democracy
 Born an aristocrat
 Part of the Alcmaeonid family (the family who killed the followers of Ceylon who had sort
refuge in a temple)
 Herodotus says that they also bribed the oracle of Delphi to tell the Spartans to remove
Peisistratus by building a new temple
 Herodotus supports Cleisthenes reforms because he says it makes Athenians more patriotic
and militarily strong

Struggle for power

 Engages with Isagoras in 508BC in a competition for power
 Isagoras then calls the Spartans in, who exiled over 700 families- including Cleisthenes and
the Archon elect

Reforms of Cleisthenes

 Made reforms to get common people on his side
 Promised to give them more power
 Deme system
Turned villages and small towns and districts of Athens into separate political constituencies-
called Demes
139 in total of Attica, each had their own council, assembly, officers, treasurers, and annually
elected leader called the Demarch
In 508/7 every Athenian had register with their local deme, after that the membership was
hereditary, remained even if they moved to a different part of Attica
Removed regional factions from re-emerging
 Ostracism
First recorded in 487BC probably from Peisistratus family, called Hipparchus, but Aristotle
accredits it to Cleisthenes
Intended to stop return of tyranny
Each year the assembly could banish one public figure for 10 years
Was not a punishment, more a ‘cooling off’ period
 Tribal system
Fundamental to Athenian society
Separated, coast/inland/city- stopped factionalism
Each tribe provided equal quotas of men to the council of 500, army, boards of officials and
law courts
Elected by lot
50 men selected by lot from each tribe went to the Boule

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