The Joan Palevsky Imprint in Classical Literature In honor of beloved Virgil— “O degli altri poeti onore e lume . .” —Dante, Inferno The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous contributions to this book provided by the following: The Grimshaw-Gudewicz Fund of the Department of Classics, the Royce Family Fund in Teaching Excellence, and the Program in Ancient Studies at Brown University The Magie Fund of the Department of Classics at Princeton University The Classical Literature Endowment Fund of the University of California Press Foundation, which is supported by a major gift from Joan Palevsky Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece Kurt A. Raaflaub, Josiah Ober, and Robert W. Wallace With chapters by Paul Cartledge and Cynthia Farrar UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley Los Angeles London University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu. University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England © 2007 by The Regents of the University of California Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Raaflaub, Kurt A. Origins of democracy in ancient Greece / Kurt A. Raaflaub, Josiah Ober, and Robert W. Wallace ; with chapters by Paul Cartledge and Cynthia Farrar. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13, 978-0-520-24562-4 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-10 0-520-24562-8 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Democracy—Greece.—History—To 1500. 2. Greece— Politics and government—To 146 B.C. 3. Democracy—Greece— Athens—History—To 1500. 4. Athens (Greece)—Politics and government. I. Ober, Josiah. II. Wallace, Robert W., 1950– III. Title. JC75.D36R33 2007 320.938'5-dc22 2006026246 Manufactured in the United States of America 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 10987654321 This book is printed on Natures Book, which contains 50% post-consumer waste and meets the minimum requirements of ansi/niso z 39.48–1992 (r 1997) (Permanence of Paper). CONTENTS About the Authors / vii Chronology of Events / ix List of Abbreviations / xi 1. Introduction / 1 Kurt A. Raaflaub 2. “People’s Power” and Egalitarian Trends in Archaic Greece / 22 Kurt A. Raaflaub and Robert W. Wallace 3. Revolutions and a New Order in Solonian Athens and Archaic Greece / 49 Robert W. Wallace 4. “I Besieged That Man”: Democracy’s Revolutionary Start / 83 Josiah Ober 5. The Breakthrough of Demokratia in Mid-Fifth-Century Athens / 105 Kurt A. Raaflaub 6. Democracy, Origins of: Contribution to a Debate / 155 Paul Cartledge 7. Power to the People / 170 Cynthia Farrar Bibliography / 197 Index of primary sources / 225 general Index / 233 ABOUT THE AUTHORS Paul Cartledge received his DPhil from Oxford in 1975. He is currently Pro- fessor of Greek History in the Faculty of Classics and Professorial Fellow of Clare College, University of Cambridge. His main interests are Greek social, political, and cultural history, Sparta’s history through the ages, and the continuing signiWcance of ancient history in our own time. He has edited or coedited several volumes, including The Cambridge Illustrated History of Greece (1998) and Money, Labour, and Land: Approaches to the Economies of Ancient Greece (2002), and recently published Spartan Reflections (2001); The Greeks: A Portrait of Self and Others, second edition (2002); The Spartans, second edi- tion (2003); Alexander the Great: The Hunt for a New Past, revised edition (2005); and Thermopylae: The Battle That Changed the World (2006). He is cur- rently writing a specialist history of Greek political thought from Homer to Plutarch. Cynthia Farrar received her PhD from the University of Cambridge in 1984. She currently directs a project on deliberation and local governance at Yale University’s Institution for Social and Policy Studies (ISPS) and teaches in the Department of Political Science. She explores and pursues strategies for energizing citizenship, particularly at the local level. Among other projects, she coordinates the Citizen Deliberations for MacNeil/Lehrer Productions’ national By the People initiative. She is the author of The Origins of Democratic Thinking: The Invention of Politics in Classical Athens (1988) and articles on deliberative democracy. Josiah Ober received his PhD from the University of Michigan in 1980. He is Mitsotakis Professor of Political Science and Classics at Stanford University. He works primarily within and between the areas of Athenian history, clas- sical political philosophy, and democratic theory and practice. His current vii viii about the authors research focuses on problems of collective action, knowledge exchange, and human nature. His books include Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens (1989), Political Dissent in Democratic Athens (1998), The Athenian Revolution (1996), and Athenian Legacies: Essays on the Politics of Going on Together (2005). Kurt Raaflaub received his PhD from the University of Basel in 1970. He is David Herlihy University Professor and Professor of Classics and History as well as Director of the Program in Ancient Studies at Brown University. His interests focus on archaic and classical Greek and Roman republican social, political, and intellectual history as well as comparative history of the ancient world. He has recently coedited Democracy, Empire, and the Arts in Fifth-Century Athens (1998) and War and Society in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds (1999) and published The Discovery of Freedom in Ancient Greece (2004). A volume of collected essays to be titled War and Peace in the Ancient World is in press. He is currently working on a book tentatively entitled Early Greek Political Thought in Its Mediterranean Context. Robert Wallace received his PhD from Harvard University in 1984. He is Professor of Classics at Northwestern University. His main interests are in archaic and classical Greek and Roman republican history, Greek law, Greek music theory, and numismatics. He has coedited Poet, Public, and Performance in Ancient Greece (1997) and Symposion 2001: Vorträge zur griechischen und hel- lenistischen Rechtsgeschichte (2001) and published The Areopagos Council to 307 b.c. (1989) and Reconstructing Damon: Music, Wisdom Teaching, and Politics in Democratic Athens (forthcoming). He is currently working on a book titled Freedom and Community in Democratic Athens. CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS Late 8th century Spartan conquest of Messenia 669/8 Sparta defeated by Argos at Hysiae Mid- to late Second Messenian War, Sparta adopts the “Great 7th century Rhetra,” Tyrtaeus c. 632 Cylon attempts to establish a tyranny in Athens c. 621 Draco’s legislation at Athens 594 Solon archon, mediator, and lawgiver in Athens 560–556 Supposed first tyranny of Peisistratus in Athens 546–528 Peisistratus tyrant in Athens 528–510 Hippias tyrant in Athens 514 Harmodius and Aristogeiton assassinate Hipparchus 510 Tyrant family expelled from Athens by Spartan intervention 508/7 Factional strife in Athens, intervention by King Cleomenes of Sparta, popular uprising against Isagoras and Cleomenes, reforms initiated by Cleisthenes 506 Failed Spartan invasion of Attica, Athens defeats Chalcis and Boeotians 499–494 Ionian Revolt, initially supported by Athens and Eretria 490 First Persian invasion, Athenian victory at Marathon 483–480 Construction of large Athenian war fleet 480–479 Second Persian invasion, Greek defeat at Thermopylae, draw at Artemisium, victories at Salamis, Plataea, and Mycale ix x Chronology of Events 478 Foundation of Delian League under leadership of Athens 472 Performance of Aeschylus’s Persians 465 Earthquake and helot revolt at Sparta 463 Performance of Aeschylus’s Suppliants 462/1 Reforms initiated by Ephialtes, Cimon ostracized 459–451 First Peloponnesian War between Athens and Spartan alliance 458 Performance of Aeschylus’s Oresteia, including Eumenides 451/0 Pericles’ citizenship law 446 Thirty Years’ Peace with Sparta 443 Ostracism of Thucydides son of Melesias, Pericles’ last major opponent 431–404 Second Peloponnesian War 429 Death of Pericles 413 Defeat of Athenian expeditionary force in Sicily 411 Oligarchy of the Four Hundred at Athens, followed by a moderate oligarchy of Five Thousand 410 Democracy restored 410–399 Revision of laws in Athens 404 Defeat of Athens, tyranny of the Thirty 403 Democracy restored 399 Trial and death of Socrates ABBREVIATIONS CAH Cambridge Ancient History. DNP Der Neue Pauly: Enzyklopädie der Antike. Stuttgart, 1996–2003. FGrH F. Jacoby, ed. Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker. Berlin; Leiden, 1923–. IC Inscriptiones Creticae. Rome, 1935–1950. IG Inscriptiones Graecae. Berlin, 1873–. LCL Loeb Classical Library. ML Meiggs and Lewis 1988. RE Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft. Stuttgart, 1893–1978. SEG Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum. Amsterdam, 1923–. Syll. Wilhelm Dittenberger, ed. Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum. 3d ed. Leipzig, 1915–1924. Repr., Hildesheim, 1960. xi Chapter 1 Introduction Kurt A. Raaflaub Background Over the past thirty years or so, work on Athenian democracy has intensiWed and yielded most impressive results. The development and functioning of democratic institutions and of the democratic system as a whole, as well as individual aspects, such as the roles of the