[PDF] Athenian Ostracism And Its Original Purpose eBook

Author : Marek Węcowski
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 316 pages
File Size : 49,36 MB
Release : 2022-11-17
Category : History
ISBN : 0192587560

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Ostracism is by far the most emblematic institution of ancient Athenian democracy. This volume offers a reassessment of recently found ostraka (or potsherds, on which the names of the 'candidates' for exile were inscribed by citizens) from several Greek cities outside Athens, a thorough reconstruction of the history and of the procedure of ostracism in Athens, and a comprehensive account of the political circumstances of the introduction of the law on ostracism by Cleisthenes in 508/507 BCE. Marek Węcowski's original study focuses not only on the final stage, the day of the vote, but on the entire operation and procedure of ostracisation. Tracing the logic of the political play in Athens between the opening and final stages of ostracism, Węcowski argues that Athenian ostracism was a mechanism devised to impose compromise on the main players in Athenian political life, thereby avoiding the punishment of political elites by exile of leading politicians resulting from unpredictable votes by the citizenry. To support this hypothesis, Węcowski turns to the theory of the 'evolution of cooperation' as formulated by the American mathematician and political scientist Robert Axelrod based on the iterated prisoner's dilemma in game theory, applied as a probabilistic analogy to the dynamics of Athenian political life under democracy.

Author : Sara Forsdyke
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 361 pages
File Size : 50,93 MB
Release : 2009-01-10
Category : History
ISBN : 1400826861

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This book explores the cultural and political significance of ostracism in democratic Athens. In contrast to previous interpretations, Sara Forsdyke argues that ostracism was primarily a symbolic institution whose meaning for the Athenians was determined both by past experiences of exile and by its role as a context for the ongoing negotiation of democratic values. The first part of the book demonstrates the strong connection between exile and political power in archaic Greece. In Athens and elsewhere, elites seized power by expelling their rivals. Violent intra-elite conflict of this sort was a highly unstable form of "politics that was only temporarily checked by various attempts at elite self-regulation. A lasting solution to the problem of exile was found only in the late sixth century during a particularly intense series of violent expulsions. At this time, the Athenian people rose up and seized simultaneously control over decisions of exile and political power. The close connection between political power and the power of expulsion explains why ostracism was a central part of the democratic reforms. Forsdyke shows how ostracism functioned both as a symbol of democratic power and as a key term in the ideological justification of democratic rule. Crucial to the author's interpretation is the recognition that ostracism was both a remarkably mild form of exile and one that was infrequently used. By analyzing the representation of exile in Athenian imperial decrees, in the works of Herodotus, Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, and in tragedy and oratory, Forsdyke shows how exile served as an important term in the debate about the best form of rule.

Author :
Publisher :
Page : pages
File Size : 10,99 MB
Release : 2008
Category :
ISBN :

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This book explores the cultural and political significance of ostracism in democratic Athens. In contrast to previous interpretations, Sara Forsdyke argues that ostracism was primarily a symbolic institution whose meaning for the Athenians was determined.

Author : Geoffrey de Ste. Croix
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 472 pages
File Size : 35,84 MB
Release : 2004-03-26
Category : History
ISBN : 0191514497

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In these interconnected essays the late Geoffrey de Ste. Croix defends the institutions of the Athenian democracy, showing that they were much more practical, rational, and impartial than has usually been acknowledged. A major essay provides a new view of Aristotle's use of sources in The Constitution of the Athenians, on which so much of our knowledge of Athenian constitutional history depends. Ste. Croix also argues that commercial factors had much less influence on Greek politics than modern scholars tend to assume, and that there was no such thing in any Greek state as a `commercial aristocracy'. As always, he works out these general positions with the utmost lucidity and pungency, and in meticulous detail. Though written in the 1960s, these hitherto unpublished essays by a great radical historian will still constitute a major contribution to contemporary debate. The editors and other specialists have supplied an updating Afterword to each chapter, and the book contains a thorough index.

Author : Nigel Guy Wilson
Publisher : Psychology Press
Page : 840 pages
File Size : 28,20 MB
Release : 2006
Category : History
ISBN : 9780415973342

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Examining every aspect of the culture from antiquity to the founding of Constantinople in the early Byzantine era, this thoroughly cross-referenced and fully indexed work is written by an international group of scholars. This Encyclopedia is derived from the more broadly focused Encyclopedia of Greece and the Hellenic Tradition, the highly praised two-volume work. Newly edited by Nigel Wilson, this single-volume reference provides a comprehensive and authoritative guide to the political, cultural, and social life of the people and to the places, ideas, periods, and events that defined ancient Greece.

Author : Loren J. Samons, II
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 347 pages
File Size : 31,97 MB
Release : 2016-01-05
Category : History
ISBN : 1316462625

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As the most famous and important political leader in Athenian history, Pericles has featured prominently in descriptions and analysis of Athenian democracy from antiquity to the present day. Although contemporary historians have tended to treat him as representative of values like liberty and equality, Loren J. Samons, II demonstrates that the quest to make Athens the preeminent power in Greece served as the central theme of Pericles' career. More nationalist than humanist and less rationalist than populist, Pericles' vision for Athens rested on the establishment of an Athenian reputation for military success and the citizens' willingness to sacrifice in the service of this goal. Despite his own aristocratic (if checkered) ancestry, Pericles offered the common and collective Athenian people the kind of fame previously available only to heroes and nobleman, a goal made all the more attractive because of the Athenians' defensiveness about Athens' lackluster early history.

Author : Bryant Carl Ahrenberg
Publisher :
Page : 97 pages
File Size : 31,87 MB
Release : 2019
Category : Athens (Greece)
ISBN :

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The reforms of Cleisthenes, the introduction of a state-run navy, and the genesis of democracy were all occurring simultaneously in Athens between 510 and 480 BCE., yet all three components are rarely discussed at the same time despite going hand-in-hand. This study will examine the introduction of ostracism, the origins of the Athenian navy, and the overall impact that these sweeping changes had on both the politicians in charge of Athens and the people that were rowing the ships, fighting the battles, and casting the ostraca. Through close-textual analysis, the individual texts and fragments will be examined to highlight class inequality, determine the intended purpose of these reforms, discuss their background and necessity, and show how the upper-class still came out on top by changing the system to suit their own needs even if the reforms were introduced to limit their power or ability to do so. It will show that ostracism originated with Cleisthenes, and he intended it to be used to check the power of tyrants due to his, and his tribes', experience dealing with them but did not fall victim to the practice himself. It will show that ostracism came in political waves, with the first in the 480s following a period of medism induced panic started by Hippias' return and Miltiades' failure at Paros which allowed an individual, most likely Themistocles, to eliminate powerful enemies by harnessing this xenophobia but ultimately met the same fate after he allowed the ostracised to return hoping to avoid a situation similar to Hippias. It will be shown that the socioeconomics of warfare can be examined through word usage in Herodotus, demonstrating the class inequalities, especially regarding those rowing the ships in comparison to their infantry counterparts. And finally, it will be shown that Cleisthenes' reforms regarding the Strategoi and the Polemarchos were also made in order to spread power away from one individual, but this too backfired as more influential phylae were able to wrestle power away from weaker tribes and influence control over the strategoi through double, and sometimes triple, representation.