Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Timeline
- CHAPTERS AND NARRATIVES
- 1 Meaning in context: how to write a history of Greek political thought
- 2 The Greek invention of the polis, of politics and of the political
- Narrative I The prehistoric and protohistoric Greek world, c. 1300–750 BCE
- Narrative II The archaic Greek world, c. 750–500 BCE
- 4 Rule by some: the politics of Solon, c. 600 BCE
- 5 Rule by all: the Athenian revolution, c. 500 BCE
- Narrative III The classical Greek world I, c. 500–400 BCE
- Narrative IV The classical Greek world II, c. 400–300 BCE
- Narrative V The Hellenistic Greek world, c. 300–30 BCE
- Narrative VI ‘Graecia capta’ (‘Greece conquered’), c. 146 BCE – CE 120
- APPENDIX I Selected texts and documents
- APPENDIX II The ‘Old Oligarch’: a close reading
- Bibliographical essay
- References
- Index
5 - Rule by all: the Athenian revolution, c. 500 BCE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Timeline
- CHAPTERS AND NARRATIVES
- 1 Meaning in context: how to write a history of Greek political thought
- 2 The Greek invention of the polis, of politics and of the political
- Narrative I The prehistoric and protohistoric Greek world, c. 1300–750 BCE
- Narrative II The archaic Greek world, c. 750–500 BCE
- 4 Rule by some: the politics of Solon, c. 600 BCE
- 5 Rule by all: the Athenian revolution, c. 500 BCE
- Narrative III The classical Greek world I, c. 500–400 BCE
- Narrative IV The classical Greek world II, c. 400–300 BCE
- Narrative V The Hellenistic Greek world, c. 300–30 BCE
- Narrative VI ‘Graecia capta’ (‘Greece conquered’), c. 146 BCE – CE 120
- APPENDIX I Selected texts and documents
- APPENDIX II The ‘Old Oligarch’: a close reading
- Bibliographical essay
- References
- Index
Summary
You can never have a revolution to establish a democracy. You must have a democracy in order to have a revolution.
(G. K. Chesterton, Tremendous Trifles, 1909)To one who advised him to set up a democracy in Sparta, ‘Pray,’ said Lycurgus, ‘do you first set up a democracy in your own house.’
(Plutarch, ‘Sayings of Spartans’, Moral Essays 228cd)INTRODUCTION
In 1993, or thereabouts, the notional 2,500th anniversary of the reforms at Athens credited (or debited) to Cleisthenes in 508/7 bce was widely commemorated in the academies of the Western world. This was largely on the grounds that the introduction of these reforms was at least a strong candidate for marking the origin of democracy in the world tout court, not only at Athens. More recently, however, there have been powerful voices – both from within ancient history (Detienne 2007) and from without (Goody 2006) – arguing against what they see as inappropriate Hellenocentrism. The Greeks, they urge, are not our – or at any rate not our unique – ancestors in the political sphere, and exaggerated as well as falsely based homage to the ancient Greeks has, they believe, distracted attention from the no less, or even more, important fact that many other peoples in history have made breakthroughs, even revolutions, into forms of democracy. Without wishing to diminish let alone disparage these other alleged democratic or (often) ‘democratic’ advances, I submit that on sound comparative grounds the palm must still be awarded to the Greeks, and in terms of absolute priority to the Athenians specifically.
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- Ancient Greek Political Thought in Practice , pp. 55 - 64Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009