CLAS 201 (Lecture 4) ATHENS We have already seen how the old oligarchy was arranged. The lecture notes, too, for Kylon and Draco appear on handout three. Handout 4 will start with Solon. The change to currency caused problems for many Greek city-states (you ll recall) indebtedness, expropriation of land, slavery. Kylon s attempt to seize power failed; Draco s law reforms were too primitive to help. Therefore something else was needed. This brings us to Solon. SOLON Solon was given autocratic power to reform the Athenian constitution, as well as to make changes to the economy and introduce new laws. He appears to have been an eponymous archon, but these extraordinary powers would have supplemented his authority as archon. Solon has left us a testimony of his achievements in a variety of poems he composed. Some of this verse has survived (see the supplement to this handout). These describe (more than anything else) his economic reforms. What did these reforms consist of? He prohibited the use of land or one s own person as a collateral for a loan. This eliminated the possibility of someone losing his estate or being enslaved because a debt couldn t be paid. He also gave back land that had been lost in this manner and restored to some enslaved Athenians their liberty. More comprehensive reforms were required, however, to deal with the new realities that currency had brought about. Solon therefore turned his attention to the constitution. NEW CATEGORIES First off there were new categories for citizens. Eupatrid, Georgoi etc no longer were applicable: such categories had little to do with wealth which was now a major mainstay of society. The new categories addressed this shortcoming. They were as follows: Pentakosiomedimnoi (literally the five hundred bushels). This referred to anyone whose estate produced the equivalent of five hundred bushels or measures of grain. (Such a number would have represented a great deal of wealth). Hippeis (or knights, horsemen). These were citizens whose estates produced between 400 and 500 hundred bushels of grain. Zeugitae (teamsters, as in driving a team of oxen). These were citizens whose estates produced between 300 and 400 bushels of grain.
Thetes. Citizens whose estates produced less than 300 bushels of grain. These categories were now based exclusively on wealth (and were therefore fluid, both up and down). Theognis worst fears had been realized, in other words: the higher one s category, the higher one s political standing. The 9 archonships were now to be held by members of these groups and not the earlier ones (but they would hold these positions for a year, not 10 years as was the case formerly). In particular, only members of the Pentakosiomedimnoi (P) and Hippeis (H) could serve as eponymous archon, polemarchos and basileus; while members of the zeugitae could serve as thesmothetai. Some of the authority of the Areopagus was transferred to a Boule (council) of 400. This still consisted of former archons (P,H and Z). To render the archons more accountable to the population, Solon instituted a heliaea, a court consisting of ordinary citizens. He also passed a law allowing any citizen to bring a charge against any other citizen (when wrong had been done). This enabled common citizens to lay charges against ex-officials and have the case tried by other common citizens. No doubt such an innovation made for more honest officials. The ekklesia was now open to ALL citizens, including the lowest stratum, the thetes. Finally, Solon legislated a number of laws ones more effective than Draco s law code. These new laws were written down and displayed on the axones (a wooden device, much like a lazy Susan). The public had ready access to the laws according to which they were governed. Once finished with his reforms, Solon went into a voluntary 10 year period of exile. This was to prevent citizens from bribing or coercing him into making changes to his reforms. CONSEQUENCES While many of Solon s reforms were wise and effective, they were not enough to save Athens from civil dissension. The Athenian population could be divided into three regions the coast, the hill and the plain. The hill people were poor and interested in democratic reform. The Plain people were wealthy and interested in an oligarchic government. The coast were in the middle and liked to play the other two groups off against each other. One way or another, these three groups were at odds with each other, to the point they brought about stasis civil war. This is how Pesistratus came to power. PEISISTRATUS From about 560 to 527 (off and on for the first few years) Pesisitratus controlled Athens as a tyrant. That is to say, he ruled in violation of the constitution. As a tyrant over a citystate, however, Pesistratus had to be careful not to alienate the population as a whole;
otherwise the population might have refused to fight for him or turned their collective backs on him. Having to persuade the population to accept his rule, Pesistratus controlled the population with a velvet touch. Many of Solon s reforms were maintained (with the understanding that he would intervene if the government tried to subvert his wishes). ACHIEVEMENTS At the same time he was responsible for economic improvements. He pushed the Athenians to expand their trade (olive oil and wine were their chief exports). A rich vein of silver at the Laureion mines was discovered during his reign. Peisistratus started to mint owl-headed silver coins (in honour of Athena, the patron goddess of Athens). These coins became popular with many other city-states. He was also responsible for a number of major public building projects. FESTIVALS It was under Pesistratus that Athens developed two important festivals. The Panathenaia festival was expanded by him. It was celebrated every year and, in the fourth year, was particularly lavish, included athletic and poetic/musical competitions. Indeed, the poetic competition consisted of rhapsodes who would compete against each other to see which could recite passages from Homer most satisfyingly. This competition necessitated a standard text of Homer and our present Iliad takes its origins from this text that Peisistratus complied. The climax of the Panathenaic festival was a pompe or procession that would make its way from the foot of the acropolis up the acropolis itself and to the Parthenon, where a statue of Athena lay. This image of the goddess would be presented with a new peplos or gown. Another festival implemented by Peisistratus was the Dionysia, or dramatic festival. We will talk about this in some detail in a later lecture; for now, we only need to know that the festival was Peisistratus doing and that it proved immensely popular with Athenians and non-athenians alike. Overall, Pesistratus rule proved so effective and popular that the tyrant wound up dying peacefully in bed (527 BCE). More to the point, his two sons Hipparchus and Hippias inherited his rule and kept it going. HIPPARCHUS and HIPPIAS Hipparchus happened to fall in love with Harmodius, a young Athenian male. Harmodius was already dating Aristogeiton, an older male citizen (the pair were lovers, known as eromenos, the young passive one, and erastes the older, guiding male). Harmodius spurned Hipparchus who sought revenge by preventing Harmodius sister from playing a prominent role in the Panathenaic festival. To avenge this slight to his family s honour, Harmodius and Aristogeiton assassinated Hipparchus (514, with help from other coconspirators). They were arrested and put to death. At first the population was incensed with Harmodius and Aristogeiton, seeing them as political mischief-makers. Eventually
(510) Hippias was driven out of power (and took refuge in Persia). His removal from Athens ended its rule by tyrants. The problem was the old stasis (civil tensions) between hill, coast and plain resumed. These tensions led to the last Athenian reformer we will look at: Cleisthenes. CLEISTHENES Cleisthenes understood that his priority was to get the three sections of the city to cooperate with each other. He did this by dividing the population into ten tribes. Each tribe would consist of three trittyes. A trittys was a group that citizens belonged to, based on their place of residency. So a citizen would be a member of a trittys (of which there were 30) and (by extension) a member of a tribe. The point is, the three trittyes that formed each tribe came from the hill, coast and plain. So each tribe consisted of citizens from the three regions of Athens. Because each tribe wanted to succeed (as a matter of personal honour) its members would be forced to cooperate with each other, and this meant the hill, coast and plain people in each tribe had to bury their differences and play nicely together. Solon s Boule was now changed to accommodate 50 members from each tribe (500 people all in all). These people were chosen by lot. They would prepare business for the ekklesia and handle financial matters and ones involving foreign affairs. These members were elected for a space of a year, but because 500 people couldn t rule so effectively (because their number was so large) it was decided to allow the 50 members of each tribe to rule for one tenth of the year. This office was called a prytanis. To prevent unscrupulous politicians from getting into power, Cleisthenes devised another innovation. If 6000 votes (each was written on an ostrax or pottery shard) could gathered against an up and coming politician, he could ostracized (voted into exile). Cleisthenes innovations marked the onset of true democracy in Athens (although women could not vote and slaves were a fact of life). TERMS archon (leader), basileus, polemarchos (war leader), oligarchy, aristocracy, boulē (council), stasis (civil strife), tyrannos (tyrant), Athens, Attica, autochthons, Theseus (synoecism), eupatrids (nobles), georgoi (farmers), demiurgoi (tradesmen), hektemoroi (sixth parters), basileus, eponymous archon, thesmothetai, Areopagus council, ekklesia (general assembly), Draco (621 BCE), miasma, Aeschylus Oresteia (Agamemnon, Choephoroi, Eumenides), Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, Orestes, Iphigeneia, Aegisthus, Apollo, Athena, jury, Erinyes (Furies), coinage, debt, slavery, Solon (c. 575), Seisachtheia, Pentakosiomedimnoi, Hippeis, Zeugitai, Thetes, tamias, Heliaea, Areopagus Council, Boule (400), probouleutic, axones, plain, hill, coast, stasis, Peisistratus (546 527), Laurion Mines, Panathenaia, Dionysia, Theseus, Hippias,
Hipparchus, Harmodius, Aristogeiton, Cleisthenes (508), Trittys, tribes (10), Boule (500), strategoi (generals), Ostracism, prytanis TEXTBOOK Ancient Greece: 185-200 A Brief History: 128-139