Rise and Fall of Athenian Greatness
Dr. Geoffrey Dipple
Chair of History Dept. at Augustana College
Athens was the largest polis in the Greek world. Its population rose to about
300,000 at its height about 440 BCE. About half of these were citizens and their
families. At least 100,000 were slaves. The rest were foreigners--traders who had
to be registered with citizen sponsor.
Rise of Athens
The economy of Athens was based upon farming, manufacturing and trade. Athens
and other cities derived much of their wealth in the trade of woolen goods, wheat,
olive oil, grapes and wine throughout the Greek Mediterranean world. (see text
map). Athenians also manufactured metal goods, including weapons, and also
pottery which used for the home or to transport olive oil and other goods from city
to city. Where there is trade, there is the need for shipbuilding and finances. Athens
became a center for financial business--loans and investment, etc. Athens was also
enriched by large silver mines in its territory which was worked by huge slavegangs.
By the 400s BCE, the rising wealth from trade transformed the structure of Athenian
society and politics. A primary use for wealth was the procurement of slaves, who
were usually non-Greek foreigners captured in war. Slaves were found everywhere,
from household assistants to agricultural workers to potters to galley rowers and
miners. For wealth Athenians they were valuable status symbols, like a car today.
Every soldier had a slave on campaign, and a wealthy man might own fifty or more,
especially for manufacturing. Slaves often worked side by side with free laborers,
and sometimes earned the same wage. One was not allowed in the streets or
markets of Athens to strike a slave, because one may accidentally hit an Athenian,
because in dress and appearance, slaves look just like common Athenian.
The concentration of wealth in the hands of a few very rich people led to the buying
up of small farms and the creation of large estates worked by slave labor. Wealth
did have the effect of undermining traditional aristocracy, which is to say social
privilege by birth and family. One could now become a powerful person through
wealth. Yet this change seemed to favor oligarchy (the rule of the few), not
democracy in politics. Nevertheless, we have already mentioned the importance of
the Phalanx and Hoplites. The importance of the regular infantryman in warfare
tended to serve as an equalizer, and open the door further for democracy. The
growth of democracy in Athens in turn affected the economy. The polis itself
became a major economic factor in terms of public employment on juries or in large
public building projects, like Acropolis, or the famous Athenian navy.
The Politics of Athens
The political history of Athens in the classical period is the story of the rise of its
Athenian power, the establishment of democracy, and its final destruction as a great
Rise and Fall of Athenian Greatness
Dr. Geoffrey Dipple
Chair of History Dept. at Augustana College
power at the hands of the Spartans. If one reads Thucydides, one might conclude
that there is a moral somewhere within this great tale.
The politics of Athens centered on the conflict between the aristocrats who ruled
Athens, and the common people. As small farmers began to sell out and lose out to
rich landowners in the 600s BCE, political tensions rose, and an aristocratic leader
by the name of Solon attempted in 594 a series of laws to ease those tensions. These
laws freed all citizens made slaves by debt, canceled much of the debt held by
common people, and widened the eligibility for public office to citizens of wealth,
even if they were not of noble blood.
Solon's efforts helped, but did not end the conflict of the classes. In 546 BCE,
another nobleman named Pisistratus, with the support of commoners and rich nonnobles, established a "tyranny" a personal rule over Athens. Under the Pisistratus,
Athens expanded its army and navy and invested in building projects in Athens and
its colonies. All these policies were of direct benefit to the common Athenian.
An aristocrat named Cleisthenes came to rule in 508 BCE after Pisistratus' son was
overthrown. Cliesthenes then established the democratic system. He divided the
population into "tribes" made up of smaller divisions drawn from different regions.
Because the different regions were mixed together, regional or class factions were
prevented in elections. Each of the ten tribes elected 50 representatives to make up
the ruling Council of 500. Male citizens over the age of 18 was eligible to vote, who
numbered about 30,000 (One tenth of the total population.) It was also established
that on important matters the entire assembly of citizens would meet to decide.
These assemblies usually consisted of about 6000 citizens, which was the quorum
required. Citizens over the age of 30 were eligible to sit on juries of 1000 to sit in
judgment on criminal or legal matters.
The Rise of the Athenian Empire
It is often said that democracies will seek peace. That was not true in Athens. The
tyrant Pisistratus and his son built up Athenian military power, but it was the new
Athenian democracy after Cleisthenes that aggressively used that power, first in
supporting the revolt of Greek colonies against their Persian overlords on the Ionian
coast (see map p. 82). This action provoked a major war with Persia, and Athens,
along with Sparta and other Greek cities, defeated the Persian attack both on the
land and at sea. This triumph secured Athens prestige as the greatest Greek polis,
and also filled the Athenians themselves with pride and self-assurance. They
formed a league of Greek cities under their leadership (the Delian League) and
carried the war into Persian territory, successfully pushing the Persians out of Ionia.
Athenians were so proud of themselves that they wished to keep the League
together, and make the smaller partners into client states of what had essentially
become an Athenian Empire. Smaller cities were not allowed to withdraw their
Rise and Fall of Athenian Greatness
Dr. Geoffrey Dipple
Chair of History Dept. at Augustana College
membership or their payments to the League treasury, which was moved to Athens
under the leadership of the popular leader of the Athenian democracy in the years
between 460 BCE and 430. Pericles used the money of the treasury to finance the
rebuilding of Athens, especially the grand temple complex of the Acropolis, crowned
by the Parthenon--the temple to Athena which we will consider a little later.
Interpreting the Downfall of Athens
The policy of Athenian expansion and dominance was challenge by Sparta, which
formed its own Peloponnesian League to defeat Athens. The narrative of this long,
drawn-out war are described in the textbook. In the end Athens is defeated. Its
democracy was temporarily dissolved, and its imperial ambitions were ended
forever. Thucydides, who wrote a famous history of this war, was an Athenian
general in the early phase of the conflict. He is the first great historian of the
classical period. He wrote his history of the war because he thought that history
might have lessons about what human beings are capable of, and what went wrong
in this war. His history was not factual in every detail. The speeches you read in
your selections are not literal recordings, but imaginative renderings designed to
give an impression of what was said and meant by the actors in the events. When
you read Thucydides, consider what lessons Thucydides is drawing from his story,
and compare in your mind this history with the history written by the Hebrews
about King David.
Athenian Defeat and the Golden Age of Philosophy
The golden age of Greek philosophy emerged precisely at the moment that the
Athenian Empire was defeated. The defeat seems to have been a stimulus to new
questions. Pericles' Athens is destroyed. Has the polis failed? Has humanity failed?
What is true politics? What is the human ideal? What is the good? The fundamental
concern of Greek philosophy after Socrates might be summed up in one of Socrates's
own questions in the Apology: "Who understands the excellence which belongs to
men and to citizens?"