Democracy did not emerge until 450-500 BCE just after the Persian Wars. The first city-state that achieved democracy was Athens and achieved in creating the Athenian Constitution titled Constitution of Athens. “ It is called a government of people [demokratia] because we live in consideration of not the few but of the majority” (Thucydides 421 BCE) Thucydides wrote On Justice Power and Human Nature, this book is a memoir of the authors life as a solider of Athens during the Peloponnesian Wars. Thucydides like Napoleon was soldier fighting for the rights of people between the city-states of Athens, Sparta, and Thebes. At this time Pericle was the ruler of Athens, he was very fair to his people. During his rule Athens achieved its highest political, social, and economical height. Moreover, at this time only Athens was democratic and Sparta has an oligarchy and this is what started the Peloponnesian Wars in 429 BCE. Athens was going to conquer all the city-states and spread democracy all over the city-states. However, it was not to be because Athens’ great leader died and Sparta and democracy did not emerge right away but it took time just like during the French Revolution.
Democracy in Athens like in France saw many stages of governments, turmoil, and most importantly bloodshed. Furthermore, France and the rest of Europe really did not appreciate true democracy until after the two wars of the 20th century. Before the French Revolution there existed a time called the Enlightenment. This time of history contained great thinkers. These great thinkers like Voltaire and Rousseau started questioning everything about their societies from religion to governments. Of course you easily compare this to the time in Ancient Greece where Socrates also criticized everything there was about the society in which he lived in. Moreover, one can compare Socrates thinkery to the salons much visited by Voltaire and Rousseau during the Enlightenment. Socrates in Plato’s Apology criticized his fellow citizens and believed that one should always question everything or else that one person is not and will not be virtuous.
I was affected something like this
It seemed to me that this man
Seemed to be wise both to many
Other human beings and most
Of all himself, but that he was not.
And then I tried to show him
That supposed he was wise, but he was not.
(Plato, 4th century, 70)
Socrates is criticizing the politicians similar to many key players in the French Revolution many of them also were not happy with the old regime and the present government. During the French Revolution many French people were talking about the virtue that many great philosophers of Ancient Greece were discussing. Simon Schama in his book Citizens reflects on this point. “And it was this superior virtue that came to be prized so highly by the revolutionaries.” (Schama, 1989, 162) The public virtue that was seen as the highest by the ancient Greeks and the ancient Romans was also held highly by the people of the French Revolution. Antiquity became loved and embraced during the French Revolution because Ancient Greece achieved democracy and the rights for man and this is what was important to the French people.
A great similarity in both Ancient Greece and the French Revolution is how speech became important in order for one to achieve one’s cause. At the time of the Golden Age in Ancient Greece, speech was important to the vast majority and after awhile-great politicians of city-states started hiring sophists in order to teach how to speak. Sophism is a form of speech as strong as that of the famous lawyer of the French Revolution: Linguet. Linguet was inspired by the age of antiquity to write History of … the Century of Alexander and also to adore the public by his speech. “Linguet turned to journalism, where his gifts for stinging and powerful attack were quite as impressive as in his speech.” (Schama, 1989, 166) Linguet like Socrates became a hero to young people who wanted done away with the old regime, as Socrates became a hero to Plato and Aristotle. Many inspired revolutionaries in France like Herault, like many others before him in Ancient Greece went to acquire a better way to speak and to persuade. In the play, Clouds by Aristophanes, there are characters like Herault who wanted to enhance their speech by taking lessons. In the play, Sterpsiades a highly in-debited man wants to learn how to dissuade the creditors from seizing his assets by speech. Sterpsiades illustrates this point early on in the play.
That is thinkery of wise souls .In
There dwell men who by speaking
Persuade one that the heaven is a
Stove and that it is around us, and
We are charcoals. If someone gives
Money they teach him how to win both
Just and unjust causes by speaking. ( Aristophanes,421 BCE)
This character is speaking of how important to learn how to speak eloquently and to persuade. During the Estates General meeting Robespierre a young lawyer at the time who later becomes a dominant figure of the Terror broke down during his speech in order to enhance his point.
There are many similarities between Ancient Greece and the French Revolution , however the essay touches upon a few points that are believed to be vital in comparing this point. The French Revolution killed the old regime and brought many other concepts to Europe and even people that had nothing became something like Napoleon. However, it is always important to look to the past in order to achieve something in the future.
Bibliography:
Aristophanes, and Plato. Four Texts on Socrates. Trans. Thomas G. West., and Grace Starry West. Ithaca, New York, 1988.
Lualdi, Katherine J. Sources of The Making of The West, Peoples and Cultures. Vol 2. Boston, Ma.2001
Schama, Simon. Citzens. New York, Ny, 1989.
Sophocles, The Oedipus Cycle. Trans. Dudley Fitts., and Robert Fitzgerald. Orlando, Florida.1949.
Thucydides, On Justice, Power and Human Nature. Trans. Paul Woodruff. Indianapolis, Indiana, 1993.
