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The Luxuries of Athenian Democracy*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2009

David Braund
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In 424 B. C. or thereabouts, an oligarchically-minded critic of the Athenian democracy observed:

And if account is to be taken of more minor matters, it is as a result of their mastery of the sea that the Athenians have mixed with various peoples in different areas and discovered a range of festive practices. In consequence, what is sweet in Sicily, Italy, Cyprus, Egypt, Lydia, Pontus, the Peloponnese or elsewhere has all been brought together in one place because of [sc.the Athenians'] mastery of the sea. (The Old Oligarch, 2.7)

Though critical of the democracy in principle, the Old Oligarch is strikingly positive here in one sense. This is no denunciation of the baleful and corrupting influence of luxuries imported from overseas. Rather, it is an explicit statement of an advantage of sea-power to the Athenians. A minor advantage, on this assessment, but evidently considered worthy of attention. Moreover, here as throughout his work, the Old Oligarch has in mind not a narrow elite, but the Athenian demos at large, the masses. On his analysis, the demos, through its sea-power, rules Athens and its empire effectively and in its own interest, which includes the acquisition and enjoyment of the best produce of the Mediterranean and Black Sea worlds. Under the democracy, it is claimed, the masses enjoy what may be termed luxury-goods.

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , April 1994 , pp. 41 - 48
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1994

References

Notes

1. A convenient survey of possible dates and literature is Rhodes, P. J., The Athenian Empire (Greece & Rome New Surveys no. 17, Oxford, 1985), p. 44 n. 12Google Scholar.

2. On that issue, see Braund, D. C., ‘Procopius on the economy of Lazica’, CQ 41 (1991), 221–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3. Ehrenberg, V., The People of Aristophanes (London, 1943), pp. 137–8Google Scholar.

4. Ar. Clouds 109 with Athen.9.387a. On puns on Phasis and its cognates, cf. Osborne, R., ‘Vexatious Litigation in Classical Athens: Sykophancy and the Sykophant’ in Cartledge, P., Millett, P., and Todd, S. (eds.), Nomos: Essays in Athenian Law, Politics and Society (Cambridge, 1990), pp. 83–102, at p. 87, esp. n. 12Google Scholar.

5. Athen.9.397c–d with Cartledge, , ‘Fowl Play: a Curious Lawsuit in Classical Athens’ in Cartledge, , Millett, , Todd, , op. cit., pp. 41–62, esp. p. 61Google Scholar; cf. Plut. Pericles 13.10.

6. Gorgias 518b: earlier condemned as a ‘false art’, 465.

7. Cartledge (n. 5) offers a plausible reconstruction of the case.

8. Diog.Laert.2.30.

9. See, in general, Davies, J. K., Wealth and the Power of Wealth in Classical Athens (New York, 1981)Google Scholar.

10. See n. 4.

11. On harsh realities, see, for example, Osborne, R., Classical Landscape with Figures (London, 1987), pp. 108–12Google Scholar.

12. Plato, , Menex. 235cGoogle Scholar.

13. Republic 372–3; cf. Xen.Cyr.8.2.5 on the importance of size, which may further illuminate Pericles' stress on size at Thuc.2.38.2.

14. Republic 559c–560c.

15. Gorgias 522a; cf. 518c–519b, where Plato sees fit to employ the language of luxury consumption for the condemnation of democratic leaders at Athens.

16. Hunter, R. L., Eubulus, the Fragments (Cambridge, 1983), pp. 164–5Google Scholar on Eubulus, Olbia and other instances of the Utopian list in comedy and elsewhere.

17. Xen.Poroi 1.3; cf. Ar.Horae fr.581, Kassel-Austin.

18. Ar.Holkades frs.415–43, Kassel-Austin, giving full ancient testimonia.

19. Old Oligarch, 1.14–20 and throughout.

20. Old Oligarch, 1.10.

21. Loraux, N., The Invention of Athens: the Funeral Oration in the Classical City (Cambridge, Mass., 1986), pp. 174–5 on equalityGoogle Scholar, though she seems to overlook ‘equality of lifestyle’; p. 410 n. 39 comes closest. The issue of luxury is hardly addressed in the substantial Ober, J., Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens (Princeton, 1989)Google Scholar.

22. Thomas, R., Oral Tradition and Written Record in Classical Athens (Cambridge, 1989), pp. 213–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23. Loraux, , op. cit., p. 179 is valuable on thisGoogle Scholar.

24. The best treatment of the Spartan mirage remains Rawson, E., The Spartan Tradition in European Thought (Oxford, 1969)Google Scholar; on the historicity of the mirage, Cartledge, , Sparta and Lakonia (London, 1979), pp. 154–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On the anti-democratic associations of long hair, see the passages listed in Sommerstein, A. H. (ed.), Aristophanes, Knights (Warminster, 1981), pp. 175–6Google Scholar, though his associated remarks on tiaras are less sure. Note also Holladay, A. J., ‘Spartan Austerity’, CQ, 27 (1977), 111–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25. Note the (possibly too) bleak remarks of Finley, M. I., ‘Athenian Demagogues’; in his Studies in Ancient Society (London, 1974), pp. 1–25, esp. pp. 8–9Google Scholar. This article was completed before the publication of Davidson, J., ‘Fish, Sex and Revolution in Athens’, CQ 43 (1993), 53–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar, with which it is in broad sympathy, but with which it has not proved possible here to engage.