THE PENTEKONTAETIA
is, roughly put, the period of 50 years between the end of the Persian Wars (which Herodotus puts at the Athenian siege of Sestos 479/8) and the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War in 431. It is most noteworthy for the expansion of Athenian (later Athenian-imperial) power under the aegis of the Delian League.
The Delian League was founded in 478 as a confederate pact to provide mutual defense against the fear of a renewed Spartan invasion. The Athenians assessed the member states for the contribution of ships and tribute. At the start of the league, this varied considerably from city to city, but as the Athenians asserted more control, more often it was money/tribute instead of ships, until in 431 only a few major naval powers (Samos, Chios, Lesbos) were providing ships. The treasury was initially held on Delos, and its transference to Athens (in roughly 454) is when historians normally start referring to it as the Athenian Empire.
The League fought in a variety of actions, some offensive, like Cimon's defeat of the Persians in Asia Minor on both land and sea at the Battle of the Eurymedon River in (unknown, but 469/8?), and others punitive, like the successful sieges of Naxos and Miletus after they seceded from the League. The general policy was to secure the Greek islands for the League. Meanwhile, the Spartans were busy combating an expanding Argos, which resulted in outright war by 460. A Messenian revolt of around this time forced the Spartans to concentrate on internal affairs.
At this time the leading figures in Athens were Cimon, a successful military commander and admiral connected to the Alcmaeonidae; standing against him was the mysterious Ephialtes, another commander whose biographical details are lacking. While Cimon was on campaign in 462/1, Ephialtes reformed the Areopagite Council (giving its powers over the constitution to the other assemblies); when Cimon returned and tried to overturn the reforms, he was ostracized. Ephialtes was murdered soon afterward.
The First Peloponnesian War (460-446) started for reasons which are unsatisfactorily explained. Athenian aid to Argos is a likely culprit. Athens was initially successful enough in minor engagements to undertake a disastrous expedition to Egypt (460/59-54); a battle at Tanagra (457) was a Spartan victory and spurred the recall of Cimon and the construction of the Long Walls. Athens successfully besieged Aegina, and Cimon led an attack on Cyprus during which he died in 451/0. Athens was troubled by the failure to set up friendly governments in Boeotia and a revolt of Euboea that was put down by Pericles. The war was ended with the Thirty Years' Peace in 446, which forced Athens to abandon efforts to expand on land in Boeotia and the Megarid.
Pericles' ascendancy occurred during and after his success on Euboea. He presided over a large amount of temple construction, including the Parthenon, with funds allotted from the Delian League; he was supported by an alliance of influential families; his decree ensured that only the child of two citizens would be a citizen; under his control Athens passed a decree requiring that other members of the Delian League use Athenian coins, weights and measures and send their specie to Athens to be minted. A revolt on Samos was crushed in 440/39. Additionally, Athens founded the city of Amphipolis near the Chalcidice in 437/6.
The ultimate breakdown of the peace was due to Spartan concern over Athens' growing power and interventionist policies; the proximal causes are normally described as threefold. The first reason was civil strife in Epidamnos - Corinth attempted to aid one party and Corcyra (the mother city) the other; when Corcyra won the opening engagement, they appealed to Athens for aid. The second was a rebellion of Potidaea in the Chalcidice against Athens, which was helped by Corinth, who also appealed to Sparta for aid. Tension was also brewing because Athens had passed a decree stating that Megara was excluded from Athenian markets and harbors; Sparta's ultimatum had the repeal of this decree as their primary demand. When the Athenians refused to do so and responded intransigently, the Spartans declared war.
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Peisistratus and Mid-6th Century Athens
Peisistratus was the first tyrant of Athens and the founder of the Peisistratid line. At a time when the state faced 1. factional dispute based on regionalism and 2. continuing economic problems based on debt, he gained control of the state in the third of three coup attempts (560, several years later, when he attempted a coup with a women dressed as the goddess Athena, 546). Before that, he had allied temporarily with the regional leader Megacles but they had fallen out over a marital issue; P. had married Megacles' daughter but wanted no more children. He had spent multiple years in exile and seized power through Theban and Argolid support, defeating the loyalist forces at the Battle of Pallenis.
Peisistratus' rule included:
-Consistently keeping at least one supporter in an archonship to retain a power base in legitimate government
-Exacting a 5% tax policy on all citizens, as opposed to taxing only the higher classes
-Patronage of poets, decorating the acropolis with a temple of Athena
-Panathenaea celebrated annually, with ritual recitation of Homer and rhapsodic competitions
-institution of traveling judges called dicasts, which enabled people without means to travel to city easily to seek access to legal system
-may have performed some land redistribution
-settled citizens in the Chersonese
After the death of Peisistratus in 528, his sons Hippias and Hipparchus shared power until the assassination of Hipparchus by Harmodius and Aristogeiton in an abortive coup attempt in 514. The aftermath involved a more severe rule on his part and an alliance with the tyrant of Lampsacus.
Athenian tradition held that the Alcmaeonidae were associated with the overthrow of Hippias in 510, although the real initiative was a supporting force from Sparta under Cleomenes. Hippias surrendered and fled into exile into, eventually, Persia.
After the change in government, the next large political development was the rivalry between the pro-Spartan Isagoras and the anti-Spartan Alcamaeonid Cleisthenes, who led a successful defense against a Spartan-orchestrated alliance c.510.
Friday, October 12, 2012
Solon the Lawgiver
Solon is the central figure in early Athenian history, remembered as the individual that created the Athenian law code (retaining only Draco's law on homicide) and made the first changes toward a democratized government.
Solon came to power as the state was facing an economic crisis, symptoms of which included the loss of many workers into the ranks of hektemoroi (debt-slaves), the displacement of many lower-class citizens, and the greater concentration of landed wealth. In his poetry he claimed to have ransomed/bought back many citizens who had been sold into slavery abroad, and to have restored exiles who fled because of financial need. He also forbade the practice of offering a person as credit for debt and forgave both private and public debt in the seisachtheia (although its precise nature is not exactly known). Solon explains these actions as taking up a middle ground between the conflicting interests of the rapacious rich and oppressed poor.
What was the nature of the crisis? It is currently debated: Sealey believes that the model of pure class conflict is likely inaccurate, and that it was mostly conflict between powerful clans, with the added danger that some clans might exploit the grievances of the poor. The poor themselves would have been unable to compete with the wealthy in terms of arms, training, and resources.
Solon reduced the laws to writing, and the penalties within were mostly negative; that is, they removed rights from the convicted, the greatest punishment being making him an outlaw or exile. He also is said to have divided the Athenians into four property classes, via which are the pentakosiomedimnoi, hippeis, zeugitai, and thetes. The divisions were based on measures of agricultural produce (500/300/200/lower); it made property the qualification for political privilege. Treasurers could come from the first class, archons from the first two, etc. Ideas about classifications before this one occur in fragments of Aristotle, but may be fanciful speculation; there was a nobility known as the eupatridae, but specifics about it are unclear - it may have been the ruling class during the unification of Attica in the seventh century.
According to Ps. Aristotle, Solon carried out a reorganization of weights, measures, and coinage, although this may result from a later practice of attributing all customary institutions to him.
Solon is commonly credited with creating the Council of Four Hundred, with 100 members taken from each tribe. Its job, according to Plutarch, was to set the business for the assembly. Solon himself does not mention it, and its term limits et al. are unknown.
Solon was archon in 594/3
Solon is thought to have carried out his reforms in around 580-570; they might have been a reaction to periodic anarchies and unstable government, evidence of which is seen in Aristotle's archon list for the 580s.
Solon came to power as the state was facing an economic crisis, symptoms of which included the loss of many workers into the ranks of hektemoroi (debt-slaves), the displacement of many lower-class citizens, and the greater concentration of landed wealth. In his poetry he claimed to have ransomed/bought back many citizens who had been sold into slavery abroad, and to have restored exiles who fled because of financial need. He also forbade the practice of offering a person as credit for debt and forgave both private and public debt in the seisachtheia (although its precise nature is not exactly known). Solon explains these actions as taking up a middle ground between the conflicting interests of the rapacious rich and oppressed poor.
What was the nature of the crisis? It is currently debated: Sealey believes that the model of pure class conflict is likely inaccurate, and that it was mostly conflict between powerful clans, with the added danger that some clans might exploit the grievances of the poor. The poor themselves would have been unable to compete with the wealthy in terms of arms, training, and resources.
Solon reduced the laws to writing, and the penalties within were mostly negative; that is, they removed rights from the convicted, the greatest punishment being making him an outlaw or exile. He also is said to have divided the Athenians into four property classes, via which are the pentakosiomedimnoi, hippeis, zeugitai, and thetes. The divisions were based on measures of agricultural produce (500/300/200/lower); it made property the qualification for political privilege. Treasurers could come from the first class, archons from the first two, etc. Ideas about classifications before this one occur in fragments of Aristotle, but may be fanciful speculation; there was a nobility known as the eupatridae, but specifics about it are unclear - it may have been the ruling class during the unification of Attica in the seventh century.
According to Ps. Aristotle, Solon carried out a reorganization of weights, measures, and coinage, although this may result from a later practice of attributing all customary institutions to him.
Solon is commonly credited with creating the Council of Four Hundred, with 100 members taken from each tribe. Its job, according to Plutarch, was to set the business for the assembly. Solon himself does not mention it, and its term limits et al. are unknown.
Solon was archon in 594/3
Solon is thought to have carried out his reforms in around 580-570; they might have been a reaction to periodic anarchies and unstable government, evidence of which is seen in Aristotle's archon list for the 580s.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Athens in the Seventh Century BC
Our sources:
1. The fragmentary Atthis works of Hellanicus of Lesbos, Cleitodemus and Androtion in the fourth century, and the mostly lost ones of Phanodemus, Demon, and Melanthius.
2. Pseudo-Aristotle(?)'s Athenaion Politeia, which covers the historical development of the state and its form in in Aristotle's time.
Athens was a continuously inhabited site from before the Dark Age, although if it had any hegemony before them, it was lost as Attica devolved into towns and villages. The legendary kings Theseus and Erechtheus are less than helpful in historical time. Athen's control of Eleusis to the west and the eastern plain of Attica was complete by the middle of the seventh century, but not much earlier.
By the time of Cylon (after 650) the kings (monarchs who ruled for life) had been replaced by a board of annual magistrates, the Nine Archons. According to Ps. Aristotle, the functions of the king were reduced over time by the creation of the Polemarch (war commander), Archon (various civic functions), and then by the reduction of the term of the king from life to ten years and eventually one year. There were also six judicial officials known as thesmothetai.
The Athenian council was known as the Council of the Areopagus, since some of its meeting were held on the hill. It served as an advisory body to the archons. Some assembly existed since much earlier times, and the Areopagus nominally consisted of all the past archons. Ps. Aristotle says the archons were elected by the council before Solon replaced the process with selection by lot from candidates approved by tribe.
Strong households held much of the power in society coming out of the dark ages. Consolidated houses came to be known as a genos (clan) and humbler dependents and clients of great houses were grouped in organizations called phratries. All Athenian citizens belonged to phratries, and membership in demes and phratries was the earliest criterion of citizenship.
In 632 Cylon, an Olympic victor, seized the acropolis during an olympic festival, but was pushed out by forces under the nine archons. His coup attempt seemed no to be motivated by popular discontent; those who murdered his followers, specifically the Alcmaeonidae, were said to have fallen under religious pollution.
In 621 Draco wrote down the first set of Athenian laws, laws which were later revised by Solon, who kept intact only Draco's homicide law. His law posits at least five courts in different places for different crimes, of which the Areopagus council was one; these likely predated Draco in some form.
1. The fragmentary Atthis works of Hellanicus of Lesbos, Cleitodemus and Androtion in the fourth century, and the mostly lost ones of Phanodemus, Demon, and Melanthius.
2. Pseudo-Aristotle(?)'s Athenaion Politeia, which covers the historical development of the state and its form in in Aristotle's time.
Athens was a continuously inhabited site from before the Dark Age, although if it had any hegemony before them, it was lost as Attica devolved into towns and villages. The legendary kings Theseus and Erechtheus are less than helpful in historical time. Athen's control of Eleusis to the west and the eastern plain of Attica was complete by the middle of the seventh century, but not much earlier.
By the time of Cylon (after 650) the kings (monarchs who ruled for life) had been replaced by a board of annual magistrates, the Nine Archons. According to Ps. Aristotle, the functions of the king were reduced over time by the creation of the Polemarch (war commander), Archon (various civic functions), and then by the reduction of the term of the king from life to ten years and eventually one year. There were also six judicial officials known as thesmothetai.
The Athenian council was known as the Council of the Areopagus, since some of its meeting were held on the hill. It served as an advisory body to the archons. Some assembly existed since much earlier times, and the Areopagus nominally consisted of all the past archons. Ps. Aristotle says the archons were elected by the council before Solon replaced the process with selection by lot from candidates approved by tribe.
Strong households held much of the power in society coming out of the dark ages. Consolidated houses came to be known as a genos (clan) and humbler dependents and clients of great houses were grouped in organizations called phratries. All Athenian citizens belonged to phratries, and membership in demes and phratries was the earliest criterion of citizenship.
In 632 Cylon, an Olympic victor, seized the acropolis during an olympic festival, but was pushed out by forces under the nine archons. His coup attempt seemed no to be motivated by popular discontent; those who murdered his followers, specifically the Alcmaeonidae, were said to have fallen under religious pollution.
In 621 Draco wrote down the first set of Athenian laws, laws which were later revised by Solon, who kept intact only Draco's homicide law. His law posits at least five courts in different places for different crimes, of which the Areopagus council was one; these likely predated Draco in some form.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Various Early Roman Leges
EX TEMPORE/DOCTUS
The Lex Canuleia was passed in 445 BC and permitted intermarriage between plebeians and patricians, a practice earlier disallowed by the Twelve Tables.
The Licinio-Sextian Laws were passed in 367 BC and had the following parameters:
1. Citizens were limited on the amount of the ager publicus they could own (because of the phenomenon of senators purchasing huge amounts through proxies).
2. It allowed for one consul to be patrician and one consul to be plebeian every year, although this did not always occur in practice.
3. It restored the consulship after the period of the military tribunes.
The Lex Poetalia Papiria was passed in 326 (or 313, re: Varro) BC and prohibited imprisonment for debt, as well as prohibiting loans made on the credit of the borrower's liberty. (Nexum)
The Lex Ogulnia was passed in 296 BC and allowed access for plebeians to the highest priesthoods and were well represented in the college of the augurs.
The Lex Villia Annalis was passed in 180 BC and established minimum age limits for the curule magistracies. Consuls had to be 42 or older. It may also have imposed a minimum two-year interval between holding offices.
The Lex Canuleia was passed in 445 BC and permitted intermarriage between plebeians and patricians, a practice earlier disallowed by the Twelve Tables.
The Licinio-Sextian Laws were passed in 367 BC and had the following parameters:
1. Citizens were limited on the amount of the ager publicus they could own (because of the phenomenon of senators purchasing huge amounts through proxies).
2. It allowed for one consul to be patrician and one consul to be plebeian every year, although this did not always occur in practice.
3. It restored the consulship after the period of the military tribunes.
The Lex Poetalia Papiria was passed in 326 (or 313, re: Varro) BC and prohibited imprisonment for debt, as well as prohibiting loans made on the credit of the borrower's liberty. (Nexum)
The Lex Ogulnia was passed in 296 BC and allowed access for plebeians to the highest priesthoods and were well represented in the college of the augurs.
The Lex Villia Annalis was passed in 180 BC and established minimum age limits for the curule magistracies. Consuls had to be 42 or older. It may also have imposed a minimum two-year interval between holding offices.
Monday, October 8, 2012
The Roman Tribunes
EX TEMPORE
In the city-state of Rome the tribunes were created in 494 BC (or so the story goes) because of the harsh enforcement of debt laws and the plebeians' lack of a voice in civil government. The tribunes were members of the patrician (?) class assigned to watch over the Senate in order to ensure that the Senate took no actions contrary to the well-being of the other class(es).
The powers of the tribune were thus:
1. He had the power of veto, that is, he could nullify any act of the Senate that went against the well-being of the plebs.
2. He was sacrosanct, meaning that anyone who harmed him was subject to religious pollution.
3. He convened the concilium plebis, that is, the assembly of all the nonpatricians in the state.
There were different numbers of tribunes at other times, increasing in number as time progressed. They are not to be confused with the Military Tribunes, which was an alternate form of the executive branch for a period of Roman history. More on them later.
DOCTUS
The tribunes were created in 494 BC (or so the story goes) because of the harsh enforcement of debt laws and the plebeians' lack of a voice in civil government. The tribunes were members of the plebeian class (no patrician could be tribune, ever, which is why Augustus had the potestas of a tribune but did not serve in the office) assigned to watch over the Senate in order to ensure that the Senate took no actions contrary to the well-being of the other class(es). At the time they were created, they were the only office of high government open to plebeians; the others would only be opened to them in 421 BC.
The powers of the tribune were thus:
1. He had the power of veto, that is, he could nullify any government act that went against the well-being of the plebs. This included elections and acts of the other tribunes. This also means that the tribunes were spectators in the Senate chamber.
2. He was sacrosanct, meaning that anyone who harmed him was subject to religious pollution. He was only sacrosanct during his term of office (1 year) and inside the city of Rome.
3. He convened the concilium plebis, that is, the assembly of all the nonpatricians in the state. Under the tribunes the assembly could enact their own resolutions known as plebiscites.
4. He had assistants in the plebeian aediles.
5. He had the power of intercessio, which was the power to intervene in a legal action being taken against a citizen if he thought justice was being handled unfairly.
There were different numbers of tribunes at other times, increasing in number as time progressed. The original number is variously stated, but it was at least ten by the mid-fifth century. They are not to be confused with the Military Tribunes, which was an alternate form of the executive branch for a period of Roman history. More on them later.
Friday, October 5, 2012
Secessiones Plebis (Or the Plebeian camping trips)
The Secessions of the Plebs
EX TEMPORE
Four (?) times during the early history of the Roman Republic, large amounts of the lower classes (known as the plebs/plebeians because of the split between noble and common classes created by Romulus(?)) voluntarily separated themselves from the Roman state and were able to use their status as the backbone of the Roman agricultural and military base to negotiate from a position of power against the Senate and the aristocracy.
The first secession took place in 494 BC, when the plebs took camp on a nearby hill (because..?) and were only convinced to return due to negotiations carried out by Menenius Agrippa, who used a noteworthy metaphor of the plebs as the "belly" of the state, which should not rebel because a body needed to work together to stay solvent. Part of the terms of the return of the plebs was the creation of the Tribune of the Plebs, a sacrosanct yearly position filled by a member of the patrician class who could veto acts of the Senate, call together the concilium plebis and introduce legislation through it.
The second secession took place in 454 BC in the face of unequal treatment of members of different social classes under the law, and resulted in the creation of the Twelve Tables, a publicly posted law code which attempted to ensure that legal justice would be carried out fairly regardless of the social position of the defendant and prosecutor.
The third secession took place in 387 BC during the war with the Gauls and an end to it was negotiated by Camillus, according to Livy (These are all according to Livy.).
The fourth secession...?
DOCTUS
The number of secessions of the plebs is debated; Cary and Scullard claim five. The lower classes (known as the plebs/plebeians, a split which has obscure origins; Livy traces the patricians to the descendants of Romulus' first senatorial families; the divisions were codified by Servius Tullius' divisions into social classes) voluntarily separated themselves from the Roman state and were able to use their status as the backbone of the Roman agricultural and military base to negotiate from a position of power against the Senate and the aristocracy.
The first secession took place in 494 BC, when the plebs took camp on a nearby hill (Mons Sacer) because of the harsh rule of Appius Claudius because of his harsh enforcement of debt laws. They were only convinced to return due to negotiations carried out by Menenius Agrippa, who used a noteworthy metaphor of the plebs as the other parts and the patricians as the "belly" of the state, against which they should not rebel because a body needed to work together to stay solvent. Part of the terms of the return of the plebs was the creation of the Tribune of the Plebs, a sacrosanct yearly position filled by a member of the patrician class who could veto acts of the Senate, call together the concilium plebis and introduce legislation through it (full explanation of the tribunate later).
The second secession took place in 449 BC in the face of unequal treatment of members of different social classes under the law, and resulted in the adoption of the Twelve Tables (which had been created and debated about by sets of decemviri the previous two years), a publicly posted but not comprehensive law code which attempted to ensure that legal justice would be carried out fairly regardless of the social position of the defendant and prosecutor.
The third secession is posited to have occurred in 445 BC to force the adoption of the Lex Canuleia, which permitted marriage between patricians and plebeians.
The fourth secession is noted by Livy as a military revolt in 342 BC.
The fifth secession occurred in 287 BC to force the adoption of the Lex Hortensia, which gave plebiscites the force of law.
EX TEMPORE
Four (?) times during the early history of the Roman Republic, large amounts of the lower classes (known as the plebs/plebeians because of the split between noble and common classes created by Romulus(?)) voluntarily separated themselves from the Roman state and were able to use their status as the backbone of the Roman agricultural and military base to negotiate from a position of power against the Senate and the aristocracy.
The first secession took place in 494 BC, when the plebs took camp on a nearby hill (because..?) and were only convinced to return due to negotiations carried out by Menenius Agrippa, who used a noteworthy metaphor of the plebs as the "belly" of the state, which should not rebel because a body needed to work together to stay solvent. Part of the terms of the return of the plebs was the creation of the Tribune of the Plebs, a sacrosanct yearly position filled by a member of the patrician class who could veto acts of the Senate, call together the concilium plebis and introduce legislation through it.
The second secession took place in 454 BC in the face of unequal treatment of members of different social classes under the law, and resulted in the creation of the Twelve Tables, a publicly posted law code which attempted to ensure that legal justice would be carried out fairly regardless of the social position of the defendant and prosecutor.
The third secession took place in 387 BC during the war with the Gauls and an end to it was negotiated by Camillus, according to Livy (These are all according to Livy.).
The fourth secession...?
DOCTUS
The number of secessions of the plebs is debated; Cary and Scullard claim five. The lower classes (known as the plebs/plebeians, a split which has obscure origins; Livy traces the patricians to the descendants of Romulus' first senatorial families; the divisions were codified by Servius Tullius' divisions into social classes) voluntarily separated themselves from the Roman state and were able to use their status as the backbone of the Roman agricultural and military base to negotiate from a position of power against the Senate and the aristocracy.
The first secession took place in 494 BC, when the plebs took camp on a nearby hill (Mons Sacer) because of the harsh rule of Appius Claudius because of his harsh enforcement of debt laws. They were only convinced to return due to negotiations carried out by Menenius Agrippa, who used a noteworthy metaphor of the plebs as the other parts and the patricians as the "belly" of the state, against which they should not rebel because a body needed to work together to stay solvent. Part of the terms of the return of the plebs was the creation of the Tribune of the Plebs, a sacrosanct yearly position filled by a member of the patrician class who could veto acts of the Senate, call together the concilium plebis and introduce legislation through it (full explanation of the tribunate later).
The second secession took place in 449 BC in the face of unequal treatment of members of different social classes under the law, and resulted in the adoption of the Twelve Tables (which had been created and debated about by sets of decemviri the previous two years), a publicly posted but not comprehensive law code which attempted to ensure that legal justice would be carried out fairly regardless of the social position of the defendant and prosecutor.
The third secession is posited to have occurred in 445 BC to force the adoption of the Lex Canuleia, which permitted marriage between patricians and plebeians.
The fourth secession is noted by Livy as a military revolt in 342 BC.
The fifth secession occurred in 287 BC to force the adoption of the Lex Hortensia, which gave plebiscites the force of law.
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