HISTORIA ERIC W.

ROBINSON

ZEITSCHRIFT FUR AL TE GESCHICHTE ·REVUE D'HISTOIRE

ANCIENNE·JOURNAL OF ANCIENT HISTORY· RMSTA
DI STORIA ANTICA

THE FIRST
EINZELSCHRIFTEN DEMOCRACIES
HERAUSGEGEBENVON
HEINZ HEINEN/TRIER·FRAN«;:O1S
PASCHOUD/GENEVE
KURT RAAFLAUB/WASHINGTOND.C.·HILDEGARDTEMPORINl/fOBINGEN EARLY POPULAR GOVERNMENT OUTSIDE ATHENS
GEROLD WALSER/BASEL

HEFT 107

FRANZ STEINER VERLAG STUTTGART FRANZ STEINER VERLAG STUTTGART

1997 1997
I
I

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments............................................................................................. 7
Introduction........................................................................................................ 9
Note on Terminology.................................................................................. 11

Chapter One: Defining Democracy................................................................... 13

(1) Democratic Process .............................................................................
13
(2) Democratic Beginnings....................................................................... 16
(3) Ancient and Modem DemocracyCompared......................................25

Chapter Two: Demokratia................................................................................. 35

(1) Demokratiain the Politics of Aristotle..............................................35
(2) Demokratiain Earlier Authors ........................................................... 45
(3) Conclusion...........................................................................................
62
Die DeutscheBibliothek- CIP-Einheitsaufnahme
[ffistoria/ Elnzelschriflen) Chapter Three: Archaic Demokratiai................................................................ 65
Historia : Zeitschriftfilr alte Geschichte.Einzelschriften.- (1) Prerequisite of Demokratia:Greek Egalitarianism ........................... 65
Stuttgart: Steiner (2) Achaea and Her Colonies ................................................................... 73
Fri!herSchriftenreihe (3) Acragas ................................................................................................
78
ReiheEinzclschriftenzu: Historia (4) Ambracia .............................................................................................80
NE: Historia-Einzclschriften
(5) Argos....................................................................................................
82
H. 107.Robinson,Eric W.: The first democracies.- 1997
Robinson,Eric W.: 88
(6) Chalcis .................................................................................................
The first democracies: early populargovernmentoutside
(7) Chios ....................................................................................................
90
AthensI Eric W. Robinson.- Stuttgart: Steiner, 1997 (8) Cnidus ..................................................................................................
101
{Historia: Einzelschriften; H. I 07) (9) Cos .......................................................................................................
103
ISBN 3-515-06951-8 (10) Cyrene ..................................................................................................
105
(11) Elis .......................................................................................................
108
(12) Heraclea Pontica.................................................................................. 111
(13) Mantinea ..............................................................................................
113
(14) Megara .................................................................................................
114
(15) Naxos ...................................................................................................
117
1S09706 (16) Samos ...................................................................................................
118
( 17) Syracuse ...............................................................................................
120
Jede Verwertung des Werkes auBerhalbder Grenzcn des Urhebemchtsgesetzesist
unzulllssigund strafbar.Dies gilt insbesonderefilr Obersetzung.Nachdruck,Mikrover- Chapter Four: Conclusion .................................................................................
123
filmungoder vergleichbareVerfahrensowiefllrdie Speicherungin Datenverarbeitungs- (1) Summary of Results ............................................................................
123
anlagen.C, 1997by FranzSteinerVerlagWiesbadenGmbH.SitzStuttgart.Gedruckt auf (2) The Emergence of Greek Democracy ................................................127
sllurefreiem,alterungsbeslllndigemPapier. Druck: RheinhessischeDruckwerkstanc,
Alzcy.
Printed in Germany
Bibliography ......................................................................................................131
Index ...................................................................................................................
141
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to express my gratitude to a number of people who have helped me

during the preparation of this book and of the doctoral dissertation on which it is
based. My friends and teachers John Graham and Martin Ostwald have offered
invaluable guidance at nearly every stage in the process. Kurt Raaflaub has been
a wonderful editor and generous with his time: his criticisms, suggestions, and
insights have made many improvements possible. I am also obliged to Robert
Palmer for his careful reading, and to James Muhly, Ian Morris, Muhammad
Dandamayev, Gregory Possehl, Jeremy Mcinerney, William Loomis and Barry
Eichler for their scholarly assistance and/or commentary on various versions of
this work. None of the above can be held accountable for remaining flaws, of
course.
I am grateful to my friends and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania
and the University of North Florida for their kindness and support. To Carwina
Weng, for her love and patience, many thanks.
I dedicate this book to my parents, Fred and Helen Robinson.

E.W.R. Jacksonville, Florida

April, 1996

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--------,

j
l
INTRODUCTION
i
j

Democracy has been one of the rarest forms of government in human experience.

l
J
Only in relatively recent times have democratic systems taken firm root in more
than a handful of nations. Even today, after the dramatic transformation of the
former Soviet bloc and with democratic rhetoric and ideology so prevalent that
the harshest authoritarian regimes feel obliged to claim that they arc democratic,
little more than half of the governments of the world could be called democracies.•
But with the end of the Cold War, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the

l continuing expansion of democratic ideals, there is the hope and even the ex-
pectation that the conversion of many more nations of the world to democracy is
only a matter of time. One prominent political scientist calls this movement
nothing less than a "global democratic revolution." 2 In such a tumultuous, exci-
ting era one naturally finds renewed interest in the origins of popular governmenL
The obvious place to begin any search is ancient Greece, for while faint
echoes of popular institutions might be detectable in earlier cultures, 3 democracy
flourished as a familiar and influential force first among the Greeks. Hellenic
civilization has passed down to us the earliest historical accounts of this most
unusual form of government, and it is here that we first witness political leaders
such as Pericles proclaiming a democratic ideology. Greek thinkers developed a
political theory to evaluate the competing claims of different state systems, and
their arguments created a framework for discourse which persists to this day.
Because Athens was the most famous democracy of the ancient world, it is
often assumed that both the concept and the constitution itself originated there.4
We happen to know more about Athenian constitutional history than that of any
other city-state of Greece, and a democratic government did develop there
relatively early. This should not, however, obscure the fact that there were many
democracies in Greece during the classical period; that none of the surviving
.., '~

D. C. Shin, "On theThird Wave of De~ocratiution: A Synthesis ~d Evaluation of Recent

. Theory and Research," World Politic, 47 (1994), 13S-70, esp. 136. .
2 S. P. Huntington, "Democntic Development in the Post-Cold War" (Keynote ,peech at the
International Political Science Association Roundtable. Kyoto, March 26, 1994), quoted in
Shin, "On the Third Wave" (u in n.1). ' ' ' · ' . . '·" · . '
3 Chapterone. part two includes a discussion of the case madeby Thorkild Jacobsen and
others for "primitive democracy" in the ancient Near EuL . . ' . '' '
4 E.1.,"Die Demokratie aehllrt nach Athen; dort bat sich entwickelt, und dort habenwir also
nach den Bedinaungen fllr diese besondere Formpolitischen Leben• zu suchen." J. Bleik-
ken, Dil orheniscu D1mokrati1. 2nded. (Paderbom, 1994), 47; "In the decadebefore 500
B.C., the Athenian• established the world'• fint democratic constitution, .. D. Kaaan,
P1rlcll1 of A.1"6111 and th1 Birtli of D,,nocracy (New York, 1991), I; "The Atheniua
invented democracy,"C. Farrar, Tia, Origi,u o/D1mocra1ic11iinklng(Cambridge, 1988), 7.
 Introduction Introduction 11

historians or political philosophers claim Athens invented democracy; 5 and that ted claims by ancient authors that a demokratia existed in a particular city. This is
numerous indications suggest that states with popular governments could have to be expected given the evidence available for the political history of Archaic
existed elsewhere in Greece contemporaneously with its first appearance in Greece. The absence of detailed descriptions of sixth-century governments does
Athens and even earlier, perhaps significantly so. The heart of this study is an not negate the present endeavor, but rather alters its emphasis: by locating the
analysis of all such data, with a view to establishing as surely as possible where earliest democratic states, we may also advance our knowledge of the diffusion of
and when democratic states first appeared outside Athens. democratic practice throughout the Greek world, and perhaps dispel some unjus-
I emphasize "democratic states" to distinguish this work from the many tified assumptions about the uniqueness and primacy of the Athenian democracy.
general studies which take as their subject broad developments in Greek political
life, with some focus on the emergence of democratic ideas. 6 While it is im- The structure of the study is as follows. The first chapter begins with an examina-
portant to take notice of intellectual developments which may have helped spark tion of what we mean by the word democracy, and compares modern theory with
the earliest Greek popular institutions, the primary interest here is to locate and the peculiar political and cultural circumstances of the ancient world. We must be
describe early examples of governments with a democratic character, The scarci- very clear about the boundaries of the political system the term describes. Only
ty of evidence makes this task difficult, and few scholars have attempted to tackle then can we compare it to the more specific sense of the Greek term demokratia
it in any serious, comprehensive way. Busolt and Swoboda collected and briefly and evaluate the evidence for particular ancient cities. This section includes a
discussed some of the more important evidence available at that time. 7 A few brief investigation of the premise that Greece was the birthplace of democracy,
current authors have dealt with the topic either in passing or in relatively brief for in the last several decades some scholars have challenged this axiomatic claim
articles. 8 More significantly, J. L. O'Neil wrote a 1973 Cambridge dissertation on with arguments regarding signs of early democratic institutions in various Near
Greek democracies outside Athens, never published; and in 1995 he produced Eastern societies.
The Origins and Development of Ancient Greek Democracy, which grew out of This chapter is followed by a discussion of Greek terminology. Since much
the earlier work. 9 The first two parts of his dissertation represent the most of the evidence for early democracy consists of an author claiming that a demo-
thorough previous attempt to treat early democratic governments, and though it is kratia appeared in such and such a place, it is necessary to grapple with the
hampered by a broad, loosely applied set of definitions and a grand chronological precise meaning of the word as it varied over time in our sources and with other
scope, it has proven very useful in parts for the present work. The newer book is words signifying popular political systems, such as isonomia. Aristotle provides
much briefer and devotes only a few pages to pre-classical democracies. the most thorough, comprehensive treatment, but important early authors such as
Even with a sustained focus on the subject, it is frequently impossible to do Aeschylus, Herodotus, Pscudo-Xenophon, Euripides, and Thucydides also re-
much more than identify the emergence of a specific democratic institution quire careful analysis. After this we can more confidently evaluate the claims, in
(which may or may not be part of a democratic whole), or to evaluate unelabora- these and other sources, for the existence of early democratic states.
In the third chapter, the specific signs for democratic states in archaic Greece
5 Only in Lysias, 2.18, the fun~raloration deliveredc. 387, is the claim mad~ by aclassical arc examined. The evidence considered is literary, archaeological, epigraphic,
author that Athens was the first to establishdemocracy.Given that this is the firs1time we and numismatic, covering a period from the eighth century B.C. down to the end
hear such a boast, coming well over a hundred years after Cleisthenes' reforms andin 1 of the Persian wars in 479. It consists primarily of brief epigraphic references to
speech prone to gross historicalexaggerationin the interesis of patriotism,ii jg difficult to
take the claim very seriously. . • ; r ,. ,, ...• state institutions, literary statements that a demokratia existed or a democratic
6 E.g., T. R. Glover,Democracyin the Ancient World(Cambridge,1927): W. R. Agard,What revolution took place in a given state, extrapolations from democracies known to
DemocracyMeant to the Greeks(Madison, 1949): W. 0. Forrest, The Emergenceof Greek have existed in specific states at a later time, and archaeological indications of
Democracy (New York, 1966); J. K. Davies, Democracyand ClassicalGnec, (S1a11ford, popular institutions. · ,
1978): S. Hornblower,"Creation and Developmentof DemocraticInstitutions in Ancient The fourth chapter offers a summary of results and draws some conclusions
Greece," in J. Dunn, ed. Democracythe UnfinishedJourney 508 BC to AD 1993 (Oxford, regarding the emergence of Greek democracy. . · '
1992), 1-16. Inevitablythese studieatum exclusivelyto Athens when discussin1the form
of Greek democraticgovernment. ."
7 G. Busolt and H. Swoboda,Gritchisch, Staatsk.undt(Munich, 1920-26), 417, 43S--9.
8 H. D. Zimmermann,"Frilhe Anslltzeder Demokratiein den ,riechischen Poleis," Klio 57 NOTE ON TERMINOLOGY
( 1975), 293-9: W. Schuller,"ZurEntstchunadcr DemokraticnauBcrhalbAthens,"Au/thn
Weggebracht, (Konstanz. 1979), 43~7; id.• MDas erste Auftrctender Demokratie,"in id. In the course of this study frequent use will be made of the terms Mpopular
• ed. Demokratie und Architektur (Munich, 1989). 52~; Bleicken,Demolt.ratie(as inn. 4) government," "democracy" and the Greek demokratia. Popular government will
417-21, 579-80. ,, . "
9 I. L, O'Neil, Greek DemocraticConstitutionsoutsideAthens (Diss. Cambrid1e, 1973); The
not refer to any rigorously defined system, but rather one which operates in a
Origins and Devtlopm4nl of Ancient Greek.Democracy(Lanham,Maryland, 1995).. , generally popular manner, i.e., with ''the people" having at least some say in the
 12 Introduction

direction of public affairs - democracy itself certainly qualifies as popular

government, but the reverse is not necessarily true. Democracy is defined in the
first chapter; the second explores the specific connotations of demokratia. As the
first chapter shows the essential kinship (though not the complete identity) of CHAPTER 1:
these two terms, they could be used almost interchangeably thereafter when DEFININGDEMOCRACY
describing appropriate ancient Greek examples. Nevertheless, in the third chapter
an effort has been made to employ the term demokratia only when at least one
ancient source uses that term or a derivative to describe the state in question.
l. DEMOCRATICPROCESS

What constitutes a democracy? This question has no simple answer. Those of us

raised in countries with a strong democratic tradition have one sense of what it
means for a state to be democratic. Yet in the course of history governments
labeled democracies have varied widely in their nature, and defining the de-
mocratic character of a particular state is a tricky process. We can determine
fairly easily whether an institution or a government is more or less democratic
than another: for example, we might conclude rather quickly that the U.S. House
of Representatives is more democratic than the U.S. Senate, or that modern
Taiwan is more democratic than North Korea. But finding the precise boundary
between the set "democracies" and other constitutions is more difficult. Never-
theless, it is important to attempt some definition, for if we intend to identify the
earliest democratic states from slender bits of evidence we need a very clear
understanding of what exactly we seek and what distinguishes a democracy.
Moreover, our understanding ought not be restricted to ancient conceptualiza-
tions, even if that is the period on which we will be focusing our attention. Late
analyses we find in our surviving Greek sources (especially Aristotle's Politics)
cannot tell us everything we need to know about the earliest forms of democracy,
since they primarily concern themselves with what democracy evolved into
during the classical period. Determining where other systems leave off and
democracy begins will benefit by an independent, "higher" notion of what a
democratic system - any democratic system - entails. For this purpose we must
consider the elements common to democratic states which bridge the gap of time
and culture separating ancient and modem examples.
Democracy can be defined in two distinct ways: as a set of institutions that
together result in democratic government (a procedural or descriptive definition)
and as the set of ideals or principles that guide the procedures of a given state (a
normative or prescriptive definition). The former focuses on empirically obser-
vable public institutions and practices, where the latter looks more to the spirit or
values that guide them. Both aspects of the word are important and related, but
for the moment we will concentrate on a descriptive definition. 1 As a simplistic
start, we might say a constitution is democratic if political power resides with the

On the interaction between prescriptive and descriptive functions of the word, see G.
Sanori, DemocraricTheory (Westport, 1973), esp. 3-15, and T. Vanhanen, The Emergence
of Democracy (Helsinki, 1984), 9-11.
r
!

14 Chapter 1: Defining Democracy 1. Democratic Process 15

people. 2 The most direct way for the people to express their power is to govern authority in determining how the government is run. We might include in this
themselves. In a literal sense we can imagine citizens meeting to make and category, for example, the Al-Sabah clan's administration of Kuwait or Central
execute collective decisions with complete equality of duties and privileges. But American "Junta" governments, as well as ancient oligarchies. While democracies
this ideal becomes difficult to implement if the people consists of more than a will delegate power temporarily to individuals or small groups, both monarchy
handful of individuals, for the efficient operation of any state requires at least and oligarchy permanently reserve exclusive authority to the ruling elite, pre-
some concentration of executive authority; we must then add that a constitution is venting the mass of citizens from exercising any great influence over political
also democratic if the sovereign people, acting collectively, exercise direct con- decisions. 5
trol over those who do govern. This is the sort of democracy we encounter in The contrast with monarchy or oligarchy sets some clear boundaries for
historical sources and live in today, where limited executive authority is delegat- democracy, but negative considerations can bring us only so far. When one
ed to state officials. Given that any number of systems can be devised to enable envisages a positive model, one inevitably constructs an ideal which not all
effective popular control over government, it stands to reason that democracies democracies will fit precisely. Political theorist Robert Dahl sets out five criteria
ancient and modem take many different shapes; but in the end they all require at in which historical democracies partake to varying degrees. The more democratic
least that ultimate authority rest in the hands of the mass of citizens. a state is, the closer it will come to fulfilling all of the criteria. 6 They are, in
The issue becomes more complicated when we examine our terms more summary:
closely: who are "the people"? What constitutes governance and adequate control
over those who practice it? Obviously, there is a broad range of possibilities. If 1) Effective participation, whereby citizens will have an equal opportunity to
we limit "the people" to certain social or ethnic groups within a larger society, do express their preferences in setting the agenda and deciding on alternatives.
we still have a democracy? We may clarify the discussion somewhat by establish- 2) Voting equality at the decisive stage, where all citizens will be able to
ing what democracy cannot be. It cannot be a monarchy, where a single ruler participate equally in binding collective decisions.
wields unlimited or moderately limited power. Such a ruler's authority may be These first two suffice for a democratic process in a narrow sense, according to
constitutionally defined, backed by tradition or common consent, enforced by Dahl.
fear and repression, or any combination. This category comprehends most forms
of kingship, tyranny, and dictatorship, familiar in both the ancient and modem 3) Enlightened understanding (i.e., access by all citizens to good information).
worlds. 3 Nor can democracy be equated with oligarchy, where a small elite 4) Control of the agenda (i.e., no internal or external authority limiting the
(distinguished by age, wealth, kinship, social class or some similar criteria) has purview of the democratic process to certain issues).
exclusive control over the state. The contrast here is less clear-cut than that with A fifth criterion is added to meet the criticism that a state may be democratic in
monarchy, for the more moderate ancient oligarchies sometimes provided for process but exclude most of the community through severe restrictions placed on
elections of certain officials, though there were greater restrictions on who could citizenship:
participate. 4 Even so, oligarchies deny the vast majority of their citizens decisive
chus Historian's treatment of the Boeotian constitution, which itself seems uceptional in
2 "As a set of political institutions, democracy is commonly defined as a political system in its federal nature and in the possibility of popular elections in selecting council members
which power - directly or indirectly - rests with the whole of the people." M. H. Hansen, (11. 1-4). Sparta and especially the Roman Republic exhibited strong oligarchic characteri-
Was Athens A Democracy? {Copenhagen, 1989), 3 with n. 2. "[Democracy! is used to stics, though their constitutions were sufficiently "mixed" to complicate identification. Cf.
describe a political system in which power is widely distributed among its memben and in L. Whibley, Greek Oligarchies {London, 1896); G. Busolt and H. Swoboda, Griechische
which the status of power holders is based on the consent of the people." Vanhanen, Staatskunde (Munich, 192~26), 341-69, esp. 353; J. A. 0. Lanon, Representative Gover-
Emergence {as inn. 1) 11. "Democracy has been used ever since the time of Herodotus to nment in Greek and Roman History (Berkeley, 1955), 31-40; id., "The Boeotian Confeder-
denote that fonn of government in which the ruling power of a State is legally vested, not in acy and Fifth Century Oligarchic Theory," TAPA 86 (1955), 40-50; V. Ehrenberg, The
any panicular class or classes, but in the members of a community as a whole. This means, Greek Star, (New York, 1960), 60, 12:34; l. A. F. Bruce.A Historical Commentary 011the
in communities which act by voting. that rule belongs to the majority, as no other method "Hel/enica Oxyrhy11chia" (Cambridge, 1967); P.R. McKechnie and S. J. Kem, Hellenica
has been found for detennining peaceably and legally what is deemed the will of I O.ryrhynchia {Warminster, 1988), 152-3. ·
community which is not unanimous." J. Bryce, Modern Democracies (London, 1921), 1.23, 5 Sanori contrasts democracy with autocracy thus: "In democracy no one can choose himself,
quoted in Vanhanen, 9. no one can invest himself with the power to rule, and therefore no one can arrogate to
3 Examples of limited kingship could be found in Spana's dual kingship or Euro~n himself unconditional and unlimited power. The difference between democracy and its
constitutional monarchies of the 18th and 19th centuries. l do not here refer to the effective- opposite lies in the fact that in a democracy power is scattered, limited, controlled, and
ly ceremonial monarchies of present-day England, Holland, Scandinavia, etc. . . exercised in rotation; whereas in an autocracy power is concentrated, uncontrolled, indefi-
4 While Aristotle and other political writen frequently refer to oligarchy and discuss us nite, and unlimited." G. Sanori, "What Democracy ls Not," in C. F. Cnudde and D. E.
practice in the abstract, it is surprising how little detail has survived as to the institutional Neubauer, eds., Empirical Democratic Tht!ory (Chicago, 1969), 40. •
composition of panicular, historical oligarchic states. The best description is the Oxyrhyn- 6 R. A. Dahl, Democracy and Its Critics (New Haven. 1989), 106-31.

j
16 Chapter I: Defining Democracy 2. Democratic Beginnings 17

5) The citizen body must include all non-transient and non-mentally defective popular control. Literary and epigraphic evidence firmly establishes the existence
adult members of the community. and routine functioning of popular governments in Greece by the fifth century
B.C., as well as the development of spirited political discourse about democracy.
This last criterion most obviously bears the stamp of modern as opposed to
The Greeks themselves considered their impulse toward political freedom and
ancient sensibilities, as will be discussed presently.
self-determination to be absent in other peoples.8 Direct evidence for democracy
These principles offer a good outline of an ideal democratic process. They
from any of the earlier Near Eastern civilizations is hard to come by. Indeed, what
embody the values of self-determination, political freedom, and equality which
we do have (mostly archaeological evidence, including multitudinous inscribed
have been associated with democracy from ancient Greece to the present day.7
tablets) seems to indicate the preponderance of despotism, often with strong
One can hardly doubt that a state of any period whose institutions exhibit these
characteristics would be considered a democracy. Indeed, if a state were to fulfill · theocratic influence. 9
However, we must bear in mind that, for much of the long history of the
them all it would be a perfect democratic order. Unfortunately, we should admit
ancient Mediterranean world, Greece was a cultural backwater that developed
t~~t "true" democracy, in the sense of the perfectly equal sharing of all responsi-
complex social and political institutions Jong after the earliest appearance of
b1hty by all members of a community, is a utopian dream. Such a government has
civilization in Egypt and the Near East. It makes sense to consider the possibility
never ~~isted'. an_dpro~ably never will: it would require a harmony of purpose
that advancements toward democratic government occurred elsewhere first. 10 In
and ab1hty, with ideal c1rcumstances of formation, that are unlikely ever to come
recent decades scholars have explored that possibility seriously, with intriguing
to pass in any sizable political community. If we arc to adopt a more realistic
results. Thorkild Jacobsen ignited the issue with his discussion of political
approac_h(~s would be ~ecessary to identify and describe historical states), we
development in pre-Babylonian Mesopotamia. 11 Jacobsen uses Sumerian epic,
cannot ms1st on perfection. Dahl suggests that we might call a given state a
myth, and historical records to identify what he calls "primitive democracy" in
democr_acyif it attains a certain democratic "threshold," as determined by an
Mesopotamia. By this he means a government in which ultimate power rests with
eva~uat1on~f how well the specific institutions of the state in question (political
bodies, voli~g procedures, responsibilities and accountability of magistrates,
etc.) approximate a democratic process as outlined above. This is the value of 8 Greek conceptualizing of eastern "barbarians" as politically servile begins with Aeschylus
and Athenian tragedy (Cf. E. Hall, Inventing the Barbarian [Oxford, 19891); yet Aeschylus
Dahl's formulation for our purposes: it provides a theoretical model of a dem-
still voices al least the possibility that the subjects of the Great King might rebel after the
ocratic process against which we might measure ancient historical examples. defeat at Salamis (Persians 584-94). By Aristotle's time the continuing predominance of
Before we do this, however, it would be wise to take a look at ancient democracy despotic governments in the Near East and the apparent lack of popular agitation there for
as a general phenomenon, examining where it may have originated and how its different political systems made it easy for the philosopher to conclude that the peoples of
special characteristics might affect our criteria for a democratic process. Asia were more servile in their nature than the Greeks (Pol. 1285 a20-2, 1327 b20-35,
1255 a26; cf. Eur. IA 1400-1, W. L. Newman, The Politics of Aristotle vol. 3 [Oxford
1902), 265-6). The Hippocratic treatise On Airs, Waren, and Places suggests that (in
conjunction with environmental factors) Eastern despotisms nndered their subjects wealc
2. DEMOCRATIC BEGINNINGS and subservient in character. One wonders if similar attitudes are present in modern western
democracies, where concerns are occasionally voiced about whether the people of a given
T_h~_Me~iterranean and the Near East nurtured a wide range of cultures and Third World nation, lacking democratic traditions, are "ready for democracy."
c1V1hza1tons,many predating Hell as. For years the standard scholarly assumption 9 For a general survey, sec A. B. Knapp, The History and Culture of Ancient Western Asia
has been that the Greeks invented democracy, that before them every civilization and Egypt (Chicago, 1988). Herodotus does mention in passing that at one time in the
distant past the Medes "fought for freedom" and became Mautonomous" before Deioces
of the world employed various absolutist forms of government involving no
established a monarchy (1.95.2-100.2). There is also Herodotus' famous Persian constitu-
tional debate (3.80-3), though few would maintain that the speeches reflect actual Persian
7 On Greek concepts of political freedom and equality: V. Ehrenberg, "lsonomia," RE Supp 7 events; cf. W.W. How and J. Wells, A Commenrary on Herodorus, vol. I (Oxford, 1912),
(1940), 293-301: A. H. M. Jones, "The Athenian Democracy and its Critics," in Arhenian 277-8, and V. Ehrenberg, "Origins of Democracy," Hisroria I (1950), 515-48, esp. 525
Democracy (New York, 1958), 41-72; F. D. Harvey, "Two Concepts of Equality," C&.M 26 with n. 27.
( 1965), IOIf; K. Raatlaub, Die Enrdeckung der Freiheit (Munich, t 985) [with the review by IO Speculations about "tribal democracies" among primitive men in ancient hunter-gatherer
~- Ostwald, CR 38 (1988) 82-5); id., "Perceptions of Democracy in Fifth-Century Athens," societies lie outside the realm of this study. The issues are primarily theoretical and
1nAspecrs of Democracy (Copenhagen, 1990), 33-70; C. Farrar, The Origins of Democratic anthropological rather than historical. For a very thorough treatment, see R. M. Glassman,
Thinking (Cambridge, 1988): Hansen, Democracy? (as in n. 2) 21-9; R. Brock, "The Democracy and Despotism in Primirive Societies 2 vols. (Port Washington, 1986).
Emergence of Democratic Ideology," Hisroria 40 (1991), 160-69: O. Pattenon, Fnedom, 11 "Primitive Democracy in Ancient Mesopotamia" and "Early Political Development in
vol. I (BasicBooks, 1991). On Greek equality in colonial expeditions, A. J. Graham, Colony Mesopotamia," in Toward the Image ofTammuz (Cambridge, 1970), 157-70 and 132-56
and Mother City in Ancient Greece, 2nd ed. (Chicago, 1983), 58-9. On the development of respectively. [First published in Journal of Near Easrern Srudies 2 (1943). 159-72 and 2A
a broad egalitarianism in archaic Greece, see chapter three, part one. 52 (1957), 91-140.)
18 Chapter I: Defining Democracy 2. Democratic Beginnings 19

the mass of free male citizens, similar to a classical Greek democracy, although the power of the king, judges that the role of the assembly and the council of
"the various functions of government are as yet little specialized, the power elders was advisory, not controlling.ts E. Szlechter, in a careful study of the
structure is loose, and the machinery for social coordination by means of power is available literary and documentary evidence, questions the validity of using
as yet imperfectly developed." 12 He concedes that the inexact nature of the second millennium tablets to describe with precision institutions from many
evidence makes distinctions in precise forms of government very difficult for us hundreds of years earlier. He finds it more likely that they reflect conditions from
to perceive - so much so that even separating democracy from oligarchy becomes more recent times. 16 Other scholars are sceptical about just how democratic the
highly problematic. supposed assemblies were: "Some kind of oligarchic tendencies cannot have
Jacobsen first points to civic institutions such as judicial assemblies of young failed to appear in an assembly of this type, which was not 'democratic' in the
and old from Assyrian merchant citiest 3 and Babylonia (c.2000--1500 B.C.), Western sense of this much abused term, but functioned rather like a tribal
which he understands to be mere relics of a more potently democratic form of gathering, reaching agreement by consensus under the guidance of the more
government existing earlier. Traditions suggest that during the Early Dynastic influential, richer, and older members." 17 The same texts which Jacobsen uses to
period in Sumer (first half of the third millennium B.C.) kings such as Gilgamesh establish a "primitive democracy" also can be interpreted convincingly to demon-
did not hold the autocratic power which later Mesopotamian rulers wielded. strate a power struggle between primitive monarchs and the nobility, a struggle in
Rather, the major city-states had a council of elders and a council of "young men" which the common people in assembly act more as pawns than the sovereign
(likely to have comprised all free men bearing arms) that possessed final political authority. 18
authority, and had to be consulted and persuaded on all major issues such as war These criticisms are damaging to Jacobsen's case, and other weaknesses
and choosing a ruler. In one story, the people of the land of Kish assemble and should be pointed out. Certainly his use of the word democracy appears inappro-
raise a man named Iphurkish to the kingship. In another, Gilgamesh wishes to priate, or at least misleading. One may raise a serious methodological objection:
make war upon another country, but first proposes the idea to the elders. When it is highly questionable to take myths about the gods and epic stories from a later
they fail to approve it, the king next takes it to the assembly of young men, who age as accurately representing the political institutions of prehistoric Sumer. t9
agree with Gilgamesh, and preparations for war commence. Jacobsen concludes But even if we credit such testimony, it is crucial to understand that ruling with
from this that "the assembly appears to be the ultimate political authority." To the consent of the governed is not sufficient to define a democracy. It is not even
add support and detail to his claim, Jacobsen adduces a number of excerpts from
Sumerian mythology which show the gods arriving at "political" decisions in a
democratic manner in a sovereign assembly of all the gods. He reasons that cf. S. N. Kramer, "The Temple in Sumerian Literature." in M. V. Fox, ed. Temple in Society
(Winona Lake, 1988), 1-16. D. Katz, scrutinizing the literary aspects of the tale of Gilga-
although these are myths about the gods, not men, and recorded in a later period,
mesh and Agga, concludes that it docs not provide a reliable basis for historical recon-
they contain long-standing traditions that reflected real political conditions in struction, particularly in regard to the common assumption that there were two govern-
prehistoric Mesopotamia. mental assemblies. "Gilgamesh and Agga," Rlvue d'Assyriologie 81 (1987), 105-14, and
Jacobsen's pioneering work, while constantly cited, has excited surprisingly again in Gilgamesh and Akka (Groningen, 1993), esp. 23-32. Varying reactions can be
little serious discussion and less outright acceptance. 14 One scholar, emphasizing found in the papers from the 1973 colloquium La voiJcde /'opposition en Mesopotamit
(Bruxelles, 1975). For a useful juxlAposition of some primary and secondary sources on this
issue, see D. Kagan, Problems in Ancient History vol. 1 (New York, 1975), 1-35.
12 "Primitive Democracy" (as inn. 11) 157. 15 A. Falkenstein, "La Cite-temple sumc!rienne." in Cahiers d'Histoire Mondiale 1.4 (Paris,
13 Cf. M. T. Larson, The Old Anyrian City-State and its Colonies Mesopotamia 4 (Copenha- 1954), esp. 801. (Also in English, The Sumerian Temple City, trans. M. de J. Ellis [Los
gen, 1976), 173ff., and H. Lewy's chapter on Old Assyria in CAH2 vol. 1.2, 707-28. Angeles, 1974), 1-21.)
14 G. Evans, "Ancient Mesopotamian Assemblies," Journal of American Oriental Studies 78 16 "Les Assemblks en Mesopotamie Anci~nne," in liber Memorialis Georges de IAgarde
(1958), 1-11, 114-5, essentially affirms and even goes beyond Jacobsen's conclusions (Louvain, 1970), 1-21.
about democratic assemblies. Support for the importance of the assemblies, if not "primi- 17 A. L. Oppenheim, Ancient Muopotamia (Chicago, 1964), 112.
tive democracy" itself, can also be found in E. A. Speiser, "Authority and Law in Mesopota- 18 N. Bailkey, "Early Mesopotamian Constitutional Development," American Historical Re-
mia," JAOS Supp. 17 (1954), 8-15, and "The Idea of History in Ancient Mesopotamia," in view 72 (1967), 1211-36. Interestingly, Bailkey uses a generalized conception of Greek
J. J. Finkelstein and M. Greenberg, eds. Oriental and Biblical Studies; Collected Writings political development -monarchy followed by oligan:hy, tyranny, democracy, then back to
of E. A. Speiser (Philadelphia, 1965), 288-9; and in I. M. Diakonoff, -structure of Society tyranny - to interpret conflicting evidence for Mesopotamia between c. 2550-1595.
and State in Early Dynastic Sumer," MANE 1/1 (1974), 9-10. A. B. Knapp, History and 19 The haz~rds of using mythic or dramatic accounts to reconstruct the political realities of the
Culture (as in n.9) 70, strikes a more cautious note when he says of the hypothetical remote past will become readily apparent to those familiar with Euripides' Suppliants, in
transition from so-called democracy, -though plausible, this sequence of events cannot be · which the distinctive ethos and procedures of the fifth-century Athenian democracy arc
verified in contemporary Early Dynastic documents." In Sumu and the Sumerian.r (Cam- jarringly rctrojccted into the distant, legendary era of Theseus. Few historians would seek to
bridge. 1991), H. Crawford cites the assemblies as only one limitation on monarchic use the play 10 establish the "political realities" of such a mythical era. On the Theseus
freedom of action, pointing out the great influence also held by the temple and priesthood; myths and their context, see H.J. Walker. Theuus and Athens (Oxford, 1995).
20 Chapter I: Defining Democracy 2. Democratic Beginnings 21

unique to democracy. The Homeric wanax, Macedonian kings, the Roman oli- Scholars occasionally have suggested that other cultures of the ancient world
garchy, and others occasionally sought the consent of the assembled host for a may have experimented with democratic institutions._Thir~ millennium Ebl~, !he
leader's proposal, or for confirmation of supreme power, or (more rarely) for Hittite Old Kingdom (second quarter of the second millennium), S_y~o-Pa!~stm1an
elevation to power, but no one would claim any of these systems as democracies. 20 cities in the second half of the second millennium, and Phoemc1an c11tes and
To find a few examples of assemblies merely consenting to some act hardly Deuteronomy's Israelites of the early first millennium have all been the subject of
shows that a democratic government is in place. Actual democracy would seem to scrutiny concerning their indigenous popular institutions. While the case for
require institutionalized elements of popular control, such as a formal check on actual democracy existing in any of these early cultures is extremely weak, we at
the chief executive (scheduled elections or limited terms or scrutiny after ser- least find further ground to overturn obsolete notions of monolit~ic "Oriental
vice); little or no restriction by birth, wealth, class, etc. for executive posts; the despotism." Kingship in Ebia during the period of the Royal Archives (c.2500-
right of the assembly to override decisions or proposals of the magistrates; and an 2400 or 2400-2250 B.C.) appears to have been elective with a limited term and
active role for the assembly or representative council in discussing and deciding open to more than one noble family. The en ruled together with his lu~al, or
issues, as well as proposing their own motions. 21 (More radical democracies provincial governors, and there is some evidence of an assembly occ'.15~onally
could boast payment for offices or for attendance in assemblies or juries.) These convened by the elders, though its duties cannot be defined. 22 In the Hittite Old
sorts of practices would seem necessary to move a political system towards the Kingdom, assemblies, while still subordinate to t~e ~ing, seemed to have played
criteria for a truly democratic process discussed earlier. Perhaps one cannot a significant constitutional role. The pankus, cons1stmg (perhaps) o~ all men ~ble
expect all of these procedures in a "primitive" setting where custom, not written to bear arms, met to decide and execute judicial matters referred to it by t~e kmg,
law, regulates society; but at least a few such structures would seem to be and also served in an advisory capacity. Chief men, elders, or poss1~Iy ~e
necessary for a large number of people to exert their sovereignty, as opposed to membership of the pankus composed the tuliyas, which had ju~icial funct10ns; m
merely allowing others to do so. certain circumstances its rulings were binding upon the kmg ~d the royal
Furthermore, one must ask how a primitive Mesopotamian democracy might family. 23 A number of cities in later second millenn!um ~~ro-Palestme appear to
be distinguished from a primitive oligarchy? Jacobsen concedes that the vague- have been self-governing and show signs of an active c111zenbody: Doc~ments
ness of the evidence prohibits their separation - an honest, if damaging admis- are full of references to "the town" and "the elders" apparently actmg wit~ full
sion. In a primitive setting, both systems would look very similar, with an as- authority while still under official royal rule. 24 Martin Bernal argues that mde-
sembly of some kind, and groups of people discussing or approving/disapproving pendent Phoenician "city-states" of varying constitutional structures eme~ged
proposals. We must know more about the makeup of the assembly, who is hundreds of years before the appearance of the polis in Greece, but di_r~ct
allowed to speak, who proposes, and who just listens or perhaps shouts yea or evidence for democracy - or populist politics of any kind - in these commumties
nay, in order for us to determine the level of authority belonging to the king, the does not exist.25 Finally, the text of Deuteronomy may indicate that among the
elders, and the many. Without this information, and in the absence of"advanced" ancient Israelites a strong measure of personal freedom and political power rested
institutional signposts (such as voting, terms of office, scrutiny, property quali- with the people as a whole, qualified, of course, by their subjection to the laws of
fications, etc.), we cannot know in whose hands the government truly lay.
22 G. Peuinato, The Archives of Ebia, (Garden City, 1981) and Ebia: A New Look at HiSfory,
trans C Faith Richardson (Baltimore, I 991); I. M. Diakonoff, "The Importance of Eb!a for
Hist~ry ~nd Linguistics," in C. Gordon and G. A. Rendsburg, eds. Eblaitica vol. 2 (Winona
20 Recently. however, some scholars have reopened debate over the accepted view of the Lake, 1990), 3-29; A. Archi, "More on Ebia and Kish," in C. Gordon, G. A. Rendsbur1 and
middle Roman Republic as an oligarchy, arguin1 for greater acknowlcdgment of democra• N. H. Winter, eds. Eblaitica vol. 1 (Winona Lake, 1987), 125-40. .. nd
tic elements within the constitution. F. Miller, "The Political Character of the Classical "The Old Hittite Kingdom," American Jou.mat of Sem11,c Lang,u,g~s a
23 R · S · Hardy '
Roman Republic," JRS 14 (1984), 1-19; id., "Politics, the People, and Persuasion before the Literature 58 (1941), 177-216, esp. appendix B, 214-5; A. Goe . tze, "S ta tc and Socaety. of
0
Social War," JRS 16 (1986), 1-11; id., "Political Power in Mid-Republican Rome: Curia or the Hillitcs," in G. Walser, ed. Neu.ere Hethite,forschung (Wiesbaden,. 1,964),23-3 3 , ·
Comitiu.m?" JRS 19 (1990}, 138-50; id., ''The Roman Libutu.s and Civic Freedom," Beckman, "The Hittite Assembly" JAOS 102 (1982), 435-42; M. Marazzi,_ '.°be~lcgung zur
Arethusa 28 (1995), ~9-105; J. A. North, "Democratic Politics in Republican Rome," Past Bedeutung voo pankus in der helhitisch-akkadischen Bilingue Hattus1hs !•. Welt de:
and Present 126 (1990), 3-21. But see N. Rosenstein, "Sorting Out the Loi in Republican Orients 15 (1984), 96-102; H. Cancik, "'Herrschaft' in Texten de~ Heth1ter,. tn K. R~ -
Rome," Artthusa 28 (1995), 43-75. laub and E. Millier-Luckner, eds. Anflingt po/itischen Denkens in der Antikt (Mumch,
21 On the development and central importance of isegoria in the Athenian democracy, see A.
1993), 115-134. · s ·a Palestine in
G. Woodhead, "ll:HrOPIA and the Council of 500," His1oria 16 (1967), 129-40; cf. K. A. 24 H. Reviv, "On Urban Representative Ins1i1utionsand Self-Govemmenl in yn ·
Raaflaub, ,,Des freien Burgers Recht der freien Rede," in W. Eck, H. Gasterer, and H. 2 1 69 283 97
the Second Halfoflhe Second Millennium B.C.," JESHD_ 1 ( ~ ), - ~ . Anfiln e
Wolff, eds. Stu.dien :.ur antiken Socialgeschichte. Festschrift Friedrich Vittinghoff (Co- 25 M. Bernal, "Phoenician Politics and Egyptian Justice tn Ancient ~~· ;~4--404{
logne, 1980), 7-57. politischen Denluns (as inn. 23) 241-61, esp. 243-53 (see also the discussion ·
 22 Chapter I: Defining Democracy 2. Democratic Beginnings 23

God. Explicit testimony regarding the existence of popular institutions (i.e., council of other nobles. 3) Other officials who are rarely mentioned. They seem
assemblies of the people or popular elections for judges and kings) is Jacking, to have obeyed the decisions of the gana.
however. 26 Scholars differ over how to describe these governments, and the vague,
A serious claim for early democratic institutions comes from the independent sporadic quality of the evidence allows for wide disagreement. Some, emphasiz-
"republics" of India, which existed as early as the sixth century B.C. and persi- ing the central role of the assemblies, tout them as democracies; most look to the
sted in some areas until the fourth century A.D. These ganas and sangas (republi- upper class domination of the leadership and its possible control of the assem-
can governments 27 ), centered in the hilly periphery of the Ganges plain in blies and see oligarchy or aristocracy. 29 Given the obvious power of the assembly
northern India, are contrasted in contemporary and later Indian documents with in running the state, the crucial factor has to be the makeup and procedure of this
more typical monarchic governments. The evidence is scattered, and unfortunate- body: if it could be established that the composition and participation was truly
ly no purely historical source exists for the period. Vedic, Buddhist, and Jaina popular, then there would a strong case for democracy. This is not easy to do.
sacred literature plus secular works such as the Arthra 'sastra attributed to Kautil- Clearly, there was variation according to the different tribes. The Licchavis had a
ya and Panini's A 'stadhyayi provide the bulk of the material from which any primary governing body of 7,707 rajas - presumably the heads of the most
political history can be reconstructed. Most is known about the Licchavis, Sakyas, important families - and this group may not have met as often as an elite council
Mallas, Malavas, and Ksudrakas, though ganas are said to have existed among of nine chiefs, giving this community a clear oligarchic bent. 30 Among the
other peoples of northeastem India as well. In addition, later Greek sources, Sakyas (the Buddha's people) the assembly seems to have been open to all men,
without offering any detail, suggest that independent and democratic states rich and poor. 3 1 Nevertheless, it may have had to share power with an aristocratic
survived to the time of Alexander's invasion.28 council of K'satriya-rajas. 32 We may gain some insight from the Arthra'sastra,
The scantiness of the evidence makes reliable description of the political an ancient handbook for monarchs on how to rule effectively. It contains a
organization in these states difficult. The chief characteristics of the gana seem to chapter (I I.I) on dealing with the sangas which includes injunctions on manipu-
have been as follows: l) A deliberative assembly that discussed all major state lating the noble leaders, yet it says not a word about influencing the mass of
decisions. Silence was taken for consent, and decisions were usually by consen- citizens or the procedural activity of governing bodies - a surprising omission if
sus, though the existence of voting as a rarely exercised procedure is attested. The democratic bodies, not aristocratic families, actively controlled the republican
body met regularly, had full financial, administrative, and judicial authority governments. We might expect that the Arthra 'sastra would discuss or at least
(including the power of life and death), and, at least in some of the states, seems mention the existence of popular institutions. 33
to have been open for attendance by all free men. Speaking appears not to have One must also take into account the persistence of the four-tiered Varna class
been restricted to officers; it is unclear whether proposals could be made from the system in India at this time.34 The duties and privileges incumbent on the
floor. 2) A chief (usually called raja) who was elected by the gana and apparently members of each particular caste - which were rigid enough to include a prohibi-
always belonged to a family of the noble K'satriya Vama. He typically was the
son of the previous chief, though the assembled gana had final say. The chief 29 The three most thorough and authoritative studies are by G. M. Bongard-Levin, "Republics
coordinated his activities with the assembly and, in some states, with a powerful in Ancient India," in A CompleJCStudy of Ancient India (Delhi, 1986), 61-106, and those of
Sharma (as in n. 27). Both of these scholars offer more aristocratic interpretations. General
studies which discuss the republics more briefly include: R. Thapar, A History of India, vol.
26 F. Criiscmann, '"Theokratie' als 'Demokratie.' Zur politischen Konzeption des Deuterono- 1 (Baltimore, 1966), 50-69; A. L. Basham, The Wonder That Was India, 3rd ed.(New York,
miums," in An/tinge politischen Denkens (as inn. 23) 199-214. 1968), 97-9; A. Bhattacharjee, History of Ancient India (New Delhi, 1979), 140--4; D. D.
27 On the definition of these difficult terms, sec J. P. Sharma, Aspects of Political Ideas and Kosambi, The Culture and Civilization of Ancient India in Historical Outline (Delhi, 1970),
Institutions in Ancient India, 2nd ed. (Delhi, 1968), 109-22; id., Republics in Ancient India 108-9; P. Masson-Oursel, H. de Willman-Grabowska, P. Stern, Ancient lndio and Indian
(Leiden, 1968), 8-13. Gana in particular has a number of connotations: in Vcdic limes, Civiliwtion, trans. M. R. Dobie (New York, 1967), 89-90; H. Raychaudhuri, Political
before the Buddha, it seems to have meant a tribe or the armed organization of a tribe. History of Ancient India, 5th ed. (Calcu1ta, 1950), 99, 121, 124-5, 191-6; R._Tripathi,
Sharma, Political Ideas, 118-22, speculates that these primitive tribal organizations origi- History of Ancient India (Delhi, 1942), 85-3. The last is the most adventurous 1n making
nally may have exhibited "democratic" qualities -qualities which the later republics sought claims for democracy. Sharma, 1-4, gives a useful critical review of earlier scholarship.
(unsuccessfully) to imitate on a broader social and political scale. 30 Sharma, Political Ideas (as inn. 27) 98-116.
28 Curtius, 9.9.4; Arr. Ind. 9.9; Diod. 2.39. Diodorus says that many years after Hcracles had 31 Tripathi, Ancient India (as in n. 29) 87-8.
established kingship in the country most cities had become democracies (demokra1ethena1). 32 Bongard-Levin, "Republics" (as in n. 29) 88-92.
But sec J. A. 0. Larson, "Demokratia," CP68 (1973), 45-6, and esp. G. E. M. de Ste. Croix, 33 However, given the abstract, idealized nature of the treatise, and the controversy surround-
The Class Struggle in the Ancient World (Ithaca,1981), 321-3, for the degradation of the ing its authorship and dating, one ought not place too much weigh! on the ~bsence of
term demokratia in sources from the third century B.C. and later: it could be used 10 specific references to democratic institutions in the Republics. On the text and its author-
describe any autonomous state, no mat1cr how oligarchic, eveniually including the Roman ihip, sec T. R. Trautmann, Kautilya and the Anhra'sastra (Leiden, 1971).
Republic and even the Principate. 34 Bongard-Levin, "Republics" (as inn. 29) 70-SI.
 3. Ancient and Modem Democracy Compared 25
24 Chapter 1: Defining Democracy

government did exist hundreds of years before its appearance in Greece, it would
tion against sharing a meal with those of another order - must have affected the
be impossible to evaluate its potential historical impact. We have no indication
r?le membe~ were expected to play in the state, regardless of the formal institu-
that there was a developmental connection between Greek democracy and a
tlon~. Un"."ntten custom would likely have discouraged a sense of equality among
hypothetical precursor, or that any record of earlier democracy su~ivcd to
the _mhabllants and the freedom to participate in the government, values which
influence later peoples and cultures, as has that of Greece. M. I. Finley has
ancient and modem democracies share. For example, it could have been that even
asserted that "Whatever the facts may be about [democracies in early Mesopota-
if all citiz.ens :,vere al~o:,vedto be pre~ent at meetings of the assembly, only the
mia), their impact on history, on later societies, was null. The Greeks, and only
exalted K satr1yas (ongmally the warrior varna) were given the right of speech or
the Greeks, discovered democracy in that sense, precisely as Christopher Colum-
proposal. One sees a possible parallel in the Homeric assembly of warriors
bus, not some Viking seaman, discovered America." 39 Its appearance among ~e
portrayed in the Iliad, where there were no apparent restrictions on attendance,
Greeks then will remain the focus of our discussion. We next tum our attenllon
but when the commoner Thersites spoke inappropriately in the presence of his
to the ~eani~g of democracy in ancient Hellenic and modem settings.
betters he was ~~vagely be~ten (2.211-78). The lack of attestation of any theory
or concept of c1t1zenequality (abundantly clear in Greek democracy)l5 to coun- I
terbalance the strict hierarchy of the caste system makes one question the true
3. ANCIENT AND MODERN DEMOCRACY CO~PARED
nature of even those ganas and sangas with seemingly democratic institutions.36
It is not difficult to identify a number of significant changes in the way de-
The case for_the e~istence of formal democracies, distinguishable from oligarchic
mocracy is practiced now as opposed to the days of the ancient Gree~s. In
or monarchic regimes and embodying principles of political equality, is very
political culture as well as in other areas the world has changed a great deal 1n the
weak for any pre-Greek culture. 37 The most we can say with any confidence is
last 2500 years. There arc many forms of modem democracy, but alm~st all have
that some earlier political systems valued popular consent and participation to a
certain general traits in common which distinguish them from ancient exam-
greater degree than hitherto recognized. To assert anything more on the basis of
ples.40 There were many different ancient democracies as well, though f~r the
the slender, ambiguous evidence currently available amounts to speculation at
present discussion when examples of ancient democratic practices arc required I
best. 38 And there is also this to consider: even if a recognizably democratic
will rely upon those of classical Athens, for the simple reason_th~t they arc by far
35 E.g., Thuc. 2.37.1; Plato, Rep. 8.557a; Isoc. A.reop.60-1; Arist. PoL 1301 a26-b4, b29- the best known. Athens had a long history of democracy begmnmg near the end
1302 al; 1308 all-13, 1317 a40-bl7, 1318 a3-9. Cf. V. Ehrenberg, "lsonomia," RE Supp of the sixth century and continuing, with only brief interruptions, until late i~ the
7 (1940), 293-301; F. D. Harvey, "Two Concepts of Equality," C&.M26 (1965), IOlf; M. fourth. Contemporary testimony from Aristotle, Plato, Herodotus, Thucyd1des,
~- Hansen, Democracy?(as inn. 2) 21-5. The Greek notion of democratic equality did not Pseudo-Xenophon, the preserved speeches of fourth-century orators, and other
mclude whole classes of people (like women, children and slaves), which would be sources, including a vast collection of epigraphic documents, together shed
un_te_nableby contemporary standards. Of course, the Constitution of the United States
brighter light on the workings of ~ Athenian c~nstitu~on than on any ~ther
ong1~ally e~cluded t~ same groups. See G. Wills, Lincolnat Gettysburg(NewYork, 1992)
for Lmcoln s redefinition of American democratic ideology. The 1ews of the Bible anained ancient state, democratic or otherwise. The practices umque to Athens will be
a kind of equality, but thein was based more on a penon'1 insignificance before God than appealed to as illustrative examples only, since we seek here to compare ~odem
human political association (cf. n. 26). tenets with the generalGreek approach to popular government, not examme the
36 "Ki_ngship was dissolved and republics were set up, but the class-divided patriarchal 1
specific constitutional measures of one city." , . • •
society, bureaucracy, taxation system and an army for the coercion of the people remained," , The most obvious, and perhaps most significant difference ~tw_een ancient
Sharma, Political ldtas (as inn. 27) 122. , · . · , and modem democracies is that of scale. The typical G~k pohs included an
37 0. Patt~rson,_Frudom. vol. I (BasicBooks, 1991), 20-44, demonstrates the limited nature
and social ummportancc of the principle of individual freedom in thecultures of the ancient
urban center and the surrounding countryside and composed seve~ thousand
Near East; M. Gagarin, Early Grttlc Law (Berkeley, 1986) notes the different nature of people. In Pericles' day, democratic Athens - one of th~ largest c1_ty-states-
writte~ law~ in the Near East, which were not for public readi,ng and action, but rather acted included perhaps 3~0,000 adult male citizens. 42 The temtory of Att1ca exten_d-
as testtmon1als to• ruler's fulfillment of hia duty. This can only further prejudice the case , i,~ '!. • l '' \·
for pre-Greek democracy. . 4

39 DemocracyAncient and Modern(New Brunswick, 197_3),14•. ' ,\ · ; · ·

38 A lamentable example comes from author R. S. Manglapu1, who is not an ancient historian
40 Cf. Dahl, Critic, (as in n. 6) 13-33; J. Blcicken, Die athenuch, Demolcmtie,2nd ed.
by profe~sion, I~. his book, Will of the ~tople (Westport, 1987), he invariably acceptsthe
(Paderbon'l;.1994),423-34,581-4. ' ' · · ' • '. · · ·. ·· .0 .•': .
most radical claims for early democracies anywhere in the non-Western world. This ii in
41 In the next chapter the Greek conception of tkmolcmtia will be exanu~ • dewl. ,
line with th~ politic~! purpose of his book, to lend "scholarly" support to democratic 42 Standard works on the Athenian population include IC.J. Beloch, D~eBevlllktnut~ der
movements 1n the Th1r~ Worl_d_ by trumpeting the existence of long-standing, indigenous,
griechisclun-ri1mi1chenWelt (Leipzig, 1886): A. W. Gomme, Populanonof Atlu;;.~
non-Western democratic trad1t1on1 wherever possible. Unfonunately, this often leads to
. Fifth and Fourth Ctnturie, B.C. (Oxford, 1933), and A HistoricalCommentaryOIi I·
exal!geration or outright misrepresentation of the evidence.
 3. Ancientand ModemDemocracyCompared 27
26 Chapter 1: DefiningDemocracy

ed less than 1000 square miles. Contrast this with the nation-states of today, reaching. No longer do the assembled people manage their own affairs; instead,
46
where the population runs in the millions or tens or hundreds of millions and the congresses of elected representatives decide issues of state. At Att_iens,f~ur
territory can reach continental proportions. The sheer number of people and times a month or more, all citizens who wished would gather together ID the city
extent of land necessitates major differences in practice. For example, modem at a place called the Pnyx and thrash out state policy on subjects ranging from war
democratic countries cannot physically arrange routine nationwide assembly and peace to government finances to honorary or punitive decrees. A representa-
meetings to vote on policy.43 Nor can the bulk of citizens be expectedto hold tive council of five hundred of their fellows, chosen by lot for one-year t_e':115,
magisterial positions, as did the Athenians with the annual replacement in toto of may have previously worked out an agenda for the meeting, but_the decmons
the Council of 500 and hundreds of other magistrates.44 It is further impossible to taken in the end were entirely up to the assembly. Anyone had the nght to add~ss
attain the same sense of community. To the Greeks, democratic life meant the body, and debate frequently became heated. In _present-day democr~1es,
governing and being governed in tums, 45 sharing out the various administrative congresses and parliaments composed of representatives elected for relattvely
47
responsibilities among themselves as they shared other aspects of living in the long terms usually control the legislative process almost excl~sively. Pop~l~
polis. Citizens might have been able to know or at least recognize most of their government bas lost much of its directness, and the ~pie their sense of parttct-
compatriots - they associated with them in the agora, at religious festivals, during pation, with the necessary changeover to representative syst~?15· .. .
military training or battles, and in political bodies such as the assembly or council . In addition the Greek conception of the state and c1ttzensbip tn a state
or panels of magistrates. Nowadays such community intimacy is possible only at differed consid;rably from modem notions.48 The Greeks recognized two ~pes
the local level, if at all. Pericles or Aristotle never could have conceived of a of state the ethnos and the polis, but the latter, entailing a more centralized
polis, let alone a democratic polis, governing the vast extent of territory and society :.Vberesettlement was grouped around an urban community, f~stered the
people included in today's nation-states. .· most famous civic achievements, and more often developed democrattc govem-
Partly as a result of the difference in scale, modem democracies utilize ments.49 Citizenship in a polis involved a special kind of ass~i~~ion. ~e !3reek
representative systems to convey the wishes of the people. As developed and word for "constitution," politeia, was also used to mean . c1t1zensbip.' th~
articulated by Montesquieu, de Tracy, the authors of The Federalist, and James bespeaking a close interrelationship of members of a state with the state itself.
and John Stuart Mill, representation came to be understood as the only way to
allow the best principles of ancient democracy to flourish in the large modem 46 Rep~ni:tion ~as conside~ b; some to be animprovementover direct democracy,not a
weak substitute. E.g., James Madison ia Tia, Fethralist Pa,nn nos. 10 and SS (~ew
nation-state. The implications for specific institutions of state have been far-
American Library edition (New York, 1961)pp. 77-84 and 341-6, esp. 342)~and v~o'!5
1
panicipants in the ConstitutionalConventionin Philadelphia,1787,as recorded1nM~son
. and Robert Yates' notes (S. E. Morison, ed. S011n:11and Doc11menllIllustrating the
des vol. 2 (Oxford, 1956), 34-9; A. H. M. Jones, Athe~ian Democraq (New York, 1958),
161-80; see also Ehrenberg,~ Grttlc Stott 32-9, and Hansen,NDemographicReflections Am,rican R1vol11tion[Oxford, 1965],238-40, 5~. 63-5); m.e views contra R~sseau
on the Number of Athenian Citizens 451-309 B.C." AJAH 1 (1982), 172-89. Recent in the Social Colllract3.15. Cf. Dahl, Critic1(as ia •· 6) 24-33, 360 n. ~}n Fetk~ut nod
bibliography is collected and organized in R. K. Sinclair, Democracyand Participationin I0 Madison went out of his way to distinguishwhat he called ~ ~public ~ du~I, an
Ancient Athens (Cambridge, 1988),223-4 .. •. . ·. · , .. , . . , .. r · hence unstable, "democracy" of the ancient model. On clB111c:al an~ other mfluences.on
political thought in the American Revolutionaryperiod, - B. Baalyn, The lthological
43 1:'1.•tis, they coul~ not expect to have nationwidemeetinas where a laraepercentageof the Origins of the American Revolution(Cambridge, 1967),esp. 22-54; moregenerally, 0. ~-
Citizensshow up in ,nrson. There have been occasional calls for some son of electronic Wood, MDemoc:racy and the AmericanRevolution,"in J. Dunn,ed. D,mocrocy_tlte Unjinu•
!olution to the ~lem of indirect democracy, most sensationally by Ross Perot, lhe
lied Joumey 508 BC to AD 1993 {Oxford,1992),91-105.'. \ ,..,. · . ·:· ·.•, / use
mdependent candidate fot the U.S. presidency In 1992. His aotioa of "electronic town
47 Swiwrland retains some of the charac:teristic:s of direct democracyw1~-us aggress•v_e .
10
!"eetin~s," in which a nationally televised debate on a given issue would be followed by
. of nationwide referenda andinitiatives andwith the employment of c•ti- ~mbhes 1975
1mmed1atevoter feedback,met with controversyand even ridicule during his campaign,but
some of its localities.N. Bhuinya.Dir1ctDerMCracy i11Swirurland(Ne: _Delhi, ): ~-
ii dramatizedthe fact that lhe lechnolosic:almeans now exist for a modem nation of any size
. H. Hansen, "The Athenian Eccle1ia and the Swiss Landsgemeinde, •~ The Adleiuan
lo allow all citizens to participatedirectly in legislative andpolicy decisions. Cf. Hansen, Ecclesia (Copenhagen,1983),207-26, repr. in K. H. Kinzl, ed. D1molratUJ:Der We1 v,r
Democracy?(asinn.2)6-7.·, . ,, , Demokratie bei den Grieclien,(Darmstadt, 1995),324-49. ··. · ~ ·, " ,· . ·:• . · ' ··
44 Aristotle, Ath. l'oL 24.3, states that Athe~i supported j400 magi11n1tes,700 each f«K
48 v. Ehrenberg, The Greel Sta11,2nd ed. (London, 1969),24-51; S1nclaar~ Partic;patwn_(as
,... . in a. 42); P. B. Manville, The OriginofCitiunship in All&~III~t~ (Pri~n, ~9?0t~:
internaland externaladministration.The veracityof thispassagehas beendoubted,especially
u regards the textual reading of 700 out-of-country11,diaJ which may in fact be a ac:ribal
• Walter An tUr poU1teilhabe11.BUrsentaal ,wJ Zageh/Jnglu!ttIII arr:/tailchen nee
error. But as regards the 700 internalofficials. M. H. Hansen, In "Seven HundredAn:hai in land (SIUltgarl, 1993): M. Ostwald, NSharesand Rights: 'Citizenship' Greek Style and
- ~ American Style," in I fotthc:ominsc:ollec:tion
Classical ~!hens," GRBS 21 (1980), 151-73, has argued convincingly that Aristode may of~ from the conference Dem«racy
have provided ■ roughly accurate figure. Many of these offices will have consisted of Anci,nt anti Modem held in WashingtonD.C. In Apnl, 1993. · '' ... '.. : · ,
~m~rship on boards with very limited responsibilities,andwill have been far from full-
t1me Job1. '! .;J.,' ,-'/ "' •r~- ;·'; ;.~ ,I,~.,-,,,.: 49 ·A. Snodgrass,Arr:haicGnece(Berkeley, 1980),42-?··"' :"·'' ' '. , "' • . :
't_ '. -- k~-1 ...... ,..,,,i.~.rL.· >
J. Bordes, POLITE/A dan.rla pensi, gr,cqiu jusqu a Am101e (Par11,1982).examines in
45 Arislotle,l'ol. l317bl3-17.:' ·, ., .. : .. :;.~,,- , ".. ·•, ,,:c·,, ; :-.:.. •'·' , 50
 3. Ancient and ModernDemocracy Compared
29
28 Chapter I; Defining Democracy

Furthermore, citizenship in a Greek polis, democratic or otherwise, meant

To be a citizen w~ not to h~ve a collection of entitlements and legal guarantees, that one participated in a hierarchical system defining one's place in the com-
~u~ to have an a~tl'~·es_har~:n t~e ope~ation of the city (metechein tes politeias).
munity. This resulted in a greater degree o~ ex~lusivity. At Athens, ~-ll·~itizens,
L1t~eralement,d s ag1t_d. av~1r_part a la politeia de la cite, d'y 'faire partici- metics, women, xenoi, and slaves all had differing roles and respons1biht1es.The
~er. Done, le mot pol1te1a_a 1c1un valeur collective. Mais, en meme temps, citizens themselves were ranked according to tele, financial grades which defined
1 ensemble des formules qu1 l'englobent a trait a I'individu, signifie qu'il a lui- the level of contribution expected. Certain offices were only allowed to members
meme lapoliteia, part d'un tout qui le joint au corps des politai. "51This is distinct of the higher tele. Priesthoods in the public cults were held_by specific ~sting-
from the more ~istant notion of citizenship as developed in the Roman empire,52 uished families. The upper crust of society also bore special burdens, hke the
or the equ~ly d1sta~tmodem conception, in which citizenship is granted over far
direct tax eisphora and liturgies. Expectations of service to th~ community were
too extensive a territory to expect participation in running the state at anything higher for the elite, who stood to gain honor and enhance their stature thereby.
but th~ local !eve~. In today's liberal democracies one tends to see citizenship Much farther down the hierarchy, legal residents who did not qualify as full
~~rem terms.of rights than of duties: one has the right to vote, not the responsi- citizens could be subjected to torture to produce court testimony, as cou~dslaves.
bility; one thmks of personal privileges, such as government entitlements or The murderer of a citizen could be put to death, but the murderer of an alien could
assistance when in trouble abroad. Contrast this with Aristotle's definition of only be exiled. Women, whether born to citizens or aliens, were denied political
citizens~i~. ~cc~~ding t~ one's ability to take part in deliberative or judicial 55
participation at all levels and could not own property. • .
respons1b1ht_1es, and his stress upon collective, not personal citizenship: "We There are also important values that have become associated with modem,
ought not thmk that any of the citizens belongs to himself, but that all belong to especially American, democracy which were less emphasized or absent altogeth-
the state, for each is a part of the state."5'4 er in ancient Greece. For example, freedom of religion formed a fundamental
element of American democratic ideology thanks to the diverse, regionalizcd
religious groupings in the colonies and the influence of libertarian opposition to
de!ail the origin and many meanings of the word, which can include constitution, citizen- church authority. 56 No such circumstances existed ~o?g the G":e~, ~hose
ship, _government, personal politics, political power, political life, republic, and other polytheistic beliefs lacked the dogmatism and excluslVlty of Christ1an1t~.In
meamngs. Her study carefully distinguishes the "individual" and "collective" senses of the essence, religious freedom already existed, an~ ~ould not_h~~~ been associated
word, but _notes ~e ~nterplay between them in Greek thought: "Certcs, la distinction que with democratic values.57This is not to say rehg1ous sensib1hties never had any
nou~ etabl_issc_insams1 e~tre la valeur 'individuelle' et la valeur 'collective' de politeia est en
pa.rt,e ~b1tra1re: nous I adoptons pour la commodit6 de noire 6tude et parce que !'usage a impact on democracies or democratic freedoms. On the contrary, our sources
fa1t denver ces deux valeurs vers les directions parfois fort divergentes. Peut~tre aussi y refer to a number of occasions when Athenians were prosecuted or evenexecuted
~on:in:ies-nous poussee par une habitude de la mentalit6 modeme pour laquelle Etat et for violation of community beliefs - the condemnation of Socrates stands out, _but
md1v~dusont en perpctuel conflit et qui n'arrive plus ii percevoir dans l'Etat la communaute there were other examples, including the charges of impiety leveled ag~nst
des cnoyens. La mouvement de pense qui a preside i la naissance de polireia est euctement Protagoras, Anaxagoras, Aspasia, and Alcibiades.58 The Greeks never conce1~ed
contraire." 18. · that freedom from this kindof state intervention (into what we would co~s1der
5I Bordes'. ~OL/TEIA (as in n. 50) 18. The fact tha1 the Greeks used "polis" to describe both
the poht~cal_slate an_dwhat w~ label Nsociety" further underscores the special sense of
affairs of the conscience, and hence protected) to be necessary or ev~ndes_1ra~l~.
commumty inherent in Greek citizenship (pace Hansen, in Democracy?(as in a. 2) 17-21, Our idea of religious freedom forms a part of the broad emphas~son tndlVI·
who disputes t~e traditional scholarly view of polis u a fusion of swe and society, at least dualism in modern, liberal democracy, which allows and expects ordinary people
where Athens 1s concerned.) See now J. Ober, "The Poli1 u a Society. Aristotle, John to assert their "inalienable rights." The liberty of each citizen, held as somethi~g
10
Rawls, and lhe A1henian Social Contracl," in M. H. Hansen, ed. The Ancient Greek City- sacred, must be guaranteed by the state - and defended ag3:1~tit ~s expressed
State (Copenhagen, 1993),129-60, and Hansen'a introductory article in the samevoiume the Declaration of Independence, all men are entitled to Life, Liberty, and the
"The Polis as a Citizen-State," 7-29. • · ' , '.. . ' •· .·

52 Cf. C. Nicolet, The World of the Citizen ill Republican Rome (1976 2nd ed Berkeley
1980), 17-47. · ' . ' ' . '
55 Ownership of property could, however, be transferred through them. The ~enial of prope~y
53 ···• E~O\ICrla
ICOIV(llVelvapxflc;Jlou).e,mlCi\c; 1l1Cpl'n1Ci\t;
.•• Pol 1275 blB-21. ownership to women was not, of course, unique to democracy; rather, 11 was a practice
54 000£ XPTI voµl~IV au,ov aumO II.VO elva\ -ailv IWA.\-ailv. fiUci m~ 'die;irolemc;. which (as far we know) persisted under all systems of government at Athens and many
II
µ~p1ovf1.p b:aoioi; i_i\'i •6~~ 1337 127-30 (Loeb translation). Ostwald, "Shares and other places • well. ·✓·, •• .: '; , •• ' " •

Rights, ~ak~ the enl_1ghte:1ngcontrast between Aristotle'• view of Nsharing" citiunship

56 Bailyn, Ideological Origins (as in n. 46) 34-54, 246-72. ,
and the mahenable nghts affirmed by the Declaration of Independence and the Four-
57 Cf. Finley, Ancient and Modem (as in n. 39) 77-8. · : ·.,' · · ' 1 75 24- 54
teenth Amendment. The potential advantages of a more participatory cili:zenship have not 58 K 1 Dover "The Freedom of the Intellectual in Oreek Society, Talonta (!9 >, 0 f
been lost on c_onr_emporaryscholars and social critics. er. Walter, Teilhaben (u in n. 48) ti~ts-■nd di~usses such casca. See also in the same volume M. L Finley's "The freedom
~4-17; A. E1z1om,The Spirit o/Comm11nity:Rights, Responsibilities,and the Contn11U1itar-
the Citiun in the Oreek World," 1-23. '
1anAgenda (New York, 1993).
 30 Chapter I: Defining Democracy 3. Ancient and Modem Democracy Compared 31

pursuit of Happiness," and any government which transgresses these entitlements mental ideals behind each political system. In regard to the most obvious institu-
forfeits its legitimacy. 59 In Greece, even in a democracy, this exalted ideal of the tional change, that from direct, large-scale citizen participation to representative
inviolability of the individual did not obtain. No Bill of Rights existed to safe- systems, modern democracy suffers by comparison. While one might defend ~e
guard the personal liberties of Athenian citizens, nor was there a Supreme Court utility of a representative system for promoting expertise in government deci-
pr~pared to strike down a decree because it violated the civil rights of a minority. sion-making while still allowing for ultimate popular control, no one can deny
~his does _not mean, of course, that Greek democracy did not value personal that a direct system, where the people themselves deliberate and vote on all major
liberty. Aristotle makes clear in his Politics that "to live as one wishes" (to ~,;v policy decisions, is more democratic. Dahl's first two criteria for a de~ocratic
roe;~OUA£tai tt~) is one of the fundamental principles of democracy ( 1317 b 10- process hold that there be both effective participation and voting equahty at the
13). Athens itself was well-known for the broad freedom it allowed its citizens decisive stage - arguing that a representative system fits this model requires
and even its slaves. 60 Athenian concern for equal judicial treatment, crucial for special pleading, while a direct system does not. It is also possible to argue that,
any citizen's liberty, appears as early as the Solonian reform allowing an appeal de facto, all governments including ancient democracies end up under the c?ntrol
of magistrates' judgments to the popular law court, which Aristotle deemed one of a very small minority of the population, and hence should not be considered
of Solon 's most populist (demotikotata) provisions (Ath. Pol. 9.1 ). Later came the sufficiently democratic. As Ronald Syme put it, "In all ages, whatever t~e form
system of -~ultitudinous popular law courts, dikasteria, which employed thou- and name of government, be it monarchy, or republic, or democracy, an ohgarchy
sands of c11Jzenseach year hearing cases as members of juries. So it cannot be lurks behind the fa~ade." 63 This too may be so, insofar as it is in the nature ~f
said that political freedom or concern for a fair judiciary did not exist for the politics that some few with greater ambition or expertise or social adv~tage will
Greeks. What seems to have changed in modern times is the current obsession wield disproportionate influence. We have already noted that there 1s no such
~ith safegua_rding distinctly expressed, individual rights through institutional- thing as a "true" democracy where everyone runs everything wit~ co~plete
ized mechanisms such as the written constitution and the federal courts. Where equality - and that its absence is irrelevant. Confining ourselves to historical_ or
Americans rely upon abstract written guarantees enforced by (supposedly) im- historically feasible states, we are looking for that form of governm~nt which
partial professional judges, Greek democrats thought it sufficient protection gives the highest degree of general participation by its citizens -~d which grants
against injustice to place the common citizens themselves in charge of the courts. final authority on all important public matters to the mass of citizens. N~ repi:-
Freedom was taken in a more active sense - the people, by ruling in person in the sentative, aristocratic, or monarchic constitution could possibly accomphsh this
assembly and the courts, would protect themselves from encroachments on their better than a democracy which allows the assembled citizenry themselves to vote
liberties. 6 t on whatever important issues face the com?1unity, an~ which_e~plo_ys such a
Are these differences between ancient and modern practices sufficient to varied selection and large number of them m the routine adm1mstration of the
deny the term democracy to what the Greeks called demokratia1 Certainly not, as state. 64 ·
long as one understands that differences do exist. 62 Similar principles of govern- A more weighty objection can be made o~er the _rout~neex~lusions from
ment applied to disparate geographical and cultural circumstances will of course citizenship of women, children, slaves, and resident aliens m ancie~t demokra-
yield variations in practice. We must compare both the processes and the funda- tiai.65 It would be false to dismiss the significance of these exclusions on_the
grounds that they only affect the size of the system, not its internal oper~llon.
59 Co~cerning "natural" human rights and their. guarantees in revolutionary America, er. Using such logic, the most extreme oligarchy could be called a dem~racy tf the
Ba1lyn, Ideological Origins (as inn. 46) 184-9, 194-8. few rulers shared power equally. 66 On the other hand, the exclusion of some
60 On this point see Jones, "Critics" (as in n. 7) 43-5.
61 For the interesting contrast with the Roman concept of political freedom, which among
other things identified itself more with legal, written protections against the despotic abuse 63 RomanRevolution(Oxford, 1939), 7. For theories of the inevitability of minoritydomina-
?,f "?w~r. than with the personal involvement of ordinary people, see K. A. Raaflaub, tion, with counter-arguments, sec Dahl, Critic8 (as inn. 6) 265-79._ · .
Fre1he11in Athen und Rom," HZ 238 (1984), .529-67.Greek democrats did undcrs1and the 64 On the broad participation of numerous Athenian citizens (espec1a~lyas ':;late~ to theu-
importance of written law to help assure equal justice. Euripides, at Suppl 429-3 7, has association of free speech with democracy), see K. A. Raaflaub, .,Freie Rede (as m n. 21).
Theseus say: "With wriuen laws, the weak and the prosperous get equal justice; the weaker 65 For arguments on this subject see Sinclair, Panicipation (as in n. 42) 19:-200; D. M.
can respond to the well-off if insulted, and the lesser fellow, if in the right, defeats the MacDowell, Tht I.Aw in Classical ltthtns (Ithaca, 1978), 75-98; J. P. Gould, Law,custom,
great" yEypaµµivmv 6e i:mvvtiµmv 6 ,:' aa9EVT)~ / o KM>U<no~ u ,:,\v 6i101vlm,v lXEl, / and myth: aspects of the social position of women in classical Athens," JHS 100(1980), 38-
f°":v ~· EVlmtElv i:oicnv a~EVE<ttipou; I ,:ov eu-ruxouV"tCJ ,:aii&', 6tav 1CAU't:11C01Cm<;,
/ 59; Dahl, Critics (as in n. 6) 22; Hansen, Democracy? (as in n. 2) 4-6; J. Ober. Mass and
vucq 6 o µEimv tov µiyav 6ucm' lxmv. See the further discusaion of this play in chapter Elite in Democratic Athens (Princeton, 1989), 5-10. .
two, part two. 66 Ehrenberg Greek State (as inn. 4) 50, notes that Greek democracy was always exclusive of
62 Hansen mounts a powerful argument for the basic similarity of modem democracy and those who• were not citizens, and hence could be described as ... kind of an extended
demokratia in his study devoted to this issue, Was Athens a Democracy? (as in n. 2). aristocracy." On the theory of inclusion, Dahl, Critics (as in n. 6) 1I 9-31.
32 Chapter l: Defining Democracy 3. Ancient and Modem Democracy Compared 33

significant portion of the population from full participation is to be expectedin certain practices (such as the use of popular elections and juries composed of
any state. Modern democracies still deny full participation to many and exclude ordinary citizens), but more importantly they share common principles which
some of the same groups as Athens did, such as resident aliens, minors, and contribute to a common democratic process. Liberty to behave as one wishes (so
certain criminals. 67 Citizenship must be exclusive to a certain degree - it is in the long as it does not harm others within the community), freedom from autocratic
nature of the concept to define who belongs and who does not. Citizenship control of the state by a monarch or by a class of aristocrats, an equal opportunity
demarcates the boundaries of the state itself. In this, the ancients were not for all citizens to elect, supervise, or be the most important government officials,
qualitatively different from us: we simply choose to draw a somewhat broader and equality before the law - these common ideas have informed the drive
circle. towards a democratic process in both eras. Both ancient and modern states fulfill
This being the case, it is methodologically questionable to rely upon con- Dahl's criteria of the citizenry's effective participation, voting equality at the
stantly changing, subjective moral attitudes to evaluate constitutional history and decisive stage, enlightened understanding, and control of the agenda. Naturally,
detennine precisely where the circle of inclusion must be drawn. An historical the specific institutions developed to implement this process have varied. Where
definition of democracy must attempt to be descriptive, not normative. Today it ancient democracies utilized mass assembly meetings as well as popularly elected
would be unacceptable to tolerate slavery in any form or to deny women the vote. or allotted councils and magistrates to conduct affairs, modem nation-states
Yet we must remind ourselves how recent a phenomenon these sensibilities of employ elected representatives almost exclusively. Athenians relied on large-
ours is. A century ago women's suffrage was merely a radical's dream in the scale popular participation in the jury-courts to e?sure impartial judic~al tre~t-
world's great democracies; and it was not so long before then that slavery was a ment, where modern societies tend to favor an mdependent, profess10nal JU-
fact of everyday life, as it was in ancient Athens. 68 Do we then label these diciary. These varying institutions reflect different approaches to the same end:
governments something other than democracies? It may well be that many years the institutionalization of popular control over the state. To the extent that a state
from now our exclusion of mature teenagers and resident aliens from political succeeds in this - any state, ancient or modern - we may call it a democracy.
participation will be considered grossly unfair. In contemporary terms, which is
the most meaningful gauge of any given system, Greek democracy was extremely
inclusive, especially when one considers the frequently expressed alternatives:
the rule of the Few or the One. Those that it excluded, and many that it included,
were barred by all other governments in antiquity and ever since, until a very
recent past. The fundamental principle of the Athenians was the same as that of
any modern democracy: the citizen body comprised as many of the inhabitants as
social norms could be stretched to accept, and every citizen was given the
opportunity to participate in the government.

We have attempted in this chapter to come to an understanding of what we mean

by the term democracy, in part by seeing how modern versions of the political
system that goes by this name differ from ancient examples in general outlook.
Our review of the case for potential pre-Greek democracies indicated the im-
portance of institutionalizing means of popular control as well as the concepts of
freedom and equality, the existence of all of which is first clearly demonstrable
only in Greece. The question remained, then, whether people are correct in
applying the term democracy to both ancient and modem examples despite some
very real differences. As we have seen, the similarity between ancient and
modem democracy rests on_far more than a common name. They are alike in
- ' • ,~ > ' ~

67 E.g., modem Germany hosta a larae Gasrarbeiter population with limited rights, aa S.
Hornblower notes in "Creation and Development of Democratic Institutions in Ancient
Greece," in J. Dunn, ed. Democracy the Unfinished Jo11mey.508BC to AD 1993 (Oxford,
1992). 10. -
68 And Athens allowed its slaves unusual freedom, accordina' to its critics (Ps.-Xcn. Ath. PoL
1.10-12).
 CHAPTER 2:
DEMOKRATIA

Having gained an appreciation for the democratic process in the abstract and for
the similarities and differences of ancient and modem ideals, we will next
consider the Greek conceptions of demokratia more specifically. Aeschylus,
Herodotus, Pseudo-Xenophon, Euripides, Thucydides, and Aristotle offer the
most relevant classical discussions of Greek democracy. The first five authors
give us the most illuminating early treatments, while Aristotle's Politics is
uniquely systematic and comprehensive. What types of states, with what institu-
tions, did the Greeks mean by demokratia? In answering this question we will
learn what ancient practices can be relied upon as markers of democracy and
which might occur in other forms of government. The great model of demokratia
is, of course, Athens, but its institutions did not remain constant throughout its
history, and we will find that it did not represent the only form of democracy
known to the Greeks: observers were certainly aware of different varieties of
democratic government. We should take this as a warning not to assume that the
most extreme and fully understood version of it (i.e., Athens post-Ephialtes) was
the only true form of demokratia. As Victor Ehrenberg notes, the achievement of
the Athenian democracy "must not make us forget that it was an exceptional case
and that there were many grades of a more or less moderate democratic constitu-
tion."1

l. DEMOKRATIAIN THE POLITICSOF ARISTOTLE

Of all the extant writings from the classical period, Aristotle's Politics provides
the most thorough treatment of comparative constitutional theory. His analysis
there of demokratia, though not presented as a unified discussion, is by far the
most detailed available. Moreover, it does not anchor itself simply on the exam-
ple of contemporary Athens. Aristotle used as his sources, we are given to
understand, the 158 constitutional histories of states from all over the Greek
world prepared by himself or his school. 2 His use of these constitutions and of

1 The Greelc State, 2nd. ed. (London, 1969), 50.

2 Arisa. EN 10.9; I 181 bl7-20; Diog. Laen. 5.26.17-8. Unfonunately, besides the Ath. Pol.
only brief fragments of this body of work remain to us, and these rarely tell us about
constitutional arrangements. That these politeiai examined the constitutional histories of
states as well as contemporary governmental institutions can be inferred from the historical
nature of the first part of the A1h. Pol and of many of the surviving fragments. V. Rose,
36 Chapter 2: Demokratia I. Demokratla in the Politics of Aristotle 37

historical examples (Athenian and otherwise) from various periods in Greek , • There are a few places in the Politics where Aristotle contrasts different
history in the Politics show that he intended his discussion to encompass not just democratic orders at some length. At 1291 b30-1292 a38, 1292 b24-1293 al2,
democracy as practiced in his own day, but also democracy that had gone before. and 1318 b6--1319 b33 he describes four 7 distinct kinds of democracy. In the first,
He repeatedly states that there are several different forms of democracy, 3 and his which is the oldest form (and to Aristotle's mind, the best), neither the rich nor
descriptions of democratic practices in the Politics do not always match the fully poor dominate the government as classes, but the farmers ~d those of ~erate
developed Athenian system. 4 This would seem to confirm the indications he means are kyrioi. Moderate property qualifications are reqmred for magistrates,
gives that there were a large number of states practicing various types of govern- and a very small one might exist even for attendance in the assembly ( 1294 b2-
ment which could all be labeled demokratiai. 5). Assemblies meet infrequently, and the rule of law remains stron~.• ~ the
Aristotle classifies constitutions by who or what is kyrios in the governing second type, all citizens who cannot be challenged on the grounds of birth m the
(politeuma) of the state, and in a democracy the demos is kyrios (1278 b9-14). euthyna may hold office, 9 but, due to a lack of leisure among the poorer cl~ses,
This position is consistent with the rest of the Politics, even when Aristotle participation is limited and the law still rules. The third type loosens q~al1fica-
organizes his discussion using different criteria.' Beyond this there are multitu- tions to include all citizens simply on the basis of being free men: 1:&w.stillrules,
dinous passages which describe characteristics of democratic government. The because the absence of state subsidies prevents large-scale partic1pat1on by the
principles of freedom (eleutheria) and equality (particularly so-called "arithme- poor. Finally, there is the kind of democracy where ..the multitude rule and not
tic" equality, to ison kat' arithmon) 6 guide a democracy (1291 b30-37; 1301 the law" (ic:'lip1ov6' £iva1 'to1tA.f\8o;ic:a\ µ1' 'tOVvoµov,-1292 a5; ~f. 1293 alO).
a26--b4; b29-13O2 al; 1308 all-13; 1317 a40-bl7; 1318 a3-9). Specific dem- These states, the last to develop ( 1292 b4 l-l 293 at), possess sufficient resources
ocratic institutions include the allotment, and sometimes election, of magistrates to pay for jury or assembly attendance by the poor. 10The decrees of the assembly
from and by all citizens (1291 b38-1292 a4; 1294 b7-13; 1300 a31; 1305 a30- override the law, and the most important matters of state are referred.to ~e demos
34; 1317 bl8-21; cf. Rhet. 1.8.4 [1365 b)}, with relatively small property quali- meeting in assembly or in the courts, fatally weakening the authonty of the
fications - or none at all - for most of the offices (1291 b38-41; 1305 a30-32; magistracies. Aristotle likens this constitution to tyranny and the ~magogues
1306 b6--l 6; 1317 b22-3). These offices have short terms and are not to be filled which populate it to the flatterers in a tyrant's court. I~ gene~, this four-f?ld
twice by the same person, the idea being that the people should rule themselves in categorization points up the importance of pay for public service and resulting
turn (1308 al3-5; 1317 b23-6; cf. 1261 a3O; 1317 bl9-2O). Magistrates are held participation of the aporoi in determining the "extremism" of a democracy•
accountable to the people by the euthyna (1274 al5-18; 1281 b32-4; 1318 b21- though not its inherent nature. · · · ·' · · .- · · ' ·
31). Ostracism is typical (1284 a17-22, b20-5; 1288 al9-26; 1302 b15-19), as is , · . Aristotle's comparisons also help us answer the question of who mak~s up
pay for attending jury courts and assemblies (1294 a37-41; 1297 835-38; 1304 the people, the demos, in his demokratiai- an important issue t~ resolve if the
b26--7; 1317 b35-38). Juries have broad authority and are in the hands of the statement that "in a democracy the demosis kyrios"(1278 b9- l 4) 1sto mean VC;J
people (1273 b36-1274 a3; 1317 b25-8). The assembly is kyrios, though in some much. Aristotle here seems to use demos in the sense of the masses of non-ebte
democracies a popular council or councils can run most affairs (1298 al0-34; citizens who possess insufficient wealth and leisure to devote themselves to
1317 b28-35). public affairs, as opposed to the whole citizen body, for he says at 1279 b18 (cf.
1293 al-1O) that a democracy exists when the aporoi are kyrioi. Yet we have Just
·, seen that elsewhere he describes demokratiai in which neither rich nor poor (~~
A.ristotelis quiferebantur libronunfragmenta (Leipzig, 1886), 303-86; M. R. Dilts, Herac-
lidiJ Ltmbi Excerpta Politianun (Durham, 1971); cf. J.E. Sandys, Aristotle's Constitution a11:6poU<; il -rou~£ii1t6p~) dominate, as at 1291 b30-4 l . 11So ~ we to ~nk
of Athe,u (London, 1912), xxiii-xxviii; P. J. Rhodes, A Commentary on the Aristotelian demos is equivalent to the aporoiin a democracy, or not? In archaic ~d classical
Athenaion Polite/a (Oxford, 1981), 1-2. . . . " , ~ ', •h . ,! ',' : 1 ·1 I

3 E.g., 1291 bl5-1292 a38; 1292 b24-t293 112; 1318 b6--1319 b33. See also J. L O'Neil'& f(f t:I'": )
appendix (#3) concerning Aristotle'• clasaification of democracies in The OrigiM and 7 The c:lusification at 1291 b30-1292 ■38 actually llstsfivt, if the ~•g of the c:odic:esat
"•. line b39 i1 c:omc:t, which separalel a democracy basedon true equably from o~ ~
D,velopment of Ancient GreelcDemocracy (Lanham, Maryland, 1995), 181-4 •. 011
4 E.g., 1291 b31-4I; 1298110-34; 1317 b30-2; 1318 b21-8. See discussion below. modente property qualific■tions for office. Schlosser emends~ text to make it ~nst ste nt
5 Aristotle sometimes discusses constitutions in ideal terms, according to their teleology (as with Aristotle's four-fold scheme laid out elsewhere in the Polit1cJ. " · :- .
with his three orthai polittiai and three parelcbasti& at 1279 122-bl0), and IOllletimea 8 Rule of law, nomtn, is to be c:ontruted with that by the ps,phu_mata of popu~-~bl~
empirically, according to their institutional composition (offices, election procedures. etc.). '(129217).' ,, . ' .. . ,,. ,) -,.· ' - . ',., .. _, ·:, •
Cf. C. Johnson, Aristotle'• 11ieoryof the State (New York, 1990), 51~5. · , , · 9 W. L. Newman, The Politics of Aristotle, vol. 4 (~ford, 1~2), 176-7, 187-8.G -~•M de
6 By arithmetic equality Aristotle means1h11equality i1 quantitative and is basedonmajority 10 Payment for public service is in fact attested outside Athens, if only rarely!: 2 .• ·1
1
O'N
in numbers; its opposite is "geometric:" equality, which ii qualitative in that it is based 011 Ste. Croix, "Political Pay outside Athens,• CQ 25 (1975). 48-52: and Appe . 1~ e. •
equal worth or value (lcat' axian, 1317 b5). Cf. Plato, l..ow11 757A; F. D. Harvey, -rwo ! OrigiMand Development(as inn. 3) 175-9. " ~' "" '· ·· ,. .i ,:\ \.\, '
Concepts of Equality," C&M 26 (1965), t0lf. It Cf. Newman, Politic, (11 In n. 9) vol. 4, 174-;,. ·" •
 38 Chapter 2: Demokratia I. Demokratia in the Politics of Aristotle 39

literature the term demos can mean, among other things, the whole people or the or by rowing in the fleet, were extremely unusual. In most earlier po/eis any
numerous mass of non-elite citizens. 12 Aristotle's four-fold classification shows freeborn, non-agricultural "thetic" class would likely amount to a very small
that he is not confusing these meanings. For him, demos usually comprehends the percentage of the native male population. Hence, while it is important to note the
whole citizen body: whether the aporoi are actually in charge when the demos is restrictions Aristotle would allow in the definition, even his most exclusive
kyrios depends upon the type of demokratia at hand. In those forms which demokratiai would still involve and answer to the great majority of the citizens
Aristotle prefers, an agricultural populace (i.e., one occupied by fanning or (i.e., the free, non-metic men).
pasturing) 13 or inhabitants meeting moderate property qualifications (which pre- At 1298 al0-34, Aristotle informs us about the ways different democracies
sumably included ordinary farmers but not urban day-laborers) 14 will be sover- can carry out the deliberative function (to bouleuomenon), which he considers to
eign. This results in fewer assemblies in town and leaves much of the day-to-day be kyrios in a constitution (1264 b33; 1299 al-2; 1316 b31; 1318 b21-7; cf. 1261
administration in the hands of the leisured classes (1292 b25-31; 1318 b6-17; a32- 7). This is an especially noteworthy passage, for it establishes that the
1319 a4-6). In Aristotle's less-favored brands of democracy, the aporoi (or, at principle of representation was understood by the Greeks to be a legitimate and
1319 a25-31, the city-dwelling artisans, market-types and wage-earners)l5 will sufficient principle on which to base a demokratia. One does not need to have a
encourage frequent assemblies and powerfully influence the proceedings. The mass assembly meet and rule on all issues for a state to be considered democratic.
meaning of demos, then, comprises the entire citizen body, but the nature of this Aristotle shows how various combinations of assemblies and councils, elected or
body will vary according to the type of polis and the extremity of its demokratia. allotted in rotation from the citizen body, can represent the will and sovereign
This has important consequences for Aristotle's notion of demokratia, and authority of the people. He gives as examples four different systems, all of which
our understanding of it. That the most conservative variety may exclude the achieve the end of granting crucial deliberative authority to the demos. The first
impoverished, non-agricultural portion of the population would seem to further has all citizens serve in tum in councils or the magistracies, which would conduct
challenge Robert Dahl's final criterion for a fully democratic process, that the most of the business of the state, while the whole citizen body meets together in
citizen body include all non-transient and non-mentally defective adult members assemblies only for very limited purposes. The constitution of Telecles of Mile-
of the community. We have already discussed, in the previous chapter, the Greek tus and others are said to have worked in such a fashion. A second system allows
limitation of democratic participation to the free adult male population; we now mass assemblies to handle a greater load of state business - elections, war and
see that, according to one important ancient theorist, demokratia might exclude peace, legislation concerning general laws (nomothesia), and euthynai - but
even some of these. 16 We can only conclude - and bear in mind as we search for magistrates, elected or allotted from the whole citizen body, manage the rest. The
archaic demokratiai - that Aristotle's definition of democracy is broader than third variety resembles the second except that only the offices requiring special
modern ones in this respect. Yet we must also consider that Greece, especially in skills are elective, the rest being allotted. 18 The fourth kind, apparently corre-
the archaic period, was overwhelmingly agricultural, in the sense that the vast sponding to Aristotle's teleutaia demokratia, prevents the magistrates from mak-
majority of the population derived its livelihood from farming and pasturing.t7 ing any but preliminary decisions, giving all other powers to mass assemblies.
To say that ordinary farmers and herdsmen had the premier role in the governing We might well ask what relation this and the other four-fold schemes bear to
of a state would in fact imply a sweeping political inclusiveness. Imperialistic, the various periods of Athenian democracy.t 9 We may safely eliminate Solonian
commercially dynamic cities such as fifth- and fourth-century Athens, which Athens as a candidate for democracy, for while important measures were taken to
could support a swollen class of urban dwellers who earned their pay by day-jobs create or enhance the participation of the demos, such as the admission of thetes
(for the first time?) into the assembly, the assembly itself still played a meager
12 Cf. W. Donlan, "Changes and Shifts in the Meaning of demos in the literature of the role, and the power of the aristocratic Areopagus continued to dominate. 20 On the
Archaic Period," PdP 25 (1970), 381-95.
13 OltO\Itil to ltA.,;80.;OltOYE<llpyia.; ii voµ,;.;, 1318 bi 1-12.
14 Aristotle speaks of mild timemata (1292 b30; 1294 b2-5} and those possessing metrian 18 Newman, Politics (as in n. 9) vol. 4, 244-5.
ousian (1292 b26). How low the qualifications were and how one's wealth would be 19 J. H. Day and M. H. Chambers in Aristotle's History of the Athenian Democracy (U. of
measured is unclear, though probably other classes than just land-owning farmers are California Press, 1962), noting the similarity of the four types of democracy in the Politics
intended. Newman, Politics (as inn. 9) vol. 4, 185-6; J. Aubonnel, Aristote Politique vol. to the stages of the Athenian constitution as described in Aristotle's Athenaion Politeia,
2.1 (Paris, 1971), 306-7. argue that the history in the laner was distorted to match the four-fold scheme of the former.
I 5 10 1tk,;80<;10 u: tliiv J3avauamv ,ea\ to 11iiv ayopairov dv8pol!Wlv ,ea\ t0 &i,'t11Cov.Cf. Rhodes, Commentary (as inn. 2) 10-13, firmly rebuts this view.
Newman, Politics (as inn. 9) vol. 4, 518-19. 20 On thetes in the assembly before Solon, see Rhodes, Commentary (as in n. 2) at Ath. Pol.
16 II matters little that this type of democracy was perhaps unusual, 10 judge from Aristotle's 7.3. Although Aristotle records that some called Scion's state demokratian ... ten patrion,
general association of demokratia with domination by the aporoi (1279 bl8}, his ensuing discussion makes clear that he viewed the constitution as mixed (PoL 1273 b36-
17 M. I. Finley, Economy and Society in Ancient Gruce (London, 1981), 1, 99-100; A. 1274 a22). In Ath. Pol. 9.1 Aristotle lists the three demotilcolata ("most populist" rather than
Burford, I.and and uibor in the Greek World (Baltimore, 1993), 1-5 and generally. Mmost democratic") provisions of the constitution, which were the elimination of loans
 ':1
I 11 i
! I
l
40
l
Chapter 2: Demokra1ia

l
I. lHmokraliain the Politicsof Aristotle 41

other hand.' the Cleisthenic state (defined loosely here as that system which also attributed to Cleisthenes. Such a political order, where ultimate power rested
developed m the aftermath of the reforms of Cleisthenes in the period down to the
Persi~n wars) pr~sents a viable candidate for a moderate democracy. Inscriptions
I With the mass of citizens, fulfills the general criteria Aristotle outlines for
demokratia,the most important of which is that the demosbe kyrios.It best suits
an~ literary testimony suggest that, for the first time, the assembly became an one of Aristotle's three more moderate democracies, however, due to the relative-
acl!v~ and decisive authority in the state. 21 What political powers it did not ly high property qualifications for archons and certain other offices. the lack of
exercise rested for the most part with the new Council of 500, chosen in rotation public pay, and the remaining prerogatives of the Areopagus. 24 Athens during
from a geographically representative body of Athenians (including zeugites and, and after Pericles' time, on the other hand, conforms fairly closely to Aristotle's
just possibly, thetes). 22 The Areopagus seems to have retained only its judicial radical fourth type of democracy. Property qualifications (at least for the archon-
powers. 23 The highly democratic procedure of ostracism, first exercised in 487, is ship) were lower; 23 the city paid for both jury (c. 450s) and assembly attendance
(beginning of the fourth century); 26 the thmos dominated judicial procedures and
the euthyna;participants in the assembly enjoyed isegoria;21 and the people stood
~~ured wit~ a person's body, the ability of anyone IOinitiate legal proceedingson behalfof accused by critics such as Thucydides of being led astray by obnoxious dema-
mJuredparties, and especiallythe righl of appealto the dikasttrion. On the extensivepower
of the Areopagusin Solon's order, see Ath. Pol. 8.4, especially the statement... ea\ m·u gogues. All this suits Aristotle's teleutaiademokratiaat 1292 a4-38, 1298 a29-
ci)J.ata 1t>..Eicmx
ea\ ta µtyuna mv 1to4n<,ocilv 5,et,\pe, ... ("and for the rest it looked 34, and 1319 b2-33. Yet the parallel is not exact in every regard: for example,
after most of and the greatest of the state's affairs"); but compare R. W. Wallace, TM Pericles' law of 451/0 restricting citizenship to the children of two Athenian
Areopagus Council, to 307 B.C. [Baltimore, 198S),32-69, which minimizes the political l)arcnts better reflect Aristotle's second type of democracy, which limits partici-
importanceof this council before and during the Solonianperiod. For the possibilitythat the
assembly under Solon held somewhat greater power than has been generally recognized.
see F. X. Ryan, ''The OriginalDate of the 6i\µ~ Jt).11fhxovProvisionsof /G 13JOS."JHS 114 Athenian Constitution(as in n. 21) 193-213;M. Ostwald,From PopularSover•ignryto thl!
( 1994), 120-34. O'Neil discussesthe Solonianconstitutionin Originsand Development(as Sovereigntyof Law (Berkeley, 1986),7, 12-14, 27-8, 40-2: but cf. Wallace,Areopagru(as
inn. 3) 15-21. in n. 20) 53-4.
21 E.g., Hdt. 5.97, 7.142-4; Andoc. 1.43, /G I' I and 4. C. Starr, TM Birth of Athmian 24 V. Ehrenberg,"Originsof Democracy,"Ht11oriaI (1950),SlS-48, stronglychampionsthe
Democracy (Oxford, 1990), 13-19. Cf. Hdt. S.66.2, 69.2, and Arist. Atli. PoL 20.1 for Cleisthenicorder as a democracy,and J. Ober, "The AthenianRevolutionof SOB/7B.C.E.,"
Cleisthenes' use and promotionof the power of the commonpeople, andAth. PoL 22.3 for · in C. Doughcny and L. Kurke.eds. Cultimi/ Poetic1in Archaic Greece(Cambridge,1993),
the increasedconfidenceof the dtmos after Marathon.By contrast, the only testimonythat 2 IS-32, argues that a truly transformativedemocratic revolution took place in 508n.
the assemblyasserted itself before this time is Hdt. 1.59(the dtmos awards Peisistratushis Ostwald, Sovereignty (as in n. 23) IS-28, contends that CleisthenicAthens did not attain
bodyguard). For the appearance (or reappearance) of isegoria in the assembly under "full democracy," since the Areopagusstill exercised the euthyM and had jurisdiction in
Cleisthenes, see 1. D. Lewis, "lsegoria at Athens: When did it Begin?" His1oria20 (1971), crimes against the state. In contrast IOall these scholars,K. H. Kinzl presents a drastically
129-40, who disputes 0. T. Griffith' ■ conclusionthat ii was a Pericleaninnovation("lsego- ' revisionistview of Cleisthcnes' reforms whichholds that they were not democratical all, in
ria in the Assembly at Athens," in Anci•nt Socil!ty and /nsti1utions;Studi•s ••.Victor "Athens: BetweenTyranny and Democracy,"in id. ed. Gre11c11 and tht Ea.rttm M11di1erro•
Ehrenb.rg (Oxford, 1966), 11S-38): cf. A. 0. Woodhead,"l:tHfOPIA andthe Council of ntan in Anci11ntHistory, S1udiesPre,entl!dto Fritz Scha&hemtl!)'er OcCDJ1ion
011 1111! of Iii,
500," Historia 16 (1967), 129-40; K. A. Raaflaub, ..Desfreien Bilrgen Recht der freien EightiethBirthday (Berlin, 1977), 199-223, esp. 202-10. C. W. Fomara and L J. Samons
Rede," in W. Eck, H. Oasterer, and H. Wolff, eds. Studie11iur antikt11Socialg11schichl& D, Athtnsfrom Cl11isthenes to P11ricl111
(Berkeley, 1991).37-75, esp. SS-6, have taken the
Ftstschrift Fri11drichVittinghoff(Cologne, 1980), 7-57. For a conservativeassessmentof Paradoxical position that the state under Cleisthenes was ■ direct democracy, yet still
the powers of lhe assembly under Cleisthenes, see C. Bignell, A History of tht Athenian oligarchic.For the best argumentthat "true" democracyfirst appearedin Athens only aftl!r
Constitution(Oxford, 1952), 153-6. the Persian war,see K. A. Raaflaub, "Kleisthenes, Ephialtes und die Begrilndung der
22 On the powers of the new council, see Hignett,Athtnian Constilutio11 (as inn. 21) 149-53. ' ,· Demotratie," in K. H. Kinzl, ed. D11mokraria: Dl!r Weg vu Demokrarit b11id1111 Griechtn
P. 1. Bicknell, in Studies in Athenian Poli1ic1and Genealogy,Historia Einzclschriften 19 ' · <Dannstadt,199S), 1-S4; id., "Freie Rede" (as inn. 21). ,
(Wiesbaden, 1972), 5 and • AthenianPolitics and Genealosy: some Pendants," Historia 23 2S Zeugites were admitted in 457/6 (Alli.PoL 26.2). · .
( 1974), 161 maintains that thetcs participatedin the CleisthenicCouncilof SOO,contn, P. 1. 26 Rhodes, Commenlary(as inn. 2) 338-40, discussesthe date of theintroductionof jury pay.
Rhodes, Thi!Athenian Bou/11(Oxford, 1972),2-3, No direct testimonyexists one wayor the . , No public pay of any kind is attested at Athens before Pericles. Ostwald,Sov,reignl)I(as in
other. Cl. M. Ostwald, "The Reform of the Athenian State by Cleisthenes,• in CA.JIZ vol. 4 . n, 23) 183,223-4.
(Cambridge, I988), 303-46, esp. 3 I 9-20. Demographic 11udie1indicate that eventually 27 Griffith and Woodhead agree that isegoria was regularly practiced after the reforms of
thetcs must have been allowed inio the council, though not necessarilyright from the start. · Ephialtes (note 21). We cannot know for certain the extent to which ordinary citizens
P.1. Rhodes, "Ephcbi, Bouleutacandthe Populationof Athens; ZPE38 (1980), 191-201; .. , availed themselveaof the prerogativeto speak, thoughthe statementsat Ps.-Xen.Ath. Pol.
B. Ruschenbusch,"Bphcben,Buleuten und die BDrgcruhl von Athen um 330 v. Chr," ZPE .',• ·. 1.6,Plato, Prt. 3J9C-D and Acschin.Cte1.2-4 suggestthat tis agore1111in boulttai was not
41 (1981), 103-5; M. H. Hansen, Tht Athenian Dl!IIIOCraey in tlN Ag• of Di!IIIIUIMMI, Ill empty phrase. Many of the proposersof motions whose names are preserved in inscrip-
trans. J, A. Crook (Ollford, 1991), 247-9; N. V. Sekunda, "Athenian Demography and "._ lions seem 10be ordinary people, neverheard from again, thoughprominentpoliticiansmay
Military Strength 338-322 BC." BSA 87 (1992). 31I-SS, esp. 321-44. ; . have been behind their effort1.er.M. H. Hansen,"The Numberof Rhttore1 in the Athenian
23 These powers probably Includedthe oversi1ht of magistrateathrough the 11ut/ty114. Hignett, .:. Ecclesia," GRBS 25 (1984), 123-55: id., Ath11nian DelllOCraey(as ~n n. 22) 142-6. 272.

L
 I. Demokratia in the Politics of Aristotle 43
42 Chapter 2: Demokraria

The existence of polities potentially complicates the process of identifying

pation to tho_s~citiz~ns "beyond a_ny~hallenge" (anhypeuthynoi). The fourth type
democracies. The Politics shows not only a possible overlap of some features of
grants full c1uzensh1p to those with Just one citizen parent (1292 al-6- cf 1319
b6-l l).2a • · the two systems, but also calls the same system by different names in different
contexts. Obviously, caution is necessary, and a singular populist feature such as
A:ristotle's listing and comparisons of democratic practices also raise the
a mass assembly does not suffice to make a democracy: for example, non-
question of dem~c~a~y's relation to narrower forms of government. Having democratic Sparta convened an assembly. 31How rare or common were polities?
broa?~ne~ the defm1t1on of demokratia to include states with moderate property Aristotle's idealizing of them on the grounds of their moderation and the promi-
qualtf1cat10ns for of~ce, powerful elected magistrates, and but few meetings of nence they give to the middle class may make one suspicious that they existed in
the assembl~, the phtl~sopher comes close to creating an area of overlap with any numbers at all, and he states himself that "they did not occur frequently"
moderate oltgarchy. Ol~garchy in general is said to stand opposed to democracy (1293 a40; cf. 1296 a38-b2). 32 In contrast, democracies are said to be very
(1317 al7-l~) and exists w_hen those possessing property (ousia) are kyrios common (1301 b39-40; cf. 1296 al3-16; 1303 all-13), and more examples of
(1279 bl7-8), moderate vers1_o~shave a lower property requirement, enabling a democratic states are mentioned in the course of the Politics than either oligar-
larger number of men to part1c1pate (with due limitations) in the running of the
~late (12_93al2-22). This description approaches the least radical democracy in chies or polities.
We must also be aware that definitions of constitutions change over time.
1ts pra~t1ces, though the fundamental distinction between who is kyrios can be What once was considered a democracy - and referred to as such in early sources
mamtamed: even in a "conservative" demokratia the demos rules with this - may in a later period be judged a polity. By Aristotle's time, radical de-
referring _t~the w~ole citizen body, rich and poor together (even jf the very mocracies such as that in Athens would have made earlier examples seem narrow
poo:e~t c1t1zens ~1ght not be counted); while in oligarchia only the wealthy and conservative by comparison. Moreover, the terminology for p~litical analys~s
part1c1pate, shunnmg a greater proportion of the citizenry. At 1294 b2-4 ~ doubtless had become more precise, making reassessment of earlier labels possi-
I Ar' I • ,or
examp e, . 1stot e co~tra~ts the very small or non-existent timema necessary for ble and even necessary. Importantly, Aristotle was aware of this process. At 1297
attend~nce m assembltes m democracies with the larger ones of oligarchies. He b22-8 he describes how, as Greek cities grew over time and the hoplite class
pl~ces m the gray area between oligarchy and democracy another form of consti- gained in strength, more people began to take part in go~ernment. What ma~ have
tut1on, c!lle~. simply_p~litei?, ~sually _tr~slated as "polity," "constitutional gov- seemed to be a new, strikingly democratic order at the ume resembled a pohty by
e_mment or repubhc. Pohty s prox_1mityto oligarchy is shown by the descrip- later standards.33 Similarly, the old so-called polities were actually (eulogos)
tion of t~e most moderate form of oligarchy as oligarchia politike; on the other oligarchic and royal, due to the small and subservient middle clas~. Misidentifi-
ban~, Ans~otle notes that the Greeks more often associate polity with democracy cation might result from other reasons. At 1306 b6-16, we are given to under-
callmg arzstokratia the "mixed" government which corresponds to oligarch; stand that polities and oligarchies may in time move toward democracy because
(1290 al6-9; 1293 b31-1294 a29). 29 In truth, polity is a commingling of oli- of the shifting value of property qualifications - in bountiful times what once was
g~rchy and democracy (mixis oligarchias kai demokratias), and it rests in the a moderately steep timema might become affordable by all, so that everyone has
middle of them (mese touton). 30 Polity may combine practices from each of the a full share in the state (ro<TtE 1t<iv-cai; µe-cexetv). This shift could happen
Jt<lV'C<OV
two, such as both exacting a fine for failing to appear on juries (an oligarchic
so gradually that people hardly would take notice. .
fe~ture) and payme~t for_attendance (democratic) (1293 b33-4; 1294 a3~b41). Aristotle's very awareness of this process, however, gives us some_a~surance
Anstotle also describes It as that government in which the hoplite class rules that he is less likely to make the mistake in the Politics of descnbmg as a
(1265 b27-?; 1~7~ ~34-b5; 1288 a6-15). In teleological terms, it is one of the democracy what ought more precisely to be terme~ a ~lity. ~is relative laten~ss
three ortha1 pol1te1a1_a~prove~ of by Aristotle, because in spite of the relatively means that he was in a better position to judge shifts m ~erm1?0Iog~ t~an e:irher
large_number of part1c1pants m the state (those bearing arms), the citizens still authors were. We therefore may take some confidence m Anstotle s 1dent1fica-
rule m the general interest (pros to koinon sympheron, 1279 a37-9). tions of democratic states. For example, when he states at 1304 b24-7 that the
demokratia at Cos was overthrown by the gnorimoi uniting against the dema-
28 Newman, Poli1i~s (as in n. 9) vol. 4, xl-xli. Enforcement of Pericles' law, however, may
have laps~ during the laller portion of the Peloponnesian war;see C. Hedrick, The Attic
Phr~try ~D1~~-• U. o_fPennsylvania, 1984), 227-34. On the law and its effects, C. Patterson, 31 Aristotle, in fact, uses Sparta as I good example of• "mix~" ~~stitution because one can
Penc/es Cmunsh,p Law of 451/0 (New York, 1981). sec elements of both oligarchic and democratic e)ltrcmcs w1thm at, _I294 b l ~I. .
1
29 ~ristotle's di~ussi~n of polity and aristocracy at 1293-4 introduces teleological arguments 32 The Politics names four historical states which at some time had pohty IS 1he r government.
mto an anal~s1s which had up to tha1 point relied mostly upon institutional description. He Malis, Tarentum, Syracuse, and (perhaps) Oreus. Newman, Polirics(IS in n. 9) vol. 4, 192-
has reservations about use of the tenn aristocracy to describe oligarchic politics, yet
concedes th~t the two forms of government are not far from each other. Cf. 1295 a25-34. 33 :~6up ar; WY KOAOUµEY 11:0A.ttda~oi 11:potEpOY
£KO~~ 6riµo,cpanar; ("Hence those
!
30 0 ~nson, A.'"!slo~!e'sTheo,:, (~ in n. 5) 143-52, attempts 10 distinguish polity from the which we now call polities earlier men called democracies ). ·
middle regime, but admits Anstotle appears contradictory and confused on the subject
 2. Demokratiain Earlier Authors 45
44 Chapter 2: Demokratia

2. DEMOKRATJA IN EARLIER AUTHORS

gogues, _weh~ve no particular reason to doubt that a truly democratic government
once ex1st~d m Cos._What kind of democracy and what sorts of institutions Cos As useful as Aristotle is for exploring the nature, relative frequency, and variabi-
possessed _is r_nored1ffi~~lt to say, given the various possibilities Aristotle pre- lity of Greek democracy, he wrote many years after the authors who give us our
se~ts us wi~h m the Politics. Moreover, for late archaic or early classical history, first glimpse of the term demokratia. Since this study will focus on early Greek
Anstotle will h~ve had to rely o?_other historical sources, which, being in large democracy, it is import11ntto examine the meaning of the term in those sources
part l?st ~o us, he beyond our ab1hty to evaluate in terms of judgment and use of which first make use of it. The earliest historian to do so was Herodotus, writing
const1tut10nal vocabulary. c. 430. This was approximately a hundred years before the Politics, yet even so it
I~ s~m, the Politics gives us a useful description and classification of the does not go as far back as we might like for evaluating, say, the reforms of
const1t_ut'.onalforms oligarchia, politeia, and especially demokratia. Aristotle's Cleisthenes at Athens or early popular governments elsewhere. The term demo-
analysis 1s detailed a?d fairly ~on~ist~nt, even if it is confused occasionally by his kratia certainly came into use before he composed his history, perhaps long
~se of both teleolog_1c~land mstJtutJonal criteria. Through it we learn the most before. M. H. Hansen argues convincingly that the word was probably in use by
1mpo1:ant chara~tensu_c~ of demokratia. If some of these features might on 470, and that there is no particular reason to suppose that it did not exist before
occas10? appear m poht1es or broad-based oligarchies (such as popular election then. 35 The argument from silence one might advance against an earlier appear-
of officials ~nd moderate property qualifications), other features were notorious- ance is remarkably weak. While it is true that the term is not used in literature
ly d_emocrat1c(e.~., ostracism, selection of important officials by lot, "arithmetic" before Herodotus' history or Pseudo-Xenophon's pamphlet, the Constitution of
not~ons of e_quahty, public pay for the masses). Aristotle also elucidates the the Athenians, it must be emphasized that no antecedent political prose survives.
var1e_typossible ~ithin democratic constitutions. His presentation underscores And given the difficulty in making demokratia scan in most meters, we should
two i~ p~rtant points about the practice of Greek democracy. First, it was not not be surprised to find the term absent in earlier poetry. The most accommoda-
mono!t1h1c ~r based upon the system of any one state. The relatively immense ting meter is the iambic trimeter of comedy, and the earliest extant comedy,
quantity of mformation about Athenian history which has survived to our day 36
Aristophanes' Acharnians, has demokratia at line 618.
and the c~rrespond(ng _lackof it for the rest of Greece (at least outside Sparta) However, it is not actually necessary to establish the early origin of the word
tends ~o distort one s v1~w and tempts one to assume a greater influence for the demokratia to posit pre-classical democratic developments. It is quite possible
A:theman system than 1t may have had. The Politics shows that there were that the new popular institutions went under a different name, as some scholars37
d1fferen_tforms of democracy being practiced in many places in Greece, with no have suggested with the word isonomia in the case of Cleisthenic Athens. As
suggest!o_n_that they owed t_he!rappearance to the Athenian example.34 Second, Aristotle points out, names for constitutions may change over time. The answer to
the d~fm11ton of d~mokrat1a Jtself was rather flexible. A government missing
n~tonou~ demo~rat1c markers such as ostracism or payment for civic attendance
35 "The origin of the term demokratia." LCM 11.3 (1986), 35-6. .
might still qualify as a demokratia if it accomplished the fundamental require- 36 Aeschylus in his Suppliants clearly intends to describe a democracy, but us~ c1rcumloc~-
ment: th~ demos (comprising most or all of the free adult male members of the tions such as demou kratousa cheir (see following discussion). The earhest ep1graph1c
commumty) n:ust be kyrios in the government; it may express its sovereignty attestation of the word comes in /G 13 37.49, dated to 447/6 (?) - noteworthy, given the
thro~gh an act_1vemass assembly, a representative council of elected or allotted paucity of inscriptions antedating it, even if this reading requires restoration. Hansen also
officials, magistrates elected or allotted with very limited terms, law courts points out that a man born c. 470 was named Demokrates (cf. J. K. Davies, Athimian
Propertied Families 600-300 8.C. [Oxford, 1971), 359-60.) Raanaub, "Klei_sthenes, Ephi-
selected_~k panton, or some combination of these institutions. All citizens need
altes" (as in n. 24 ), sees a convergence of evidence for first use of the word m the 460s.
not part1c1pate personally in the daily running of the government and to bouleuo- 37 For discussions of the early appearance and meaning of isonomia and its ~sible ~sc"as a
menon, but they must have the opportunity to either elect those who do or take slogan or name for the Cleisthenic system at Athens, sec V, Ehrenberg, Isonom1a. RE
part themsel~e~ on _apart-time or rotational basis. Aristotle's flexible definition Supp. 7 (1940), 293-301; id., "Origins of Democracy," Historia I (1950), 515--48; G.
of de"!dkratla mev1tably broadens our view of what democracy in Greece could Vlastos, "lsonomia," AJP 74 (1953), 337-66, and "I:WNOMIA nOA!Tl:irn," _in 1: Mau
look hke. and E. G. Schmidt, eds., /sonomia: Studien tur G/eichheiuvorstellung rm gnech1schen
Denken (Berlin, 1964); M. Ostwald, Nomos and the Beginningsof the Athi!nianDemocracy
(Oxford, 1969), 97-121; H. W. Picket, "lsonomia and Cleisthenes: A Note," Talanta 4
34 ~is only stands to reason, of course, given that different staies will evolve along different (1972), 63-81; R. Sealey, "The Origins of Demokratia," CSCA 6 (1974), 253-95, es~. 272-
hnes. For example, as Raan_au~and Schuller have argued, the Athenian democracy was 7; K. Kinzl. ".1HMOKPATIA. Studie der Frilhgeschichte des Begriffs," Gymnasium 85
powerful!! affected by the wmmng and supervision of its empire in the fifth century. Other (1978), I 17-27 and 312-26. If the dating of the Harmodius skolio? (Page: 893, cf. 894-96;
democracies would not have shared these (and other) circumslances peculiar to Athens, and quoled below n. 44) to the end of the si~th century is correct, 1sono1111a may well h~ve
he~~c w~uld presumably develop varying features. K. A. Raanaub, "Kleisthenes, Ephial- preceded d~mokratia as a word to describe popular governments. Its force at the earhest
tes ~as in n. 24); W,· Schuller, "Wirkungen des Ersten Allischen Seebunds auf die Her- date, however, must remain conjectural.
ausbildung der athenischen Demokratie," Studien zu111 Attischen Seebund (Konslanz, 1984).
 46 Chapter 2: Demokratia 2. Demokratia in Earlier Authors 47

the key question.- who is kyrios in the government, panicularly regarding to and its cognates in the tragedy (e.g., psephos Argeion, 739; 601; 942; 965), the
bouleuomeno~ - 1s of greater importance to deciding whether a political system voting method seems to be cheirotonia, for the people signaled their approval of
was democratic than what name contemporaries may have applied to it. To this the proposed measure with upraised hands (602-22). We hear nothing about
end, let us look at the sort of states our earliest sources had in mind when they other aspects of the government (courts or councils or magistrates), but what we
used demokratia or similar terms.
already know leaves no doubt that the system being sketched out is a demokratia,
as it goes well beyond mere opposition to autocracy. Sovereign power rests with
Aeschylu~• _Supplian_ts,composed c. 463, 38 offers us our first literary peek at the people; votes are decided by counting hands, not just by acclamation; and the
demokrat1a m operation, though the view is a spare, indirect one - the tragedy is leader relies upon oratory to persuade them to act as be would wisb.41
not about democracy per se or constitutional politics - and the word itself never
appears: presumably because of the difficulty in scansion. Instead, we find such Herodotus, writing an historical narrative decades later than Aeschylus' tragedy,
express1o~s as demou kratousa cheir (604) and to demion to ptolin kratynei provides substantially more information about the Greek concept of demokratia.
(699)_,wh1_chseem to be poetic approximations of the term.39In the play, set in He employs a number of different words to refer to popular government or its
mythical t11_nes, ~rgos is ruled by Pelasgus (usually addressed as anax), but the institutions: demo/cratie (4,137.2; 6.43.3, 131.1), isonomie (3.80.6, 83.1, 142.3;
text makes It entirely clear that Aeschylus envisages a democratic polis. Pelasgus 5.37.2), isokratie (5.92a.l), isegorie (5.78). There is also the occasional use of
repeated)~ states that he must have the approval of the people (laos or demos) demos in the (probable) sense of democracy (3.81.3, 82.1, 82.5). What exactly
before a~tmg, an~ the central question at hand - whether to accept the suppliant did Herodotus mean by these various terms? They are not synonyms, though they
women mto the city's protection - is decided by vote of the people in assembly are clearly related, each of them referring to a political system or ideal involving
(demou 1edoktai pantele psephismata, 599). A degree of tension between the freedom and contrasting with tyranny. Moreover, most are in some manner
~onarch1c a~d democratic principles of government would seem hard to avoid associated with the Cleisthenic democracy. Herodotus states directly at 6.131.1
given the existence of the mythical "ruler" Pelasgus right alongside a sovereign that Cleisthenes established ten demokratien at Athens; the meaning of isokratie
popular assembly. On a couple of occasions the chorus appeals to Pelasgus as if at 5.92a.1 certainly encompasses the Athenian state under Cleisthenes; 42 the
he had autocratic power, calling him the supreme ruler of the land (o pan kratos context of the use of isegorie at 5.78 - that Athens became a far stronger state
ech~n chthonos,42~5), and declaring that he is the polis and the people (Su toi once freed from tyranny - shows that the word refers to the general political order
polzs, su de to demzon, 37?>· ~ut these are the words of desperate outsiders trying at Athens, not just the right of every citizen to address the assembly; 43 and finally,
to I_>C:rsuade a sympathetic listener to aid them. Pelasgus explains his actual the opinion of Otanes in the famous Persian constitutional debate is summarized
pos1t1onto the?1 as follows: "If the polis, the community, comes under pollution, at 6.43.3, that "it would be a good thing for the Persians to democratize"(~
let the people ~n common_~orlc out a cure. I myself will not make any promises XP£ovet11&,µ01epatieo8cn ntpoac;). When originally reporting bis speech at
before consultmg all the c1hzens concerning these matters. "40 Power lies with the 3.80, Herodotus bas him call bis preferred government by the name isonomie (he
people. .
also employs plethos archon, and his disputants use the word demos at 3.81.3 _and
Regarding the routine practices of this mythical democracy, Aeschylus in- 82.1, 5). That isonomie came into regular use in the time of Cleisthenes, possibly
forms ~s only v~guely. The assembly has the authority to conduct state policy. because of sloganeering on his part, bas been argued by scholars as noted
When It co~es time for the crucial vote, Pelasgus plays the role of a rhetor and abovc. 44 Thus all of the terms come to be associated in Herodotus' text with
speaks passionately on behalf of the suppliants. He wins the approval of the demo/cratia, often with the Cleisthenic version.
dem_o~and they vote _to accept the women. Such a process would have been
fam1har to the Athenian audience: the assembled citizens would sift through
spoken arguments and come to a decision. Despite the repeated use of psephos 41 Cf. Ehrenberg, '"Origins" (as inn. 37) 521-4. . , , ·~ · ·: ~•''· ·
42 , M. Oatwald, ~lsokratia u a Political Concept (Herodotus. S.92a.I), in l&lam1cSoc11ry and
., '., tM Chusical Tradition,Es1ay1, • , Richard Walur (Oxford, 1972). ln-91. for a general
38 On the dating of the play see: A. Lesky, "Die Datierung der ~iketiden und ~ Tragiker •·"' 1 discussion of these and other terms related to the early concept of tkmokratia, see C. Meier,
Mesatos," Henne1 82 (1954), 1-13; H. Lloyd-Jones, "The Supplice, of Aeschylua: The • "Drel Bemerkungen zur Vor- und Frllhgeachichtedes Begriffs ~mot:ratie," in Dilcordia
~ew D~te ~nd Old Probl_em1,"L'Anriq11irlclal1iq11•,3 (1964), 3,6-74; and the extensive Concor.r.Fe.srgabejUrEdgar Bonjo11rI (Basel, 1968), 3-29, repr.1n Kinzl (ed.), Demoua.-
d1scuss1onm A.~- Garvie, Ae1chyl111'S11pplice1,Play ONl Trilogy (Cambridge, 1969). lia (as inn. 24) 125-59. . :, · , . ; ' · ,,. · -i,,<>• .... ' •· ;,,
39 For_thedemocra11clanguage and institutions evident in the text, see Ehrenbers, "Origins" 43 J. B. Powell, A Luicon to Herodot,u 2nd ed. (Hildesheim, 1960), 173; cf. Oriffith,
(as m n. 37) S17-24. ,, · • , •, , , ,.,, .. , : Woodhead, and Lewi■ anicle■ on ilegoria (n. 21). ; , · · ·: · ' ' ·· "
40 -ro ICOlVO~ ~· el pialveta\ 116~\~/ ~uviJ peAl!o&, 1.o~ £1C,rovelv / er• 6' av ou
41CT1· 44 Note 37. The major piece of evidence for this is the Harmodius skolion (Page. 893): ~
~palvo111 \lll~CIXl!:OlVIla~/ dcnot~ u •401 tdlv&! 1(0\~ upi. (366-9) Similarly, ::r:; ,, ' tv flUf)W\I11:Aa&\-ro ~l~+ot>TICKO · · '''- ,,,.,., • ''• ,,.
Imes 398-9, ou1Cav11:u 4v, o<>Uup1c:pata1v.,,.., ,
61\µoutdlle, 11pliCal.jl' IDOUP"Apµd3l~ 1Ca\"Apicnoyeluov· ' '''
 48 Chaprnr2:Demokrarw 2. Demokratia in Earlier Authors 49

If Herodotus knew all of Cleisthenes' reforms well enough to be able to affairs over to the midst of the people (e~ µeaov tcata8elvm ta 1tp11yµata50 ), the
distinguish them with precision from the Athenian state of his day and from other government which Otanes calls the plethos archon and assigns the most beautiful
types of democracy, we could simply use what we know of the Cleisthenic (kalliston) name of all, isonomie. The name isonomie imparts the idea of political
system from other sources to help define Herodotus' concept of demokratia. But equality, and plethos archon implies majority rule. At the very end of the speech,
given the uncertainty of this assumption, it is necessary to glean what we can he brings up more specific features of the system he envisions: I) the awarding of
from Herodotus' own references to democracy and not depend solely on our offices by lot, 2) the accountability of office-holders (hypeuthynon archen), and
external knowle~ge of Cleisthenic institutions. His use of isegorie at 5.78 sug- 3) the referral of all deliberative matters es to koinon, presumably to the assem-
gests that the nght for all to address the assembly may have existed under bly.SI All of these practices are general characteristics of demokratia, and suit
Cleisthenes 45 and certainly played a role in the historian's conception of de- Aristotle's classification as such. Can we be more precise and identify Herodo-
mocracy. If Ostwald is correct in his reconstruction of the meaning of isokratie, tus' isonomie with one of the Politics' four models of demokratia? The greatest
there mu~t be a.balance of forces leading to a lawfully ordered political stability, obstacle here is that the principal characteristic Aristotle uses to separate his
perhaps mvolvmg the practice of probouleusis to define the interaction of the demokratiai is that of property qualifications, and Otanes does not mention what
council and the assembly. 46 This abstract description, which must also be appli- if any timema he had in mind. Nor does he propose any features especially
cabl_eto conservative constitutions such as those of contemporary Sparta and associated with any one of the four forms, such as payment for jury or assembly
Cormth, cannot advance our understanding very far. Nor does Herodotus' narra- attendance which mark he teleutaia demokratia. All forms of Aristotelian demo-
tive history of Cleisthenes' reforms help define his ideas of popular government. cracy allo;ed for some form of citizen equality, use of the lot for at least certai~
He talks of Athens being freed, and on two occasions of the renaming and offices, euthyna of magistrates, and deliberative authority for a popular council
renumbering of the tribes (5.66.2, 69.2), but little else.47 or assembly.S2 One is tempted in the absence of distinctively radical features to
The most revealing section in terms of what sort of demokratia Herodotus bas assume that Herodotus bad a moderate constitution in mind, one suited to the
in mind is the Persian debate at 3.80-3, which ironically does not even contain the early date alleged for this debate. Of course, as the features are also reasonably
word (though as explained above, the reference at 6.43.3 makes it clear that the consistent with the more extreme version of demokratia as practiced in Athens
term demokratia may be applied to the constitution described). 48 This debate during Herodotus• time, our author could also have meant that sort of system. The
supposedly took place before the accession of Darius in Persia (c. 521). Most criticism of Otanes' plan by the two speakers following him (3.81-2) adds weight
scholars find it almost inconceivable that such a rhetorical confrontation ever to this possibility, as it calls to mind Aristotle's blasting oftyJM:~our dem~racy
happened, Herodotus' vehement insistence notwithstanding, seeing the debate as tyranny: the uneducated, uncontroll~d mob will make bad dec!Slons, o~.wtll~et 'J
,1
rather as an expression of Greek sophistic political thought. 49 In it, Herodotus with wickedness. The speakers descnbe the government as demos or tummg
attributes to the Persian noble Otanes an impassioned speech in favor of turning power over to the multitude"(£~ to1t11.f\80~ -i,epetvtotcpcito~).and the masse~ as
an "unrestrained populace" and a "useless mob" (demos akolastos, homilos
OT£TOYcipavvov uavtn,v achreios). This is suggestive rhetoric, yet it is the sort of diatribe one would
iaovoµouc; t' 'A9iivac; £1to111aan,v. expect from oligarchs or monarchists against any form of popular rule, a?d
"I will bear my sword in a branch or mynlc like Harmodios and Aristogciton when they probably should not be used to define Otanes' isonomie as extreme demokrat1a.
slew the tyrant and made Athens isonomous."
45 So J. D. Lewis argues. against the view or Griffith and Woodhead that it arose later, cf. note
21.
46 Notc42. 50 For this phrase sec M. Detienne, Les mailres de virili clansla Grice archai'que (Paris,
47 At 6.131.1, Herodotus againassociates the new tribes with Cleisthenes' democracy; IU.£\o- 1981), 95-9. ,
8EvTJc; TEotac; ,uA.Oc;1eal.riiv liTJµo1epanriv• AlhJvaioun 1CaTacmjoac; ..• (''The Clcisthcncs 51 11>..i'\8oc;
lie apxov 1tp1iha µEV ouvoµa IIQvt(l)Y1eaU10tOY £XEI, ioovoµiTJY, 6£m£~Q ~E
who established the tribes and the democracy at Athens ..• ") I hesitate, however, to read into tO\lt(l)YtWY O µouvapxo'i 110\££1ov6h· ICQMj) µtv 0PXOc;OPX£1,\)lt£\)~YOY 6E 0 PXTJY
these passages an equation of the two by Herodotus. I believe, rather, that he saw both the £XEt, 11<>u>..t:uµatalit 11avta E'i t6 1eo1vovava♦tpEt. (3.80.6) The c"prcss,on es 10 ko,non
tribal reforms and the democratization as pan of the same reform process, and that the two is vague. Its use in this contcllt (as a positive contrast to procedure under a ty~ant) suggests
represented memorable, lasting deeds of Clcisthenes, whose career is the \Opie of each of that decisions arc \0 be deliberated over and decided in the assembly, or possibly a popular
these three passages. council. I accept Stein's understanding of plerhos as the subj~t of archei, echei and
48 Cf. Ostwald, Nomos (as in n. 37) 111 with n. I. anapherel, which requires that 10 koinon indicate a popularly dommated organ of gov~m-
49 H._S~ncis!-~ccr~~nburg offers an analysis of sources for aclUJJIPersian political thought at ment rather than the more usual connotation of the government as a whole (Powell, Le:cicon
this lime m Poht1cal Concepts in Old-Persian Royal Inscriptions," in K. Raaflaub and E. [as inn. 43] 197, 4a; LSJ s.v.11.2).
Miiller-Luckner, eds . .4nflinge politischen D,uu:ens in der .4ntike (Munich, 1993), 145-63. 52 Equality -PoL 1301 a26-b4; b29-1302 al; 1308 al 1-13; 1317 a40-bl7; 1318 a3-9; Lot-
Sec also J. Blcicken. "Zur Entstehung der Veriassungstypologic im !I. Jahrhundcn v. Chr. 1291 b38-1292a4; 1294b7-13; 1300831: 1317bl8-21;Rher. l.8.4:e11rhyna-l274al5-
(Monarchic, Aristokratie, Dcmokratie)," Historia 28 (1979), 148-72, esp. 152-3. 8; 1281 b32-4; 1318 b21-31: assembly/council- 1298 at0-34; 1317 b28-35. ,
 ----------- ------------- - - - -~

50 Chapter2: Demokratia 2. Demokratia in Earlier Authors 51

In the absence of further institutional signposts, any identification with Aristo- purposes an approximate date, the third quarter of the fifth century, will suffice.
telian gradations would seem overly ambitious. The treatise deals only with the Athenian democracy, so it will not be a fruitful
Herodotus, it appears, is not interested in the precise definition of each of the source for identifying characteristics or examples of non-Athenian demokratiai.
various terms with which he refers to popular government and has no intention of Yet the text reveals an early critic's general perspective on democracy, and his
setting up a careful scheme of constitutional classification. He offers the most use of democratic terminology is instructive. He is clearly an aristocratic oppo-
detail for the word isonomieat 3.80, though it is quite clear that he is describing a nent of the Athenian constitution - hence the appellation by scholars "The Old
1emokr?ti.a.Why does he not use that word? Probably because, as Otanes says, Oligarch"55 - though he goes to great lengths to explain how effective the system
1sonom1e1s the most beautiful name, and one would naturally employ the most is in preserving itself and promoting the interests of the demos, a word always to
flattering term for one's chosen constitution in such a debate. 53 Literary and be taken here in the sense of the relatively poor majority of the free adult male
rhetorical considerations such as these have a higher priority in Herodotus than population. The author's political language carries a partisan bite: the supporters
the consistent, precise use of constitutional terminology. Yet by combining what and beneficiaries of the constitution are most often the poneroi (base or worthless
little he does tell us we can piece together a general picture of what he meant to people), penetes (poor laborers), demos(common mass), c~irous (inferiors), and 'l
convey by his various words for demokratia: a lawful, stable government op- demotikoi (populists}, while their opponents are the gennaioi (nobles), plousioi l
posed to tyranny, guided by citizen equality, with offices determined by lot and (wealthy men), hoplitai (fighting men), chrestoi (wo~y ones~. de~iotat?i(m~st
subject to the euthyna,where a popular assembly or council deliberates, possibly skillful), and andres aristoi (men of the best sort). This generalized 1d~ntification
allowing all participants to speak publicly. This is more a range of meaning than of poor with bad and rich with good advertises the author's sympathies even as
a description of any specific state constitution, but even as such it is useful for the they sacrifice clarity and precise analysis. There is no vagueness, however, about
purposes of understanding what is meant by demokratiain our earliest historical the label he applies to the constitution under consideration: he employs demo~ra-
account. We also cannot know how much Herodotus borrowed from the practices tia or cognates. Better alternatives to the Athenian system (infrequently I?ent1on-
of democratic states of his own era to flesh out his account: in the absence of ed by name) are called eunomia and oligarchia.We should not be surpnsed that
testimony explicitly linking his depictions - or sources - to the earlier times he the more flattering term (according to Herodotus) ison?mia is neve_ru~li~d in
purports to describe, one may reasonably assume that much of his perception of such a hostile text. Demokratia seems to bear no negative connotauon m itself,
demokratiadepends upon notions and practices current in his day, i.e., Greece of aside from the obvious objection our author and his intended audience might ha~e
the mid-fifth century and later. Indeed, it is not my purpose here to argue that for a term which conveys the idea of power belonging to the lowly demos. It~
Herodotus' testimony enables us to distinguish sixth-century democratic practice employed to describe the system at hand, nothing more. The fact. that this
from fifth. His great contribution comes in offering the earliest coherent picture government displeases the author is made explicit only by a few specific state-
56
of demokratia,based we can only suppose on his own (fifth-century) life experi- ments, e.g., ''the best elements everywhere are opposed to demokratia," and
57
ences, supplemented by the older traditions he used as his source material. ''bad laws are of little concern to the demos in a demokratia.''. . • , " : · ,. • ·· .
Nevertheless, it is still worth noting that the properties of demokratia which he • · The practices the author associates with demo~ratiainclude f~liar institu-
describes are exclusively associated with archaic states: Samos under Maeandri- tions of government as well as the overall behav1or of the Ath~ruan populace.
us, Persia c. 521, Athens under Cleisthenes, lonia under Mardonius in 492. If This untidy combination may be justified both by the broad mearu~g of the w~rd
nothing else, it shows the historian's firm belief that such governments operated politeia, which encompasses community activity in more than a ~tnctly consut~-
in the archaic era. We will soon see what corroborating evidence can be gathered tional sense, 58 and also by the author's thesis that the Athe~~ demokratia,
from other sources (Chapter 3). though unpalatable to him, is executed effectively so as to maxmuze the bene_fit
to the "base" classes. For example, the Athenian tendency to treat slaves with
The anonymous political pamphlet Constitutionof ,~ Athenians found in the great latitude and to force allies to come to Athens for trials is expl~ned (not
Xenophon corpus may be the next earliest literary source for the use of the word necessarily convincingly) as bestowing some good upon the demos.This method
~ ~ • ' • ' • "' "' ',q ,.ii'- ' 1 }. ,':;. ' • ; " :,· ';' ,, •• ' "" '¥'. :·~ ''

demokratia- or it may not - depending on when one wishes to date it. 54 For our
''., ,.~n'P~•xen~p~~ from be~~ ~·~6~ a:·
iat:o~piled by w.Bowersoc~ bi~ ~b text, i~
,3 So Sealey argues in "Origins"(u inn. 37) 274-7 .. ..,·•463-5and470-3, .; "•'•••b',,, • , -~ .,. s° '• •• ,,.y· ..-.•l:s ,

54 Proposeddates range from 443 to 416, and the problemstill excites acholarlycontroveny. I 55 , Sealey, "Origina" (u inn. 37) 262 deplores this label and makes the.reasonablesuggestion
believe 431-424 offen the most liltelytime frame, bul cenainty l1 no1 attainable.For recent ,•., that the author may not have been old at all, but nthcr a relauvely young _would-be
argumentsand bibliographysee Sealey,"Origins" (u in a. 37) 253 and 257-9; J. L Man politician who suffered defeat in the Athenianpolitical arena. ,•
NNoteson the Pseudo-XenophonicAthenaionPoliteia." Clr.M 34 (1983), 4S-53; W. Lapini • 56 ,lcm 3£ KCiCJQ yf1 w ptA.nau>Yavofflov tjl 5tilwicpa-dq, 1.5." • • H .. ,. .- _.- , "
"II Vecchio Oligarca e &IiUccelll di Aristophane.Consideruioni cronoto1iche sulla R.~ 57 , ffi~ 3£ ICOICOVOl'l~a~ (IC, the demo, in a demolcratia) OA.iyovp£A£\, 1.8.
publicaAtheniensiumpseudosenofontea,•Sandalitn110-11 (1987-8), 23-48. Bibliography 58 Cf. chapter one, part three.
 ~ - - ________,...
_

52 ChaplCr 2: Demolr.rotia 2. Demokratia in Earlier Authors 53

of argument ties the author's conception of demokratia very tightly to the specif- tutional discourse that we encounter speaks more to the general character and
ics of the Athenian state, yet it also illustrates the notion that demokratia was seen ideology of demokratia than to the exclusive procedures of the fifth-century
at least by its opponents as that government which seeks only to maximize the Athenian system. 61 •
interests of the lower classes. This idea finds occasional expression in Aristotle• s The following are the most significant passages for our purposes. At Imes
Politics, but in Pscudo-Xenophon it is applied consistently and for blatantly 238~5, Theseus glorifies the middle class as the body that preserves cities and
rhetorical purposes. 59 Even the strictly constitutional elements of the demokratia guards their institutions. 63 The rich are derided as greedy and useless, and the
are described in terms of what the demos is allowed to do for itself: it can take part poor as dangerous in their vicious envy and in the case with which they can be
in the elective and allotted magistracies, though it leaves the most critical ones manipulated. This praise of the average citizen at the expense of others, echoed at
such as the strategiai to the most capable and prefers the paid offices for Orestes 917-22 and Electra 380-90, may seem a moderate political statement
themselves (1.3); and any citizen who wishes it has the right to speak and to given that both the lower and upper classes come in for censure. Yet it is
participate in Council ( 1.2. 6). These institutions of popular speech and participa- ultimately democratic in its implications: if the upper classes cannot be coun~d
tion in the ruling council and the magistracies are presented as if they arc upon for any special virtues, there is no justification for granting the~ ~pcc1al
antithetical to principles of good government but well-suited to the goal of governing privileges. Their great wealth is presented not as a precondition for
promoting lower class interests and thereby strengthening the democracy. good citizenship, but as a hindrance to it. In addition, the competence of 1!1e
average citizen 10 rule the state - only possible in a democracy or perhaps a pohty
The Suppliants of Euripides (c. 422) also offers insight into the characteristics the - is asserted forcefully. · · .
Greeks associated with demokratia. This play in a sense "answers" the criticisms Al lines 349-55, Theseus makes a point of bringing before the people (pole,
of Pseudo-Xenophon with a polemical justification of democratic government: pase1') his decision to confront the Thebans ove~ the burial of 1!1e~give fallen.
where the conservative pamphleteer lays out a model of demokratia which is He is confident that the demos will approve of his plan but considers 1tnecessary
simply the selfish exploitation of government for the good of one class, Euripides to put the question to a vote anyway: "for I made the people sovereign ~h~n I
has the hero Theseus give a vision of government guided by the high ideals of freed this city - a city of equal voting.•'64 This p~ssage confirms t~al it 1s a
freedom and equality. Like Pelasgus in Aeschylus' Suppliants, Theseus plays the democratic government Euripides has in mind, for 1t says that the entire I>C:ople
curious role of the king of a democratic city. 60 He is the constitution's founder rule absolutely. In addition, die playwright's terminology is as democratic _as
and greatest defender, who debates the merits of the system with a Thcban herald possible without actually using the word demokratia: _Theseus has ma~e the c1~
inclined toward monarchy. Euripides is clearly retrojccting the popular govern- eleutheros; it is also isopsephon. The latter term 1s used only this once m
ment of his own time into the legendary past. The word demokratia is not used. Euripides• corpus, and is one that both carries t™: crucial. iso- el_em~nt(he_re
presumably because (as noted above) it docs not scan, yet the description of the denoting political equality, as in the other democratic terms 1so~~m,a, 1s~krat1a,
state by Theseus leaves no doubt that this is the constitution in question. More- isegoria) and also refers to a voting procedure open to all citizens. Like the
over, the term demos appears far more times in this drama than in any other preceding passage, the details of the governmental s~ste_mare ~oo blurred to
Euripidean play and always in the context of the ruling political force in the determine how "radical" it is supposed to be. Equal votmg 1sce ~amly democra!•
ic, but allotment for offices could be considered evenmore so. No reference 15
6
city. 61 As for Theseus, we do not know the nature of his authority in this
imaginary setting, but such details do not seem imponant for the action of the made to popular couns, ostracism, or public pay. There ~as, of course, no need
play, nor do the specifics of the governmental administration. Hence, the consti-
62 Conlra.Bleicken, '"Verfassungstypologie" (as inn. 49) esp. 158-60. On t!t~ development of
59 Thucydides may also define democracy in this way:see discussion below. political theory and democratic ideology at ~thens see C. F.~• Tht Ong1nsof DtlllOCral·
60 Theseus. whose legendary rule Aristotle describes as "deviating a bit from monarchy'" ic Thinking (Cambridge, 1988); id., "Ancient Greek Pohucal Theory as a Response to
(µucpov napeyd.lvo\)(Ja 'ril'iPamA.ucij~ Alli. PoL 41.2). accepts in lho Euripidea play the Democracy," in J. Dunn, ed. Democracy lht Unfinislud Jo~~ S08 BC lo AD ~993
title anax (lines I 13, 164) and rejects tyra,uun (399--405). See generally H. J. Walker, (Oxford, 1992), 17-39. On politics in the Suppliantssee P. Bun~n: Logos ~d- Pathos. The
Theseus and Athen.s (Oxford, 1995), esp. 14~9. For the earliest ancient claims (fourth . Politics of the Suppliant Women," in id. ed. Directions in Eunp~~ ~n1,cism (Durham
century) that Theseus actually founded the Athenian democracy, E. Ruschenbusch, "Patri- · NC, 1985), 129-55; A. N. Michelini, "'Political Themes in Euripides, , A.IP l15 (1~ ),
4
.. 219-S2. . .. . .. , , . , .. ,., ' .d ff ·O~ · ·. ~
01 Politeia. Theseus, Drakon, Solon, und Kleisthenes in Publizislik und Geschichtsschrei-
bung des 5. und 4. Jahrhundens v. Chr." Historla 1 (1958), 398-424, esp. 408-18; M. H. 63 Some have thought this passage an interpolation: cf. L. Parmentier an • goire m
Hansen. "Solonian Democracy in Fourth-Century Athens," C&M 40 (1989), 71-99, esp. Budi edition (Paris, 1923 ), 112. · , . , •

l
74-8. .. . .,.,. . ' 64 Ka\ yap 1ta'tt<m1c;'OU~OY [i.e.,- fl>Yllijµov] ec;
µovapxlav '.eUu8Ep~~ t11vll lao1"1+0Y
!16A.\Y.. • ,. -.... , . . .. ' .. - ... ' , . . .
61 Suppliants 351,406,418,425,442; Oreste, 696; Andromache100, anda few fragments.
Cf. J. T. Allen and G. Italic, A Concordanc, to Euripides (Berkeley and London, 1954), · 65 E.g., Aristotle. Rhel. 1.8.4 ( I 36S b), where allotment is used as the de~mng.ch~ten~tlc of
148. · · · · · · .. a democracy. ·
 54 Chapter 2: Demokratia 2. Demokratia in Earlier Authors 55

for the playwright to introduce such specifics into the drama, so we cannot themselves in service to the city, whereas single rulers kill the best men to
assume anything by their absence. Suffice it to say that Euripides left room in his preserve their hold on power. This is a theme which Pericles uses in the Tbucydi-
description for a broader range of democratic governments than just fifth-century dean funeral oration (see below). Of course, the only positive argument for
Athe~s, perhaps because of the obvious anachronism of an overly specific trans- monarchy that the herald offers is the vague implication that ameinones exist and
plantmg and perhaps because a generalized picture of popular government was could direct the state better than the demos.
satisfactory for his purposes. Another interesting point is the way Theseus appropriates the idea of the rule
An even more constitutionally revealing passage of the Suppliants is the of law as a feature of demokratia. Aristotle criticizes radical democracy for the
extended debate at lines 403-50 between Theseus and the Theban herald about way in which the people held themselves above the nomoi, ruling instead by their
the merits and dangers of democracy, particularly as compared to monarchy. In own psephismata (Pol. 1292 a5-6, 1293 al0). Theseus, however, favorably
terms of the drama, it is not an equal contest. The Theban's royalist position is contrasts the written laws of his democratic city with the arbitrary power of a lone
thoroughly undercut by the disastrous and shameful recent history of the The ban ruler, asserting that only thus can equal justice for the strong and weak alike be
royal house, and Euripides favors Theseus in the general presentation of his guaranteed. To the modem reader, the Euripidean co-optation of the rule of law
character and the space he allows him - the Athenian leader gets the first, last. for popular government seems the more natural. The American democracy, for

I
and the most words. The debate starts when Theseus upbraids the herald for example, was founded with the express idea of ending tyrannical rule over an
assuming Athens is ruled by a tyrannos. One man does not rule, says Theseus· unwilling populace. Hence the contrast between the arbitrary power of a monarch
~thens is a free city. The demos rules in annual succession; the rich man is no~ and the will of the people as codified in written law holds obvious appeal. N_or
g1~~n.the most, rather the poor man is equal. The Theban responds with familiar would it have seemed odd to the Athenian citizens, whose democracy owed its
cntic1~ms of cl_emocracy:the ochlos wields power; flatterers manipulate the mob foundation to the overthrow of the Peisistratid tyranny. Aristotle's more abstract
for pnvate gam and escape punishment for old crimes with new slanders; the point, relying on the technical meanings of the terms nomos an~ psephi~ma,
demos i_sincapable of judging words rightly, and is hasty and vulnerable to a might appear less convincing to modem readers who have not expenenced d1_rect
base, shck-t~ngued man bent on power. Theseus answers that there is nothing government by the masses, which could at times (Aristotle and Thucyd1des
worse for a city than for a tyrant to rule with autocratic power and no equality, as would argue) act recklessly and m . defiance o f soun d tra d'.1t1on.67
opposed to the su~remacy of communal laws (nomoi lcoinoi).With written laws. .. ·-, ,:. ' ··,;

the weak and the nch have equal justice (ten diken isen). He lauds the freedom of Our last source for early references to demokratia is Thucydldes. He use~ t_his
anyone to excel for the city's benefit, contrasting the demos' acceptance of word and the verbal form demokrateisthai more often than any other survlVlng
energetic young citizens with a king's fear of any who stand above the crowd. , fifth century author. He also makes frequent use of demos in its sense as a virtual
68
This "constitutional debate" is mostly a debate about the merits and faults of synonym for demokratia, especially in the exp'7~sion katal!~ai to~ demo?- He
democracy. and not a free-ranging discussion of the various constitutional forms. 66 employs this terminology frequently because political and mil~taryhistory, ~nclud-
Monarchy is ~el~ up for comparison (favorably by the herald. otherwise by ing the partisan strife and revolutions which plagued Greek c1ty-st_atcsd~ng the
Theseus), but 111s hardly treated. Theseus' argument relies on abstract values war, is the focus of his work. Yet Thucydides does not seem parucularly intere-
rather than tangible features. In both parts of his presentation, he has one section sted in democracy per se, for he never describes the internal workings of demo-
proclai~ing t~e freedom allowed by democracy, and another on its equality, just cratic government anywhere,~xcept Athens. He highlights the confli~t ~tween
as he did at Imes 349-55. These are, of course, the two guiding principles of democratic and oligarchic groups in states such as Corcyra due to the significance
demokratia, referred to in Aristotle and other authors. It is as if, for Theseus, the of the event for the war and the dramatic insight into human nature, not for the
simple act of showing the existence of these ideals proves the superiority of the light it mayshed on constitutional details. His opinion of de~kratia as a gen~r~
system - which, rhetorically speaking, might have been true in a theater filled proposition becomes a matter of inference, made more difficult beca~se ,1t 1s
:'~
with Athenian citizens. Even in the face of the herald's cynical assertions of the 1;._ .,·, ... i.' ' ' ' • ' " • , • ·, , ; , : • - ' • t . ' ,. .• l' -~ ...

ugliness which can take place in a working democracy, Theseus simply returns to
his themes of eleutheria and to ison. He makes only one attempt to ground these
67 'F;~ s:UV~;~f the ~cie~t-:itki1m of Athenian lbs ~~racy•~•~•~·i~n:~~;g:a~d
!
.• modern defense of 1hesame,seeA. H. M. Jones,"The Athenian Democracyand 11sCn11cs,
lofty stat~ments in more practical considerations: at the very end of his argument. in AIMnian Democracy(New York, 19S8),41-72. ·· ' ·
he explams how the freedom of his city allows the ambitious to distinguish 68 demokratia: l, 11S.3; 2.37, 6S.9; 3.37, 62.2; 4. 76.2; S.31.6; 6.39. l. 89.6; 8.47 .2, 48.l, S3.2,
63.3, 75.2, 89.3, 90. d1mokratei111iai:
S.29. 44; 6.89.4; 7.SS.2; 8.48.2. S. 53, 73.6, 75.2. 76.
n. demo1: l.t07.4, 6; 3.81.4; S.76.2, 81.2; 6.27.3, 28.2, 39.l, 61; 8.49, S4.4, 64.2. 4, ~• 68.l,
66 Noted by K. A. Raana~b, "Co~tem~ary Perceptio~ ~f Democracy i~ Fifth-Cent~ 4, 86.2, 9, 90, 91.3, 92.11. D1mo1is of coune also used in the diatinct senses, the whole
Athens," in Aspects of At/Nnian Democracy (Copenhagen, 1990), 33-70, esp. 4S, with 1 " ' people" and the "popular faction." Cf. E. A. Belallt, LexiconThueydid,um(Geneva. 1843/
bibliography in n, 28. repr.Hildesheim, 1969),adloc. : , · ,,,• '' 1 '"'"·
 57
56 Chapter 2: Demokratia 2. Demokratia in Earlier Authors

unique style of democracy with the Spartan constitution. Others emphasize the
~el!~;:f ~!1~:~e~~h7;:~h~t!:r~~1;:n~::n:~::~~::~~~:p~recialanlyd ththedecline
1or Athens' deti t · h , e reasons
aristocratic nature of Tbucydides' encomium and see an apology for, or even a
denial of, demokratia.The speech defines the word with the succinct phrase tOµit
Thousand in th ea tn t _ewar. Nevertheless, his outright endorsement of the Five t; OAlyo~ ciU' t; n)..elova; oiKeiv. Does this mean that the government 71is in
do the t' e narrallve at 8.97.2 suggests a moderately oligarchic outlook as tM interests of the many, or that one leaves the governing to the many? As
. nega ive co6m9 ments offered here and there about the Athenian conduct' of
outright definitions of demokratia are rare in the fifth century it is important to
thetr government.
establish the precise meaning here. Both understandings would fit Greek views of
democracy that we have encountered: Pseudo-Xenophon, for example, spitefully
defi;i~:~u;;~~,:;;:~;t~a~~:~::::~~:t: ;::::c:dp:~~i:ogn:;~~8;1a~t::~s
lauds the Athenian demos for the way they conduct state affairs purely for their
men s of Athens, addresses the political order most explicitly at 2.37 .1: -
own benefit; on the other hand, sources from Herodotus to Aristotle consistently
Xproµe8a
a1iwl ISv~yap
n 1tOA1~i~
· i\ • ~lJMI
o1i •
uau · · tmv
tO~
- u~. voµoU<;,1tapa&1yµa 6£ µiillov define the constitution according to who is allowed to hold office and participate
11'-eiovac;otcE~y6'1~~;:ra::~t::~t=~v:::xv ;a to.11i\~c;OAiyo~ ciU' tc; in governing bodies. The two perspectives, of course, are not mutually exclusive.
6ui♦opa 1to0\ w taov ' xatci ""•~ mv •••
a'~. . ~ v toU<;voµOU<;itp"" ta t6la
'>IQlO\Y, ~ "Kacnoc; fv tq1 '6o t • •
Both may describe accurately what typically happens in a democratic state, each
~£POU<; to ll~OY tc; t(I 1(0\YOii a1t' apEtiic; 1tpon11otal o1i6' au xa ~\I ~lµE l
O\IICQltO emphasizing a different clement. Which then does Tbucydidcs employ here? The
ayaQoy 6poaal 'tTIYIIOAIV,Q~l<i>llatoc; a♦avEiq ICUQlA~l. ta ltEY\aV, XWV ye't\ abstract and compressed Greek (typical ofThucydides) raises the possibility that
no single meaning is called for at all. The preposition es docs not normally
For we enjoy a constitution which docs not emulate the laws of our ne. h ,
convey the sense "in the interests of," yet it is also somewhat unusual to derive
h not imitating anyone else, are a mod e1for Others. 8 Y name It
ourselves,
bee . II. igcalled rather we
bors;dem
h ause t e management of affairs is not given over to the few but to the many Yet 1 ~ agency or possession from it in the phrasing to es pleionas oikein. Perhaps the
~
:~:~me;s~
t e e~es of the law all are equal in private disputes, ii is accordin to
~wever each may distinguish himself, that one receives :ublic :Oo/:t:
tatw_em Greek is deliberately vague, and is meant to represent nothing more specific than
popular government as opposed to oligarchy.
obsc:;ty :ft:: ::.t:~oe~c;~:: 1: ;;~!~:gr: ;!:;:ts c~:;.°ne hindered by the
Two considerations, however, give the impression that Tbucydides meant the
people run the government in demokratia,as opposed to the government being in
~~i;::;a:;
.
ha\o~casion;d much dispute regarding its translation and interpre~
e sc o ars un erstand Thucydides' Pericles to be contrasting Athens'
their interests. Most tellingly, the historian's use of es in similar contexts favors
this interpretation. In two cases there is just as much ambiguity as in 2.37.1
(5.81.2; 8.97.2); but the es oligous passages at 8.38.3 and 8.89.2 likely convey
possession as opposed to interest, and another instance at 8.53.3 undoubtedly
69 "Bias against the _volatility of the extreme Athenian democracy and its lead tak • docs. In this last case, ths: oligarchic agitator Peisander argues that the offices of
72
:::~!:~~:i~:~;d:;•;~i~;~;:~•• and of damagin! attribution of motive ~thercs u,': state should rest, to a greater extent, in the bands of the few. Furthennore,
more 1987) 166 Espec· II . personal defects. S. Hornblower, Thucydidts (Balli- Plato's Mentxenu11238c-d, which was modeled so closely on this passage of the
• ' • 18 Y important for Thucydides' · · f demol:
encomium of Pericles at 2.65.6-13 where the h' . bi op1n1on o . ratia i1 the Periclean funeral oration as to match it nearly point for point, defines the Atheni-
leaders for the Joss of th ' _istonan . ames post•Penclean democratic an democracy with the phrase tyx:pau:; lit Ti\;MUco<; ffl noUa tOMi;8o~,"the
Pericles Athens was onl e aw::::::Cd ~es the highly dubious claim that under bis llinted multitude for the most part controls the city," with no mention of government in
citizen." Cf.1. de Romily Thurvd:sy ~~~~th • ~d lin fac~ fu/'nclionedas "rule of the first
• •J • """" en1011mpena ism trans p Thod (0 f,-,1 the interests of the masses. This suggests that contemporaries took to e11 pleiona11
1963 ), 101-3; A. Andrewes, HCTvol. 5 (Oxford 1981) 335-9· H• b.l . y x -.., oikein to mean that the many exercised personal control over the government.
70 E F Poppo Th d"d' d • • , om ower, 155-90
o·.
s·heppard an:7 ,Eis e 1;;110 PelopoMes~o, vol. 3, pan 2 (Leipzig, 1834), 161~; I. Given these considerations, it is likely that to e11pleionas oikein represe~ts a
· vans, ores on Thucyd,der (London 1870) 190• J Cl ·r ~, H,I ,<j

Steup, ThukydidtJ,, vol. 2 (Berlin 1914) 91-2· A W Go• 1b • ." assenandI.

42 (l948), 10-14; id., HCTvol. 2 (Oxford, 1956) io~9· J ":t~live/":yPradi~ NfoteaP :" CQ
71 More commentators favor the latter interpretation, including Poppo, Classen, Steup, Gorn-
Athens as a Mixed Co st't Ii " Rh . . ' • • · • 1seo enclean
Der Th '"'•d'd . h n_ • u _on, e_in11ches Museum 98 (1955), 37-10; J. T. Kakrid' . me, Kakridis, de Romilly, Vretska, Raaflaub, and Harris, as well as the C. F. Smith (Loeb)
u~., I e1sc t Ep1laph1os(Munich 1961)· J de R 'II Thucyd is,
ntoponnlse. livre II (Paris, 1962), 27 95--6· H 'v.:Ctska. ';1 .Yj la''"~
d d~H d11 and R. Warner (Penguin) translations. Among those preferrin1 the former are Sheppard/
Wilrdigsten, Thuk.II 37,1," Rheinisch;sMu; . enc es un ie emchal\ dea Evans, Sealey, Meyer, Ostwald, and Rusten, along with Hobbes and Crawley in their
dides 2.37. J," PhoeniJ:2.5 1) l04- • ~;:" l09~•~J• 1~20; J. R. Gnnt, "Thucy- ' translations. The Oxyrhynchus Commentator also belongs in this camp. POxy 853 col. 15,
097
eignry (as inn. 23) 183 with n. 29;J, S. R~ten
7
~'.?.!,~:•
::; •,·
1 37): ~wald,Sover-
e oponnesUUIWar,Boole
II. 7-1 I. , . ,
72 · toilt0 10lvuv oux lcmv i\µlV yt!vic,9cn, el µii11:ol.tuVC1011£V u ~viOtEPO'I
.,
a:al~
,
// (Cambridge 1989) 145· C M ·
(Cambridge a~d London j e;:;.1::.~rH:
990)
60; E. M. Harris, "Pericl~s• Pr .' •
' _ _,..I •
~cowry of Politics, trans. D. McLintock
~u • ontemporaryPerceptions"(11 in I. 66)
o~lT~ pli>J..o• ,Ii~ cipxli~ "°'"c,opav
... "Well, this (alliance with the Persians] can-
' not be attained by us unless we form I wiser government and put the offices to ■ greater
(1992), 157-67. mse of AthenianDemocracy,Thucydides2.37.1," HSCP94 extent in the hands oh few .••M (Loeb translation). '·
 5 2. Demokratia in Earlier Authors 59
58 Chapier 2: Demokratia

straightforward definition of what demokratia meant (i.e., government in the

hands of the multitude), which is followed by an elaboration of what made the
I At 6.38-9, Thucydides offers another definition of de~kratia, _oncesag:!:
voiced by a democratic leader speaking to his people. In a highly partisan pe

I
Athenian version of it so unique and worthy of imitation by others. to the Syracusans on the eve of the Athenian invasion, Athenagoras sharply
In the rest of 2.37.1, Thucydides has Pericles refine the Athenian notion of contrasts democracy with oligarchy: ·
democracy. The basic argument here, presaged in the first line of the passage, is ical ll<iit;6i ICOlOY 1
'tO\I', auto~ µ,\ t(DYai>trovci~100o8m; (39. 1)_4>1i«'tl~ li'lllloic~tl_a~
that Athens' constitution is unique. Scholars differ over whether the contrasts oiii:e ~uveiov out' toov elva1, w~ lie lxovta~ tci XPt\µaUJicm apxe1v apuna na
drawn are primarily with the Spartan state, or with other forms of democracy .73 'tO"" • Eymlie ..-iµ{nproffl µEYlii\µov ~uµnav oivoµaa8ai. ciA.1yapxiov ~ ~foe;· b£I~

I
..,. I · · Aouaio'l)(j,pouA1:0aa16' av ~,._nata wui;
The passage can work either way. Other parts of the funeral oration openly +\iAOIC~µEYaplatO'lll;£ YOlXPTll'll'tWY tO'lll;ll , . • - ci l Kill ICOtci
~UY£'t0~ ICp\Vlll6' OYCJICOUallYtll', Oplatll 'tO~ IIOUo'l)(j, ~Ol ~uta µo 1uYOlY'Wit;
compare Athens with Sparta (e.g., the different education, preparations for war, J.LEPT\ ical ~uµltllvta tv 6'1\µoicpatlotaoµo1p£iv. (2) 'OA.1yapx1a_ 6Etcilv~~ ic1vvt' O"'°M>·
and openness detailed in 2.39.1-4), and 2.37 bears signs of a similar contrast. The -- -- 5••--- t''v •• -~•rUµwv OU!tUOY£n£1 µovov. au.a ICO-.Uflltll .,...
7tQ11,AUI(; µe:ta 1owu,, w " ~ 'Ii. a tv µe:yo~1]116A.£1
emphasis on Athens' refusal to copy others in their constitution may well be a l J.LEYT\ fX£1' c5uµmv ol 'C£ liuvOµ£YOI ical ol Yf:Ol11po8uµouv:ux1, a uvat .
reference to Sparta's supposed indebtedness to the Cretans, and the absence of ICOfflCJX£lV,
suspicion and resentment in Athenian society proclaimed at 2.37 .2 might be a d be 'dere<Iworthy of the same privileges?
How is it right that the same people shou~ n~~ co~si nor equitable but that the holders of
slap at the rigidly conformist Spartan system.74 But the passage also clearly . It will be said, perhaps, that democracy is ne1 er ;1se trary first. that the word demo1,or
distinguishes the Athenian constitution from the usual notion of demokratia (i.e., property are also the best fitted to rule. I say, on t c con , 'f the best guardians of
toes pleionas oikein) by means of the onoma men ... metesti de contrast. Pericles people, includes the whole state, oligarchy only a _part;next. th~ d decide so well as
notes the way Athens combines equality for all citizens in private affairs with the property are the rich~and the best co:n:;:..~e :~~e•;~:::ly, sh:e equally in a de-
ability of anyone to attain honors based on his excellence serving the public. , the many; and th~t all the~ classe • their ;hare of the danger, and not content with the
While we need not go so far as Oliver and say Pericles in fact praises a mixed mocracy. But an ohgarchy gives thhemla7th fit· and this is what the powerful and young
largest part, takes and keeps the w o e o e pro 1 • • • 76
constitution and not a democracy, he certainly goes beyond the usual slogans for among you aspire to, but in • I~ city cannot possibly at~~ . , •
demokratia. 15 We find kata men tous nomous ... pasi to ison side by side with the
rewarding of personal excellence, which sounds rather aristocratic. What distin- Tiie goal of the speech as a wh~le is to re~l a per~eived olig~hi~r1~~~~;1;
guishes this from the typical aristocratic line of argument, however, is that there control of the government, and the rhetonc ,?f ll?,s passaie :: rul: the state.
nterin oli archic claims that the few best men s ou
is no assumption that birth or wealth convey this excellence. On the contrary,
Pericles takes pains to point out that anyone, whatever his background, can attain
cDou k f
emo ra ,a,
t!cause it shares political responsibilities and benefits amo~g !he
. and a more effective const1tut1on
honor serving the state, as shown with the phrases ... ~ h:aoto(i lv 't<p£u6oict- whole citizen population, is both a more JU~t . al shares in the
µ£i ("however each may distinguish himself') and oul>' au ICO'tO Jt£viav, lxcov than oligarchia. Athenagoras makes the po!nt !hat gra;t~ngd:~ not necessarily
ye n ciya8ov l>piioai -ritv no)..iv, ci~i<i>µa'to(i ci+av£i~ 1euciM.utaL("nor for state to all (isonomeisthai, isomoirein~, which is only allows the mde
reason of poverty is anyone hindered by the obscurity of their rank who is capable entail an irresponsible division of duues. He ar~ues ~at m:::~ultitude to
of doing some good for the city"). What in isolation might be considered a rather rich to control the finances, the wise to ~ad deh~ra:~:~a: is accomplished
oligarchic set of ideals has been incorporated into an undeniably democratic judge issues in the courts and asse~bfily.. Th~ firsthephighestoifices· the third by
. ~ • te p property quah 1cations ,or •
whole. The result is an unusual (and therefore more striking) tribute to a constitu- by h aving ,air 1y s e . f the Athenian variety or some
tion glorified for its originality. utilizing a popular assembly and a J::y:mfi:al judgments. The mechanism
other which enables the masses to e e t . take control of delibera-
73 For a recent discussion of this issue, sec Harris, "Pericles' Praise"
(u inn. 70) 162-7. . , ~surin~ the second ~eft vag,~e; :~::!:~:~:;:shing themselves d~ng
74 I omit the most controversial potential contrast with Spana: the reading of apo 1Mro,u in 0
t1ons simply by spe ng we , . lusive yet still discretely organized
ouic ano µtpo~ to 11>.eov t,; tci ico1vcii\ cia' ape'ril,; llpOtlµat<n (rendered above u "one meetings. Only with the democracy a me , , . . • , r• , ;. ,
receives public honor not in rotation but from personal excellence"). If apo 1M11>1Urefers to • :)"; ! " ; ' ~ . ' ·;- " ' 0 ..., ' .• '

•')'
class differences, the phraae contrasts the Athenian 1ys1em with the exclusive Spartan
society or narrow oligarchies; if we translate "in rotation" as done here, it distin1uishcs 76 Translati~~ after Craw!ey. . ., ,. man to arrive 11 die best group,judg~;nts is
Athena from those democracies which rely on the lot to fill even the most important office&. 77 The argument concerning _lhc•~tlity ~ ~ :and 1286826-38. In general.it would not
See especially the discussions in Gomme, ,"'lbucydides Notea" and HCT, de Romilly, explored more thoroughly 1nAristotle O 281 • f the real conditions of the
Grant, and Harris (note 70). .. be unrcuonablc to take this •~h u rellccti~~t':': :hat we know about this de-
1S Oliver, "Praise of Periclean Athens" (as inn. 70), For the oligarchic bent of protitna11 andita democracy at Syracu~ In 415: II docs not =~1: remarkable knowledge of _Sicilyand
derivative pro1i1Msis, which is contrasted with the democratic slogan pletholU lsonomioa ' mocracy, and Thu~yd1deselsewhere demons of information. See discussion of lhc
politikts at 3.82.8, cf. A. J. Graham and 0. Forsythe, "A New Slogan for Oligarchy in . Syracuse, suggesting ~at he had 1ood sources . "' : , • , . ,
Thucydides 111.82.8,"HSCP 88 (1984), 25-45. Syracusan democracy m chapter three, ..," "., , •· ·. •
------------------------- i
I

60 Chapler 2: D~mokratia
l 2. Demolcratia in Earlier Authors

The assage at 65.3 continues along similar lines, for there :hucydi~es
61
,.,,I
1

approach (kata mere kai xympanta) 18 can a state attain greatness. While Thucydi- reports th~t before Peisander and his cronies returned and effected the mstallat1on
des may well be drawing on specific circumstances at Syracuse in constructing/
of the Four Hundred, there were o~_n proposals that l ~stat~~~~~7c,cc~:d :.;:
reporting Athenagoras' argument, it is interesting to note that this speech seems
all except those on military exped1t1ons, and 2) franc se . s2
to provide a general defense of demokratia, in contrast with the praise based on thousand citizens most able to benefit the state physically or financially ·fu Tdhe
Athens' special democratic innovations in the Periclean funeral oration.7 9 . lanation and again represents no n a-
Thucydides' account of the revolution of the Four Hundred in Book 8 once abolition of public pay reqmres n~ e~p th - Id be another natural step
mental change in the form of const1tutton. Ra er, i 1_ w_ou ffairs to
again pits demokratia against o/igarchia, though this time the struggle is not to take in the moderation of a democracy. The restnctmg_of governn_ientaWhile it
conveyed in a direct speech by a prostates tou demou, but by indirect discourse
and the narrative itself. We will not attempt to reconstruct the rise and fall of the
Four Hundred and the Five Thousand here. What is important to note for our
the five thousand most able to serve the state, however, is more sen~us.
is possible to argue that substantial participation in th~ s~ate wouli :~!I
allowed to the thetic class, Bl _moreprobabt( the :s~~:to~:':1 hoplite class and
::;e
~;
purposes is Thucydides' use of democratic terminology, where once again we
enrolled as members of the Five Thousan roug y . . t . the assembly and
find that a variety of constitutional arrangements may share the title demolcratia. higher who could provide their own arms)84could part1c1paem
Before the actual oligarchy took power, Tbucydides indicates that a moderation
of the current democracy was proposed. Now, the Athenians had already shown . . . the 8bsence of public pay or even the presence of
themselves willing to consider constitutional change in the wake of the Sicilian '· tim~mata for mag1strac1cs, and where, 10 talc eh part in the running of government
disaster with the appointment of the probouloi (8.1.3-4); but at 8.53 .1, Peisander' s • low property qualifications, few paor actua 11y emu "moderation of lhe democracy" at
associates try to persuade the Athenians that it would be possible for them to gain · (1291 b-1292 b, cf. 131_8blOt).thThatl_~e ~~po~ublic pay i. implied by 8.65.3 (sec
Athens was probably to include e e 1mma ,on
the alliance of the King by restoring Alcibiades and by "employing a different
below). "Uo ,. • cnpaieooµtvo~ ow µe8Eutov ili'iv apay-
sort of democracy" (µ11"tOVau"tOV"tp6nov &rtµox:pawuµtvot~. Peisander lob- 82 oiitt µia8o~p11u\ov d11 a uc;'I 10\l'i . - liv aA\CHO'Wi'i u: xp,iµacn lCOl'COi'i
bies skeptics to join his plan by arguing that the state could not be saved ''unless µatldV KAEiocnvii aeviaKl<JXlAlO\~,Kai\,iou'tOi,; ~\ ft~ revolution in the Ath. Pol. at 29.5
we run our affairs more prudently and put our offices to a greater extent into the UJl1 cii+£Ulv olol tt rocn
v Anstol e saccoun o ffi d
0
hands of the few" (Ei µ111toli-reucroµtv -re aoo+povecttEpov x:al tc; oliyo,x; :c.;":~ucydides' "'.o~s he.:S, talking !b~~,:~~:•~:;si'!tf;Y.:;rfi::!i:l;c~:~.
turning over the consutuuon 10 lho~ best . t lluva"teltQ'tOUi1Ca\iol,; aaiµacnv Ka\
µollov "tac;apxac; 1tou1cro~v ... 53.3). These phrases suggest not an overthrow au. 11v aoA1ttiav i:1n1ptlpa\ aaaav Ae,,vaio>v 'tO ,; lhat these measures were not just
of the popular government, but rather a moderation of it. 80 It is irrelevant that . ' wii; xp,iµacnv A1J'tO\lPYElv). Aristotle, howev: .s:~ation ofThucydides' andAristotle's
Peisander' s measured proposals may have been euphemisms calculated to misre- , proposed but actually ratified (30.1). On the gene d m A drewes HCT (as inn. 69) vol. 5,
dred and Five Thousan , see n •
present more extreme intentions. If a more moderate democracy seemed to the accounts of 1he F our Hun . 2) 362 -415, esp. 362-7; and Ostwald,
Athenians a plausible option, then, in a sense, it was. The sentence at 53.3 implies 184-256. esp. 211-56; Rhodes, Commentary<: :O:~rstanding of Thuc. 65.3 and Ath. PoL
· Sovereignty(u inn. 23) 358-411. For the be . ,
that the most important magistracies would be restricted to the upper classes, and
perhaps the assembly would be called on less frequently, so that a greater ., • 29.5, see id., 376-7. ilie
r 5000 "H~toria 5(.1956), 1-23, ar'iues lhat
83 G. E. M. de Ste. Croix, "The Government O c:iuns in the actual government of the
percentage of the public business would be handled more "prudently" (sophron- thetes were not excluded from the assembly or the ths re after the fall of lhe Four
esteron) by the council and the magistrates. Such a government would, as ,, 5000, which controlled Alhen1an • a reairs
· ~or several
.
mon or mo
mocrac However his arguments are
Peisander's words indicate, remain as a whole a demokratia, for ultimate power t ' Hundred. This would certainly leave A the ns wt a:_,
th
it
er Sealey ~ Revolution of
would remain in the hands of the people. The need for fewer assemblies might ,. far from decisive. as Rhodes an~_Andrewes demon~? c. 11 i-32: 1.' P. Rhodes, "1be Five
, • 411," in &says in Greek Pol111c1 ~New York. I C ~ JHS 92 (1972), l 15-27; and An-
change the face of the government somewhat, but not enough to render it Thousand in the Alhenian Revolutions of 411 B. •• • ,.
oligarchic.8 1 . drewes HCT (as in n. 69) vol. 5, 323 -8· · 'h. 9000 if we can trust the
be f h rie could have been as muc as
•
84 The actual num r o op 1 1 . r .11 sets 5000 as •lhe ,rnuimum number
78 For lhe inierpretation of lhe phrase 1Cal~ opolmc; 1CalKata lliP11Kol ~up,rav,a tv testimony of Lysias (20.13). Thal Thucyd1des exp ,c, y nt distinct from and more restric-
ll11µ01Cpanalooµolpelv ("all these classes, severally and collectively, share equally in a • ': of participants seemingly renders the ~ gove=.: this than to • true oligarchy such
democracy"), cf. Classen/Steup, vol. 6, 93 and K. J. Dover in HCTvol. 4 (Oxford, 1970), live lhan a "hoplile constitution," !hough it~• '-::~rhens [Ithaca, 1982), 47-8 and 74-6,
30~. as that of the Thirty. (P. Krentz. Thi Thirty f w oligarchy and aupporters of•
79 Alhenagoras' apeech, by pointing to the rational division oflabor In hil democracy, would ·ct . 404 between proponent& o narro and .
, , discusses the con n1 10 . . Thousand.) Aristotle, on the other h ,m
seem to respond to criticism of lhe sonfound at Arist.PoL 1301128-34,which imputes to more moderate form of government hke the Five 1l.loti; ("not less lhan 5000") for the
democratic ideology an unjustifiable desire for "equal panicipation in all things." . Ath. Pol. 29.5 UICIthe words 111' IAGffOVii Kl!Vfll~\°!enaKL<JXillol,; toll, EiCfliiv 611A81V
80 On 8.53 see W. J. McCoy, "The 'Non-Speeches' of Pisander in Book 8," In P. A. Stadtcr.
ed. The Sp,:,:ch,:1
in Thucydid,:s(Chapel Hill, 1973), 78-89, esp. 83, and A. Andrewes, HCT
ratified proposals, and ■t;3.bot-12hca~::
,, ("the 5000 of the hoplon ), P
:::i: :n;istent with government by the hoplite
• , • , •.,,
(as inn. 69) vol. 5, 124--5. · cias~ • • ·
81 One is reminded of Aristotle's first lhree forms of democracy, wheretheremaybe moderate
===------------ -- ~ -----

I
62 Chapter 2: Demokraria

the boule, and hold offices; the status of the jury courts is not mentioned
N~verth~less, Thucydides does not suggest that such a government would be ~
I 3. Conclusion

Aristotle's discussion of demokratia in the Politics represents the most

organized treatment of the subject and is thus the most helpful in determining
63

ol,garch1a: only when the Four Hundred assume control does he use that name typical Greek democratic practices. To what extent are the fifth century texts
85
(8.70.2, 72.1). In fact, he reports that, according to these very oligarchs any surveyed consistent with his systematic analysis? Most of the institutional and
government shared _by5000or more people amounts to a democracy (antik,;.s an ideological features Aristotle lists as democratic appear in the works of the earlier
demon h~goumen~1,_8.92.11). Are they right? Surely it would not be oligarchy, authors, Aeschylus' highly generalized Suppliants aside. They include: freedom
but l~avmg a maJonty of erstwhile citizens without the franchise, and hence and equality as the guiding principles of the constitution (all), low property
denymg t~em_anr control over or share in the government, goes against Greek qualifications and selection by lot for at least some offices (Herodotus, Pseudo-
democrat1_cprmc1ples. (Even Aristotle's most moderate, "agricultural" forms of Xenophon, Thucydides), the accountability of m~gist~ates ~ia eu_thyna(!lerod-
demokrat1a ~eem to have entailed the exclusion of only a small minority of the otus), the primacy of the demos, usually as exercised m dehberatave bodies and
freeborn nahv~ men.) Perhaps the best label we could attach to this state, which the courts (all), and public pay for participation by the coi:nmons (Pse~d~
see~s to ~e neither democratic nor oligarchic, would be a mixed constitution or a Xenophon, Thucydtdes). One would not expect every Aristotehan charactenstJc
P?hty. This would seem to suit the descriptions of the actual government of the to show up in all of the authors, given the disparate nature ~f the ~xts conc~rne~.
Five Thousand which followed the Four Hundred: Thucydides asserts that it was Histories, dramas, and political pamphlets differ from philosophical treatises m
a n;ioderate ~len~ing oft~e ru)e of the many and the few, µ£tpi.a yap ii ie t~ toi>~ purposes and audience, and none of the fifth-century works surveyed take de-
o:i..tyo~ Kot ~ou; ~Uou; ~uv1Cpacn~ tytvuo (8.97.2). This description resem- mocracy as the primary focus of discussion. The fact that most of them do refer to
bles Anst~tle s poh!Y as articulated in the Politics (1290 al6-9; 1293 b3l-1294 the same democratic features as Aristotle, and repeatedly, suggests that the
a29; see d1scuss1on m part one above).86 philosopher's identifications have some validity for fifth century or even earlier.
Moreover these sources te-ndto corroborate the statements in Aristotle about
the variety or' forms that demokratia may take and its natur~ existence outside
3. CONCLUSION Athens. All the authors Iived in Athens for at least part of the•~ c~rs, and some
naturally enough focus on the Athenian political order as their subject, but none
The picture of demokratia which emerges from our analysis of all these sources is of them asserts or implies that Athens invented ~mocracy or w_asthe first to
a c;mplex ;~;: the de~ocratic polis is described from a variety of perspectives, implement a radical version of it. 87 Rather, they discuss d~mokrat1a~ a gen~ral
an many I erent attnbutes are given it, not all of them "constitutional" in the political phenomenon not tied to Athens. Aeschylus depicts a mythical_ Arg1ve
~~em sense_of the word. Issues of ideology and personal characteristics of democracy. Herodotus speaks of several democratic governments of the sixth a?d
c111zensget nu~~d !n with ~pe~ific government practices, blurring one's view of early fifth century in various parts of the Greek and non-Greek world, an~. w~1le
h~w demokrat1a1differed mst1tutionally from other regimes. Nevertheless, spe- his descriptions usually lack detail, they certainly provide room for differmg
cific features do emerge, and the most distinctive ones (i.e., those that never institutional arrangements. Both Pseudo-Xenophon and Euripides take Athe~s as
appear as ch3!"acteristics of other systems) aretheuse of public pay, ostracism, their subject, though they explore universal democ~atic fe_atures. Thucyd~de.s,
and the s~leclion o~ the highest officials by lot. Participation in key public bodies meanwhile, contrasts the unique Athenian system with ordinary demo~,a~ia m
must ~ot mvolve high property qualifications, for a broad range of the populace the Periclean funeral oration, and he describes the proposals for constitutional
~ust mvolve the~elves in the administration (panta&panton mt1techein).Some reform in 412/11 as if there were plenty of room for modification of the current,
llmem~ta may e~1st, of course, for even the most radical democracies structure
the duties and pnvileges of citizens according to one's ability to contribute to th
state: members of each economic stratum have a designated role to play. Ultimat~ 87 The close~t case come~ at Thuc. 2.37. I, where Pericles says "For we enj?y .• ~nstillltion
which does not emulate the laws of our neighbon; rather we ourselves, not 1m1tat1nganyone
ely: h~wever, the demos, comprehending the entirety or (in some cases) the great
else, are a model for othen" (XPwµe8a yap•oA.ndq o'li~'IA.OUO!J to~ tciv Kt~ voµo~
maJ~nty of the freeborn native males, must be kyrios in the running of the state _ IICll)d6u'Yllll &e µllUov autoi t'lvu:~-no\v i\ µ~µvouµevo~e~po~. As expl■1ned abo~e,
that 1sthe fundamental, defining element of demokratia. . . . .. . this section of the funeral oration aims to establish Athens uniqueness ~on_g democracies
and simultaneously jab at lhe alleged Spartan imitation of olher conslt~lto~s. It "."°uld
8S Aristotle also specifi~ that it lhe ·nile of lhe 'Four~undRd ~~
i~ breili the Alhenia strain the meaning of the sentence 100 far to take it as proclaiming the ou~~ht mventton of
democracy (Ath. Pol. 29.1). . ., : . n denwlcra1ia by Athens. Pseudo-Xcnophon, 1.2,makes ■ very close association be1wee~lhe
86 Not very much information aboul the IK:Wal post-Four Hundred. ,overn~t ex.i~ ( specific conditions at Athens and democracy: it is right, he says, that the people at arge
bibliography in note 83). For its usociatioa withthe pre-FourHundred proposals cni':
8.65.3), though_not lho "constitution for the future" presented in Ath. PoL 30.2~. ~
have 1uch a powerful role in the city because they man the all-important
doe• not, however, claim that democracy ,merged
ne:. The ~~
at Athens because of the eel, or
1
Rhodes, "The Five Thousand" (u in n. 83) 118. .. . emerged JirJt there.
64 Chapter 2: Demokratia

ra~ical order without rendering the state undemocratic. Consequently Aristotle's

rational lr~atment of demokratia as a multifold Greek phenomenon no~tied to any
o~e lo~ahty appears to be consistent with the most important fifth centu
discussio~s, and ~pens the way for a new appraisal of the first appearance ;;
democral!c states rn the Greek world. CHAPTER 3:
ARCHAIC DEMOKRATIAI

1. PREREQUISITE OF DEMOKRATIA:
GREEK EGALITARIANISM

Before the first democratic institutions and governments could appear in Greece,
a long process of social and intellectual development had to take place in order to
foster the necessary political environment. The rise of the independently gov-
erned city-state, the polis, was one of the fundamental steps. One may see in the
essential structure of the polis the seeds of popular government. 1 In a distinctly
Greek conception, respect for fellow "share-holders" in the city-state overlapped
with a common purpose of promoting the well-being of the community. Inherent
in this ideal was a respect for one's fellow citizen. Such respect provided the
necessary foundation for those notions of political equality which became as-
sociated with democracy in Greek literature of the fifth and fourth centuries. The
Greek movement towards the ideal of political equality, while hinted at in sources
here and there, of necessity remains only vaguely perceptible, though we know it
must have taken place. Political scientist Robert Dahl reasons that before a
democracy develops there must be a preexisting general belief by a large segment
of the citizen body that they are all competent to join in group decisions:
All members are sufficiently well qualified, taken all around, to participate in making the
collective decisions binding on the association that significantly affect their good or
interests. In any case, none are so definitely better qualified than the others that they should
be entrusted with making the collective and binding decisions. 2

Dahl calls this the "Strong Principle of Equality." Without such a belief a
community is unlikely to govern itself through a democratic process. How such
an attitude is acquired can be difficult to trace - our sources for the evolution of
attitudes within the archaic Greek polis usually testify to such matters only
tangentially. Importantly, history, as Dahl notes, seems to show that people do
not need the example of an outside democratic government to begin to think in
terms of political equality for themselves. 3 Our investigations in the first chapter
support this: the Greeks had no known precedent to guide them toward popular
government. As they did not "borrow" it, the notion must have evolved internal-
ly. Where, then, do we find the earliest signs of a nascent consciousness of citizen
equality? Indirect evidence from literary and archaeological sources for the

1 V. Ehrenberg, The GreekS1a1e,2nd. ed. (London, 1969), 43-4, 50-1.

2 R. Dahl, Democracy and its Critics (New Haven, 1989), 98.
3 Ibid., 30-3.
66 Chapter 3: Archaic Dt!mokratiai I. Prerequisite of Demokratia:Greek Egalitarianism 67

archaic period of Greek history (roughly 750-480 B.C.) does exist for such a Morris' far-reaching conclusions are based on a number of controversial
generally evolving consciousness, though attempting to tie this process to an interpretations, leaving his methodology and thesis vulnerable to criticism on
exact place or time is fruitless. Speculating on the ultimate origin of Greek ideas more than one Jevel.6 One can pick at his classification of literary sources by
of equality is beyond the scope of this study in any case. We shall instead briefly pointing out contradictory statements within supposed purveyors of a "middling"
survey the available evidence for the first signs of their practice as the polis ideology. For example, the violent call of Theognidea 847-50 to kick and stab the

I
developed, so that we may shed some light on the rise of demokratia. empty-headed demos undermines the case for an ideology of political equality in
The boldest and most original attempt in recent years to trace the emergence the text, counterbalancing the vague testimony of the kind found at 219-20 to
of egalitarian principles in Greece has come from archaeologist and historian Ian "walk the middle path." (Morris does acknowledge that Theognis may be a
7
Morris. 4 Combining archaeological and documentary evidence, he sees the Pan- generic figure, with poets from various periods having contributed to the text).
hellenic appearance of the fundamental elements of Dahl's Strong Principle of More fundamental, however, is Morris' failure to define adequately what he
Equality as early as the eighth century B.C. Morris argues that while this belief means by "metrioi" or "middling." Hesiod's scolding of "gift-devouring basi-
was not fully in place in Greece until c. 525-490 when considerable evidence leis" from the perspective of the hard-working farmer - truly valuable testimony
attests to successful democratic movements in a number of cities, one can trace on social conditions and attitudes among the non-elites, especially in such an
the establishment of crucial elements much earlier in the archaic period. Study of early author - ought not be mixed in with general statements of admiration for the
archaic and classical burial practices reveals that starting in the mid-eighth "middle course" or distaste for luxury. Moreover, the political importance of
century there is a marked and continuing decline in the wealth of grave goods in these sentiments is far from clear: exalting moderation in personal behavior need
cemeteries all across Greece. Undifferentiated "citizen" plots, with few social not have anything to do with political ideology. In any case, such statements fall
distinctions, begin to appear at about the same time. Walled religious sanctuaries short of establishing the "fundamental elements" of Dahl's Strong Principle of
and substantial temples also make their appearance. In some areas where grave Equality, which requires a broad-based consciousness of political equality and
goods drop off, an increase in sanctuary dedications is perceptible. Morris sees in empowerment. /I ·
these trends in the archaeological record signs of the rise of a polis ideology, and .,, Though perhaps overly ambitious in his interpretation, Morris is not wron~ to
the existence of class conflict in which dramatic social change comes from see in the literature and archaeology of early archaic Greece flashes of a growing
below. 5 He combines this evidence with an interpretation of archaic poetry which egalitarian sensibility. Evidence clearly exists, if not for the concept of full
identifies two traditions, one elitist and the other "middling." While the poets citizen equality, then at least for the growth of inclusiveness in, and centrality of,
thems~lves may be members of the upper classes or performing for them, many the polis, as well as a wavering in the presumption of aristocratic preemin_ence.
consciously adopt the attitudes of the middling citizens or "metrioi" (Morris' Homer's epics, which Morris associates with an elitist ideology, bctr~y ~n~stak-
terms). Hesiod, Solon, Theognis, Archilochus, Tyrtaeus, Callinus, Phocylides able signs of the early polis, including the concomitant seeds ~f eg~.btanan1sm. _It
and others demonstrate a preference for the middle in everything. Greed and is a matter of controversy just what society (if any) the Homenc epics can be said
luxury are often decried, farmers of moderate means upheld. The softness of the to reflect. but I side with those who see a general social background of ~-e late
Eastern lifestyle is ridiculed. These sentiments, though not consistently voiced. ninth or early eighth centuries, recognizing of course that ~~ oral compos1~on of
stand in clear opposition to the uniformly elitist perspectives offered by the likes the works has allowed for the mixing of elements and cond1uons from a variety of
of Homer, Sappho, Alcaeus, or Mimnermus, whom Morris alleges to be "re- periods from Mycenaean times to the composer's own day (~hemid-to-late eighth
acting" to the rise of the ideal of the "metrioi." Combining such literary expres- century).' The communities labcled polis or astu in the epics ~ave many ~f the
sions of "middling" ideology with his archaeological evidence, Morris envisions physical and social characteristics of the fully developed pohs o_f~ater tim~s,
the Greek movement towards political equality and democracy u a Panhellenic enough for one scholar to state that Homer's polis "is indeed a pohs in the s_tnct
' • ' " ' l .· • iI ~• ,

process which matures much earlier and much more broadly than scholars hereto-
fore have recognized. ' ' .
6 • See, for example, reviews of Burial by R. Bradley in Antiquity 62 (1988), 410-12; D.
"' Vivien in AC 58 (1989), 44s-6; C. Huelgrove in AJ 146 (1989), 603-4; S. C. Humphreys
in Helio.s17 (1990), 263-8: and A. M. Berlin in CW84 (1991), 311-2. ·' ·. ..
7 On historical interpretation ofTheognis, R. P. Legon, Megara (Ithaca,1~8~), 106-11; H.
4 I. Morris, Burial and Ancie111Society (Cambridge, 1987). and "The StronJ Principle of .'' Frlnkel, Early Gruk Poetry and Philo.tophy, tnns. M. Hadas and J. Wilhs (New York,
Equa!ity and the Archaic Origins of Greek Democracy," forthcoming in J. Ober and c. r 1·' 1973),401-25: T. J. Figueira and 0. Nagy, eds. Theogni.sof Mega_ra (Baltimore~ ~985).
Hcdnck, eds. Dt1mokra1ia: A Historical and TheoreticalConwrsatiorton Ancient Greelc g r, K. A. Raaflaub, "Homer to Solon: The Rise of the Polis, The Wnttea Sources, 1n M. H.
Democracyand It!! ContemporarySigni/iCtJlfce (Princeton, 1996). · · · ' : • · Hansen, ed. Th• Ancient Greek City-State(Capenhagen, 1993), 41-105, esp. 44--4i.Cf. E.
5 Burial (as in n. 4) 173-210, NStrong Principle" (u in n. 4). Cf. A. Snodgrass,Art'haic Stein-HOlkeskamp, Adeld:ultur und Polisge1ellsclia/t(Stuttgart, 1989), chapt~ two; H.
Greece, (London, 1980), 52--63,99-100. · , Van Wees. Statiu Warrior, (Amsterdam, 1992), 54--8. · ' ·· ·.· ... ·
 - J. Prerequisite of Demokratia:Greek Egalitarianism 69
68 Chapter 3: Archaic Demokrariai

sense of the term: certainly an early forerunner of the classical polis, but much substantial and significant role of ordinary men in warfare in the eighth c~ntury or
more than an embryo." 9 Two aspects in particular draw our attention: the assem- earlier, combined with their acknowledged place in the political a~~mbhes ofth~
bly and the mode of warfare. The poems indicate that all adult male members of nascent polis, demonstrates an egalitarian element in Greek poht1cal commum-
the community, regardless of birth or wealth, were invited to attend the assembly ties from their very beginnings. . •s
and possibly speak their minds, though typically the ordinary folk only listened to In the literature after Homer, signs of the persistence and growth ~f thi
the princes (basileis). 10 Both the Iliad and the Odyssey depict the assembly as an egalitarianism are evident, as Morris and others have note~, thoug~ ~~ testu?o~y
is usually indirect. The oft-cited passages about gift-devounn~ basile~s10 ~es
1
°'.1

I
integral part of governance, the Odyssey especially so in tenns of polis procedure. s
There can be no confusing this sort of advisory assembly with the ruling bodies of Works and Days (11.38-9, 263-4, cf. 219-21 )13 certain~y testify to d1~sattsfactton
later Greek democracies, for the Homeric elite have far too much control over the with aspects of the aristocratic order by the end of the eighth century, and text~ ~f
summoning, dismissal, agenda, and final decision of the body. Nevertheless, the the seventh and early sixth centuries unquestionably show flashes of a new c1".1c
widespread existence of such an inclusive, participatory political institution this spirit. depicting cooperation among all citizens for the common good of the pohs,
early is noteworthy. • which contrasts sharply with the themes of heroic leaders and noble fame_under-
Furthennore, scholars in recent years have reevaluated Homer's presentation" lying the Homenc• epics. · 14 F
or examp 1e, TYrtaeus of Sparta and. Calhnus of .
of warfare. Rejecting the old interpretation of heroic dueling and superfluous Ephesus exalt courage in battle as something which benefits th~ entire commun:-
common soldiers, analysts now stress the clear testimony for large-scale combat. ty not just one's own self or family.15 In their poetry, consciousnes~ of one ~
0
which at times appears not entirely dissimilar from classical hoplite warfare. 11 H. ci~ic duty supplants the Homeric fixation on personal honor. Archiloch~~-
Van Wees offers the most persuasive reconstruction which, while denying the Paros subverts romanticized views of warfare as he exalts the _common so ter,
existence of a hoplite phalanx in Homer, emphasizes the important use of sizable "short, bow-legged, standing firmly, full of heart."16 Solo_nis the mos_t~lf-
bands of soldiers grouped around their chiefs. The followers range across the consciously political of them all. For him, the proper go~emmg of ~e. pohs is of
battlefield with their champions and play a crucial role in the fighting. (The concern to everyone. His poetry champions social juSttc~ for ~l ,c,~zens, pro-
7
prowess of chiefs in battle presumably will have been exaggerated by the de- tecting the interests and honor of both the demos and th~ nch. ·· . .
mands of the epic medium.) Van Wees goes less far than others in terms of , • •Thi's post-Homeric literary testimony is consonant with the most ongmal _and
· ad h'ft · b 'al practices
striking part of Morris' argument - the w1despre s 1 . in U? ..
suggesting "massed combat," but his depiction is significant in that it involves
the effective, large-scale participation of ordinary men in battle. This tends to starting c 750 _ which offers a powerful indication of changmg social ~ondittons
undermine the old supposition that a seventh-century "hoplite revolution" en- all acros; Greece. IS Interestingly enough, the most signific~t exce~t10! t_o_ the
abled for the first time the decisive participation of masses in combat. which then general pattern of dramatically declining grave goods and mcre~mg . citize~
led 10 new demands for political power. Homer would indeed seem to indicate · " · ~ d ·n Attt'ca Such funerary trends do not occur 10 Attica until
cemetenes 1s ,oun 1 · I t d
that such participation had been important for some time. 12 In any case, the the very end of the sixth century, much later than other areas of G~ece ... ns e~f •
"elite" burial practices return c. 700. Morris would interpret this as a se -
. . '
9 Raanaub, "Homer to Solon" (as in n. 8) 59. . J ,·

10 Iliad 2.84-393 and 9.9-79, Odyssey 2.1-258 and 8.4-45. The disrespectful speech .and. · f · · ·red q esiion~ about the
subsequent beating of Thenites in book 2 of the Iliad demonstrates that: I) ordinary men notion of a "hoplite revolution" has, along with other actors, msp1 G ~ kwell "Early
could address the assembly (and this was not the lint time Thenites had spoken out - II.' Aristotelian association of early tyrannies with popular movements: • . •~ . •
220-1); yet 2) challenging one'1 "beuen" wu frowned upon and could be a risky enter-
prise. Cf. W. Donlan, T~ Aristocratic Ideal Ill Ancient Greece (Lawrence, 1980), 20-2;
Greek Tyranny and the People" CQ (1995), 73-86.
13 On the meaning and derogatory force of dorophagos see · ·
t
M West Huiod
• . ... ,.,: ,
'worts
and
Van Wees, Statu.r Warriors, 31-4; Raaflaub, "Homer to Solon" (as inn. 8) 54-5.
11 J. Latacz, Kampfparllnese, Kampfdarstellung, ,.nd Kampfwirkliclikeit in tier llia.r, ~; 14 ~i:1~~~'7.•s~:i:1i1!~~~borated in Donlan,Arist~ratic Ideal (as in II. 10) cbaP,ters 1-2.
Kallinos und TyrtaiN (Munich, 1977); W. K. Pritchett, The Gred Stale al War, Vol. 4 . ,, " Cf. Stcin-H6lkeskamp, Adelskultur (u inn. 8) 57-73 and 123-33. . . 12 1~20 27-34·
(Berkeley, 1985); H. Van Wccs, "Leadcra of Men?" CQ 36 (1986), 285-303; id., •Kings 15 M. L. West, Iambi et Elegl Gruel vol. 22 (';hford, •~ 2), Tyrtaeus,. . Mum: , Ear,;
and Combat," CQ 38 (1988), 1-24; and now id., "The Homeric Way of War. The Iliad and : ··•. Callinus, t.6-8, 14-21. er.Donlan,Aristocrat1cIdeal (as•~ n. 10) 4M, o. . . Y \
the Hoplite Phalanx," G&R 41 (1994), 1-18 and 131-5'. Greece, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 1993), l 3 J-6. Aris~~ic Ideal (u inn. 10) 44-9.
16 West, fr. 114.3-4, with frs, 5, 15, IOI, 133· ~
1
12 Considerable evolution in military organization remained, of coune, before the achi~ an: 15) l86-9; Raaflaub, "Homer to
ment of the hoplite phalanx, but it does sccm now that it wu more evolutionary lhq
revolutionary. Raaflaub, "Homer to Solon" (u in a. 8) 53-4; A. M. Snoclsrus, '7be
17 West, frs. 4 and 5; cf. Murray, Early 0 r:;ct •~·
~
Solon" (u in II, 8) 70-3; R. W. Wallace, o ona~ moc
racy" forthcoming in L Morris
j n t!I . ,, .
'Hoplite Reform' Revisited," DHA 19 (1993), 47~1; cf. K. A. RuHaub, "Warrior Bands, andK. A. Raaflaub, eds. Democracy 5 Que.mon.rand C":'! ~ 8 .
z oo: ~er See note 6
Citizen-Soldien, and the Rise of the Early Greek Polia," forthcomina in P. J. Rhodes,ed. I 8 Morris' interpretations of the burial data are not beyond cnuc11m, howe • . ..
Tht Development of the Polis in Archaic Greece (London, 1996). The underminina of the above. · ' ·, · · · '' " ··'' ·
 70 Chapter 3: Archaic D-,molcratiai
I. Prerequisite of Demokratia:Greek Egalitarianism 71

conscious attempt lo restore the Jost order of the D k "19 .

~ot be so, but in any case it would seem that Athens ::gg~j~h. Tdh1smay or may · A more fruitful area to explore is the archaic colonization movement, begin-
in the sort of social al• h. m most of Greece ning roughly in the middle of the eighth century. Evidence indicates that for the
ea) record. As Mo~;~ot~sy wth1's1ch lenlddsit_selfto preservation in the archaeologi- classical period and probably the archaic as well colonists went out on "fair and
. , wou suit Solon's poet' al f
rife with inequality and its de . . IC portray o an Attica equal terms." While the founders, oikists. may have often come from distin-
wealthy land owne~. Soon afte~c1f~10~ of~ populace practically enslaved by guished families, colonists usually shared out the territory on an equal basis.23
with the rest of Greece toward the en~ma;1 n~rary trends came more into line Recent archaeological discoveries seems to confirm the egalitarian nature of
taking root with the reforms of Cleisthe:esthe sixth century, we find democracy colonial expeditions. J. C. Carter, drawing on the excavations in and around
Where else might we look for si n f · . · Metapontum (founded second half of the seventh century 24), concludes that an
inside or outside of Attica? Some hag so. a n_ascentPanhellemc egalitarianism, egalitarian rural society, not a landed aristocracy, existed from the earliest period
law, beginning toward th~ end of th:e ;;intained that th~ appearance of written in that community. 25 Analysis of the land distribution in the clwra shows the lack
popular government Ancie enth century, s1gnaled a move toward of gross, "aristocratic" social inequalities, as does a painstaking study of burial
justice and sometime~ democ~~ a~:~~ ~ften associ~te -:Vrit~enlaw with social practices in the region. The rare discovery of an ekklesiasterion (assembly-
- one imagines that the introd!ction . f Th~ general1zation is ~asonable enough grounds) dating to the mid-sixth century with a capacity of about 8000 suggests
community• and defining or limitin theo wntten laws: accessible to the whole that citizen equality may have extended into the political realm. Carter concludes
an important step towards equal . J..
al powers of m_a~1strates,would prove to be
Jy, perhaps, democracy Nevenlu l 1c1 treatment, c111zenequality, and ultimate-
that Metapontine society was one of "small- or medium-sized farms and citizen
farmers - as close, perhaps, to the Jeffersonian ideal as the ancient world may
evidence. The scanty bits of a:h:~s, te. p~ess is difficult to illustrate with have come." 26 Excavations in other western colonies do nothing to overturn
earliest written laws w dic egislation we possess suggest that •L- notions of basic equality of colonists. At Megara Hyblaea and other sites we find
ere compose ad hoe · . uie
crises which traditional (unwritten) proced' m res7;se to specific problems or a planned equilibrium between countryside and city, with an organization of lots,
likely formed a crucial step in th de I ures cou not ~solve. As such they urban and rural, and sanctuaries which acted to blur the social distinctions
the cause of civic egalitarianis; ;; opme~t o~ the pol~s, ~d thus indirectly betweencitizens. 27
progression towards an sort of de'my ~re '.s. ht~e to indicate a pattern of '"' The potential ramifications of colonization for the fostering of a community
archaic sculpture and iainted pott ocrahc politics. I It is also possible to see in of equal citizens with an equal share in the polis are obvious. Aside from
appeal, which could reflect simi~z : n~w burst of .i~dividualism and popular influencing political institutions in the colonies themselves, the egalitarian aspects
stylistic innovations made, the low
ity of the art (in terms of viewing p::~
. oc1al and poht1c~I trends. The striking
::a:us of th; ar:t•sts,~e easy accessibil-
a u_esor uymg pamted pottery), and
of the colonization movement may also have contributed to the undermining of
the aristocratic regimes of the Greek motherland. 28 This is not to say colonies
,. I '
the appeal to popular tastes in much
progressiveness across archaic
egalitarian trends in literary exp
ore!~~ ~:!ect matter are s~gg~stive of social
. . h is would dovetail nicely with the 23 ' A. J. Graham, Colony and Mothtr City in Ancitnl Gretcil (Chicago, 1983). 58-9; id., "The
assertions of newt " o ular" r:;~s1~n.t at .w~ ~ave already identified, though .. ,; Colonial Expansion of Greece,"in CAH23.3 (Cambridge, 1982). 83-162. esp. 151-2; also
certain degree of s~bj:c~vity, or md1v1duahst1c artwork inevitably involves a D, Asheri, Du1ribNzioni di terre ntll'anlica Grtcia. Memoria dell'accadtmia dell, sci-,nze
di Torino, ser. 4a, #10 (1966), 13-16.
24 A. J. Graham, "The Western Greeks," in CAH2(as inn. 23) 3.3, 174-5." ''
19 "Strong Principle" (as inn. 4). . 25 J.C. Carter, "Metapontum-Land, Weallh. and Populalion," in J.-P. Descoeudres,ed. Gre,k
20 E.g.,Arislotle, PoLl210 b28; 1286 a9-17· 1287bS-8· A1h.p I. 124 E S . . ColonistJ and Na1ivt PopN/atwn.r(Oxford, 1990), 40S-41.
R: Thomas, "Literacy in archaic and classic,alGreece": A K.oB . ; ur. "PPL429-37. 26 1 Ibid., 441. On the tkklniasterlon aee also D. Mertens, "Some Principle Features of West
Lilt racy and Pow,r i11tu Anci-,111World (Cambrid • in . owman and 0. Woolf, eds. Greek Colonial Architecture," in Greek Colonilll Dnd Native PopNlation.r,373-83, esp.
21 !'··J..
Hlilkeskamp, ~wriuen Law in An:haic Greec '!• 1994), 33-50, esp. 35. . . " "' i 380; cf. M. H. Hansenand T. Fischer-Hansen, "Monume11tal Political Architecture in
Arb1tralors, Lawgivers and lhe 'Codifi . e. PCl'S 38 (1992), 87-117; also no- Archaic and Oassical Greek Poltu. Evidence andHistorical Significance,".in D. White-
1c11ioaof Law' 10 · Arcila' Oreece -. :i head, ed. From Political ArchiltclNrt to Sttphanus Byumtius. So,,rcr, for the Ancitnt ffl
Perspectives," Mttii 7 (1992 [1995 )) !ll-8I : Problems~
Codification of Law in Archaic S~ieti ,;t· IC
Eder, "The Political Sis~irtcance of the ·,.•r Grtd: Poli.r(Stuttgart, 1994), 23-90, esp. 6S-7, 75. ", ,, "" ,.. ,. · .. ,i. , ,. ..

argues that the codification of law ac~:::r•ct

predominance of the elite classes in earl ~WV
Orthrs:t
Archaic Romt: Ntw Ptrsptetivt1 011tM es, .n K. A. Ruflaub, ed. Social COtljlict, ;,.
of (Berkeley,_1986), 262-30().
to secure the 10C1aland politie&J
27 0. Vallel, "La ciu! et son territoire dans lea colonies pecques d'occidenl," in La CitU>, U
, , IND Ttrritorio, Atti dtl Stttimo Conve1no di Snull INl/a Magna Grteia (Naples, 1968), 67-
142, and Mlga,a Hyblaea, GNidl de, F0Nillt1 (Rome, 1983), oap. 147. 149, 171. , ,, ,;·
(Berkeley, 1986), 121-41 noiei the P:..hell . and Rome. M. Gaprin, Early Grttt La_, 28 Murray, Early Gn,c, (as In a. 15) 123; H.-D. Zimmermann, "Frilhe Ansit1.eder Demokra-
public legal procedures, 19-SO, 51_2. enic na~re of wriltcn laws and prc-litefllte tie In den 9riechischen Polei1," Klio 57 (1975). 293-4; but cf. E. Lepore. "Problemi
22 Snodgrass, Archaic Greect (as in n. 5) 176-9 5. '' dell'organizzazione della chora coloniale," in Probltlfltl u la urn e11Grk, ancitnnt
./ (Paris, 1973), 15--47,esp. 2.5-6. · ,
 2. Achaea111d
her Colonies
73
72 Chapter3: ArchaicDemokratiai

One might expect, then, to find testimonia for early demokratiai - the
usually developed democratic governments. Generally speaking, literary evi- ultimate constitutional expression of equality - outside Athens and all around the
dence for the western colonies indicates that traditional, oligarchic forms of Greek-speaking world, perhaps in the later archaic period. And this is prec~sely
government do~nate~ early ?n, followed in some cities by tyrannies.29 In any what one does find. The remainder of this chapter concentrates on such test1mo-
case, ~rc~aeolo~1cal e~1dence i_snot well-suited to specifying the form of political nia. examining potential democracies from the sixth and the early fifth cen~es,
constitullon_ enJoye~ _m any given state; nevertheless, it can ponray for us the the earliest likely instances. Strong arguments can be made for the actual function-
~eneral soc1_alconduio~s that may have obtained in a territory over a period of ing of demokratiai in several of these cases: hardly surprising in o~e sense, yet
time. Colonial excavations and our knowledge of colonial practices strengthens
contrary to the commonly voiced opinions that democracy began with Athens or
the case ~or a broad-based movement towards egalitarianism beginning early in
the archaic age of Greece. Once again, we find that the evidence does not attest to existed only in the classical period.
a leading Athenian role. On the contrary: Athens did not send out any colonies in
the archaic period_until an expedition to Sigeum c. 600, where the Mytilencans 2. ACHAEA AND HER COLONIES
already had a claim, and made few other attempts until the end of the sixth
century. 30 The evidence for archaic democracy in Achaea comes in two parts. First, there
are direct (if late)3l references to a very early adoption of demokratiain the state
The ideal of citizen equality is a prerequisite for the formation of democratic after the overthrow of a certain King Ogygus. Second, we have reports of a
government. That this ideal began to develop all across the Greek world well in
revolution (perhaps as early as the late sixth century) against ~agorean autho~-
advance of the clas~ical period is indicated in different ways by a variety of
ity in the Achaean colonies of southern Italy. These colomes turned to their
source~. Athen_s,which later boasted the most illustrious democracy in antiquity. mother city in order to copy its democratic institutions. The later_source~ tell us
~eems if an~thm~ to have lagged behind other areas in terms of early egalitarian- the most about the archaic constitution of the Acbaeans and their colorues; for
ism. No region, m fact, can be identified as playing a leading role: the trends we
this reason, and because of the close constitutional relationship d~monstrated
~av~ not~~ in literature, burial_practice, colonization, written law, and art seem between the states concerned, we will discuss Achaea and her c?lonies togeth~r.
na!10~al rat~er than local. It is true that scholars have occasionally singled out · • • Infonnation about archaic Achaea is hard to come by. Aft_erits earl~ coloruz-
ing activity, it seems not to have involved itself v~~ mu~h m the affai_rsof the
Ion~~ m the eighth to seventh centuries as showing the most rapid cultural and
p~ht1cal advancement in the Greek world. 31 Yet it would be hard to demonstrate
rest of Greece for some time, in that it did not participate 10 the Ol~mp1c games
this in terms of egalitarianism. The archaeological and literary evidence surveyed
and remained neutral during the Persian wars. 34 Ho':"ever, Polybius makes .a
thus far doe~ not s~m. to favor Ionia ~ver the rest of Greece, despite the region• 8
early preemtnence m hterature and philosophy. Indeed, claims for Ionia's general striking statement in his brief discussion of Achaean history ~t _2.41:~=
adva~ce~ent ha~e. been hotly disputed, particularly in terms of art, trade, and ti11o10~v s:~tciwouvext~ s:a\ ~atci wye~ l~ 'eoyliyov!JamMullivie~ l,ll!ta taiita
colomzation: Pohtically there seems little to favor a view of Ionian progressive- Bwapecn,\aavieli toili toii 11poeip11112vo11110ialvtx\ ~ l'TIvoµlµ~ ciUci 6£Cffl0tt.lC~
ne_ss,exceptmg of course the famous early sixth-century law found on Chios
a~v 6pxew, l,ll!UentlO'OV Elli &11).IOicpatlav fllV1t0Ait£iav.(6) Aoixov1'6"-ro~ t~i\~
XP6W'l>I; 11£XPl
ti\ii. AAE~avllpo11s:a\ Wtno11 &\JVGcndcu; 6Uott µiv 4Umc;EXOJPEl ta
(discussed below~.32 Egalitarianism was not the special discovery of any one 1tpayµa-r'av-roliis:atci~ upima~ w Y1!llTIVs:oivov1t0UU\ljl0,s:a8aup elp,\s:a-
Greek state or region. 1,ll!V,tv &ru,Los:patlqauvtxttivtuipcivio. · · · · ·
10
The Achaeans,having been ruled continuouslyby a dynastyof kings ~m ITisamenus]
Ogygus,afterwardsbecamedissatisfiedwith the unlawful 111ddespoUcrul~ of the so~ of
29 Graham, "Western Greeks," CAff2(a&in 11.23) 3.3, 190-1. See the caseadescribedbelow OSYgus and changed their constitutionIO a democracy.For the rest of the ti~e up unul the
for democraticexceptionsto this pattern. . . reign of Alexander and Philip their public affairs underWenttrials of one kind or ■:nother,
30 Graham, "ColonialExpansion"CAH2(as in 11.23) 3.3, 121-2. On Athens'legendaryrole as but they always tried IO keep the commongovernmentin a democ~y, ~ I have ,~d.
metropolisof the Ioni111cities, see Graham, Moiher City (u in n. 23) 11}..ll with n. 2.
31 K.1. Beloch, Griechische Geschichtt, 1 vol. l. 1 (Strasbourl, 1912), 141, 216, 359-60; H. R_ This sia'te~;nt warr~ts ~areful e~ami~~ti~n, as it is-~~a'mbiguoustestimony ~y a
Hall, The Ancient History of the Near Etut (London, 1913), 52~; F. E. Adcock. "The· reputable (though late) historian for democracy in G~ at a very early pe~od.
G!'°wthof the ?reek City-State,"in CAH vol. 4 (New York, 1925), 687-701, esp. 690--1; How early is unclear, as the chro~ology is difficult to pm down. In fact. very little
Ztmmennann! A~slllze"(as inn. 28) 293-6; W. Elliger, Ephesiu (Stuttgart, 1985), 21.
32 R. M. ~ook, loni~ and ~e in the Eiahth and SeventhCenturies B.C." JHS 65 (1946).
6~-98: S. Mazz.annoFro Onente • Occidente (Florence, 1947). 233-42; D. Hegyi, "The • t \ • ., .~' ' •

Historical Backsround for the Ionian Revolt,"MIii. 14 (1966). 2BS-302, esp. 294-5; C.J.
Emlyn-1ones.The lonians anJ Hellenism (London, 1980); Snodgrass,Archaic Greece (as · ~ ~~~~:~on, "A Topographicaland HistoricalStudy of Achaea."A~~A49 (1954), 72-
inn. 5) 161-3. 92. .
 74
-
Chapter 3: Archaic lknwkrotiai
2. Achaea and her Colonies 75
e~idence for the early history of Ach .
this passage and one from S aea exists at all. Ogygus is unknow .
1
35
events; Polybius (2.41.4), ;;:~ ;h; :?r~s;Jy foll_owsPolybius' n~a~:: :~ Outright dismissals of Polybius' account such as Koemer's can hardly be
~s a _sonof Orestes in the time of the 1· . daryanausamas (2.18.6) make Tisamen- considered interpretations of his meaning. The common theme in most of the
eta1led study of archaic Achaea disc egen return of the Heraclids. Kocmer's above opinions appears to be a privileging of a priori assumptions - that demo-
colonial days, perhaps the eighth cen~ssc~ these events in the context of the re- kratia in archaic Achaca would be "too early" - over the actual evidence at hand.
~trabo offer very little in the way f ryfi lho_ughthe accounts in Polybius ~d Scholars make a more reasoned objection to Polybius' narrative when they note
l~to the archaic period exce I the o con i~at1on: nothing prevents a date la that Hellenistic use of the term demokratia differed from that of the classical
period, and that Polybius' words may reflect these different uscs. 41 However,
T1sam_enusended fairly earl~. a ra~~;ud:~:10n ~t- the reign of the descendants:~
q~~m is the revolt against the Pythagore ~us is. The only firm terminus ant~ · elsewhere in his history Polybius demonstrates a clear understanding of the
w ich the Achaean democracy was "bo ans ID~?uthern I~aly(discussed below) in distinctions between the practices of democracy and other forms of government,
The question arises can we tak rrowed for use ID the colonies as for example in book six. 42 There is no particular reason to suspect his compre-
demokratia at face val~e? Th . e Polybius' testimony for an early. A h hension of the subject. The most problematic clement in his account, in fact, is
st · ere 1s a tend c aean not the use of the term demokratia, but rather the lack of an associated chronolo-
hatement because it would prove the . ency among scholars to dismiss his
t an the communis opinio tolerates c~tence of democratic government earlier gy. To be sure, given that no other serious claim exists for a Greek democracy
Toep~fer: who accepts the testimo~ e most ~sting approach comes fro earlier than the end of the seventh century, it would be risky to accept at face
~~~st~tution "von der absoluten Dcm:kr:~ the ancients'. simply noting that thr: value an assertion of its presence a century or more before this. If we were to
fi is is a reasonable reservation and . e spll.tererZe1ten weit entfemt war "37 suppose, on the other hand, that monarchy of some kind lasted in Achaea as far as
orm of democracy Aristotle c • "d is perfectly consistent with the mod .. the turn of the sixth century, the appearance of a moderately democratic govern-
8) w lb 0051 ers the be t d erate ment after the overthrow of the sons of Ogygus becomes more believable. As
. a. a~k, although acknowled in . s ~ calls archaiotate (1318 b7-
any po/ue,a might change into g g Arist~tle s argument (Pol. 1316 a) th such a scenario is quite possible, it is perilous to reject Polybius' statements out
could evolve from a "p . . . any other, still doubts an Achaean de at . of hand. /'
, ,. '
nm1tive monarch .. "th mocracy · ·· Little other evidence exists for the early constitutional history of Achaea, and
g?vernmcnt. 38 Larsen defends Pol b. • y w1 . out an intervening aristocrati
history and Credits his account wh/ -:us authonty and lcnowledgc of Achae c what we have is at least consistent with Polybius and a late monarchy. According
~: an Achaean federal system, yet :~;;7;s to the sui:i>risinglyearly cxisten: to Pausanias (7.7.1) the Achaeans never suffered from tyrants in their history,
is need not mean that they adopted . o ~rates the idea of democracy: .. bespeaking constitutional stability down through a time when the rest of Greece
would have been regarded as democr;~d1ately a form of government Wbi~h faced frequent threats to their governmental order. There is also a fragment of
Aristotle's Constitution of the Pelleneans43 which refers to scrutinizing officials
Koe?1er, who rejects not only the d;
loo favors some sort of aristocrati . c tn Athens at the lime of Pericles." H
mtrl~de. 39 The most sceptical of all i:
prev'.ous n:1onarchyover a united sta:o rat1a and the federal state, but alsothe
. called mastrol, who were charged with accounting for ta koina tou demou ("the
public money" or "the affairs of the people"). The fragment is undated. It recalls
pole is. He IDterprcts Polybius lo hav and the status of the Achaean towns the mastraai of Elis, mentioned on a plaque initially dated to c. 580, now
took over from the king and c meantthat a vaguely republican aristoc as downdated by Jeffery on the basis of letterforms to c. 475-50. However early one
~reecc that wealthy landow argues f~om cir~umstances elsewhere in ™'.Y dates the Elcan plaque (sixth- or early fifth-century), such an office would suit a
mtluence. 40 ners exercised their power in localized hearchaic :democratic constitution, though it hardly proves the existence of ~n.e.:4".
sp rcs of
•U. See Walb~k, Co,,;~nta~·(as in n.38) vol. i, 211-2 and 230; more g;~~rallyin Larsen,
, "Representation and Democracy in Hellenistic Federalism," CP 40 ( I 945), 65-97, esp. 88-
35 8.7. 1:' Ait0 ""v ou'vT .. . . ,. , 91, and G. E. M. de Ste. Croix, T1tt Cl<mStruggle in th• Ancient Grteli World (Ithaca,
\oaµ,;vou f4ix ·,,-....~-
0 no"-lilh~-- Eha &~ICJ>OtT)etvtt -1v1vuliaav.£'11<1µ,;vo\31Eu).ow • . 1981). 321-6. , , . . .,. . : . ,, ,_
("F~om Tisamenus uniil Ogygosthe ~ ~Oiov '1u&o1Cl1u1aavRp\ ~ :CO~l+<'l<n>v 42 6.9, 12-14, et al. That Polyl>ius comes to some simplistic and erroneous conclusions about
havmg democratized ,i.-. bee y continued under the kingship aaPol b' ~ n).. !he Roman constitution has more to do with the theoretical nature of his exercise and
36 R Koe ., . • ~-:, amc ,o famousfor their . • Y •ussays. Then.
60 mer, Die Staatlichc En1wicldun1 in All-A . ~~•tutio111 ••• ") .. ' .• misconceptions about how the Roman state aclually functioned than any confusion about
, , whal defined democratic institutions. Distortions arealso callSOd by his need to associaie
37 R . chaia, Klw 56 (1974), 457-95 esp '45g_ 1
E s.v. Achaia (vol I I 19 ' . , .. especially the Roman assembly andtribunes with demoliratia.Cf. K. von Fritz. TIit Theory
38 F W W 8 lb .. ' ' SB (ori1. 1893)) 160 .,~, of 1/ic Mixed Constirwrionin Antiquity (New York, 1954), 11-9, 15H1; T. J. ~omell,
· · ank, A HistoricalCo-•111, ' · .
40 ~ A. 0. Lal'ICn,Gru/i Feikral State1,~tnrd,Polyb11u,vol. I (Oxford,1957).229-30
39 ,.; ,,, "Rome: The His1ory of an Anachronism," in A. Molho, IC.Raaflaul>, andJ. Emhn, eds.
ocmer, "AII-Achaia" (as inn 36) 4cn7co 1968), 80-7, esp. 82. . City-Srat•sin C:kustcalAntiquityand Medt•val Italy (Stuugart, 1991), 53-69, esp. 61-2.
• .:,7- .,, esp. 45~2. •·· · · '43 V. Rose, Aristottlis q11i f•relxm111rlibron,mfragmenta (Lcipzi&, 1886), fr. 567. · · · ·
'44 lnschrifttn "°" Olympia 2: L. H. Jeffery, Local Scriptsof Archaic Greece' (Oxford, 1990)
15, pp. 218,220. On the Elean democracy, see discussion below. · · · ··
 u
76
Chapter 3: Alchaic Demokratiai
2. Achaea and her Colonies 77

The case for Achaean demokratia - and that of her Italian colonies - im-
proves toward the end of the sixth century, though once again we cannot be sure The sixth-century innovations in Croton mentioned by Iamblichus arc par-
of the chrono!ogy.◄ Sources describe uprisings against the aristocratic Pythago-
5 ticularly suggestive of early democracy. Division of land and cancellation of
rean leadership toward the end of the sixth century in cities founded by Achaea in debts is certainly populist, and we have seen cries for the former and application
southern Italy, including Croton and Metapontum. At Croton, the struggle against of the latter in the context of Solon's reforms in early sixth-century Athens; yet
the changes signaled here went further. With the opening of the most important
the Py~hagoreans. had an explicitly democratic flavor, as Iamblichus reports.
offices to the whole citizen body, the political realm was expanded to include
Stemmmg fro?1 Timaeus, his account at VP 257-62 describes a popular revolt led
everyone, a fundamental step in democracy and necessary when the government
br Cylon ag~nst the politically dominant Pythagoreans which resulted in the
violent smashmg of their authority. 46 The revolution featured the redistribution of was previously limited to a few. Just as important is the concern to make
land and cancellation ~~ debts (262), as well as the opening of magistracies and
governmental officials accountable to the people, achieved through the re~lar
examination of magistrates by representatives chosen by lot. At the same time,
the assem~ly to all citizens, and the scrutinizing of magistrates (euthyna) by
representatives drawn from the people by Jot (257). hallmarks of later, "extreme" demokratia such as public pay for jury or assembly
~olybius (2.38.6-39.8), in the course of praising the qualities of the dem- service arc absent. Cylon's role as leader of the movement is also sugg~stivc -
like Cleisthenes of Athens, he was a distinguished member of the chte who
~~auc Achaean system, informs us that when the Pythagorian synedria in the
c1t1esof southern Italy were destroyed and political chaos ensued, the Achaeans emerged to champion the popular interest. The aris!ocratic tradition did not
were the most trusted mediators. The "Caulonians, Crotonians, and Sybarites" conceal his noble origin, but tarred him with the canonical defects of the popular
leader: he was seditious and dangerous. 48 · . . ·
s~n adop~ed ~chaean laws and customs (ethismous kai nomous) and conducted
their constitution according to them. Despite the agreement of Polybius with the · Though there is nothing suspicious or unreasonable about the above evidence
per se, we should remember that it comes from late and patched-together Pytha~-
Pythagon;~ so~rc~s about the appearance of democratic institutions in the after-
orean sources. Moreover. even if lamblichus' account is roughly correct, we still
math of CIVJI strife m these cities, Polybius' account may belong to events of the
do not know exactly what relationship these constitutional details bore to the
440s, not Cylon's. uprising of c. 510: he refers to Sybarites, more likely the
Achaean constitution 0 or to the democratic orders which supposedly sprang up
m~~bers _of the city refounded on the Tracis after 443 than the exiles of the
ongmal city destroyed in 510.◄7 among the Sybarites and Caulonians. A strict interpretation of Polybius, 2.39,
would indicate that all were very much the same, but this may be pushing our
sources too far, for some over-generalizing is sure to have affected the tradition.
45 The most t~orough and convincing discusaion of the complicated chronology of the popular Chronological problems make the events in sou~em_ Italy di~fic~t to relate to
revol~ against the Pythagorean&can be found ill E. L. Minar,Early Pythagorean Politics Achaca itself: if the Achaean intervention descnbed m Polybius did not follow
(Balumon:, 1942), esp. 50-94; he is generally followed by T. J. Dunbabin, The We.rtem Cylon's democratic revolt, an archaic democracy. only appeared in Cro~n.
Gnelu C?xford, 1948), 359, 366 with n. 9, and 371. These scholars plausibly date the Sybaris and Caulonia then would have followed suit half a cen_turylater, with
democralJc movemen1 lo soon after 510, based on the explicit association of Cylon'a anti-
Pythagorean struggle soon after the lime of Pythagoras• own stay in Croton, c. 530-510
Achaea'sassistance. Nevertheless, the accounts of popular reaction to the ~th-
(l~bl. VP, 248-51, 25~; Justi!" 20.4.17; cf. Cicero, Rep. 2.15.28). K. voa Fritz, notina agoreans allow a more detailed picture of potential archaic and early classical
the involvement of Epammondu teacher Lysis in the &eneraldescription of eventa in demokratiaiin Achaea and her colonies. · . •... , • . .
Iambi. VP. 249-51, dismisses I sixth-century date and offers 445 (Pylhagonat1 Politic, i,e "., Finally, it is useful to recall here the archaeological work concerning Mc~-
Southem Ila/~ [New York, I~], 78-?, 97-8; cf. Walbank, Co111111en1ary (as inn. 38) vol. pontum (above, part one). The Pythagorean sources attest to Metapontu£? s
1, 222-4.). Mmar and Dunbab1a explain the Lysis discrepancy by pointing out the inabilhy involvement in the Cylonian revolt against the Pythagoreans, though Polybms
of late collecto.rs of the Pythagorean lnldition to distinguish the initial Cylonian movement
from !he b~rmng of the house of Milo half ■ century later. Minar•, close analysis of
does not mention the colony as one of the cities which copied Achaean laws ~r
lambhchus patch-work text from 24~ seems 10 bear out this interpretation (53-65). anti-Pythagorean riots, The non-aristocratic divisions of the land and ~e s!xth-
~cverthe!ess, ii must be admitted that Polybius' contribution, which describes Achaea•a ccntury ekklesiasterion we noted earlier may indicate a moderate, co~slltutional
intervenuon, probably d~ re~e.r10 the aftermath of mid-fifth century violence against the government from a very early period. While it is di.fficult to i~ginc Achaea
Pythagorean,, not Cylon • upn11ngof c. 510: Polybius states that thechanges following thi adopting a democratic constitution before the foundations of Sybans and Croton
frenzy lasted until Dionysius of Syracuse asserted bis control (in the early fourth century;
Cf. H.-J.Gehrke, Stasis(Munich, 1985), 13 n. 2. · · · , (c. 720-709), perhaps the monarchy had been repl~cd and the demos became
46 That Timaeu~ and no~ ~stoxenus was Iarnblichus' sowcein sections 354-64 is demon-
lcyrio11by the time of the significantly later foundation of Metapontum (second
strated by Minar, ~Ollhc1 (as in n. 45) 54 a. 14. Other ancient ■ccounta can be found in half of the seventh century).•9 As far as we know, colonies initially copied the
Porph. 56 and Justin, 20.4. Cf. A. Delatte, E.uai 1ur la politique PyrhagoricieMe (Li~ge
1922/repr. Geneva, 1979), esp. 251~. ' "j - ,)

47 Seenote 45. 48 Iambi.VP, 248. . . · ·

49 For the foundation dates, see Graham, CA/(l (as inn. 23) 3.3, 109-12, 174-5., .
 78 Chapter 3: Archaic Demokratiai 3. Acragas 79

institutions of their mother city. This makes the various reports of demokratia at More significant for this study, however, is Diodorus' implication that c. 472
Achaea and her colon~es especially fitting: 50 one may hypothesize that Metapon- the people were restoring their democracy from a period previous to the reign of
tum was founded with the same democratic constitution as its motherland the tyrants Thrasydaeus and Theron. At 11.53.5, instead of using a standard word
presumably of the moderate, agricultural variety preferred by Aristotle." Thi~ for establishing a polis government such as kathistemi, Diodorus writes komisa-
could explain both Metapontum's sympathy with the movement against the menoi ten demokratian. Now komiza in the middle voice can mean "get back" or
Pythagoreans and the failure of our sources to report that it adopted a new "restore" in Diodorus as in other authors. Indeed, Diodorus frequently uses the
democratic constitution - it may already have had one. tenn in this sense, particularly in political contexts.~ Does he intend his ~ad~rs
to understand that there had been a demokratia in Acragas before Theron s reign
began in 488? There is one other passage in the entire Bibliothe~ where kom!zo-
3.ACRAGAS mai and demokratia are closely associated- 12.80.2-3. Here D1odorus descnbes
the constitutional tunnoil in Argos in 418:
Diodorus (11.53) narrates the fall of the tyrant Thrasydaeus of Acragas. This man (2) ... tTIVJ.IEVli11µoicpatlav l!yvOXJavicatOAUElV, ciplatoicpatlav li't~ aimov rca81;_cn~vm.
assumed power in 472 at the death of his father Theron, who had ruled for 16 (3) ... li1aicatacr,:6YU!i;M tmit11v tTIV ito:l.l·tdav µijvai; 61mi>xatt~ti9"aav_. wu lif1µ01J
years, but Thrasydaeus acted harshly and unpopularly, just as he had when he (J\)(J'tOvto~b' a\l'to~· 610 rca\wuwv civatpe8evt(l)II o Iii!µ~ txoµtaato 'ITIVli,uiorcpa-
pr~vi~usly held a?thority at Himera ( 11.48.6-8). He became the target of con- -riav.
sp1rac1es,and having been humbled after a military defeat at the hands of Hieron (2) ... they decided to overthrow the democracy and establish an aristocracy from their own
a~d the Syracusans, he was overthrown and fled to Megara where he died. As number. .
D1odorus says, the Acragantines then instituted a democracy-oi a•"Aicpayavnvo 1 (3) ... after having maintained this constitution for eight months, they were <ieJ>?sedwhen
icoµta<iµevot ntVl>riµoicpatlav. . the demos united against them; and with [1hese men] having been destroyed on this account,
Now this represents rather straightforward evidence for the appearance of thedemos restored lhe democracy.
d~mokratia in Acragas sometime after 472, assuming Diodorus can be trusted on Clearly, Diodorus here uses komiwmai in the sense of "resto~," for it is a
his use of the term demokratia. We must consider this issue, given the general question of the Argive people reclaiming their democracy after e~ght months of
problem of the increasingly vague meaning of the term in Diodorus • period and brutal oligarchic rule. Moreover, his emplo!ment here of ekomis_atocontrasts
afterward. 52 His narrative for this portion of the Bibliothde relies on the fourth- sharply with the use of kathistanai but a few ltne~ above, when a~ anstoc~acy was
cen~~ his_torianEphorus, 53 who was somewhat better situated chronologically beingestablished in Argos for the first ti~. This passage, consistent v.:1thman!
to d1stmgu1sh democracy from other constitutions. Moreover, Diodorus' use of other instances of komizomai in Diodorus, suggests rather strongly that m consti-
the word demokratia here is credible for other reasons: he demonstrates else- tutional settings the historian uses komizomai to mean_"~store," while kathis_-
where i? his history ~t le~t a basic understanding of the term by using it in tanai conveys the more straightforward noti~n-~f establtshmg. ' · . · ··.
appropnate contrast with oligarchy or aristocracy (12.80, 13.34, 39, etc.). Diog- : ., Hence we must take seriously the poss1b1hty that a demokrat1a existed at
enes Laertius also offers some support, at 8.6~. He states that Empedocles Acragas before the reign of Theron (c. 488-72). Only meager_evide~ce bey~nd
favored popular causes and dissolved the oligarchic body of the Thousand three Diodorus exists to support this proposition. A fragment of Aristotle s Constitu-
years after it had been set up. The fact that an interlude of oligarchy at Acragas tion of the Acragantines lists the names of three rulers of Acragas, presumably
based it~elf on an assembly of 1000 - rather a large body in itself - implies a from relatively early in its history, which seems to contrast the brutal au:~racy ~f
substanttally broader democratic alternative. No date is given, though this the first with the more moderate behavior of the leaders who followed. _Phalans
presumably occurred later in Empedocles' life, perhaps c. 45~2. No particular is labeled a tyrant, and the demos punishes him and his family for his cnmes; by
reason exists, then, to doubt Diodorus' account of demokratia in Acragasin the contrast his successor Alcamenes is not said to have been a lawless tyrant
early-mid fifth century. · • . (etyranneuse paranomiai), rather he merely succeeded to the affairs of state
(parelabe ta pragmata). The next ruler, Alcander, "led" (p~o~ste), ~d _was a
good man (aner epieikt:s). We might spec~l~te that the p~muve acuo~ o~ the
50 See also the discussions below of MegaraandHeraclea PontiCL · demo, and the altered designations of Phalans successors signal a constttu~on~
,, ' • I. ' ! "
I ._. . .
51 PoL 1291b30-1292138;1292b24-1293112; 1318~1319 b33. See Chapter 2. Part 1.
52 By the first century B.C., dttmolcratiacould lllfer lo practically any autOIIOIIIOUI
state,.
whatever ita internal political order. Cf. Lanen, -Representation and Democracy" (aa in
54 An ~al;~i~ ba~~~ u~~ ~
~f I TLG~ta·
7
;tter:i ~o~i yields,~ following~ o~
the meanina "let back" or "restore" in Diodorus: 11.76.3; 12.80.2-3; 14.33.6; 14.78.4,
41) 65-97, esp. 88-91, and Ste. Croix, Cku, Strvggk (11 inn. 41) 321-6. ll.
19.43.B:19.54.2;20.44.6:20.45.$;20.69.5;20.79.5.Cf. LSJ s.v. 0. 7-B. · · ', ·.. 6-
53 K._s;Sacks, Diodonu Siculu.sand the Fir$l Cttntury(Princeton, 1990), 20. On Diodorua• Rose. fr. 611.69; M. R. Dilu, HeraclidisLttmbi&cerpta Polirianun(Durham, 1971). 3 7•
opinion of democracy (nol uniformly hostile), 167. 55
 80 Chapter 3; Archaic Demokratiai 4. Ambracia 81

posi~ion for them ~fter a popular revolt overthrew Phalaris. Though this may be nance (1278 b9-14) would suggest the same thing. Yet this passage does not
readm~ too_mu~h mto a spare account, it would perhaps corroborate Diodorus• provide any details to confirm this supposition.
strong tmphcatton that a demokratiaexisted before Theron's rule.56 At 1303 a22-4, we learn a bit more about the Ambracian constitution.
Aristotle is making the point that great changes in institutions can happen in
barely perceptible ways, and offers Ambracia as an example. There, the timema
4.AMBRACIA was small to start with, and finally people held office with none at all, since the
difference was negligible (µucpov ~v -ro tiµ,iµa -reM>~ 6' <an'> ou8£vo~ ~pxov,
Three passages from Aristotle's Politics furnish the primary evidence for de- tyyt~ov60 -i\µ118ev6m♦tpov toil µ116ev-roµucp6v). Hence, property qualifi-
cl>c;
mocracy in archaic Ambracia. Founded by Corinthians under Gorgus, son of the cations for public office, never very large, shrank to practical irrelevance, quietly
tyrant Cypselus, c.655-25, Ambracia was ruled by him and his son Periander (the inaugurating a significant change. This passage gives no indication of its date,
~ephew of the Corinthian tyrant of the same name) until the time of the constitu- only that it was in the past. Most commentators, however, associate it chronologi-
tional change des~ribed in Aristotle. 57 In the course of listing revolutions brought cally rather closely to the other Ambracia notices.61 What can we conclude from
on by an outstandmg segment of the populace, Aristotle says at 1304 a31-3: this? Any change of constitution marked by the absence of meaningful property
1Calt~ 'Aµl3pa~iq 110)..l
v oicroin111<; -rot~elll8eµevol~ 6 &i\µ~
nepiav&pov auve1CllaA,<ov
qualifications would have to consist of the adoption of a democracy, prcsuma~ly
'tOVrupavvov eu; tau-rov ,reptEOTflOI!
fflV11oi1ttlav. from a moderate oligarchy, polity, or less radical democracy. Property qualifi-
cations could not have been very high in the first place, or the change to
And si~ilarly again in Ambracia. thedemo, joined with the tyrant Periander's enemies to
throw him out and then took over the constitution itself.
practically none would have been perceptible. This militates against the idea of a
preceding oligarchy. We wish to know how great a time must pass before a small
This ev~nt is dated to 580 or a few years earlier." At 1311 a39-bl, Aristotle, yet still meaningful timemabecomes meaningless. One would gue~s at least a ~cw
attemptmg_to sho~ how a ruler's insolence can spur attacks, relates that plots decades but in fact this sort of thing is impossible to calculate without knowmg
began against Penander because of a rude question he asked of his lover _ the ch~ging levels of economic (particularly agricultural) production withi? a
"".hether he had conceived yet (epcotf\001 auwv £i i\&t t~ aut0i> 1eue1).It is community over time - information we indubitably lack.62 A few good farnung
~•fficult_to glean m?ch political information from this tale, aside from the vague years due to the end of oppressive social conditions, war or droug~t cou_ldhave
1mprcss1ontha! Penander ?1ay have angered people with his arrogance: perhaps, been sufficient to enable small freeholders to meet the modest qual1ficauons, so
as happened with Harmod1us and Aristogeiton (mentioned by Aristotle immedi- the lapse of time need not be very great. Once these farmers routinely met the
ately ~forehand), the insult resulted in violence planned by his lover with the requirements, the rules may have fallen into disuse altogether. 63 Given the
collusion of others. Whatever the provocation, Periander inspired a coalition of instability of most Greek states, it would be surprising if the popular government
~e demos and its opponents (presumably gnorimoi, as at line a30) which threw here attested had a great span of time over which to peacefully develop, so
him out. As a result, the demos took control of the state. Given the immediate perhaps the change took place within a few decades. ··
context of this statement, we assume that Aristotle means a demokratiacame into
existence. 59 Aristotle's dictum that in a democracy the demosis kyriosin gover-
in the' last chapte~. Aristotle usually· empl~ys demos in the Politics lo denote the.en~i're
citizen body, which, when dominant, renders the state democratic. .
56 On Phalariuee ~•so Arist. Pol 1310b28; Polyaen. !I.I.I; Diod. 9.30; RE1.v.Phalaris (vol. 60 fyytov codd. · · · '
_19,193~). We might also note that Hcavationa at Acras11haverevealed an,llk,ian,rio,, 61 Newman, Politics (as inn. 58) vol. 4,308, 329-30; Aubonnet, Politiqu, (as inn. 58) vol.
1n_the city-a rare find and indicative of III active asaembly. 1be llnlCIUre dates from tbe 2.2, t 59; Gehrke. Stasis (as in n.45) 19. . . .
~ird c~ntury B.C. or possibly earlier. E. de Miro, ''L'Ecclesiuterion in Contrada S. Nicola 62 The general economic picture, however. renders entirely plausible the nouon of s1gn1~cant
d1 Agngento," Palladio 16 (1967), I~; M. H. H111sen,TM Atunian D,mocracy in tli. decline in the practical value of property requirements over a few ~ f. M. He1chel-
Ag, of D,mo,tun,.s (Odord, 1991), 129 n. 49; Hansen and Fischer-Hansen "Monumental heim identifies a broad economic trend in mainland Greece from lhe sixth to lhe fourth
Political Architecture" (u inn. 26), 54-7, 75. ' . centuries of steadily increasin1 prices for agricultural goods and ~ecreasing value of
57 Ps.-Scymnus, 453-5; Strabo, 10.2.8; Nie. Dam. FGrH 90 F57.7. Graham, CAJ(I.(u in a 1: ,. money. An Anci,nl EcotlOlfficHistory, vol. 2, trans. J. Stevens (Leulen, 1964),_29-35.
. 23) 3.3, 131. . ,.. ~' ·, William T. Loomis, focusing on public wages in fifth- to third-century ~the~s.discovers
58 W._L. New~~• Th, Politic, of Amtotl, vol. 4 (Oxford, 1902), 329-30; J. Aubonnet, r ...: sometimes dramatic periodic fluctuation rather than a steady pattern of 1nfla11onor defla-
An.stotl Pol1t1qu1vol. 2.2 (Paris, 1973), 168-9; cf. Gehrke, Stasis (u inn. 45) 19, 82. tion. Wage.I, W,lfar, Cosr, and Inflation in Cla.s1icalAthens (Diss. Harvard. 1993). ··
59 D,mo,, of course, had taken on a number of possible meaninp by lhe time AristotleWrote, 63 At Athens. the rules barring thetes from certain offices eventually aeem to have been
including the sense of the "more moderate" - and thus not necessarily democratic - panyia ;, ,. iinored. Arist. A.th.Pol. 7.4, with P. I. Rhodes.A Co,n,n1n1ary011 rhsAri.stot,lialtAthenai-
~he f~tional struggle of a polis (Cf. E. Ruschenbuach, Unt,r.sucl11,11g111
Zll Stoat ,uuJ Politil on Polit,ia (Oxford, 1981), 14~; but see F. X. Ryan, "Thetes and the An;honship,"
111Gnechenland vo,n 7.-4. Jh. "· Chr. [Bamburg, 1978), 24-.5). Nevertheless, u examined Historia 43 ( 1994), 369-71. ' 1 · ' •· ·, ..,, ..,•i c'
 82 Chapter 3: ArchaicDemokra1iai S. Argos 83

In any case, it appears that early in the sixth century Ambracia underwent a other hand, Herodotus states (6.127) that Pheidon' s son Leocedes was one of the
dramatic constitutional alteration, with the derrws taking control of the state suitors of Agariste, the mother of Cleisthenes of Athens. This would place
rather than their aristocratic opponents or a tyrant. The property qualifications Pheidon's reign at the end of the seventh or beginning of the sixth century, in
were low but ha~ _so~e s!gnificance a!
first, presumably excluding the very which case the Temenid dynasty ended no earlier than c. 570-60. Herodotus'
poorest from part1c1pat1onm the governmg bodies. Such a constitution best fits testimony is perhaps more credible, and there are problems with an eighth-
Aristotle's first or second type of demokratia, in which the demos is lcyrios, some century Pheidon relating to his putative role in the invention of coinage and the
property qualifications apply, and the poorest citizens tend not to participate.64 state of the Olympic festival that early. 69 We will therefore follow the later
However, we should recognize that some fonn of polity - a hoplite constitution chronology. .
for example - mi~ht also fulfill these criteria; 65 and Aristotle never actual); Sources assert that the Temenids fell as the result of a popular revolution.
labels_the_Ambrac1otorder a demokratia. Yet within a few years or decades (by Pausanias (2.19.2) testifies to a long-standing Argive love of freedom and self-
the m1d-s1xth century?) the mild property qualifications were rendered mean- government (\.<JTTYoplav Ka\ 'tOaui:6voµov ayam:i>vrec;tx ,i:alai~,:a,:ou), and
ingless, and the city became an indisputable democracy.66 reports that the derrws disapproved of Meltas' rule and removed him altogether
from the kingship ('tO,i:apa1tav baooev apxiic; Katayvouc; o Mjµog. Diodorus
(fr. 7.13.2) seems to recall the same events when he says the derrws,angry after
5. ARGOS anArgive defeat at the hands of the Spartans and the king's giving away land they
desired, rose up and attacked him wildly, driving him out of the country. Of l~ss
By the second half of the fifth century, and likely by 463, Argos had established~ certain association are two passages (Plato, Laws 690d-9la, Plut. Lye. 7) whic~
re~arkabl~ demokratia, relatively stable and arguably as progressive in its insti- tell of arbitrary, stubborn rule by Argive and Messenian kings leading to their
tut1o?s as its contempor~ at Athens. 67 When did this begin? We must recognize own suffering. ,' , · • . - . .
that 1t may have come m fits and starts, with one or more failed attempts at . Taken together, this collection of sources reflects a conS1stent hterary tradi-
~p~lar government before democracy took hold. Two periods offer the greatest tion concerning the revolutionary fall of the Temenid dynasty !t Argos. Pa~s-
hkehhood for archaic democratic experiences: the decade(s) immediately follow- anias' account carries the strongest implication of a dem~ra~c ~sul~ while
ing the end of the !emenid monarchy sometime in the mid-sixth century, and the D iodorus' reference to popular grievances over unfair land d1strtbution 1S temp- 70
aftermath of the disastrous battle of Sepeain 494. tingly plausible. Yet individually these sources do not carry great ere dibT 11ty,
and all of them arc extremely vague about what government rcpl8;Ced~e fallen
mon-archy. Indeed, only in Pausanias is it even implied that the kingship ~nded
Sixth Century ab-solutely with the overthrow of Meltas, encouraging scholars to ~sit the
continuation of the monarchy afterwards, albeit in a different fonn and with more
The chronology for the last kings of Argos is extre~ly difficult to pin down.~ limited powers.71 We know that Argos had a ~ileus in ~e fifth century as~
dat~ of Pheido~•s rule is the crux of ~e issue: if we believe Pausanias' story that eponym-ous official (ML 42) and with some mibtary functions, at least early 10
he interfered with the games of the eighth Olympiad (748 B.C.), then the famous the century (Hdt. 7.149). Yet an inscription dated to c. 575-550 (?) records the
; ·., ,,,,, . .,, ' .
tyrant/king belongs to the middle of the eighth century, and the last of the
(·

Temenids (Mellas) could be placed as early as the late seventh century.68 On the
• '.:id AriiL p~,:\310 b26 (the tatter 1tron~iyimplies Pbeidon pre-da~lh~ Cypselids of
' Corinth, mid-seventhcentury). For argument in support of an early chronology, see G.
64 Chap1ertwo, pan one. . . . Huxley "Argoset lea dcmieraT6m6nides,"BCH82 (1958),589-601. . ' ·. • - ·, . •
6, Oligarchy would be impossible,given the high property qualificationsrequired. Chapter 69 T Kell'y A History of Argot to .SOOB.C. (Minneapolis, 1976), 94-141; IC. H. ~nzl,
two, pan one. - " . . "Beuacl~gen zur llteren Tyrannis," in Dit Alt111rt11 Tyrannil bil VI den ~erstrlcntgtn.
4,
66 Cf. Gehrke,S1asia(as in n. 45) 19; Newman. Politic, (u in a. 58) vol. 32~30. , Wegeder Fonchun1 510 (Darmatadt,1979), 298-325, esp. 298-301; P. Carll~, La Roy°'!'I
67 Prc-463 dale: Aeschl. Suppl 517-8, 605,621; cf. F. Kiechle."Arsosund Tiryns aacbc1er en Gnct avant Aluandr, (Struboura, 1984), 384-99. IG 4.614 conlains a bst of ~•~e
Schlacht bei Sepeia," Phllolog,u 104 (1960), 195--6. However, references to aa Araivo damiorgolwho "ruled" (ewana.muato), which may indicale the replacementof~ king 1
dem~acy _inlhe mylhical atoryline of tho play at bat only implies that ArlOI bad ,., , authority wilh lba1of atate magiatrates; Jefferydates it to c. 575-550(?),LSA<11 (as m n. 44)
estabhs~ed 111democracyby the time or the lrqedy'1 performance.On the iallitutions of . . • 156-1, 16817(800 diacusaionbelow).· . '. '' • · ' · ·. , ·.' 1 ' ·' be!"· . ' 'tb t 1·t
the Arg1vedemocracy:M. Wllrrle, VntersllduutgM i,,r V11rftu111111sg11,chichu"°"Ar, - 70 Carli«, for eumple, see1 a propaaandisticquahty IO Pausaruas account, 1evm~ a
im .S. Jahrhundtrt w,r ChriJt,u (Diss. Erlangen, 1964), 32-100; I. L. O'Neil, G~ ,,. represented an atlelllpt to provide an ancient pedigree to the fifth-century Argtve de-
Democratic Cmutitutio,u outsitk Atht,u (Diu. Cambridge, 1973), 28-34 •. , , ., , ;: .;1 mocncy. Roya,al (u in a. 69) 385. , - -, • -' • ·. , · ' • 1· . . • ,,.,. ,,,.
68 Paus. 6.22.2. This venion la supportedIOtome degreeby other Ille aulhon, Slnbo, 7 .3.33 • 71 . Carlier, Royautl(u in a. 69) 394; er. Kelly,Argo, (as inn. 69) 130-6. "·· ~ ! ,
84 Chapter 3: Archaic Demok.rariai 5.Argos 85

names of nine damiorgoi who are said to have ruled (Ef[a]vaooavro). 72 This were forced into revolutionary changes in their state. Herodotus puts the losses in
gives a strong indication that after the fall of Meltas constitutionally elected the battle at 6000 mcn, 77 and reports at 6.83 that men were so few that "their
magistrates began to wield supreme power. Different theories have been advan- slaves took control of all public affairs, ruling and managing" (COO'tE ol 6oiiM>t
ced as to how they ruled: they held office simultaneously in a board of nine. airtciiv fc,xov mivta ta 1tp,\yµata apxovttc; -re Kai ihtno":2c;). '.Th~snew si~a-
reminiscent of the Athenian archons; individual damiorgoi, chosen from the tion lasted until the sons of the slain warriors reached the1r maJonty, at which
entire board, served as "basileis" in the years following Meltas' ouster, or point the "slaves" were thrown out of the city and Argos was reclaimed for
perhaps the names are of legendary kings who are here called damiorgoi because themselves (ec; o £1tT113rloav ol tci>vanoM>µtvmv 1tai6ec;· ltttt£ o~ac; ou~i
this was the title of the current supreme magistracy. Of these possibilities the first avaKtcbµ£vot o7tiO'(J) ec;£(1)'\)'touc;to •Apyoc; ~tj3aM>v). Herodotus goes on to
is the most straightforward and thus slightly preferable, though certainty lies describe how the expelled slaves captured Tiryns, re?1aining there peacefu_lly
beyond our grasp.73 until stirred up by a prophet to attack their masters an Argos, a move which
In all, the available evidence is too vague to permit a serious claim for Argive resulted in their defeat after a long and difficult war. Aristotle's briefer account at
democracy in the mid-sixth century, though it remains a possibility .74 The literary , Pol. 1303 a6-8 differs in some details. The philosopher is describing how c?n-
sources fall frustratingly silent when it comes to describing the post-Temenid stitutional revolutions (metabolai ton politeion) may take place when one portion
order, and the epigraphic documents testify only to an executive magistracy of of the state suddenly grows or shrinks. Argos after Cleomene~• victory serves as
unclear organization. Nevertheless, given that the tradition does indicate a popu- an example of this, for the citizens were comPt:lled !o acc~pt anto the state some
lar role in the overthrow, it is reasonable to assume at least some meaningful of the inhabitants of the surrounding countryside (TtVQ"fKa<J9ricmv 1tapa6t~ao-
popular participation in the new government. The persisting military authority of 8at trov upiolicmv t1.vac;).1sPlutarch (De mul. vir. 4), apparently drawing on the
the basileus in the fifth century signaled by Hdt. 7.149 suggests the continuation work of the Argive local historian Socrates (FGrH 310 F6), takes Herodotus to
of this institution in some form, though the dynastic component had probably task, saying that the Argives did not join their women with slav~s (doulo1), ~ut
dropped out." Perhaps a polity, with its mixture of contrasting institutions, offers rather made citizens of the best of the inhabitants of the surrounding countryside
the safest hypothesis. (perioikoi).19 Plutarch seems to have garbled Socrates' account so?1ewhat._as
Herodotus does not specifically mention intermarriage, but the ke! issue .~m~
Post-Sepea addressed here is whether the newly accepted citizens were doulo1 or pen_o1ko1,
with Herodotus claiming the former, Aristotle and Socrates the latter. Finally,
As more than one source informs us, the Spartan King Cleomenes inflicted so scholars have often associated a fragment of Diodorus (10.26) with the events
terrible a defeat on the Argives at the battle of Sepea (c. 494 B.C.) 76 that they
after Sepea, though the passage comes with no indication of time or even w~~ther
it concerns Argos. It says that long-simmering jealousy (phthonos) o_fthe citazens
72 SEG I 1.336; er. SEG I 1.314 and IG 4.506, which also mention damiorgoi andaredated to against the many (tois pollois) poured out all at once when ~e nght mome~t
the mid-sixth century, but tell us nothing else about the government beyond the suggestive came, for ambitious rivalry (philotimia} led them to free their slave~ ~douloi/
use in the former of damosion apparently meaning"the state.• er. F. Sokolowski, Loia oiketai) rather than give a share in the constitution to the freeborn non-ciuzens. If
Sacries des Cith Grecques,supplement (Paris, 1962),64-5. On the dates:Jeffery, LSAG2 we assume that this refers to Argos and interpret the "right ~ment" as after the
(as inn. 44) 15~, 168 #7-9; Wilrrle, Ve,fassungsgescliicltle(as inn. 67) 61-2. defeat at Sepea, we can see bow this might fit in with the drastic steps referred to
73 Jeffery, LSAG1 (as in n. 44) 15~; WOrrle, Ve,fassungsgescliiclire(as in n. 67) 61-7;
Kelly, Argos (as inn. 69) 130-2; earlier, Royauti (as in n. 69) 394-5. The fact that 1i11: in the other passages. 80 • . •
damiorgoi hold office in SEG 11.314 may indicate that the slightly earlier inscription does While we have no direct testimony, it is probable that the Argive constatu~on
not involve a board of nine. before Sepea was closer to polity than anything else.BI~ state of the Argive
74 Huxley, "Argos" (as in n. 68) 5~, speaks of a "democratic reaction" against the
Argive kings, but does not elaborate on his idea. er. Kelly, Argo, (as inn. 69) 134-7· (Oxford, 192~), 350-3; Aubonnet, Politique(as in n. 58) 2.2, 157-8; R. F. Willets, "The
Cartier, Royauti (as in n. 69) 394. • Servile Interregnumat Argos,"HenM.s 87 (1959), 495.
75 Some have thought this whole incident in Herodotus is dubious, however. er. R. W. Macan. 77 1.148.2. er. Pa111.3.4.l0. :, . , b' Ii
Herodotu, V//./X(London, 1908), s.v. 78 Aristotle clearly means that the perioikol were admitted as citiuns, Wi 11ets O ~ec ons
76 This is the commonly accepted date, though in fact the only certainty is that the battle took notwithstanding. "Servile Interregnum," 496-8. Cf. Newman, Politic, (as inn. 58) vol. 4,
place at some point during Oeomenes' chronologically problematic nign, e. 52S-488. <>n
the eve of the Persian War, the Argives were still smarting from their "recent" (neo,ra)
defeat at the hands of eleomenes. This provides a n:asonably sound starting point for the
79 •=~~:,~t
fl\V
11EPtol1C-
oliyav8plav,
KOtTl(ffljil!VD\ 'ID~
~
oux'Hp6~~ \cnop&ltol<;ao\iM>u;,'
to~ dplcnouc;.~aaav
KOAlfll<; ~<; ~iica<;.
ciUa ~v

conjecture that the war between Sparta and Argos happened in the 490s, probably at roughly 80 Kicchle, "ArgosandTiryns" (as in n. 67) 181-200; Gehrke.Srasu (as m n. 45) 24-6,
the same time as the Ionian nvolt, if the synchronicity implied by the double oracle at Hdt. 361-3. :. ; · , , ·· . . · .
6.19 and 77 can be believed. W.W. How and J. Wells, A Commentaryon HerodotKSvol. 2 81 see discussion above, and: WOrrle, Verftu;rungsgucli1cllle(as 1n n. 67) 101-2, Gehrke.
 86 Chapter 3: Archaic Demokratiai 5. Argos 87

constitution and the sequence of events after the battle, however, has engendered As ingenious as the above reconstruction is, it suffers from a number of
much debate. It used to be taken for granted that a demokratia ensued, given the problems. It relies on Diodorus' dubious authority to sanction Herodotus' use of
bent of the sourc~s and the fact that Aeschylus' Suppliants, which apparently douloi and to provide a rationale for the freeing of the slaves. Given the Diodorus
alludes to an A_rg1vedemocracy, used to be dated to c. 490. With the generally fragment's uncertain relevance (see note 83), this is risky. The rationale provided
accepted ~-~atmg of ~he traged~ to 464/3, however, this conclusion has become docs not make much sense anyway - if the city faces a crisis from having too few
less certam. Resolution of the issue now depends entirely on how one interprets citizens after horrendous war casualties, why deny citizenship to "the many" (or
the accounts of our main sources. even the slaves}, and instead merely free the slaves? Moreover, no ancient author
Two basic approaches characterize the scholarship on the subject. One views mentions "Tirynthian refugees" or associates any such group with the perioikoi
t~e source~ as reflecting the same general event and attempts to reconcile the few of Argos. Indeed, Kiechle has to go to some lengths to discover the merest hints
d1~crep~c1es; the other reconstructs a series of separate events, some of which in other sources for the presence of Tirynthians in Argos in the fifth century and
will be stgnaled by one author, others by a different author. Herodotus, Aristotle. later. 85
and S<><:r~tes all r~port ~h~t Argos undertook drastic measures regarding the We achieve a simpler and more natural solution by interpreting the accounts
compos1tton of their po/1te1a after enduring severe casualties in battle against of Herodotus, Aristotle, and Socrates as describing the same events, each accor-
Cleomenes. Dtodorus may or may not have had the same issue in mind.83 Yet ding to its own emphasis and peculiarities. Herodotus seems most concerned with
important differences in the accounts arc evident, none more so than the use of showing how the douloi caused a great deal of trouble for the desperate Ar-
douloi by He1odotus and perioikoi by Aristotle and Socrates. Both Kiechle and gives;86 Aristotle endeavors to prove his point that constitutions can change due
Gehrke seek to identify a sequence of events which takes these differences into to sudden fluctuations in constituent populations within the state; and Socrates
account and bui!ds on them. First, the douloi assume control of the government wishes to correct Herodotus' mistaken report by insisting that perioikoi, not
(Hdt.) after havmg been freed by the surviving citizenry in a calculated move douloi, became citizens and married Argive women. Nevertheless, all report a
agai?st the "many" (Diod.). After the expulsion of the slaves and their conquest radical change in the government of the city brought on by the necessary inclu-
of T1ryns (Hdt.), presumed refugees from Tiryns (the perioikoi?) are welcomed sion in the constitution of previously unenfranchised people. The most crucial
in~o the Argive state, ~hich makes up for the shortage of men (Arist., Socr.). variation in the accounts - douloi vs. perioikoi - bas a ready explanation in the
~echle and ?ehrke differ on what sort of constitution appears at this point. halfway-status of the Argive gymnetes. Pollux (Onom. 3.83) informs us that at
Kiechle favonng a reasserted oligarchy, Gehrke a new democracy.84 ,, Argos these people were "between free and slave" (µem~u 6e £A£u8tpcov 1ea\
0
6ouAo>v). 87 Confusion over the status of these gymnetes, who were doubtless
82 ~uppl. lines 517-8, 605,621; E. Meyer Gd.44.13302 n.l; Kiecble, "Argosund Tiryns" (~
included in the new enfranchisements, probably accounts for the different labels.
in n. 67) 195-6. On the re-dating of the play to 464/3: A. Lesky, "Die Datierung der
Hiketiden und der Tragiker Mesatos," Herme:r82 (1954), 1-13; H. Lloyd-Jones '"The This is especially plausible considering the way in which our sources use the
Supplices of Aeschylus: The New Date and Old Problems," L'Antiquitl ckusi~u 53 relevant terms elsewhere: Aristotle most often uses perioikoi to mean "serfs,'' 88
(1964), 356-74.
83 It is ulti~ately reckless to place any weight on the Diodorus fragment, however.While ~
could be mterprcledas conveying a tradition of the empowermentof Argiveslavessimilar 85 "Argos und Tiryns" (u in a. 67) 189-94. Pausanias (8.27.1) is the only writer to relate
lo Herodo!'1s',the failure to ~lace his narrative in the contellt of heavy citizen tosses in a , Tirynthians to the Argive population, and then only as • part of the general Argive
battl~,.or indeed.lo connect 11to Argos in lhe 490s in any way at all, makes one very incorporation of the towns in the Argolid (including Tiryns, Hysiae, Orneac, Mycenae,
susp1c1ou~ about 11srelevance.The need for caution is underscoredby the fact that scholars . Mideia, and others). This probably happened some yean after the democratic change,
have applied the same passage to the political upheavals taking place at Syrac,ue in tho ,, toward the middle of the fifth century.· , ' · ' "- ''
480s (cf. Dunbabin, Westtm Greeb [u inn. 45)414). , ... : , 86 WOrrle,Vt,fassungsgtschichtt(as inn. 67) t 10, sensibly notes that'calling the lowly new
84 Ki~hle, "~g~s ~d Tiryns" (as in n: 67) 181-200; Gehrke, Stasis(as in a. 45) 2~. 361- citizens doulolcould have been a polemicfromthe upper classes.Forrest,speculatingaboul
3. Kiechle s d1sm1ssalof democracy11basedprimarilyon his denial that Aristotlemeant tho , Herodotus' Ar1ive sources, nolel that disparagementof the Argive leaders of that time as
Argive constitutio?cban~edas I result of the inclusionof the perioikoi. On the contrary:the ~slaves" also would have provided a convenient eJ1cusefor Argive '"Medism." W. 0.
general goal of this section of the Politics(5.2) is to identify the causeaof constitutional Forrest, "Themistoclesand Argos," CQ54 (1960), 221-9. ···,,.., ·· · ·· ·· · ·•·
change; this subsection talks about how the disproportionategrowth of classes withinthe 87 j&&~U U eAeuetpmv 1ea\3<>6~ _olAanllaiµovlCDY£11.an:£~ 1ea\8£~v KEVeO"CCJ\
state can cause metabolaiton polittion (1302 b33-1303 al3). Such ii CllplicitlyIWed in 1ea\Kp~v d.ap6\tat lea\ 11v<i'iim1 ••~ 1ea\'Apydmv y,J!.Lvfl~ .::("Between free people
Aristotle's precedin1 example,Taren1um,where the Jou of many gnorimoi in battle 1cacfa ·' · and slaves are the helots of the Lacedaemonians, the penutai of the Thessalians, the
to • c~a~ge fro~ polity to democi:-c>';in the Argos example proportionalitywithin the city klarotaiand mnoitaiof the Cretan, ••. and the gymnett1of the Arglves •••") er.Stepb. Byz.
was 11m1larly disrupted by losses 1nbattle. Aristotlecertainly does not mean by pa,au;uu_ ' ' u. Chios; Eustath.ad Dion.Perieg. 533. D. Lotze,METAEYEAET8EPQNKAUOY AnN
thai that th~ Argi_vessimply "restored their number" with no effect on the system: rather, .~: . :~:'i,!9;.:i,;?.'::,ecise stat~• of the gymnetes:-.~1~m~~~!~ !,~~\~armers?
-
the sud~en_ mclus1onof all lhese lower class perioiloi upset the balancesufficientlyto cause
a cons11tu11onal change. Cf. WOrrle,Ve,fas1ungsge1chicltt.(as In11. 67) 103-4: D. Lotze. 88 ' Willets, "Servile ln~pum" (as in n. 76) 496; Newman,Politics (u inn. 58) vol. 4, 304.
\ :• • •~ , ~· •,, n ·)•:1 :l' ,·,-: ,.::
"Zur Verfassung von Argos nach der Schlacht bei Sepcia,"Chiron 1 (1971). 95-109.
88 Chapter 3: Archaic Demokrotiai 6. Chalcis 89

and Herodotus employs douloi imprecisely, with a variety of meanings in dif- this event to the c. 580 overthrow of Periander in Ambracia (see discussion
ferent contexts, including some in which he describes free men as douloi. 89 · above), which also featured the demos joining with nobles to overthrow a tyrant,
The reconciling of Herodotus' douloi with the perioikoi of Aristotle (and then assuming control of the state. In both cases the language makes clear that the
Socrates) through the gymnetes allows for a straightforward constitutional analy-· demos had the assistance of the prominent citizens in the overthrow, but that the
sis. In order to make up for the several thousand fallen citizens the Argives demos, not the nobles, seized the government. This implies that a democracy was
created, in essence, a new demos by admitting into the state a large number of established, and the context reinforces this impression. Both the preceding and
unenfranchised area inhabitants, including many gymnetes. This new body of following examples describe governments changing to democracies (or in Am-
citizens took full control of affairs (eaxov n<iv-ra't(l np,iyµa-ra apxovttc; -re lCQ\ bracia possibly to a polity - see above); and since Aristotle actually uses the
6tenov-rec;),resulting in a much more democratic constitution. We need not posit words eis demokratian metebalen ("changed over to a democracy") in the last
here the sudden emergence of the full Argive democracy familiar from later in the line, he may have wished to avoid the redundancy of repeating it. In any case, the
century: Aristotle's implication of a metabole in the constitution could well demos take direct control of affairs, which is consistent with Aristotle's definition
signal a change in degree, as from polity to a moderate democracy; and Herod- of demokratia that the demos be kyrios in the administration (Pol. 1278 b9-14).
otus testifies to further violent struggles down the line with the maturity of the The gnorimoi mentioned were almost certainly the famous Hippobotae of
sons of the former rulers. 90 Yet this revolutionary step likely marked the begin- Chalcis. These aristocratic "horse-breeders" appear to have directed or influ-
ning of the fifth-century Argive democracy. enced Chalcidian affairs for centuries: Aristotle explicitly states that they were in
power during the colonizing expeditions to the Chalcidian peninsula, Sicily and
Italy, and implies the same for the period of the Lelantine war; while Herodotus
6. CHALCIS mentions the settlement of Athenian cleruchs on "the lands of the Hippobotae"
after the Athenian victory over Chalcis in 506. 92 Yet Aristotle (Pol. 1316 a32)
The best evidence for an archaic democracy in Chalcis is a reference in Aristotle'~· notes the fall of another little-known Chalcidian tyrant, one Antileon (c. 600 or
Politics (1304 a29-31) that the demos, with the help of the notable or wealthy thereafter) 93, who gives way to an oligarchy. This event, plus the Ph~xon epi~ode,
members of the community, overthrew the tyrant Phoxon (otherwise unknown) suggests that the pervasive influence of the Hippobotae was occasionally mter-
and immediately took hold of the state (tv Xa).1Ci6t~~ov ,:ov 'tVpavvov µe'ta rupted by tyrannies; and, as we have seen, in the aftermath of Phoxon's fall a
-rcovyvwpiµwv 6 6ijµoc;cive).<i>veu8uc; ei.xe-ro njc; ito).tu:iac;). 91 Aristotle likens democracy probably held sway for a time. The dating of this event poses a
challenge, however. Phoxon is utterly unknown, and no other datable reference
point is provided in Aristotle's account. Nor do the similarities with the Am~racia
89 R. Van Compemolle, "Le mylhe de la 'gyn6:ocratie-doulocratie' Argienne," in Hommagea
case need to extend to chronology. Still, given the report of another tyranny m the
... Prlaux (Brussels, 1975), 35S-64. Van Compemolle, in a comprehensiveeltamination of
the appearance of doulos in all its forms in Herodotus, sees no problem in identifying the archaic period, most scholars are inclined to place Phoxon in the same ~eneral
historian•s douloi with the gymnetes in Argos, and thus denies any conflict,,between time. Herodotus' report at 5.77 implies that Hippobotae control ended m 506,
Herodotus and Aristotle concerningthe social groups involved.Cf. W!lrrle, Ve,fassungsge- providing a terminus ante quem for the return of oligarchy: sun:ly Phoxon's
schichte (as inn. 67) 107-9; Lotze, "Verfassung" (as inn. 84) 95--109; J. L. O'Neil, -rbe tyranny (and hence the ensuing popular government) preced~ this. Aubo~net
Ellile of Themistocles and Democracy in the Peloponnese." CQ 31 (1981), 33~. esp. hypothesizes that these tyrants held power briefly towards the nuddle of the sixth
340-5. . .
90 Some have seen Herodotus' reference to a council and king with military authority at 7.149
century; Berve prefers to date Phoxon to after 550.94 ·, , '. · ; •
as indicating the presence of a conservative government.(Kiechle, "Argos und Tiryns" [as We find uncertain support for the appearance of democracy tn sixth-century
inn. 67) 19~.) Wtlrrle effectively refutes this, Verfammgsgeschichte (as inn. 67) 116-- Chalcis from two other sources. At lines 891-4 of the Theognidea, the poet
. 20, noting that some inscriptions from roughly that period seem to validate an ongoina laments the wasting of the Lelantine plain, saying the agathoi are banished and
democratization. "Sie schcint eine Demokratie gewesen zu sein, die in wichtigcn Einrich- the kakoi control the city. This could easily describe the violen! insta~la?on of a
tungen wie dem militlrischen Oberkommandound dem Prinzip der polilischen Gliederung . ' . . " ·. 1,, .

der BllrgerschaftTraditionen aus dem 6. Jahrhunden bewahne" (118). A. Andrewes, HCT

vol. 5 (Oxford, 1981), proposes that "the democracy might have replaced the damiorgoi by 92 Arist. fr. 603 (Rose), PoL 1289 b36--9;Hdt. 5.77.-6.100;Plut. Pe;.23.4.' , : ,
artynai, perhaps immediately after Sepea." The artynai u-e magistrates of the Argive 93 Antileon is approximately dated by a possible reference to him in a fragment of Alc~us,
democracy whom Thucydides (5.47.9) mentions as havin1 the duty to swear treaty oaths. born c. 620 (296a L-P). er.H. Berve,Die Tyrannis bei den Griechen, 2 vols. (Munich,
Cf. Plut. QG 1; Hesych. 1.v.4~ , 1967), 39-40, 538; Aubonoet, Politique (as inn. 58) 2.2, ~68,2~3., ,, ~,,~• , •·
u
91 Alternatively, we might translate eideto ttl poliieias "adhered to a constitutional form 94 Aubonnet, Politiqiu (as in n. 58) 2.2, 168; Berve. Tyl'QIIIUS
(~ 1ft n. 93) 39-40 prefers lh_e
later date " ••; weil aeiner Oewalthemchaft eioe Dcmoluaue folgte, doch et:abren war
of government" (suggested by Manin Ostwald). However, in those places where Aristotle
uses the words echo and politeia to impartthat a given governmenttook the fonn of a polity. immerhin, da8 ihn der Demos in Zusammenwirkenmit den Vomehmen [the H1ppobotae]
his expression is always echein Ii politeias, with the verb in the active andtakin1Ii u a stllnte." Cf. Newman, Politic1 (as Inn.58) 329. · .., ·~ ·,, ,l
direct object (Pol. 1272 bS-9; Arlt. Pol. 41.2).
 7. Chios 91
90 Chapler 3: Archaic Dt'mokratiai

democracy in Chalcis. Yet the last line appears to invoke the wrath of Zeus upon the hesitation to use the term democracy also comes from the preconception that
the Cypselids, implying association with a different set of events. 95 Finally, the there were no democracies in Greece this early. As the present investigation has
first known Chalcidian coins depict horsemen and a quadriga, c. 540 and 530/20. begun to establish archaic democracy as a real l~kelih~, we may find that the
No more horses appear on later issues, which feature an eagle in flight. These case for demokratia in Chios during the era of this law is rather strong.
coins probably originate in the last two decades of the sixth century. 96 We might Since the 1909 publication by Wilamowitz of the inscription Paul Jacobs.thal
speculate that the horses were associated with rule by the Hippobotae, and the found on Chios, scholars have made use of the document to su~port vanous
disappearance of this type signaled the end of their dominance and the beginning contentions about the Athenian state - the attested boul~ demos1~ sup~sedly
of democratic government after the ouster of Phoxon. · shows that there could indeed have been a Solonian council ?f400 1D addition !o
In sum, the poetic and numismatic evidence is highly uncertain, leaving the the Areopagus; and its date has been taken t~ prove loman. advancement m
98
vaguely d~t~d testim.ony of Aristotle as the primary evidence for a sixth-century constitutional development relative to the Athemans. If we wish to ~ome to .th~
demokrat1a in Chalets. It would be truly astounding if the long leadership of the soundest conclusions concerning Chios, however, we should avoid a prwn
aristocratic Hippobotae were not occasionally interrupted by the sort of periodic judgments about where the document ought to fit in terms of date ~r advance-
revolutio~ o~e finds in almost every Greek polis. The cases of archaic tyranny ment: just because it seems to have been of the same era as the Soloman reforms
and consutuuonal overthrow represent just such interruptions. Yet if democracy does not mean the content is similar or one was modeled after the other. .
appeared in Chalcis sometime in the sixth century, there is little to suggest that it Let us first try to establish an approximate d~te .for the document. Wilamo-
took root, and more likely than not it was ultimately overturned by another witz, followed by Tod, sets the date to c. 6?°·
T~s i~ bas_;;don letter-forms and
tyranny or succumbed to the influence of the Hippobotae. perhaps also on comparisons with Solon s leg1slauon. In her fundamental
reexamination of the stone, Jeffery lowers the date to c. 575-550. Her argume~ts
benefit to some degree from work in the intervening half-century: but she.adrru~
10
7.CHIOS that the surviving material from archaic Ionia - and more especially <?11 s - ~s
still much too sparse to admit certainty in these matters. Jeffery demes that 1t
The popular nature of government in archaic Chios would be completely un- could have been carved before c. 570 principally because of the use of .the open
known to us but for one inscription dated to the first half of the sixth century (M- eta, which first appears on two Samian monuments from around th~t time (570
L 8). While ready to herald this document as a significant early sign of the and 560-50), whereas the older closed eta was ~till in use at Ab~ s.1mbel and at
development of popular institutions in Greece, scholars rarely go so far as to label Didyma just after the tum of the century.100Tius argument, while it may ~peak
the constitution it describes an actual democracy. This is partly due to an under- against a date before 600, is too thin to exclude with any ~onfidence a date ID the
standable caution: we have no literary testimony to support such a claim, and the 590s or 80s. The boustrophedon, crossed theta, and especially the. koppa suggest
" c 550 perhaps well before and even 600 would suit these charac-
document itself does not appear to be a "constitution," but rather a set of laws a d a te be ,ore . , ' , · ·11
concerning the administration of justice, of which only a portion survives. 97 Yet teristics. Recent discoveries from Samos render Jeffery s cone 1us1ons stt more
problematic. Dated confidently on stylistic grounds to 580-70, a statue of a
ava9'fui.a.
95 Mss. 1cu'1'd,i~mv/ov, cf. Suda IC'l>'I/EA.i&i!Y Gehrke, Stasu (as in n. 45) 38, notes
this "k(lnnte auf eine Demokratisierung deuten, doch ist gerade dieses Stilck frOher zu
dali~ren." D. Young, Theognis(Leipzig, 1971), 55, would apply this passage to the Atheni-
an victory and settlemenl of cleruchs in 506. On Theognis generally see n. 7 above. 98 Nordionische Steine (Berlin, 1909), 64-71. Wil.amowitz cl~arly had ~lon'!/aw:;:t~::
96 C. M. Kraay, Archaic and ClassicalGrulc Coins (Berkeley, 1976), 89-91. when he called the stele a "kurbis" and dated II to c. 600 in part heuse•:) G . hi
97 , We will note at the beginning of our discussion the possibility that this absolutely crucial d her litter als jllnger." (65). 0. Busolt and H. Swoboda (B-S rea • nee •
document has nothing 11 all to do with Chios! This strikin1 hypothesis has been argued
:c~ ~t~t:kunde 2 vols., 3rd ed.(Munich, 1920-26), 435, suggest that Solon :~bably
1
knew about the 1a:.Vain Chios when be made his reforms at Athens (cf. M. Ostwa , omo.r
recen1ly by O. Hansen, "Hestia Boulaia at Erythrae; Anr. Clms. 54 (1985), 27~. Bucd
on the fact that stone of the kind on which our inscription has been carved is rare on Chios
and the Beginnings of the Athenian Democracy [Oxford, 1969], 161-3): A. An~w~s,
bul common on Erythrae, Hansen assembles evidence (mostly concernin1 the presence of a
ultusis (Oxford, 1955), 21-2 and C. Hignett, A History of the Athenuui ConsSt1ltu~on
Probo ·1 .... ted here supports a o oman
cult of Hestia on Erythrae) that the stone was brought to Chios since its origillal carvin1 at (Oxford, 1952), 92-5, disagree on whether the counc1 __ , nd w·1
Erythrae. While interesting, Hansen'• case is not very compelling (among other things, Council of 400; Tod, Greek Historicallnscriptionr (Oxf?"1• 1946), 2-3 e. ~• /~
cults to Hestia were exll'Cmely common). His conclusion, even if right, bears little on our ' wiu' conclusion from this inscription that "the foundation for the org:''~f:;,;hy" On
investigation, u most of the arguments made here for a possible democracy in Chios would society and the Greek state was laid in Ionia, exaclly as for poe~- an, ~./ , :
in that case simply be transferred to Erythrae. There is, in fact, one piece of literary claims for early advancement in Jonia, seepart one above. ' · ., , · , ,. ,
1es1imony sugges1ive of early democracy in Erythrae: Ari1101le, PoL 1305 bl8-23, states 99 NiS (as in n. 98) 65; Tod 2-3. : . . h . ~. 1 ,. ~SA 5 I ~~956), 157-67, esp.
that the demo1,resentful at beingruled by only a few, overthrewthe oligarchic constitution 100L H. Jeffery, "The Courts e>fJusttce in Arc BI~ °'•. . , , ..., . , . , ,
of the Basilidae en tois archaiois chronois.O'Neil, DemocraticConsritutions(as in n. 67) 159-60. .
192-4.
 93
7.Chios
92 Chapter 3; Archaic Demolcra1iai

. . .. body beyond this we cannot know.) The

kouros contains a dedication with an open eta in the inscription. 101 In addition, a restrictions on membersbip m th e citi:z~n . • it is unknown how many
bronze cauldron also from Samos and dated to c. 570--60 bears another dedicatory document lists as officials demarch?' a:d :a;~e:~e-plural basileis, and Face B
inscription utilizing the open eta, together with the closed theta. 102 These finds there were of each, though Fa~e D hne . s o ma have only been one. From
showing the open eta in use in eastern Ionia very early in the sixth century lines 2-3 reads para demarchoi,suggesting there y to have been an important
th
seriously undermine Jeffery's attempt to down-date the Chian law towards 550. the ~rovisions of the do_cument e)~~;"~!~: :::.s with financial and judicial
In fact, the epigraphic evidence accommodates a date anywhere between c. 600 magistrate of (as we mi_ghte~pect survivor as at Athens, from some
and c. 550, with perhaps the best guess pulling it in the 570s. responsibilities. 106 Bas1leusis presu;ably ~ could ~ot be one of the basileis:
The stone was carved so one could read it on all sides, and was likely earlier, more autocrat~c office. The t'7:':iie sdemarchosafter implicating both
freestanding and displayed in a public space. 103 We can probably accept that the despite the fact that lme 6 refers on Y • fklov..£'\XOV shows that the
faces of the stone are consecutive and are arranged as Jeffery suggests. 104 The offices previously, the phrase 7"t 6
µev -:::;':;i~on for basileis is made on a
gaps created by the absence of the bottom of the stone make coherent translation two are separate offices. (Poss1b Y_a sep th urt the demarchos presides over
practically impossible except for Face C, which is written horizontally instead of missing part of the stone.) Conceivably, e co only mean a popular
. f ba •t • 101 611J10x:ed.'llJ1£VOcan
venically. There is no recognizable (i.e., formulaic) beginning or ending, so a might be a tribunal o si eis. . t nl once a month to conduct
substantial ponion of the law may well be missing. Various panial translations · assembly. Given that the counc1_lma~ m:10:./we should probably imagine
have been offered, including Oliver's rather ambitious effort based on confident business (Face C lines 3-6; see discussto~ ho basis though more frequent
restorations: he hypothesizes that not much of the stone is actually lacking.just a meetings of the assembly only on an c •
few letters from each line. This is a dubious assumption. No basis exists for
supposing any particular height of the stone, and thus restoring and translating (text adapted from M-L 8)
the whole law becomes an arbitrary exercise. It would be better to interpret what
we have and resist the temptation to fill in the precise words we need to make the FACE A (front)
stone say what we expect. IDS
➔
At first glance the terms used seem very democratic, or at least populist, l [• • -]Ka11l~: Icm.1\~611J10 +-
though we must have a care not to read too much into this alone (sec text on pages 2 P1\tpa~: ♦'llM<Joro[v •• ·] · ·
93-4). Demos and its cognates (demarchos,demosie) appear often. As we would 3 (-. -]ov: 11pei: 1U1µev 61\µap · · · ,
expect in an official document from such an early period, demos ought not to be 4 xrov : 1\ fkJ<nU'\XOV
: 6£1Cao(&rit(?) • - ·]
taken in its later, often rhetorical, sense of the poor or the masses, but of the whole 5 [---]; Icm."TKa1to6otro61U1a
people, i.e., the entire free adult male community. (Whether there were any 6 pxecov : e~1tP1\~0t: tOVe[~eta<J'tTIV('?) • -]
7 [-•-]EV 611J10X:£1CA,UU:VO
8 OA0\0\ "n111\6t1tA1\<J[
t1\ • - ·]
JOI H. Kyrieleis, "Neue archaische Skulpturen aus dem Heraion von Samos," in A.rchaischc 9 [·. -]v OCl1\V~pa~uq(.]
u!ld lclassischegriechische Plasril, vol. 2 (Mainz am Rhein, 1986), 35-45, esp. 38. Kyriel-
eis notices the early letter-form,but rather than defending its significancehe suggests that
the letter was used in monumentalinscriptionsearlier than other 1i1uationa,and offen the
possibility that the inscription could have been added h11er than the sculp111re; SEG 31
FACEB (right side)
- ·· ( 1987) #728, 232-3; A. P. Matthaiou,'"The DedicatoryInscriptionon the Colossal Kouros ➔
1 [. c. 3 .. ]TJV3 1\lClCA~ ~i[lC'I\. -] .
of Samos," Ancient Wor/4 19 (1989), 67-8. +-
102 E. Homann-Wcdckina,["Vortrag llber Neufunde im Heraion voa Samoa,")AA 84 (1969), · ~ 2 [·. ·) 1\v 3£ a6uc,ytat: ,rapa
· 554-5; G. Dunst, "Archaischenlnschriftenaus Samoa,"MDAI 87 (1972), 137-8 Taf. 62; G. · · 0 ~ • • ·]
3 61\llap~ro : <J"ta11ll)[
Shipley, A Hu10,y of Somo, 800-/88 BC (Oxford. 1987). B8-9; SEG 34 ( I987), #729, 233.
103 Hi>lkeskamp,"Written Law" (u in ■. 21) 99-100.
104 Jeffery, "Courts" (u inn. 100) 157~2. ,
105 J. H. Oliver, "Text of the So-Called Constitutionor Chios from the first half of the Sixth
Century B.C." AJP BO(1959), 296-301. Difficultiea within the translation l11elffurther !,.'.,
hamper Oliver'• attempt at a universal R:ndering.At more than one point he resorts to a
word in an unattested sense to achieve bia meaning, and he jarrinaly compresses Into the 106 Jeffery, "Courts"(~ In a. 100) 164-:5, 69 448. The only other kind of ~ngly"_ power
finl race R:gulationaabout the tithes or Hestia with a law about doubled penalties and 107 So speculates Carlter, Ro_Yt?utl
(u !n n~ the fifth and fourth centuries, including the
forfeited lawsuits (see discussion below). Some of hia intetpmationa may be correct, but attested at Chios are rebg1ous duties . 446-9) •
pronouncina of curses against malefacton (Carher, . •
his endeavor to render the documentu if nearly complete fail&IOconvince.
94
Chapter 3 : Archaic Demokratiai
7. Chios 95
FACE C (back)
1 EKKa4:cr8ooei; meetings are of course possible. Like most Greek popular assemblies, it would
have included all free adult male citizens. 108 The boule demosie, attested elsew-
2 J3oA.TJV't'TJV IITJµ
here in Ionia, 109 will be discussed below.
3 om TJV''tTJl'tpl't'TJl
4 E~ EJ36oµaioov
5 l30ATJ ayepEcr8
Interpretation
6 ooTJIITJµOmTJ e
7 1tl8ooioi;A£IC't
It is difficult to make sense out of the first two and a half lines off ace A (to TJPEt),
8 TJ 1tEV't'TJ(jlOV't
a1t
9 0 ~Ut..TJi;· except in snatches. Because of the uncertainty about the amount of space missing
'ta t a'-['-1 at the end of lines, it makes the most sense to take a conservative approach, and
10 a 1tpTJcrcruoo ta IITJ not attempt to •~umpthe gaps" to connect up all the available fragments. The duty
11 µo Kai lltKa[i; o]
of the anonymous official to "safeguard the rhetras (decrees? laws?) of the
12 [c;,o]cratav EKKt..
people" - IITJµO v - stands out for its populist tone. 110 The rest
pTJtpai;4l>uA.acrcroo[
13 TJ'tOl'YEVOOV['t]
of the face seems to involve judicial procedures used to protect the people from
14 [ai] 'tO µTJvoi;1t
abuse of power by the magistrates. The one common point throughout Faces A
15 acrai; E1tt[... 1 and B is the demarchos - his abuses, what he pays, what if you are injured in his
16 [ .. c. 4 .. ]q~~R[. c. 3 .. ] court. Lines 3-6 declare that a demarchos or basileus if he takes bribes 111 is to
17 [----]
pay a fine while in office, and the auditor is to exact it. A break of indeterminate
length intervenes between this clause and line 7, ]Ev IITJµO KEICA.TJµEVO. Rather
than try to form a sentence which bridges this gulf (as does Jeffery: "the auditor is
FACED (left side) to exact ..• when the people have been assembled"), it is better to take this line
[- • • • A]pteµunoovoi; with the next two. The resulting passage says that convictions in the assembly
2 [- • • -Jwv opicia E1tt ➔ (aloiai; presumably resulting from appeals made to that body from the court of a
➔ demarchos) receive a double penalty. This makes for a sensible interpretation,
3 tOµVE'tCO Cj>oo[µvmw
(?) - -1
4 [- · • J3)qm4:umv. vacat +- though it depends on understanding the difficult aloiai to mean "convictions."

108 Such would be the natural assumption for a Greek assembly, even an early one, though ii
cannot be confirmed, of course; nor do we know for certain lhal the lower-class citizens
were not hindered from full and equal participation in some fashion (perhaps as Thersites'
treatment in The Iliad). Cf. Rhodes, Commentary(as in n. 63) 140-1. Yet the world of
heroic royalty and class privilege seems far away in this inscription - there is no particular
reason to suspect that the Chian assembly was unusually restrictive or oppressive.
109 Athenaeus (15.55.17) records that Hipponax (128 West) wrote a parody of epic in which he
refers to a popular council ordering someone's death: ... 01to,,;"'11♦ilil i.aKo~ 1Ca1eov
ohov
ll).111al/ Jlou).ij 611µoal1]1mpa IJiv' a).o~ <i1puye1olo, (" ..• how that he, miserable one,
shall in miserable doom perish by stoning at the people's decree by the shore of the
unharvested sea." (Loeb translation]). Hipponax (fl. 540) lived in Ephesus until he was
exiled by tyrants, then went 10 Clazomenae. This may have occurred c. 540-30; it shows
that authoritative popular councils were a known phenomenon in the third quarter of the
si,nh century B.C.
11O As with the legendary Lycurgan rhetra, rht!!trashere is likely used as an archaic word for
nomos, with no special significance (D. M. MacDowell, Spanan Law [Edinburgh, 1986), 3;
cf. LSJ s.v. 11.2).Yet one might consider the word in its etymological meaning of "saying,"
so as to read the phrase demo rhetrasas "the words of the people." Interpreted this way, the
duty to "protect the words of the people" implies anactive role by the demos in creating the
law in the first place. Cf. C. D. Buck, Grtek Dialects (Chicago, 1955), 370.
111 6uaq(9Tlt is Jeffery's restoration. Oliver offers 6uaq[TJl with the unattested meaning
"levy a lithe."
96 Chapter 3: Archaic Dmwlcratiai 7. Chios 97

This is Oliver's suggestion, and better than Jeffery's unenthusiastically offered appealed cases as there may be from that month ... " The verb 1tp11o<JEtro in line
"assaults," yet it is novel. 112The last line of the face mentions some amount being 10, "conduct," could go with 6llcac;as well as ta t' alla ... ta 6T1µ0.This verb
the same as in convictions (QQ1lY!J:OI?a),.o~Cl,l[v)), but without knowing anything has a general meaning and does not help us decide how the popular council
from the missing space further guesswork is hazardous. Wade-Gery also joins actually acted on these cases. There could be some more specific verb on the mis-
lines 7 and 8, agreeing that the assembly met in connection with appeals and the sing part of the stone (meaning "judge" or "refer," for example), but if so we are
doubled fines, though he favors a complicated explanation involving a stone- equally at a loss.
cutter's error in order to read aloi, "(if) he is convicted" instead of aloiai.113 Commentators have gone back and forth between the alternatives of suppos-
Thus far the document seems concerned mostly with legal procedures invol- ing the council acted probouleutically on behalf of the assembly (Wade-Gery,
ving magistrates and protecting the community, as it has moved from a statement Jeffery), or decided all cases itself (Jeffery, Oliver, Rhodes). 117The latter seems
about guarding the laws of the people, to fines in case of bribery, to appeals implausible given that this document explicitly states they are to meet just once
against a magistrate'sjudgments. We continue with appeal procedures on Faces per month (t111tptt1'J\ e~ E~6oµaioov) - when they also co?duct th~ rest _ofthe
B and C. Face B has the same difficulties as Face A in terms of an unknown people's business (tat' alla •.. -ea 6flµo). Surely one day 1s t~ bnef a time ~o
quantity of missing letters, so again we will not be able to offer a coherent actually resolve multiple lawsuits as well as handle other important pubhc
translation; but Face C, being written horizontally, is far more complete. The first matters. Further meetings could (and probably did) take place to transact differ-
line of Face B, with ]TJV6 1'JICICA.1'Jt~ 114 6l[K11,continues to lay out appellate ent business, but the council is mentioned in this document to hear the judicial
procedures. It is cut off from previous lines by the 6'. and later lines by an appeals, and only one day is given for such action. Probouleusis, therefore,
uncertain number of spaces as well as the 6e of line 2. We can only guess at how presents a better alternative: we can be fairly certain from the pro~isions on Face
the missing part of the stone completed the sentence. Lines 2 and 3 read 11v6e A that the de mos did assemble to hear appeals, though we have no idea how often;
06l1C1'JtOl1tapa 6flµapxcot... , translatable as "if one has been wronged on the part the council on their one day would have prepared the matter for the assembly's
of the demarchos .... " The wronged person can apparently make an appeal to the attention, possibly deciding when the assembly met. · , . •.
boule demosie mentioned on Face C: the opening words there are £1C1CaA.£a8o> ei; We should at least mention another possibility which takes into account the
Pol11vt1'JV6T1µ0mf1v.Beginning a whole new section with a third-person impera- assembly's role in hearing appeals: that the council assessed the penalty to be
tive (and no particle) is very unlikely, so this appeals process must be connected imposed on an already convicted magistrate. The emphatic labeling ~f the ~oun-
to the previous lines concerning injustice at the hands of a demarchos, with the cil as e1tl8coloc;points in this direction; and we know popular councils typically
intervening (missing) line explaining how the staters are involved.1 15 But what held a degree of punitive authority. 118 The wronged litigant perhaps had the
exactly did the council do with these appeals? The rest of Face C can be option of receiving a certain number of staters (line 3, Face B)_~~or making an
translated: "On the third day from the Hebdomaea let the popular council meet appeal to the boule demosie. The assembled people he~ the imtial appe~ from
with the authority to fine (£1tt0colo~,116chosen fifty from each tribe. In addition magistrates' court, after which the council could be invoked to _pumsh the
to conducting all other business of the people, let it (conduct?) however many magistrate or make some further restitution. However, we cannot po1~t to paral-
lels in other Greek states in support of this conjecture. Moreover, the mterpreta-.
tion is only possible because the lines flY 6e a6llC1'Jta\ 1tapa 6flµapxcot •··
112 Oliver, "Text" (as in n. 105) 300; Jeffery, "Courts" (as in n. 100) 163. £1CICOA.£<J0coec; l}oA.flV
t1'JY6T1µ0mT1V ("if one has been wronged on the part of the
I 13 H. T. Wade-Oery, "The Judicial Treaty with Phaselis," appendix A, in Essay&in Gn~lc demarchos ••• let him appeal to the boule demosie") do not specify whether the
History (Oxford, 1958), 198-9; Jeffery, "Courts" (as inn. JOO)163--,.4;cf. M-L 8. ,
114 I.e., I\ b:1tA1l<t~.
person in question merely claims that he is injured and wishes to appeal _to ~e
115 It could read something like cnat11plai; &Ex1Eo8<o e1tat0Y 111,
or •.. Kal). The staten could council/assembly to prove it, or has achieved "injured status" by already wmmng
also, however, represent ■ deposit to be made witli the demarclw.t, leavin1 unclear under his case in the assembly and seeks punishment of the official. Yet we would
what circumstances appeal to the council can be made. Oliver, "Text" (u inn. 105) 301; expect the use of the aorist subjunctive rather than the present subjunctive in TtV
Jeffery, "Courts" (u inn. 100) 164-5. 6£ a611C1'Jt0\were we to understand that the "wrong" had already been estab-
116 Jeffery, supponed by other recent commentators, argues for thi1 renderin1 of ■ liapax lished at the time of appeal to the council. 119In all, the most likely role for the
ltgome11011 because this pan of the document concerns itself with appeal1to the popular
council: it only follows that ii be given explicit authority to penalize. On the other hand,
council was that of a probouleutic body which in some way Pr:e_paredthe. legal
Msubject to fine," i.e., for non-attendance. is an equally plausible interpretation of the matters for the assembly to consider. ,, . . .
Greek, takin1 tpithoios in a passive rather than active 1CRse.Aristotle IIOlel that oli1■rchies
Impose z~miai on (wealthy) ma1istrates. usembly-goera, and juror& who fail to p■nicipate 1.17 J;ff~. ,"Courts" (~·in °n: 100) 164; Wade~,·Es~ay~ (~ in ~- 113) 198-9; Oliver,
(Pol 1294 a37-il, 1297 alS-38). Jeffery, "Courts" (as inn. 100) 166. Oliver, "Text" (as in "Text" (u inn. 105) 300-1; Rhodes, Comnl4ntary(as inn. 63) 160 n.13.
n. 105) 301, M-L 8, and U. Walter (An dtr Polit ,~illiaben IStuttgan, 1993), 91) concur 118 B-S, vol.l, .54~; and see note 109 above. ,. 1 , " • ~, · , ,
with Jeffery, pact LSJ s.v. 119 KOhner-Oerth, AusfUhrlicheGrammatiktier Grieclii.rclien Spracli• 2.2 (Hannover, 1904),
475.
 98 Chapter 3: Archaic Demokratiai 7.Chios 99

This document, even if it is not strictly speaking a "constitution," informs us revolutionary change in the Chian constitution from oligarchy to democracy
about several aspects of the Chian political and administrative order. First, there (inspired because the oligarchs were too authoritarian, agan despotikas), but
is a clear concern to keep the magistrates under the authority of the demos. They provides no indication of when it occurred. 123 This offers a possible context for
are to protect the demo rhetras. The name of what seems to be the chief official is the fall of the traditional aristocratic regime and the initiation of the popular
demarcho~. Provisio_n~of some kind are made in case of bribery on the part of government. However, given the known cases of defeated oligarchies in Chios of
these offictals, and citizens possess the right to appeal verdicts of the magistrates the fifth and fourth centuries, concluding that Aristotle composed this passage for
to the popular assembly and/or the popular council. Second, the assembly itself a late-seventh or early-sixth century event remains no more than a possibility .124
has a role to play, probably hearing the appeals of cases against magistrates. At None of this outside information testifies to a democratic government in early
the very least, then, the Chian constitution grants the same sort of power to the sixth-century Chios. At best it provides a suitable background for one._T~e
assembly as did Solonian Athens - a power which Aristotle considered to be inscription under consideration remains, then, the key. Was the ~e"!os /cyrios m
a~ong the m?st demotik~n in that constitution.'2° This power may have already the running of the government? The reference to the assembly with its presumed
existed at Ch1os when this set of laws was published: the text is not complete, of power to hear appeals against the judgments of ~agistrates suggests ~at it had
course, but the phrase ]ev llriµo 1C£1CA.riµ£vowithout further specification implies the ultimate authority in the state. The other hmts about the centrality of the
that this is not a new provision, whereas Face C clearly shows that new proce- demos (i.e., the names and duties of the officials) would support this contention.
dures are being made regarding the popular council. Yet if the people's authority as expressed in the assembly was only r~ly
We also learn that the popular council played a rather prominent role. The exercised - and nothing in this document tells us how frequently the Chians
appeal provisions are significant regardless of whether we interpret the role of the convened this body - we cannot assert that the assembly controlled the govern-
council as chiefly probouleutic or punitive; yet even more telling is the passing ment.
reference to the handling of "the other affairs of the demos." This suggests that As far as we can glean from this law, true power in the Chian ~dministrati?n
the popular council, either meeting on the third day after the Hebdomaca, or resided not just with the assembly, but with the popular council as well: its
(more likely) on other occasions as well, had the responsibility to transact most of involvement in the appeals process and in conducting the other public business
the administrative business of the Chians. This would surely have been done in (ta t' aU.a ... ta 6riµo) places it at the center of the politeuma. As we have
conjuncl~on with the state executives (the demarchoi and basileis, possibly seen 125 Aristotle's discussion of the deliberative function in government (to
others) g1v~nthe large number of councilors, but it emphasizes the tight rein kept boul~uomenon) shows that a popular assembly need not meet and vote on all
on the magistrates by the representatives of the demos. public matters for a demokratia to exist: various c?mbi~ations o~ councils and
Could this political order have amounted to a democracy? Let us first look at assembly meetings are sufficient, as long as the del!berat1ve function as a :Whole
what else we know about early Chian history. Tradition has it that Oinopoion son remains in the hands of the demos. In Chios, as long as the boule demos1e was
of Theseus founded Chios sometime in the era of the Trojan War. The rule of representative of the demos, the constitution cou~d be cons~dered dem~ratic.
ki~gs, such as that of the semi-historical King Hector (great-grandson of Oino- How might we determine if this was the case? First, there 1s the name itself.
p01-on), probably gave way to the aristocratic Basilidae, c. 800 or later. The Scholars have often assumed, not unreasonably, that demosie meant that this
tyrants Amphicles and Polytechnon seized power, maybe sometime in the se- name contrasted it with a more aristocratic body. 126 This assum~tio~, it turns o~t,
venth century.121Chios seems to have prospered economically very early, with is not entirely certain. As Ampolo has pointed out, the adJectiv~ demosios
strong trade, an active navy, and the use of many slaves. Gehrke makes a reason- ("belonging to the people or the state") usually contrasts the public from the
able case for a "gap" between the aristocratic class and the numerous tradesman
and sailor classes of sixth- and fifth-century Chios; the hoplite class appears to .
172-89 is cited rather often for his conclusion that the democ~tic start si~nalcd by the c.
have been relatively small. He argues that this would have provided a good back-
570 inscription did not go very far. This view is based almost eourely on evidence from and
ground for early political progressiveness. 122Aristotle (Pol. 1306 b3-.5) notes a
for the fifth century, by which time the constitution surely had unde~gone more -~an one
change. See O'Neil, Demacratic Constitutions (as in n. 67) 128-32; 1d.• The Ong1n.sand
120 Ath. Pol. 9.1. Rhodes, Commentary(as inn. 63) 160-2. Developmt!ntof Ancient GreelcDemocracy (Lanh~, ,Maryl~d, 1?9~), ~2-5. ,
121 Plut. Thu. 20.2; Paus. 7.4.9-10; FGrH 421 FI (Hippiu ofEurythrae); FGrH 392 Fl-2 (Ion 123 11:oUal lie:Ka\ liui to ciyav 6£0Kon1eo~ Elvai ta~ oA.\yapx\~ ll'JIO twv t.v 'til ~A.\'1£\<,
of Chios). RE 1.v. Chios (vol. 3, 1899), esp. 2295--6; W. G. Forrest, "Colonization and the nvo\v lioox£pavavu11v 1Ca"t£A.li8t:oav, 0>171reP
TIt.v Kvili<p1eo\.TIt.v Xi'.4'~\yapxla ("And
Rise of Delphi," Historia 6 (1957), 168 with n. 9; Aubonnet, Politique (as in n. 58) 2.2, many governments were overthrown by certain partici~ants who were d'.scon!ent~ because
184-S; C. Roebuck, "Chios in the Sixth Century BC," in I. Boardman, ed. Chio, (1986) the oligarchies were too autocratic, like the one in Cn1dus and the one 1n Chios. )
81-8. ' 124 Aubonnet, Politiq11e(as in n. 58) 2.2, 184-S.
122 H.-J. Gehrke, Jen.seitJvo11 Athe11und Spana (Munich, 1986), 121-2; cf. Roebuck, "Chios" 125 Chapter two, part one.
(as in n. 121) 81-8. W. G. Forrest, "The Tribal Organization of Chios," BSASS (1960), 126 Cf. C. Ampolo, "La llouA-11 &i,µoai11 di Chio," PP 38 (1983), 401-16, esp. 404-5.
 -- --- - -----
8. Cnidus
101
100 Chapter 3: ArchaicDemo/cratiai

. . ·n i norance of them.131At no period in Chios'

private or the profane from sacred, not the democratic from the aristocratic. 127 property quahficat1onhs,we arbee 'ofgtr'1bes but it is likely that it was at least four

;;~!~!:i~:c::m::~
The contrast inferred from the demosie in boule demosie could be with local tribal h" tory do we know t e num r ,
2
councils, Ampolo argues. 128It would seem to follow, then, that we cannot assume (~~nsidering the four_origi?al ~onian tribes).: T:is :;;
just from the label demosie that the council was "democratic." On the other hand, in the popular council, which is a large num r or
what else would a popularly elected, democratic council be called? "Boule t 133 ' f
demotike" cannot be held up as a more likely alternative, for it is unattested in y. In all, we are pr?bably co~ct to sdayhthebothul:t d~:~ge ;~ :~re:;,:;:et:e
Greek public documents, and indeed in all of classical Greek literature. The h ·· pulat1on of Ch10s, an ence • ·
t e c1uzen pode t lied the deliberative function within the state. There ~s
closest parallel Ampolo can adduce is a fourth-century inscription from Miletus assembly, the mos con ro . ratic council (such as the Areopagus m
mentioning a demotikon dikasterion, not at all the same thing. 129Unless a number no indication that another, more ar1s~~ G" en all the other considerations from
is used, such as in the Cleisthenic Council of 500, boule demosie is precisely the chon~emP?:i ~;h::~ t~~8:ft:::~ial ::nditions, demokrati~ would seem 0 !
name we would expect for a truly representative popular council. In short. t e mscn 1 . . H this concluS1onhas to remam
Ampolo may be correct in seeing only one Chian council and removing any best describe the constitutional situation.. o~ever, l set of laws affording a
confusion between demosie ("public") from demotike ("populist"), but he leaves
wide open the possibility that it was democratic, especially since there is now no
reason to posit a Chian "Areopagus" alongside the boule demosie.
glimpse at a functioning govei:nmen\
reference to a democratic revolution app ies o
it :s
uncertain. We do not have a whole consU:~:n, ~=o~~ng whether Aristotle's
pen·od the practices described
•f lit
in our document could conceivably apply to some form o _po y.
Further evidence for determining the representative nature of the boule
demosie appears on Face C, lines 7-9: the council is to be composed of fifty men
chosen (lekte) from each tribe. The mere fact of this reference implies that the 8.CNIDUS
selection of council members takes place on a regular basis, probably annually .130
What is the exact force of lekte - does it mean elected or allotted? The word does .. . , r
h t Cnidus in two passages in the
not specify one or the other. The number from each tribe may provide a clue, Aristotle describes the fall of an o ig~ ~ ':.zos
took advantage of internecine
however, for voting on this many members would be very cumbersome, while Politics. At 1305 bl2-18, ~e l~am th at e / and defeat them, ending the oli-
allotting randomly (as in the Cleisthenic Council of 500) or choosing in sequence struggles among ~he g~or1mo1tol set ~~06 b3-5 Aristotle remarks that at the

~=:~:
this number from the tribal registers would pose no problem. If there were any garchy. '" Only a httle bit farther a ong _a . are ~verthrown because they are
1
~:::::: ;: ~~~: 1;~h~~!~!:!s (6ui toayav 6£cmon1Cci~elvai
0
127 demo.rioslnin classical public documents appears almost exclusively in democratic con•
texts; yet there are exceptions (e.g., OGE 322-3). damo.rionalso appcan in I sixth century ' ' . . 6- 7 Face C) passively ~thcr than actively, the
_. · Argive inscription in the probable meaning of "the state." Sokolowski, Lou Socries (aa in 131 However, if one interprets tpi!hoios (It~ • _ ttendance, which might imply at least a
·1 will have been subJect to fine ,or non a .. • ,
. ' n. 72) 64-5; and see discussion of Elis below. ,' counc1on . bershi See note 116. · , , · '
i 128 "jlov),r\"(as inn. 126)405-16. Cf. R. Sealey.A History of the Gred: City-State.r(Berkeley; · minimal property requ1remen~for ~em !CK)) ~-66· Forrest, "Tribal Organization" (as in n.
1976), 120-1. Neither our document nor other soon:ea Jive any hint of a second council in· 132 8-S, t, 120; Jeffery, "Cou~" (as ~nn. • . ,
122) 176-7; Roebuck, "Ch1os (as ID n. 121) 87. I " lation ofChios at the beginning
Chios; and one is equally frustrated in attempting to locate an example of dual state councils
elsewhere in Greece outside of Athens - cf. Rhodes, Commentary(as in n. 63) 153. Thus lo 133 Roebuck, "Chios" (as in n. 121), puts the mat': ma e :Or warships at Lade - the total is
of the fifth century at about 20,000, based on ethnum This number should therefore be
assume one merely on the basis of the name boule demom makes little sense. However, it 'f no non-Chians were al e oars.
should be noted that Ampolo turns up very little in the way of solid evidence for his · correct only I we assume . habtn (as in n I J6) 97 n. 37, proposes 3000
putative, early, local tribal councils at Chios. For (later) information on Chian tribes, cf. treated only as a maxi~u?1. Walter, TedHdt. 6 IS and ~tes Beloch'~ estimate of 6000-
Forrest, "Tribal Organiution" (u in n. 122). O'Neil auggeall that the contrast ia with a propertied Chians at a m1mmumbased on . h. '1ien-rilmischenw,11(Leipzig, 1886),
7000 full citizens, Die BewJl/ct!n1ngder gnec isc . . . ,,, , u · .
prt!Yiou.raristocratic council, one replaced by the boule ,kmos;. of our inscription. Dem-
ocraticCon.rtitution.r (as in n. 67) 119. · 232-4. · ' · " · : · the >,reopagusin S~lonian Athens that makes
134 Significantly' it ia the precminent authonty of there in this era. Cf. Aristotle, Ath. PoL
129 SIG' 286, 1.17; Ampolo, "jlovlilj" (aa inn. 126) 406. demotiu is used frequently in fifth
. . It impossible to ~uild • stron1 case for democ= note 20. . . , ':, .
century literature, but u I description of government bodies it hardly ever appean in public 8 4 and discussion in chapter two, part one, • 'tliv yvo,plf&(OY avici'iv •po~
documents of the archaic or classical periods. 13S ~~pal£ &t ica\ ev Kvi6ql "16>.1yapxla ~aa=at6vtfllY 6 &ijµ~ ml 1apci,v
130 Oliver believes that thi1 law create, the council ("Text" [u inn. 105) 301), but this la , . . aiJw¼ &u~10 6>.lyo~ µ£UX£lv... bi>.a~µe~ yap da8£Y£~yap wcnacndtov. ("And
hardly necessary, u M-L maintain. If it were 10 we would expect a much more detailed
apomdt11vh tcilvyv01plJ10)Y, e,n&tµe~ ic ~I~ citizens fought among themselves
explanation of the method of ill aelection, 111dthe rechnical provision, are carved on the the oligarchy In Cnidua changed over when ~~ n their divisions. and takin1 a leader
one part of the stone where we can confidently rule out misaing provisions. 1belO lines beca111C too few had••~ ... for the umo;r ':' v':.fled- for I party in ;rtasi.r is weak.")
appearmerely lo specify the body, and possibly modify Its composition or 1ehedulln1ill from among the notables, it act upon them an pre
some way, u partof thelaw's new provisionsaboutits appellateresponsibilities. · · ., · •
 103
9.Cos
102 Chapter 3: Archaic Demolr.ratiai

age that the popular revolution preceded 530. However, this reasoning is tenuous,
·· · co~e:p ii Ev Kviliq>•·· 011.tyapxia). Not all scholars agree that these passages and nothing concrete prevents (or promotes) a later date for the revolution,
de_scnbe_the same e_vents.136While two separate revolutions against Cnidian perhaps down into the fourth century.140
ohgarch1es ~e ~ertamly possible, Aristotle most likely refers to a single event,
brought u_p1_ndifferent contexts and viewed from slightly different perspectives.
Th~ prox1m~tyof the two references to Cnidus in the text and in subject make it 9.COS
unhkel~ Anstotle ~ad _twoseparate incidents in mind. In both cases the initial
trouble m t~e const~tut1onarose from dissatisfied members of the elite. At 1305 Herodotus (7 .164) describes how the ruler of Cos gives up his autocratic power in
b_l2-18, Anstotl~ discusses the event in the most detail, explaining how the civil the late 490s 141in favor of a more popular regime. Cadmus willingly and out of a
discord began with the gnorimoiand spread to the opportunistic demos,who took sense of justice gave up the tyrannical power be bad inherited from his father
as ~ leader one _of the ~pper class. The later passage brings Aristotle back to Scythes 142 and handed over rule of the state to the Coan people (E~µtaov Kcpoun.
~md~s from a shghtly different angle, this time to show how excessive despotism ica,:a8e:i.~fllVapxftv). This signals at the very least that the government of Cos
10 oligarchy can invite disaster. Such a summary description easily accommo- ceased being arbitrary, and there is the implication that the people as a whole
dates the course of events in the earlier passage, only this time the perspective controlled affairs, which could mean democracy. Herodotus uses similar phrasing
seems lo be more that of the rebellious prostates,in that we sec bow arbitrary use at 3.80.2 when Otanes describes his isonomie;at 3.142 when describing Macan-
of power ~ould motivate defections from among the elite. drius' abortive attempt to lay down his tyranny c.522, and at 4.161 for Demonax'
In n~1ther passage docs Aristotle define the new order which followed the reforms at Cyrene from roughly the same period. Otanes clearly describes a
fallen oligarchy, b~t it is likely to have been substantially more democratic given democracy, and in the case of Maeandrius, where Herodotus has him say t~
the thorough ~~~ v10le~touster of the previous rulers and the forceful role played µtoov fllVapx,ftv n&i.~ laovoµi.1\V uµtv 1tpoayop£'U(I)("I proclaim your isono-
by the demos• As with the report of popular revolution in Ambracia (discussed mie, having ceded my authority"), the word isonomienstrongly suggest that some
a~ve), the natural _suppo~itionis that a demokratiawas established, but no direct fonn of democracy was intended, given Herodotus' use of isonomieelsewhere in
evidence can confirm this. Th~ defection of a few notable personages to the his history.143 The timing of Cadmus' abdication of power, c. 494-0, may also_be
popular cause would have provided the early leadership of the new state; it need significant: this is the period in which Herodotus (6.43.3) reports that Mardonius
not _have posed a threat to a nascent democracy, as demonstrate the actions of was installing demokratiaiin Greek cities of Ionia, suggesting toleration of this
Cle1sthenes after his defeat of Isagoras by means of an alliance with the peo 1 fonn of government within Persia's area of influence. 144 · , , -
, The greatest pr~blcm_with ~eing an early democracy in Cnidus is the d!:~ 1.-, 1

?f !he _even~ ~esc~bed 10 Anstotle. The philosopher offers no chronological 140 Cf. Newman, Politics (u Inn. 58) vol. 4, 349; B-S 1.358; RE s.v. Knidos (vol. 11, 1921),
md1c~t1ons10 ~1s discussion. Plutarcb tells us that the Cnidian oligarchy appoin- esp. 919; Aubonnel, Politique(as in n. 58) 2.2, 177; Gehrke, Stasis (u in a. 45) 79. "· '
ted, sixty offic~al~ f~r life t~ ?versee the greatest matters,138 and we know from 141 On the date: Herodocus 11y1 these evenll ~ Cadmus' role u an observer of lhe
Aristotle ~at it ~muted ~htical participation to members of the elite families. Penian war for Oelon of Syracuse in 481. Moreover, HerodotuSreports that (immediately?)
When dealing with an ohgarchy of this type, one's first guess would be to locate after giving up his rule in Cos this man went to Sicily (t; ~aov Kf\lOlOlicato~l; 'rilv
such_a go~em~ent early, probably in the archaic period. Even more uncenain, cipxi'tvolxeio e; I1ict).l11v)and received Zancle from the Sam1ans,who had taken 11w~n
fleeing from the Peniana in 494, In Thucydides, 6.4.5-6, we leant that noc long after this
num1s~at1c evidence might suggest that any revolution happened either before c. Anaxi111,tyrant of Rhegium, expelled the Samians (and presumably Cadmus as well).
53~ or m the ~ourth century, for in the intervening period the designs of Cnidian Cadmus. then, probably departed Cos soon after 494. Cf. How and Wells, Co,nmelllary (11
comage remamed remarkably constant. 139 If so, we may surmise from the coin- •·-· inn. 76)vol.2, 199. ,• , , ,,... , ,.. ,,,.. ,-' ,, , •' ,.· · ·, ra--·" , ,,, ', .. ,
... 0 d• 'i ' 142 7.163. This may have been the former lord of Zancle who found asylum with the Persians,
136 Newman, Poliric1(11 inn. 58) vol. 4, 349; Aubon:iea.Polit~!# (II in L 58) 2.i 1n: though Herodotus' description of Cadmus as a Coan who inherited from his father a well-
Gehrke, Sta.ri,(u in n. 45)79. . , . , . . , ' established (eu bebl6kuian)tyranny on Cos tells against iL Cf. Hdt. 6.23-4; How and Wells,
137 If ":'e un~rlland the verb dramen in line 17 10 mean ~led" or "held awa~.~then Commentary (11 inn. 76) vol. 2, 198-200; S. M. Sherwin-White,Ancient Cos (06ttingen,
,, Aristotle directly states, ~ not j~Sl implies, that the delllDIsubsequently controlled the ,,1978)33withn.20. ,,,,,. :,_"••· :.,,,,.,.,.~. f·
go~em!"ent. Ho~ev~, 11venthe nnmediately precedini .,,itlie11UnM,the 1Manin1 - 143 Ostw~d'I analysis shows uonomiein Herodotus to have been closely associated, though
valled, "were v1clooou1"ia preferable. ,. , • ....... , not coterminous, with demokratia(NolMI [u inn. 98) 107-13). See chapter two, pantwo;
13'8'Qiuult. Gr. 4..~ o!ficial1 were the curiously entitled Ol&VflllOVtli,which term P;utan:h •, , and the discussion, ofCyrene and Samoa below.; ~-,., ·\,,,;,•,.,, ' l,' · ,-.,,., ; ,,. ' "
aeeks 10 explain 1n h11treatment. Cf. W. R. Halliday, TM Grut Que1tiofu of Pl111arc1t 144 io~ yapwpavvo~ 'Cliv"ICIWO>V 1ta~ !Id~ oMap&,~ ~Kpatl.°' 1ta~crm
(Oxford, 1928), 47-9 .. , , . , -ra;
t; 1t0).1°' ("for Mardonius put down all the tyranta of the Ion1ans and established
139 On the~ hand, the Alhenian owls were probably ~.:ci~ b~,~~11 RM-.;_ not - c1emocraclesIn their citiea"). Cf. Sherwin-White. Co1(u in 11. 142) 33-4. How and Wells,
, 1u_bstant1ally alteredunderthedemocracy. OnearlyCnidiancoins,see H. A. Cahn,KllidfM COffllfllntary (u in n. 76) ad /oc.,may be right lhat Herodotusexaggerated in this statement.
· Die Ma~en de, 1echste11unddl61/Unfte11 Jahrltwtderu v. Cltr. (Berlin, 1970). •
 104
Chapter 3: Archaic Demolcratiai
10. Cyrene 105
Yet on the basis of this evidence alone it would be somewhat ambitious to
maintain that democracy definitely existed in Cos at this time. A passage in the 10.CYRENE
Politics may provide the needed corroboration. At 1304 b20 and following
Aristotle discusses how democracies tend to fall due to the insolence (aselgeia)
of their leaders, who by their outrageous acts unite the wealthy in opposition to !:
6In2tthheecpoo~~:~f ::n
.
. fC
;si/:h~~:'ror
B
history Herodotus describes at 4.159-

b
a tin:e brought a new politictlalordedr
reatthe
influx of newtoset ers an
them. He reports that a demokratia at Cos was overthrown in just such a way: 1\ to the traditionally monarchic s~ate. ese~l y allgled Cyreneans disastrous
m,µ01epatia µ£tE/3aA.£ltOVTtpciiv eyy£voµevrov6tUtaywy<i>v, ol yap yvoiptµOl fi l'tical disagreements, King Arces1 aus d
ierce po 1 . . 555 SO147 Arcesilaus was murdered, an
auveat11aav ("The democracy gave out when the demagogues became degener- defeat in battle agamst ~e Libyans:· -U~der these trying circumstances the
ate, for the notable citizens joined together"). Once again, Aristotle fails to
the kingship pas~eddto h~~a1;:tf~~nad::~tand the oracle told them to bring in a
include any information about when this event took place, so we do not know if it Cyreneans appe . e to P . ' monax came and made a number of
was the more popular government created by Cadmus that suffered this fate (and mediator (katart1ste~) from ~:::e~e!:or the state, creating one body for the
thereby stands confirmed as a demokratia), or whether this passage applies to reforms. He reorganized the tr1 y . "k i us another for those from the
some other event in Coan history. Some have put this constitutional change in the
original settlers fr~m Then:i an!i!ef:t~f't:o;e from other islands. Demonax
fourth century,
145
associating it with the revolt from the Second Athenian Confeder- Peloponnesus and rete, an : th 'ty allowing him to keep possession of
acy in 357, but such a context does not seem to fit the account in Aristotle, stripped the king of m~st of is au on .' ver the rest to the people, ta ciUa
which offers no hint that foreign or military affairs were involved and provides certain territories and pnest~oods, but tu;1J o - &r\µq> e9r!1Ce (4.161.3).
sufficient internal political motivation. S. M. Sherwin-White rejects any date ncivta ta np6tepov Elxov oi ~c:n~E;dr~tica;,;:lar constitutional change in
prior to 366, arguing that as this was the date of the synoecism of the island with As in Argo~, the opportumty o;eat in b~ttle, greatly reducing the citizen
the new capital city of Cos (reported in Diodorus and Strabo), there cannot have Cyrene came with a ~orrendou~ d~monax's solution involved changing the
been a change from democracy to oligarchy beforehand. 146 This argument is
weak: as she readily acknowledges, the political geography of Cos previous to the
synoecism is controversial and extremely difficult to ascertain, and she resorts to
population. As we nught expec '
conditions of citizenship i~ the st_ate, ;~:J::
. . ether several disparate groups of
Libyan perioikoi who had pre-
people and perh~ps even 1nclud1:!u1e~ and rebelled. The merging of these
a good deal of special pleading to make her case that the island had not already viously lost their l~nd to new . k ·th the additional settlers into the
heen unified. In any case, the inference that Aristotle must have been talking perioikoi(whether Libyans o~ rus:c Gre;o:!i:~ng of classes that did not have a
about only the politically united entity after 366 rests on no firm basis: if new political order re~ulteld1;:. en_z~shave served to replace the citizens lost in
Herodotus can refer to the "Coans" as being ruled by tyranny and then by the share in the state previous y. . is w1 new state constitution. . ..
people themselves, surely this group of people, whatever their precise arrange- battle, as well as create £!le~as•~ for a . . the kind of government that resulted
ment, could certainly be said to have a constitution of one variety or another, The crucial information o~ etermmmg l . PacnUe; t; µtaov t<p61\µ<9
including the demokratia Aristotle notes. are the words ta cilla itavta ta npo~pov £ ~ov oi over some sacred do-
;; Flawed arguments assigning the Aristotle passage to the fourth century do t&i,1ee.Herodotus tells _usthat the kmg retBl;~:n:!ever, that the adminis-
not require, however, that it apply to the post-Cadmean government of the 490s. mains and cult ceremomes: ta alla panta mus ,. ,.
1
No positive arguments can be advanced for placing the passage in the early fifth
century rather than the fourth beyond the fact that the context suits it nicely. AU la monarchiede1 Baniad":s(Paris. 1953), 150-l. 8 ·
147 On lhe date, F. Chamoux, Cyr~ne/o"-;86 (1966) 99-113, offers an altemati11echronology
we can assert with confidence is that it may well belong there, and if so Herod- M. Mitchell, "Cyrene and Persia, JH ie: Ii . , ·
otus' description of an archaic Cos with political control rendered es meson which would put the date perhaps ~ve years la ~sc rioilcoiwere, though most recent
Koioisi refers to a demokratia. 148 Scholan disagree over the quesuon of ~ L"b
commentators reject that they could have
:Sthe
II f. t yto
which Herodotus seems to imply
descendants of seuten who had
(d. 4.159.4). Jeffery•, proposal Iha! th
e:~:, highly improbable use of the term,
b,,n perioilcoiin Thera before ~ ,oun on "
1
hich coloaists usually set ouL If
but only in terms or lhe suspiciously categorical claim that "all Ionian tynn11" were
overthrown and replaced with democracies. lbere is no -- IO think his use or the word
and one that goea against the "fair and equal ~rm~
Hellenized Libyans must be ruled out as cand=lts
r:; c71izenshipin a Greek polis of this
ho lived in lho outlying territoey of
demokratiahere means anything less than actual democracy as he understood it (see chapter era, thenthe term most likely refers to poo~r Cha w CyriM (as inn 147) 140, 221-
two, part two), excepting of course that lhe states in question would ha11e lacked an . fDc Dill' restructunng. rnoux, . ·
independent foreign policy. the state at the ume o mo . . • a C d'apres lea rouilles et les tra11aux
145 Cf. Newman, Politic.r(as inn. 58) vol. 4,336, 4, and againin "La Cyr6naYque,des ongines 321 . ·L•H Jeffery, ''The Pact of the First
r6cents," Libyan Studies 20 (1989), 63-70, esp. 64 • 142-4· Ostwald, Nomo.r(as inn. 98)
146 Diod. 15.76.2; Strabo, 14.2. 19; Sherwin-White, Co.r(as inn. 142) 6~. which is part of her
larger discussion of the synoecism, 40-70. Settlers at Cyrene," Hi1toria IO (1961), 13_~7.
163 with n. 4; N. F. Jones, Public Orsaniia11on,n n •
ci,,.;
e~pA Greece(Philadelphia, 1987),
, . . '
216-9. , '
 106
Chapter 3: Archaic Demolcratiai
10. Cyrenc 107
tration of gove .
mment passed mto new hands 149 .
nment seems a strong possibility from . That tt_was a democratic gover-
meson to demo i e into the . a couple of considerations The phrase fewer public ones, and encouraging as much as possible the mixing of everyone
• . · ·• possession of th d · es with each other and the dissolving of previously existing associations.
espec1ally if we the recognize th _e e~s, has a democratic ring to it.
Cyrene_andemos. As discussed pre:io~~re t?cl_us1venature of Demonax' new Commentators often assume without argument that this passage refers to a
places i~ Herodotus, and they general! y, surul~ phrases occur in a number of democracy in Cyrene of the middle or late fifth century. We know of Cyrenean
the co?tmuation of the kingship in its!1rem ~o_implydemokratiai. uo Nor does democracy in this period from other sources such as Diodorus, so it is easy to
~uthonty had been greatly diminished - c!~ohib1t a po~u~ar government, for its suppose Aristotle could have had this later government in mind. 153 However.
mto the Athenian democracy.151 As Herod pare the rebg1ous hasileis surviving nothing in the passage itself suggests that the author refers to a later rather than an
the son of Battus III and heir to the th otus reports at 4. J62.2, Arcesilaus m earlier period, and there is one strong indication that he indeed means the
zon) when his demands for greater ro ~e, resorts to political infighting (stasia: government of Demonax: both this passage and Herodotus' emphasize tribal
These ar~ not the actions of a still-porent ~wer were not met, and suffers exile. reform as part of the new regime. Whereas the sources for later Cyrenean
ve_stedwith preeminent authori . e~d o~ state. One expects that a lcin democracy do not mention tribal reform, Aristotle makes it one of the key
seize absolute power and not : wi°uld, tf d1~sat1sfiedwith his level of controf strategies used at Cyrene and (or?) Cleisthenic Athens to strengthen the de-
tually this Arcesilaus'd ere y engage tn a losing political q"""""l E ' mocracy, while fully half of Herodotus' brief presentation ofDemonax' activities
h oes restore the autoc • -•... . ven- concerns the new tribal structure. Furthermore, Herodotus' text may indicate that
w en he returns to the city with ratic power of the Battiad monarch
outside anny to do it (4.163-4). an army collected in Samas - but it takes.! Demonax intermingledpeople in a way reminiscent of the Aristotle passage: each
yet Herodotus• account alone can no dee. . . moiraof settlers (Tberans, PeloponnesiansJCretans, islanders) likely was divided
as a democracy. Despite the populist rin t 1~1velyi~ntify the new constitution into three and shared out to the three new tribes, so that each had a portion of the
to demo, the evidence the historian g ~d isonomic associations of es ~son three lcinship groups. 154This, if correct. recalls Cleisthenes' reordering of Athe-
moderate oligarchy or a constitutionJrov1 es could c?nceivably accord with a nian public organizations, except that the basis of the mixture is social rather than
role for the new and broader-based de,!:vemment ~h1ch provided a significant geographical, and accords nicely with the strictures of Aristotle's passage. Final-
of government (senior officials co 'I) ' yet left pnmary control of key bodies ly, Herodotus highlights the tribal reorganization undertaken by Cleisthenes as
social status.152Once ag ..;n th , . unc1 to those of relatively greater wealth well: 5.66 and 69 refer to the new tribes of the founder of the Athenian de-
· fi ... , ere 1s a passage fJ Ari , or mocracy;and at 6.131 he is identified as "the Cleisthenes who established the
t 1 re ers ~ the events narrated in Herod rom stotle s Politics which, if
demokrat1a existed. Discussing radical de~tus, would _offer confmnation that a tribes and the democracy at Athens" (o iai; tuMi, ,ea\ TllV6,u.i.otepa'tiflv'AO,,v-
23 t_hatsuch governments can profit b the ocrac_y,Aristotle notes at 1319 b 19-
having established the d y techniques of CJeisthencs and "those
tea8_t°:<i~~). He goes one::~n !
Cyrene" (up~ Kup,\VT)vol -wv 6ijµov
to dtsttnguish the Cleisthenic fr!m the ~at these tecbn1q_ueswere. though he fails
153 Arist. fr.611.17 (Rose)• Dilts, Htraclidill Ltmbi, 2~1; Diodorus. 14.34.6 (perhaps with
Politic, 1319 b17-18). Newman, Politic, (as in n. 58) vol. 4, 522-3: How and Wells,
CotMlffltary (as in n. 76) vol. I, 355; Ostwald,Nowu» (as inn. 98) 164 with n. 3: Aubonnet,
more numerous tribes and hr I . yrenelll_l·They include creating newand PolitlqlUI(as in n. 58) 2.:Z. 266; O'Neil, Democratic Cor111it11tioiu (as in n. 67) l~l;
p a nes, compressing private cult ceremonies into Jones, Public Organi:ation (as in a. 148) 216-9. , , 1 , . ·c·, ~, ., ., ,

154 4.161.3: tp\t\lAOIJlibolt)Ot •~ ti)lie 6\a8e~· 8iipala,v jltv 1Ca\ici)uepwb:cov µlav

µolpav exol'lffl!, aU11v lie lkM>lrovv,ial.OlY 11:a\Kp,rtmv,tplfl}V6e Yll<JlGl1£CIIVirciY'WIV.
149 Chamou11internr.11 the hr . ("(Demonax] made them three-tribed, distributing as follows: he made one portion consist
II! • ·r-~ P ue to 111ean•
ta1cntremises l deamagistrata ris . · ·• ~ let pouvoin poliliqucs et judicai of the Theranemigrants andtheir neighbors,llllOCher of those from the Pelopon-111 and
150Seeaboveunder Cos. . p panru les c1toyC111." C)onn,(u in n. 147) 139 ~ Crete, and a third of those from all the islands.") Jeffery lnterpmed this passageto mean
151 Pac, Ostwald(Nomoi [11 inn. 98]164) who . . • thaleach moira of settlen wu divided into three and incolporated into the three tribes. This
panly on the baais or the .......,. 11. L. • • re.,ec11• Clcisthenic-stylci.r"""1ni, in C idea bad received little ICbolarly support until IC.-J.Hatbsbmp'1 recent shldy, which
c .,....is n1 a.m1sh1p.Cf Zi
Cha
;1~":
the ynn, (~inn. 147) 141, acknowlcd
. tripping or the kingship. Yet he denies that I
:::;mann, .. ., :rrene
Ansltu (u inn. 28) 297.
popular nature of the reform, alld
arguesconvincingly in favor of Jeffery'• view. He basea hi1 conclusions on portions of
Cyrene'a foundationdecree {M-L 5), which alllel Iha&settlcn must be Incorporated into
ll~le. un "1'ai ~gime populaire aerait
pu1squele carac:~reagricole de l'ko
uaanaciu!
.
~ resulted: "Au milieu du Vie
n11me,l Cyrmie pl111Cllc:on,qu'aill
nine ltltaimzl ("usociatlons"); he f1lrtherllOtel that the internal organization of other
Dorian atateaconsistently employed multiples of three for tribal and sub-tribal poupings.
. ence des grands proprill!llires.. The no1n1ey favorillit la ltlbili~ tociale et la ~~ · (H6lkcsbmp'1 broader notion about the non-revolutionarynature of Dcmoaax' actiou are.
'. ,.. seriously in this inveatigati~; the appeal to "anachronism• ia feeble andcanaocbe f.ak: bowev«, aerioasly undermined by his failure to 11CCOUnt for the reformer's transfer of
that the ~onomy wu llricultur■I and hence
. f~voreda more aristocratic regime i~=t
tiai. PoL 129Ib-92b. 1318 b!0
152 Cf. Mitchell "C
.
• ., IHUn•.
led by Aristot1e·1discussionohural•--L ,,_,. •.
. ,, · power from kina to lklll06.) Jeffery, "Pact" (11 in n. 148) 142-4; K.-J. mttesump,
"Demonall und die Neuordnung der Bllrgerscbaft voa Kyrene," Henua 121 (1993), 404-
21. Cf. D. M. Lewia, "CleislheMI and Attica."• Hilroria , 12 (1963). 22-40, esp. 39;
• yrene and Pcnia" (u inn. 147). , . .
Ostwald. No,no1 (as inn. 98) 164 n. 5; D. Roussel, Trib• II Cill (Paris, 1976), 299-301;
,, ... , . Jonea, PubUcOr,ani:atiolt (11 in a. 148) 216-9 •. , · , ) , ,/'·:
 108
Chapter 3: Archaic Demokratiai
JI. Elis 109
aiotot Kataon'taac;). That Aristo 1
to such a degree argues both i t e ;nd Her~~tus should spotlight tribal refonn awlaneos that a prytany-style subgroup of the council existed, and that damos
Demonax' activities and forth o~ t e association of the Politics passage with plethyon refers to an assembly meeting with a particular agenda or one with a
in Cyrene (and Athe~s). e imponance of such reforms to democratization high quorum or both. The existence and responsibility of these bodies, combined
It is unfonunate that Herodotus describes • with the final authority granted to popular enactments (wrhatrai damosia1),
the same brevity he brin s i Demonax refonns at Cyrenewith makes a strong epigraphic argument that a democratic government existed in Elis
doubtless more was invofv;d ~~;xample,
reorganization. If Aristotle refers
can be no doubtthat a thoro
tot:~
!~
. e yrene o
th~se of Cleisthenes at Athens:
deb1hta;~ of the king and the tribal
monax at 1319 b 19-23 there
at this time. Of course, as with the early Chian law, the lack of literary confirma-
tion renders this conclusion less than certain, as it is always possible that the
assembled damos and council had unmentioned restrictions upon their member-
still left with unanswerable ugh-g_omgdboemokratia existed at this time, but we are ship or their purview which would render them undemocratic. What evidence we
quesuons a ut the governmental instituti ons.
do have, however, shows them to possess the highest authority, and the large
membership of the council (500) combined with the inclusive ring of damos
11. ELIS plethyon offers a credible prima f acie case for democracy.
The other Olympian inscription cited by O'Neil to support the case for
In the case of Elis, the evidence for archaic de . . . independent Elean democracy describes an early treaty with the Arcadian city
rather than literary. In a 1981 artic .m~racy is pnmanly epigraphic Heraea. 158 This document mentions damos again, stating that neither man nor
relevant inscriptions, found at 01 m I~ J ...L. 0 Nell states confidently that the magistrate nor damos shall violate the written treaty without incurring the sacred
democracy," one that did not owe~ts ~ a, cle':~ ":fer _to an already established fine recorded here (ai 6enp 1a ypci+ea: tai Ka6aUotto: aite ft1a; aite 'Cl
interpretation of the documents . orm to e01an influence. The dating and £A.£crta : ai'tE 6tiµo;: EVt£7tUlpO\ IC' tvtyjoLtO 'tOl 1V1au~· typaµevot}. Two
some examination. 155 is not cenain, however, and the case requires other early Elean inscriptions not discussed by O'Neil further build the case for
A few early (sixth- or early fifth-centu ) i . . . Elean popular government. In a partly surviving law concerning regulations and
bear on matters of political adminis . ~ n5<:nptions discovered at Olympia penalties for Zeus' sanctuary the zamon plathyonta reappears, once again along-
may assume the government rt tration, as Ehs controlled the sanctuary, we side a council (bola). Missing letters and the otherwise unattested use of aneus
contains the end of a long d';
rayed ~longed to ~at state. One inscription for aneu make certainty impossible, but it seems that while the council had some
visitors to Zeus• sanctu w . • apparen y concernmg the proper conduct of authority acting alone, without complementary action by the full assembly gra-
tive provisions The appearyaran, ch1chfconcludeswith some constitutionally sugges- phea might not be altered. 159 A final inscription found at Olympia, this time
. · e O a number of otherwise ted
complicates the interpretation of thi d unattes expressions complete, confers Chaladrian citizenship on one Deucalion. At the end. we find
enough, 156 A court judgment (di/ra) s ocument, yet the following seems clear that only the damos has the authority to reverse the punishment which this
presumably this law), but a public en:~::
law may have resulted from a wrhat,:
;u~ed~a written law (graphos,
~r: Ira amosia) may. This very
document decrees for violators of the law's provisions. It is significant that the
power of the damos in Elis is once again asserted, even if this text applies only to
for cenainty on this point Proced a damos1a, though the text does not allow a subgroup, the community of the Chaladrian~. 160
changed. Among other ~stricti:res ~ then laid out for how grapMa might be
participation of a fully assembled
and the damos plethyon. Both of
r•
::::,s can only be accomplished with the
•=se
;:;.• cf. Hesych. <U.avi~ council of 500
remains in some doubL The expression demos plethyon occurs only in one extant Attic
inscription, IG P IOS, which is not without severe interpretive difficulties. It occurs
democracy.157 Along these r ies resemble organs of the Athenian repeatedly in this document. which may be republishing old laws. See F. Ryan, "The
.• . , mes we may deduce from the exclusive expression ~ \ Ori&inal Date of the 6i\1W'.1tA1tllvcov. Provisions of IG P 105," JHS 114 (1994), 120-34;
and Ostwald, From Popular Sovereignty to tlaeSovereignty of Law,(Berkeley, 1986), 30-
155 O'Neil, "Exile or Themistocles" (as In ~ •. . . ciyopa(~ is auested in fourth-century Delphi, SIG 257. .
40. A a).118o[u)c:n,~ .,,,·
comments to W. Forrest,"Themistocles ~ )
o. 89 33 5:'6.. esp. 340, lqely directing his 158 lv09; DGE 413; Tod 5;Jcffery, LSAG1 (as inn. 44) 6 pl. 42; M-L 17.The early coinaae of
(vol. 5, 1905), esp. 2392-5, 2425-9; B-S 14~ (a11nn.86)221~1.cr.R£1.v.Elis Heraea.c. 525-500, perhaps attests to its local importance. H. A. Cahn,Monnaiu 1recques
~ndrewes, HCT(u inn. 90) 4,60-1· Clehrlt •S -8:Jeff~, LS.4<;J(as an•· 44) 217-20; arcltal'que,(Bale, 1947) 15, 29, fig. 20; C. M. ICraay,Arcltaic and Clas,ical Greet Coiru
1n n. 116) 116-25. . ' C. ta.ru (as an•· 4.5) .52;Walter, Teilltobn, (aa (Berkeley, 1976), 96; Jeffery, 215. Little is known about Heraea'• early government.

I
156 W. Dittenberger and JC.Pu 0 Id ·. , , Aristotle (Politic, 1303 al5) does refer to a ,witch from election to allotment of magis-
· DialectorumGrattarum ,;: k,
lns_cltrift~n- O/y111pia (Berlin, 1896) 7; E. Schwy~ , trates.thouah he provides no date. Cf. RE 1.v. Heraia (1912), ~"' "" ,, H ',1 ·
(as Inn. 44) .spl. 42; Buck,
157 While the establishment and ti
Z..t
iJ'.'';;lti(capotionr(Lelpzig,
. ,a ell u in n. 110) 64.
1923)412; Jeffery,
. , , . •·
l.SAG2 159 lvO 3: DGE 410; H. Collitt et al. ed., Sammhurgder grieclwchnl Dialdt-lrucltrift•n
..,·(Gattingen,1915),11.57. ,c•t!· .,· ,., .. , ;,,., ... , .:., .. "r ,,, ,,,,.n.:-,
attested, the place of the tk unc:u:,. of the Councilof .500 under Cleillheaes ~ well- 160 lvO 11; DGE 415; Buck, Gnet Dial«u (as inn. 110) 63. Gehrke,Srasi.r(as inn. 45) 52.
mo1 P t )'Dlt in the operation of the Athenianconatitution , , , The separate consideration of Chaladrians suggests that thi1 inscription, like the others ( see
I U •,~<.-•
ft.I{'~ i ·,1
----- -
111
12.HeracleaPontica
110 Chapter 3: Archaic lhmokrotiai

The primary difficulty with this idea is that it requires the lowering of the date
Based on their letterforms all f h . . . of the inscriptions well below the already substantially down-dated estimates of
500 or to the first quarter of ;he f~ft~ ese mscnpttons probably date to about
thorough reexamination wh' h he _century.So concludes Jefferyl6I in her c. 500-475 for the latest document. If we assume that the strength of Jeffery's
d . ~ , 1c , w n 1t appeared repre t d . arguments from letterforms is such that we must abandon the earlier chronology
atmg irom the previous tendenc t I . • sen e a maJor down-
The earlier chronology hinged yri~ ~~e em m the ear~yto mid-sixth century.
th based on the Olympiads of Pausanias and others (early- to mid-sixth century),
wherel62 to the rais" f p n y on references m Pausanias and else- and instead opt for a tum-of-the-century date, surely then only a truly compelling
(580 B.C.) from on:~oot;:~ ::;~r;f Hellan~icae in the fiftieth Olympiad case ought to supplant it. As O'Neil has successfully argued, the hypothesis 168 of a
single Hellanodicas and thu~ : Olympian documents mentions but a Thernistocles-inspired, democratic synoecism in 471 lacks such a case. There
other decrees and a1'1. p~suma Iy antedates 580.163Since this and the is, in fact, no direct evidence for a pan-Peloponnese democratic movement
1ances considered here • .1 . authored by Themistocles or anyone else. To suppose that the Athenian must
scripts, most scholars have suggested . h are s1m1ar m many features of their
does not so much attack the p . s1x1. -century dates for all of them. Jeffery have aroused the ire of the Spartans because of an intent to spread democracy in
ausamas datmg scheme · . . the Peloponnese as an anti-Lacedaemonian stratagem represents an anachronistic
arguments from letterform and
of development attributed to
plaques should be earlier than th I
th:~:a;::r as ignore 1t 1n favor of her
"Judg~d fro~ the general standards
oponnes1an scnpts, none of the Elean
retrojection of the politics of the Peloponnesian War to a much earlier period.
Moreover, our previous discussion of possible early democracy in Argos, and
she does not feel sufficient! y cen:i~~ iiuarter:f ~e six_th~entury."164However' that of Mantinea as well (see below), suggests that in these states the turn toward
We know from lite so er an y_s1sto d1sm1ssother possibilities. popular government came about independently, and many years earlier besides.
that during the Pelopo~sia:;;s th;t a ~ynoecism took place at Elis in 471, and As for the similarity of a council of 500 and a damos plethyon, Athens need not
kind.165Combining these facts -~ he ~1ty_h~ a popular government of some have had the monopoly of such institutions, even assuming that the latter, rather 69

f
1:
an inscriptions, some scholars .:~e t m;tJtuttons d~monstrated in the Olympi-
around the time of the synoecism 66 cc . t~ fou~dmg of the Elean democracy
elusive, expression represented a prominent feature of the Athenian democracy .'
Given the poor foundation of claims for the establishment of an Elean
Thernistocles, settling in Argos aft. h"This td~a is buttressed by the fact that demokratia in conjunction with the synoecism of 471, we must accept the dating
could have agitated for democrat i~s ostracism from Athens in the late 470s, , of the relevant Olympian inscriptions to around the tum of the century. The
Argos, and Mantinea) before the ~ artthe Pel~nnese ~successfully at Elis,. government upon which they shed a few shafts of light appears to have been
special attraction of this h th . _P an~ engineered his further flight. The democratic. While literary testimony fails to confirm an Elean democracy, the
the apparent similarity of:° . es1~is_that it offers a convenient explanation for absence of contrary testimony leaves such a constitution a very strong possibili-
mentioned in the 01 m . . o t~su_tuuonsof the Athenian democracy with ones ty _170
council of 500 and t~ p1a mscnpttons: Thernistocles could have introduced the
. concept of a damo:rplethyo,i. 161 ,•
12. HERACLEAPONTICA
J' .,.,:
~ ,, . "_j" ' ' '
below), belongs to I period before the El . 18.
the damo1men1ionedhere n:fen just :;:' ~nc:•.sm 471. It is diffic:ultto tell whether
161 Jeffery, LSAG1(as inn. 44) 217-20 ~0 II The case for demokratia in archaic Heraclea Pontica is straightforward and
10
nansor thewhole Eleu community.
4.60. ' owed by M-L I 7 and Andrewes,HCT (u in n. 90) convincing. Aristotle (Pol. 1304 b31-4) reports that soon after the foundation of
I t>2 the colony (c. 560) 171 the demos was overthrown as a result of the irresponsible
· 5.9 .4; Aristotle, fr. 492 (Rose);
mentary, . . Hellanicus and Arialodemus ••
. FGrH 4 FI 13 with com-

163 /1102; LSAG (u inn. 44)

164 LSAG (u Inn. 44) 219. 15.' . ◄09·• Buck. Grut D,alttt,
DGE .
(u inn. 110) 61. . 168 O'Neil, "Exile of'fhemistocles" (u inn. 89) 33.5-46. · · ,
169 Seenote 157 above.
166 REs.v. Elis (vol. 5, ),
1905 2392 3.8_
_
5
;;_/ndrewes,
165 S1n1bo,8.3.2; Diod. I 1.54.I. Thuc 5 47 9 "th
·j
.
HCT(u inn. 90)4.~I.
.. )70 Andn:wes, HCT (as in n. 90) 4.60, notes that if Jeffery 1w correctlydatedthe inscriptions
· · "it looks u If a democ:taCYwu Instituted in Elis before the Persiu Wars. which Is
167 Thuc. J.U,.3; Diod. 11.55.3· Plu~ ~ • 23 •• - , unexpectedbut not impossible."Walter, Teilhaben(u inn. 116) 120-5, usestheepigraphic
l'Arcadiurv111ale(Pari1, ), 111. .I, Nepoa, 2.1.1. 0. Fouga-es. Mtllllinh _,
documents discussed above to build a 1trvn1case for • broadud active "blirgerrecht" in
no. 5 ( 1901); A. Andre- "S~
3; Forrest, "Themistocles•and
!;;;,!!t"'°'
1898 7
"
DN 1ri«lwc~1t Phy/e1t,SB Wiat 144
. ialnlheFifthCcn1ury,"PIIM111z6(1952).2_:
late sixth-cenlury Elia, Nevertheless, ho !hen inexplicably and implausiblyidentifies this
state of aff ain with the extremelynlU'IOW oligarchydescribedby Aristotle• PoL 1306 • 12-
) 6, 2~; ~ J. Podlecki, TM Life of i■
86 22
Themi1tocle1 (Montreal, 1 ~
975
Szanto, followed by Jones, emplwi•1.e1
.-.. Ilona with a tenth Olym ·c "ud
J(u m •·
":;• P""_lico,.,~-
poaible c:reauon
(as In n. 148) 142~.
of• tenth Eleu tribe (IO 80
19. If this passage relates to late-archaicElis, it morelikely lhal the oligarchy ~ribed
precededand then gave way to the apparentlypopular governmentdepicted~y ~ docu-
FI 13), which would .!u.:!
tuni!'r c.~~
emenda:
· is problematic,and requires
oa Pa~ 5.9.5 and Helluicus (FGrH 4
to ~anco~b~. Yet the text of Pausaniu ~
' ments, for Aristotle employs this example to illustrate his argument that obgarchiel can
collapse from bein1 ao exclusive that they form an "oligarchy within an olig■rchy.",. .
171 Oraham. CAH2(u inn. 23) 3.3, 123-4. .., . . '.' .4 ;, ''. • •• -1.;,,,,.,,,,ll
Elean tribes with the number of H ~ 1/C eve this dat1n1;moreover, theusociltioa of
periods of Eleu history. e 11 icae c:u oaly be confidendy UMned for later
 13. Mantinea
113
112 Chapter 3: Archaic Drmokrotiai

. d ') d the people could look only to the estates of the ~ealthi~r
actions of their demagogic leaders. These had been unjustly driving out the Mananber::~ith~ommunity for the acquisition of land.177While tempting, this
gnorimoi, until the latter gathered together, returned to the city, and overthrew mem th . al
the democracy.172 That an oligarchy replaced the popular government (and itself reconstruction remains entirely hypo etic .
became embroiled in unrest) seems clear from other references in the Politics. 173
Memnon (FGrH 434 F4, 1) may offer brief confirmation of an original de-
13.MANTINEA
mocracy, for in describing a mission by Heraclean exiles to Alexander after the
battle of the Granicus he states that they sought their own return and restoration . . Ar d Elis Mantinea may have
of the patrios demokratia. Similar to its Peloponnesian neighbo~ g?s an . • n Tbuc dides
As clear as Aristotle is in his discussion, scholars have occasionally sought to moved independently toward demokrat1a dunng the six~ c~~Os tho!gh he
downplay the democratic nature of the colonial foundation. Some envision in• leaves no doubt that tb~ M_antineansenjloycd ~ de;;rg :: :Onstitutio~ may have
stead of democracy an oligarchy of wealthy landholders. 174 But there is no reason d not give any indications of how ong-s an . . . f th be t
to reject Aristotle's authority in this matter, least of all out of a vague sense that :e:,17s Aristotle (Pol. 1318b6-27), in the course ofhbis desc~k.optiso!xoplai:S th~
. . . I al and features demos o georg• •
demokratia would somehow be anachronistic in c. 560. Moreover, as colonies demokratia, which as agncu tur • u· ;., Mantinea the masses
. d ok · l'ke the one once ex1s ng ... •
tend to copy the institutions of their mother cities, it only makes sense that in some kinds of em ratra, i as the are sovereign
Megara would found a democratic colony: it too maintained a democratic consti- (hoi polio,) do not ne~ t~ hold office
th
st
,:Ose~:!
~:;!ssage Jocs not give a
over deliberations (kyno, tou boulei;: .;!d aside from the impression that it
tution at this time (see below). Asheri nominally accepts Aristotle's account, but
theorizes that the struggle he reports actually had more to do with equal land date for the Mantinean government escn_ • n Maotinea would make an
was long before Aristotle's time. In fact, sixth-cc tury. in this time and later
distribution than a true political conflict. 175 This seems to set up a false contra-
diction: the political struggle between rich and poor, demagogue and agathos,
might well have an economic dimension which in no way undermines the case for
excellent setting. According to <?:t•
Mani::r:;';~uemdemokratie)
offered a perfect p_rofile_f?ra typiall' ari;e;a constitution more inclusive of the
with

demokratia. Burstein offers a better interpretation. He accepts Aristotle's testi- Jots of self-sufficient citizens, c mg O • 179 .. _ . ,, . . ,
mony for the democratic narure of the new colony with the understanding that its farmer classes than the p~bable ew:n:rd~:~~~tle passage with the Mantine-
style of government may differ from later democracies. He goes on to speculate Scholars hav~ some!1mes associ~ ~icodorus with the democracy attested in
about some of the governmental institutions based on evidence from Megara. an poet and lawgiver Nicodorus, an . . of the popular constitution in the
Megarean and Heraclean colonies, or Heraclea from a later time. These likely Thucydides. tsoThis would place the begmnmgs Tb dating does work out

. c::i~1
included an assembly and council (probably probouleutic and elected annually), third quarter of the fifth century• :ot tbe !:C.~y Nic~orus devise his laws,
officers known as aisumnetai, an eponymous basileus with only religious author-
ity, actual executive authority by a board of damiourgoi, and full citizen partici-
fairly well: Diagoras ofMelos, w °:l?° of the Peloponnesian War. Yet this
is known t~ have lived around the gm:::t significantly, our information on
pation in the assembly and jury couns. 176 Burstein further supposes that the reconstruction has some weaknesses. emocratic or bad anything at all
popular leaders began lo strip the gnorimoi of their property and exile them Nicodorus docs not indi~ate his refo~s ~e;:,t 1318 b6-27. He is simply called
because the Heracleans were hemmed in territorially by hostile natives (the to do with the system Aristotle descn s ad '.an example that the Mantineans
a lawgiver (nomothete.s), brought forwar
(ennomotatous), no ess
t5
than the Locrians or the Cretans
. Aelian's Varia
172 icaid.ue,,u l(Q\ £Y.Hpaic>.Elq6 llil~ µeici 'Kl\' 0110\ICloµc\V
e~ 610 io~ 6'iµaya,- Were very law-abiding . h Ath · s The sole source as
yo~· cillllCOUl,le\lOIyap VII' cnmiiv ol yvoip1µo1 E~llunov, llleiia a8po1a81?~ ol or the Lacedaemoruans or t _e eruan . uliar stories. Here, Nicodorus
£1Clthlt0vtt~ ICQtl(QU>.96vtt:~ ICCl'lt~uoav'KIV111'µov.On lhe idenlilication of this Hera- Historia,an unreliable collection of frequenf y pccgiver: bis lover Diagoras helped
clea with HeracleaPontica,see Newman,Politic, (u in n. 58) vol. 4, 335, and Aubonnet, is said to have been a boxer who ~~e a aw ,. • .... : , , ,. ·"'-
Politiqu, (as inn. 58) 2.2, 170-1. The use of the phraseiat1ly1011tOIIdemon-standard in .. '"' ' t,, . ~-
the Politic, • makes it cenain that demo, heremeanaumol;ratia. (The employmentof
iataly.rei tau demo" al Ath. PoL 8.4 has been judsed 10 be anachronia1i1:. Cf. Rhodes, - ,i... '!
~

Commentary (as in n. 63) 156.) 177 Ibid., 23-4, ' . ' HC,'(. . n 90) v~t. 4, 59-60, forthe fall of this demolratia.
173 1305 b2-10, 33-9, 1306 a31-b2. 1785.29.1,47.9.Cf.Andrewes, _. astn ,: ., ., ,.. : '. _-1 ,_ .\\,, .: •

174 0. Olotz andR. Cohen, Hutoir.Grw:qu, vol. I (Paris,1925), 168; Meyer, GdA 3,628. Cf. . Xen. Hell 5.2.1-7. . . ' 110· f. 'd Suui.r (as in a. 45) 101-3; Fougm:s, Mantmle
S. M. Buntein, 0Ulp0st of H•ll•nism: TM ENrg1nc1 of H,nu:lla on IM Blacl S,a 179 Oehrlr.e, Jen.relt, (u Inn, 122) • i:. I ·• . . ..... ,, .. ,,.,'1',.,, n .,. ,.. ;,, :,,..,,.,·, :
(Berkeley, 1976), 19. ·, (uinn.167)331-4,' '·. ( in,n.·5;)vol. 4,s11;REs.v.Manlinea(vol.!4,
175 D. Asher!, OIHrdi• FrUhge.rchichl, wm Herakleia Pomiu (Vienna, 1972), 10-34, esp. 28- l 80 Ael. Var. 2.22-3. Newman, PoUlic.r as 90) l 4 59-60; O'Neil, l)alOCmtic Co,utitll·
31. 1930),esp.1320:Andrewes,HCT(uinn. vo. ', , ,, . , ·,, .
176 Burstein, Ouq,osr (u inn. 174) 19-20. tion.r(as in n. 67) 42-59.
 14.Megara
ll5
114 Chapter3: Archaiclnmokratiai

red out "untempered freedom" (akraton eleutherian) for the Megari~s-

him compose his laws. 181 In contrast, Aristotle's sober statement (b8) that the have pou th ealth mayhem and temple-looting
agricultural variety of democracy was the oldest of all (archaiotate pason) Insolence, exorbitant demands upon_ ~ w ydi t Plutarch's account.184
militates against an origin of the Mantinean version in the 420s, and lends support also characterized this radical constitution accor ng o . t bich
to the notion of its development in the sixth century. In addition, we ought not Aristotle's Politics contains a number of ~fe~nce: t~~=::::~::/ 0 ; aris-
forget that Demonax, the early democratic refonner of Cyrene (see above), came likely involve this democracy. 1300 a16- £:ers o to Me ara and
from Mantinea, where he was a leading citizen. 182 This hardly necessitates, of tocratic qualifications for magistrates by exil:.::::e:anslated~'against
course, that the Mantinean government was democratic at this time, but it sup- successfully fought pros ton demon. The l!tter p ti describes the fall of the
th I ,. r "against the democracy, apparen Y
ports the possibility, as does the popular-sounding name of the man himself. 183 e ~p e o is, S"milarly at 1302 b30 Aristotle recounts that a demokra-
In sum, the case for a sixth-century demokratia in Mantinea is not over- ~h&1~democracydefe:ted by the well-off (~uporoi) on account of its disor~er
powering, but it does merit serious consideration. Aristotle's description of a t1adat eg:a :81304 b34-40, we learn that demagogues, in order to sedized
former constitution of the Mantineans as an example of the best and oldest variety an anarc Y· be f nobles These eventually ban e
of democracy suggests such a conclusion, but this passage could refer to the fifth- property for the public, drove out a num r_o battle. after which they installed
century state, when other sources confirm the existence of demokratia.
:s;:~~~;~~:s:"!fs~~::O\:::;;:tnd~t_datMed,
· th t edy was rnvente 1D eg
tarahou.~a~ ~=,i~;·!;:!
a) includes a cllum a comh . date & that govemment.186 Finally, Theognis
14.MEGARA democracy, " st· gnaling
.
an arc &1c
.
,or .
be of dire judgments concerrung the new
th
adds color to the picture wi a n~m r ·n chan e in the author's concern
order in his city, We may pereiveh ~ cc;nu~ e!l t88 Trouble will surely
187 th
Scholars have accepted early democracy in Megara more readily than elsewhere
~ .7ii
7it
0
in Greece, if only because the evidence is difficult to dispute. A variety of literary with leaders of the townspe?P e, er corrupt tlle people and give over
sources combine to portray a radical and violently lawless popular regime in result when "bad men, behaving WI 1 en;e, er n189 soon we hear that the
which the demos used its supreme power to victimize the rich - just the sort of the law to the unjust f?,r personal pro it an f i::tin~tion, and those previously
hysterical condemnation one would expect an archaic aristocratic observer to backward commoners have become men o
deliver when confronted with a demokratia. Plutarch's Greek Questions refers to
this government twice, at 18 and 59. Plutarch calls it "unbridled democracy" . f m Arist~e's Comtitution of the Megarians for
(akolastos demokratia), and states that it began not long after the fall of the tyrant 184 Plutarch probably ?'adeuse of mate~al ro • 138) 13-15, 92, 99; Legon, Megara (u in
this portrayal. Halhday, Gmik QueshollS(as i;i:· f Archaic Megara." in Theogni.rof
Theagenes (late seventh or early sixth century). One of its most remarkable n. 7) I04--20; L. A. Okin, "Sources for the story o , , ., ,
characteristics was the imposition of the palintokia, a measure by which creditors
had to pay back to debtors the interest earned on loans. Demagogues are said to
Megani (as inn. 7) 9-21. •, ·
185 Newman, Politic, (u in D. 58) vol. 4 • 2~ •
5
se;: to favor an archaic date for these events
opinions The belief that this passage
(in the lime of Theognis), but notel a ~anety oara a~ 424 ~IS on very shaky ground:
, . may refer to the fall of dem~Y ID ~e\tical events at 4 .66-74 does not accord well
181 2.22-3: 'Ewoµ1111ci~ [EuYOjl1111cito~ Sch.) Y£YEa8a111:al.Mavnwai; 01:01'.Mit ou6tv Thucydides' description of the military an po 1 , . , , , 1, ,
1
~ttov Ao1:p<iiv ouM KpT1t<iiv ou&: Aaa:6a1µovicoval'n<iivo\16'"A9Tivalcov .•• N11:6~ with Aristotle'• accounL · . ·ovention of comedy around 581/0-562.
ev
6t 6 11il1CtT1~tol~ eu6o1C1µ1111cito1~ Mavnwcov Y£VOII£~ cilla 6yt tfl~AAurl~ 1Ca\

w-
µetci fflv a8l.T1otvvoµo8tt'll(; al'not~ EYiveto..• : tool 6t aimli Aurropav wv M1\4ov
ot>V8elva1to~ voµo~ epacrritvY£voµevov.("I hear that the Mantineana no leu law- of the poet Epic:harmus,who lived 1;:
t~°':sf
186 Cf. FGrH 239 A39 (Marmor Pan11"'.)for ~el araHyblaea invented comedy in the time
Aristotle'• passagealso reports _thec:latm 110~ IIPD1eP~ the early fifth.cent~
confirm that the Megarian democ:racyIS
1
abiding than the Locriana or the Cretans or the Llcedaemoniana themselva or the Athe- comedian, Chionidet and Magnes. w~ RE, Y Epicharmol (2) (vol. 6, 1907).
nians.•• Nicodoru, wu a boxer and among the most esteemed of the Mantineans. but late in being discussed in a ■ixth-cen~ co~tex~cal-~ ·Following Legon, I have restricted
life after his athletic career he became a lawgiver 10them... and they say that Diagoru the 187 The '/'luOgnldut is a probl~auc: hi~ Cym ancS henceoffer the greatest likelihood of
Melian. his lover, helped him compose his laws.") If we accept the readins Euvoiu1mhou; , myself to thoao passageswhich ~en.uon If at :me point in the early- IDmid-sixth century.
("well-governed") instead of 'Evvoµarrcito~ there is even less reason to think that a havinl been authored by TheogotShunse m The Lyric Ag• ofGreec• (New York,
democratic refonner is being described, given the aristocratic connotations of •IUIOIIIUL· Legon, Megani (as in 11. 7) 106-19; ~f. A: R. Bu )•9- and A. L. Ford, "The Politics of
-64· L A Okin "Sources (as 10 n. 1 84 21• .
182 av3pa Tliivaot<iiv&mµomnov, HdL 4.161.2. A. A. I. Waisglasa, "Demonu, BADAEn: . 1960),24"! . , •. • " 82-95 in Theognisof Megara(as ID n. 7).
MANTINEON," AJP 77 (1956), 167-76, makes the penuasive argument that Demoau Authorship 10 An:h81C: Greece, • 38 1 w,:patawi soUl\v ~ 1Ca1Cofllt(J
also held a political office (not a kingship) at Manlinea with the title of basileiu. Thia is 188 acno\ 11£V ycip f8' o\6& c,ao+pove~ ~~ (as in n. 95), which has the manuscript
basedprincipallyon a papyrus fragmentof HeraclidesLembus(P. Oxy., 1367;cf. Alhenaeua, M:OElv(J.41-2).Cf. 1.JOB2ainY~ng, g • ,. , •, , , , ,, .
4.154d). •, alternative of lam or laam for 19 otk&fi · +9Elpam.&lK~ 1• a6l1Coun316<iicnv /
183 Foupra, Mantinu (u inn. 167) 33I~. makea some of the same argumentsfor aixlh- . lB9 ••• 6wv vl¼>ltew wlm 1Caicolcnv Mu,I
o\nlcov npMcov etveica 1Ca\1Cpci'I£~
ni (~O 111
·
44--6). . , ., ,' .., "'
century democracy at Mantinea.
 117
15. Naxos
116 Chapter 3: An:haic Demokratiai

noble are now base." 190The author fears what destruction hubris might bring to
his city. 191
.
with akolastos demo~rati~, a~d th~ encr
h t · al nature of the reaction by opponents
tc ) further suggests the presence
of the government (hkemng it to aw essnc;s, e ~re reasonable cautionary note
The three Aristotelian passages accord well with each other and with the of some form of de"!okr~tia. ~gon ~oi;:th::i:•style system with large-scale
portrayal of demokratia in Plutarch. The bitter language of Theognis, though when he warns agam st imagmi~g b cy 195 Demokratia does not require
constitutionally unspecific, would accord well with a radical government which popular jury courts and an extensive _urea:;: times in a month, as long as the
was hostile to and hated by Megarian aristocrats in the archaic period. Scholars such devices or even assembly mee~.n~~ yhowish to stay in power accede to
usually date this populist interlude to the early- or mid-sixth century, based on the demos is kyrios in the state. When po 111c1~s~ . all th1'ngs- and this is this
. d d compete for its ,avor m .
time of Theagenes' fall and the writing of Theognis, both rough approxima- the wishes of the emos an f. . th-century Megara - democracy 1s
tions. 192Despite the evidence presented above, some have expressed doubts sort of behavior that our sources report or six .
about the nature of the Megarian democracy. Gehrke curiously sees in Megara at all but inevitable.
this time a moderate agricultural democracy - perhaps not an uncommon form of
government in the sixth century, but one which hardly seems to fit the above 15. NAXOS
testimony for Megara. 193Oost goes much farther, stating that "there is nothing in
the evidence to contradict the a priori belief that anything like the true democracy . . f .. 1 consistent picture of the N axian transition
in the fifth- and fourth-century usage of the term is most unlikely in the early Our sources, though Ihm, pamt a airy . the second half of the sixth century.
sixth century." 194This is a dubious assertion for more than one reason. A proper from oligarchy to tyranny to democra: .1" typically happens when oligarchs
understanding of Aristotle's Politics indicates that demokratia described a range Aristotle (Pol. 1~05 a40- l) reports a f: ruling few became a popular leader
of different yet still democratic constitutions spanning centuries; hence making mistreat the mu~utude (to pleth~s),:~~; !.nstotle notes later became tyrant. A
assertions regarding "true democracy" and limiting such a conception a priori to (prostates). This w_asLy~danus'. ·a of the Naxians (558 Rose) fleshes out the
the classical period is self-defeating. Moreover, our evidence for sixth-century fragment of the Aristotelian pol1te1 It a noble by youths served as the
Megara certainly does suggest demokratia, and not just from the application of matter slightly with the story that an a_ssau ~nof which Lygdamis emerged as
this label by the ancient authors. The palintokia sounds like far too drastic a flash point for strife in the commumt~ • ;u te that at the time of his initial rise
measure to impose unless the people who benefited had played a powerful role in
its enactment. Plutarch mentions the existence of akratos eleutheria hand in hand to prominence (c. 550 or 535) eader
factional struggles as a popular 1 (
h;
prostate~ and then tyrant. Other1~u~e~:reta assumed an important role in the
emon), for he seems not to have
.-f
aided by Peisistratus some years
acquired complete control of the _state u:v: driven him from power c. 524.198
. 190 1Ca\viiv i::la' aya8ol, IlolUl!d{&rr oi 5£ xp\v Ea8lol / viiv 6e1loi. (1.57-8). later. 197 Next, the Spartans are said to h alth exiles banished by the demos
191 AE1µaiv111llTIt,\v6£ xol1v Iloluxai&Ti ul3p1i;,/ i\KEp Ki::vmupo~ ~~ lllEOEY.
Finally, Herodotus (5.3~) inf?rms ~s ~at we to :C1p bring about their return (£IC
(1.541-2). For other possible readings of the text (6lEOE,OA.£CJ11) see Young, Theognis (as
in n. 95) 35. J. M. Edmonds in the Loeb text offers 0>.iOIJ. appealed to Aristagoras I~ Mdetuts or. res_ 611µou 9uyovu:i; 6£ a1ti1COV'to ii;
192 Theagenes' reign should be placed in the last third of the seventh cenwry in accordance Na~ou l9uyov av6pt:i;_'tCJ>V 1tax CJ)V U7t 'tOU • ·:,' ' '
with Thucydides' report that Cylon married his daughter (1.126; cf. Gomme, HCT vol. I Mil.11wv, n,t.) This flight dat~s to c. 500. ocratic overnment which caused the
(1945], 428-30, and RE s.v. Theagenca(ser. 2 vol. 5, 19341). Theognis' jlonut, an admit- Scholars acknowledge that ,t was a dem hg t u demou ("banished by
tedly untrustworthy attribution, ranges from 552-41 in the ancient chronographen. Megara's . h 199 The phrase ephygon • • • ypo O •
ouster of the o I1garc s. . t xt, and Herodotus• narration at
early demOCTacy,then, should appear11 some point between thcao two periods. Lea:on, the demos") strongly suggests a democrauc c~:a ePontica where the wealthy had
Megara (as in n. 7) 104-11, adopll a fairly high chronology, putting the inception of the
demOCTacyat the turnof the siKth century. E. L. Highbarger, The History atul CivUkation of
5.30 recalls the events at Megara and _He';mo., and driven from the polis, only
Ancient Megart1(Baltimore, 1927), 138-43, arguesfor a date c. 570-(i() on the strength of been stripped of their property by a ruh: rod tus describes the Naxian forces as
the foundation of similarly democratic Heraclea Ponlica and the &11umptionthat the radical to attempt violent returns. Furthermore, e o hi s This is a sizable contingent
constitution could not have lasted long. S. I. Oost, "'TheMegara of lbeagene1 and lbeog- "8000 h. Ids" and a great many s p . I .
consisting of s ie . y to describe it - it is the on Y time
nis," CP 68 (1973), 186-96, favors I more appn,Kimate datin1 IO the first half of the sixlh for a relatively small state, and ~ cunous wa . , . ; ' .
century. Cf. T. 1. Figueira, "Chronological Table. Archaic Megara, 800-500 B.C.," in
Theognil of Megart1(u in n. 7) 261-303, esp. 297-8; followed by O'Neil, Origins and
Development(as inn. 122) 21-2. l95 Megartl (as inn. 7) 11~20.' · · ·, 5--6 ·
I93 • ... offensichtlich eine gemlllligte Demokratie, in der die Bauem, daneben aucb die Hand- 196 Aubonnet, Politique (as ID n. 58) 2.2, I 7 . .. . ; ,, .. ' .
werker, das dominiercnde Element war."Stasis (11 in a. 45) 106. . A· t Ath. Pol. l!1.2-3.· ·
197 Hdt. 1.61, 64• ns ·
194 Oost, "Megara" (as in n. 192) 193. Walter, Teilhabnt (11 inn. 116) 102-3, would join in
Oost'1 skepticism, dismissing the sources' depiction of ikmokmtia u the anachronistic
198 Plot. dt Mai. Htr, 21 85?D; schol.
199 Aubonnet. Politiqut (as ID n. 58) 2.
1~~- h' 2 80. · · ·

•
,. · " · · ·
Gehrke, Stasis (as in a. 45) 123.
mislabeling of archaic stasis.
 118
Chapter 3: Archaic Demokratiai
16.Samos 119

Herod?tus uses the term a~p,:dain _th~meaning of "soldiers."200 Its employment

soldiers of the fleet as well. Gehrke envisions a coalition of sailors who represen-
may simplr repre~ent styhst1c vanallon, or it could mean something about the
ted the middle and lower classes, meaning small farmers, tradesmen, fishermen
men descnb~d. Given th~t shields form only one part of a hoplite's panoply
and shepherds, all banding together against their wealthy overlords. 205 Was it a
(though adm11tedly a crucial one), Herodotus may be indicating that these 8000
democracy that ensued? Polyaenus, 6.45, lends some support to the idea with his
men under arms were not hoplites (who arc normally labeled hoplitai, as at
7 tale of Syloson's usurpation of the tyranny sometime before c. S70: before this
.202), but the full levy from all classes carrying whatever manner of equipment
leader's sneaky power-play Polyaenus records that "the general was chosen as he
t~~y had, most of whom could manage shields.201 A large, unevenly-equipped
seemed to be a populist" (6TJ1Wtucc:>1; elvai 60,coov mpa't"IJYoc;,jpee,,). This
cillzen levy would be_consistent with a newly democratic state under arms. The
implies that Samos employed popular election of important officers of state. 206
gre_atnum~er of Nax1an warships mentioned (ploia makra po/la) bespeaks the
On balance, however, the argument for a democracy is rather weak. We must
acllv~ s_erviceof the poorer members of the populace, also consonant with a state
permuting broad political participation. treat our sources with some suspicion, as both tales lack corroboration and
concern themselves primarily with trickery and cleverness rather than with de-
When exactly did this apparently democratic government assume control of
tails of the preceding or following constitution. Neither actually uses the word
the state? It followed the overthrow of Lygdamis, to be sure, but one might
demokratia to describe the government. ' ·
suppose that at first_the w~althy returned to power when the Spartans eliminated
The other case worth noting is the proclamation of isonomie by the tyrant
the tyrant, and that II required a later revolution between 524 and c. SOI to drive
Maeandrius c. 522. 207I include this episode primarily because it further illustra-
th~m out. The ~x~ulsion of the "men of substance" before c. SOOmay represent
tes the potential for democratic rule in the archaic period of Greece, even though
this very const1~ut1onalchange, On the other hand, the popular government may
it appears such did not actually establish itself at Samos at this time - we cannot
have followed directly upon the ousterofLygdamis (Sparta's intervention against
pretend that the absence of further democratic accounts_in our sparse sources for,
a tyrant led to a similar result in the case of Athens c. 508). Whether such a
archaic political history means there were none. Accordmg to Herodotus, Maean-
pop~lar gove~ment was democratic from the start, or began with the wealthy
drius, the successor to Polycrates, offered to withdraw from his tyranny, sayi~g
playing a leading role before coming under pressure from radicals or demago-
gues, _cannot be ascertained. In any case the later expulsions fit the pattern
eyro 6£ tc;µtoov 'TTIV cip:rilv 1'1.81::ic;
ioovoµl11v uµtv npoayope:uco ("I proclatm
your isonomie, having ceded my authority"), and asking in return only that he
established elsew~re for the stripping of the wealthy by an empowered demo.r.
retain the use of some of Polycrates' fortune and be granted in perpetuity the
The democracy will have lasted until the Persian conquest in 490_202
priesthood of Zeus Eleutherios. Upon receiving verbal abuse from a pro~nent
citizen in the crowd, however, Maeandrius decided that if he dropped the reins of
power someone else would surely assume _his ow~ tyranny, and !he~fot;
16. SAMOS changed his mind. Herodotus concludes the episode with thethought: ou Y~P6,\,
coc; oi,cacn, tP<,uM>vto e:tvai e)..eu8e:poi ("For it would seem that they did not
Two episodes from the history of archaic Samos invite our attention. Firs~
wish to be free"). ,. • ' •: · · , , · ., ' · · ·· · · '' · ,·, :· · '
Plutarch (Quae.rt. Gr. 57) describes a revolt not Jong after 60()203 in which the
One may easily be drawn into an argument about what Maeandrius' procla-
genera!s of a victorious Samian fleet contrived, with the help of some captive
mation of isonomie meant. Was he calling for demokratia, or merely the end of
Meg~ans, to overthrow the ruling oligarchy of wealthy landowners, the geo-
tyranny? The offer to tum over his rule e.r meson may indicate no more ~an a
moro,. B~ a ruse t~ey surprised the oligarchs while they were sitting in the ,
move from autocracy to constitutional government; but Herodotus'. use of 1s0~0-
b~~leuter~on and killed them, freeing the city (te.r poleos eleutherotheises).
mie elsewhere implies that democracy was intended: we have seen m th~ Pem8;11
C1t1zensh1pwas granted to those who wished it among the Megarians. 204 . , •
debate - a similar occasion of invented political oratory - how.~~ term 1so~~m1~
The use of the verb eleutheroun suggests that the generals did not themselves
beco~ anot~er set of oligarchs, but that a new and more popular constitution
came mto bemg. We should probably assume participation from the rowers/
205 Gehrke. Jenseir, (as in n. 122) 119-20. " " ' "' , ·.. , ' ,
200 J. ~- P~wcll, A Lexicon roHerodotiu 2nd cd.(Hildcsheim,1960),50. Cf. LSJu'. 1.2. · 206 J. p, Barron, "The Six.lb-CenturyTyranny at Samos," CQ (ns) 14 (1~64), 211-2, act~ally
calls the preceding constitution a democracy,Ostwald disagrees,_no11n1 ~ ti::=kof dm:c:t ·
20 I Th~smight explain the large figure of 8000, an otherwiseCroublesome one, as the commcn~
tar1c1of Macan and How and Wells both point out. 1.v. 5.30. evidence and pointing out that the term demotiktn docs not mean democratic. _Nomos(as
202 Hdt.6.96. .:>·1 inn. 98) 165. • , ., : , , • } · · " , , ·... _. • ·l ,,, .·' .. : ·
203 Gehrke, Jenseirs (as inn. 122) 119; Shipley,~ (as inn. 102) 49 52-3 · ' 200 HdL 3.142-3. Ostwald, No1M8(as in 1. 98) 165-7; H. W. Picket. "lsonomiaand Cle1s~
of Plularch•• account.andon hi■-~ ICC
204 On the likely buic: ac:c:uracy Okin,-~ .. • nes," Talanra4 (1972), 66; Zimmermann,..Anslltze"(as inn. 28) 2_97-8;~ Raaflaub, Die
(as inn. 187) 9-21, esp. 10-14. · Enrdecbng der Freiheit (Munich,1985), 139-40 [on Zeus Elcuthenos); Shipley,Samos (as
lnn.102) 103. , · '.. ,, ,.,, .. ,,, , . · ., , , ,;·~; ; ·
 121
17. Syracuse
120 Chapter 3: Archaic Demokratiai

1tpo£a-t<i>ta;t<i>Vtv I:upa1eouam; 1tpayµatoov ("the leading men in Syracusan

~et the pomt is moot, because
was used to describe a democratic gove 208 • •
affairs"). Such a conclusion is intriguing, but aside from the problems it makes
ultimately Maeandrius' declaration n mmentj
and indeed mi ht neve h ever resu ted m any change of government, for Herodotus' narration of events (the implied chronology would be radically
manship on th; part o/th=~~:e!re!~°i:~ anything more t~an ~litical games- distorted), the supporting argument depends upon too exacting an interpretation
1 of Diodorus' diction: his terms could describe populist concerns in oligarchic
evidence that po ular ov · . we may take this episode as further
archaic period.2J! g emance was considered an option for Greek cities in the Syracuse as easily as a populist govemment. 214This account is best taken as
illustration of the tensions existing within the Syracusan state toward the end of
the sixth century, tensions which eventually exploded into stasis and the expul-
sion of the gamoroi several years before Gel on' s seizure of the city around 485.
17. SYRACUSE Whatever the date, there can be little doubt that a democracy did take control
of affairs. Herodotus' statement that the demos presented itself and the city to
Democracy in Syracuse began with a r I • . . Gelon shows that it was fully in charge. More specifically, Aristotle (Pol. 1302
(hoi gamoroi) c 491 210 A d. evo utmn agamst the ruhng landowners
out by a coaliti~n of the d:C:::smg;~H~rodotus (7.55), the gamoroi were driven b2S-33) lists Syracuse (before the tyranny of Gelon) among other demokratiai 215
Kyllyrioi were probabl con an e1_rown sla~~s called the Kyllyrioi. These which suffered civil unrest from disorder and anarchy (ataxian kai anarchian).
little is known about t:Cm f!u;;;ire 2~~tT1vhesof S1c~ly or their descendants, but It is not at all surprising that some chaotic periods ensued as a result of driving off
I f · e expulsion occurred a 1 the landowners and forging a new constitution based on the inclusion of the
ong a ter the Syracusans suffered am . d i . • pparent y, not
exiled landowners withdrew to Casme~~: 21~ea! at the nver Helorus (492). The previously unempowered demos and a body of serfs or slaves who may not even
of Gela, undertook to bring them back to' th ~ a few year~ lat~r Gelon, tyrant have been Greek. An entry in Photius seems to confirm that the Kyllyrioi not only
demos surrendered the city and th I e cny. Faced with his approach the aided in the expulsion but played a role in the new constitution, we may presume
Syracuse. emse ves, and he commenced to rule from as full citizens.2 16 Designing an entirely new set of polis institutions could be
fractious enough without attempting to include as equal participants former
In the last few decades of the sixth douloi. Nevertheless, as a general rule one must be cautious about the labeling of
increasingly important economic factor toc~~ury _Syrac~se was _becoming an
presumably an enlarged trading class 213 y region, with growmg trade and democracies in our sources as "anarchic," for aristocrats typically saw demokra-
trated in the hands of the rich I d . et much of the wealth was still concen- tia as inherently wild and disorderly, and it is likely that the traditions upon which
that there had been signs
Gelon's predecessor Hi
of;::
orners. A ~po~ from_Diodorus (10.28) shows
pu ar unrest I?th1~ penod. During the reign of
our historical literature is based originated with this class. Unfortunately for the
Syracusan democrats the constitution was not given very much time to work out
Syracusan leaders in th/e';::}e;he~asty~:n~~s ;::d
to have ~oped !o discredit its problems before being overwhelmed by the power of Gel on.
We have few details concerning the functioning of the Syracusan democracy
greedy, elitist, and unequitable (lha to OOJC~i p •he~by making their rule seem
oii6' ia c'i
6Tijtott.teci>~ . v auto~ ltA£OV£1C'tl.1C~ all' ou during this period, and parallels from Diocles' demokratia of 412 are sure to be
government here d::cri:~iv). Hilt~ makes the interesting suggestion that the anacbronistic. 217Scholars have assumed that the demos and the Kyllyrioi retained
gamoroi therefore took plac ~as a /m(ocracy, and that the expulsion of the their membership in the citizenry, though the gamoroi surely regained their lost
to indicate. He bases this id:a~;~tr c. 520) tha~ Herodo~us' account seems property.218 During Gelon's rule the tyrant made a show on at least one occasion
seem to expect of their leaders g dy ohothe populist behav1or the Syracusans
an t e words used to describe them: -ro~
214 W. Hilttl, Verfassungsgeschichte von Syrakus(Prague,1929), 53--6, 57-9. Cf. Dunbabin's
refutation of his position in WesternGreeb (as inn. 4S) 62 and 400-l. Dunbabin does not
208 Chapler two, pan two. resort to declarations lhat this would be "too early" for democracy, but rather relies on
209 On a putalivc Samian democrac • the fi aound textual and numismatic arguments 10 prefer lhe later date.
J.P. Barron, The Silver Coin.r;; arst half of the fifth cenlury. overthrown in 453, see
sur les Rt!gimcs Politiques de ~a:::.
1
.<1;;: 0
;,
1966
1 969
), 90-1; against lhis, E. Will, •Note
9
21' For the interpretation of Ibis passage sec Newman, Politics(as in n. SS) vol. 4, 301, and
Aubonnet, Politique(as in n. 58) 2.2, 15~. ·
DemocraricConstilution.r(u inn. 67 ) ' 198-9. (l ), 305-l , esp. 309; and O'Neil,
216 Photius, 1.v. Killyrioi: ev :tupaacoucxn~ -nvt~ ed.,\8,Jaav, o\ civd 1ciivY£Ull,IOPOIV
.,_tpo~
210 5,cf.432-4,486.
For the chronology of lhis pc riod ,see Dunbabin,We1temGrwb(asinn.45)410-ll,414-
. · ' aca'tO).apovu~ 101>KOA\UUµa~ (N[So] some in Syracuse were addressed, those who
seir.eda share in the government in place of the geomoroi.") .\ •
211 Dunbabin, WesternGreeks(u inn. 45) 111 w·1h l . 217 On the later democracy: Diod, l3.34.6-3S; Arist. Pol. 1304 a27-8; HUltl, Ve,tassungsgt•
212 For an anscnptaon
· · · which may confirm the rei a n•• . • schicllu (as in n. 214) 57-98; O'Neil, DemocraticCon.rtitutions(as in n. 67) 162-3; B.
H.-P. Drllgemilller, Syralr.,u,v,r T, ~rence to S~usan ~iulcs in Casmenae,see
• (Heidelberg, 1969), 52- with n.
3 5
/!"'graplart
llllll Gesc/11cl11•
emer griechischen Sladl Caven, Dionysiiu I Warlordof Syracast (New Haven, 1990), 25-6.
218 Cf. Bcrve, Tyrannis(as inn. 93) 142.
·
213 Drllgcmilller, Syralr.as
(as tn
· n. 212 ) 52; Dunbabin, WestemGreeks · (as inn. 45)
· 61-2.
··
 122
Chapter 3: Archaic Demokrarini

of submitting himself to the authorit of th . 219

perhaps, that the preceding dem 0 k ~ e ekkles1a. We may conclude
· · • • ralla first ra· d h. •
postt!on, g1vmg it the authority (referred . ise _1 is body to a dominant
elections and scrutinize magistrates.220 to obliquely m our sources) to conduct

CHAPTER 4:
CONCLUSION

1. SUMMARY OF RESULTS

This study began by considering the concept of democracy as a general proposi-

tion. Democracy has meant different things to different people over time, so we
had to establish a coherent and explicit meaning for the term before embarking on
a thorough analysis of early democracy. Robert Dahl's five-fold criteria for an
ideal democratic process offered a good point of departure, for it creates a
sensible, positive model against which we may measure democratic systems of
any age. According to Dahl, democracies should impart to their citizens the
opportunity for effective participation, voting equality at the decisive stage,
understanding of the process, and control of the agenda. Finally, the citizen body
should comprise all permanent adult members of the community. The more a
given state adheres to these criteria, the more democratic it is.
Few would dispute that modem countries, such as the United States, which
pride themselves in being democratic, fulfill these criteria for the most part- one
may assert as much without implying that these governments operate ideally or
are beyond improvement. The more difficult question asks to what extent ancient
states labeled democracies satisfy the conditions Dahl lays out. Our analysis
concluded that ancient democracies for the most part met these conditions, and in
some respects exceeded the standards of the modems. The differences separating
popular government in the two eras are certainly striking, as a comparison
between the United States and classical Athens reveals: Athens encompassed a
relatively small territory and population, transacted business directly, lacked
professional, state-appointed judges (and many other civil servants), and defined
the participation of its citizens in a hierarchical manner according to their econ-
omic ability to contribute. The government of the United States, on the other
hand, extends over a huge populace and landmass, operates with a representative
system, employs an independent judiciary to oversee the dispensation of justice,
and grants an explicit array of "inalienable" rights to its citizens, who comprise a
significantly larger percentage of the total population. Yet these contrasting
practices merely represent the implementation of patently democratic goals in
disparate cultural and historic circumstances. Specific institutions may vary
widely as long as the processes created work toward similar ends. The Greeks
219 Diod. 11.26.5-6; Pol ac certainly fell farther short of Dahl's doctrine regarding the inclusiveness of the
142-7 600-1 y nus, 1.27.l;Acl. VH6.ll and 1337 B T . .
. • , (as an n. 93)
· · crve. yra11111s citizen body - women and slaves were universally excluded, and certain de-
220 Zimmermann "A • mocracies (those preferred by Aristotle and Thucydides) might not even involve
• nsHtze (as in n. 28) 298.
the poorest citizens because of property qualifications or other factors. On the
other hand, Greek popular governments far surpassed today's nations in the level
 124
Chapier 4: Conclusion

;r active participation in self-government t .

d nd/or th~ sovereign assembly. In the sim lhrough Jury courts, rotating offices,
I. Summaryof Results 125

em~rac1es put the people firmly in cont p est terms, both ancient and modem assigns lo Theseus trumpet the principles of eleutheria and to ison, and exalt the
~a~h1D_eryof state the ideals of freedo:I of the go~ernment, and embed in the role of the demos in state decision-making. Thucydides offers more than one
s1milanty (though not identity) of d and equality, signaling the essential definition of democracy. In Pericles' funeral oration demokratia apparently
The first chapter also test d Gemocracyand demokratia. means government in the hands of the people (to •.. es pleionas oikein), with the
moc w e
racy. e concluded that while 'd
reece's re t ·
~u at1on as the inventor of de- rewarding of personal excellence in service to the state being a unique virtue of
t~e. administration of some states o;;~ ence_exists for a limited popular role in the Athenian system. Thucydides also reports Athenagoras' defense of demokra-
~ aims for early democracy pertain to S e ancient Near East, the only substantial tia, in which the speaker attacks oligarchy for granting the people a share only in
IDde~ndent republics of India of the s~~:C of the third millennium B.C. and the the dangers, not the benefits, of the common enterprise, contrasting this with the
and 1Dherentlyambiguous myths cannot cent~ B.C. In the first case the late excellence of democracy's inclusive yet still discretely organized approach (kata
~b;.u1 actual governmental institutions :: relied upon to provide conclusions mere kai xumpanta) - an approach which allows the wealthy special access to
ID icate oligarchy as easily as democrac. oreov~r, the _same testimony could offices overseeing public moneys, but leaves all the important judgments in the
of vaguely defined institutions make y. ~eg~d1D~ Ind~a, conflicting accounts hands of the masses. This sort of arrangement demonstrates the variation possible
state .P~oblematic, while the lack of -~rec1se 1dent1?cat10nof any democratic within democracy, while still staying roughly within Dahl's criteria for a dem-
the ng1d Varna class system increev1 ence ,for the ideal of equality to counter ocratic process. 1 Thucydides' discussion of efforts to moderate the Athenian
e~~l~de. the possibility of democra~es_ on~ s skepticism. Though we cannot democracy in 411 underscores this variability, for initially at least the reforms
c1v1hzat1ons substant1·a11 y ID either of these or in oth . proposed by Peisander and others did not call for a new constitution, but rather a
Th . ' Ymore will hav t be er ancient less radical form of demokratia, to be achieved through making offices available
. e evidence adduced reveals onl t~ o done to demonstrate its existence
viewed. However one chooses t . y bare outlines of government diml • to fewer citizens and canceling state pay for all except those on military expedi-
u~?er~co~ethe conspicuous liken~s~n:~i~~ th!s murky picture, it canno; fail
o IDSIJtutionalcomplexity and shared. e emc and modem democracy in tenns
1! tions.
Aristotle's analysis formalizes and adds detail to the picture presented in the
~reek democracy enables the confiden11;a1s.I_nsufficientdocumentation for pre- fifth-century authors. While the earlier sources indicate in general terms the
fi an an examination of early Greek de ssert1~? ~at this study represents more possibility of different kinds of democracy, Aristotle constructs a four-fold
irst democratic states. mocracy. 1t 1s also a search for the world's scheme to take this into account. The first and oldest form requires moderate
The_second chapter embarked on . property qualifications for magistrates and perhaps a small one for attendance in
con~epl!on of democracy• as renected . a mo:C specific analysis of the Hellenic the assembly, which meets infrequently; citizenship rests mostly with the farmer
to discover the earliest exam Jes of IDaut ~rs of the classical period. Ifwe arc class. The second broadens the definition of citizenship somewhat, but still limits
participation; the third type loosens qualifications to include all simply on the
;~a~!~~:f state, with what instituti:::::a~~;: i:~s.t ha~e a very clear idea
• er terms. Our best sources in mind when they used basis of being free men, yet the absence of state subsidies prevents large-scale
~es (and Aeschylus') Suppliants Thu~~erodotus, Pseudo-Xenophon, Euripi- participation by the poor; finally, there is extreme democracy, which places
deone of the fifth-century autho~ tak/ I :s,_and aboveall Aristotle's Politics - popular power even over law hallowed by long tradition. In all types the demos is
mocracy or any other constitution as t cir task the systematic analysis of lcyrios, but in this last one the aporoi are able to dominate proceedings because
a~ut d~mokratia. For Herodotus thl yet all of them relay valuable infonnation public pay encourages their attendance in assemblies and juries. Aristotle further
antithetical to tyranny. It bestows ~ u~rvernm~nt ~cans an orderly community distinguishes various democracies by the way they handle the deliberative func-
lot, makes magistrates subject to qthe ty urn Its Citizens, determines offices by tion, with some radical states employing assemblies almost exclusively and
assembly or council, and probabl au:: yna, del!~rates through a popular others relying more upon elected or allotted representatives of the people., 1 t.
Pseudo-Xenophon portrays demo~ . s all part.ic1pants to speak publicly The variety of democratic governments given by Aristotle necessarily im•
(~ and lowly) majority. At Alh at,a as government in the interests of th~ plies that democracy was shared by many different states in Greece, and was not
ruling council, and occu ma . ens _allcould speak freely, participate in the a private preserve of the Athenians. Similarly, none of the fifth-century authors
usually prefe1TCdto leave i:i;e ge:;::~es, though ch~teristically the demos make any suggestion that Athens invented democracy or first implemented a
betters a?d keep the more profitable p~fiandother high, unpaid offices lo their
•·f_ ~· -· ·- t--+ , ...,•.;: i.,; :: :· ,._., /~ ,.,"~, :, ..·/~. \1-;•-~·.,:~·.~r·
message is that while such a system can: ices I~ themselves. The resounding
does confer great benefits on those trul _01result in good government, it can and
' The restriction of certain offices to the wealthyruns somewhatcounter to the ideal of equal,
effective participation in the system for all, but not prohibitivelyso. In a representative
ants offers a more idealistic picture
.,
oi ~::barge: the demos. Euripides' SuppU-
ocracy. The speeches the tragedian
system, whero elective office affords the only means for direct influence on state affairs,
such restrictionswould be far more severethan in Greek-styledirect democracy,where the
rest of the citizenry can still personallycontrol affairs - includingthose under the purview
of the officials concerned- from the assembly. · ·· -
: !
 127
2. The Emergenceof Greek Democracy
126 Chapter 4: Conclusion

century) and Samos (early sixth) to the more indeterminate but presumably later
radical version of it; and all of them tal . sixth-century cases of Chalcis, Cos, Cnidus, Elis, and Mantinea. In addition,
widespread political phenomenon k about demokrat1a as if ii were a
there were probably other democracies in Ionia in the 490s, as we have seen from
Aristotle also
of democracy confirms,
which our earl.though in greate~depth, the mstttuttons
. . . characteristic Herodotus' report that Mardonius established demokratiai in the place of Ionian
ier sources provide The
specifics, though all emphasize th t I . • ~ sources vary somewhat in tyrants in 492 (6.43.3). These states would have been under the thumb of the
demos. So too with Arista
demos be lcyrios. (The te1!
poor, though in his favored
~::,~o:a u umate authonty rests in the hands of the
demokratia_fun~amentally entails that the
ere usually ~~~hes the dominance of the
Persian empire, of course; however, the earlier introduction of isonomie by
Aristagoras at the outbreak. of the Ionian Revolt would not (5.37 .2). Perhaps the
best we can say with any degree of certainty is that by the middle of the sixth
controlled by ordinary ~ , moderate demokrat1a1 It connotes a citizen body century demokratiai bad formed in a number of different states, and bad probably
. ,armers rather than an urban b)0 h h . . appeared elsewhere even earlier. By the start of the fifth century the constitution
include an assembly with final po th h mo : t er c aractenstlcs
times conduct most affairs of sta:~~• . ou~_rcp,:esentauve councils may some- was a well~stablished phenomenon in the Greek world.
exalting of freedom and e u . . • Junes mg m the hands of the people; the
terms low ro . q al_ity,and the control of magistrates through limited
radic~l :f
ror!s ~r!:~~:c:~;ns, allotment to offic~, and/or the euthyna. More
some will practice ostracis~. ic pay for attendance m assemblies or juries, and
2. THE EMERGENCE OF GREEK DEMOCRACY

Scholars have often resisted the identification of any Greek democracy function-
Having established demokratia's vari • ing prior to that of the illustrious and well-documented Athenian example. This a
posed to specifically Athenian n ety of fo~s: g~nerally Greek (as op-
priori bias tends to surface in one of two ways: scholars will choose a lower
ded in the third chapter to se~h ;;~: and taractei:istic institutions, we procee-
government. A an-Helle . e ear iest credible examples of this form of rather than a higher chronology whenever there is a question as to the time of a
in the archaic ~riod prc~~~;:;°;ement to~ards egalitarianism, detectable early democracy's inception (as with Achaca, Argos, Cos, and Elis); or, when this is
5 extremely difficult, they will deny that it was an actual democracy at all (e.g.,
revealed fully eight~n states fore:ii°:::racy ~PP_Caranc_e; our investigation then
government before 480 B C C . h convmcmg ~v1dence exists for popular Megara.. Cyrene). The present study corrects this tendency where the evidence
the archaic pen'od must be.· ertamty was not possible, for polilical history in warrants it. I hope that this has not simply resulted in a similar skewing of all data
constructed from th thi . in the other direction: I have presented the governments in this investigation, with
Funher, the mixed government called r ". e . nnest scraps of testimony.
of these states, as this constitution _"po ~1 m Arist~tle may account for some
democratic institutions Of these e· ;: Sill to share in some of the typically
only a few exceptions, as possibilities for archaic democracy, and I have not shied
away from pointing out those cases where the evidence for democracy is relative-
for actual functioning democr . •~ eeA nb,we found the most compeUing cases ly weak.. Even so, the weight of literary and epigraphic testimony malc.esit all but
. ac1es m c aea.. Croto A . impossible to avoid the conclusion that demokratia existed in many states during
gos, Chaos, Cyrene, Heraclea Pontica., Mc ar N n, cragas, Ambrac1a..Ar-
reasonable case can be made i th J a, axos, and Syracuse, though a
the archaic period - demokratia well-matching that found in Aristotle's Politics
candidates are tabeled demo/era::; be ~~I as well. Man~ of the likeliest
O or the descriptions of the earliest political writers. The fact that solid evidence for
ought not disregn...a·•nth b Y c 1 e sources, testimony which we the political history of archaic Greece is generally hanl to come by renders the
"'u ea sence of powerful· d' · numerous claims for early democracy especially worthy of notice.
of them can demonstrate institution b _in_ications to the contrary. Most
These remarkable results will not come as a surprise to all. Some scholars in
include mechanisms for the con s c ~tenstic of Greek democracy. These
the last decade or two have talc.ennotice of at least ponions of the evidence
qualifications, a representative c:!:J maf str~tes, low or non_e~is~nt ~~pcny
and legislative bodies At the t, • ~d active popular paruc1pat1on m Juries
collected here and have attempted various explanations. H. D. Zimmermann
1,.,, • • • Ieas ev1 ence shows the d t b be chooses to back away from the implications of his relatively limited study of
"Jr1os, the smgle most crucial test. '.,,, . e'""s o ave en sixth-century popular governments. He decides that lack of irrefutable proof for
The dates for the best candidates th h . , . , democracy ..im engeren Sinne" before the fifth century means that at best an
range across the late archaic period 'rroou~o[::n. on_lygenerall~ ascertainable,
economically independent lower class occasionally fought for and won political
even earlier (Achaea.. Chios) to the mi~dl gmntn~ of the sIXth century or

fi: ;iic
equality (of the Solonian sort) in broadened aristocracies, oligarchies, and tyran-
Heraclea Pontica.. Megara., Cyrene) to the • dof s1~th century (Ambracia,
nies. 2 This is far too cautious. Zimmermann' s work fails to consider the full range
Croton, Naxos) to the first decade of the o the sixth century (Acragas?.
of archaic candidates for democracy: be leaves out Achaca, Croton, ., Metapontum,
chronological distribution is surp . . 1 I cc?tury (Argos, Syracuse). This
ocratic governments within a p~~:g y;:/~• without a sudden spurt of dcm-
mocracies (Chalcis Cnidus Cos,' EJ'ar M a _eor two. The other possible de- H. D. zim;e~~~,'~i,~~
A~slUc der nem'otra~~•inden pchischen Poleis,"Klio 57
2
vaguer dates, but ;pread i~ a simil:• waanufronea., (1975),293-9. ,. '. , , , ., , . ,, " ,.. , ,
Y, m MMetapontum,
etapontum Samos) offer
(late seventh
 128 Chapter4: Conclusion 2. The Emergenceof GreekDemocracy 129

Acragas, Ambracia, Argos, Chalcis, Cnidus, Cos, Elis, Mantinea and Naxos. other is mother city to colony. Likely examples of this are Achaea-Metapontum
Moreover, our analysis of several states indicates his error in implying that key and Megara-Heraclea Pontica. ·d.
characteristics of democracy, as reponed by literary sources like Herodotus, are I ments do however, share one feature regar mg
not apparent in any early governments. 3 In contrast, 1. L. O'Neil's sweeping . Most e_arl~popu ar go:e::sull of an ~xtraordinary political crisis. Excepting
~~
1
dissenation on democratic constitutions outside Athens from archaic through
Hellenistic times does not doubt the existence of several early, moderate de-
mocracies. O'Neil judges that such governments tended to appear in medium-to-
~~ir ::e:~~~ni:f :~:i:rs
~nfJnnation became democracies in violen! rev?lutions ~:
trophe Cadmus of Cos may have voluntanly given up .
~~;11~~:rx:::~
and Cos, all those states for which have any

• hre
Jarge cities, and particularly favored states heavily involved in trade (though he · . ( d Athens we nught add) oven w au-
sees Corinth's early commercial primacy without democracy as a problem).' Ambracia, Argos, _Chalc_ts,Naxos, an ~I sixth century) and Syracuse
locratic rulers, while Cmdus, C_rolon,S~o:if: dntury and Cyrene in the sixth
However, in addition to an insufficiently established definition of democracy,
disposed of oligarchies. Argos m the ear y I raJ om romise after crushing
O'Neil's study still does not take into account a number of candidates: though he
leaves out fewer than Zimmennann, detailed considerations of Achaea, Acragas, changed_ their con~titutions i,n some ~~: of;~:cal ~vi!ons and a lame king
8
Ambracia. Cnidus, Cos, Croton, Heraclea Pontica, Metapontum and Naxos are defeats ID battle; ID Cyrene case, n:e e~ lacement of tyrants in Ionia with
still lacking. As many of these do not fit his pattern for large trading states any helped pave the way for change. p 'od of the Ionian Revolt fits the
. d · · ·n the tumultuous pen
more than, say, Elis, they cast doubt on some of his conclusions. 5 demolcratiaan 1sonom1a'. inevitable that early forms of democracy
same pattern. The conclusion seems . . h al In this we find only what
In fact, the nature of the available evidence will not permit anything close to 1 Of vere pohllcal up eav s.
an historical reconstruction of the development of Greek democracy. To attempt only took root as a resu I s~. al centers of political power, be they sole rulers
one here would be foolish. Aside from the unavoidable deduction that demolcratu:i we could have expected. Tradition . . authority easily. The broad social
or aristocratic circles, would not give up th~ir eh of Greece in the mid-late
appeared far earlier than is usually allowed and in some or all of the states listed
and economic changes that were ~sfonrunf :O~ing an expanding and diver-
above, most of our conclusions will of necessity be negative rather than positive.
archaic period - such as the increasmg uselo t r'techniques of warfare -
No particular city-type or profile seems to dominate among the early democracies th Ii uing deve opmen o
- thoroughly agricultural communities such as Elis, Ambracia. and Metapontum sifying economy,_ and e con_ nth tension of political participation 10 new
need not automatically result 10 e ex . th-century states which promoted or
are found alongside the more active commercial economies ofChios and Megara; rt ·n there were no six .
small states such as Cos, Cnidus and Heraclea Ponlica share the spotlight with the classes. If, as seems cc aJ • Greek 'ties tumultuous crises and/or stasu
larger populations of Argos and Syracuse. Concerning explanations for the imposed democracy among other ove%me~ts lo win through.
would offer the best way for popular g a result of independent actions in
appearance of a democratic constitution, imposition by conquest or voluntary
Early democracy,_ then, probably_arose: eographic points in later archaic
importation from one slate to another is not attested for the archaic period. (The
different cities at vanous chronologi~: ':: -~ea of an emerging pan-Hellenic
idea that there was a democratic "blueprint" which somehow circulated seems
fanciful anyway.) 6 The Athenian strategy of sponsoring democratic movements
Greece.? Such results acc?rd ~ell
. . .
'!''
. th archBICpenod. ,or sue I
he.'deals would seem to be a prerequi-
L- • did
and governments abroad only emerges in the second halfofthe fifth century. The egahtanarusm in e .on of democratic government. If demo"".a_tta.
sole demonstrable manner of direct transmission from one archaic stale lo an- site for the autonom?us foi:ma~ uliar conditions of, say, post-Pe1S1stra11d
0 th
not suddenly spring 1Dtobei?g ! ~ peeidely separated places such as Achaea,
Athens, but rather ha~ begmmngs '':nwMe ara, or Samos, the explanation can
Argos, Ambracia, Ch1os, Me~pontu • ~o the Greeks at large. An important
3 Ibid., 299.
only lie in altitudes and practt~s commthon . no need to search for traits or
4 1. L. O'Neil, GreekDtlllOCralic Co1111i111tit»u
011uidtAtlielll (Diss. Cambridge,1973). esp. . f ourse
corollary o f th ,s, o c •
,s that ere ,s
. 'f e wishes to account for the emergence
220-49. ,:
5 O'Neil res1a1e1these conclusions in briefer and moderatedtcrma in hia more m:cnt 11udy circumstances unique to the Athem~s J on titution was neither the first nor the
of Greek democracy generally. Therr cons . . .
The OrigiM and Devtlopmen/ of Ancien/ Grul:.Democracy (Lanham, Maryland, 199.5!•
32-5. He considers the cue of Naxos, and recoanizcs that Araos and Elis do no1 fit h••
paradigm of trading-center democracies. He also notes that Erythrae, which he judaes to be
. . reachedby W. Schuller in "Zur Entstehung der
a shtth-century democracy basedon Aristotle'■ reference (Pol 1305 bl8-23) to a revolu- 7 This c;onclusiondirccliy contnd1cll that~ bnicht (Konstanz.1979), 3~7. Schuller
tion led by the demos "in ancient times" (M ,oi, arr:lloiou chronoil), does DOCfil his idea Demokratien■u8erhalb Athens,".4 / den e1 g,., d seesdie spread of this constitution
11
1h11early democracies were large. (I conaiderthi1 pauap in lhe Chi01 ■ectioa or chapter denies thal democracies were"won f~ be~ow,:. result of the international political
three, note 97.J · only throu11himposition from the outs•~d 1.ebu.,t
few of the cases examined in this study,
6 Likewise, archaic cities apparently did no1 adopt their earlies! wri1tenlaw1 in imitation or . of Athen• and Sparta.. He cons1 ers
strategies d .
adduc:eas unreliable. C[ • •'d ·• "Du erste
roreiarnlawgivers or codes, bu1r■ther on an ad hoe basis 1a meet needs p■rticular to each and dismisses what literary evidence ~ : Archiiekrr,r(Munich, 1989), .52-6. ;
polis. K.-1. HOlkeskamp,MWrittenLaw in Archaic; Greece," />CPS38 (1992). 87-117. Auftreten der Demokratie," in Demolr.ratre.,
 130
Chapter 4: Conclusion

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Alcander, 19
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I
t
1·
Ambracia. 80-2, 89, l •
Amphicles, 98
Ampolo, C., 99-lOO
Anaxagoras, 29
Antileon, 89
• Carter, J.C., 71
Casmenac, 120
Caulonians. 76-7
Chaladrians, 109 ,,
Chalcis, 88-90, 126-9 ' . .. ' .
aporol, 37-8, 125
Chios, 1~, 9o-101, 126, l~t:. 54,
41-2. 87,_

I
Arcadia, 109 citizenship, 15, 27-9, 32. . . • .
Arceailaus D, 105 105, 109, 118, 125 __... •
Arcesilaua W, 106
,ee also politeia . -10 77 83 , l
Archilochus. 66, 69 lOO-l Cleisthenes, 4o-l, 45, 47-8, 5,?• •. ' ,'.'
Areopagus,5339:•it82-B, 105, 110-11,. JOO,102, 106-8, 130 ' ., , .. · i
Argos,46, • ' . eteomenes, 84-6 . ; ..
113, 126-9
Aristagoraa, 1 I 7, 127 Cnid~, 1~1-3, 123616-8 105, 111-13, .,,.•.
colon1zat1on,
71- • , • . c
Aristogeiton, 80 128-9
Aristophanes, 45 25-6 28 30 35-45, 49-50, comedy, 115 ·
Aristotle, 1I, 13, ;4-S78
80-2.85-90, Corcyra,55 ,. , : _,. , !
52, SS, 57, 62-4.
98-9, 101-2, 104•
loi-si
' .
11-11, 121,
,.
Corinth. 48, 80, 128 ~,
Cos, 43--4. 103--4, 126-9 '
123-1
Council of 400: 91 108-11 "'~ ,.
Anhra'uutra, 22, 24 500·. 26-7' 40, 100, 47
Council o f 3. 6-7 40. 42, 44. •
Asheri, D., 112 coutU. 18, lo-1, 30, 3 3 i 17 123--4,, . t
Aspasia.29 27 33 36-40, 42-4, 53,59,62-3,95-7~"10!• ... '. '<,.,,, "~>'l
assembly, 18-20
5
,,.2~-"
1
• g..'.
6
, 1, 93, 95-101'.
9 7
126 . , ;, ; •J
46, 49-S0, :r-u • , · · Crete. 58 105, I 13 . , , ! .: , J-'
109,112,117, 122, 124-6
Croton, 76-7, 126-9 •; ' • ,,:",
Auyria. 18
Athena11oru, 5~, ~~30, 32, 35-6. 38-42,
Athens, 9-11~5; 1'._t,
3, 69-70, 72-3, 77, ' .
Cyton,76-7
Cypsc:lus, 80,
Cyrene. I 03, 1
:..s . •
114 126-7, 129
' .,
44-5. 47 •
82-4,89,91.93,9
8 101 104 106-1 l, .
• • ,' - .,, ! . 1 33 38 65-7, l25
Dahl, R., lS-16, ~ • • , ·~: ,..•.., l '-'
m,
118, 123-30 i
danuourgoi, 84 11 ,_,},:,:..,.·,,,,, l
Attica. 111eAthens · ,, da,nos pltth,von. 108-
Darius, 411
Bahylonia, 17-IR
 142
Index 143
Index
de Tracy, 26
Declaration of Independence,29 Oranicus, 112 Pclasgus,48, S2
gy,,,,,etes, 87-8 Lygdamis, 117-8
Delphi, !05 PeloponncsianWar, 113 , . . .
demarchos, 92-8 Pcriander,80, 89 -2 5.5-8,60, 63, 74, 12.5
democracy: Hansen, M. H., 45 Macedonia.20 .
Pericles,9, 25-6, 41 • , .
Harmodius, 80 Maeandrius, 50, I 03, 119-20 6-8
use ofrenn, I 1-12 Persia,47-50, 103, 118-19, 127 . ; ., :
Hebdomaea,98 Manlinea, 10.5,I 10-11, 113-14, 12
de1t10eraticprocen, 13-16, 33 Pcrsiu Wars, 11, 40, 73
Hector, 98 Mardoni111,.50, 103, 127
ancient vs. modern, 2.5--33 Phalaris,79-80
Hellanodicae, 110 Maryandinoi, II 3
demokraria: Pheidon,82-3
Heloru■, 120 1.5
11UJ.Straailmastroi,
definition, ue Chapter 2 Megan, 78, 112, 114-18, 126-9 Phocylidcs.66
invention of renn,45 Heraclea Pontica, 111-13, 117, 126, 128-9 Phoenicia.21
Hcraclids, 74 MegaraHyblaea. 71 Photius, 121
Dcmonu, !03, l0.5--8,114 Melos, 113 ·
despotism, 17, 26, 102 Heraea, 109 Phollon,88-90
Herodot111, 11, 2.5,3.5,45, 47-.51, .57,63, 83, Meltas,82-4 Plato,2.5,S7,83
Deucalion, 109
8.5--9,103-8, 117-21, 124, 128 Memnon, 112 Pluwch, 83, 85, I02, 114-18 ,
Diagoras of Melos, 113-14 Mesopotamia, 17-20, 2.5
Didyma, 91 Hcsiod, 66-7, 69 27
Himera,78 Messcnia. 83 Pnyll, I 74 86 117 , '
Diocles, 121 polireia.27-8, 42-4, S ' ' ' 88-9 101
Diodorus, 78-80,83,8.S-7, 104,107, 120-1
Hippobotae, 89-90 Metapontum,71, 76-8, 126-9
mctics 29, 31-2, 39 .
polity, 42-4, 53, 62, 81-2, 84-\. '. .'.
Diogenes Laertius, 78 Hippocrates, 120 126
Hittites, 21 Milctu~.39, 100, 117 ~' · , , " Pollux,87
Homer, 19, 24, 66-9 Mill, Jamesand John Stuart, 2 ' Polyaenus.119
Ebia, 21
egalitarianism, 6.5--72 hoplite■, 43, 51, 61, 68, 82, 98, 118 Mimncnnh 1111,4-~519 24,31,46,49,.52,54- Polybius,73-8
HUttlc,W., 120-J monarcy, ' ' ; Polycrates,119
ue also equality 5, 74, 83, 106 ..
Egypt, 17 PolytechnOn.98
lamblich111,76-7 Montesquieu, 26 probouleusis,97
Ehrenberg, V,, 35 Morris, I., 66-7, 69-70
India. 22-4, 124
ekklesiasrerion,71, 77, 80 n. 56 mythology, 18, 46, 63 probouloi,60al'ficauo·
ns 20 36-8. 41-4, 49,
lonia, .50,72, 91-2, 103, 127, 129 propcrlYQU I I • '
eleurheria,36, 53-4, 87, 11.5--16,118-19, lphurki■h, I 8 Mytileneans, 72 59, 62-3, 81, 101, 125-6 , ·.:·
12.5
lsagoru, 102 prostatu, I 02. 117
Elis, 7.5, 108-11, 113, 126-8 Naxol, 117-18, 126, 128-9 oras 29 ..
Empedocles, 78 Israelites, 21-2
Near East, I I, 16-17, 124 Protag • ho 11 25 35, 45, 5~2. 57,
iugoria, 41, 47-8, .53,83 Pseudo-Xenop n, • •
Ephesus, 69 Nicodorus. 113-14
Ephialtes, 35 i.rol:ratie,41-8, .53 L
North Korea. I 3 publ!3~::20, 36, 41-2, 44, 49, 53, 61-3, •
Ephoru1, 78 i.ronomil,II, 4.5,47-.51, .53, 103, 106, 119-
20,129 77, 125-6
equality, 14-16, 24, 30--1,33, 36, 44, 49-.50, Ogygu1,73-.5 Pythagoreans.73-4, 76-8
.53--4,.58,63,6.5--73,123-7, 129 Oinopoion, 98 8- 3-4 3 1, 42-4, 49,
euno,,,ia, 51 Jacobsen,T. 17-20 20 2 . ~ :· 20 27 31, 33, 39, 44, 99-
Jacobsthal,P., 91 oligarchy, 14-1\1 78 81, 86,'99, 101-2, rcpn:scntation, • • ,
~~~~~'i ~2: I 15, I 17-18, 121, 124-.5,
Euripides, 11, 35, .52-.5,63, 124 101, 123, 125-6 · .. '
Jeffery, L H., 7.5,91-2, 96-7, 110-1
eurhyna, 36-7, 39, 41, 49-.50, 63, 124, 126_ juries, II!/! courtl Rhodes.P. J.,97 ~- ~•
127,129 Rome. 20, 28 with n. 20 .
Federali.rr,The, 26 Oliver, J. H., .58,92, 96-7
Kautilya.22
Finley, M. J., 2.5
Kiechle. F., 86-7 Olympia, 108-1 I · samos.
30; 91-2. 11s-20: 126-7, 129
Five Thousand, The, 56, 60-2 Olympic games.73, 82-3, I 10 Sappbo.66
Kish, 18
Four Hundred, The, 60-2 O'Neil, 1. L, 10, 108-11, 128 Scythes. 103 ,
Koerner,R., 74-.5
freedom, 16-17, 21, 24, 29-30, 33, 36, .53--4, Kyllyrioi, 120-1 . Sepea. 82. ~5 104
63, 83, II~. 118-9, 124-6
1ee al.roeleutheria
Kuwait,1.5
~~436, 40-1, 44, .53,62,110.126
Ostwald, M., 48 . .
SherWin-Whitc.S. !'f., .
Si11eurn. 72 2 51 85-8, 12~1. 123 . .
Otanea. 48-.50, 103
Lan., 1. A. 0., 74 slaver)', 29• 3 i- • hi~torian),85-8 · · · •
Gehrke, H.-1.,86, 98, 113, 116, 119
Oela, 120
Lc1011,R., 117 ,, ,
palintokia,114, 116-17 Socntel (~ local :zo66 69, 77, 91, 98. 127
LclaatineWar,89 Solon. 39 with ■, • '
Gelon, 120-2 Puos. 69 .
Lcoceda, 83 Soviet Union. 9 .57-8 ..Sl-4, Ill, 113, 117-
Gilgamesh, 18 Pausaniu, 74-5, 82-3, 11~1 Sparta.43-4, 48,
Libya,10.5
Oorgus, 80 Peisander, .57,60-l, 125 18
Locrians, 113
Pelsi■tratus, 55, 117, 129
 144
lnde,

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