In its early history, a period for which we have no written evidence, Athens
was governed by a monarchy. During the Archaic Age (750-500 BCE), Athens
was governed by an aristocracy of birth and wealth. During the 7th century
BCE, Athenian leaders competed over, debated, compromised and fought bitterly
over who would exercise power in Athens and how. An early phase of the
constitutional struggle saw the aristocrat Solon granted extraordinary
powers to reform the constitution (which even aristocrats recognized as
too oppressive for ordinary Athenians). Solon's reforms formed the basis
of what would eventually become the radical democracy of Athens. First,
however, the tyrant Pisistratus came to power. Pisistratus was himself
an aristocrat. It was not uncommon in Greece during this period for an
aristocrat to make an alliance with ordinary citizens against the contemporary
government. Pisistratus did so and he and his family ruled Athens from
545 to 510 BCE (they had a brief rule in 561 but were kicked out. When
they returned, they stayed for a generation.
Cleisthenes then established the first true Athenian democracy in
508/507. Subsequent generations of Athenian leaders passed more reforms
until (by the middle of the 5th century) a truly radical democracy governed
Athens.
all citizens (men whose parents were Athenian citizens: i.e., not women,
slaves or foreigners) could vote and serve on juries for
which they received pay (i.e, so poor people could afford to participate
in political life);
all citizens were eligible for political office, most of which were determined
by lot;all of which had a tenure of one year and
tended to be part of a board (principle of collegiality); service
in a magistracy subject to pre candidacy review and post candidacy scrutiny
by jury courts.
most ordinary citizens participated in politics by serving on juries and
voting in the assemblies. Members of the economic elite tended to be the
political leaders of Athens. They competed with each other in the assembly
(success in passing laws is a good sign of power) and in the law courts
(winning lawsuits your enemies bring against you is a good sign of power).
Shortly after the Athenians organized their democracy under Cleisthenes
the city-state faced its first daunting challenge - war with the dominant
imperial power of the day, Persia. Athens, as a naval power, and
Sparta, known for its armies, united to defend Greece against Persian invasions
in 490 and 480. Persia retreated to the mainland of Asia Minor, and Sparta
was happy to retreat to a more insular foreign policy. Athens, however,
wanted to pursue the Persians. The Greeks had established the Delian
League, an alliance of smaller Greek city-states to protect the Greeks
against the Persians. Athens became the dominant power in that league and
eventually converted that position to one of imperial power over the other
members. By the middle of the fifth century, Sparta and other Greek city-states
had become somewhat alarmed at Athens prominence. At first Sparta and Athens
fought (like the US and USSR of an other generation) through proxy states.
But by 431 BCE the Peloponnesian War broke out. It would last until
404 when the Spartans, with the aid of Persian money finally defeated Athens,
and destroyed her fleet and the city's defensive walls.
The war imposed great strains on the Athenian social and political fabric
and exacerbated tension between the demos (ordinary, not rich citizens)
and the aristocrats. In 411, some the aristocrats effected a coup
when the democratic fleet was away from Athens and established a "moderate"
oligarchy. The leaders of the coup fought with each other too much, and
the fleet returned, and democracy was restored. In 404, however, Sparta
imposed a government of 30 Athenian aristocrats on the defeated city. Athenians
referred to these men as the Thirty Tyrants, and they weren't exaggerating.
The year 404-403 was a reign of terror in Athens. A democratic resistance
formed and succeeded in 403 in driving the aristocrats out of Athens. The
Spartans were having their own internal disputes, and did not intervene.
The new democratic government in Athens then declared an amnesty.
No citizen, regardless of their political affiliation, could be sued over
conduct during the period 404-403.
Although Athens was in quite poor shape at the beginning of the fourth
century BCE (economic depression, severe population losses, extraordinary
social tensions), they recovered significantly and quickly. Athens would
never dominate the Greek world the way she had under Pericles in the middle
of the fifth century. She would, however, remain a player to contend with
(along with Sparta and Thebes) until Philip of Macedon and his son, Alexander
the Great, effectively ended the political liberty (in both foreign and
domestic policy) of most Greeks in the 330s.
more info at:
click on this
link for more info on the oligarchic constitution of Athens
during the archaic period.
K.H. Kinzl , "Athens:
Between Tyranny and Democracy," in K.H. Kinzl (ed.): Greece and
the Eastern Mediterranean in Ancient History and Prehistory: Studies Presented
to Fritz Schachermeyr on the Occasion of his Eightieth Birthday. Berlin,
New York: Walter de Gruyter 1977.
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on this link for more information on Athenian history from Pisistratus
to Cleisthenes