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Athenian democracy had many critics, both ancient and modern. Ancient Greek critics of Athenian democracy include Thucydides the general and historian, Aristophanes the playwright, Plato the pupil of Socrates, Aristotle the pupil of Plato, and a writer known as the Old Oligarch. While modern critics are more likely to find fault with the ...
This class examines both ancient and modern practices of democracy. Slightly more than half of the class will be devoted to ancient Athens. We will examine how ancient Athenian democracy functioned by reading ancient documents (in English translation) and discussing their historical context.
These activities were often handled by a form of direct democracy, based on a popular assembly. Others, of judicial and official nature, were often handled by large juries, drawn from the citizen body in a process known as sortition. By far the most well-documented and studied example is the Athenian democracy in Athens.
Xenophon and Plato seem to be concerned with the failures of Socrates to defend himself. Xenophon asserts that Socrates dealt with his prosecution in an exceedingly arrogant manner, or at least was perceived to have spoken arrogantly. Conversely, while not omitting it completely, Plato worked to temper that arrogance in his own Apology ...
Athenian democracy was established in 508 BC under Cleisthenes following the tyranny of Isagoras. This system remained remarkably stable, and with a few brief interruptions remained in place for 180 years, until 322 BC (aftermath of Lamian War). The peak of Athenian hegemony was achieved in the 440s to 430s BC, known as the Age of Pericles.
In the Republic, Plato's Socrates raises a number of criticisms of democracy.He claims that democracy is a danger due to excessive freedom. He also argues that, in a system in which everyone has a right to rule, all sorts of selfish people who care nothing for the people but are only motivated by their own personal desires are able to attain power.
By the time of the Peloponnesian War, the democracy in Athens was approximately 100 years old. [2] Most of the upper class accepted this form of government, while either vying for positions of leadership within it or, remaining aloof outside of it. [3] Until the war, most of the leading Athenian politicians had come from noble families. [3]
Xenophon defends Socrates against the charge that he led the youth of Athens to despise democracy as a regime, and defends Socrates' association with Critias, the worst of the Thirty Tyrants who briefly ruled Athens in 404-403, and Alcibiades, the brilliant renegade democratic politician and general.