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Mr. Phillip Campbell Class 2: Emergence of Greek Democracy. The Glory of Ancient Greece. Greeks and Phoenicians. Ancient Greek.
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Mr. Phillip CampbellClass 2: Emergence of Greek Democracy The Glory of Ancient Greece
Ancient Greek The ancient script of the Myceneans had died out with the collapse of their civilization. Though earliest Hellenes had utilized Linear B, the early Greeks ended up adopting the alphabet of the Phoenicians. The earliest Hellenic peoples had no written language; once ancient Greek emerges, we begin to get the first written records of Greek society and see Greek culture flourish. The Greek language was remarkable for its flexibility and capability of expressing complex concepts. The Hellenic peoples had adopted the Greek alphabet by 850 BC.
Hesiod The first great Greek author was Hesiod (c. 730 BC), originally an Ionian of Asia Minor who settled in Boetia. Very little is known of Hesiod’s life; he wrote works on the Greek gods, as well as a series of poems on agriculture as well as many other poems on various themes. He is known to have won poetry contests and was renowned even in his own day. Several famous Greek tales have their origin in Hesiod – Pandora’s Box, the Five Ages of Man, the birth of the gods, and many subsidiarity stories about the characters from the Trojan War.
Theogony The Theogony was the most famous work of Hesiod. In Theogony, the origins and genealogies of all the gods are recounted; the Creation of the world, the war of the giants, origin of the Olympian pantheon, etc. Until Theogony the details of many of these myths varied from city to city; after Hesiod, his version became the official “canon” of the Greek myths and served as a unifying factor among Greeks, something all Hellenes shared in common.
Homer Homer was the best known of all ancient Greek poets. No one knows when Homer was alive, but the early Greeks thought him later than Hesiod; later Greeks placed him as a contemporary of Hesiod, around 850 BC. Nothing is known of his life for certain; tradition has him born in Ionia and states that he was blind, but this may be a corruption of his name (hómēros means “blind” in one Greek dialect). The earliest Greeks attributed more works to Homer than the later Greeks, and the moderns even doubt his authorship of the Iliad and the Odyssey, some preferring to see “Homer” as a group of poets. Poppycock! Homer’s writings are at the core of Western literature.
Greek Cities As culture progressed in Greece, a healthy urban society developed. Great cities like Athens, Corinth, and Sparta became the centers of Greek culture.
The Polis The polis, the city ruled by its free citizens, became the ideal form of government throughout ancient Greece. Though the polis as a government emerged during the 7th-6th centuries BC, it was not until the late 6th and early 5th centuries that a real philosophy of government was worked out among the Greeks.
Characteristics of the Polis Agora: the social hub and financial marketplace, on and around a centrally located large open space Acropolis: the citadel, with a public temple Temples, altars and sacred precincts: one or more are dedicated to the poliouchos, the patron deity of the city; each polis kept its own particular festivals and customs. Priests and priestesses, although often drawn from certain families by tradition, did not form a separate collegiality or class: they were ordinary citizens who, on certain occasions, were called to perform certain functions. Gymnasia: The Greeks valued physical prowess, which they called arête Theatres Walls: used for protection from invaders Coins: minted by the city, and bearing its symbols Colonies being founded by the metropolis The agora of ancient Corinth
Areopagus Council In Athens, the ancient governing authority was the Areopagus Council, a kind of Athenian senate made up of the great families of the city. Some of their members, called archons, served as executives. Law was customary, unwritten, and generally favored the upper classes. As city life in Greece developed, thinkers and politicians began tinkering with laws to try to develop more equitable forms of government – and the ancient aristocracies resisted these attempts. This happened in Athens as well as the other great Greek cities. The Areopagus Council
The Laws of Draco Draco was the first law given of Athens; he lived around 650-600 and sought to replace the unwritten customary law and blood feuds by a written system of laws enforced by courts. He also created a Council of 500 to counter the power of the Areopgaus Council.His original set of laws, however, were far too strict – the law was easier on debtors who owed money to the poor than to the rich, mandated death for minor offenses, and forced slavery for debtors who were of a lower social class to their creditor. The death sentence was so prevalent in Draco’s Constitution that the word ‘draconian’ means “harsh.” His laws were all repealed soon after his death.
The Reforms of Solon (638-558 BC) • Repealed almost all the laws of Draco • Reformed the Draco’s Council of Five Hundred to a Council of Four Hundred, composed of the four main tribes of citizens. • Citizens, even of the lower classes, could call archons to account by removing them from office. • Lowered property qualifications for serving in public office. • Reformed Athenian coinage • Freed Athenian slaves • Allowed land to be sold (previously it was inalienable). • Bound Athenians to observe his laws for 10 years.
Lycurgus of Sparta (c. 730 BC) The most radical legal reforms were those instituted in Sparta by Lycurgus. These reforms were meant to instill civic equality, military prowess and austerity as the preeminent Spartan virtues.All men were required to eat together in a common mess hall. Boys were taken from their parents at age 7 to begin the agoge, military training. Every Spartan owned the same amount of land, worked by helots, non-Spartan serfs. Money was heavy iron bars to discourage greed. Authority was held by two kings – later by a Council of Five Ephors. The Spartan society was completely self-sufficient and needed no external trade. The ancient Greeks envied Sparta’s power, but no one else wanted the agoge.
The Tyrants Despite the efforts of men like Solon and Draco, some felt change was not coming fast enough. The 6th -5th centuries saw the rise of the tyrants, men, usually on the side of the lower classes, who seized power by force. These powerful men were called tyrannos, tyrants, meaning one in authority. The tyrants used their wealth and influence to maintain control, sometimes even initiating wars. They were kings in all but name.There are many theories as to why the tyrants emerged in so many cities at the same time; a common explanation are a growing lower class that was more susceptible to manipulation by political elites. The first tyrant was Cypselus of Corinth, who seized power in that city around 657 BC. The age of the tyrants lasted from approximately 650-530 BC
Pittacus of Mytilene The tyrants were not all bad men. Some were very virtuous, for example… Unlike Cypselus, Pittacus of Mytilene was a general known for his great wisdom who was granted supreme power by his people voluntarily. He reigned as tyrant for ten years, during which time he reformed the laws of Mytilene, restructured the government of the city, and promoted justice and mercy, even forgiving and pardoning the murderer of his son. He also famously killed a rival leader in single combat in order to avoid the bloodshed of a war. He is remembered as a great sage of Greece, and dozens of his sayings are remembered, quoted by Plato and others. His great motto was “"Do not do to your neighbor what you would take ill from him."
Cleisthenes of Sicyon (r. 600-560 BC) Cleisthenes of Sicyon seized power of Sicyon in 600 and immediately began instigating a war against the neighboring city of Kirrha. He reformed the way government was administered in his home town in order to give his family’s clan a monopoly on power and orchestrated elaborate poetry contests and games to keep the people occupied – although he banished the Homeric poets from his city because he thought they undermined his rule. He was eventually overthrown around 560 but lived for several more decades in exile.
The Drama of Peisistratos of Athens Peisistratos began as a popular general in a war against a neighboring city state. After the war, Athens was torn by rival factions. Peisistratos staged a fake assassination attempt, after which he tricked the Athenian Assembly in voting him body guards. He then used the body guards to take the Acropolis and seize power. Peisistratos identified himself with the lower classes, who bolstered his authority. While in power, Peisistratos did not hesitate to confront the aristocracy, and he greatly reduced their privileges, confiscated their lands and gave them to the poor, and funded many religious and artistic programs Peisistratos was the most famous of all the Greek tyrants. He ruled Athens on and off between 560-527 BC.
Return of Peisistratos In 555, his opponents united and exiled Peisistratos for several years. However, playing on Athenian devotion to Athena, Peisistratos came riding back into the city with a gigantic woman dressed as Athena standing beside him, which the Athenians mistook for the goddess. Believing Athena wanted him to rule, they reinstated him as tyrant.
Exile, Return and Death Peisistratos was exiled a second time and after 10 years returned yet again, took power by force, and this time retained power till his death in 527. Peisistratos attempted to promote harmony between the classes. He allowed the old aristocrats their privileges, cut taxes for the poor, created more courts to expedite justice, and spent lavishly to beautify Athens. He instituted the Panathenaic Festival, a series of games and poetry contests that would be celebrated for the next 800 years. He also ordered copyists to begin the work of writing down the epics of Homer. A Panathenaic Procession Following his death in 527, Peisistratos was succeeded by his son Hippias.
Cleisthenes of Athens The sons of Peisistratos held power until they were overthrown in 508. After this, a noble called Cleisthenes became tyrant. But rather than increase his own power, he sought to reform the Athenian government to place it on a more secure democratic basis, so that it would not be subject to the whims of the tyrants any more. For these efforts, Cleisthenes is remembered as “The Father of Athenian Democracy.” After the reforms of Cleisthenes, it would not be possible for tyrants like Peisistratos to again take power in Athens.
Demokratiain Athens under Cleisthenes • People organized into ten tribes called demes based on where they lived (as opposed to their family or clan). • Members of lower legislative bodies were elected by lottery (i.e., randomly). • Expanded lower legislative assemblies to administer the day to day affairs of the City. • Created more judges to hear cases. • Instituted the practices of ostracism, whereby a vote of 6,000 citizens could exile another citizen for ten years. Those suspected of wanting to seize power could this be sent away.
Greek Democracy Though the process went differently in each city and in some – like Sparta – looked very odd, by the year 500 most Greek cities had some sort of democratic government, or at least a government (like Sparta) that recognized the rights of all citizens to participate in government. The cities had survived the period of the tyrants and refined their constitutions, making law more equitable and eroding the power of hereditary clans and aristocratic bodies, such as the Areopagus Council.
