Who made the greatest contribution to the Athenian Constitution?

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Ali Abdaal        Classical Civilisations: Coursework        Mr. Dormer

GCSE Classical Civilisations Coursework

It is a quiet day on Mount Olympus in 423 BC. The mighty and all-powerful king of the gods, Zeus is seated atop his throne, looking unto his daughter, Athena, goddess of wisdom. They are arguing over the best way to organise the human race, a race so stubborn and hard-headed that they often ignore the best course of action, choosing instead to further their own wealth and power, rather than acting for the benefit of society.

The topic has turned to Athena’s home city, and the two immortals discuss which citizen has made the greatest contribution to the Constitution of Athens. To settle the matter, they call up from Hades the shades of Solon, Peisistratos, Cleisthenes and Pericles. Each shade is given ten minutes in which to make a speech, clearly enumerating their contributions to the Athenian Constitution. As Zeus and Athena settle comfortably in their seats, the four shades begin their speeches.

Solon:

Your Highness, I am Solon, and I come before you today to outline my contribution to the Constitution of Athens. I first acquired the status of Eponymous Archon in 594 BC, and my first reform was called the Seisachtheia – “Shaking off of burdens” (1 p. 181). This entailed several things, the first being that the practice of having to pay 1/6th of one’s produce to the landowner was abolished (1 p. 181). Secondly, it became forbidden to force a man into slavery in order to repay his debts. All those who had been enslaved and/or sold abroad under this system became free men, and could return to Attica to reclaim full citizenship (1 p. 181). These reforms were made to alleviate the poverty of farmers, and in order to ensure that the population did not starve I made it forbidden to export all agricultural products (apart from Olive Oil) (1 p. 182). Finally, I encouraged my people to learn new skills and crafts, aside from farming, so that we could increase trade with other Mediterranean people. Those who learned these new trades benefitted from the new laws, and citizenship was granted to skilled craftsmen immigrants. (1 p. 182)

The second class was called the hippeis, the “knights” who could afford to maintain their own horse. Their wealth had to equal 300 or more medimnoi, and they too had the right to become Archons and on the Areopagus Council, as well be part of lesser offices of state. Thirdly, the zeugitai were created, the “yoke-men” who could afford their own armour and were thus part of the phalanx. Members of this class had to have an annual income of 200 or more medimnoi, and they were eligible for lesser offices of the state. Finally, the thêtes were the lowest class, their annual income totalling less than 200 medimnoi.  Like everyone else, they could become members of the Assembly, but had no other political eligibility.

My third area of reform was the legal sector. The laws of Athens were far too unjust, so I saw fit to change them for the good of the people. Firstly, I created my own code of law to replace that of Draco. This covered numerous fields including inheritance, public wells and trees. These laws were inscribed on wooden tablets placed in the Agora so that any literate citizen could consult them. I also introduced the concept of right of appeal within courts – although lawsuits were still decided by the archons, citizens could appeal to a jury, which was made up of members of the Assembly, in case they felt a decision to a be unfair. Finally, I created the system of “public lawsuits”. In the past, only the injured party or his family could prosecute he who harmed them, but under the new regime, any citizen could prosecute against an offence.

In order to give my reforms time to work, I made the Athenians swear a solemn oath not to change them for at least 10 years. I then left Athens to travel the world. And that, your highnesses, is the story of how I contributed to the Constitution of Athens.

Peisistratos:

Your majesty. I throw myself down before you. I quiver in your omnipotent presence. I am your most faithful, most devoted servant

Zeus: Silence Mortal. I Have No Interest In Your Snivelling. You Are Here Merely To Explain What You Have Done For The Athenian Constitution. Do I Make Myself Clear?

Yes, Your Highness, of course, as you wish. I first took control of Athens in the year 561 BC, but unfortunately, was evicted from office on two occasions by political foes. However, both times, I returned even stronger and ruled until 527 BC. My main contribution to the Athenian Constitution was the fact that I consolidated the reforms of my learned colleague, Solon. I kept all his new laws and regulations, merely placing my own people within positions of power in order to ensure the smooth running of affairs. I offered financial assistance to impoverished farmers, which

I also encouraged the great poets of the Greek world to visit Athens, and established two of the city’s most important festivals – The City Dionysia and the Great Panathenaia. These occasions were cause for great jubilance within the city...

Zeus: Thank You. You Have Said All We Need To Know About Your Role In The Athenian Constitution. Prepare To Be Banished Back To The Realm Of Hades...

NO WAIT! Apologies sir, but there is still more to come regarding the constitution and democracy. I am merely setting the scene.

Zeus: Very Well. Proceed.

Yes Sir. Anyway, the town of Eleutherae seemed to be a chance for me to expand our borders, and the god Dionysos was particularly highly valued there. As a result, I thought it best to ease the town into our domain by creating the Dionysia festivals, involving theatre and other such arts. The judging of the Dionysia ensured victory through justice, rather than favouritism, and it is this that shows my contribution to Athenian democracy.

A list of nominees for judging would be drawn up from each of the ten tribes, and their names written on ballots which were then placed in ten large urns in the Acropolis. Those urns were carried to the theatre on the first morning of the plays, and the Eponymous Archon would randomly pick out one name from each of the ten urns, thus ensuring that each tribe had a representative. Those ten citizens then swore an oath of impartiality, before being installed as judges. At the end of the festival, the judges would create their own rank order for the plays in order of merit, the results of which were placed inside another urn. The Eponymous Archon would then draw out five of these ten results, and the play with the most votes would be declared the winner. A few days later, if anything was found by the citizens to be unsatisfactory in the procedures, the Eponymous Archon would be sacked, but alternatively, if they thought things went well, the assembly could vote him a crown as thanks for his efforts.

Finally, I reinforced Solon’s splitting of the classes based on wealth by making the rich pentacosiomedemnoi contribute to the good of all Athenians through a liturgy (a service to the common people). This would either take the form of a Trierarchia or a Choregia, the first being the fitting out and maintaining of a trireme and its crew for one year, and the latter meaning the training and costuming of the Chorus and actors of the play, for the duration of one dramatic festival.

And there you have it Sir, a brief outline of my contributions to Athenian democracy.

Cleisthenes:

Your Majesty. Greetings to you on this fine day, and if I may say so myself, you do look absolutely stunning. I understand you have summoned this humble soul before your mightiness so that I may explain what I have done for the Athenian Constitution. Very well sir, you do me a great honour in asking this of me, and I hope you will enjoy my tale.

My rise to power can be seen as the first steps towards a unified and democratic Athens. After my rival Isagoras was chosen as archon in 508 BC, I knew that the only way to gain power would be to win the support of the lower classes. So I promised them ‘control of the state’ through a series of reforms, which I shall outline in greater detail a bit later. The revolution I lead was almost instantly destroyed when Isagoras enlisted the help of the Spartans to win back power, but the citizens of Athens showed him and booted his army back to where it belonged – the dump.

Anyway, once I was firmly in control, I made a series of reforms to benefit Athens, the first of which was changes to structures of government. I didn’t do much to edit Solon’s structures, but I did make several significant alterations.

Firstly and most fundamentally, I tackled the Athenian tribal system, which was one area which Solon had not covered. Before my time, there were four ancient tribes of Attica, each made up of smaller towns and communities. I thought this system was rather unfair, as it allowed the wealthy to build up power by bossing the others around and ensuring that their own supporters would lead. The tribes were also based geographically, thus creating regional rivalries within Attica. To combat all these issues, I wiped the slate clean, and in a surprising but potent move, disbanded all the tribes and created ten new ones.

Each tribe needed to contain citizens from various backgrounds, and to accomplish this, I split Attica up into 30 different sections of roughly equal population (known as Trittyes). Ten of these became classed as inland regions, ten as coastal regions and ten constituting the area around the city. Each of the ten tribes was then assigned one trittye from each of the three classes (taking care not to have a tribe owning adjacent regions), the aim of which was to ensure that each tribe had an equal number of men from different parts of Attica and could not easily engage in unfair practice.

The tribes were named after one of Athens’ legendary heroes (known as the Eponymous heroes), and a statue of each of these heroes was placed in the agora in Athens, alongside a tribal notice board so that literate citizens would be able to view the latest news items. In terms of democracy, each tribe had to provide men for the Council of 500 (explained a bit later), the army, the boards of officials and the law courts, as well as provide teams for the Panathenaia and the City Dionysia.

My second radical reform was the reorganisation of Attica into demes or villages. Most areas could naturally be divided, but places such as Athens were split up into regions and districts, each of which was a separate deme. Each deme (139 in total) had its own council, with an assembly, officers, treasurers and an annually elected leader, the demarch. From 508 BC onwards, each Athenian had to register in his local deme, and thereafter, membership of a deme became passed down from father to son, and even if a man moved to another part of Attica, he would still be a part of the original deme. Officials kept a record of all men in the deme who were registered as citizens, and at the age of 18, a man had to register in his father’s deme and pass a citizenship test.

Furthermore, in order to ensure that the power of a citizen’s ancestors played a minimal role in politics, I made it so that Athenians identified themselves by their deme rather than their father’s name. For example, if a citizen called himself Eragon, son of Garrow, he would now call himself Eragon from Carvahall. Previously, a man’s name would have shown how well connected his family was, but after my reforms, his name was classless.

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After reorganising political constituencies, I made several changes to the structures of government. Though I left Solon’s reforms largely untouched, I did make significant alterations to a few parts of the system. Firstly, a Council of 500 was introduced, where 50 men from each tribe would be chosen to prepare business for the Assembly. Before and during my time, the Assembly didn’t have many formal powers, but I did make them hold regular meetings once a month in order to grasp a better idea of how things were running. Thirdly, I made selection by lot the usual process of selection ...

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