From Tyranny to Democracy

1. From Tyranny to Democracy • Peisistratids and Politics • Art, Religion, and Daily Life • Reforms of Kleisthenes • Ober’s argument re: demos, boule • Samons’ refutation

2. And keep in mind for our study of Saratoga Springs … • The Mayor, the City Council, and Politics • Art, Religion, and Daily Life as sponsored by local government • Reforms of the Charter • Arguments in favor of reform • SUCCESS’ refutation (Saratogians United to Continue the Charter Essential to our Success)

3. Peisistratids and Politics:Tyranny – The Next Generation • Hippias, 528-510 BCE • Archon list, 527/6-522/1 BCE • Hipparchos, 528-514 BCE • Tyrannicides: Harmodius and Aristogeiton, 514 BCE • Overthrow of Hippias: 511/0 BCE

4. Art, Religion and Daily Life Herodotus 8.144: tò „Ellhnikòn ¤òn ÷maimñn te kaÜ õmñglvsson kaÜ yeÇn ßdræmat‹ te koinŒ kaÜ yusÛai ³ye‹ te õmñtropa. To be Greek is to be of the same blood and the same speech and to have in common the shrines of the gods and sacrifices and the same way of life.

5. ReconstructionOld Temple of Athenaca. 525 Monumental architecture and sculpture Pedimental sculptureOld Temple of Athenaca. 525

6. Greek religious practicesPitsa plaque, ca. 535 BCE

7. Altar of the Twelve Gods521/0 BCE

8. Theater of Dionysosca. 500 BCE Roman tragic & comic masks Dionysus and satyrEarly 5th C.

9. Athletic competition: kleos, time, aretePanathenaic amphoras ca. 525

10. The Symposium: early 5th C. kylix

11. Sympotic Scene, early 5th C. BCE

12. Women at a fountainhouse510-500 BCE

13. Reforms of Kleisthenes:the struggle for Athens and the birth of democracy in 508/7 BCE • Delphic oracle and the Spartans • Hippias and the Peisistratids exiled 510 • Kleisthenes and Isagoras contend for archonship • King Kleomenes of Sparta supports Isagoras • Kleisthenes and 700 families exiled • Boule ordered but refuses to disperse, and the “remaining Athenians” – the demos – besieged Isagoras and Kleomenes on the Acropolis • Kleisthenes implements his reforms (or earlier) • Delphic sanction of democracy: eponymous heroes

14. Statues of the Ten Eponymous Heroes, Agora, ca. 500 BCE

15. Statues of the Ten Eponymous Heroes, Agora, ca. 500 BCE

16. Three regions of trittyes in Attica ca. 508: coast, city, inland

17. Attica political organization: the distribution of demes and bouleutai

18. Assessment of Kleisthenes’ Reforms: Creating Representative Governance What did he do, how did it change the Athenian polis,and what does this teach us about the Athenian demos? How do Ober’s and Samons’ positions shape your view of the development of Athenian democracy?

19. Ober’s arguments • Democracy began with Solon’s “creation of the formal status of citizen (… prohibiting debt slavery and [making] Athenians … responsible for one another’s welfare) … whereby the demos became conscious of itself …. The Tyrants had encouraged political self-consciousness on the part of the masses of ordinary citizens by the sponorship of festivals and building programs” (p.98). • The elites dominated the Assembly [ekklesia], the Council of 400 [boule], the magistracies and the Areopagus. • Kleisthenes probably used the ekklesia to ally himself with, and propose reforms for, the demos.

20. Ober’s arguments • Herodotus’ account – that Kleisthenes either “took the people into his party” (transl by de Selincourt cited by Ober 107) or “embarked on the process of becoming the demos’ trusted comrade” (ibid.) – implies that K. developed a special relationship with the demos before his exile, which led to Isagoras’ call to King Kleomenes for assistance and the mob response by the demos (with the analogy of the French revolution). • In sum, Kleisthenes “was absorbed into an evolving … demotic vision of a new society … in which there would be no narrow clique of rulers” (ibid.). • Kleisthenes and the demos became equal sharers of Athens’ political future – they became his political clients, as if in a hetaireia or political club – in the name of isonomia – equality before the law

21. Samons’ refutation • The use of theoretical models for analyzing Athenian democracy – or any political institution – relies on the notion that the Athenians behaved according to such a model (Samons 114) • Such models have suggested (Samons 114) that … • K. used the reforms to gerrymander political representation in Attica and benefit his family, the Alkmaionids, who resided mostly in the city and to the south, while diminishing other powerful families • K. altruistically sought isonomia – giving all citizens equal political rights • K. sought to defeat his rivals by marshalling the Peisistratids, his former enemies, against the powerful families • But: • Ober ignores the Alkmaionids’ complicated relationship w. the tyrants (his grandfather married Peisistratus’ sister; he sought support from the king of the Persian empire, a notoriously anti-democratic regime) • Ober ignores Sparta’s perception of Kleisthenes’ reforms – “a reinstitution of a Peisistratid-style tyranny” - pitting the demos against the aristocracy – which led to Kleomenes’ attack (Samons 115)

22. Samons’ refutation • The demos and boule may not have taken an ideological stance, to protect representative democracy, but only sought to expel a would-be tyrant (Isagoras) and a Spartan army • There is no evidence for mob action; Kleisthenes quickly disappeared from history, as does his family until the career of Perikles 460-430; isonomia may mean “equal distribution of privileges” (for the aristocracy) and “demokratia” was not used until 40 years later, and so could be an anachronistic assessment of Kleisthenes’ reforms • By 508/7, the only known forms of polis-governance were aristocratic leadership of land-owning citizens or the rule of a tyrant or oligarchy, supported by the poorer portions of the demos (Samons 118) • Kleisthenes’ reforms (Samons 119) • empowered the demos via the boule of 500, the ten tribal assemblies, the 30 trittyes (used for military and magisterial organization of Attica) • empowered the aristocracy since access to magistracies still depended on property qualification (i.e., wealth) • denied both groups absolute power, and created an environment hostile to tyranny • did not seek economic or social reform – e.g., the redistribution of land, or the cancellation of debt

23. For Wednesday: Persians Wars and the Defense of Democracy Darius I, 525-486

24. Defense of Democracy:Ostracism and ostraka, 5th C. Defense of Democracy: Athenian tetradrachmas and funding freedom