Western Civ. Id The Age of Pericles Greek Thought Alexander the Great The Hellenistic World and The Athenian Empire Page 5 Page 9 Page 13 Page 17 THE RISE OF ATHENS Today, we must look at the second great polis, that of the Athenians. As we did in the case of Sparta, we must first look at the geography of Athens and the influence of that geography on her growth. The territory of the Athenians occupied a rocky peninsula in central Greece called Attica. Unlike Laconia, the Spartan homeland, the area of Attica included very little good farmland. It was generally a poor region except for silver. The city of Athens itself was about five miles from the coast, but it was near enough to use several good harbors in her territory. This meant that if Athens were to become an important state, she would have to rely on trade rather than farming. Before 500 B.C. when Athenian trade was still limited, the polis remained backward and relatively weak. But as her trade developed after 500, she became one of the most powerful and most progressive of all the Greek city-states. The dialect of Attica is closely related to the Ionian (Iconic) dialects. This means that the original population of Attica were predominately Mycenaean Greeks who lived in Attica before the start of the Iron Age. Evidence about the earliest organization of the Athenian polis is limited, but there is enough information to give at least some idea of the conditions there. As I suggested above, Athens remained relatively backward during her early history. This is reflected in her constitution, which remained an aristocracy dominated by a few families as late as 600 B.C. In the executive branch of government the basileus was replaced by a board or committee of nine officials called archons Like the ephors of Sparta, the archons were elected each year. Each official was responsible for some aspect of the administration – war, religion, justice, etc. The council at Athens was called boule, and in the earliest period this body had considerable powers. The council was made up of former archons. After their year as archon was over, the officials became permanent members of the boule. There was an assembly which elected officials and made important decisions, but it could take action only on those matters that the boule placed before it. Thus, the boule had the greatest role in policy-making. Participation in this early government was limited in two ways. Like Sparta, Athens had expanded in the years before 600, taking into its system many outlying farms and villages. The people who were annexed in this fashion were not citizens. They had no role in government at all. Even in the citizen-body itself there were restrictions. All citizens could vote in the assembly, but only members of certain families could hold the archonship. P a g e 1 o f 20 whom the money was borrowed. Even if he had been cheated, the farmer usually could not get satisfaction because the man who cheated him was likely to be a cousin of the judge. This then was the condition of Athens in 600 B.C. We saw earlier that Sparta also had an oppressive system and that the Spartan system never changed. In Athens, the economic conditions were so bad that change was necessary. Between 600 B.C. and 500 B.C., events occurred that completely remade the Athenian state. Reform under Solon The reform began in 594 B.C. when the danger of revolution became so great that the eupatrids agreed to allow reform. They appointed a man archon, for one year with the power to introduce whatever changes he wished. The man chosen for this was named Solon. He was a eupatrid himself, but he placed the interests of the city Attica shown inside the blue circle. above those of the aristocracy to which he belonged. He reformed the basis of participation in government by allowing any persons with wealth to hold the archonship and sit on the These families were called eupatridae, nobly born. They boule. In this way, he converted the city from an aristocracy dominated politics by holding the archonship and with an oligarchy. Office holding was now dependent on controlling the boule. This system was extremely unstable wealth, not birth. This may not seem an improvement, but because of the bad economic conditions in Attica. Before it was. Now any citizen could become archon provided he 600 most persons in the region were still farmers, and the made a lot of money first. As a related reform, Solon gave limited farmland made it difficult for these persons to make citizenship to some people who were not citizens before. a living. A second notable reform of Solon was to publish the Between 750 and 600, the population of Attica laws of the polis. Before this time, there was no written law. gradually increased. As it did, it became increasingly more The archons merely kept the law in their heads, so that they difficult for farmers to produce enough food to feed the could change the interpretation of it whenever they wanted. whole family. In bad years, these small farms would have to Solon put the laws on tablets in the city. After Solon’s time, borrow food from their richer neighbors, the eupatridae, who the laws were available for anyone who wanted to read might have some left over. Once a farmer fell into debt, it them. This ended irregular justice. Finally, Solon attacked was hard for him to pay off, for he now had to produce the problem of debt by merely abolishing all the debts enough to feed his family and also enough to pay back what outstanding in his time. he had borrowed. By 600, many persons – perhaps most of them– had become permanent debtors. They merely paid a Solon also created laws that made it illegal to export fixed sum to a wealthy neighbor with no hope of completely grain. These agricultural laws were very important. Since it clearing the debt. Worse yet, they were sometimes cheated was illegal to export grain, eupatrid farmers were by their creditors, who might charge high and unreasonable encouraged to find some other crop to export. The best interest. crop for the export market was olives. But, it takes over twenty years to produce olive oil from scratch. You have to As conditions worsened, the farmers appealed to the plant trees that take two decades to mature. You also have to government for help, but the government was unwilling to invest in oil mills. This change in Athenian crop production do anything. The government was controlled by the was only a logical choice for wealthy farmers. It had the eupatrid families, and the eupatrids were the men from effect of setting back Athenian aristocrats by two decades. P a g e 2 o f 20 Peisistratos’ Tyranny Although evidence is uncertain, Cleisthenes apparently got a bill extending citizenship to most of the free The main failing of Solon’s program was in the debt inhabitants of Attica who were not already citizens (called abolition. He had ended the debt, but he had done nothing metics). Metics were non-Athenians who had moved to to prevent new debts in the future. After about fifty years, Athens to take part in the trade and mercantile activities of the situation was right back where it started. This led to the the city. Their interests were primarily urban rather than establishment of a tyranny at Athens (549-10). You may rural. So, their participation in Athenian government was remember that a tyrant was an illegal ruler who would seize more focused on city activity than rural, which further control of the government of a city in times of unrest. In diluted the influence of the country aristocrats. He lowered Athens the tyrant was a man named Peisistratos, who the property requirements for holding the archonship so gained the support of the small farmers for his rule. He was that all but the very poorest citizens were eligible to serve. absolute leader from 549-517, when he died. He made all But the most important reforms had to do with the way the the decisions and dominated the other organs of Assembly conducted its business. The old council of government. After his death, the position of tyrant was archons was deprived of its power to arrange business of taken by his son Hippias, who continued to rule until 510. the assembly. In its place a new council was created called The tyrants did nothing to alter Athenian government, the Council of 500. but they carried out many reforms to improve the economic The Council of 500 was made up of 500 men chosen system. Peisistratos reformed the money system in a way annually by lot. They were not elected, and the membership that promoted the growth of trade and commerce. He took changed each year. The lots were drawn in a way that the other steps to encourage trade. He created many new council would represent a cross-section of the whole demos. religious ceremonies to attract visitors and tourist money to This was an important reform because it made the assembly the city. And he built many new temples to provide jobs for essentially an independent body. They assembly could not those who could not make a living as farmers. These actions only make decisions but also decide what questions required effectively relieved the economic pressures on Athens. By debate.