Topic 3 - Politics

Question 1

where did the first Hellenistic sailors go to? what happened?

Answer 1

The first Hellenistic sailors sailed to Naxos, the founders of cities are worshiped as gods and these cities create cults surrounding these people.

Question 2

how did they colonise?

Answer 2

they colonised by building a wall, then houses and temples, lastly by dividing the land among their people

Question 3

what opinion did Cicero have?

Answer 3

Cicero was of the opinion that every Greek settlement was founded via the use of the Oracle of Delphi

Question 4

how were the barbarians dealt with?

Answer 4

they dealt with the barbarians (natives) by either tricking or marrying them

Question 5

how is the state formed?

Answer 5

the ‘state’ is formed with the distinction between public officials and private citizens, distribution of power among the board of officials and a term limit on magistrates

Question 6

what comes with this?

Answer 6

with this comes judicial institutions, penalties for abuse of office, public finances, taxes and infrastructure and violence becoming a public monopoly so citizens need not go about armed.

Question 7

what does the law of Dreros state?

Answer 7

the law of Dreros states that office can only be held for 1 year and you cannot run again for 10 years.

Question 8

what was used as penalty talents before coinage?

Answer 8

before coinage multiple things were used as penalty talents such as slaves, disenfranchisement and cauldrons. should you not pay the fine exile is the further penalty.

Question 9

what did Solon ban?

Answer 9

Solon banned dowry’s, women could only bring 3 garments, things of little value and nothing else. he also forbade self-lacerations of mourners, sacrificing oxen to the deceased and extravagant shrouds and clothes in a bid to curb aristocratic display.

Question 10

what do growth of fiscal institutions allow?

Answer 10

Growth of fiscal institutions allow poleis to accumulate large amounts of wealth and expend this on public buildings, festivals, harbours, fleets etc. architecturally, the poleis became far more elaborate and impressive.

Question 11

how did views on tyranny evolve?

Answer 11

in early Greek lyric, tyranny was associated with wealth and power, thus not necessarily a bad thing, however, it became associated with monarchy and was then on viewed as something to avoid at all costs in favour of democracy.

Question 12

what effect did the constant demand for wealth etc have on Sparta?

Answer 12

The constant demand for wealth and positional goods among the elite leads them to predate on the demos, e.g. violence and judicial malpractice in order to enrich themselves

Question 13

how did they respond to this?

Answer 13

in response, they restricted elite display, but further restricting citizenship to those of a specific level of wealth. Now the citizens are a kind of elite, and the elite become an elite within an elite, commonly known as an Oligarchy.

Question 14

how accurate are sources on Sparta?

Answer 14

Sources on Sparta are generally written by non-Spartans who tend to stereotype and idealise Spartan life

Question 15

what happened to the Spartan population?

Answer 15

at the time of the Persian wars, Sparta had some 8000 males but by the time of the battle of Leuctra, Sparta lost and ended up with 1200 male citizens at most and by the late 3rd c BCE, Sparta had only 700 male citizens leaving them very little power on the international scale.

Question 16

what was the response to the little evidence of Lycurgen times?

Answer 16

Since there was little written evidence of Lycurgus’ time, Spartan kings Agis IV and Cleomenes III made up what they thought Lycurgen Sparta looked like.

Question 17

how were Spartan institutions made up?

Answer 17

Spartan institutions are made up of 2 kings, each from a separate royal house, 5 annually elected ephors, a council of elders and an assembly of male citizens.

Question 18

what other institutions were there?

Answer 18

there was also a public education system for males and females, a system of mess groups regulating membership of the citizen body and a special form of dress and habits of comportment, a culture of austerity

Question 19

how did Sparta ultimately fall?

Answer 19

they failed to address the real underlying problem, economic inequality. they made everything look equal on the surface but over time entropic drift became increasingly obvious and by the end of the 4th century, it completely deteriorated failing to ever return to its former glory

Question 20

what is the significance of Drakon’s and Solon’s laws?

Answer 20

the laws of Drakon are the earliest written laws in Athens. Superseded by Solon’s laws, although Solon retained Drakon’s homicide law.

Question 21

who was Solon before he was a politician?

Answer 21

Solon was a famous poet and in these poens he tells us much about what was wrong in Attica before he was appointed archon and also how he solved various problems.

Question 22

what was Solon’s 3 anachronistic ideas?

Answer 22

during his term, Solon had 3 anachronistic ideas, abolition of debt, reformation of Athenian coinage and property classes based on the production of specific amounts of produce.

Question 23

what did Solon’s constitution do?

Answer 23

Solon’s constitution had the populace divided into 4 property classes, wealth determining the right to hold magistrates and the citizenry was divided into 4 tribes

Question 24

how was Attica laid out in administrative terms?

Answer 24

in administrative terms, Attica was divided into 48 naukrariai (ship districts), each presided over by a captain. he also had 9 archons, the council of Aeropagus, boule of 400 with only certain classes (Thetes) allowed to attend assembly

Question 25

what were Solon’s reforms originally thought to address?

Answer 25

the Solonian reforms were originally thought to address debt and an agricultural crisis by Aristotle and Plutarch

Question 26

what doe his poems say?

Answer 26

His poems say nothing of this instead focusing on a breakdown of law and order, on one hand, rich people doing as they please but on the other the demos running amok causing chaos and murder.

Question 27

when were tyrants expelled from Greece? how did this affect government?

Answer 27

in 514 BCE, tyrants were expelled from Greece, but for the next 6 years there was chaos until the new government was formed by Kyscenes.

Question 28

how democratic was it?

Answer 28

it was not democratic by modern standard, but it was by ancient standard as every citizen could vote (but women, slaves etc. weren’t citizens)

Question 29

when was the attempt on the tyrant Hippias’ life made? what did this result in?

Answer 29

in 514 BCE, an attempt was made on the tyrant Hippias’ life making him more paranoid and cruel, giving was for the Aristocrats to expel him. the men who attempted the assassination were haled as heroes with statues erected in their honour

Question 30

how culturally imporant were the tyrannicides?

Answer 30

the tyrannicides were very culturally important, celebrated as civic heroes with cult status - holidays were celebrated after them and their families were well taken care of by the city for life.

Question 31

who was Cleisthenes?

Answer 31

Cleisthenes was a member of a wealthy Athenian family, was an archon under the Pisistratid Tyrant, ended up in exile and put pressure on the Spartans to topple the tyrants by bribing the oracle of Delphi

Question 32

what happened after the expulsion of the Tyrants?

Answer 32

after the expulsion of the tyrants, there was a power vacuum and politics re-orientated into 2 factions, Cleisthenes and the Demos and Isagoras with the Spartan military and aristocratic regime.

Question 33

how did Cleisthenes gain control?

Answer 33

the demos rioted against the military and expels Isagoras, Cleisthenes was then free to pass his populist constitutional reforms.

Question 34

how much credit does Cleisthenes get for the invention of democracy?

Answer 34

most textbooks credit Cleisthenes with the invention of democracy, but this was credited to Solon or Theseus in antiquity as the word ‘democracy’ didn’t even exist in Cleisthenes time

Question 35

when did the word ‘democracy’ come into existance

Answer 35

the term ‘demokratia’ came into existence mid 5th c BCE and meant rule by the demos so Athens could separate themselves from the Spartan Oligarchy or rule of the few

Question 36

so did Cleisthenes invent democracy?

Answer 36

the long process of constitutional development neither began nor ended with Cleisthenes, it wasn’t a one off invention, but a process of development.

Question 37

how was the Greek settlements in Sicily ruled?

Answer 37

much of the Greek settlements (Naxos, Syracuse, Phoenicia) within Sicily were ruled by tyrants and kings with only very brief intervals of democracy.