Ancient/Classical History/Athenian democracy

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Expert: - 6/5/2010


Question
Hey, im putting this on private because a guy in my class has tryed to steal a lot of my ideas

Sigificance and role of struture and features of athenian democracy in the time of pericles

role and infulence of pericles on struture and features of democracy

Answer

The Funeral Oration of
Thank you for the question, James.

Here is my lengthy response [With segments added from my intellectual writing] to your stated question regarding the composition of the Athenian polis [A populist form of government; direct democracy], the Athenian strategus Pericles and the strength and composition of the Athenian domain.
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I. [The Civil Constitution of the Polis of Athens]

Within the context of antiquity, it was well balanced and integrated as compared to Periclean democracy. The Athenian system of Solon gave way to the Peisistratid tyranny whilst the reforms of Cleisthenes, Ephialtes and Pericles gave way to the rise of sophists and demagogues that were strongly condemned by Plato. Athens had a good system of checks and balances with the Areopagus that selected the archon, the Ekklesia as a male assembly, the Boule or the judiciary council composed of the dikasts. However, with the ascendency of Pericles and the ousting of Cimon, the populist regime was immoderate. The fall of Athenian hegemony from 478-404 BCE led to a brief revival with Thrasybulus and the second Athenian power from 378/377-355 BCE that eventually fell due to popular uprisings in Cos, Chios, Samos, Thasos against Athenian deprivation. The rise of demagogues of the populist parties led to a degeneration of government control and quickly devolved into a lack of moderation, petty passions, licentiousness and chaos.

II. [The Political Theory of Plato in Relation to the Populist Rule in the Polis of Athens]

1. Timocracy: Government led by the benevolent who rule in moderate terms and who seek to alleviate certain grievances to the populace and at the same time to effectively maintain civil order;

2. Aristocracy: The timocracy after multitudinous generations would lose its dedication to the maintenance of liberty and its desire to maintain the relative degree of individual autonomy. The aristocracy would be based on the principles of wealth, prestige and influence;

3. Oligarchy: The aristocracy would degenerate and devolve into an oligarchic body that would then become avaricious. In effect, government would decay into a kleptocracy with the usurpations of the rich and the brigandage of the poor. The great upheaval, turmoil and anguish would result in bloodshed, social disequilibrium and civil disunion in which the state would begin to totter; and

4. Democracy: Power is in the hands of the people or the masses leading to the rise of sophists and demagogues or rabble rousers who would consolidate power into their own hands with their seductive and embellished speeches and sway the populace. Anarchy would ensue eventually leading to the accession of a despot.

III. [The First Period of Athenian Hegemony: 478-404 BCE]

Thucydides wrote of the symmachia [An offensive and defensive alliance]or the Delian League that was to act as a defensive perimeter for the Ionian Greeks from any future assault from the Medio-Achaemenids of Persia that resulted in the metropolis of Athens becoming the hegemon or the leading state that exerted sovereignty over lesser Grecian states and in the emergence of Athens as a thalassocracy with allied states, subservient states and cleruchies in the Propontic Sea [To safeguard the Hellespont and Hellespontine Phrygia, and to maintain effective control over the Thracian region and the key Thracian cities of Selymbria, Perinthus and Byzantium], Euxine Sea and Aegean Sea. Therefore, the Delian League had metamorphosized into an autarchy and despotism.

The metropolis of Athens became the imperial hegemon in which all of the states subservient to Athens tributed triremes, manpower and material goods to provide nourishment for the imperial hubris of the Athenians, to provide for the building projects of the Athenians and to maintain the sea power of the Athenian domain. At first, the Athenian realm maintained sovereignty over Thessaly, Boeotia, Megaria, however, after the Pentecontaetia ["Fifty Year Period of Peace" from 480-433 BCE] Athens relinquished these mainland possessions for coastline states/zones. The Athenian domain consisted of the Archipelago of Naxos or the Cycladic Islands, the Eteokarpathioi of the Dodecanese, Ionia, Caria, Mysia, Lydia, Lycia, Hellespontine Phrygia, Amphipolis, Olynthus, Potidae, Perinthus, Selymbria, Byzantium, Locria, Cephallenia, Zacynthus and Corcyra. It was divided into five districts: (a) the Thema Thrace, (b) the Thema Ionia, (c) the Thema Caria, (d) the Thema Hellespontine and (e) the Thema Cyclades.

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I wish you the best in your history/political science class project,

Conrad Jalowski

Conrad T. Jalowski

Expertise

The First Athenian Hegemony: 478-404 BCE, the Second Athenian Hegemony: 378-355 BCE, the Peloponnesian War: 431-404 BCE, the Theban Hegemony (Epaminondas): 371-362 BCE, Hellenistic History: 335-30 BCE, the Roman Principate: 27 BCE-235 CE, the Roman "Barracks Period": 235-284 CE, the Roman Dominate: 284-395 CE, the Gallic Empire: 260-274 CE, the Palmyrene Empire: 260-273 CE, the Britannic Empire: 286-297 CE, the Illyrian Emperors: 268-284 CE, the Occidental Roman Empire: 395-476 CE, the Oriental Roman Empire (Early Byzantine Period): 330-802 CE, the Byzantine Empire (Middle Byzantine Period): 802-1204 CE, the Byzantine Empire (Late Byzantine Period): 1204-1453 CE, the Carolingian Frankish Empire under Charlemagne: 768-814 CE

Experience

I am an assiduous student of Greek, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Medieval and Italian Renaissance history with an in-depth comprehension of Platonic, Aristotelian, Hellenistic (Stoicism, Epicureanism, Skepticism and Cynicism) and Ciceronian philosophy. My passions in the fields of philosophy and history converge in late antique Mediterranean culture (200-650/750 CE). My area of greatest interest spans from the collapse of the Roman Principate in 235 CE and extends to the Mussulman invasions of the Mediterranean. Particular topics within the period of Late Antiquity include the Gallienic Renaissance and the cultivation of Neoplatonism (253-268), the Diocletianic Tetrarchy (293-313), the collapse of the Occidental Roman Empire (476 CE), the reigns of Maurice Tiberius (582-602) and Flavius Heraclius Augustus (610-641) and the Byzantine-Sassanid War (602-628).

Publications
-(The Molloy College Student Literary Magazine): A short analysis on Niccolo Machiavelli's republican treatise titled "Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livy".

Education/Credentials
-(Molloy College Undergraduate Philosophy Conference) Despotism in Greek and Roman Political Theory: http://www.facebook.com/events/176699492365438/

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