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Athenian Democracy in the Balance: 431/0-400/399 BCE

Athenian Democracy in the Balance: 431/0-400/399 BCE. Decrees and jurycourt trials. 416: neither prosecute nor condone those who punished the Melians 416: acquit a Socratic on a charge of bribing an Indeterminate 413: not prosecute the survivors of the Sicilian expedition

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Athenian Democracy in the Balance: 431/0-400/399 BCE

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  1. Athenian Democracy in the Balance:431/0-400/399 BCE

  2. Decrees and jurycourt trials • 416: neither prosecute nor condone those who punished the Melians • 416: acquit a Socratic on a charge of bribing an Indeterminate • 413: not prosecute the survivors of the Sicilian expedition • 411: provide education for all citizens, regardless of social class or political faction, at public expense • 411: hold an ostracism and ostracize a Radical Democrat • 404: sue for peace with Sparta • 399: acquit Socrates on the charges of asebeia (impiety) and corrupting the young

  3. The evolution of Athenian dêmokratia • 594: Solon shifts power from the landed aristocracy to the wealthy, creates right of appeal, eliminates enslavement of the indebted • 508: Cleisthenes creates representative democracy • 462: Pericles and Ephialtes institute radical democracy: all magistracies open to all citizens, pay for participation in juries • 411: Five-month nearly bloodless oligarchic coup • 411-410: Moderate democracy (dêmos of 5000) • 410: Restoration of radical democracy • 404/3: Rule of the 30: murder of 1500 citizens • 403: Reconciliation and restoration of radical democracy, including pay for participation in the ekklêsia • 399: Trial of (and vendetta against?) Socrates

  4. Faction talliesPoints at stake today: +10 to -10 • 12: Socratics • 9: Oligarchs • 5: Moderate Democrats • 5: Indeterminates • -6: Radical Democrats Which factions will the Indeterminates choose? • Demokrites (Jesse) • Apollodoros (Tom) • Gorgias (Adam J.) Any faction can win • Theophilos (Lizzy) • Poseidonios (Erica)

  5. Topic for debate • What should the governmental system of Athens be in the future? Do we continue to endorse radical democracy – power in the hands of the people, pay for participation in the jurycourts, all magistracies open to all male citizens – or do we support an alternative – a less democratic system? • Options: • Socratic polis: the philosopher-king who must, like a pilot of a ship, “devote his attention to year and seasons, sky and stars and winds, and all that belongs to his art” (Plato Republic VI.488c) • Oligarchic polis: like 411? 404/3? • Moderately democratic polis: like 508-462? 411-410? • Radically democratic polis: like 462-411? 410-404? 403-399? • What would each of these entail?

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