PowerPoint presentation on Athenian politics and the rise of democracy in Greece.

1. GREEK POLITICS:
ATHENS

2. CHANGES DURING THE ARCHAIC AGE (800
TO 600 B.C.)
 Outside influences:
 Egyptians: Architecture
 Babylonians: Math
 Phoenicians: Alphabet
 Migration
 Driven by population growth
 Western Mediterranean, the Black Sea
 City life
 City-states (poleis) gained prosperity

3. POWER TO COMMONERS
 In the Archaic Age, noble families
governed Athens
 An oligarchy or aristocracy
 Due to military changes, commoners
slowly gained power and rights
 Importance of hoplites (foot soldiers)
 Reduced the power of aristocrats, who
were horse warriors
 Solon: an aristocrat who reformed the
laws of Athens and extended rights to
commoners

4. TYRANNY TO DEMOCRACY
 In ancient Greece, the word “tyrant”
did not necessarily mean a bad ruler
 Tyrants did gain power by force—often
appealed to the common people and
weakened aristocrats
 The Athenian tyrant Peisistratus
appealed to the poor
 Peisistratus’ sons were harsh, but not
effective—lost power by 510 B.C.

5. DEMOKRATIA
 “Rule by the common people”
 After end of tyranny, nobles
contended for power
 An aristocrat named Cleisthenes
gained the power of the people by
promising radical reforms
 Instead of taking power for himself,
gave power to the Assembly (all
citizens)
 Poor commoners suddenly had the
same rights as nobles

6. CITIZENS AND NON-CITIZENS
 Citizens: All free men whose parents
had been born in Athens
 Excluded: Women, slaves, foreigners
(metics)
 Slaves made up one-third of the
population of Athens
 The democracy depended on slavery—
work in mines
 10-15% of city’s inhabitants
participated in politics

7. LAWMAKING
 All citizens could vote on political
decisions directly in the Assembly
 The Assembly’s power was total (no
separation of powers)
 Leaders like the strategos (general)
elected for a limited term
 Most offices were filled by citizens who
were chosen randomly—the Council of
500
 Voting took place on the Pnyx hill—
used pieces of stone (ostraka)
 Power of persuasion (Pericles,
Demosthenes)

8. PELOPONNESIAN WARS
 First Peloponnesian War (431-404
BCE): Athenian Empire goes to war
against Sparta.
 Sparta repeatedly invades Attica
 Athens raids the coast of Peloponnese
 Treaty: Peace of Nicias (421)
 Athens attacks Syracuse
 Sparta responds by enlisting Persia to
help; foment rebellion in Athenian
subject states.
 Forces Athens to surrender.
 By the end of the Wars, Golden Age of
Greece is over.

9. ANALYSIS OF THE WARS
 Athens, at one time representative of
Greek democracy, art, and progress,
reduced to subjugation by Sparta.
 Sparta represents oligarchy, or rule by
few over many.
 The Wars mark the beginning of all-out
conflict between city-states.
 The beginning of modern warfare?
 Used as a model of international
conflict – states build up alliances,
lack communication, and ultimately
go to war over perceived
transgressions.

10. PERICLES’ FUNERAL ORATION
 Following the Peloponnesian Wars,
Pericles, a famous Athenian politician,
gives a speech as part of the annual
public funeral for the war dead.
 Modern parallel? The Gettysburg
Address, from Abraham Lincoln,
draws heavily on the devices used by
Pericles.

11. HERODOTUS