Democracy in Ancient Greece

Almost two-and-a-half thousand years ago,

Democracy was formed. Democracy in Ancient
Greece was one of the first examples of a self-ruled
government, which has now had a massive impact
on modern society, specifically the U.S
government. In 5th century BC people acted as a
political agent. For example, pastry sellers would
be found in the Agora beside aristocrats. However,
this system had flaws as year in and year out war was voted upon every year
and enslavement was highly popular as Athenians were outnumbered 2 to 1,
almost 3 to 1, by slaves.

In 500 BC, the ancient world was dominated by Asian

tribes. Persia took control of the Middle East and
formed the worlds first major empire. At this time
Europe was just a continent of tribes. In Europe, there
was the city of Athens. At this point in time, Athens
was a warrior society that fought together and as one
unit. They fought in masked ranks called Hoplites
which were led by Tyrants, who were backed by
citizen armies. But in time, the Greek tyrants began to
live up to the name that we today come to think of it
as, they became corrupt and abusive of the power they held.

The Tyrants became so bad that by the end of the 6th century BC they were
expelled by a group of aristocrats, who, as a result, began fighting amongst
themselves. This fight would lead on to be the ignition to democracy. On one
side was the aristocrat Isagoras, backed by the Spartans, and the other was
Cleisthenes who lacked the military power his opponent thrived with.
Cleisthenes appealed to the mob, or the Hoi polloi, and welcomed the ordinary
people into the Ancient Greek society. This gave the people power along with a
taste of hope. When the aristocrats tried to restore power to the upper-class
riots of the Acropolis occurred, which overthrew the rulers. Thus creating
democracy.
In order to adapt to this new way of governing, the city of Athens changed to
follow suit. Opposite the Acropolis was the Pnyx Hill where the Ecclesia would
meet. Anyone from the public was allowed to attend and this Ecclesia’s vote
was law. Votes were taken by the raising of hands for either For or Against. At
these meeting was also the equivalent of Ancient Greek politicians called the
Orita. The Orita were men who were practiced and highly skilled in addressing
large crowds. It was common to have one Orita stand against another, and the
people would choose a side based of their arguments.

The process was for being chosen to be in the council was done via the use of
an ancient machine called the Kleroterion. This machine worked by, firstly,
having many slits engraved into the stone of the machine which metal tags,
engraved with possible candidates’ names, would be inserted into. Down the
left side of the machine was a wooden shoot which black and white marbles
would be rolled down. These marbles would
align with a row of slots and the colour of the
marble would determine whether that row
had been chosen for the Jury or not.
However, only 9/10 of Athens were eligible to
be put forward for the Jury. The obvious
limitations being people underage, slaves and
women but also to be born in Athens was not
enough; both your mother and father had to
be born in Athens as well.

Democracy really came into its power in 483BC with the discovery of silver in
Laurium. Laurium was a mining town inhabited by mostly war prisoners forced
into slavery by the Athenians, who were also always under constant
surveillance from a watch tower also built in the town. When mining one day, a
jackpot of lead was discovered with loads of silver ore within, thus making
Athens rich. Democracy in Ancient Greece largely helped with how to deal with
the silver. A man called Themistocles suggested that Athens should use this
newly discovered silver to build a new fleet in order to challenge the Persian
Navy, inspired by the words of the priestess of Apollo, talking about ‘wooden
walls’. So, for the next two years, the Athenians built over 200 Triremes.
Triremes are considered one of the greatest battle ships to ever exist by
historians, they were the perfect balance between speed and weight by
manipulating a twin rudder system. Trireme meant three oars meaning the
men sat in rows of three stacked one on top of another, this meant around 170
were needed to row the ship. However, the nobility of Athens didn’t like this
idea as it meant that Athens would have to rely on the work of the poorest
people to keep the military power going, and whatever the military power did
they had to follow.

Themistocles had a plan to use these new ships to their advantage and to
defeat the Persian Navy. In 480BC, everyone evacuated Athens and headed to
the local island of Salamis and in this same year the Persians entered Athens. It
is believed that they stormed the Acropolis and burnt Athens to the ground.
While the Persians were uprooting their home Themistocles had a plan to trap
the Persians by sending them a message saying that his men were leaving. On
September 25th, the Persians were lured into a narrow channel off the coast of
Salamis. The Persians fleet was double the size of the Athenians however due
to the size of the channel only half could make it through. As well as this,
Themistocles calculated the tide and crosswinds of that day to be an advantage
by disorientating the Persian and turning them sideways, perfect for ramming.
The plan was to ram the enemy ship then retreat quickly so that you cannot be
rammed back. This Battle is seen to be a massacre that turned the ocean red.
This battle was an underpin for Greek democracy.
As a result of the victory, a power vacuum formed in the Aegean Empire which
the Athenians really wanted to pounce on. All the other Greek states on the
coast of the Aegean see formed s grand confederacy with the help of Athens in
order to protect them from the Persians. Historians call this confederacy the
Delian League due to the fact that the league met on the island of Delos, a
highly sacred island. The league was huge success as the smaller states where
gaining protection and the Athenians were gaining money for their services. In
order to keep all the money safe a Temple to Apollo was built with a treasury
inside but after 20 years the building of the temple stopped. After 20 years the
Athenians had moved the money to Athens. Obviously, the other members of
the league disagreed to this but could not leave as they did not have funds of
resources to fend for themselves. This event slowly turned this league into an
Empire.
The fire that fuelled this Empire was the need for grain. Barley and wheat were
the supply of food for the Athenians so if they ran out; they would starve.
Evidence to support this was found
when research on the Aegean
plumbing system was taking place
and a stone tablet was discovered
recording payments to Athens. I
stated that Athens has asked
Athenians abroad to pay their tax in
grain. The desire for grain went as
far as the Athenians evacuating
entire islands. This happened with
the Island of Euboea, a fertile island
just off the coast of Athens, where
over 50,000 people were evacuated to make room for the Athenian grain
farms. Watchtowers and fortresses were also found to be built near by in order
to protect these fields.

Due the constant income of the Athenians, from either war favours or grain,
they ended up with more money they could handle. So, an aristocrat, called
Percales, decided that with this surplus of money they should build something
that would highlight and be a symbol for Athens’ success and power so
therefore the Parthenon was built.
The Parthenon began construction in 447BC. It was originally meant to be a
reconstruction of the modest temple of Athena that was pillaged in the Persian
raid, but it turned into a much bigger project. It took 15 years to build and
around 200 people a day would work on it from sun rise to sun set. Now adays
we see it as a temple, but no actual religious practice occurred in the
Parthenon, it was used solely as a bank for all of Athens’ wealth. However,
factions of the city
were angry at
Percales for
‘stealing’ from the
defence fund in
order to provide
sops for the
people. Percales
responded by
saying that the
Allies have never
given Athens
anything to help them during this war apart from money for the services they
provided, and he thought it was right that they use the surplus of money to
create something for all of Greece to enjoy.
Many Athenians still resisted this idea, as payment they were punished and
massacred for their unorthodox beliefs. However, at this time many people
were against Percales’ views and supported their own, these ideas were
deemed dangerous, and it was these ideas that started the fractures in Ancient
Greek democracy.
In 431BC, Thebes and Sparta kick off the Peloponnesian war . Pericles makes
the crucial decision for everybody to outside the city walls to abandon their
surrounding lands and to remain behind the walls but this backfired. While
Athens survived the war due to Pericles’ actions, their surrounding lands were
ravished and a great plague spread across the city, killing many including
Pericles himself.