The Devolpmento of Democracy in Athen

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Christopher W. Blackwell, e Development of Athenian Democracy, in C. Blackwell, ed., Dmos: Classical Athenian

emocracy(A. Mahoney and R. Scaife, edd., e Stoa: a consortium for electronic publication in the humanities [www.stoa.org],

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is is a version of an electronic document, part of the series, Dmos: Clas-sical Athenian Democracy, a publication of e Stoa: a consortium for electronic

publication in the humanities [www.stoa.org]. e electronic version of thisarticle oers contextual information intended to make the study of Atheniandemocracy more accessible to a wide audience. Please visit the site at http://www.stoa.org/projects/demos/home .

e Development of Athenianemocracy

S

is article was originally written for the online discussionseries Athenian Law in its Democratic Context,organize y A riaan Lanni an sponsore y HarvarUniversity s Center or He enic Stu ies. Its purpose is tointroduce, very briey, the origins and development ofAthenian democracy, from the th century throughthe end of the th century. is is a companion-piece tothe Overview of Athenian Democracy, also written forthe s discussion series, which will be present as acomponent of mos: Classical Athenian Democracy aerthe discussion series has taken place.

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is brief survey of the development and early historyof Athenian democracy is a supplement to Overview ofAthenian Democracy, which appears elsewhere in this


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series. e rst paragraphs of that article describe how

the Greek word Dmos pronounced day-moss) hasseveral meanings, all of them important for Atheniandemocracy. Dmos is the Greek word for village or, asit is oen translated, deme. e deme was the smallestadministrative unit of the Athenian state, like a votingprecinct or sc oo istrict. Young men, w o were yearso presente t emse ves to o cia s o t eir eme an ,

aving proven t at t ey were not s aves, t at t eir parentswere Athenian, and that they were years old, wereenrolled in the Assembly List (thepinakon ekklesiastikon)

see Dem. .; Aristot.Ath. Pol. .).Another meaning of Dmos, to the Athenians, was Peo-ple, as in the People of Athens, the body of citizens collec-tively. So a young man was enrolled in his dmos (deme),and thus became a member of the Dmos (the People).As a mem er o t e Dmos, t is young man cou partici-pate in t e Assem y o Citizens t at was t e centra insti-tution of the democracy. e Greek word for Assembly isekklesia,but the Athenians generally referred to it as the

Dmos. Decrees of the Assembly began with the phrase

It seemed best to the Dmos, very much like the phraseWe the People that introduces the Constitution of theUnited States. In this context, Dmos was used to makea distinction between the Assembly of all citizens and theCounci o citizens, anot er institution o t e emoc-racy see e ow . So some ecrees mig t egin It seeme

est to t e Dmos , ot ers mig t egin It seeme est


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to the Council, and still others might begin, It seemed

best to the Dmos and the Council.So the Athenian Dmos was the local village, the popu-

lation generally, and the assembly of citizens that governedthe state. e idea of the Dmos was a potent one in Ath-ens of the th and th centuries .

It had not always been the case. e ia t e woro iterature t at was t e s are text or a Gree s e-scri es a wor w ose va ues pre- ate t ose o t e At e-nian democracy. One passage from it, especially, suggeststhat the idea of the dmos changed dramatically in the

years leading up to the th century. Here, the Greek gen-eral Agamemnon has decided, for no particularly goodreason, to test the resolve of his army. e test consistedof him suggesting that they abandon their siege of Troyand go home. Evidently the Greeks failed, since with thissuggestion t ey rose to t eir eet an ran joyous y to t eirs ips. e warrior O ysseus, w o was party to Agamem-nons scheme, went about urging the men to return to theirplaces:

Whenever he encountered some king, or man of

in uencee wou stan esi e im an wit so wor s try

to restrain im:Excellency! It does not become you to be fright-

ened like any


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coward. Rather hold fast and check the rest of the

people.When he saw some man of the People [ dmos in

the Greek ] who was shouting,he would strike at him with his sta, and reprove

him also:Excellency! Sit still and listen to what others tell

you,to t ose w o are etter men t an you, you s u er

and cowardand thing of no account whatever in battle or

council.Surely not all of us Achaians can be as kings here.Lordship for many is no good thing. Let there be

one ruler,one king, to whom the son of devious-devising

Kronosgives t e sceptre an rig t o ju gement, to watc

over his people.liad .-; R. Lattimore, trans.)

e Homeric hero Odysseus did not favor putting rule into

t e an s o t e Dmos. W at appene , t en, to c anget e status o t e Dmos rom t at o a ow y mo , to e

eaten own wit a stic , to t at o t e ru ing Peop e oclassical Athens?


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A R T

In the earliest history of the Greek world, as far as anyonecan tell, the political landscape consisted of small-time

kings ruling over their own homes and immediatesurroun ings. In certain p aces, in ivi ua ingsacquire power over arger territories, an in uence overneighboring kings. is is what the world depicted in theHomeric epics looks like.

e Athenians thought that the mythological hero e-seus was their rst king, and they attributed to him thebirth of the Athenian state. Before eseus, the peninsula

of Attica was home to various, independent towns andvi ages, wit At ens eing t e argest. eseus, w en e

a gaine power in At ens, a o is e t e oca govern-ments in t e towns; t e peop e ept t eir property, ut awere governed from a single political center at Athens. eGreeks called this process of bringing many settlementstogether into a political unity synoikism See uc. ..-). Whether or not eseus had anything to do with this,the fact remains that, when the Greek world moved fromprehistory into historical times, the Attic peninsula was a

uni e po itica state wit At ens at its center.During t e t an t centuries t e s an

s , At ens move rom eing ru e y a ing to eingruled by a small number of wealthy, land-owning aristo-crats. Aristotles onstitution of the Athenians,a descrip-tion of Athenian government, says that the status of King


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asileus)became a political o ce, one of three Rulers or

Archons under the new system, and Athens came to begoverned by the King Archon, the War-Lord, and the Ar-chon (this last sometimes called the Eponymous Archon,because the year was identied by his name). Appoint-ment to the supreme o ces of state went by birth andwea t ; an t ey were e at rst or i e, an a erwar sor a term o ten years. Later, six ot er Arc ons were a -

e to t e ro e. ese Nine Arc ons ru e t e At enians,along with the Council of the Areopagus, which consistedof all former Archons, serving on this board for life (See

Aristot.Ath. Pol. ).In the latter part of the th century, perhaps in the s,an Athenian named Cylon won the double foot-race atthe Olympic Games and became a celebrity. He used hisearned fame to gather a group of supporters, seized theAcropo is, an attempte to ma e imse tyrant o At -ens. e attempt was a comp ete ai ure an en e witCylon and his party hiding by the statue of Athene, sur-rounded by an angry mob. Lured out by promises of theirown safety, Cylon and his men were killed by members

of the aristocratic family called the Alcmeonidae (seePaus. ..; Paus. ..; Paus. ..; Hdt. .). is was apolitical crisis, both because of the attempted coup by anupstart and because of his murder by the arisocrats he

a c aime t e go ess s protection, w ic oug t to aveeen respecte . W et er t is crisis roug t a out su se-

quent po itica c anges we cannot te , ut it certain y e


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its mark on Athenian politics. e old families could not

longer be condent in ruling at will forever, and the stainon the reputation of the Alcmeonidae lasted for hundredsof years it would cause trouble for Pericles, an Alcmeo-nid, in the th century.

About ten years later, in or , the Atheniansen iste a certain Draco to ma e new aws or t em. Ac-cor ing to Aristot e s escription o t ese aws, t e newConsitution gave po itica rig ts to t ose At enians w obore arms, in other words, those Athenians wealthyenough to aord the bronze armor and weapons of a

hoplite (see Aristot.Ath. Pol. , although some of the de-tails given there may have been invented during the thcentury ). Dracos laws were most notable for theirharshness: there was only one penalty prescribed, death,for every crime from murder down to loitering (see Plut.So . . . For t is reason, ater At enians wou n ironyin t e awgiver s name Draco means serpent , an isreforms have given us the English word draconian.

Dracos laws did not avert the next crisis, which pittedthe wealthy against the poor. Poor citizens, in years of poor

harvests, had to mortgage portions of their land to wealth-ier citizens in exchange for food and seed to plant. Havinglost the use of a portion of their land, they were even more

vulnerable to subsequent hardships (see Aristot.Ath. Pol..- . Eventua y, many o t ese At enians ost t e use ot eir an a toget er, an ecame tenant- armers, virtu-a y or per aps actua y s aves to t e wea t y. e resu t-


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ing crisis threatened both the stability and prosperity of

Athens. In , however, the Athenians selected Solon torevise their laws.

Solons laws, even though they did not establish a de-mocracy as radical as what would follow, neverthelessbecame the template for all future Athenian government.It was common or At enians, or t e next years, to

escri e su sequent ega innovations in terms o t eire ity to t e So onian Constitution w et er or not

those innovations remotely resembled the laws of Solon).So, aer the brief rule of the irty Tyrants at the end

of the th century , when the Athenians were restoringtheir democracy, the rst thing they did was to re-a rmthe Laws of Solon, using that as a base to reconstruct theirdamaged constitution (Andoc. .-).

Solon took steps to alleviate the crisis of debt that thepoor su ere , an to ma e t e constitution o At enssomew at more equita e. He a o is e t e practice o giv-ing loans with a citizens freedom as collateral, the practicethat had made slaves of many Athenians (Aristot.Ath. Pol..). He gave every Athenian the right to appeal to a jury,

thus taking ultimate authority for interpreting the law outof the hands of the Nine Archons and putting in the handsof a more democratic body, since any citizen could serveon a jury Aristot.Ath. Pol. .; Aristot.Ath. Pol. .). Oth-erwise, e ivi e t e popu ation into our c asses, aseon wea t , an imite t e o ce o Arc on to mem ers ot e top t ree c asses Aristot.At . Po . . .


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Formerly, the Council of the Areopagus, which con-

sisted of former Archons, chose the Nine Archons eachyear a self-perpetuating system that ensured that theo ce of Archon was held only by aristocrats. Solon hadall of the Athenians elect a short-list of candidates for theArchonship, from which the Nine Archons were chosen

y ot Aristot.At . Po . . ; t e o ce was sti imite tocitizens o a certain c ass, ut it was no onger imite tomem ers o a ew ami ies. How, precise y, aws came to epassed under the Constitution of Solon is not entirely clear,but there was an Assembly, in which every citizen could

participate (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .), a Council of citi-zens chosen probably from the top three property classesAristot.Ath. Pol. .), with the Areopagus being charged

with guarding the laws (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .). Regard-less of the details, it does seem that the Archons were still a

very important e ement o At enian government, since asAristot e notes , in su sequent years, muc po itica stri eseemed to focus on them (Aristot.Ath. Pol. .).

So Athens under Solon had many elements that wouldlater be a part of the radical democracy democratic ju-

ries, an Assembly and a Council, selection of o cials bylot rather than by vote while retaining many oligarchicelements in the form of property qualications and a pow-erful Council of the Areopagus.

Accor ing to t e Constitution o t e At enians attri -ute tra itiona y to Aristot e, So on imse was rom anaristocratic ami y, w i e is persona wea t put im in


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the middle-class of Athenians, and his sympathy for the

injustices against the poor made him a champion of thepeople generally. is combination was a recipe for tyran-ny tyrannies were common in the Greek world duringthe th century, as certain individuals made themselveschampions of the poor in order to seize power but Solonwas no tyrant. Accor ing to Hero otus, a er ormu atingt ese new aws or a new At enian Constitution, So onma e t e peop e swear to o ey t em, unc ange , or tenyears, then went abroad from Athens to avoid being bad-gered into changing anything (Hdt. ..).

Solons constitution did not solve all of Athens problems,and the city descended back into a state of strife, with vari-ous factions, each with its own interests, vying for powerHdt. .; Plut. Sol. ). is state of aairs continued from

about down to , when an Athenian namedPisistratus, a er severa ai e attempts, na y esta is e

imse as Tyrant over t e At enians.[His failed attempts are interesting reading; see Hdt. .-

, Aristot.Ath. Pol. -. ]e reign of the tyrant Pisistratus seems to have been

relatively benign. e th century historian ucydidesconcluded his brief account of by by saying, the city wasle in full enjoyment of its existing laws, except that carewas always taken to have the o ces in the hands of someone o t e ami y uc. .. . Li e a tyrants, Pisis-tratus epen e to a certain extent on t e goo wi o t epeop e or is position, an y ensuring t at ot ric an


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poor Athenians received fair treatment, he was able to rule

for almost twenty years and die of natural causes (see Ar-istot. Ath. Pol. .). Aer his death, his sons Hippias andHipparchus continued the tyranny for another seventeenyears. Hipparchus was assasinated in , and in the aristocratic Alcmeonidae family with an armyrom Sparta e ping t em, expe e Hippias an roug t

an en to tyranny in At ens H t. .; uc. .. .

C, D, P

A er t e en o t e tyranny, two actions compete or

power to reshape the government of Athens. One was ledby Isagoras, whom calls a friend of the tyrants (Aristot.

Ath. Pol..). e other was led by Cleisthenes, who wasan A cmeoni aristocrat H t. .. . Isagoras won aminor victory by getting himself chosen as Archon in .But Cleisthenes, taking a page out of the tyrants textbook,took the People [Aristotle says dmos] into his partyand used the support of the lower classes to impose aseries of reforms (Aristot. Ath. Pol. . . Isagoras, using

t e examp e o recent istory, ca e on t e Spartan ingC eomenes to e p im evict C eist enes rom t e city.While that had worked well for the Alcmeonidae earlier, itfailed this time; when Isagoras and the Spartans occupiedthe city and tried to disband the government and expelseven hundred families, the Athenians rose up againstthem and drove them out (Hdt. .).


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So Cleisthenes was free to impose his reforms, which he

did during the last decade of the th century. ese markthe beginning of classical Athenian democracy, sincewith a few brief exceptions) they organized Attica into the

political landscape that would last for the next two centu-ries. His reforms, seen broadly, took two forms: he renedt e asic institutions o t e At enian emocracy, an ere e ne un amenta y ow t e peop e o At ens sawt emse ves in re ation to eac ot er an to t e state. Sincethe Introduction to Athenian Democracy is devoted to its

various institutions, so for the moment we can focus on

the new Athenian identity that Cleisthenes imposed.Cleistheness reforms aimed at breaking the power of thearistocratic families, replacing regional loyalties (and fac-tionalism) with pan-Athenian solidarity, and preventingthe rise of another tyrant.

C eist enes ma e t e eme or vi age into t e un a-menta unit o po itica organization an manage to con-

vince the Athenians to adopt their deme-name into theirown. So, where formerly an Athenian man would haveidentied himself as Demochares, son of Demosthenes,

aer Cleisthenes reforms he would have been more likelyto identify himself as Demochares from Marathon. Us-ing demotic names in place of patronymic names de-emphasized any connection (or lack thereof) to the oldarisoctratic ami ies an emp asize is p ace in t e newpo itica community o At ens or emes, see Aristot.At .Po . . .


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Each deme had a demarch, like a mayor, who was in

charge of the demes most important functions (Aristot.Ath. Pol. .): keeping track of new citizens, as young mencame of age (Dem. .), keeping track of all citizens fromthe deme eligible to participate in the Assembly (Dem..), and selecting citizens from the deme each year toserve on t e Counci Aristot.At . Po . . .

e peninsu a o Attica consiste o t ree more-or- essistinct geograp ica areas: t e coast, t e countrysi e, an

the urban area around the city of Athens itself. Tradition-ally residents of these areas had their own concerns, and

oen conducted politics according to regional interests.To counteract this tendency, and to encourage Athenianpolitics to focus on interests common to all Athenians,Cleisthenes further organized the population. Each of the demes he assigned to one of thirty rittyes,or irds.Ten o t e ir s were coasta , ten were in t e in an , anten were in an aroun t e city.

ese irds were then assigned to ten Tribes hylai) ,in such a way that each Tribe contained three irds, onefrom the coast, one from the inland, and one from the city.

Each of these ten Tribes sent citizens each year to serveon the new Council of .So, while local politics, registration of citizens and se-

lections of candidates for certain o ces, happened in theemes, t e tri es were t e units o organization t at g-

ure most prominent y in t e overa governing o At ens.


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Citizens from all parts of Attica worked together, within

their tribes, to govern the city (Aristot.Ath. Pol. .).To prevent regionalism from creeping back into the sys-

tem as people changed their address, Cleisthenes decreedthat a citizen, once assigned to a deme, must retain thatdeme-a liation even if he moved to another part of At-tica Aristot.At . Po . . . Evi ence rom t e t an tcenturies s ow many peop e iving in t e city o At ens,

ut i enti ying t emse ves wit rura emes. In act, eventhe rural demes oen held their meetings in Athens itselfDem. .).

So, there was a tendency for deme-level politics to bedominated by people who had not moved into the city, butfor national politics service on juries, in the Council, andthe magistracies to be dominated by Athenians who, al-though members of demes located all over the peninsula,were u -time resi ence o t e city an its imme iate en-virons.

To help legitimize this new division, to give it the aura ofantiquity, Cleisthenes named each tribe aer a legendaryhero of Athens; the selection of heroes was handled by the

Oracle at Delphi, that is, by the god Apollo himself. eten eponymous heroes and their associated tribes were:Ajax (Aiantis), Aegeus (Aigeis), Acamas (Akamantis), An-tiochus (Antiochis), Erechtheus (Erechtheis), HippothoonHippot ontis , Cecrops Ke ropis , Leos Leontis , Oe-

neus Oineis , Pan ion Pan ionis . eir statues stoo in


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downtown Athens, watching over the place where impor-

tant public documents were published on billboards.All of these reforms constituted a remarkable re-shaping

of Athenian society along new lines. Old associations, byregion or according to families, were broken. Citizenshipand the ability to enjoy the rights of citizens were in the

an s o imme iate neig ors, ut t e governing o At -ens was in t e an s o t e At enian Dmos as a w o e,organize across oun aries o territory an c an. e neworder was sealed as citizens adopted their deme-namesinto their own names, and as the god Apollo, speaking

from Delphi, endorsed the new tribes.But, with the Dmos newly unied and the authority ofthe older, more arisocratic system undermined, the dangerof tyranny remained. Some relatives of Pisistratus sur-

vived, wealthy and still inuential, in Athens, and (a newt reat t e Great King o Persia was increasing y interestein ringing t e Gree wor into is empire. W at was tostop a prominent citizen from gaining support with prom-ises of power, and then either assuming tyrannical rule orinviting Persia to set him up as a client king?

Cleisthenes sought to avert this danger by means of hismost famous innovation: ostracism. Every year the As-sembly of Athenian citizens voted, by show of hands, onwhether or not to hold an ostracism. If the Dmos votedto o one, t e ostracism too p ace a ew mont s ater, atanot er meeting o t e Assem y. en, eac citizen pres-ent scratc e a name on a ro en piece o pottery; t ese,


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the scrap paper of the ancient world, were called ostraka

in Greek, which gives us the word for the institution. If atleast citizens voted with their ostraka, the names onthe pot shards were tallied, and the winner was obligedto leave Athens for a period of ten years. He did not lose hisproperty or his rights as an Athenian citizens, but he hadto go see Aristot.At . Po . .; Aristot.At . Po . . .

e ear iest su jects o ostracism were associates o Pi-sistratus an is sons Aristot.At . Po . . , ut in ateryears the Athenian used the process to remove the leadersof various factions, both men who were regarded as cham-

pions of the democracy, such as emistocles ostracizedsometime around (uc. .) and those whotended to favor more aristocratic controls on the power ofthe people, such as Cimon ostracized around (Andoc..). e most famous ostracism was that of Aristides, anaristocrat nown or eing air-min e . e story goest at an i iterate armer, not recognizing Aristi es, as ethe prominant man to write Aristides on his ostrakon forhim; Aristides complied, advancing his own ostracism byhelping a fellow citizen. For the full story, which contains

even more ironies that I have given here, see Plut.Arist. ;Aristot.Ath. Pol. ..To be the subject of an ostracism was actually something

of an honor, if an inconvenient one. It meant that a manwas eeme too in uentia , too capa e o persua ing ise ow citizens, to e a owe to participate in t e emo-

cratic processes o governing At ens. e ist o ostracize


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Athenians constitutes a Whos Who of the early history

of the democracy. In fact, the institution fell into disuseaer , perhaps because of the ostracism of Hyper-bolus; this man, according to the historian ucydides,was ostracized not because anyone feared his power or in-uence, but because he was a useless wretch and a disgraceto the city (uc. .). e law of ostracism seems neverto ave een repea e , ut it was never use again.

C eist enes re orme At ens at t e very en o t e tcentury. e reforms were radical and, it seems, thoughtful.at this new social order and political system took hold

may have been largely due to what happened in the rstdecades of the th century. In , an expeditionary armyfrom Persia landed in Attica, intending to repay the Athe-nians for helping the Greeks of Asia resist Persian rule. eAthenians, led by Miltiades, defeated the Persians againststeep numerica o s or t e att e o Marat on, see H t.., H t. .-; Paus. ..; Paus. .. .

e victory for the newly democratized state was dou-bly signicant, since the Persian expedition had broughtHippias, the son of Pisistratus, intending to install him as

tyrant over the Athenians (Hdt. .). is victory, andthe even more unlikely victory against a larger Persian ex-pedition ten years later, established democratic Athens asa leading power in the Greek world.


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O L S D

One nal major reform to the Athenian constitutionremained before the government of Athens took the shapeit wou o , more or ess, or t e next years. In ,an At enian name Ep ia tes e a movement to imitt e power o t e Counci o t e Areopagus. e ro e othis Council, sometimes called simply the Areopagus,in the fully-formed democracy is discussed below, but tounderstand Ephialtes reforms we need to see, briey, itsplace in Athenian government before Ephialtes.

e Court of the Areopagus, named aer the Hill of Ares

in Athens, was an ancient institution. It features in themyt o ogica istory o At ens, as portraye in Aesc y ustrage y Eumeni es, in w ic t e go ess At ene puts t eEumeni es,or Furies,on tria on t is Hi o Ares at At -ens (Aesch. Eum.). Aristotle says that in the time of Draco,the legendary rst lawgiver of Athens, e Council of theAreopagus was guardian of the laws, and kept a watch onthe magistrates to make them govern in accordance withthe laws. A person unjustly treated might lay a complaintbefore the Council of the Arepagites [the members of the

Areopagus , stating t e aw in contravention o w ic ewas treate unjust y Aristot.At . Po . . . e Areopa-gus was an aristocratic institution, compose o men w owere of noble birth (Isoc. .). It was composed of menwho had held the o ce of archon (Plut. Sol. .; Plut. Per..). Members of the Court of the Areopagus, the Areop-


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agites (Areopagitai) held o ce for life (Aristot. Ath. Pol.

.). According to Aristotle, before the time of the lawgiverSolon the middle of the th century the Areopa-gus itself chose the men who would be archons, and thusfuture members of the Areopagus (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .).Selection of archons was by wealth and birth (Aristot.Ath.Po . . , an so t e Court o t e Areopagus preserve it-se as a o y o t e aristocrats o At ens.

So on c ange met o y w ic At enians ecamearchons forty candidates were elected, and from theseforty, nine archons were picked by lot (Aristot. Ath. Pol.

.). Under the laws of Solon, the Court of the Areopagusretained its role as overseer of the constitution; it couldpunish citizens, ne them, and spend money itself withoutanswering to any other governing body; and it oversawcases impeachment (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .). Aristotle de-scri es t e government o At ens un er So on as a eno e ements t e courts were emocratic, t e e ecte ar-chons were aristocratic, and the Court of the Areopaguswas oligarchic (Aristot. Pol. b).

e Court of the Areopagus seems to have enjoyed a

return to its former glory immediately aer the PersianWars. Aristotle tells the story of how, during the chaos ofthe Persian invasion in , the Council of the Ar-eopagus took a leading role in organizing, and nancing,t e evacuation o a At enians to Sa amis an t e Pe o-ponnese, w ic raise t e o ys status consi era y Ar-istot.At . Po . . . He goes on to say t at t e Counci o


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the Areopagus enjoyed preeminence in Athens for almost

two decades, until the time when Conon was archon, andEphialtes brought about his reforms in (Aristot.

Ath. Pol. .).According to Aristotle, Ephialtes brought about a reform

of the Court of the Areopagus by denouncing the Courte ore t e Counci an t e Assem y Aristot. At . Po .

. . So t e re orm was not, na y, t e wor o Ep i-a tes a one, ut an act o egis ation y two o t e moredemocratic institutions in Athens. Aristotle connects thisevent to a newfound feeling of power among the com-

mon people of Athens following the Persian Wars, whenthe less wealthy citizens by serving in the navy had savedthe city. He makes the connection between naval victoriesand the reform of the Court of the Areopagus explicitly inhis Politics Aristot. Pol. a), and the onstitution of the

At enians t at survives un er Aristot e s name strong ysuggests t e connection as we Aristot.At . Po . . .

By , when Ephialtes made his reforms, the ar-chons (the future members of the Court of the Areopagus)were chosen by lot, not by vote (Aristot.Ath. Pol. .). It

is possible that this change made the institution seem lessprestigious, and thus worthy of holding fewer powers. isinteresting suggestion is from P.J. Rhodes,A Commentaryon the Aristotelian Athenaion Politeia (Oxford, ).

By means o Ep ia tes re orms, accor ing to Aristot e,t e Counci o t e Areopagus was eprive o t e superin-ten ence o a airs Aristot.At . Po . . . W en Aristot e


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describes the Council of the Areopagus as it was in the th

century, over a hundred years aer Ephialtes, he says thatit had authority over trials of murder, wounding, death bypoison, and arson, but that other similar crimes invol-untary manslaughter, murder of slaves or foreigners, ac-cidental killings, or killings in self-defense come beforeot er courts, t e Court o t e Pa a ium or t e Court ot e De p inium Aristot. At . Po . . . e Areopagusa so con ucte investigations o po itica corruption, pre-senting its ndings to the Council and Assembly for anyfurther action (see Aeschin. ., Aeschin. ., Din. .).

From this, then, we can perhaps get a sense of how Ephi-altes diminished the role of the Areopagus; the aristocraticbody that once had the power to nullify laws and removecandidates from o ce was reduced to a murder court andinvestigative body, albeit a highly respected one.

T F C: D

e th century was marked by the extendedconict sometimes cold and oen overt between

Athens and Sparta, but involving most of the Greek worldand the Persian Empire as well. at history is readilyavailable elsewhere. For our purposes, there are threethings especially worth mentioning from the period.

First was the generalship of Pericles. e o ce of Gen-era , or Strategos, was one o t e ew in t e At enian

emocracy t at was e ecte , rat er t an c osen ran om y


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rank, ability, and known integrity, was enabled to exercise

an independent control over the Dmos in short, to leadthem instead of being led by them; for as he never soughtpower by improper means, he was never compelled toatter them, but, on the contrary, enjoyed so high an es-timation that he could aord to anger them by contradic-tion. W enever e saw t em unseasona y an inso ent ye ate , e wou wit a wor re uce t em to a arm; ont e ot er an , i t ey e victims to a panic, e cou atonce restore them to condence. In short, what was nomi-nally a democracy became in his hands government by the

rst citizen. (uc. ..-). What is most important toremember, though, is that Pericles was merely one of tenelected Generals. His policies came into eect merelybecause his o ce aorded him a platform from which toaddress the Dmos, and his evident talents as a speakera owe im to persua e t e Dmos to a opt is i eas ast eir own.

In , aer an interlude of relative peace in the war be-tween Athens and Sparta, the Dmos of Athens undertookan invasion of Sicily. is adventure was an utter disaster,

resulting in the destruction of an Athenian eet and anarmy of Athenian citizens either killed outright or doomedto work to death in the quarries of Syracuse. In the aer-math, certain citizens took steps to move the governmento t e city away rom t e ra ica emocracy t at t eyt oug t was ea ing t e city to ruin. eir rst step wasto wor , t roug constitutiona c anne s, to esta is a


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small body of Preliminary Councilors, who would limit

the topics that could be addressed by the more democraticCouncil and Assembly (uc. ..-).

Shortly thereaer, in , the Athenians broughtan end to their democracy and instituted an oligarchy by,rst, appointing ten Commissioners who were chargedwith re-writing the constitution of Athens (uc. ..).Aristot e says t at t ere were twenty o t ese, an t at t eywere in a ition to t e ten Pre iminary Counci ors a rea yin o ce (Aristot.Ath. Pol. .).

ese Commissioners proposed a new Council, con-

sisting of men, with service limited to the wealthiercitizens. Five men would be selected as Presidents, andthese would choose men for the new Council, and eachof those would choose three others, thus creating theCouncil of , or in reality (uc. ..; Aristot.Ath.Po . . . is new government c aime t at a Counci o was accor ing to t e ancestra constitution Aristot.

Ath. Pol. .). is Council of would have the powerto choose Athenians who would be the only citizenseligible to participate in assemblies (uc. ..; Aristot.

Ath. Pol. .).ucydides describes how this new Council of col-lected an armed gang, confronted the democratic Coun-cil, paid them their stipends, and send them home (uc...; Aristot.At . Po . . .

is o igarc ic government aste on y our mont s e-ore it was rep ace y anot er government in w ic t e


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power was in the hands of Athenians more demo-

cratic, but still a far cry from the radical democracy denedby Cleisthenes (Aristot.Ath. Pol. .). at government, inturn, lasted only a short time before the People quicklyseized control of the constitution from them (Aristot.Ath.Pol. .).

e democracy was restored, but only briey. In , t e Spartans caug t t e At enian eet on t e eacat Aegospotamoi Goat Is an s an estroye it. A -ter a period of seige, while the Spartans blockaded theharbors of Athens, the city surrendered, and its fortunes

fell into the hands of the so-called irty Tyrants. esewere Athenians selected by the Spartans to form a puppetgovernment by the Spartans. (For the end of the Pelopon-nesian War, see Plut.Alc. .-.; Plut. Lys. .-; for theestablishment of the Tyrants, see Plut. ys. .; Paus. ..;Paus. ..; Paus. ..; Xen. e . ..

Li e t e O igarc y o , t e tyranny o t e irtylasted only one year before pro-democracy forces regainedcontrol of the citys aairs (Plut. Lys. ; Xen. Hell. ..).Aer the tyrants were overthrown and the city returned

to democratic rule, Athens once again compiled and codi-ed its old laws with this decree, which summarizes theaccumulated law and tradition of the rst century of theAthenian democratic experiment: On the motion of Tei-samenus t e Peop e ecree t at At ens e governe as oo , in accor ance wit t e aws o So on, is weig ts an

is measures, an in accor ance wit t e statutes o Draco,


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which we used in times past. Such further laws as may be

necessary shall be inscribed upon tables by the Law-Giv-ers elected by the Council and named hereaer, exposedbefore the Tribal Statutes for all to see, and handed overto the magistrates during the present month. e lawsthus handed over, however, shall be submitted beforehandto t e scrutiny o t e Counci an t e ve un re Law-Givers e ecte y t e Demes, w en t ey ave ta en t eiroat . Furt er, any private citizen w o so esires may comebefore the Council and suggest improvements in the laws.When the laws have been ratied, they shall be placed un-

der the guardianship of the Council of the Areopagus, tothe end that only such laws as have been ratied may beapplied by magistrates. ose laws which are approvedshall be inscribed upon the wall, where they were inscribedaforetime, for all to see (Andoc. .-). e Atheniansa so passe a aw o genera amnesty, to prevent an en esscyc e o retri ution or wrongs committe on ot si es othe recent civil strife (see Xen. Hell. ..).

An inscription (IG I) survives that records a law lim-iting the Councils authority. Aer two anti-democratic

revolutions, this law says that in matters of war and peace,death sentences, large nes, disenfranchisement (that is,loss of citizenship), the administration of public nances,and foreign policy the Council cannot act without the ap-prova o t e Assem y o t e Peop e.

it t is restoration, At ens reesta is e a ra ica yemocratic government. e o owing escription o t e


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institutions of Athens will focus on the democracy as it

was in the th century, in its fully developed form, attestedby the best evidence.

e story of the end of Athenian democracy is told,briey, at the end of the Overview of Athenian Democ-racy.)

C ristop er W. B ac we

S W C

P.J. Rhodes,A Commentary on the Aristotelian AthenaionPoliteia (Oxford, ).

Documents

The Devolpmento of Democracy in Athen