Athenian Political and Social Culture Flashcards
Athens as democratic x2 - demos involved
Xenophon Memoribilia 3.7.6 - Broad section of population represented
‘It is’ all sorts of tradesmen ‘ who make up the assembly’
Old Oligarch 1.2 - democracy benefiting the demos, power of the lower classes
Rhetotric undermining democracy x2 (idiocy+rhetoric)
Aristophanes Knights
‘Demos continues to sit booby-faced on the Pnyx’
‘always try to win over the people with little touches of rhetoric’
Weaknesses of democracy x1
Thucydides
3.37 ‘a democracy is incapable of governing others’
Dikasteria democratic x1
Random assignment and large numbers to avoid bribery and corruption
Dikasteria weaknesses x5 (3 obols, emotion/judgement, trickery)
No state representation - reliance on rhetoric
Payment of citizens to be jurors - Aristotle CA 28 - ‘after this judicial corruption began’
Wasps -
- Instant judgment of the jurors, soon as defendant comes in ‘Oh the villain he is!’
- Emotion: after the pups are shown Philocleon is ‘in tears’
- Bdelycleon misleads Philocleon: ‘ he leads Philocleon to the urns by a roundabout route, so that they come first to the acquittal urn. P: There, in she goes [because it is the first one]’
Women’s rights x3 (ignore, bad, 2nd lit)
Th 2.45 - Women - less talked about the better
Aristophanes, Thesmophoriazusae - women complain about their lack of freedom
Told they are a ‘bad influence on men, and responsible for [everything]’
Restrictions on freedom - 2nd lit shows not allowed to leave the house (Osborne)
Metics x1 economy
Xenophon Poroi 2.1
‘perform many services at no expense to the state…pay a metic tax’ - advocating for citizen rights
Ephialtes reforms x1 +2 (Areopagus)
Reforms of Ephialtes - Aristotle 25
‘Ephialtes…(in 462) took away all the accreditations which gave it power over the constitution…Themistocles shared the responsibility for this’
(inconsistency with Themistocles being responsible - left Athens in 470s)
Reliability: biased against the democracy - trying to weaken legitimacy with Themistocles being Persian collaborationist
Pericles x3 (comparison, fake democracy, tyranny)
Pericles (CA 28)
‘when Pericles was champion of the people, the constitution was not it too bad a state, but after his death it became much worse’
Pericles 15 - Plutarch
‘forced [the people] to do what was to their advantage’
- (Supported by Thucydides 2.64 - Pericles guiding the democracy)
‘he came to hold more power in his hands than many a king and tyrant’
Factions (back and forth, balance) (x2)
Pattern of champions ‘of the people’ and demagogues ‘champions of the others’ (CA 28)
Plutarch Pericles 11
Thucydides through ‘debate’, created a ‘balance of power’ in Athens
‘concentrated strength’ of aristocrats’
Ostracism x2
Ostracism (Plutarch Nicias 11)
Ostracism - Used to get rid of the too rich or too great
‘feud between Nicias and Alcibiades grew so bitter…decided to resort to an ostracism’
Cleon demagogy, corruption x4
Knights:
- ‘eagle of leather is Paphlagon here [pointing to Cleon]’, blaming him for the corruption
later the chorus ‘you eat up the public funds’
Plutarch Nicias 3.1 Cleon ‘knack of playing to the gallery’
‘remarkable for the violence of his character…exercised the greatest influence over the people’ - 3.37 (Cleon using sophistic argument afterwards)
Alcibiades - rhetoric x2 + malicious prosecution x1
Alcibiades’ influence of the demos - Plutarch
‘his charm as a speaker gave him a hold over the people’ (10)
‘greatest orator Athens ever knew’ - then contradiction saying he hesitated in speech (10)
Prosecution for mutilation of Hermae - casting doubt ‘number of slaves and resident aliens’ (19)
Extreme power of demagogues
Demagogy
Populism
Post 431 politicians x4
Knights: ‘shall be the paramount chief of….the Pnyx’
‘trample on the council and trim back the generals’
‘leadership of the people is no longer a job for an educated man’
3.42 - Mytilene debate - Pressure to be populist as advice needs to be taken or they will be punished
