Early Athens: Solon and Constitutional Reform
Lecture Outline
I.
Athens before Solon
-by end of 8th century, unification of Athens was well advanced
II.
Constitutional Organization before Solon (mid 7th century)
a. Nine archons (elected annually)
Archon Basileus
Polemarch
Archon Eponymous
6 Thesmothetai (added c. 683)
b. Council of the Areopagus
c. Assembly (ekklesia)
III. Social Discord:
a. Cylon attempts tyranny (632)
b. Draco appointed to codify laws (624)
c. lower classes in debt
IV. Reforms of Solon (archon in 594)
a. Economic Reform
Seisachtheia ("shaking off of burdens")
law forbidding security on an individual
promotion of industry and trade
b. Legal Reforms
revision of laws
amnesty decree
right to seek redress
right to appeal to Assembly regarding verdicts of magistrates
c. Constitutional Reforms
**Wealth becomes criterion for political office rather than birth
Census Classes:
Pentacosiomedimni
Hippeis
300
Zeugetai
200
Council of the 400 (?)
= thetes 199 or less
--------> EUNOMIA ('Good Law')
-essentially conservative but 3 measures are important for the development of
democracy:
1. Prohibition of loans secured upon an individual
2. possibility of seeking redress
3. right of appeal to Assembly
Tyranny at Athens (Pisistratus) and the Reforms of Cleisthenes
Lecture Outline
I.
Discontent continues despite Solon’s reforms

Wealthy unhappy because of cancellation of debts

Eupatrids unhappy because they no longer have political monopoly

Lower classes dissatisfied with reforms

Zeugetai want redistribution of land
 Anarchia in 590/89 and 586/5
II.
III.
IV.
V.
Three Groups active at this time:

Pedieis: oligarchic, Lycurgus is leader

Paraloi: moderate, Megacles is leader

Hyperakrioi: more popular, Peisistratus is leader
Tyranny of Pisistratus 546-527

561/0: Fake wounding and vote for a bodyguard

550/49: Megacles and Pisistratus join forces. Exiled same year.

540/39 – 528/7: a positive, fair rule characterized by freedom from
factional strife

Pisistratus died in 528/7 and was succeeded by son Hippias
Rule of Hippias

Same policies until the Harmodius and Aristogeiton affair in 514

Hippias then harshens rule

Tyrants thrown out in 510 with Spartan help
Isagoras vs Cleisthenes
VI.
Reforms of Cleisthenes

Tribal reorganization
-ten tribes; territorial basis using demes and trittyes
Essential ingredient for Athenian democracy

Council of the 500
-50 members from each tribe, selected by lot
-standing committee (Prytaneis)

Military Organization
-ten generals, one elected from each tribe
Reforms of Cleisthenes provide the essentials of Athenian democratic
system.
 Direct, non-representational democracy
Isonomia (equal law)
"East vs West" (The Persian Empire and The Persian Wars) & Herodotus' View of the
'Other'
Lecture Outline
I.
Advance of Persians under Cyrus:
a.
b.
c.
d.
II.
550, Medes defeated
546, Lydians defeated
540, Greek city-states in Asia Minor under Persian control
539, Babylon defeated
Cambyses (530):
a. 535, added Egypt to the Persian Empire
b. 522, Cambyses died and was succeeded by Darius
III.
Ionian Revolt (499-494):
a. 498, Athens sent 20 ships, Eretria sent 5 ships to aid Ionian Greeks.
b. Ionian Greeks marched to Sardis but were defeated near Ephesus. Mainland
Greeks returned home.
c. Revolt continued but was ultimately unsuccessful.
d. 494, capture of Miletus and defeat of Greeks off Lade. Revolt ended in failure.
IV.
Persians Wars
a. 1st invasion in 490: Darius is Persian king; Datis and Artaphrenes, his generals,
led invasion.
Battle of Marathon (in Attica). Persian defeat and retreat.
b. 2nd invasion in 480 (Xerxes is Persian king).
Greek defeat at Thermopylae
Battle of Artemesium was indecisive
Persian sack of Athens
Greek victory at Salamis was decisive; Xerxes returned to Sardis
c. 479, Mardonius remained in Greece
Persian army defeated at Plataea
Persian navy defeated at Mycale
V.
Herodotus' vision of non-Greeks
-rather more open-minded than one might expect, given the ethnocentric tendencies
in most Greek writers. Especially admired the Egyptians
because of their skills at record-keeping.
-note the way he explains foreign customs to his Greek readers: use of analogy,
comparison and polarity is particularly important
5 things about Herodotus:
HISTORIAE (= researches)
Greece (Halicarnassus)
Greek (Ionic)
Herodotus
420’s bc