Athenian DemocracyPeter John Rhodes Oxford University Press, 2004 - 358 pages Athens' democracy developed during the sixth and fifth centuries and continued into the fourth; Athens' defeat by Macedon in 322 began a series of alternations between democracy and oligarchy. The democracy was inseparably bound up with the ideals of liberty and equality, the rule of law, and the direct government of the people by the people. Liberty means above all freedom of speech, the right to be heard in the public assembly and the right to speak one's mind in private. Equality meant the equal right of male citizens (perhaps 60,000 in the fifth century, 30,000 in the fourth) to participate in the government of the state and the administration of the law. Disapproved of as a mob rule until the nineteenth century, the institutions of Athenian democracy have become an inspiration for modern democratic politics and political philosophy. P. J. Rhodes's reader focuses on the political institutions, political activity, history, and nature of Athenian democracy and introduces some of the best British, American, German, and French scholarship on its origins, theory, and practice. Part I is devoted to political institutions: citizenship, the assembly, the law-courts, and capital punishment. Part II explores aspects of political activity: the demagogues and their relationship with the assembly, the maneuverings of the politicians, competitive festivals, and the separation of public from private life. Part III looks at three crucial points in the development of the democracy: the reforms of Solon, Cleisthenes, and Ephialtes. Part IV considers what it was in Greek life that led to the development of democracy. Some of the authors adopt broad-brush approaches to major questions; others analyze a particular body of evidence in detail. Use is made of archeology, comparison with other societies, the location of festivals in their civic context, and the need to penetrate behind what the classical Athenians made of their past. |
From inside the book
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Page 1
... Athenians were able to expand into the rest of Attica , they had less need than some others to travel and to come into contact with other Greeks ) . The fact that a single polis controlled an area of about 1,000 square miles = 2,600 ...
... Athenians were able to expand into the rest of Attica , they had less need than some others to travel and to come into contact with other Greeks ) . The fact that a single polis controlled an area of about 1,000 square miles = 2,600 ...
Page 3
... Athenian contacts when in 322/1 , after defeating a Greek rising led by Athens , they imposed a regime based on a property qualification . During the next half - century Athens had several changes of regime ; after that it settled down ...
... Athenian contacts when in 322/1 , after defeating a Greek rising led by Athens , they imposed a regime based on a property qualification . During the next half - century Athens had several changes of regime ; after that it settled down ...
Page 4
... Athenians involved over a number of years as many citizens as were willing to participate . The council oversaw the ... Athenian Constitution , probably written in the 420s ) regarded Athens ' democracy as stable but bad , because it ...
... Athenians involved over a number of years as many citizens as were willing to participate . The council oversaw the ... Athenian Constitution , probably written in the 420s ) regarded Athens ' democracy as stable but bad , because it ...
Page 6
... Athenian Constitution , the one survivor from a set of 158 Constitutions , not preserved through the western manuscript tradition but found on papyrus in Egypt : while its first two thirds give a political history of Athens to the end ...
... Athenian Constitution , the one survivor from a set of 158 Constitutions , not preserved through the western manuscript tradition but found on papyrus in Egypt : while its first two thirds give a political history of Athens to the end ...
Page 10
... Athenian . J. K. Davies in Chapter 1 , when asking why the Athenians held as they did to descent as the qualification for citizenship , notes not only that other criteria were considered but rejected in Athens c.400 but also that other ...
... Athenian . J. K. Davies in Chapter 1 , when asking why the Athenians held as they did to descent as the qualification for citizenship , notes not only that other criteria were considered but rejected in Athens c.400 but also that other ...
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Acropolis Aeschin allotment rooms ancient apagōge apotumpanismos archon Areopagus argues Arist Aristophanes Aristotle Aristotle's assembly Athenian democracy Athenian Ecclesia Athenian politics Attica boule Brauron century B.C. cheirotonia choinikes citizens citizenship Classical Athens Cleisthenes Cleomenes competition Constitution of Athens Council courts decree deme democratic demos Demosthenes dikasterion dikasts drachmas eisangelia Ephialtes evidence festival fifth century fourth century Greece Greek Hansen Heliaia Herodotus Hesperia hoplite Hypereides IG iiČ Isagoras jurors jury kanonides Keramopoullos kleroteria leaders Lysias medimnos obols offences officials oligarchic orators Oxford P. J. Rhodes Panathenaia Peisistratid Pericles phratry Plato Plut Plutarch polis Politeia politicians poor procedure proedroi Prytaneis psephoi punishment reforms Revolution says seems show of hands slaves slots Solon Solonian Spartans speech Thuc Thucydides ticket-inserters tickets tribe trittyes trittys tyrants University Press vote wheat word δὲ καὶ τὰ τὴν τῶν